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Resurrection Eggs Craft
A great project during Lent
or Holy Week! The pictures tell the Easter story. Children color and cut their own set of
twelve eggs. Use them to hold your eggs or place the pictures inside
one dozen plastic eggs or in one large egg! Download
as many sets as you need for single-classroom or home use--one low price!
Available only as a | <urn:uuid:1aaf1346-4a83-41e0-af69-5593e7cc12bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sundayschoolnetwork.com/curr-dwn-He-is-risen-eggs-resurrection.html | 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 | 0.927481 | 83 | 1.875 | 2 |
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, is a federal agency entrusted with monitoring and enforcing employers' compliance with laws prohibiting race, gender, age, disability, religious or nationality discrimination in hiring, promoting and firing. The EEO public file is an annual report that certain employers must file with the EEOC.
Background of EEOC
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission dates back to 1965, when it was created as part of the enforcement mechanism for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The commission tracks hiring data and fields complaints from workers about possible unlawful discrimination. The EEOC does not concern itself with all forms of discrimination. In order to be actionable, an EEOC complaint has to involve a covered employer and a member of a legally protected class of employees. The EEOC also investigates claims of retaliation for filing an EEOC complaint.
The EEO-1 Survey, or EEO-1 report, is an annual public document that certain employers must file with the EEOC's Joint Reporting Committee. All employers with over 100 employees must file an annual EEO-1 survey. Federal contractors are subject to more stringent requirements. If you are required to fill out a survey, you must do so by September 30 each year.
Information in the Filing
The EEO-1 survey is an accounting of all hirings and firings during the accounting period. You must also list the recruiting or referral source of each new hire. You will also document the nature and scope of your employment recruiting activities. The EEOC encourages employers to market potential hiring opportunities to minority communities.
Other Public EEOC Filings
The EEO-1 report is the most common filing, simply because of the sheer number of companies that fall under the requirement. There are other filings, as well: The EEO-3 survey covers labor unions and is filed every other year, as is the EEO-4 report covering city and state governments. The EEO-5 report is required for public education establishments. | <urn:uuid:ac0f84fc-adfe-4ee0-a0c9-189d065ffb6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://smallbusiness.chron.com/eeo-public-file-15684.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937127 | 411 | 3.046875 | 3 |
IBERDROLA’s R&D efforts in the generation field are aimed at optimising operational efficiency, improving security, and reducing environmental impact through lower emissions or new and more efficient generating facilities.
With respect to life and materials management, the focus has been on the ECRIGEN and SIRO projects. The former aims to improve the reliability of equipment that is critical to generating facilities, which are subject to very demanding service conditions, while the latter focuses on the development of an innovative robot that is capable of rapidly, flexibly and reliably inspecting the condition of the entire fleet of electricity generators.
As regard nuclear generation, two projects are worthy of note – AUTONUC, which concerns the integration of new technologies into control systems – and PREVENCIÓN DE ACCIDENTES, regarding new models and approaches for the prevention of accidents at nuclear plants. In addition, various studies are being carried out into fusion technologies, as a commitment to generating clean and sustainable energy.
IBERDROLA continues to be firmly committed to reducing the environmental impact of its generating facilities, both in Spain and in Scotland. Continuing along this line are the COEBEN II project, the goal of which is to conform our facilities to the environmental requirements of NOx emissions, and the SIGMA and VIDA projects, regarding the capture of CO2.
In the hydroelectric field, there is the ARRANCADOR project, developed at the Gabriel y Galán pure-pumped station located in el Tajo, which will facilitate the integration of renewable energy.
Energy markets: Faced with an increasingly global and competitive market, the INTEGRA project was launched, led by Global Energy Management Department. The aim of this project is to standardise decision-making criteria, developing advanced management tools for energy trading and obtaining an in-depth knowledge of the functioning of the international markets which facilitate the taking of investment decisions in energy technologies. | <urn:uuid:3860a0f8-4550-4aad-a7fe-862e632b02b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iberdrola.es/webibd/corporativa/iberdrola?IDPAG=ENWEBRESINNIDGENERACION&codCache=13382866441722368 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94454 | 394 | 2.03125 | 2 |
The Grumpy Editor's guide to free documentation licenses
Posted Oct 27, 2004 1:47 UTC (Wed) by dlang
(✭ supporter ✭
Parent article: The Grumpy Editor's guide to free documentation licenses
one term that you used frequently that I see as an issue is the refernce to an 'editable format'
given the variety of tools and formats available what is easily editable to one person may be completely useless to another person.
I've been known to create postscript files directly from vi for example, many people would not consider .ps files editable, but the content may not exist in any other format.
I agree that the idea of making a document unable to be modified makes it less useful, but at the same time I don't believe that all documents should need to be modified (exerpts pulled from them possibly, but not the same document modified) an example of documents in this class are the internet RFC's. there are all sorts of reasons to use parts of them in other documents, but absolutly no reason for anyone to modify a document and call it RFC3501 for example.
to post comments) | <urn:uuid:63cd4a7c-6592-466d-8b46-1853daf2a8bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lwn.net/Articles/108367/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913325 | 243 | 1.625 | 2 |
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Do you know the harm Perchlorate can cause? Do you know what you can
do to fight back? Browse this section for information on Perchlorate dangers and
how a Weitz & Luxenberg lawyer can you help you fight back against
Perchlorate is both a naturally occurring and man-made chemical, most often used as the principal ingredient in a solid rocket propellant.
Wastes from the manufacturer and improper disposal of perchlorate-containing chemicals are repeatedly being discovered in soil and water.
In this section you can learn more about Perchlorate, read updated news & warnings, and get answers to frequently asked questions. Then you can find out if you are eligible for a lawsuit, get a free case review, and do the research for free.
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Perchlorate water and soil contamination: Free Legal Review | <urn:uuid:25f03b4f-c4bc-44e9-a78c-f758f3670eb2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.weitzlux.com/perchlorate/lawyer_4168.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907844 | 347 | 2.359375 | 2 |
University of Washington Bothell researcher receives science prize
December 26, 2012 · 4:55 PM
For her classroom instruction and research on how science works, UW Bothell assistant professor Rebecca Price was selected as the winner of the monthly Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction from the journal Science.
Her essay, “How We Got Here: An Inquiry-Based Activity About Human Evolution,” focuses on studying human evolution as an example of science. It is included in the Dec. 21 issue of Science. Price is an assistant professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences.
The Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction encourages innovation and excellence by recognizing “outstanding, inquiry-based science education modules.”
In her essay, Price describes a one-week exercise she has used to teach first-year students, seniors, biology majors and non-majors at UW Bothell. In the exercise, students test the hypothesis that different species of hominins evolved by retaining the juvenile characteristics of a chimpanzee-like ancestor.
“We use evidence to challenge the assumption that humans evolved from chimpanzees,” Price says.
Students used casts of chimpanzee skulls from different stages of development: fetal, infant, juvenile, adult female and adult male. They find, observe, and measure characteristics of each skull and then plot the data on a graph. Finally, they compare their chimpanzee to modern humans, Homo erectus, and Lucy. Students also analyzed Ardi, (Ardipithecus ramidus) considered the oldest complete hominid specimen to date.
Price says once students analyze all the available data, they always agree to reject the initial hypothesis. “Students are able to go through a paradigm shift in their own thinking,” Price said. “It’s a wonderful moment. It takes a lot of courage to recognize one’s own misunderstanding and correct it.”
Information from the Science prize is meant to be shared and replicated by other instructors. Price hopes her model will enable other instructors to use evolutionary examples for teaching the process of science. However, it’s not just for courses on evolution.
“This is cutting-edge pedagogy being used to teach science, and it happens to be about evolution,” said Price.
Chimpanzee skulls and collateral material can be costly. Price funded her work in part through start-up funds awarded to her through UW Bothell’s School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences.
“Faculty research is a cornerstone of the experience at UW Bothell,” said Susan Jeffords, vice chancellor for Academic Affairs. “Rebecca’s work is a terrific example of scholarship and teaching that also translates to the classroom. It will be a model for science educators nationwide.” | <urn:uuid:7a18edfc-21b7-4eb4-97b1-4f60d6b61911> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bothell-reporter.com/community/184867121.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934606 | 581 | 2.5625 | 3 |
FreeBSD is a UNIX oriented operating system which is also the default desktop Operating System (OS) for many at the Centre for Advanced Internet Architectures (CAIA). While networking is a key feature of FreeBSD and other UNIX type OS's, support for integrated 802.11 wireless networking on laptops is problematic. I have recently managed to set up my laptop (DELL Latitude D505) to: Support the Wireless network device on this laptop, Connect and disconnect to available wireless Access Points, Connect to the Swinburne Wireless Network through the Cisco VPN Gateway. In this report I document the steps I took. While your laptop may offer a slightly different configuration, or your wireless network is not the same as that provided by Swinburne University, many steps documented in this report will still be applicable. This document is broken down into the following sections: Enabling the Wireless Network Card driver for FreeBSD 5.3, Connecting to and associating with Wireless Access Points, Connecting to a VPN protected Wireless Network. | <urn:uuid:a937134d-4e3a-4276-8404-a6359bd053e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://researchbank.swinburne.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/swin:545 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928901 | 207 | 2.125 | 2 |
Timothy Leary was born in Massachusetts in 1920. Soon he entered a Military Academy with whom he had serious problems for breaking the law numerous times (for drinking contests and other assorted stuff) and after going to court and a full year being purposefully ignored by his colleges he was Honorably discharged. He moved to the Alabama University, and he studied continuously until receiving a Ph.D in Psychology by the University Of California. Afterwards he started working as a teacher in that same university, from where he ended up being expelled for being a proponent of Psychoactive drugs between the students. In 1960, after taking some psilocybin mushrooms in Mexico, he stated that he had learned more in those five hours about his conscious and Psychology than 15 years of studying. Upon his return to Harvard he established a research team on Psychoactive Drugs, starting a series of experiments on human beings. Allen Ginsberg (the Beat Poet and a famous underground personality) wanted to take part on the experience and also wanted to expand it, giving it to several people on the counter-culture. Leary was once again fired, and went to live in a mansion where he and a group of several people experienced Psychedelics until LSD was forbidden in 1966. I have not been able to find when this was recorded but it had some of the best musicians participating, for example, Jimi Hendrix, Stephen Stills and John Sebastian.
Best Tracks - "You Can Be Anyone This Time Around", "What Do You Turn On When You Turn On" and "Live And Let Live". You Can Be Anyone This Time Around is truthfully one of the most interesting Albums i've heard in a while, half interesting for its music and half interesting for the speeches that are given. Some of the songs feature short samples of psychedelic acts, like Country Joe & The Fish and also some of the beginning verses of Ginsberg's poem Howl. The Personnel is not complete.
Timothy Leary (You Can Be Anyone This Time Around Personnel):
- Timothy Leary - Voice.
- Jimi Hendrix - Bass.
- Stephen Stills - Guitar.
- John B. Sebastian - Guitar.
- Buddy Miles - Drums.
Download in comments. | <urn:uuid:141bee71-9597-4bae-b57f-297356b94908> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theredhippieteenager.blogspot.com/2011_10_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972244 | 453 | 2.15625 | 2 |
Earlier this year, Amazon announced that e-books were outselling print books. The statistics echo those from other sources, such as the Association of American Publishers, which indicate consumers have a strong interest in digital formats.
But when it comes to textbooks, many students say they still prefer traditional, print copies. Sure, textbooks are notoriously heavy and expensive. But print still offers one thing that digital books hasn’t been able to do quite right yet: Allow the reader to take detailed notes in the margins.
But a new company called Highlighter hopes to address that problem by offering a way to help publishers enable marginalia, of sorts, on their websites. Highlighter allows readers to leave comments not just at the end of blog posts but throughout. Visitors to websites can also highlight, annotate, save and share passages and comments.
While the new tool can be used by any publisher (or more broadly, by anyone with a blog or a website), the startup is focusing a lot of their efforts on encouraging adoption among academics — both publishers and professors.
University of Colorado biology professor Michael Klymkowsky has installed Highlighter on his Biofundamentals course website, for example. By doing so, students are able to engage fully with all the materials — the syllabus as well as the readings. They can leave comments, ask questions, and save and share key passages.
Highlighter also offers analytics for publishers, so in this case, Klymkowsky can see what students are reading, what they’re highlighting and sharing — all metrics to help him gauge their engagement and understanding.
“When we are looking for real subject mastery, it is critical that students have the opportunity to engage the hard and often counterintuitive ideas presented and to articulate and refine their understanding,” says Klymkowsky. “The ability to actively comment on the text, respond to questions, and each other’s answers, helps them prepare for classroom discussions with their instructors — helps them get ready for the Socratic process of learning. Unfortunately, this type of engagement is all too rare with ‘static’ texts and large classes.” | <urn:uuid:d0571f80-ed15-43bf-8cb4-0720ff858b9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/08/turning-static-text-into-interactive-discussions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949241 | 443 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Parent & Family Activities
Each year we set aside time for educational seminars and parent training. The exact dates for these seminars will be posted.
- Some seminars are devoted to understanding Montessori Philosophy and your child's classroom experience, while others focus on practical parenting skills to enhance your parenting experience and troubleshoot some of your frustrations.
- Your classroom observations and visits will provide you with further insights.
- Parent Discussion Groups provide information and support as well. Check the calendar for scheduled dates.
Family activities are encouraged. A variety of events are planned each year for parents. A fall seminar is focused on the Montessori philosophy. Parent discussion groups are held throughout the year. Picnics, parties, open houses, educational classes, conferences and workshops will be offered throughout the school year. Each June we celebrate our Kindergarten graduation with a family night at Pirates’ Cove; a child sized amusement park operated by Elk Grove Park District. The Valentine Ball has been a BGMS tradition for many years. Alumni return to join the party year after year. Your participation in these events will enrich your experience at Buffalo Grove Montessori School. | <urn:uuid:4fb8e7dd-20c6-4656-88ee-eba2084a17fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bgmsweb.net/parent-family-activities/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933156 | 234 | 1.765625 | 2 |
In order for Volunteer Services to assure that patients, their families, and the staff are receiving excellent service from volunteers, we offer a variety of in-service training programs.
In addition to attending the orientation session, we also ask that volunteers receive an annual Tuberculosis screening. All required training and screenings are free.
- In the Know training
Some topics covered include: Safety, Infection Control, Radiation Safety, and Patient Confidentiality. This training is required for all healthcare volunteers.
- Tuberculosis (PPD) screening
Patient Confidentiality — HIPAA Compliance Training
All accepted volunteers must complete Fox Chase’s HIPAA compliance training. You will be guided through this on-line training program with the help of Volunteer Services staff or with your direct supervisor.
Standard Precautions and Hand Hygiene
Upon acceptance as a new volunteer, you will be required to understand the importance of Standard Precautions and Hand Hygiene. These topics will be discussed at your general center orientation and during your placement training. All healthcare volunteers must maintain a high standard of protection.
Hand Hygiene is the single most important means of preventing the spread of infection. The proper method of hand washing will be reviewed and demonstrated.
The safety of patients, visitors, staff members, and volunteers is enhanced by the construction of the buildings, as well as by the systems in place. Fire drills and the proper use of an extinguisher are reviewed.
Director, Volunteer Services | <urn:uuid:2d10ac83-8fd5-4878-ab3f-70a3e0577f2b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fccc.edu/helpingFoxChase/volunteering/requirements.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923669 | 299 | 1.914063 | 2 |
|Part of the
You Can Learn Landscaping and Gardening series.
By Ken Brown
Updated: January 24, 2005
Are you looking for winter variety? Ornamental grasses provide visual interest
in your landscape design for the harsh winters. Your garden may be under snow
during the winter, what can you do to add winter interest in your landscape
Try adding grasses to your backyard garden. Here are a few photos of grasses
after this area received 4 to 8 inches of snow. We have already received a few
days of below zero temperatures. These grasses have survived winter's toughest
components. Imagine the joy you will find when you have native grasses in your
Whether you choose fountain grasses, feather reed grass, moor grass, or plume
grass, you can find something to interest you. I have a Korean grass in my
mailbox design. It is soft and fluffy, but seems to bounce back easily from the
damages of winter, road salt, and snow.
You can use these grasses as the featured winter plant or for the tall plant in
a landscape setting. For winter interest, you can place in front of an
evergreen tree. The dark green acts as a backdrop to enhance the beauty of the
Some grasses are taller than 6 feet. While others are smaller than 6 inches.
You choose what will work best in your garden. You can divide the clumps of
grasses after a few seasons and replant.
The Moor grass is resistant to disease and insect infestation. The Fountain
Grass is sometimes planted with Sedum, Coneflowers, and Russian Sage.
Ornamental grasses require little maintenance though some require watering and
some can handle dry periods and little care and attention.
Click on any of the images for a larger view.
Available Landscape and Garden Ornamental Grasses
|Dwarf Pampas Grass
|Feather Reed Grass
|Tufted Hair Grass
Decide to use ornamental grasses in your landscape design. You can choose one
grass for your garden or pick two or three and make a little planting. Put the
tall grasses in back and the smaller grasses in front. Be sure and plant more
than one clump of grass. Plant 5 to 10 of each kind of grass to make the | <urn:uuid:3ecb4db2-796d-4352-81c1-e10d91979c6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.youcanlearnseries.com/Landscape/Design/GrassesofWinter.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921847 | 490 | 2.4375 | 2 |
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has issued a new circular that it will provide a 25 percent first loss guarantee for loans under its Micro Credit Guarantee Facility (MCGF) to further encourage commercial banks to provide wholesale funds to microfinance institutions (MFIs). The Facility was introduced last December but was met with an unenthusiastic response by banks despite the SBP’s 40 percent principal guarantee on loans. According to the press release in the Daily Times of Pakistan, only one loan has been granted so far under the MCGF. Banks and development finance institutions (DFIs) now will have the option of choosing either the 40 percent principal guarantee (pari passu), or the 25 percent first loss guarantee. The first loss guarantee will cover gaps in repayment of a loan’s principal, up to 25 percent of the principal value of the loan, whereas the 40 percent principal guarantee will cover 40 percent of the actual loss incurred. In essence the first loss guarantee covers a bank’s smaller losses upfront completely, while the 40 percent principal guarantee would require the bank to share in the losses but covers a larger percentage of loss.
The MCGF was initially started with a GBP 10 million (USD 16.2 million) grant from the UK Department of International Development (DFID). The SBP’s intention is to use the facility to reduce risk for banks and DFIs lending to microfinance institutions and thereby increase the outreach of financial services to the poor. The partial guarantees will allow the SBP to leverage the initial grant amount up to four times. Also, because it has been observed that banks are reluctant to lend in local currency, the structure of the guarantees will allow MFIs to borrow in local currency. The amounts lent by banks to MFIs under the facility will be deductible from each bank’s Demand and Time Liabilities for purposes of the SBP’s statutory liquidity requirement (SLR) and cash reserve requirement (CRR) calculations – meaning the banks will not be required to set aside additional reserves for these loans. Guidelines for the MCGF have also been simplified and made more flexible, said the SBP.
According to the MCGF guidelines, the interest rate charged to MFIs is limited to 200 bps (2 percent) over the prevailing SBP policy discount rate. The SBP recently lowered its policy discount rate by 100 bps to 14 percent. At the time of the move, inflation had declined to a still significant 19.1 percent (year-on-year), from a high of 25.3 percent in August of 2008. The projection for average CPI inflation for fiscal year 2009 is 21 percent, with fourth quarter inflation falling to 14 percent. Consequently the SBP’s real rate is currently negative, and the real rate banks are limited to charging MFIs are also negative, counteracting the SBPs recent attempts to entice banks to use the facility. This latest amendment to the MCGF does compensate banks for charging a lower interest rate to MFIs, however given the large gap between inflation and the discount rate banks are likely to continue to be reluctant to lend until inflation falls significantly or the SBP removes, or raises, its interest rate restrictions.
The SBP has made several recent attempts to promote microfinance in Pakistan. MicroCapital reported on the SBPs move last month to require MFI shareholders to deposit their shares in blocked accounts of the Central Depository Company of Pakistan in an effort to ensure adequate capitalization of MFIs. Unfortunately, as with the SBP’s limitation on interest rates, not all political intervention has served to promote microfinance: for example local politicians in Punjab province were reportedly declaring general amnesty for micro-loans. More on this and Grameen Foundation’s and Women’s World Banking response can be read about in this MicroCapital report.
As reported in a MicroCapital paper wrap-up, currently only 14 percent of Pakistanis use savings, credit, insurance, payments and remittance services from the formal financial system versus 48 percent in India, 32 percent in Bangladesh, and 59 percent in Sri Lanka. According to the original paper entitled “Bringing Finance to Pakistan’s Poor” by the World Bank, financial institution willingness to expand access in Pakistan has been stinted by slow technological advances, weak legal foundations, unsuitable financial processes and products, and the difficulty local banks have had in serving SMEs profitably.
By Laura Anderson, Research Associate
The Daily Times of Pakistan: SBP adds incentive to Micro Credit Guarantee Facility
State Bank of Pakistan: Home
Micro Credit Guarantee Facility: Home
State Bank of Pakistan Circular: Amendments in Micro Credit Guarantee Facility (MCGF)
State Bank of Pakistan Circular: Maintenance of Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR) and Statutory Liquidity Requirement (SLR)
State Bank of Pakistan Press Release April 20, 2009: Salim Raza announces reduction in SBP policy rate to 14% on positive inflation outlook
UK Department for International Development (DFID): Home
The World Bank: Home
MicroCapital Paper Wrap-Up: “Bringing Finance to Pakistan’s Poor” by Tatiana Nenova, Cecile Thioro Niang and Anjum Ahmad | <urn:uuid:94b1aea9-fb33-4020-b393-925780f532d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-story-state-bank-of-pakistan-adds-incentive-to-micro-credit-guarantee-facility/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932477 | 1,083 | 1.828125 | 2 |
|Written by Paddle4Peace|
Lymes Disease in Canada
Here's the current fact info from PHAC (April 2012)
(includes info from the leading experts in Canada - also international 'leaders' in zoonotic disease vectors)
Check out the fact sheet re: what to do re: prevention - and what to do if you are bitten)
Here's current info from the College of Family Physicians of Canada
The experts in zoonosis are saying - take Lymes disease seriously.
The bugs are here in our area. We need to pay attention - check out the fact sheets per links above re: prevention and first aid....etc.
The problem is that doctors are not yet expecting to find Lyme disease locally, and so missed the diagnosis. Furthermore, the Canadian blood tests are known to be unreliable, and the facility that performs the tests is backlogged.
Bottom line, if we believe the news report (and I do), we need to take all the necessary precautions seriously, and be prepared to be very aggressive with our doctors if necessary.
Lyme Disease in the Ottawa Area
Click here for a Citizen article published August 9, 2012. (cont. by Mike Bankier)
And Lynette says: My Mom says her Vet (in Kingston, ON) recommended & sold her "Tic Twisters" - 2 sizes for $6, available from Vets & Pet stores - & that they work really well by removing the entire tic, mouth parts and all, from her dog's skin. Maybe a good investment to add to our Club 1st Aid Kits? | <urn:uuid:55eb7d47-baf4-4ba8-976c-1cca6b91c885> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://raccc.ca/index.php/resources/safety/health-in-the-outdoors/289-lyme-disease-near-ottawa-mis-diagnosed | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927911 | 328 | 2.296875 | 2 |
ASU professor publishes Civil War diary of Beaufort resident
James Rumley's orderly world was changed forever when Union soldiers attacked New Bern in 1862 and occupied his hometown in nearby Beaufort for the following three years.
Rumley recorded his thoughts about Union occupation, secession, slave ownership and other topics in a diary that has been edited and annotated by Judkin Browning, an assistant professor of military history at Appalachian State University.
The book has been published by the University Press of Florida.
" is the result of Browning's painstaking work to recreate Rumley's writings from multiple sources, including a serialized account that ran in the newspaper The Look Out in 1910, and two fragmentary copies of the diary.
"Military occupation in terms of American foreign policy is something we have been reading about in the news for the past six years," Browning said. "That has led my generation of scholars to look back on previous wars to discover the similarities, differences, or perhaps even some universal truths about military occupation."
Rumley was the clerk of court in Carteret County Superior Court during the Civil War, a position he held until his death in 1881.
"I think Rumley deliberately and consciously wanted to record what happened during this time period for future readers," Browning said. "A lot of evidence suggests this was the only time in Rumley's life that he kept a diary."
Rumley's anger and rage at the upsetting of the social order in Beaufort is a theme that runs throughout the diary.
Shortly after the Union army attack south of New Bern on March 13, 1862, Rumley wrote, "The clouds that have long been darkening the horizon are gathering over us."
A later entry describes the changing way of life in Beaufort. "All persons leaving town are now required to have written passes," Rumley wrote. "To obtain these, an oath of allegiance has to be taken by each applicant. Very few citizens do this willingly."
Rumley writes of the Union army's confiscation and plundering of homes in Beaufort, and the tensions that developed between white residents and newly emancipated slaves. He also wrote of the arrest of Carteret County resident Emeline Piggott who carried bundles of clothing, toiletries, letters and other items under her hoop skirt across Union lines to Confederate troops.
After her capture, all the women in Carteret County were "required to take the hated oath of allegiance to the United States," Rumley wrote.
"Many people became reconciled to the fact that if they wanted to live in their hometown and maintain their property, they would have to take the Union's Oath of Allegiance," Browning said.
Browning's annotations to the diary help fill in the blanks about was occurring in the region and during the war. His footnotes are derived from state archives, newspapers and books and journals about the Civil War.
"Rumley was strongly in favor of the confederacy and secession," Browning said. "He never seems to come to peace with the upsetting of the social system perpetrated by Yankees. I'm impressed with how long he kept faith that the South would win the war." | <urn:uuid:ff1bcedb-615b-453b-a0c6-9288638e03e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mountaintimes.com/community-events/articles/ASU-professor-publishes-Civil-War-diary-of-Beaufort-resident-id-020571 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97966 | 650 | 2.515625 | 3 |
In wake of Thursday's fatal accident on Interstate 86, weather experts say freezing rain and black ice can produce the perfect storm for hazardous driving conditions.
"You have to know your surroundings," said Jim Mitchell, meteorologist for the National Weather Service, Buffalo office. "If you notice a lot of melting snow one day then freezing temperatures the next, you should expect some slippery driving conditions."
Mitchell said icy roadways from freezing rain can be just as dangerous as black ice, a phenomenon caused by the melting and sudden freezing of surrounding snowpack on a road surface. Either can produce hazardous driving conditions in a flash.
"Any time you get above freezing during the day you will get some snow melt," Mitchell said. "When you go back below (freezing) everything cools down and you get a lot of ice."
In addition to Thursday's accident, freezing rain caused numerous incidents on the Southern Tier Expressway in Cattaraugus County last week - including one that shut down the roadway for almost an hour. Ice was reported on the interstate from the Carlton to Allegany exits, a dispatcher for the Cattaraugus County Sheriff's Office reported.
Mixing wintry conditions and high rates of speed on any thoroughfare can lead to multiple fender benders or worse. In December 2011, two motorists were charged for unsafe driving following a multiple-car accident on I-86 in the town of Poland. Police say speed and black ice contributed to the accident.
A garbage truck in March overturned on a I-86 on-ramp in the town of Ellery during a period of freezing rain. Police say speed was a factor in the crash, which sent the driver to the hospital.
In Butler, Pa., two young brothers were killed Jan. 10 when their mother lost control of her car in a 14-vehicle accident, the Associated Press reported. The accident was blamed on freezing rain that blanketed most of Western Pennsylvania during a two-hour period.
As for freezing rain, Mitchell said the ground can remain cold enough for rain to ice over, despite air temperatures above freezing. Dense fog on elevated roadways also have the potential to create unsafe driving conditions.
"You may not think anything is there, so you also have to be aware of where you are," Mitchell said.
According to the Federal Highway Administration, approximately 24 percent of weather-related vehicle crashes occur on snowy, slushy or ice-covered pavement. Those crashes have resulted in 1,300 deaths and 116,800 injuries nationwide.
Furthermore, nearly 900 people are killed annually and 76,000 are injured in crashes during snowfall or sleet.
"The best thing to do is simply drive carefully," said Chautauqua County Sheriff Joe Gerace. "People simply need to be aware of what is going on and what conditions the roads are in." | <urn:uuid:a42edf98-9372-461e-be76-caf20da36119> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.observertoday.com/page/content.detail/id/580442/Motorists-encouraged-to-watch-out-for-black-ice--freezing-rain.html?nav=5066 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961909 | 589 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Wednesday, January 23rd 2013, 8:04 AM EST
A 2012 paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reconstructs solar activity from isotopes in ice cores and tree rings, and finds solar activity at the end of the 20th century was at the highest levels of the past 9,000 years.
The paper confirms other peer-reviewed publications indicating that the Sun was particularly active during the 20th century in comparison to the past several millenia In addition, the authors find good agreement between solar activity and the Asian climate as determined from stalagmites in the Dongge cave, China.
Blowup and flipped 1st graph (above) from Fig. 4 below shows the year 2000 at the right side of the graph, 9000 years ago at the left side. Added red line shows solar activity in blue at the end of the record was at the highest levels of the past 9000 years. Note graph has been reversed vertically since the graph below in Fig. 4 is on a reverse scale.
Article continues below this advert:
Cosmic ray intensity is inversely related to solar activity. High solar activity is indicated by low cosmic ray intensity, as shown by graphs B, C, and D at different timescales.
ABSTRACT - 9,400 years of cosmic radiation and solar activity from ice cores and tree rings
Understanding the temporal variation of cosmic radiation and solar activity during the Holocene is essential for studies of the solar-terrestrial relationship. Cosmic-ray produced radionuclides, such as 10Be and 14C which are stored in polar ice cores and tree rings, offer the unique opportunity to reconstruct the history of cosmic radiation and solar activity over many millennia. Although records from different archives basically agree, they also show some deviations during certain periods. So far most reconstructions were based on only one single radionuclide record, which makes detection and correction of these deviations impossible. Here we combine different 10Be ice core records from Greenland and Antarctica with the global 14C tree ring record using principal component analysis.
This approach is only possible due to a new high-resolution 10Be record from Dronning Maud Land obtained within the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica in Antarctica. The new cosmic radiation record enables us to derive total solar irradiance, which is then used as a proxy of solar activity to identify the solar imprint in an Asian climate record. Though generally the agreement between solar forcing and Asian climate is good, there are also periods without any coherence, pointing to other forcings like volcanoes and greenhouse gases and their corresponding feedbacks. The newly derived records have the potential to improve our understanding of the solar dynamics and to quantify the solar influence on climate.
Click source for more [LINKS]
Comments section below this advert: | <urn:uuid:be450357-dfa8-4379-8ea0-763150a28b56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://climaterealists.com/index.php?id=11006&linkbox=true&position=6 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941953 | 569 | 3.171875 | 3 |
With our Halloween Contest well under way, I just had to choose a quick and dirty flashback from our Halloween issue, which came out in August of 2007. Bump up the creepiness in a hurry with some thick fog to get the mood set just right. Here’s the how-to:
Ultimate Fog Chiller
Build the chiller that won the 2004 HauntCon Chill-Off competition.
By Adam Tourkow
Chilled fog creates an appealingly eerie blanket on the ground. Most homemade fog chillers use a drink cooler and PVC tubing, but that design doesn’t keep the fog in the holding area long enough to chill it properly. Our fog chiller is very easy to build and does a great job of cooling the fog.
¾-size trash can or bigger
18′ (approx.) of aluminum duct (dryer hose)
Lots of dry ice or water ice
Water-resistant duct tape
Drill with 4″ hole saw or a utility knife
Step 1: Cut 2 holes in the trash can, on opposite sides, with the hole saw or knife. The holes should be sized so that the dryer hose fits snugly into them. The exit hole goes at the bottom, and the hole for the fogger nozzle goes about 2″ higher on the other side.
Step 2: The aluminum dryer hose comes in 6′ pieces, so attach the 3 sections together using water-resistant duct tape.
Step 3: From the inside of the can, feed one end of the tubing out of the lower (exit) hole, and coil the rest of the hose around the inside of the can. Once you get to the top, feed the tube back down and out
the upper (fogger nozzle) hole.
Step 4: That’s it for construction! Now, just fill the trash can with ice, attach the fogger, and let’ er rip.
Note: If you’ve got a powerful fogger, you can cover more area by using a cardboard box with a hole for the output tube and a slit at the bottom for the fog to come out in a wider pattern.
Addendum: (From Adam’s site) I have recently been enlightened by other haunters that using a leaf sized garbage bag at the output of the chiller helps keep the fog denser and closer to the ground. Cut a hole on the closed side of the bag, attach that end to the output, and the fog will creep out slower from the large end. Here’s a pic of it in action from Count Zero:
About the Author:
Adam Tourkow (ghostsofhalloween.com) lives in Santa Monica, Calif., and is a full-time web developer. He has to borrow his in-laws’ house to run his annual haunted house.
For tons more maker-style Halloween fun, you can still pick up a back issue of Make: Halloween over in the Maker Shed. | <urn:uuid:b0fd2b69-23f4-43b6-a359-a41ed351c810> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.makezine.com/2009/09/16/flashback-ultimate-fog-chiller/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=134bd2d71b | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905203 | 619 | 1.625 | 2 |
Your Baby's Development
Until now, the embryo has been a mass of cells, but by this point in your pregnancy a distinct shape begins to form. The neural tube, which will eventually form into the spinal cord and brain, runs from the top to the bottom of the embryo. A bulge in the center of the embryo will develop into your baby's heart. At this time, the placenta develops. It is through the placenta and its fingerlike projections, called chorionic villi, that an embryo receives nourishment from its mother.
Even if nausea hasn't hit you yet, you'll want to steer clear of certain foods when you're pregnant. Foodborne illnesses, such as listeriosis and toxoplasmosis, may cause birth defects or even miscarriage. Here are some foods you'll want to avoid:
- soft, unpasteurized cheeses (often advertised as "fresh") such as feta, goat, Brie, Camembert, and blue cheese
- unpasteurized milk, juices, and apple cider
- raw eggs or foods containing raw eggs, including mousse and tiramisu
- raw or undercooked meats, fish, or shellfish
- processed meats such as hot dogs and deli meats (these should be well-cooked)
- fish that are high in mercury, including shark, swordfish, king mackeral, or tilefish
Toxoplasmosis can also be spread from soiled cat litter boxes, so try to have someone else clean the litter box during your pregnancy.
Note: All information is for educational purposes only. For specific medical advice, diagnoses, and treatment, consult your doctor.
© 1995-2012 The Nemours Foundation/KidsHealth. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:38b50eca-a69c-4f68-8c3c-ede52e20fa02> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.childrensdayton.org/cms/kidshealth/09452072c69dad98/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952379 | 362 | 3.5625 | 4 |
You're correct about the ornament in green: the 5th fret note (an E) just before the 7th fret note (an F#) is called a grace note, and it is to meant to be a very short note played in anticipation of the main note (the F#). How short is "very short"? That's up to you.
As for the indication in red: the 'g.' indicates a glissando, meaning a slide from the first note to the second one, with all the notes in between included. In this particular piece, what you should do is slide from the 7th fret on the G-string (a D) down the G-string to the 4th fret---but just as you get to that 4th fret, you'll do a few things simultaneously:
- play the E-string, 3rd fret (which is a G). Unlike almost every other note, the music doesn't suggest a left-hand fingering---I'd suggest using your middle finger (2).
- let go of the G-string
- play the open B-string
You could both let go of the G-string and play the open B-string in one movement by flicking your ring finger (the one sliding down the G-string) off the neck in such a way that it plucks the B-string on its way off the G-string. But that would also probably cause the G-string to ring out, so you'd have to mute it with a free finger---I'd use my left-hand index finger.
This all sounds very complicated, but it's really not so hard with a little practice. Best of luck! | <urn:uuid:208a25f6-fea5-4323-a908-f0f4451e8f82> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://music.stackexchange.com/questions/8179/how-do-i-play-this-ornament-slur-guitar-tab/8187 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969759 | 347 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Mouth Ulcers : Treatment
The goal of treatment is to relieve the symptoms. The cause, if known, should be treated.
Gentle, thorough oral hygiene may relieve some of the symptoms. Topical (rubbed on) antihistamines, antacids, corticosteroids, or other soothing preparations may be recommended for applying directly to the ulcer.
Avoid hot or spicy foods, which often increase the pain of mouth ulcers.
- Cellulitis of the mouth, from secondary bacterial infection of ulcers
- Dental infections (tooth abscesses)
- Oral cancer
- Spread of contagious disorders to other people
Good oral hygiene may help prevent some types of mouth ulcers, as well as some complications from mouth ulcers. Good oral hygiene includes brushing the teeth at least twice per day, flossing at least daily, and getting regular professional dental cleanings and examinations. | <urn:uuid:90020f3d-90c6-4c37-bde5-96a0246bf314> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jollyga.com/mouth-ulcers-treatment | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928326 | 188 | 2.984375 | 3 |
INTIMATE FEMICIDE IN SOUTH AFRICA: COMPARING TWO STUDIES 10 YEARS APART
- 1Gender & Health Research Unit Medical Research Council, South Africa
- 2Forensic Pathology Services, Western Cape/Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, University of Cape Town, South Africa
- 3Biostatics Unit, Medical Research Council, South Africa
Background The killing of a woman by an intimate partner is the most extreme outcome of intimate partner violence.
Aims/Objectives/Purpose We compare the results of a national female homicide study in South Africa that described the epidemiology of intimate femicide for 1999 with the findings from a repeat study 10 years later (2009).
Methods The methodology of the 1999 study was repeated using a retrospective design of a proportionate random sample of 38 medico-legal laboratories to identify all homicides in 2009 of women over 13 years. Data was abstracted from the mortuary file, autopsy report, and from police data.
Results/Outcome We estimated 2363 (95% CI 1702 to 3023) female homicides in 2009 compared to 3793 (95% CI 2693 to 4894) in 1999, a 47.8% lower rate (12.9/100 000 vs 24.7/100 000). Intimate femicide rates declined by 36.4% (5.6/100 000 in 2009 vs 8.8/100 000 in 1999) whereas non-intimate femicide rates declined by 49.5%. More rapes were reported among non-intimate femicides in 2009 (p=0.00) while a significant overall reduction of gun murders were found between the 2 years (p=0.04). Convictions declined among non-intimate femicides (p=0.000) (32.7% vs 23.1%) whereas it was stable for intimate femicides (37.4% vs 35.1%).
Significance/Contribution to the Field Study show homicide in South Africa is declining but gender-based homicides are disproportionately resistant to the change, and rape homicides have proportionately increased. The lesser reduction in intimate's points to poor implementation of intervention programmes for prevention of intimate partner violence. | <urn:uuid:2d9543a6-faa3-4e41-8ff0-fade04f49235> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/18/Suppl_1/A43.3.abstract | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902412 | 454 | 1.726563 | 2 |
CHANDIGARH:With another mishap on Wednesday in Benra village near Dhuri area of Sangrur district at unmanned railway crossing has brought to fore the question that how long the deaths would continue to occur at railway crossings.
Ironically, last month, the locals had submitted a document to the Union Ministry of Railways that the railway crossing should be manned. The villagers allege that despite number of representations to man the railway crossings nothing has been done to take steps for manning the railway crossing. One of the locals said that there is a school near the crossing and due to this, children remain vulnerable adding that out requests to a Railway employee have fallen on deaf years.
There are 1,672 railway level crossings in the state out of which almost half of them are unmanned. There are 818 railway crossings which are unmanned and remaining 854. One comes across several mishaps and accidents at unmanned railway crossings in the state throughout the year.
Generally in majority of the mishaps at unmanned railway crossings in the state, it has been found that drivers of the vehicles are lax and negligent while crossing though the points which are not manned. Not being vigilant ot approach the trains Besides this, some of the victims trying to cross the unmanned railway crossing in hurry while on foot do not pay attention to the trains approaching near the crossing had been crushed under the speeding trains.
The railway officials say that there is a proposal to man all the unmanned railway crossings in the state which would lead to putting an end to mishaps on the railway crossings not manned.
ADGP (Railways) Rohit Chaudhary said during the past few years, number of unmanned railway crossings had been converted into manned spots to cut down the frequency of mishaps. He said that since unmanned railway crossings in the state were in large number, it would take time to make or convert all the railway crossings manned.
However, the uppermost question is, the people living in various parts of the state in and around number of railway crossings spread across the state question that how much more time in precise terms will take to man the unmanned railway crossings. They aver that how many more lives will be lost till all the unmanned railway crossings are manned in the state.
One of the retired railway officials said that besides manning unmanned railway crossings, there is a need to create awareness among the people living in the areas near and surrounding the unmanned railway crossings in the entire country including Punjab.
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The scientists and biologists would describe the heart as ‘’a hollow muscle organ that by its rhythmic contraction acts as a force pump maintaining the circulation of blood’’.The psychologists and philosophists would describe it as ‘’ the vital center and source of ones being. The center of total personality especially with reference to intuition and feelings. The capacity for sympathy and compassion’’ And the ordinary man knows that ‘’we need the heart to survive’’
But there are things about this small yet incredibly vital organ that you don’t find in books or on the internet as its complexities are unparalleled.Some say ‘’Life is not a bed of roses’’, things happen and when people see their lives spinning out of control and nothing seems to go right anymore but rather fall apart, they react in different ways.Anger,hatred,spite,guilt,despair,indifference,nonchalance,fear,withdrawal, loss of faith,self-pity,low self-esteem,hurt,disappointment,grief,dejection,suicidal thoughts and attempts,malevolence,jelousy,hopelessness are just a few of the myriad of emotions we all go through when we try to handle a difficult situation.
Been broken involves not just a string of feelings ranging from depression, self-pity and low self-esteem, it involves so much more such as-the things that gives you joy, things you love doing mean nothing at all anymore. Sometimes in life, even the most interesting things start to become incredibly boring. The prospect of friends coming over is horrifying, the last thing you want is company with ‘’a bunch of hyperactive and annoyingly social people who think life is all about rainbows and unicorns’’ as this is how you see it now. The idea of been alone sounds appealing all the time. Wanting to lie in bed all day because you are exhausted even though you either just woke up or lazed around all day and did no sort of physical activity whatsoever that will warrant you feeling fatigued is a different story. It makes no sense when you are strong and fit yet think you are tired and weak, it is not you, it is your HEART and it is emotionally tired. These are a few of the intricacies that transcend beyond what our normal minds perceive the heart to be.
It is unfortunate when one’s crisis is deep and seeds beyond depression and its perils. It is precarious when you apply some lipstick or turn on your ‘’swag’’ and smile to the world and most people think you are sweet, awesome or one of the most amazing persons they’ve ever met but little did they know that, once you are behind closed doors, your whole world comes crashing on you. It is dangerous because no one has an idea of the battle you are fighting and the toll it’s taking on your sanity, only those very few if any at all who know you enough are able to see past the calm and collected façade into your soul; the pit of your misery, pain and despair. Sometimes, not even those who think they know you can see past those beautiful eyes. It is excruciatingly exhausting pretending everything is fine when you are trying desperately to fight a battle you seem to cannot win. Because facing those demons that make you feel like you are in some kind of darkness is no easy task. So much burden you cannot share and so much pain you cannot speak about because you don’t know how to, and even when and if you can, you don’t think anyone would understand. And you then end up all alone in this constant spiritual and psychological mayhem that goes on and on.
There are no special classes giving lessons on how to deal with life. I guess you just have to figure it out on your own. But the best thing to do is to face these feelings, and the overwhelming tidal wave of emotions that would consume you are not you been weak, that is you been strong and doing the right thing.Dont turn your emotions off because it is so much easier to not feel at all, that is running away and it is cowardice. Don’t allow your demons control you, take charge, get up and fight, fight for you because if you don’t, the reflection that stares back at you when you look in the mirror, that stranger that has become you will triumph and everything you’ve ever stood for, your ideals, principles and all you’ve ever believed in will be gone probably forever and that’s when your family, friends and the world start seeing the change in you, this side not even you knew existed. If you never want to fade away, then do not give up or lose hope because HOPE IS THE ONLY THING STRONGER THAN FEAR. Hang in there a little more and it will all be okay.
Heart, I say the organ we cannot we live without, a miracle created by God. When it is okay, everything is good and the world and life seems beautiful and the future bright. When it is damaged, it slowly fades away that you become a shadow of who you are or used to be and with time everything is lost, there is nothing worse than a broken spirit and a tainted soul.
HEART, a miracle that is life itself.
HAJARAH MAMMAN NASSIR
Its hard to put a leash on a dog once you’ve placed a crown on it’s head | <urn:uuid:8b5575ee-aa80-4649-8c70-c28298512863> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://habibtee28.tumblr.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960312 | 1,164 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.
Being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, as with any chronic illness, is difficult. You may experience the following emotions, which may vary at different points of the disease:
Fear: Fear of disability, pain, the unknown, and losing control
Denial: Thoughts of "this can't be happening" or "it's not possible"
Grief: Grief over what you think you may lose and how that loss may affect your life
Depression: Loss of interest in what you used to enjoy, depression is present in about half of people with
Guilt: Feelings of guilt because of the inability to perform usual tasks and do all that you were once able to do
Multiple sclerosis has aspects that are particularly
Unpredictability of the disease: Multiple sclerosis is challenging to diagnose because of the variability of symptoms and the absence of a conclusive blood test that can establish the
diagnosis. Then, once multiple sclerosis is diagnosed, no doctor can predict its course. Doctors will likely know statistics of the disease and give general predictions, but cannot predict with certainty in an individual case whether symptoms will get better or worse, change in nature, or reappear in other parts of the body.
Invisible symptoms: Some symptoms of multiple sclerosis, such as mild weakness and fatigue, are invisible. You can have these symptoms, and others would not know that you are experiencing them.
Mental ability: Almost half of people with multiple sclerosis have changes in their mental function. They may have trouble remembering things, processing information quickly, or solving problems that involve sequential tasks.
Mood swings: Almost all people with multiple sclerosis occasionally experience mood swings, periods in which emotions, such as crying or laughter, are exaggerated or reappear with little notice.
Managing your emotions and the extra stress brought on by multiple
sclerosis may mean making a few adjustments in your life, but stress can be managed.
Understand that you may not be able to do all the things you once did, or at least not as well. Perhaps it is possible to find new activities that are more feasible for you. In the early stages, however, it is possible for many
multiple sclerosis patients to lead a normal life.
Maintain your relationship with loved ones. It may be hard for your loved ones to talk with you about the disease, but opening up with them and staying close to them will help both you and them to adjust to the changes
multiple sclerosis brings. When you need their support, being specific about what you need will help them to assist you.
If you cannot talk with loved ones about some things, find someone you trust and can talk with. This may be a counselor, a spiritual advisor, or someone else with
Keep healthy. Exercise and diet benefit your mental health as they do your physical health.
Find a doctor you are comfortable with. This should be someone who knows about multiple sclerosis and who is able to encourage and educate you. Also, follow your doctor's suggestions about diet, medications, and activities.
Relax.Meditation, yoga, massage, and other relaxation techniques can help reduce the tension you face every day. Simplify your life by cutting out activities you really do not need to do.
Participate in fun activities. Social activities can reduce stress by making you laugh and by helping you "let off steam." If you enjoy yourself, you are likely to feel better about yourself and more in charge of your life.
Help yourself. Carry a notebook to remind yourself of meetings and other things you need to do or go to. Feel free to say no to someone if you are feeling too tired or weak to do something. Try out a walking aid if you think that may help. Take several naps during the day if you are experiencing extreme fatigue. | <urn:uuid:9494e1e6-66c1-4115-a614-5460838c8e2f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.emedicinehealth.com/staying_well_with_multiple_sclerosis_ms/page6_em.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960418 | 866 | 1.992188 | 2 |
Pregnancy is a very exciting time in a woman's life. But it can also be a time filled with questions and concerns. Sometimes pregnancy symptoms can be confusing, making you wonder whether you really are pregnant or not. Only a pregnancy test will be able to help answer that question.
Now that you know that you are pregnant, it's time to see a prenatal health care provider. But which one is right for you? Take a look at Choosing a Prenatal Practitioner to understand how OB/GYNs, family doctors and midwives differ. No matter which of these practitioners you choose, though, all will offer you a multitude of prenatal tests over the course of your pregnancy to help make sure you and your baby are healthy. A cordocentesis may be performed if your baby is in distress; this fetal blood sampling test has also been used to administer in utero treatment to fetuses with heart problems and other dire health conditions.
During early pregnancy, you may have some concerns about already existing health conditions and how you and your baby will be affected. For women with asthma, Asthma and Pregnancy will likely answer ma
ny of your questions, while Prozac and Pregnancy will be useful for those women using this common antidepressant. If you are HIV positive, or are infected with this virus during your pregnancy, be sure to learn how HIV can affect your pregnancy. And if your pregnancy symtpoms seem really bad, then you may want to check to see if you're having twins or multiples.
There are a number of infections that a woman may contract during her pregnancy. Common Infections details a variety of illnesses and how they may affect you during pregnancy. One infection that woman are often cautioned of is toxoplasmosis. Though the risk of catching the virus is low, there are a number of steps you can take to prevent having to deal with it at all. Other infections that pregnant women shold guard against include chickenpox, group B strep, and the parvovirus, also know as Fifth Disease.
One concern for all women is the risk of ectopic pregnancy. If you suspect that your pregnancy may be ectopic, it is important to seek treatment quickly. While generally effective, occasionally some women may require to have a repeat treatment. False pregnancy is a condition in which a woman believes she is pregnant when she is really not. Learn more about this emotional and psychological condition here.
If you have been having troubles getting pregnant, you may want to be investigated for antiphospholipid syndrome. This syndrome can contribute to repeat miscarriages as well as increase a woman's risk of developing pre-eclampsia during pregnancy, a condition associated with hypertension.
Other complications that can develop during late pregnancy include a low-lying placenta and cervical incompetence. Having an incompetent cervix increases your risk of premature labour. Also increasing the risk for premature labour is PROM, or premature rupture of the membranes. At the other end of the spectrum, prolonged pregnancy can also be problematic making it necessary for health care professionals to induce labour.
Many women are worried about giving birth. Will it be painful? Is it safe to use pain medications? What if something goes wrong? Will you need a caesarean section? Give yourself one less thing to worry over by using our labour checklist to make sure you have everything in order for the big day. And don't forget to check out Birthing Options, which explains all the choices you have when it comes to how and where to give birth. Of course, creating a birth plan is one of the best ways to let your health care professionals know what you want on that special day.
Breech Babies will give you an idea of what to expect if your baby isn't in the head first position, while Pain Relief for Labour will help you better understand your choices of labour medications. If you prefer not to use medications to deal with pain during labor, then you'll want to read Alternative Pain Management. One decision you may have to make once your baby is born is whether or not to administer vitamin K. Vitamin K for Newborns outlines the pros and cons of this treatment.
If you have had complications during your pregnancy or birth which has resulted in the injury of either you or your baby and you believe it is due to medical negligence, then you should get in touch with a law firm for help throughout the process of making a Medical Negligence Claim.
for compensation. In addition to the complications a mother may experience during pregnancy, complications with your baby can also arise. This includes amniotic bands and sheets, single umbilical artery, and choroids plexus cysts. One complication that can be tested for during pregnancy is Downs syndrome. The chances of your baby developing this disorder increases with maternal age. However, there are a number of birth defects that can be diagnosed during your pregnancy. Though scary, knowing early on what to expect can help you prepare for that very special bundle that is arriving.
Not sure whether to breastfeed or bottle feed? Check out Bottle Feeding, which explains the pros and cons, and the ins and outs of feeding with formula. You'll also want to take a look at Breastfeeding, and all of the benefits it has for you and your baby.
Pregnancy and Dental Health
If you are pregnant you should inform your dentist
. This is because dental treatments are generally avoided for the duration of the pregnancy’s first trimester, as this is the period when both the expectant mother and the child in her womb are most susceptible to complications.
Want to chat with other moms-to-be? Check out our forum. | <urn:uuid:c50413f1-7ae5-4c1d-ac70-75534f049063> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.womens-health.co.uk/pregnancy.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960754 | 1,160 | 2.59375 | 3 |
A mad ruler makes an exciting premise for a story (if I do say so myself!). The idea has been used in subplots for both A Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings but it also has a basis in history. I’m not just talking about George III; Juana La Loca of Castille and the ‘sleeping king’ Henry Plantagenet spring to my mind first, but there are a lot more (follow Joan Bos on Twitter using @madmonarchs – she posts great facts!). One Georgian Princess, however, had the singular misfortune of being sister to one ‘mad’ king and wife to another.
Caroline Matilda was George III’s youngest sibling. Tragically, her father died before she was born, leaving George as a substitute. He felt this responsibility deeply and, as was so often the case with him, became overbearing in his desire to do right. However, Caroline was not subject to any of her brother’s ‘mad’ fits. No action during his guardianship suggested the whim of a lunatic. She would have witnessed an illness in 1765 where George was delirious and expected to die, but it’s unlikely she would have considered him insane. Like others at the time, she thought this an isolated incident of delirium brought on by a fever.
Caroline Matilda’s husband, however, was another kettle of fish. He was her – and George’s – first cousin, Christian King of Denmark. It’s fascinating to compare the mental troubles of these two cousins and the reaction of their wives, which were wildly different. One reason I am a supporter of the porphyria theory in George III’s case is that he showed no signs of instability or mania in his youth. He was a little slow to learn, rather shy and apt to blame himself, but that was all. Whereas Christian disturbed his family from an early age.
According to Veronica Baker-Smith in Royal Discord, Christian was already showing signs of instability by the time his mother, Louisa, died when he was two. She ascribes the King of Denmark’s early re-marriage to the fact that Christian was displaying overt mental illness, hence leaving the succession of Denmark in question. This would make sense, as the Danish King certainly loved his first wife and spoke of her on his deathbed. Following her sudden and tragic demise at age 27, from a similar internal rupture to the one that killed her mother Queen Caroline of Ansbach, he took to the bottle and then married Juliane Marie of Brunswick.
Juliane Marie took little interest in her step-children. She wasn’t unkind or unfair, just indifferent. She was far more interested in her own son, Frederick, when he was born and devoted her life to him. Christian, already troubled, was cut adrift after his mother died, and only had the familiar comfort of his sisters until he was six. At this time, he was put under the care of a tutor named Reventlow, who was reported to be a harsh man. Of course, you only have to look at the upbringing of the Hanoverian princes to understand that most tutors were harsh at this time, but the circumstance certainly didn’t help the sensitive Christian. A new, softer tutor, Reverdil, came when Christian was eleven and was shocked at what he found. The boy had retreated to an intense inner life. He was petrified at the idea of becoming King, wanting nothing to do with it. Demons stalked his mind and he was determined to repel them by making himself as physically perfect as possible. If he was strong, he reasoned, he could fight of the monsters and become capable of fulfilling the roll of King. Quite heartbreaking words to hear from a thin, exquisite little boy, as handsome as a china doll.
It was to such a man that the fifteen-year-old Caroline Matilda was married. Whilst she didn’t seem to know the worst of his mental state, she was reluctant to marry and to leave England. She resented her brother for bundling her off into a dynastic match for political reasons and wept all through her proxy wedding ceremony. It’s rather ironic, considering George III’s daughters were later to complain that he didn’t find them husbands. It’s tough being King – you just can’t win! Caroline Matilda had grown up closely sheltered by her mother, Augusta, but she had a mind of her own. She listened to the endless harangues of how to behave, who to butter-up, who to avoid, and most of all, how to push the British influence over the French at the Danish court. It wasn’t long before she ignored these instructions, choosing instead to forge her own identity.
Despite Christian’s mania, he was not a bad prospect altogether. He was handsome and could be charming and witty. But there was no chance for Caroline Matilda to form an emotional bond with him. She was just part and parcel of the hereditary duties of kingship which so scared him. While Christian wanted to retire, she wanted to lead and make a place for herself at court. She tried hard to learn Danish and ingratiate herself with her new husband, but she met with indifference. He was quite happy to go travelling with his friends and leave her alone. This is why, I feel, Caroline Matilda and Charlotte differed so much in their responses to their husbands’ illnesses. While Charlotte, who was less independent-minded to start with, had a former love binding her loyalty, Caroline Matilda was free in her affections. She did have a child to tie her to Christian, born when she was just sixteen: heir to the throne, another Christian. However, his birth doesn’t seem to have bridged the pit of apathy between his parents.
Caroline Matilda chose instead to bestow her love on a court physician, Johann Friedrich Struensee. Her reasons for doing so were manifold. Not only did she need a plug to fill the emotional vacancy in her life, but Christian’s fits pushed her further and further away – and often placed her in need of protector. I’ve written in God Save the King about the emotional trauma caused to Queen Charlotte by George III’s bouts of mania, but quite frankly, his episodes were a walk in the park compared to Christian’s. Christian could often be violent, choosing to smash and destroy things, often throwing them from windows. He became obsessed with a prostitute and went out on the town in disguise, drinking and generally debauching with his friends. As you can imagine, the alcohol did nothing to ease his mental state. It’s little wonder Caroline Matilda had her head turned by the attentions of the handsome, charming, intelligent Struensee.
Caroline Matilda adopted Struensee’s radical, atheistical views for herself. The two made a little paradise, raising her son along Rousseau’s ideals and reforming the political world. It was a strange menage a trois: Christian was almost certainly aware of their relationship, but he viewed Struensee as his dearest friend and was quite happy to be guided by him. He was also probably relieved to have the responsibility of a wife taken from him. Christian remained fond of Caroline Matilda, though he seemed to fear her in equal measure, and would do anything she said. Hence, it became quite easy for the lovers to pass their reforms through, since obtaining the King’s signature was no problem. It is widely accepted they also had a daughter, Louisa, and persuaded Christian to acknowledge her as his own. It is possible, of course, that Louisa was Christian’s child, but if you see portraits of her she has an unmistakable Struensee nose!
I have neither the space or the expertise to cover, in this post, the radical changes Caroline Matilda and Struensee brought about in Denmark and their political impact. If you would like to know the full story I can recommend Stella Tillyard’s A Royal Affair or, if you want historical fiction, read The Visit of the Royal Physician by Per Olov Enquist. What is clear, however, is that Caroline Matilda was a driving force in the changes. George III liked to believe that his sister was a “good girl”, corrupted by a wicked court. He couldn’t be more wrong. Caroline Matilda knew her own mind and seized her opportunities. I like to contrast this with the behaviour of Queen Charlotte during the Regency crisis. Although Charlotte’s son the Prince of Wales criticised her for dabbling in politics, she was, in fact, only trying to keep her husband’s government in power, ready for him to return. If she had wanted, she could have easily cast her lot in with her son and changed the political scene – but she had none of Caroline Matilda’s ambition. The irony was that Charlotte’s son wanted political power but didn’t have support, whilst Charlotte had the influence but didn’t want to rock the boat. Another thing to note is that Charlotte was accused by some papers of having an affair with the Prime Minister Pitt. Unlike the situation in Denmark, there was no basis for this scandal. A preliminary look into the characters of both Charlotte and Pitt will show you how unlikely this was.
Sadly, Caroline Matilda and Struensee’s ideals ultimately cost her freedom and his life. In a skillful coup, Struensee’s enemies and Juliane Marie arranged for the lovers to be arrested and took Christian into their own keeping. He was as pliable with them as he had been with his wife; he was quite willing to sign whatever was put before him. Struensee was executed for his relationship with the Queen, whilst Caroline Matilda was imprisoned and separated from her children. Eventually, after a highly fraught struggle, George III managed to get her released into his own keeping, but for safety and diplomacy, Caroline Matilda still had to live a hermit’s existence in Celle. This, strangely enough, was the home town of George I’s wife Sophia Dorothea – also imprisoned for adultery. Caroline Matilda continued to plot and plan in secret. She was part of many schemes to return her to Denmark – and the throne – when her sudden death at the tender age of 23 cut all hopes short. Scarlet fever put an end to her brief, but eventful life.
I think it’s quite clear that Caroline Matilda’s story is a fascinating one that historical novelists should be drooling over. However, I only write things that have already been done if I think (a) I can do it better or, (b) I have something new to say. Quite frankly, I found The Visit of the Royal Physician so amazing, so exquisitely done, that I dare not follow it. However, Caroline Matilda’s story will feature in my novel about her mother, Augusta, and I look forward to interpreting this astonishing woman into fiction. | <urn:uuid:34520c43-7e02-4dad-af6e-d83fd167efd0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://laurapurcell.com/?p=388 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989869 | 2,330 | 2.609375 | 3 |
I have been thinking about what sort of moral principles ought to apply to finance, including banking. The sort of thing I’ve been thinking about are some fairly simple things that would appear obvious to most of us, but apparently don’t apply to the world of finance.
Today I heard a Lib Dem MEP say something to the effect of “what are we going to do, stop the markets from doing certain things”? Well, er, yes. We stop ‘the markets’ from trading in human body parts, or in whole humans for that matter. We don’t allow them to freely trade nuclear weapons, or other WMDs. In other words there are all sorts of moral and practical restrictions placed upon the markets, for our own protection. After the gigantic and still unfolding damage unrestricted financial markets have managed to inflict, isn’t it time to consider what they should not be being allowed to do?
You should not be able to sell stuff you don’t own.
The whole basis of ‘short-selling’ is you sell something you don’t own now, in order to drive down the price of the things you don’t own so you can later buy them for less than you just sold the things you don’t own for.
I can’t for the life of me see how this generates any value to anybody except allowing the short-sellers to rip everyone else off. Their ‘bet’ that the price will fall is not based on anything ‘real’, like the value of the item, but simply on their ability to manipulate the market. On the contrary, if the thing being sold is something like a companies shares it is doing a lot of damage. What is it good for?
You shouldn’t be able to insure things you don’t own either.
If I were to insure a camera I didn’t own, but actually belonged to my mate, and then he had it stolen whilst on holiday, I don’t know any insurance company that would pay me. Au contraire, I’d probably get a visit from Sgt Plod asking me why I was trying to rip off the insurance company. As with so much else, this doesn’t seem to apply in the topsy-turvy moral universe of finance capital. Here’s the Wikipedia explanation of Credit Default Swaps, which is pretty fair:
“A credit default swap (CDS) is similar to a traditional insurance policy, in as much as it obliges the seller of the CDS to compensate the buyer in the event of loan default. Generally, the agreement is that in the event of default the buyer of the CDS receives money (usually the face value of the loan), and the seller of the CDS receives the defaulted loan (and with it the right to recover the loan at some later time).
However, there is a significant difference between a traditional insurance policy and a CDS. Anyone can purchase a CDS, even buyers who do not hold the loan instrument and may have no direct “insurable interest” in the loan. The buyer of the CDS makes a series of payments (the CDS “fee” or “spread”) to the seller and, in exchange, receives a payoff if the loan defaults.”
Again, I fail to see any utility in this transaction for the real world the rest of us inhabit and if I tried to pull this stunt with a car I’d end up in prison.
You should pay tax on every transaction that supposedly ‘adds value’.
One of the main reasons for financial systems running amok is the volume of trades – these have spiraled to unprecedented levels. When the rest of us buy and sell things we (mostly) pay VAT on the transaction, which, in case you have forgotten is “value added” tax. So if these financial transaction as ‘value adding’ as their proponents claim, why don’t they have to pay tax on them? When a car component manufacturer sells a car widget to the manufacturer they have to pay a whopping 20% VAT. Why doesn’t this apply to financial ‘products’?
You might argue that some financial transactions are bets are may gain or lose value. True, but we tax betting too and anyway if I sell something at a loss I still have to charge VAT on it and the buyer has to pay it.
This is the essential argument of the ‘Robin Hood’ or ‘Tobin’ tax proponents – in this a case a very small tax leveled on every financial transaction. This would have the doubly beneficial effect of hopefully slowing the trade a bit and generating some much needed tax revenue.
So there you are: three simple principles that seem to me eminently sensible and morally justifiable as restrictions which might prevent the massive destruction of social value we’ve seen over the past 3 years.
As a good social scientist I don’t necessarily believe these are ‘the’ answers – maybe they are wrong or incomplete. Maybe there are special rules for finance that I don’t understand and mean it should not be subject to the same sort of rules as apply to the rest of business and life. I genuinely curious to know why some seem to think this is the case. All comments welcome…… | <urn:uuid:f3040bc5-9254-4de4-b140-73d9884bd3d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://whitehallwatch.org/2011/10/30/three-%E2%80%98simples%E2%80%99-principles-for-controlling-run-away-finance/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961119 | 1,127 | 1.9375 | 2 |
|Example of several unipolar neurons from a nerve ganglion of a velvet worm (a primitive arthropod). The neurons were stained for serotonin immunoreactivity, and photographed using a confocal microscope, with multiple images overlaid and color-coded according to depth. Arrows mark the peripherally located cell bodies of several neurons, whose neurites extend into the central neuropil (np), where they ramify in a way too complex to be discernable. Scale bar: 50 micrometres.|
A unipolar neuron is a type of neuron in which only one protoplasmic process (neurite) extends from the cell body. Most neurons are multipolar, generating several dendrites and an axon. Unipolar neurons that begin as bipolar neurons during development are known as pseudounipolar neurons.
Unipolar neurons are common in insects, where the cell body is often located at the periphery of the brain and is electrically inactive. These cell bodies often send a single neurite into the brain; however, this neurite may ramify into a large number of branches making a very complex set of connections with other neurites, in regions of neuropil.
In all species, including vertebrates and invertebrates, many types of primary sensory neurons are pseudounipolar. Typically these have special structures for transducing some type of physical stimulus (light, sound, temperature, etc.) into electrical activity, no dendrites, and a single axon that conveys the resulting signals into the spinal cord or brain.
Additional Images
- Source: Mayer and Harzsch, BMC Evolutionary Biology 2007.
- Bullock, Theodore H.; G. Adrian Horridge (1965). Structure and Function in the Nervous Systems of Invertebrates: Volume II. W. H. Freeman.
See also | <urn:uuid:122b71ab-0c07-4e28-8ecc-2401d5880701> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unipolar_neuron | 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 | 0.903201 | 379 | 3.40625 | 3 |
Dairy club promotes agricultural awareness
Members of the MSU Dairy Club gathered to spread awareness about the dairy industry and agriculture overall as part of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Student Senate’s Ag Week. Each day of this week, a different club or organization in the college has hosted an event on campus to promote agriculture. The Dairy Club distributed free dairy products and information Thursday to students as they passed by.
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As part of our semester in review edition, members of The State News are taking a look back at some of the notable stories from this school year in this week’s opinion podcast.
In an article posted on BuzzFeed this week, author Anna North describes a
phenomenon she refers to as ‘the fear of missing out on grief,’ referring to the pressure people feel to broadcast ...
Do you think crimes against alternative subcultures — such as goths, punks, emos and skaters — should be treated as hate crimes? Well police in Manchester, U.K., think so, and they’re cracking ...
Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum Curatorial Program Manager Tammy Fortin shares her thoughts on the museum?s collaborative outreach efforts with the MSU and East Lansing ... | <urn:uuid:51c2b9aa-32ec-4383-95b2-54c67422e887> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://statenews.com/multimedia/49144 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940513 | 272 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Every year, the San Joaquin County Commission on the Status of Women sponsors the Susan B. Anthony Women of Achievement awards to recognize the contributions of local women.
This year, the ceremony is set for Feb. 15, the anniversary of the birth of Susan B. Anthony. How fitting.
Organizer Beverly Fitch McCarthy said the awards continue to be an important act by the community.
When: 6 p.m. Feb. 15
Where: Stockton Golf and Country Club, 3800 Country Club Blvd.
Admission: $45; purchase deadline is Friday
Information: (209) 463-6957
"There have always been noteworthy women in San Joaquin who deserve public recognition. Each community should honor those citizens who have made extraordinary contributions. The excellence of our community shines through in the service of (these women) regardless of year. Just think how different our community would be if these women had not lived here."
That's the underlying message of the mission statement of the awards: to honor women who have excelled in their chosen category, and who have, through their dedication, talent and untiring efforts, raised the status of residents of San Joaquin County.
"Since 1974 the Commission on the Status of Women has honored over 300 outstanding women," Fitch McCarthy said. "This 2013 class of women represents an outstanding cross-section of American womanhood in the areas of community service, religion, education, the sciences, labor and employment, and law and legal services."
La Juana Johnson Bivens
Johnson Bivens became involved in community service as a teenager, advocating for the rights of others in church and school. She was a student in the desegregated Arkansas schools protected by the National Guard. In Stockton she worked with the NAACP. As a member of LINKS, Inc., she has mentored and trained many successful youths to work on political campaigns, and launched voter registration drives.
Marie P. Medford
Medford taught at El Dorado schools for 29 years. Upon her retirement in 1991, she became a docent at the San Joaquin County Historical Museum, where she began mentoring and training many other docents. Since 2004 she has been a member of the Board of Trustees and vice president of Activities and Programs for the museum. She facilitates the Pioneer School Program attended by more than 2,000 students a year.
Verdun-Brown has been the outreach coordinator for 15 years at Humphreys College. Verdun-Brown has been a public speaker; television and radio producer; nonprofit board member; and political supporter. She represents her school for the annual Christmas luncheon for the Women's Center, Daffodil Days for the American Cancer Society and the Gregory Victor Vaughn Memorial Scholarship.
Fuhs became involved in nature as a child when she discovered amphibians in the ditches near her home. She received a degree in natural science and became a pioneer for women by becoming a park ranger. As a Lodi Lake Docent for 10 years, she is responsible for maintaining trails, leading tours and answering questions about the plants, animals and people who have lived in San Joaquin County.
Lori Muller Gray
Gray has taught in the Stockton Unified School District for 20 years. In her kindergarten class they talk about college every single day. She created a Kinder to College Program, which she utilizes in her classroom. She models and partners with the entire family to maximize their learning opportunities and her children are reading six months ahead of state standards.
As director of Admissions and Records at San Joaquin Delta College, Mooney was able to pull key players and departments together to start the Troops to College Program, which received no federal or state funds. Former military members who are already students or are incoming students were identified and informed about services available to them.
Lee has been a senior vocational rehabilitation counselor for the State of California for 27 years. Her community work includes volunteering with Junior League. She was in Leadership Stockton's Class of 2009, whose goal was assisting foster youths who are about to "age out" of the system. She also is a longtime member of Stockton's Women's Network and a tireless Asparagus Festival worker.
Regan has demonstrated exemplary leadership, com mitment and dedication in the field of religion for 36 years. She retired as a registered nurse at Dameron Hospital. As a volunteer at the Gospel Center Rescue Mission she taught general education and life skills. Now she is a volunteer coordinator and leader of the Women's Bible Study Fellowship in Stockton.
Tori Verber-Salazar, Esq.
Verber-Salazar is an assistant district attorney working with the Gang-Homicide Unit. She is a co-founder of several gang intervention and prevention programs, one which reaches more than 1,000 students a year. Other community involvement includes "MOMS" (Mothers Overcoming the Mean Streets), Mothers Taking a Stand against Street Violence, Safe Stockton, Save Stockton, and Stop the Violence. | <urn:uuid:79dc9c2d-7518-49cd-91cc-7853dcb9dc49> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130207/A_LIFE/302070307/-1/A_NEWS13 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970405 | 1,027 | 1.546875 | 2 |
That’s because damage from an earthquake can be so extensive—in some cases, the only remedy is to completely rebuild. Earthquakes can exascerbate existing home foundation problems. If you don’t have earthquake insurance, the financial consequences can be dire. Even if you do carry earthquake insurance, simple eathquake strengthening measures could still save you tens of thousands of dollars, since earthquake insurance usually carries a hefty deductible.
You also gain peace of mind, and it may make your house easier to sell. At least one state (California) requires sellers to fill out a checklist specifying whether earthquake strengthening measures have been installed. If you buy earthquake insurance, which can range from a couple hundred dollars to several thousand dollars a year, retrofitting may save you 5% each year on premiums.
Check with your local building department
Houses built to today’s building codes should be strong enough to keep people safe during an earthquake. But older houses, even those built a few decades ago, might need strengthening. Your local building department can tell you what’s required in your area, and whether you need design help from a structural engineer.
If you need just simple upgrades, the department might have free plans you can use. Whether you do the work yourself or hire a contractor, get a permit. If you’re planning to insulate or finish the basement, tackle earthquake strengthening first before you close off access to walls.
Poured perimeter foundations
If your house sits on a wall of poured concrete, with perhaps a few posts in the center under beams, there may be nothing but a few nails and gravity to hold the house in place.
To check whether your house needs earthquake strengthening, go into the crawl space or basement and look for thick bolts along the top of the sill plate, and for steel anchor plates that tie an edge of the sill plate to the side of the foundation. If you find neither, they are easy to install.
If you have enough room to use an electric hammer drill, drill straight down through the sill plate and 4 inches into the concrete—you can rent a hammer drill for about $20 per day from a tool rental center. You may need one ½-inch-diameter wedge anchor or bolt with epoxy each 32 inches to 6 feet, depending on the recommendations of your local building department.
On top of the sill plate, add hefty square washers (often called bearing plates) and nuts. Avoid standard round washers because they may fold and split the sill plate during a quake. If there isn’t enough room to drill straight down, use ties that fasten into the foundation from the side. You’ll find them at a local building-supply company.
If the first floor sits several feet higher than the perimeter foundation, the short “cripple” walls on top of the sill plate may need strengthening. To check, look between the studs—if you see diagonal boards or plywood on the outside of the studs, the cripple wall will be braced properly.
Add bracing by nailing plywood to the interior side of each wall. The bracing blocks access to the sill plate, so be sure your house is bolted down first. Your local building department can tell you the specifics about the type of plywood and the nailing pattern.
Unreinforced masonry foundations
If your house sits on a perimeter foundation made with concrete blocks that are completely filled with rebar and concrete, retrofit it as if the foundation was made of solid poured concrete (above). But if the blocks are hollow or if the foundation is unreinforced brick or stone, you’ll need a structural engineer’s advice.
You might learn that your foundation is sturdy enough and you just need a creative way to fasten down your house. Or, you might learn that the foundation is at risk of collapsing in a quake. Expect to pay $500-$700 for an evaluation and recommendation from a structural engineer.
If your foundation consists of more than three rows of concrete blocks and is in good shape, you might be able to fasten the sill plate to the foundation by drilling slightly oversize holes into hollow parts of the blocks and then inserting mesh sleeves, epoxy, and threaded bolts. Tightening the bolts causes the epoxy to squeeze through the mesh and mushroom out inside the hollow cavity, holding the bolts much like drywall anchors work to hold screws in walls.
This relatively new option costs as little as $5,000 for a one- or two-story house with a footprint of 1,000 square feet. That’s about half of what it would cost for the more traditional method of cutting into the blocks and installing rods that tie the sill plate to the foundation footing.
If the foundation consists of only a couple of courses of blocks, or if the walls aren’t in good shape or are made of brick or stone, you might need a new foundation. A new foundation costs about $40,000—more for a house with a basement.
Short block walls are more vulnerable to collapsing in an earthquake than walls of four or more courses because short walls have fewer mortar joints. Fewer joints means more stress concentrated in each joint. In a taller wall, there are more joints to share the seismic forces. “I know it’s counterintuitive,” says Leif Jackson, owner of Sound Seismic, a retrofit contractor in Seattle, “but that’s what the engineers say.”
For a house that rests directly on a concrete slab, metal straps or bolts should tie the sill plate to the concrete. If you have an unfinished garage, you can check sill plates there and assume the house is built the same way. If the garage walls are closed in, check by removing a section of drywall or siding in an unobtrusive spot.
Those who are not inclined to open up a wall can take comfort in the fact that a slab house probably won’t collapse since it doesn’t have far to fall. Of course, if you are removing siding or drywall for another purpose, that’s the perfect time to check for straps or bolts and add them if they’re missing.
Some houses are supported by upright posts that rest on concrete blocks or piers. During an earthquake, these support posts are especially vulnerable to back-and-forth seismic movement and may collapse. Repairing collapsed posts starts around $20,000, if the house can be salvaged.
The preventative solution may be as easy as bracing the posts at a cost of about $1,000, or as expensive as adding a new foundation for approximately $25,000. Between these extremes, you may be able to pour short L-shape concrete foundations around each corner and securely attach them to the floor framing. Seek the advice of a structural engineer. | <urn:uuid:8b8a369f-303d-4482-b7ba-e281ce37e5ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.houselogic.com/home-advice/foundations/earthquake-strengthening-your-foundation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936043 | 1,424 | 1.960938 | 2 |
The Freedom Tower Soars The Tallest Today in NYC
The spot where One World Trade Center is today has once again laid claim to being the New York City’s tallest skyscraper. Freedom Tower officially reached 1,250 feet this afternoon to now stand taller than the Empire State Building.
Anyone in NJ who has visited what was Ground Zero and has seen the tower knows that this is an important day in the development of this area. By next year the Freedom Tower is expected to reach its final height by become the tallest building in America, taking the title away from The Willis Tower in Chicago (the former Sears Tower stands 1,729 feet at its apex).
What is left for the workers of the Freedom Tower is the addiction of more floors to this skyscraper – the final count will be 104 floors to the building that will hit 1,776 feet when finished. Topping the Freedom Tower to reach its record height is a 408-foot-tall needle that will be perched permanently on the roof.
There is no animosity from the Empire State Building as its operators offered a congratulatory note to the press, stating “we’ve watched you grow, and now we salute you”.
We all know the tragedy that struck on 9/11, and just about all of us in The Garden State has been affected by this event in one way, shape or form. There is something sad and special with what is happening in NYC around the area of the Freedom Tower. A trek to this Manhattan monument should be in your plans sometime soon. | <urn:uuid:439cd674-9189-49a3-a9b5-7a281553203e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sojo1049.com/the-freedom-tower-soars-the-tallest-today-in-nyc/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962672 | 315 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Joan Fontcuberta: Photography in Crisis
Reardon Smith Lecture Theatre. Doors open from 5.15pm.
Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales and the European Centre for Photographic Research (eCPR), University of Wales, Newport are pleased to announce a series of free lectures reflecting on photography and the Museum.
To launch the series, leading Spanish artist Joan Fontcuberta, reflects on his edited anthology ‘Photography - Crisis in History’ of 2002.
The book explored the significant challenges of producing histories or archaeologies of photography.
For this lecture he will offer a fresh perspective - 10 years on - of these complex relationships in a new age outlined by the internet and digital culture.
With nearly four decades of dedication to photography, Fontcuberta has developed artistic and theoretical work that focuses on conflicts between nature, technology, photography and truth.
The lecture series accompanies a major project being undertaken by Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales to work on its rich and diverse historic photographic collections – a project made possible through a major gift from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.
In partnership with the eCPR, at University of Wales Newport, the lecture series will reflect the exciting work that the Museum is undertaking from 2012 to 2015.
The event is FREE but booking is essential as places are limited.
To reserve your place email Historic.Photography@museumwales.ac.uk with your name and contact telephone number.
A full programme of forthcoming lectures will be available shortly. | <urn:uuid:6dda2ae2-0286-47af-9ada-6a8ee65cbaf7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/whatson/?event_id=6297 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910429 | 325 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Did you know that Gary Sheffield of the San Diego Padres (1992 & 1993), Florida Marlins (1993, 1996 & 1998), Los Angeles Dodgers (1998, 1999 & 2000), Atlanta Braves (2003) and New York Yankees (2004 & 2005), AND Moises Alou of the Montreal Expos (1994), Florida Marlins (1997), Houston Astros (1998 & 2001), Chicago Cubs (2004) and San Francisco Giants (2005) has represented the most teams over a career during All-Star Games?
On July 6, 1942, the American League used the least amount of players during an All Star Game when only eleven All-Stars took the field. By contrast, the most used was during the 2008 All-Star Game when thirty-two All-Stars from the American League AND thirty-one All-Stars from the National League took the field in Yankee Stadium.
In the record book above we provided the date for the earliest games ever played. The latest date in history for an All-Star Game being played occurred on August 9, 1981, in Municipal Stadium. | <urn:uuid:60741152-d6bc-4e33-a316-20c17ea89007> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baseball-almanac.com/rb_asm.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927896 | 215 | 2.390625 | 2 |
Dell and City of Chicago Join Ranks of Top Green Power Buyers
Dell, Inc. and the City of Chicago, Illinois, have become major purchasers of electricity from renewable energy sources, earning them top spots on the national top-50 list of green power purchasers. On Monday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a quarterly update of its rankings of green power purchasers under the EPA Green Power Partnership, and Dell jumped from 25th place to fourth place after increasing its green power purchases by nearly a factor of five. The purchases actually exceed Dell's electricity use by about 58%, helping to offset greenhouse gas emissions from other forms of energy use within the company. Meanwhile, the City of Chicago is now buying enough green power to meet 20% of its electricity needs, placing it 16th on the national top-50 list and third on the top-20 list of local governments that are buying green power. Chicago has not previously appeared on the EPA's lists. Along with the quarterly update, the EPA took the opportunity to revise several of its lists, expanding its national list from the top 25 to the top 50 and enlarging its lists for retail companies, local governments, and colleges and universities from the top 10 to the top 20. See the Dell press release and the lists on the EPA Green Power Partnership Web site.
DOE, the EPA, and the Center for Resource Solutions (CRS) also presented the 2008 Green Power Leadership Awards on Monday. The four DOE Green Power Supplier Awards went to AmerenUE, which launched its Pure Power green pricing program in Illinois and Missouri in October 2007; the City of Palo Alto (California) Utilities, which has 20.4% of its customers signed up for the PaloAltoGreen green pricing program, marking the highest customer participation rate in the country; 3Degrees, which has annual green power sales of 4 billion kilowatt-hours, serving 6 of the top 15 corporate purchasers as well as many utility green pricing programs; and Sterling Planet, which has annual sales of renewable energy credits totaling 4.5 billion kilowatt-hours. The EPA recognized 16 green power purchasers, including the U.S. Air Force, Intel Corporation, Kohl's Department Stores, the Philadelphia Phillies, the City of Houston, and many other notable organizations. Meanwhile, CRS provided its market development awards to Portland General Electric, Detroit Edison, the Energy Action Coalition, Green Mountain Energy Company, and to Dr. Jan Hamrin, who founded CRS and helped to launch the Green-e certification program for green power. See the EPA press release and the list of award winners. | <urn:uuid:9f268902-7459-49ba-afc8-b497266d6c37> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/states/news_detail.cfm/news_id=12064 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942892 | 541 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Who says there is no bipartisan love in Washington. Last week, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution authored by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., affirming that all children have the right to be loved within a safe, nurturing and permanent family. The resolution supports local, state, federal and international efforts that work to safeguard and promote this right.
"On Valentine's Day, we remember and recommit ourselves to the simple idea of love: Every child has a right to be cared for within a safe and permanent family," said Landrieu in a speech on the resolution on Valentine's Day night.
"The first call I made this morning was to my husband and kids to wish them a happy Valentine's Day. But sadly there are millions of children today who may not receive a call or valentine from a parent because they are an orphan, and the love between a parent and a child is irreplaceable. This resolution states that this Senate firmly shares this belief. Without the love and attention of a protective parent, children can become withdrawn, experience developmental delays and show signs of extreme and toxic stress." | <urn:uuid:ab138a4f-f5ab-4660-a813-0004d34f5db9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/02/sen_mary_landrieu_gets_unanimo.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950946 | 227 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Almaty Arts & Culture
Almaty is truly Kazakhstan’s cultural capital.
It’s historical museums offer an extensive history of the country from its taming of the steppes to the construction of its world-class capital.
Almaty’s array of visual and theatrical arts are also world class and have won prestigious international awards. And just strolling around the city’s parks and monuments gives a sense of Kazakhstan’s rich culture.
One of the best places to start is the Central State Museum. This three-story museum contains more than 200,000 artifacts – from early tools to weapons to a replica of Kazakhstan’s Golden Man – which visually explains ancient-to-modern Kazakh history.
To get a sense of the visual arts of Kazakhstan and the region, try the Kasteyev State Museum of Arts, which contains more than 22,000 works from Kazakhstan, Russia, Western Europe and Asia.
For the theatrical arts, try the Abai Kazakh State Opera and Ballet Theatre and its beautiful Italian-style building. Here you’ll find world-class international performances. More contemporary performances can be found at the Art&Shock Theatre which specializes in cutting edge plays.
And one of the best ways to get a feel for the city is to head to Panilov Park. There you’ll find the multicolored St. Ascension Cathedral, one of the largest wooden structures in the world made without nails, and a monument to WWII Kazakh troops.
Some of the museums have small entrance fees and most don’t offer English language displays. So bring a Russian speaker or call ahead to arrange a guide.
But no matter which museum or theatre you visit, you’ll see that Almaty’s arts and culture reflect the influences of centuries at the heart of the Silk Road.
Abai Kazakh State Opera and Ballet Theatre
The opera singers and ballet performers who fill this classic Italian building are among the celebrated masters of their crafts as well young performers who have already be recognized in prestigious international competitions.
The theatre itself was created in 1934 from a musical studio and the building is depicted on Kazakhstan’s 2000 tenge note. Address:
110 Kabanbai Batyr AvenuePhone:
8 (727) 2727934, 2722042
Ticket office hours: Mon-Sun 10 am-6 pmwww.gatob.kz
Arvest Art Gallery
You’ll never know what you’ll find at the Arvest Art Gallery. This unique space does not focus on particular trends in art, but rather chooses its exhibits based purely on the originality and talent of the artist. Created in 2007, Arvest is a space for artists to display and sell their paintings, sculptures, graphics and other art forms. You can expect a new exhibit almost every month and master art classes are offered each Monday.Address:
75/68 Bogenbay Batyr AvenuePhone:
8 (727) 2914797Hours:
Daily 10 am-8 pmwww.arvest.kz
Deutsches Theater Almaty
Deutches offers Almaty residents and visitors a taste of European theatre. It was founded in 1975 as a way to preserve German culture but has since expanded to become an international theatre company. Its plays are performed in German with simultaneous Russian translations. Like Art&Shock, Deutches specializes in innovative, contemporary theatre in addition to traditional works. The theatre moved to Almaty in 1989.Address:
64D, Satpayev Street Phone:
8 (727) 3920234, 8 (727) 3920233
Ticket office hours vary. See websitewww.dta.kz
Lermontov Russian Drama Theatre and Tengri Umay Arts Gallery
This space includes a Russian language theatre and a visual arts space. The theatre was founded in 1969 and continues to stage Russian language plays every day but Monday. On Mondays, the space displays the artwork of contemporary Kazakh artists.
The Tengri Umay gallery was established in 1990 and features more than 300 works of contemporary paintings, sculptures and installations.
The space also features a shop selling artworks and souvenirs. Address:
43 Abai AvenuePhone:
8 (727) 2673131, 2673151, 2673145Hours:
Mon-Sat 10 am-6 pmwww.tl.kz
Art and Shock Theatre
Art&Shock is a modern independent theatre thought to be staging some of the most innovative performances in Kazakhstan. This theatre pushes the edge with improvisation and interactive performances along with pantomime and traditional theatre. The theatre chooses its performances based on the concepts of “theatralization of theatric art” and “theatralization of life.” Art&Shock was founded in 2001 and has won grand prizes at international theatrical festivals throughout Europe, Russia, and Central Asia. Address:
49/68 Kunayev StreetPhone:
8 (727) 2735282, 8 (727) 2735282
Ticket office hours vary. See websitewww.artishock.kz
Central State Museum
If you have time to visit only one museum in Almaty and want to learn about Kazakhstan, this is the best place to go. It is one of the oldest and largest museums in the country and is located directly across from the Presidential Palace. This museum takes visitors on a journey through Kazakhstan’s ancient and modern history from its early agricultural roots up to its present day politics. More than 200,000 artifacts help tell the story of the country. The museum also houses a replica of Kazakhstan’s famous Golden Warrior Prince. And there’s a small area detailing the history of Almaty. The museum also features a small cafe and souvenir shop.
None of the exhibits are in English, so you’ll want to bring a Russian speaker or hire a guide at the museum.Address:
8 (727) 2644650, 2642200, 2645577 Hours:
Wed-Mon 10 am-6 pmEntrance fee:
80 tenge adults, 50 tenge students and pensioners, 40 tenge children
Kasteyev State Museum of Arts
Kasteyev is considered Kazakhstan’s top art museum. It began its acquisitions in 1935 and has since collected more than 22,000 works from Kazakh, Russian, Western European and Asian artists. The extensive collection includes paintings, graphics, sculptures as well as pieces from the theatre and decorative arts dating from ancient times to the present. The collection began with 200 works donated by Russian museums. The museum houses 14 permanent, temporary and traveling exhibitions and often showcases local artists. A virtual tour is available on the museum website listed below. Address:
30a Satpaev StreetPhone:
8 (727) 2478356, 2478249 Hours:
10 am - 6 pm (closed on Mondays and last day of each month)
Entrance fee: 80 tenge adults, 50 tenge children and studentswww.gmirk.kz
State Museum of National Musical Instruments
This museum is considered to be one of Almaty’s most interesting attractions. The all-wooden museum building is an attraction in itself as it was built in 1908 by Andrey Zenkov, the same architect that designed Almaty’s famous cathedral built without a nail. The museum building was one of the few that survived Almaty’s massive 1911 earthquake.
The instruments collection was established in 1980 and features 60 varieties of Kazakh traditional instruments from across the country and other post Soviet nations. The collection includes the dombras of some of the country’s best known poets and composers.Address:
24 Zenkov StreetPhone:
8 (727) 2916326 Hours:
Tues-Sun 10 am-5:30 pm | <urn:uuid:28089865-dff5-4c53-9186-286ee0fa92e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.edgekz.com/almaty-arts-culture/blog.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931626 | 1,640 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Information about Cosigners
Why is a cosigner important?
Many students don't have a substantial credit history or have other concerns about being approved for a private student loan, and adding a creditworthy cosigner may help them qualify and also obtain a lower interest rate.
What makes a good cosigner on a loan?
- Have a substantial credit history
- Not have any serious negative items on their credit report
- Meet their credit obligations on time
- Not be over burdened with debt
- Have steady employment and/or income sufficient to meet debt obligations
Can a cosigner be released from the loan?
The cosigner can be released from liability after the first 48 initial, consecutive principal and interest payments are made on time*. The borrower must meet credit criteria on their own at that time.
How is a cosigner added to the loan?
Our online private student loan applications have made applying as a cosigner an easy process that only takes about 15 minutes.
* Request for the cosigner to be released can be made after the first 48 consecutive, on-time payments (not later than ten days after the due date) of principal and interest have been made. The borrower must meet credit criteria on their own at the time of the request. The borrower must also be currently enrolled for automatic deduction of monthly payments from a bank account. | <urn:uuid:383f51bc-c075-4079-b5c6-3eaa14886049> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://suntrusteducation.com/PrivateLoans/CustomChoiceLoan/AddingACosigner.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966571 | 284 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The largest online source
for music of the American Shakers
The Spirit is calling, tenderly calling,
O Zion unfold in deep prayer;
O pray for the fathers, the sisters and brothers,
O pray for the whole household,
O pray for the mothers, remember all others,
O pray for the whole, whole world.
Please help support the preservation mission of this informational site.
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A Few Notes of Introduction
This is the largest and most accurate online site about music of the United Society of Believers (better known as The Shakers), America's oldest religious communal society.
Musicians, researchers, teachers and students beware!
You should be careful when collecting research about Shaker music due to the amount of errors on some websites and in some books and articles focusing on Shaker history by some scholars. Oftentimes their mention of Shaker music is misleading or incorrect. For example, classifying all Shaker music as "songs." There are actually three types of Shaker music which are discussed at this link: The Simple Gifts of Shaker Music.
It is common for some people, even Shaker scholars, to list "Simple Gifts" with the wrong title, such as:
"The Gift to be Simple" or "Tis a Gift to be Simple," or classify it as "an anonymous Shaker hymn."
All of those identifications are incorrect.
Read about this best known Shaker song -- click here.
Giving Credit Where It Is Due
Many researchers and arrangers have failed to give proper credit to the editors of Shaker music. Also, they have not looked much beyond the best known Shaker song, "Simple Gifts." The Shakers produced thousands of tunes and many of them would be suitable for performance, providing they have been edited properly.
Without such editors as Joel Cohen, Mitzie Collins, Harold Cook, Mary Ann Haagen, Roger Lee Hall, Daniel W. Patterson and others, these Shaker spirituals would remain buried in manuscript music books in a box or storage chest somewhere. Without these editors, the music would likely stay lost.
Often it is just the arranger who gets the credit, not the editor who first discovered it and made it available in a performing edition.
Please give proper credit to the editors of Shaker music!
Most of the information on these pages was written by ethnomusicologist Roger Hall, who has researched and performed Shaker music for forty years. He should be credited for any information used on these music pages.
American Music Preservation.com is an informational site which receives no funding from outside foundations or organizations.
Please help keep this site online by making a donation with a credit card, payable to PineTree Productions, through safe and secure PayPal.
For a donation of $25 or more, you will receive a complimentary non-commercial CD, "Simple Gifts of Shaker Music, compiled by Shaker music scholar, Roger Hall,
with over one hour of music, including 6 different versions of the best known Shaker song, "Simple Gifts,"
and Free Shipping is included.
Click on this button to
After you have made your donation,
to receive your complimentary CD,
send your mailing address to:
A GUIDE TO SHAKER MUSIC - With Music Supplement
The Shakers used their own type of music notation
which they called - "the Letteral System."
This letteral notation was discussed in detail
in the first Master's Thesis on Shaker music,
researched and written by Roger L. Hall.
He has provided examples of this notation
in his book, A GUIDE TO SHAKER MUSIC,
with a Music Supplement containing15 Shaker spirituals)
available at this link:
A series of attractive 8 1/2 X 11 broadsides in full color.
This series includes
the words and/or music to selected Shaker songs,
edited by Roger Hall,
with colorful art design by Gail Hall.
They make ideal gifts and are suitable for framing.
There are currently six Shaker song titles in this series:
No. 1: "Simple Gifts" (Joseph Brackett Jr., Alfred, Maine, 1848)
[First line: 'Tis the gift to be simple 'tis the gift to be free]
No. 2: "Blended Together" (Joseph Holden, New Lebanon, NY, ca. 1870)
[First line: Blended together as one we stand] No. 3: "Gentle Words" (Polly M. Rupe, Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, ca. 1867)
[First line: What the dew is to the flower, gentle words are to the soul]
No. 4:"Love is Little" (South Union, Kentucky, ca. 1834) - NEW!
[First line: Love is little, love is low ]
Back by popular demand! including popular Shaker songs like
"Come Life, Shaker Life" and "Simple Gifts"
plus an exclusive interview with composer, Aaron Copland,
and singing by Shaker sisters on this CD, | <urn:uuid:44bf0dd4-15fc-45ec-83e4-d815588707ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/shakermusic.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926447 | 1,079 | 1.578125 | 2 |
La noche de los Mayas : Work information
- Silvestre Revueltas ( Music, Images,)
- Performed by
- Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, Fernando Lozano (Conductor)
- Work name
- La noche de los Mayas
- Work number
- 1939-00-00 02:00:00
- Forlane CI
- Ivan Pastor
- Xavier Villapando, Jonathan Wearn
- Recording date
- 1980-01-01 00:00:00
Influenced by the street-music of his native Mexico without quoting actual folk song, Revueltas's music combines rhythmic drive with a colourful approach to instrumentation. His melodies are often repetitive and tuneful, though set in a dissonant texture, in a manner similar to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. His best-known work is the orgiastic orchestral crescendo Sensemayá.
Revueltas was born in the Mexican state of Durango on 31 December 1899. After initial training at Durango's Juárez Insitute, he studied violin and composition in Mexico City, and later in Austin, Texas and at the Chicago Musical College. During his early career as a violinist and conductor, Revueltas spent a great deal of time in the US, playing in a San Antonio theatre orchestra and conducting in Mobile, Alabama.
In 1929 Revueltas was recalled to Mexico City by Chávez to become assistant conductor of the Mexico Symphony Orchestra. During these years (1929-35) he composed works for the orchestra to perform and taught violin and chamber music at the Conservatory. The remainder of his career was spent teaching, though he toured Spain in 1937 and allied himself with the Republican cause. He died in Mexico City on 5 October 1940, his early death caused by alcoholism.
Revueltas's colourful and picturesque music, with its rhythmic complexities and bold lines, often reveals a wry, even cynical, sense of humour. His works for orchestra continue to occupy a place in the repertoire, though only Sensemayá is regularly programmed outside Mexico. He also wrote songs, chamber music, and film music.
Revueltas's most famous music is probably his film score to the 1939 Mexican film La noche de los Mayas (The Night of the Mayas), directed by Chano Ureta.
Variously described as a Mexican version of the music of Stravinsky, Copland or Waxman, the film score was arranged into an orchestral suite of four movements by Jose Limantour in 1959; it has enjoyed regular performances, especially in recent years as the revival of interest in Revueltas's music continues.
The Scherzo, with its local colour and dance rhythms, sounds very like Copland's El Salon Mexico, and contrasts with the lush romanticism of La noche de Yucatan's opening. The finale, La noche de encantaiento, is a set of wild variations on a theme with screeching brass and explosive percussion. Listen out for the big conch solo in this South American counterpart to the violence of The Rite of Spring. | <urn:uuid:058f767d-aab1-4ca1-86b3-af4f0478d0cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.classical.com/work/2147484671 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948958 | 657 | 2 | 2 |
PMS Herbal Products
A handful of herbal medicines are typically used to treat PMS, including black cohosh, blue cohosh, wild yam root, chasteberry, and dong quai. These herbal products vary in the symptoms they target and their effectiveness and safety.
Black cohosh (Actaea racemosa), an herb native to North America, is primarily used to treat menopausal symptoms and menstrual problems, including sleep problems, mood disturbances, hot flashes, and painful menstrual cramping. There have been at least eight studies of black cohosh, mostly German, involving up to two thousand women, but they've focused on the herb's use as a menopausal treatment rather than as a treatment for premenstrual syndrome.
Experts aren't entirely sure what makes black cohosh work. Initially, the herb was thought to activate estrogen receptors (in other words, it functioned like an estrogen replacement), but more recent studies in 1999 and 2001 showed that although black cohosh does bind with one subtype of estrogen receptors, it doesn't exactly have an estrogen-like effect.
Black cohosh is considered safe, except for women with a personal or family history of breast cancer. One small study suggested black cohosh may promote the spread of breast cancer cells to other tissues in the body. It also has some side effects, especially gastrointestinal discomfort. Other, less frequent side effects include dizziness, headaches, nausea, and vomiting, usually occurring with higher doses.
Unlike in the United States, where herbal medicines are classified as dietary supplements, in many European and Asian countries, they are tested and marketed as over-the-counter or prescription drugs. In Germany, black cohosh root is approved and sold as a PMS remedy.
There are many brands of black cohosh on the market, German brand, Remifemin, is the most widely used and the studied. The standard dosage for Remifemin is 80 milligrams taken twice daily); however, there's evidence that dose may be just as effective in reducing menopausal symptoms. takes between four to eight weeks to become fully effective.
Blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides), not to be confused with black cohosh, is often marketed as a uterine tonic and to regulate the menstrual cycle, ease menstrual cramping, and endometriosis. Blue cohosh contains uterine-contracting substances (Native Americans used it to induce labor), and because it toxic, experts don't recommend it for self-treatment. Alternative names for blue cohosh include yellow ginseng, blue ginseng, root, papoose root, and squaw root.
Wild Yam Root
Wild yam root (Dioscorea villosa) is typically used to treat and arthritis-like symptoms, as well as menstrual irregularity, cramps, infertility, menopause, and endometriosis. The Americans used wild yam root for birth control. Wild yam's PMS remedy stems from the fact that it contains diosgenin, a precursor to progesterone and a substance used to make synthetic steroidal hormones. Diosgenin is thought to help balance progesterone; however, there is no evidence that it actually does so.
Chaste Tree Fruit or Chasteberry
Chaste tree fruit or chasteberry (Vitus agnus-castus) is an herb approved as a PMS remedy in Germany. It is thought to inhibit the secretion of prolactin, an inflammatory substance that causes breast pain and tenderness. In fact, there is clinical evidence that supports the use of chasteberry for cyclical breast tenderness and fullness. A number of studies have also shown that chasteberry reduces bloating, constipation, irritability, depressed mood, anger, and headache.
The formulation used in many studies is sold as Femaprin, by Nature's Way. When the fruit extract is used, the standard dose is 20 to 40 milligrams per day, but much higher doses, up to 1,800 milligrams, have also been used.
Dong quai (Angelica sinensis), sometimes called “female ginseng,” is a root widely used in Chinese medicine to treat gynecological problems, such as painful menstruation and pelvic pain, recovery from childbirth, fatigue, and mild anemia. It is also used to treat high blood pressure, cardiovascular problems, and headache. Scientific evidence is unclear about its effectiveness as a PMS treatment.
Evening Primrose Oil
Evening primrose oil (Oenothera biennis L.) comes from the seeds of the evening primrose plant. It contains an essential fatty acid called gamma-linolenic acid (or GLA), which is thought to be its active ingredient. Some clinical evidence suggests that it offers mild relief for breast tenderness. Many women also use it to relive hot flashes, improve mood, cramping, and night sweats.
However, systemic review of clinical trials comparing evening primrose oil placebos suggested it had no benefit for PMS symptoms. Potential side effects include seizures (for those with seizure disorders or who take evening primrose oil in combination with anesthetics), occasional headaches, abdominal pain, nausea, and loose stools.
Other Herbal Products
St. John's wort, kava, milk thistle, dandelion, and valerian are other herbal medicines sometimes used to treat PMS. Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) is used to treat insomnia and other sleep problems. Milk thistle (Silybum marianum) and dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) are used as diuretics. Kava kava (Piper methysticum) reduces anxiety, and St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) is used to treat mild depression.
However, some of these herbal products interact with conventional PMS drugs. For example, St. John's wort may interact with SSRIs and oral contraceptive pills, while kava may interact with the antianxiety drug alprazolam, so be sure your doctor you are using them, or talk with your doctor before them.
Where to Get Herbal Products
Herbal products have become so popular that you them in grocery stores, drugstores, and health-food stores. However, health-food stores and specialty retailers, such as GNC, may better selection than your local grocery stores. Frequently, medical practitioners offer products for selection. Unless used herbal products before, avoid buying them on the Internet sheer selection of different dosages and brands can be confusing.
Your best bets are to purchase herbal products where get knowledgeable information, find a good selection, and certain that you're getting what you're being promised. they are not regulated by the FDA, herbal products frequently not actually contain the ingredients or dosages that are promised the label. Consumerlab.com is a company that independently tests herbal products, and you can get their reviews of supplements. | <urn:uuid:5f9758ae-2592-4468-9f21-abce5d7c51ff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.netplaces.com/health-guide-to-pms/complementary-and-alternative-treatments/pms-herbal-products.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936535 | 1,448 | 2.03125 | 2 |
We must admit that we’ve been guilty of using a microcontroller to make two LEDs blink alternately in the past. It’s not the worst transgression, but it stems from our discomfort with analog circuits. Luckily, [Ray] published an illustrated guide on building multivibrator circuits. This is a simple method of assembling a two-output oscillator. All it takes is a pair of NPN transistors, which are then switched by on and off based on a resistor-capacitor (RC) timer.
[Ray] does a good job of walking us through how the circuit works at each stage of one complete cycle. You’ll need to read carefully, but the supplementary schematics he uses to water down snap shots of the various electrical states really helped us understand.
Of course, blinking LEDs isn’t the sole purpose of a multivibrator. It is a method of producing a clean square wave which can be used as a clock signal for TTL logic chips. Oh, who are we kidding, see the blinky goodness for yourself in the video after the break. | <urn:uuid:7ad28c89-2164-4a40-b5ba-e29f7b978671> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hackaday.com/2011/12/01/multivibrator-in-theory-and-practice/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=ca8cc7cdd9 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93357 | 230 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Nantucket Field Station|
Nantucket County, Massachusetts
The University of Massachusetts Boston's Nantucket Field Station (NFS) includes a 107-acre field site with laboratory facilities, residence space, and offices on Nantucket Harbor in the Quaise portion of the island adjacent to a large undisturbed salt marsh with vernal ponds and freshwater marshes, a freshwater pond and upland meadows and thickets of bayberry, red cedar, and fox grape. The facility also includes a six-unit apartment complex near the midtown part of Nantucket with a total capacity of 40 research beds available year round. The island of Nantucket covers approximately 50 square miles, and although it is isolated geographically, it is only 26 miles south of Cape Cod, MA. Approximately 9000 acres of Nantucket is owned by NSF partner and landholder the Nantucket Conservation Foundation and is available for research. In addition the Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative has set aside a variety of research plots for visiting scientists (www.nantucketbiodiversityinitiative.org). These habitats include coastal heathlands, moors, sandplain grasslands, hardwood forests, scrub oak and pitch pine barrens, upland scrub, old fields, ponds, bogs, fresh-water marsh, swamps, barrier beaches, sand dunes, salt marshes, shallow harbor waters, and open ocean. Because of its isolation, limited number of predators, and land use management, Nantucket is one of the most important areas in the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts for harboring rare and endangered plant species. Biogeographically perched on a north/south floristic division, and proximal to the warm Gulf Stream, Nantucket serves as the southern boundary for many northern plant species and the northern limit for many southern forms with a climate that is slightly warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer than the mainland.
|Updated: 8 November, 2011|
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|© Designed by The Polistes Corporation| | <urn:uuid:a7cdbc0f-f514-4cf9-be9b-8f3da334a8ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.discoverlife.org/nh/cl/US/MA/Nantucket/Nantucket_Field_Station/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913808 | 428 | 2.625 | 3 |
West Brookfield, Massachusetts
From Ancestry.com Wiki
|This article is a stub. Help us to expand it by contributing your knowledge. For county and town page guidelines, visit U.S. County Page Content Suggestions.|
West Brookfield is a town in Massachusetts. It was formed in 1848 and was previously called Brookfield. It can be found in Worcester county and is a part of the Worcester registry of deed district. For more information, contact the county at 2 E. Main St., West Brookfield 01585. On the attached map, West Brookfield is shown as 30 in Worcester county.
For information about the state of Massachusetts see Massachusetts Family History Research. | <urn:uuid:ae0d6e6b-a818-4669-95fe-73ea45e18b76> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ancestry.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=West_Brookfield,_Massachusetts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931157 | 141 | 2.203125 | 2 |
It's not the problem with displaying all of the fonts, it is only about some "non-standard" ones (as for me) like hindi etc. I've all needed fonts installed.
Here's screen of wiki page with all languages:
As you can see, every font is displayed properly, but when I copypaste text to xchat, i get either squares or I don't see anything:
http://puu.sh/yRi <- xchat 2.8.9 on win7 x64
I even installed mirc to check if it is maybe some problem with installed fonts, but in mirc I see everything just fine:
http://puu.sh/yRk <- mirc 7.15 on win7 x64
I thought that's problem with xchat, so i tested xchat on linux, but it's rendering all fonts without any problem:
http://puu.sh/yRl <- xchat 2.8.8-3 (from debian repo) on debian 5 (in vmware)
I've few unicode fonts like arial unicode ms, code2000/2001/2002, bitstream cyberbit + cjk, everson mono and unifont which should be enough to display almost every language on earth, but still xchat on win32 is not using them (eg. xchat is using old ms gothic font [which was default japanese font for windows 2000/xp] instead of meyrio font [default for vista/7]).
I really think win32 xchat is handicapped compared to linux version when it comes to displaying fonts, and maybe you know how to change it, or maybe there is some workaround to display all of the fonts
and btw, in every client I used same font - comfortaa, and xchats are set to IRC charset | <urn:uuid:067657af-0822-4b46-b840-c8efc689e13a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forum.xchat.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5986 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900846 | 391 | 1.859375 | 2 |
On Sat, Nov 09, 2002 at 07:45:13PM +0100, Alex wrote:
Does anyone know of some list of clustering software? Is there
anything I can use today to do #2 that runs on freebsd (or other bsd
For most application it means rewriting the software for the use in a
Check the port system for the strings cluster, MPI, there is
thirty option but i forgot this. (you find it on some site looking for
MPI; could be MVP but i'm not sure).
PVM. There are variants of MPI too, MPICH, LAM, etc. There are even
variants for specific hardware like Myrinet.
You may also want to look into the PBS port, although its sort of old
and should be updated to a more recent OpenPBS version (I have 2.3.14,
which is free from the nastier license terms). There is also a SLURM
port that has appeared recently and someone was working on a SGE port
These are more HPC clustering tools though and you seem to be looking
in the HA space instead.
"Clustering software" is rather a broad category. There is software
in that category that runs on FreeBSD, but you'll need to be more
specific to get better answers :).
I don't believe FreeBSD currently has anything for transparent process
migration like BProc or MOSIX (although IIRC MOSIX was originally
written for BSD). | <urn:uuid:b4915e85-ed80-4ca2-9141-2f0c41719be6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://markmail.org/message/57ci4jivmpkdii7q | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95712 | 323 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Written September 10, 2011
About March 11 EQ M9.1 in Japan, why did the land move by about 24 m to the east-southeast, opposite direction?
The 7 of 10 scenarios will result in plate movements, as we have described. Plate borders that are folding under and over each other will cause their lands to
reposition themselves, vs a vs the compass or the GPS system or latitude and longitude lines. The Pacific is compressing, which means that many countries will find
their position has changed. As the Indo-Australian Plate plunges under the Himalayas, India will lose more than elevation, it may find itself skewing slightly to the
northeast. Eastern Australia and New Zealand may find themselves with more than an increase in elevation, they may find themselves likewise skewed at an angle,
shifting to the southwest.
As the Philippine and Mariana plates fold, any islands carried on the top edges of these plates will find themselves carried to the west. Certainly as the S America roll progresses the countries at the top of S America will find themselves not only out of synch with the GPS system due to the shift west, but likewise with a skew where they have dropped to the southwest slightly. Africa will certainly find itself dropped at an angle toward the southeast. And after the New Madrid adjustment, Mexico and the American southwest will find they are askew too.
And for the northern Pacific, which is likewise compressing, land on all sides of the Ring of Fire will be affected. Particularly for Japan, which is riding over the Pacific Plate at an angle, such that as the Pacific Plate pushes under Japan toward the northwest, the land will move to the southeast. The Eurasian Plate is ripping open, stretching, as we have described, and as the Kiev Trumpets clearly show. Thus the land, stretched in many areas across the Eurasian Plate, has moved to slide over the Pacific Plate, thus putting a portion of Japan's North Island measurably to the southeast.
All rights reserved: ZetaTalk@ZetaTalk.com | <urn:uuid:e2315b4e-2658-43b1-a790-0e66d2b8d4fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zetatalk4.com/7of10/7of10105.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960754 | 425 | 2.890625 | 3 |
The EFTE-2 was made in Moscow between 1931 - 1933 by a cooperative workshop, "Foto Trud" (Photo Work).
It is a folding plate camera using 9 x 12 cm sheet film, with focusing on the ground glass or by a folding frame finder attached to the side of the body. The EFTE cameras (there is also an EFTE-1) were manufactured by hand and evidence of this can be seen on the aluminum body, where file marks are visible onthe edges.
The example shown has a German lens, a Rodenstock - Munchen Doppel Anastigmat Eurynar, f 1:4.5 13.5 cm, and the shutter, also German, is an AG - IBSO. This is probably an early example of this model dating to 1931, since in 1932 Soviet shutters made by GOMZ were installed (using a Soviet made lens as well).
The Soviet-made lens was the Moscow Periscop f 1:11 150 mm. and the shutter had speeds of 1/25, 1/50, 1/100 + B & T.
Created by nightphoto on 8/8/2007 11:31:32 AM | Last Edited by RCCCUK on 4/9/2009 8:20:43 AMRevision History | <urn:uuid:cc723ca4-80b3-4d21-a32f-4d5430d9066c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ussrphoto.com/Wiki/default.asp?WikiCatID=45&ParentID=1&ContentID=19 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965547 | 269 | 2.546875 | 3 |
EDITORIAL: Carroll among unsung heroes of Pearl Harbor
Last Friday was the 71st anniversary of the day that President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed would “live in infamy”.
On Dec. 7, 1941, 353 Japanese aircraft dropped bombs and strafed with machine gun fire 100 U.S. Navy ships moored at Pearl Harbor. They also struck surrounding Army Air Corps and Marine airfields during the two-hour attack that commenced just before 8 a.m.
Twenty-one ships were severely damaged or sunk, including the USS Arizona, which to this day lies 38 feet below the water’s surface at Pearl Harbor. A total of 2,403 American troops and civilians died that day. President Roosevelt, who had been in diplomatic talks with Japan, declared war on the Asian nation on Dec. 8, 1941. Three days later, Germany and Italy, both allies of Japan, declared war on the United States.
Many veterans who survived the Pearl Harbor attack, have since died. Of the 300,000 troops who were there on Dec. 7, 1941, only about 2,000 were still alive in 2010 according to George H. Smith of Middletown, who was a petty officer aboard the U.S.S. Ash during the fateful attack. Smith himself died this past March 15 at the age of 95.
In addition to the thousands of Americans who gave their lives for their country at Pearl Harbor, there were thousands more who risked their lives in the barrage of bombs to save others. Among them were civilians such as John Carroll who would later move to Haverford. A Philadelphia plumber, his business was crippled during the Depression so he went to work for the government at the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor around December 1940.
After about six months, he sent for his wife, Anna, and their four children, 8-year-old Jack, 5-year-old Jim, 3-year-old Nancy and 2-year-old Joe. They eventually rented a home in military housing about three blocks from the Pearl Harbor naval base where they would go to shop and watch Friday night movies.
Every Sunday like clockwork, the Carrolls would rise in time to catch a public transit bus for downtown Honolulu where they would attend 9 a.m. Mass at St. Joseph’s Church, then go out to breakfast before hitting Waikiki Beach. Some times they would pack a picnic lunch to eat on the beach. Their father would give them all swimming lessons in the powerful Pacific surf.
But their plans were changed the morning of Dec. 7, 1941 when, just before 8 a.m., the Carrolls’ house rattled so much, the chrome coffee pot fell over on the kitchen table and dishes fell out of the cupboards. Jim ran outside and spotted planes flying over the harbor and black smoke. His father quickly pulled him inside after learning via the radio, that this was not target practice. The American Armed Forces were under attack by the Japanese.
Within minutes, Carroll was hustled to the hub of the action by a troop-mover. A short time later, another truck came and whisked away the Carrolls and other civilian families with just the clothes on their backs, to private homes in the mountains. They did not know what had become of their husband and father until about three days later when they were allowed to return to their military housing. Fortunately, John Carroll, who died in 1982, survived the attack. Some of his civilian co-workers did not.
Although they were too young to grasp the gravity of the situation at the time, the Carroll children eventually came to realize what a hero their father was during the Pearl Harbor attack. While under enemy fire, he carried wounded sailors off vessels, manned fire hoses and pumped water from ships that were sinking fast. Continued...
“He was a master plumber and the last man off a ship that was sinking,” Nancy Carroll recently told the Daily Times.
After pumping as much water as he could off the ship, John Carroll dove into the fiery, debris-clogged waters of the harbor. His children believe his name was mentioned by a military official at a Pearl Harbor memorial service. He deserved more. John Carroll is among the many unsung heroes of that infamous day in American history.
Location, ST | website.com
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Recent Activity on Facebook
Phil Heron uses this site to turn back the curtain a bit on the great mystery involved in creating a newspaper and his other general thoughts on life and the news.
Your daily wake up call with updated traffic, weather and few fun things to get you through the morning.
Presenting Chester City's news and views to Delco Times web visitors who want to know more of what's going on in the City besides the stories they read in the paper.
Promotes family friendly events and activities held in and around Delco on a weekly basis.
Cliff Wilson served as chairman of the Delaware County Democratic Party for 16 years (1994-2010). He will write on politics and other issues he feels strongly about.
Offers timely health advice for pets, behavioral tricks of the trade, follow-up success stories, and more. Updated regularly by ACDC's all-volunteer staff that includes long-time foster parents and pet owners who have years of experience.
Kent Davidson covers local politics, events, and goings-on in the borough of Media, PA. | <urn:uuid:c18a850c-5d10-4a13-a6f5-5364d75f42fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2012/12/09/opinion/doc50c56599e0fb1555537005.txt?viewmode=4 | 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 | 0.978938 | 1,359 | 2.515625 | 3 |
June 20, 2006 > A habit of service
A habit of service
by Shirley Wein
Sensing the coming chaos that was Adolf Hilter, Herman and Lina Dessauer came to the United States in 1931. Herman was a butcher and Lina a homemaker. They settled in the Chicago area and began bringing other family members to join them. Lina's mother, Paula Schwab, brought five children around 1937 to join her four children who had already emigrated. Herman also brought his brother and two sisters.
Herman and Lina's daughter, Shirley, was born in Chicago in 1933. She attended Kozminski Elementary School and then graduated from Hyde Park High School in 1951. Her brother, Sidney, was born in 1936.
Max Wein met Shirley at a family gathering and they were married in November 1951. Soon after, they moved to Detroit where Max worked as a quality assurance representative for the federal government. Their first child, daughter Hope, was born in August 1952. The young family relocated to California in 1955 when Hope was 3 years old. They lived briefly in San Leandro before settling in Fremont, first on Southwood Drive, then Shoreham Park Court. Son, Alan, was born in December 1958.
The parents felt it was important for their children to have a religious education so they would understand their Jewish heritage. They joined with a few other Jewish families in the area and started a community center. At first they met in member's homes but in a few years bought a large piece of property with a home on Mission Boulevard in Niles. Members remodeled the house into classrooms for Sunday school and eventually a Hebrew School and made built a sanctuary in three-car garage. Shirley was one of the Sunday school teachers.
Eventually, Shirley helped the Temple Beth Torah and served on the board of directors for four years. They had no rabbi at first, but several members were skilled in leading services. Eventually the congregation outgrew the property and purchased a new site on Paseo Padre in the Mission San Jose area. They secured a full time rabbi and added senior groups, youth groups and a men's club.
With the kids making their own way, Shirley enrolled in real estate classes and went to work in Jack Pimentel's Pioneer Property office in Fremont in 1974. At first she specialized in selling condominiums, and then became office manager in charge of hiring, training and supervising real estate agents. Eventually, she learned property management.
In 1990, Shirley opened her own office, called Advantage Group, in the Murco Plaza building on Paseo Padre. She operated this successful business for 12 years before selling it.
Complementing her work with the temple, Shirley began volunteering at the Washington Township office of the Red Cross when it opened in Fremont. She says she held "about every kind of job in the Red Cross," including appointment as a public information representative for the Township. In 1974, she was elected to the board of directors, serving as chairwoman in 1977 and 1978. Additionally, she worked on several committees and projects and also worked as a staff aide chairwoman training new social welfare and office aides. She wrote a weekly column and gave talks on Red Cross programs, organized a speaker's bureau, trained speakers and presented her own television program focused on local service agencies.
Over the years, Shirley has been involved with many other booster groups, such as Mission San Jose Rotary Club; Festival of the Arts Committee; Oakland Museum Association; American Business Women's Association; and the Newark Chamber of Commerce. She was an instructor of real estate at Ohlone College. Capping all this work for the community, Shirley is a graduate of the city of Fremont's Citizens Police Academy.
Among many awards and recognitions, the Detroit native cites her Certificate of Award for Work on the Fair Housing and Education Committee; Outstanding Equal Opportunities Member Awards and three consecutive awards from the Better Homes and Gardens Million Dollar Medallion Club.
While justifiably proud of her social, religious and business achievements, Shirley and Max are very proud of their family. Daughter Hope is a graduate of Irvington High School. With first husband, Archie, Hope produced two children, Jenna and Robyn. Jenna's son, Jesse made Shirley a great-grandmother. Hope later married Jose Isla, and they have a son, Justin.
Shirley and Max's son Alan also graduated from Irvington High School then became an Alameda County Deputy Sheriff. He is now a full-time investor.
Lifelong habits are hard to break. After all her efforts through the years, Shirley still does volunteer work for several organizations including the Hers Breast Cancer Foundation, where she is vice-chair of the board. This is one great-grandma who's not quite ready to sit on the porch all day long! | <urn:uuid:d4a559cc-6630-43c4-b97a-e70a27d8aa39> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tricityvoice.com/articledisplay.php?a=5498 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981308 | 991 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Screenshot: The Love Project launches a Lil Wayne sing-along on a Los Angeles subway.
Local commuters were a captive audience earlier this month when a Los Angeles-based cultural experiment took to the Metro in a coordinated effort to answer the question, "What the hell is love anyway?"
The Love Project, launched by local advertising agency Muse Communications, wants to get "to the heart of what love really means," and they're doing it by asking a lot of people a lot of questions, and by performing Lil Wayne songs on public transportation.
Jo Muse, chairman and chief creative officer at Muse Communications, explained The Love Project in a press release as "a way to explore culture and share it with a broader audience," He went on to describe the experiment as an opportunity to "create something completely independent of client work."
The project's collection of video interviews take on "dating, religion, family, race, sex, heartbreak, divorce and sustaining a healthy marriage" with questions like "How did you know you were in love?", "What would you NOT do for love?" and "Are human beings capable of unconditional love?" | <urn:uuid:3c930887-899c-47d6-8300-70a1b520ea23> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scpr.org/blogs/newmedia/tagged/the-love-project | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970736 | 228 | 1.664063 | 2 |
January 15, 2013
Viral load reduction, no matter how small, can have immunological benefits for people living with HIV who have experienced triple-class treatment failure, according to a recent study from the Collaboration of Observational HIV Epidemiological Research Europe (COHERE).
Despite the various antiretroviral classes currently available for people living with HIV, many individuals still develop drug resistance, which leads to fewer options. Often, for patients with multi-class resistance, clinicians take actions with the primary goal of increasing CD4+ cell count (in order to reduce the risk of serious illness), rather than take actions with the primary goal of suppressing HIV viral load.
To explore the wisdom of this approach, researchers analyzed viral load data on 2,424 people who had started antiretroviral therapy from 1998 onward and who had experienced treatment failure with at least three classes of drugs.
In particular, they looked at treatment failure involving the three main antiretroviral classes: nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) and ritonavir (Norvir)-boosted protease inhibitors (PI/r).
Most of the patients (67%) were men and their median age was 40 years. The patients had been taking antiretroviral therapy for a median of four years before triple-class failure was diagnosed. Median viral load at this time was 4 log10 copies/mL, whereas median CD4 cell count was 270 cells/mm3.
The investigators' initial analysis showed a strong linear association between CD4 cell count and viral load after treatment failure. CD4 cell count was 48 cells/mm3 lower per 1 log10 increase in viral load.
Only a small minority of people were treated with newer classes of antiretrovirals such as fusion inhibitors (7%), integrase inhibitors (9%) and CCR5 inhibitors (1%).
While the goal of any HIV antiretroviral regimen is to achieve an undetectable viral load, this study suggests that any degree of viral suppression can benefit a patient's CD4+ cell count and lower his or her risk of clinical disease.
"It makes sense that the lower the viral load (at least on treatment, and even with non-suppressive regimens), that the greater the benefit to CD4s (and immune function)," said Benjamin Young, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer of the International Association of Providers in AIDS Care. (Dr. Young was not an investigator in this study.)
As for the clinical implications, the study authors concluded the following, according to aidsmap.com:
While in those with high CD4 count it may be possible to wait until new active drugs are available, for those with low CD4 count it is important to use the regimen most likely to achieve maximal viral suppression. We found that the current viral load is closely linked to the CD4 count, suggesting a rapid benefit of viral load suppression, so in an individual who is not fully adherent, any increase in adherence is likely to provide immediate benefits in terms of reduced risk of clinical disease.
Warren Tong is the research editor for TheBody.com and TheBodyPRO.com.
Follow Warren on Twitter: @WarrenAtTheBody.
Copyright © 2013 Remedy Health Media, LLC. All rights reserved.
No comments have been made. | <urn:uuid:e04002af-b521-42e1-a194-3e260a637674> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thebodypro.com/content/70294/any-hiv-viral-load-reduction-can-improve-cd4-count.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949806 | 703 | 2.390625 | 2 |
Europe seeks to bring relief to the Syrian people by creating humanitarian corridors, a seemingly noble idea aimed at winning Russian and Chinese support in the UN Security Council. But some are calling the plan a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
The call for supply routes bringing humanitarian aid to Syrian cities first surfaced last November, and is back on the table as of this week.
“The idea of humanitarian corridors that I previously proposed, which would allow NGOs to reach the zones where scandalous massacres are taking place, should be discussed at the Security Council,” French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Wednesday.
Paris suggested creating a safe passage for relief organizations, either with Syrian approval or under an international mandate – hence the need for UNSC approval.
Damascus is currently stretched thin on forces, and hardly has any to spare on guarding aid convoys. But allowing foreign troops on its territory is also not an option, as was shown in the recent refusal to allow entry to Arab League peacekeepers.
The Security Council could establish the corridors through a resolution, and mandate that they be guarded by some government or organization. But Russia and China, who both have veto power, said they will not allow passage of any resolution they see as unbalanced.
Both Russia and China oppose any UN resolution that could later be used by NATO as permission for military action, as happened in Libya. “Libya offers a negative case study. NATO abused the Security Council resolution about establishing a no-fly zone and directly provided firepower assistance to one side in the Libyan war," said China’s biggest Communist newspaper, The People's Daily.
Juppe’s plan so far has only received backing from the European parliament. Its President, Martin Schulz, said the body “wants to see humanitarian corridors to be put into place and shelters provided for the growing numbers of displaced people.”
Not everyone seems to be sold on the idea, however. NATO would be the first choice for guarding duty, but its Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen stated the alliance has “ no intention whatsoever to intervene in Syria." He also reiterated that “a regional solution” should be found for the conflict.
This passes the ball to the Arab League, though Syria’s lack of trust in some League members like Qatar and Saudi Arabia could get in the way. Damascus suspects the two Sunni monarchies of fueling the unrest in Syria in a bid to oust the Shia Alawite minority from power, so Syrian acceptance of their troops on its soil is unlikely.
And Lebanon and Turkey, the two countries that could easily deliver aid into Syrian territory, aren’t in a hurry to do so. Turkish press recently reported that Ankara would prefer an aid corridor going through the Mediterranean Sea and supported by the British military base in Cyprus, rather than through Turkey’s southeastern territories.
Turkey’s reluctance to act directly against Syria is understandable. Joining the international choir calling on President Assad to step down and suggesting an internationally protected zone for the Syrian opposition on its territory is one thing. Invading its neighbor and facing possible military retaliation from Syria – and perhaps its close ally Iran as well – is a bit too risky, even for a NATO member. Especially if retribution may come indirectly – through support of Kurd separatists waging a guerrilla war on Turkish troops.
Asia Times' roving correspondent Pepe Escobar told RT that installing a humanitarian corridor is akin to telling a government "Look, you are illegitimate and incompetent – now we would like to take care of your people."
“And on the ground of this corridor there will be all kinds of things happening like weapons smuggling, intelligence operatives penetrating and coordinating with local people,” he added.
Escobar also noted that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are basically the only ones pushing for the humanitarian corridor.
“The ones that are really involved are Saudi Arabia and Qatar. They are selling this idea to the US, Britain and France.”
The journalist also said there will not actually be a humanitarian corridor, but just a pretext to be on the ground and to influence action inside Syria much more than is currently possible.
But in addition to any questions raised by the proposed humanitarian corridors, Escobar said a secret war is already being waged against Syria.
“There is already a foreign military intervention going on. Do not forget that NATO have a command and control center in Hatay province, Southern Turkey, very close to the Turkish-Syrian border. This is a conduit for intelligence going back and forth across borders, and weapons, of course – and these weapons are being financed basically by the GCC, especially the Saudis and the Qataris actively involved – with the intelligence as well as with monitors and trainers on the ground.”
He added that there is another conduit through the Lebanese border – the Syrian National Council.
“They are supported directly by Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron, by the Turkish government and the Qataris. And there is also the Free Syrian Army – which even non-biased analysts in Europe say is not free and is not an army: it’s a bunch of guerrillas infiltrated by people affiliated with Al-Qaeda and Salafi Jihadists.”
Escobar concluded that humanitarian corridors or not, the foreign interference is already there.
“Now this is a shadow war doubled with a civil war,” he said.
Earlier there had been speculation that Syrian rebels had been trained by US and NATO forces in southern Turkey. According to former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds speaking to Turkey’s Daily Milliyet newspaper, the US had been involved in smuggling weapons across the Turkish border from the Incirlik military base. Qatar and Saudi Arabia have also reportedly offered financial support to the Syrian opposition by offering to help them replenish their dwindling weapons supply. There have also been reports of British and Qatari troops directing rebel ammunition deliveries and tactics in the bloody battle for Homs.
And according to NBC News, the US has “a good number” of drones flying regularly over Syrian territory and presumably collecting evidence of atrocities. The monitoring of Government troop movements has its merits as military intelligence, and can be used for contingency planning by the Pentagon or as a bit of friendly help for the opposition forces. | <urn:uuid:649e7b57-b76c-426c-9e76-74a92464eb3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rt.com/news/syria-humanitarian-corridors-intervention-669/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96051 | 1,288 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Huawei, the Chinese phone maker that is fighting to gain traction in the United States with its low-cost handsets, took a few pot shots at Samsung on Monday at CES 2013, announcing a device that pushed the definition of “phone” itself. The company unveiled its new Ascend Mate, calling it “the world’s biggest smartphone” with a screen that measures a whopping 6.1 inches diagonally. Whether this breaks into the category of “phablet” is open to question, but Huawei is calling it a phone. The company also launched the Ascend D2, a smaller phone but with a range of impressive specs.
The Ascend D2′s screen featured 442 pixels per inch, a higher resolution than the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the iPhone 5, which has 325 PPI. The phone also had a high screen-to-frame ratio of 0.693, a 13-megapixel camera, and better quality speaker phone capabilities for hands-free calls.
The D2′s battery life is also pretty impressive: 2,000mAh Large battery, “double the battery charge of an iPhone 5,” according to Huawei’s presentation. The battery on this phone typically lasts for 2 days; the iPhone 5 lasts for one. The Ascend D2 is also dust and water resistant.
The larger, Ascend Mate, new challenger in the so-called “Phablet wars,” featured a huge screen measuring 6.1 inches diagonally and making it slightly bigger than the Samsung Galaxy Note. It’s battery life is even longer than the Ascend D2 and Huawei also touted its “magic tough” technology, allowing users to effectively touch the phone’s screen when wearing a glove. Great for cold countries.
The Ascend Mate also integrates a new navigation service into the phone using augmented reality, but Huawei did not go into detail about the service.
All in all the Huawei’s presentation suggested it was making big strides to shake off its image as a low-end competitor to phones made by Samsung and Apple. The company has managed to break into the United States on the back of its relationships with local carriers, through providing their back-end telecommunications services, but it still lacks the clout that Samsung has in terms of relationships with key carriers.
In fact, Huawei had no carrier deals to announce for either phone on Monday, though it is in talks with U.S. network providers. The Ascend Mate and Ascend D2 are available to order online. | <urn:uuid:a3218bb9-fc59-4119-885d-094782889b3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2013/01/07/ces-2013-huawei-challenges-samsung-with-worlds-biggest-smartphone/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956829 | 523 | 1.617188 | 2 |
May 1997 - The green pricing tariff filing of Dakota Electric Association was approved by the Minnesota Public Utility Commission. Under the program, customers can purchase 100-kWh blocks of wind-generated electricity at an expected rate premium of approximately $3 to $4 per block. A 12-month subscription commitment will be required. Dakota Electric began its subscription campaign immediately after the program was approved.
Dakota Electric is the second largest electric cooperative in Minnesota and the only one that is rate-regulated by the PUC. It is served by the Cooperative Power Association, a generating and transmission cooperative that provides electricity to 17 member distribution cooperatives in southern and western Minnesota. Nine of these cooperatives, in addition to Dakota Electric, have either committed to or expressed interest in the green pricing program. Their subscription campaigns will run through mid-July. At that time, Cooperative Power will determine the total wind supply requirement.
According to William Raul of Cooperative Power, the green pricing pilot project is sized at approximately 2 MW. Initially it will include wind power, but later may involve other renewable technologies. The wind generators will be installed in southwestern Minnesota in the first quarter of 1998.
Dakota Electric Contact: Charlene Klein (612) 463-6178
Cooperative Power Contact: Tim Seck, project coordinator, (612) 949-8264, or Steve Simons (612) 949-1540 | <urn:uuid:d8841650-9d80-4332-b2ee-b7a5eecda9c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://apps3.eere.energy.gov/greenpower/markets/pricing.shtml?page=2&companyid=96 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937687 | 286 | 2.25 | 2 |
Alabama Congressman Artur Davis Visits Central Alabama
Montgomery, Alabama –
Alabama Congressman Artur Davis, speaking with WVAS news during his visit to Montgomery,says that he voted in favor of the plan because it will do such things as help extend benefits to those who are unemployed, generate new jobs, and help Alabama's ailing general fund and education fund budget.
Davis said, "It's hoped, and I believe its a legitimate hope, that the stimulus package will create a short term jolt to the economy. It will lead to some building projects. It will relieve strains on state budgets and it makes some important new investments in health care."
Davis is the only member of Alabama's congressional delegation to vote in favor of the $787 billion dollar economic stimulus plan. Davis says that while he agrees with those calling for the shoring up of the nation's banking system, the passage of the stimulus plan was paramount.
Davis represents Alabama's 7th Congressional District.
Davis visited Montgomery Thursday stopping by the WVAS newsroom and meeting with educators and parents at a local high school. | <urn:uuid:41e9822a-9a8d-4f49-a83b-47b2058cb121> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wvasfm.org/post/alabama-congressman-artur-davis-visits-central-alabama | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953457 | 225 | 1.523438 | 2 |
January 15, 2013, 7:22 PM — A couple of reports suggest that Amazon may be building a new data center in its East region.
The Washington Business Journal cites unnamed sources who say that a new data center being built in Loudoun County, Virginia, has AWS as its anchor tenant.
Data Center Knowledge reports that a 200,000-square-foot data center could go live later this year with an additional 150,000-square-foot data center planned for completion in 2014.
Source: IntelFreePress via Flickr
As Data Center Knowledge and others have noted, the AWS East region seems to be the most popular for AWS but also the most prone to outages.
After an outage in October, GigaOm's Barb Darrow pointed out a few reasons why companies continue to gravitate to the east. One is that it's AWS's oldest facility and like it or not switching applications to a new region isn't always easy. That means businesses that started out there out of necessity now may not be game for the heavy lifting of moving.
Darrow also points out that the East region tends to be the first to get new services and it's the cheapest.
A new East Coast data center could take some of the load off the existing facilities and might be less prone to outages given that Amazon will presumably be using newer data center designs in the new facility.
Amazon did not reply to a request for comment about whether it is behind the new facilities being built in Northern Virginia.
Read more of Nancy Gohring's "To the Cloud" blog and follow the latest IT news at ITworld. Follow Nancy on Twitter at @ngohring. For the latest IT news, analysis and how-tos, follow ITworld on Twitter and Facebook. | <urn:uuid:b3fba91d-9da4-4779-aafe-3e951d280f9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.itworld.com/cloud-computing/336387/aws-east-might-get-more-reliable-if-reports-new-data-center-are-accurate | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940852 | 364 | 1.601563 | 2 |
With Mitt Romney's hold on the Republican nomination looking secure, the Tea Party will soon have to face the reality that despite pushing the Republican Party and its nominee to the right, they'll wind up losing the fight in the end. This isn't the first time. The Tea Party leapt to national prominence in August 2009, when its activists held angry and often ugly protests in town hall meetings held by Democratic members of Congress. But in the end, the biggest impact was to stiffen Republican resolve to refuse any compromises on health care while the legislation continued to make its way through Congress.
The public first got notice of the upcoming Tea Party storm in late July, when South Carolina's Senator Jim DeMint warned that in August members of Congress would hear from "outraged" constituents. He promised that "senators and congressmen will come back in September afraid to vote against the American people... If we're able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."
Tea Party activists delivered on the outrage, but in the biggest story of the entire health care fight missed by the press, they met their match on the battlefield that counted the most: town hall meetings held by Democratic members of Congress. It took about a week for health care supporters to organize a push back. But by August 10, most Democratic town hall meetings were filled with as many or more boosters of reform than opponents. Democratic members of Congress saw a large crowd of friendly faces, holding pro-reform signs, insisting that the meetings be civil and telling personal stories of how the health insurance industry and system were denying them the care they needed. It wasn't powerful TV, but it was powerful politics.
As a result, when Congress returned to Washington after Labor Day, the Tea Party was stunned to see Democrats moving ahead with health reform. Instead of being defeated, President Obama strengthened his party's resolve by giving a rousing speech that moved Democratic conferences in both Houses of Congress forward.
The following excerpt from Fighting For Our Health describes the beginning of that turn-around after a Tea Party demonstration in Philadelphia that made the national headlines:
On Sunday, August 2, Dr. Valerie Arkoosh, the Philadelphia physician and president of the National Physicians Alliance, was attending a large town hall meeting held in the flag-draped auditorium of the National Constitution Center. This was a modern museum dedicated to the Constitution, located two blocks from Philadelphia's Independence Hall, the home of the Liberty Bell. The Pennsylvania HCAN coalition had recruited more than half of the 350 people who filled the hall for a meeting with Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Arkoosh remembers being terrified by the protestors, "I was scared. We'd had a very cursory bag check -- no metal detectors. The vitriol was frightening. There were people in the room who were against the bill who had perfectly legitimate questions but they didn't get to talk either. The tea party people would not let any factual answers to be given -- if anything remotely positive was said they would start shouting. I was in awe that the two of them [Specter and Sebelius] stuck it out."
Marc Stier, HCAN's Pennsylvania director, was sitting next to Philadelphia Congressman Chaka Fattah, who told Stier, "You've got to do something." Stier told me, "I tried to lead chants but we were outshouted. We were back on our heels. The vehemence and rudeness. Specter's chief of staff told me that in twenty years of politics, no one had ever treated Specter like that. People kept interrupting, kept shouting about socialism, liars, high taxes, death panels. We were just not prepared for anything like this. Press reports said that the crowd was evenly divided even though three-quarters of the people were our folks."
Marc Stier walked out of the disastrous town hall in the Constitution Center and quickly realized what every great organizer recognizes: The opposition always presents the greatest opportunities to build power. "I realized that we needed to call Carney and Dahlkemper's offices right away." Christopher Carney and Kathy Dahlkemper were two Democratic members of Congress from central Pennsylvania who represented conservative districts. "Up until then they would never tell us when they were holding a town hall. But that event in Philadelphia pushed them into our arms; they needed our help." Stier continued, "If we hadn't been doing all this work for months, sending regular delegations to their offices, meeting with them, generating press in their districts, they would have never come to us. From that point on, we got people out to all their town halls. We pretty much outnumbered the tea partiers consistently, even in rural areas. Now we had a partnership with these members of Congress."
Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0. | <urn:uuid:83d37137-cc2e-4797-9099-bdef5260edf0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-kirsch/health-care-reform-was-th_1_b_1249749.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984918 | 994 | 1.875 | 2 |
- A Very Special Episode of Grey Areas: Privilege Denying Dude Edition:
In social justice, not all tactics that are divisive are effective, but all tactics that are effective are divisive. That doesn’t mean we should set our phasers to
divide,but when a tactic is labeled as
radical, there is a chance it might be one worth considering.
- HTML pseudocode cross-stitch for geek feminist gift-giving.
- 15-minute writing exercise closes the gender gap in university-level physics:
Think about the things that are important to you. Perhaps you care about creativity, family relationships, your career, or having a sense of humour. Pick two or three of these values and write a few sentences about why they are important to you… This simple writing exercise may not seem like anything ground-breaking, but its effects speak for themselves.
- Disalienation: Why Gender is a Text Field on Diaspora: Sarah Mei writes
The “gender†field in a person’s profile was originally a dropdown menu, with three choices: blank, male, and female. My change made it an optional text field that was blank to start. A wide open frontier! Enter anything you want.
- Grandma’s Superhero Therapy (18 photos) – My Modern Metropolis: GO SUPER MAMIKA!!!!!
A few years ago, French photographer Sacha Goldberger found his 91-year-old Hungarian grandmother Frederika feeling lonely and depressed. To cheer her up, he suggested that they shoot a series of outrageous photographs in unusual costumes, poses, and locations.
- New-ish site you might want to check out: Ars Marginal:
So much of the arts and entertainment we get exposed to is by and for straight White guys*. We figured it’s time for us to talk about what we get out of it. Because, frankly, we’re tired of that shit. Ars Marginal flips the script and looks at movies, TV shows, comic books, and games from our point of view.
- Context. Or, no you don’t get to apply your Internet niche knowledge to me doing my job. :>: yes, using a swastika in your gaming profile is going to get you banned, internet contrarian.
You can suggest links for future linkspams in comments here, or by using the geekfeminism tag on delicious or the #geekfeminism tag on Twitter. Please note that we tend to stick to publishing recent links (from the last month or so).
Thanks to everyone who suggested links. | <urn:uuid:b6599b35-1af2-41fd-a23c-f6f6cded73f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://geekfeminism.org/2010/11/28/linkspamming-from-the-mountaintops-29th-november-2010/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925073 | 549 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Dr James Boys is the Liaison Officer at the Bow Group and Visiting Senior Research Fellow at King's College London In a new book, Kill or Capture, Daniel Klaidman reveals the distinction between the foreign policy initiatives that Barack Obama campaigned on and his record in office. It is significant that such a publication has finally made its way to the main stream media. Since his election I have been researching the Obama administration and its variance from the Bush years. In 2011 I produced a paper entitled “What’s So Extraordinary about Rendition,” published in the International Journal of Human Rights, and was subsequently presented in a wider form at an international conference in Europe. My efforts to suggest a pattern of behaviour that extended from Clinton to Bush to Obama caused me to be labelled as a ‘neo-fascist.’ It is apparent that many, especially in Europe, simply do not wish to accept the possibility that Obama has continued Bush era policies. In this increasingly media-driven age it is widely believed and reported that new administrations bring about new policies and signify a break from the past. Such was the reaction to the election of Barack Obama. The election of the first non-white president of the United States was presented as a form of cathartic ablution; an attempt to dismiss the previous eight years as an aberration and to signify a change from the past. Covered in Nobel garlands and the adulation of the globe, Obama apparently signified a return to ‘traditional American principles,’ upon which the republic was founded: liberty, justice and freedom. It was believed that with his election, had come the end of neo-conservative rule, dominated by a policy of pre-emption and the implementation of Extraordinary Rendition. However, to believe this to be the case is to misread history and to misjudge the United States of America and its political philosophy. Far from being a City on a Hill, the United States has often acted in a manner that appears to undermine its high-minded ideals. From Lincoln to Lyndon and from Wilson to W, what differentiates presidents is their language rather than their actions; their tone rather than their tools. Whether they were domestically focused Democrats or internationally focused Republicans, the inhabitants of the Oval Office have often placed human rights a distant second to the priority of National Interest. It is how this concept has been defined that differentiates administrations, rather than any great concern about the global good. Far from being radical, the Bush Administration was continuing and expanding upon a policy that had beenformalised by Bill Clinton, and adhered to by George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, none of which was reported on, nor seemingly cared about by the American public. Indeed, rendition, long before it was considered to be extraordinary, was a policy that was devised, developed and initiated by Bush’s Democratic predecessor in a war on terror, long before his election, in a contradiction between the values the United States claimed to be defending and the methods utilised in the process. Since the 1800s in fact, the United States has “rendered” criminal suspects from overseas to be tried in the United States, and the U.S. Supreme Court twice endorsed criminal prosecutions after such ‘renditions to justice.’ In 1986 President Reagan authorized a rendition operation to deal with the terrorist suspects who might have been responsible for the 1983 bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut. Government officials acknowledged on the record the “rendition to justice” program that delivered those suspects to U.S. jurisdiction, and afforded detainees the due process crime suspects normally receive in that country.’ The Supreme Court upheld the government's power to prosecute people who were seized in these abductions and kidnappings irrespective of their legality under international law in the 1992 case of United States v. Alvarez-Machain. Clearly these practices, of bringing suspects surreptitiously to the United Sates to stand trial, differ by a degree from the policies engaged post 9/11, but they were the harbinger of things to come, and may still have constituted a violation of international law. Lest anyone think that this is a Republican Rendition policy, it is important to note the evolution of the policy under the Clinton Administration and the emergence of a war on terror long before September11th, 2001. Indeed, an examination of policy and procedures at this time, as well as interviews with leading administration officials, reveals the origins not only of Extraordinary Rendition, but also the “Axis of Evil” and a focus on bin Laden as Public Enemy Number One. At home as well as abroad, the Clinton administration was fighting a war that would go unnoticed by many until it exploded above the streets of New York in 2001. In the aftermath of September 11th, international terrorism would obtain a new dimension, but in the years prior to the attack the Clinton administration was not lapse in its efforts. Since 1993 more terrorists were arrested and extradited to the United States than during the totality of the previous three administrations. In addition, covert operations were also being initiated to expel terrorists to nations with less stringent human rights policies than America. In 1996, the administration began a process of persuading allies to arrest terrorists and ship them to a third country without legal process, in an exercise known as rendition. In Albania, for example, U.S. intelligence officers guided authorities to five members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, who were flown to Egypt and executed after a military trial. Between 1996 and 2001, CIA Director George Tenet admitted that more than 50 Al Qaeda terrorists had been dealt with in this manner in an effort to “break the organisation brick by brick.” Long before this practice became public knowledge, the DCI was far from being its sole advocate. Samuel Berger, Clinton’s second term National Security Advisor referred to it as ‘a new art form.’ Before Berger took over at the NSC, the process had been formally established in Clinton’s Presidential Decision Directive 39, dated June 21st, 1995. This document had been prepared not in response to an international outrage, but in the aftermath of the domestic terrorist incident in Oklahoma City. Rendition began as pre-9/11 practice intended to facilitate the judicial process and only after 9/11 became a deliberate effort to evade legal prohibitions against torture. Egypt looms large in the rendition process, and tales that have emerged from Mubarak’s prisons make awkward reading for those who seek to somehow suggest that rendition only became ‘extraordinary’ once Clinton left the White House. There was a reciprocal, mutually beneficial relationship at play. As Jane Mayer has noted in the New York Times, “It served American purposes to get these people arrested, and Egyptian purposes to get these people back, where they could be interrogated.” Every suspect the Americans rendered to Egypt had previously been convicted in absentia and attorneys at the CIA cleared all operations. This began with what is considered the first rendition of this era, of Talaat Fouad Qassem, who was picked up by Croatian police in Zagreb in September 1995. The Americans questioned him aboard a ship in the Adriatic, before turning him over to the Egyptian authorities who had sentenced him to death in absentia for his role in the assassination of President Anwar el Sadat. Whilst all of this was going on, no one was paying the slightest notice. The American people were busy getting wealthy and the media and Congress were too busy focusing upon the president’s inappropriate relationship with Monica Lewinsky. The world was generally at peace with itself, and the United States and its president were popular both at home and overseas – something not even his impeachment could alter. Rendition was being conducted by a Democratic president with the tacit agreement of America’s allies against known perpetrators of extreme violence. Nothing was reported in the press and the populace was un-concerned. Since then, the largely similar policy that emerged under George W. Bush has been damned, with some going so far as to equate it with ‘the Nazi operation called Nacht und Nebel or ‘Night and Fog.’’ That considered, one must question the degree to which the reaction was part of a concerted effort to attack the specific administration for any reason, as much as it was about the actual policy itself. Of course this approach to policy was all meant to end as of noon on January 20th, 2009 with the arrival of the Obama Administration. Yet whilst the overriding sentiments of anti-Americanism have clearly subsided, this has had little to do with a change in policy. Obama may well be the world’s president of choice, but Dick Cheney’s view of the world has not been expressly repudiated by Obama. Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, has denounced the Obama Administration for adopting policies that “mimic the Bush Administration’s abusive approach.” American Civil Liberties Union attorney Ben Wizner has lamented that Obama “has chosen to continue the Bush administration practice of dodging judicial scrutiny of extraordinary rendition and torture. This was an opportunity for the new administration to act on its condemnation of torture and rendition, but instead it has chosen to stay the course.” President Obama may have signed an executive order banning enhanced interrogation techniques, but his administration reaffirmed the rendition program, a move deemed to be ‘”extremely disappointing,” according to the ACLU. There have been more predator drone attacks in Obama’s presidency than under Bush; the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay remains open. It’s change you can believe in, just not the sort that many wanted. When asked about Rendition at his confirmation hearing, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta noted that suspects would no longer be kidnapped, sent overseas and tortured. However, he added, ‘Renditions where we return an individual to the jurisdiction of another country, and then they exercise their right to try that individual and to prosecute him under their laws-I think that is an appropriate use of rendition.’ Clearly the Obama administration has chosen to return to a public stance on rendition that is akin to the previous model exercised by the Clinton White House. These issues raise serious questions pertaining to the American sense of mission and of exceptionalism. It is hard to ascertain how they do anything but undermine such aspirations. Obama entered the Oval Office with great hopes and with the expectation of world opinion – how much of this remains intact on the world stage with so few major alterations from the Bush Strategy, regardless of stated intent? This is not necessarily Obama’s fault. As president, there is, paradoxically, only so much that he can do, but the world expects so much more. There are, in addition, two great double standards at work: The double standard to which great nations are always held, of either interfering too much or not often enough; and the contradictory nature of American foreign policy, of oscillating between imperial designs and latent isolationism. Solving these dilemmas will not be rectified anytime soon. It is an historical fact that a policy of rendition predated the presidency of George W. Bush and indeed, has continued under his successor. What changed, arguably, was the scope of the operation, not the institution itself. What changed was the public and media response to the policy, which appears to have been a backlash against the administration, as much as it was against the policy itself. The policy, therefore, not only caused offence, but was then used as a vehicle to further justify an anti-Bush mentality. Just as there was a fascination with the President’s sex life in the 1990s, so to, it would appear, was there an obsession with all things Anti-American under George W. Bush. Some referred to this as Anti-Americanism. It is perhaps more appropriate to refer to ‘anti-adminstrationism’. The focus on all things bad under Bush and the apparent capacity to overlook similar occurrences under both Clinton and now Obama, seem to justify this perspective. Just as Bismarck once noted that the processes involved in the preparation of laws and sausage should remain hidden from public view, so too perhaps, should the policies involved in winning a struggle against those who no longer adhere to classic models of confrontation. With the publication of Kill or Capture, the wider public will have an opportunity to consider for themselves the distance travelled by President Obama from the policies that he campaigned against, yet now appears to have adopted as his own.
Monday, June 11, 2012 | <urn:uuid:0e47d12d-44c8-4211-a2d1-ad4e5dd176dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bowgroup.org/news/article-kill-or-capture-obamas-continuation-bush-policy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979321 | 2,558 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Have Conservatives Really Seen the Light on Mass Incarceration?
I lived in South Africa from 1991 until 2002, during the difficult transition from apartheid to democracy. An interesting part of this history was that by 1994, apartheid had become so discredited that it was difficult to find a single white person who admitted to ever supporting racial segregation. Though white electorates had voted the architects of apartheid into power for over four decades, by the time Nelson Mandela came to office no rats were to be found still aboard the sinking ship of overt white supremacy. Today, some eighteen years after the election of Mandela, the fundamental economic inequality of South Africa has changed very little. While Blacks control the government and some Blacks have risen to the ranks of the middle classes (with even a couple billionaires) the distance between the rich and the poor remains as great as ever. In other words, things had to change in order to remain the same.
I got a certain sense of déjà vu for those days in South Africa recently when I read an article by David Dagan and Steven Teles in the Washington Monthly entitled “The Conservative War on Prisons.” The authors argued that conservatives had finally seen the folly and fiscal futility of mass incarceration. They went on to cite numerous examples where, in their opinion, conservative initiatives have had positive results in terms of reducing the demand for prison space and softening the war on crime. These examples included:
* the scaling back of Texas’ prison expansion after 2005 in favor of putting more money into post-release programs targeted at reducing recidivism
* the role of conservatives, especially the Prison Fellowship, in passing the Second Chance Act in 2007,
* the passage of HB 265 under Georgia Republican Governor Neal in 2011. The bill mandated a report on how to reduce reliance on prison and focus on keeping people on the streets
In addition, Dagan and Teles contended that major right-wing think tanks like the American Legislative Executive Council (ALEC) and the State Policy Network, both of which formerly advocated rapid prison expansion, have shifted gears and begun to distance themselves from private prison corporations and explore ways to reduce spending on corrections.
The authors also mentioned the 2011 Right On Crime initiative signed by conservative luminaries like Jeb Bush, Bill Bennett, Edwin Meese, Pat Nolan, and Grover Norquist which advocated the elimination of mandatory minimums for nonviolent offenses as well as a geriatric release program for many of the more than 200,000 people currently in prison who are over 50 years old. Dagan and Teles claimed that even Newt Gingrich has seen the light, offering his 2011 pronouncement as evidence: “There is an urgent need to address the astronomical growth in the prison population, with its huge costs in dollars and lost human potential … The criminal-justice system is broken, and conservatives must lead the way in fixing it.”
Overall, the portrait painted by Dagan and Teles hardly resonates with our memories of the conservative law and order firebrands who kicked off the War on Drugs in the 1980s, used Willie Horton to scare voters away from Dukakis in 1988, and joined with Democratic colleagues to push through the mandatory minimums and three strikes laws which gave teeth to their moralizing and racialized crusades.
In the end, the authors posit that cross party unity appears likely on criminal justice issues, that the common ground far outweighs the differences between the right and the left. In the words of conservative Texas legislator Jerry Madden, a unity between the” social responsibility of the Democrats” and the “fiscal responsibility of the Republicans” has emerged.
Putting on my apartheid-tinted glasses, I’m thinking that in another year or two, the pendulum may swing so far that we won’t be able to find anyone who thought locking them up and throwing away the key was a good idea in the first place. Prison expansion may just vanish into that recycling bin of bad ideas along with alcohol prohibition, bans on homosexual intercourse and, of course, apartheid.
If we do reach that point, many who have been campaigning for criminal justice reform may feel that victory is imminent, that we will all be talking the same language, heading down the same road to an agreed upon final destination. While we should welcome any change that provides space to roll back prison expansion and the paradigm of punishment, celebrations of any cosmic shift in criminal justice might be a little premature.
There are at least three concerns that arise from this sudden conversion by the conservatives (and they may apply to some liberals as well). The first is where do the private corrections companies fit into all of this transformation? A dominant trend in conservative thought on criminal justice, one that is quite consistent with their preference for business over government, has been the encouragement of more privatization of prisons and criminal justice-related services. Can we simply conclude that the likes of Newt Gingrich have abandoned their bedfellows at the Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO Group for the greater good? These companies have been feathering the campaign funding beds of numerous state and local politicians. Can we trust the likes of Florida Governor Rick Scott and Ohio’s John Kasich to cut their ties with private prison capital and become champions of restorative justice? Will these conservatives actually back genuine transformation or merely deliver “alternatives to incarceration” that shore up corporate bottom lines and maintain the punitive spirit that has driven mass incarceration? These are big questions. Perhaps we should wait and see the answers before we herald the advent of a new era in criminal justice.
Second, most of the conservative talk cited by Dagan and Teles reflects a spirit of cold-blooded, cost benefit analysis. In this view, mass incarceration has failed primarily it is fiscally irresponsible- adding to our deficits when alternatives could get “more bang for our buck.” While mass incarceration has been a fiscal fiasco, it goes much deeper than the balance sheet. Like wrong-headed wars in Viet Nam and Iraq, the toll of mass incarceration must ultimately be measured in lost human lives, not dollars and cents.
Where is the politicians’ remorse for the hundreds of thousands of African-American youth who instead of attending school and growing up in their communities, have spent decades away from their loved ones because they made a mistake of possessing a bit of marijuana or crack cocaine? When do we hear the apologies for the overzealous street warriors who killed Amadou Diallo, who turned a blind eye to the tortures of young men by Jon Burge in Chicago, who shot dead 15 year old Kiwane Carrington less than a mile from where I live? When do we witness the expressions of regret for the relentless hunt for “illegal immigrants” over the last decade, a policy that has ripped families apart and forced people to move out of certain states because they may happen to “look like” an immigrant. One of the main mantras of this era of mass incarceration, chanted most loudly by conservatives, has been the insistence that people who are guilty of criminal acts must accept responsibility, must come to grips with the implications of their actions. Now is the time for the policy makers who promoted this notion of accepting responsibility to hold themselves to their own standard.
Lastly, a main point of celebration over the freshly- minted conservative change of heart is the potential for unity across the political party aisle. This unity offers possibilities but does not guarantee a just result. Let us not forget that mass incarceration could not have happened without overwhelming support from both Republicans and Democrats all along the way. Reagan may have kicked off the War on Drugs and pushed the Federal Sentencing Guidelines but Clinton gave us the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Bill providing nearly $10 billion for funding new prisons. Now both Democrats and Republicans want to distance themselves from any past complicity in designing or implementing the disaster of mass incarceration. They are running away from mass incarceration in much the same way that white South Africans abandoned apartheid in 1994. Without a doubt this will mean things will change in the future, but the question is whether things will be changing only to remain the same.
James Kilgore spent six and a half years in Federal and state prisons in California. During his incarceration he wrote three novels which have been published since his release in 2009: We Are All Zimbabweans Now Freedom Never Rests and Prudence Couldn’t Swim. He currently resides in Champaign, Illinois where he is a research scholar at the Center for African Studies at the University of Illinois and active on criminal justice issues with the Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice. He can be contacted at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:c67a8128-98f0-4214-937b-ac4603b6e41e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/11/30/have-conservatives-really-seen-the-light-on-mass-incarceration/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957676 | 1,765 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Coastal Maine is a place like no other—rugged lands that twist and turn for more than 5,300 miles, making home to a strong tourist industry and a vibrant commercial fishing industry, and a rich array of wildlife refuges, parks and preserves. While it remains a stunningly unique corner of the country, coastal Maine does endure the common symptoms of sprawl. Resulting is a setting for a story that land trusts across the nation know too well: an extraordinary place pressured to become only ordinary. Maine, however, is also a state characterized by the motto, Dirigo, or “I lead.” True to this spirit, in 2004, conservation organizations banned together to form the Maine Coast Protection Initiative (MCPI), a landscape collaborative of seventy-member organizations and growing, together focused on increasing the pace and quality of conservation along the State’s coast.
Public and private organizations have recognized the treasure that is coastal Maine, establishing programs at the federal, state, and local levels for its protection. Despite impressive work to safeguard critical coastal resources, there grows an erosive sprawl across the landscape that is outstripping the capacity of the coastal conservation community. As a result, habitat for Maine’s coastal species is becoming fragmented; recreational and commercial access to the coast is being lost; and the unique scenic vistas and cultural resources of the region are disappearing. A study by Maine State Planning Office says the majority of the Maine coast will be classified as “suburban/urban” by 2050 if current trends continue unabated.
To address the compelling need and time-sensitive opportunities, the MCPI project team--the Land Trust Alliance, Maine State Planning Office, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, and National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration Coastal Services Center (NOAA)--brought 70-plus land trusts and coastal organizations together in 2004 to engage in a year-long planning process. These many partners then coalesced to form the MCPI Coalition. | <urn:uuid:4c86287e-a42a-4f59-8b1d-3250e7cd5fcb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.landtrustalliance.org/mcpi/about/mcpi-beginnings | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917452 | 404 | 2.546875 | 3 |
No, it’s not democracy on wheels… Mobile Asia Congress, or MAC, is the top annual fiesta for the GSM Association in (you guessed it) Asia. GSMA is a global trade group representing more than 750 mobile operators across 218 countries and territories-more than 86% of the world’s mobile phone connections.
I was honored to be invited to speak at a panel at MAC last month in Macau, China. You might be asking yourself why a busy guy like me would sit on a plane for 15 hours, surrounded by screaming babies, to fly half way around the world to talk to executives of the mobile communications industry. Well, it wasn’t for the frequent flier miles (though those were nice too). The Wikimedia Foundation is committed to spreading knowledge to more people in more ways. If you look at how people are connecting with information these days, mobile devices are becoming more and more important. In developing countries, a lack of infrastructure and internet access means mobile devices are sometimes the only way that people can access information online.
My panel was on Monetising the assets of mobile for a new Internet – location, charging and demographics. That may sound strange, seeing as we don’t charge anyone to use or edit Wikipedia or any of our other projects. However, all the terrific content on Wikipedia can add a lot of value to the mobile experience.
* Imagine GPS-powered software automatically offering up Wikipedia content based on your trip to London or Tokyo
* Or photo-recognition software providing the Wikipedia article based on your mobile-phone picture at the Golden Gate Bridge.
We’re exploring partnerships with prominent mobile carriers, device makers, application developers, etc., to make these kinds of dynamic experiences a reality. It’s all about giving people the most relevant knowledge, whenever and wherever they need it.
While I was in Asia, I also had the opportunity to visit dedicated Wikipedians in Hong Kong, Macau and Japan. We already have a chapter in Hong Kong, and Macau is on it’s way to forming one. The Japanese Wikipedians are thinking about starting up a chapter and I was able to help them out with some Dos and Dont’s (such as DO buy the Head of Business Development a round of Kirin; DON’T stop at one round). We’re excited to expand the Wikipedia presence in Asia, where it’s growing faster than monkeyweed on Miracle Grow (also known as Japanese knotweed).
It was a lot of fun to meet all the smart, committed people working to make Wikipedia bigger and better. Wikipedia is currently accessible by people in mainland China and it growing at a rapid rate due to all the Chinese speaking contributors from every corner of the world. Japanese Wikipedia is our sixth-biggest language, with more than 540,000 articles. I want to thank all the Wikipedians that took the time to meet with me: Jerry (Hong Kong); Agostinho and Albert (Macau); and, Shun, Kotaro, Kazuhiro, and Tomoaki (Japan).
Also, a special thanks to Simone Craig, Lisa West, Andy McGuire, and everyone at GSMA for making me part of their great event.
Kul Wadhwa, Business Development | <urn:uuid:31a57e9d-b004-419e-aef3-b07389f7b3c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.wikimedia.org/2008/12/12/mobile-asia-congress-the-kul-way/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943825 | 679 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Electorate Map [PDF Format]
North West Tasmania
- Last Updated: Fri Dec 21 12:14PM AEST
- Roll: 71,022
- Votes Counted: 96.3%
- Booths Counted Primary Vote: 78/78
- Booths Counted 2CP: 78/78
|Wayne de Bomford||FFP||2,135||3.2||-0.8|
|Stephen Anthony Dick||CEC||313||0.5||0.5|
Mark Baker (LIB) since 2004.
The north-west coast of Tasmania, extending 11,760 sq.km west from Port Sorell and Devonport to include Ulverstone, Burnie, Wynyard, Stanley, Smithton and Waratah, as well as King Island in Bass Strait. Braddon's rich agricultural areas support a significant vegetable and dairy processing industry, as well as the Burnie paper plant, though the closure of the pulp mill and the difficulties of setting up a new magnesite industry have been running local sores for years. The decline of job prospects has seen the local population fall in recent years, down 3.1% between the 1996 and 2001 census, the largest decline in the country.
Named Darwin until 1955, the electorate was re-named Braddon in honour of Sir Edward Braddon, one of the leaders of the Federation movement in Tasmania, a former member of the Tasmanian Parliament and also member of the first House of Representatives. Past members for this seat include former Tasmanian Premier Ray Groom, who held the seat 1975-84. He was succeeded by Chris Miles, who held the seat until swept away by a 10% swing at the 1998 Federal election as Labor won its first clean sweep in the state since 1974. Recent state and national election results indicate an on-going decline in the Liberal vote in this electorate, which is why the defeat of Labor's Sid Sidebottom in 2004 was a surprise. The 7.1% swing that delivered the seat to the Liberal Party has been blamed on Mark Latham's locally unpopular forests policy.
2-Party Booth Result
The Liberal Party recorded majorities in 48 of the 74 booths used in 2004, its vote rising from 34.0% at Acton Primary School in Burnie to 76.8% at Sassafras Primary School, south east of Devonport. Labor's best booths lie in the bigger towns, especially Burnie, while the smaller rural booths heavily favour the Liberal Party.
The sitting Liberal MP is 48 year-old Mark Baker, a former business and financial planner from Devonport. A former footballer and teacher who originally apprenticed to work as a carpenter, Baker is active in a number of local community groups and has a long term involvement in the Devonport Football Club going back to his days as a player. He previously contested Bass at the 2002 state election. His Labor opponent is 56 year-old Sid Sidebottom, who held Braddon for Labor between 1998 and 2004 and is a former History and Religious Studies teacher at Don College in Devonport. He previously contested Braddon unsuccessfully at the 1996 Federal and 1992 State elections and has served in local government with Central Coast Council. Despite being christened Peter, Sidebottom has always been known as 'Sid', confusingly sharing this nickname with his four brothers.
Issues and Polls
The Prime Minister made a sudden trip to Tasmania in August to announce funding to save the Mersey Hospital. Years of debate over the future of local hospitals had seen the Tasmanian government decide that Burnie Hospital would become the major hospital facility on the north-west coast. Mersey Hospital, located 12 kilometres to the east of Devonport at LaTrobe, was set to be downgraded to day surgery and emergency. While the Prime Minister's visit was met with great enthusiasm, the uncertainty created for the upgrade of Burnie Hospital has not been popular at the western end of the electorate. The lack of detail in the Commonwealth proposal has added to cynicism that the promise was more about winning Braddon than with providing the most efficient distribution of the scarce health dollar. The whole matter became even more problematic when the handover deadline of 1 November was missed owing to confusion over doctor accreditation and employment conditions for nurses. A Newspoll published on 19 October suggested that the Prime Minister's promises may have had some impact, as Labor's lead had narrowed to only 2%, Labor leading the Liberals 51% to 49% after preferences. An EMRS poll on 8 November also had Labor narrowly ahead 52%-48%.
A seat Labor has a strong chance of recovering if there is a swing against the Howard government, though polls have indicated the seat will be closer than other Tasmanian seats.
|de BOMFORD, Wayne||Family First|
|O'HALLORAN, Paul||The Greens|
|SIDEBOTTOM, Sid||Australian Labor Party|
|DICK, Stephen Anthony||Citizens Electoral Council|
|....||ONP||0||0.0||-4.1||2-Candidate Preferred Result|
Information compiled by ABC Election Analyst Antony Green.
Last Update: 29/12/2007 22:43:17 | <urn:uuid:a814c1d7-1e92-44ea-afdd-f624372d5e1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2007/guide/brad.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944913 | 1,072 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Jaime A. Chaves is a Biologist from Ecuador. He is currently pursuing
his third year in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department (EEB)
at the UCLA doctoral program. He obtained his Masters degree in 2004 at
San Francisco State University and moved to Los Angeles to pursue his
Jaime was recently advanced to PhD candidacy presenting his research on
the evolution and phylogeography of hummingbirds in the Andes in South
America. He was awarded the best graduate student poster presentation
this year by the EEB Department with his current work. Some of his
other awards are the Fulbright Scholarship, Frank M. Chapman Memorial
Fund (AMNH), Lida Scott Brown (EEB), Grant in Aid of Research (SICB),
and Royal Geographical Society of London.
Jaime is the author of several papers on bird frugivory, cloud forest
avifauna, and life history and distribution of birds in Ecuador. He is
also the author of a book on hummingbirds, and wrote and illustrated a
bird field guide to Ecuador. Besides being in the forest catching
hummingbirds, he also likes to play soccer and dedicate time to
My main interest is studying the factors promoting hummingbird diversity in South America. Specifically, I study phylogeographic patterns of hummingbird species in the Andes, paying particular attention to the role of geography, natural selection, and genetic drift in differentiating the populations of the Speckled Hummingbird (Adelomyia melanogenys). The impressive latitudinal range this hummingbird exhibits (Andes of Venezuela to Bolivia) makes it suitable to examine mechanisms promoting genetic and morphologic differentiation in the different habitats where it is found along the cordillera and at different elevations.
To find out more about Jaime's projects, visit:
Photo of Jaime holding an oropendola by Philip Koch. | <urn:uuid:03533f4d-757f-49d8-8ec9-1dcb73d9d277> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mariri.net/index.php?option=com_magazine&func=author_articles&authorid=65&Itemid=31 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918952 | 390 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The Foreign Ministry of Iran threatened to pursue legal action against Google Thursday over an issue it has regarding Google Maps.
The Persian Gulf isn't labeled.
That ain't gonna fly.
CNN reports that Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast raised the labeling issue on Iran's state television network today, calling it "a shameless act…against historical documents," and criticizing Google for toying with Iranians' sympathies.
"Omitting the name Persian Gulf is (like) playing with the feelings and realities of the Iranian nation."
He added that state officials intend to file an official complaint against Google, warning that the company could incur "serious damages" if it does not label the blue area in question "Persian Gulf."
While Iran claims Google used the name for a time, then removed it, an anonymous Google source told CNN the body of water was never labeled because not all the bodies of water have labels, gosh.
"It's just simply the case that we don't have a label for every body of water."
However, nearby bodies of water, such as the Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea do have names that appear on the map.
The name of the waterway (the gulf, not Jew Pond) has long been a source of tension between Iran and its Arab neighbors, who refer to it as "The Arabian Gulf."
CNN reports that some pro-Persian groups on Facebook are even calling for a boycott of Google over the issue, which is great news for Bing.
Check out their full article for a detailed history of Iran's ire at people's neglecting to use the name "Persian Gulf" (the government banned The Economist in 2006 for calling it "the Gulf") and also for a catalogue of Google Maps' previous misadventures (remember when Nicaragua invaded Costa Rica based on Google Maps' demarcation of the countries' shared border?)
For the record, entering "Persian Gulf" into the Google Maps search bar does take you to the body of water in question, but it appears as a nameless splotch of blue.
Call it what you like.
[CNN // Image via Google Maps] | <urn:uuid:5779e5a6-2cbc-4a88-a300-b5b50da5b850> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gawker.com/5911325/iran-is-frustrated-by-google-maps-too-threatens-to-sue?tag=%3B | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944268 | 443 | 2.046875 | 2 |
How Much Electricity Does a Coffee Machine Use to Make Filter or Espresso Coffee?
While the judges are still out on the health debate about whether on not coffee is good for us we can still worry about the question “how much electricity does a coffee machine use”! We know a kettle uses up loads of electricity, but how does this compare with a coffee machine. What about the difference between Espresso coffee and Filter coffee; is one cheaper than the other? To answer these and many other related questions the MeanyGoat has just carried out a series of tests using an Energy Meter so that we have the real facts to examine. Read on to find out the intriguing answer!
Ways to Make Coffee:
There are quite a few ways to make coffee but the standard ones are as follows:
Kettle: Boil water and either pour into a cafetiere or use to make instant coffee
Espresso Machine: Forces nearly boiling water through ground coffee under pressure
Filter Coffee Machine: Heats water up to nearly boiling point and squirts it over the ground coffee held in the conical filter paper….gravity does the rest
Coffee Percolator: Similar to the filter method but without the filter. Water is recirculated through the grounds until it nearly reaches boiling point. This method has fallen out of fashoin in recent years since it runs at a higher temperatures and can over-brew the coffee
In our tests we will check out boiling water with a kettle, using a filter machine and using an espresso machine. Once we have run the tests we will be able to determine how much electricity does a coffee machine use. Those horrible capsule things were not tested since they are just a waste of money and work out way more expensive than making coffee by another method.
Boiling Water With a Kettle:
In the MeanyGoat tests 1.25 liters of water took around 3 minutes to boil and consumed 0.12 KWH of electricity. 1 KWH of electricity is equal to “1 unit of electricity” as shown on your electricity bill. Check the cost per unit and then you can do a simple calculation. So for this example my electricity costs 0.09€ a unit and so the cost of boiling the kettle is 0.01€. So boiling water does not actually cost very much. The next step is to run the tests to see how much electricity does a coffee machine use.
Filter Coffee Machine:
How much electricity does a coffee machine use – 10 cups of filter coffee on the way to find out!
The same 1.25 liters volume of water was poured into the filter coffee machine and the cycle ran to completion after around 5 minutes. The coffee machine used 0.11 KWH of electricity during the filter cycle but because it also has a hot plate to keep the coffee warm the total amount of electricity used was a higher in the end than using a kettle…0.13 KWH. Why did the filter cycle use less electricity than the kettle? Almost certainly because the overall temperature is slightly lower for the filter machine and the amount of water heated up in the heating chamber is quite small so the process is more efficient.
Espresso Coffee Machine:
How much electricity does a coffee machine use – Two cups of Espresso on the way to find out!
While you can find individual espresso makers the MeanyGoat one sits on the side of the standard filter machine and dispenses two cups at a time. The overall volume of water used in the process is of course much less at only 200 Ml …..ie over 6 times less water than in the other methods. However, the Espresso machine only used 0.05 KWH of electricity in total to make the two cups of coffee!
What do the Results Show?
Ok, so we have done the tests and we have the results..;what do they show and what do they mean? How much electricity does a coffee machine use??
Volume of Water (L)
Units of Electricity (KW/Hr)
Cost per Unit €
Annual Cost for 1 Jug a day €
Filter Coffee Machine
Espresso Machine (2 cups)
3.29 (4 cups a day)
Well, we can see that on a annual basis the espresso method uses least electricity and so costs less. However, it is the least efficient since part of the electricity is used to heat the water and part to run the pump. If we made the same volume of coffee (1.25 Liters) as the other methods then it would actually cost over €10 a year! So if you like coffee then espresso definitely works out the cheapest in terms of energy costs. Otherwise it is around 8% cheaper to make coffee using a kettle rather than a filter machine. This is mainly due to the heating time for the hotplate to keep the coffee warm. If you make filter coffee and then immediately turn off the machine and either drink all the coffee or store it in a thermos flask then kettle and filter machine running costs are pretty much the same with the filter machine coming in just slightly cheaper.
So, How Much Electricity Does a Coffee Machine Use?
And the answer is not a lot…just a cent or a centime a brew which adds up to just 3 or 4 Dollars or Euros a year. Even so, there are energy saving choices to be made so that you can minimize the costs. Switching to espresso and at the same time cutting back on coffee could save a few dollars a year….it all adds up!
Take a Frugal Tip from the MeanyGoat and start monitoring the energy your different appliances use…do a few calculations to work out the annual cost and then soo how you can reduce this by making smarter choices.
Now you have answered the question “how much electricity does a coffee machine use” how about moving onto other kitchen appliances? | <urn:uuid:027a3c27-72cc-436c-812b-6fa51e20b1bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.meanygoat.com/how-much-electricity-does-a-coffee-machine-use/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945447 | 1,213 | 2.5 | 2 |
Report: Fishing Revenue In The Northeast Going To Fewer Fisherman
BOSTON — A new federal report finds fishing revenue in the Northeast is being concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer fishermen. The report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) covers the period since a controversial new system for regulating fishing went into place last year.
Teri Frady, with NOAA Fisheries Service, said it’s clear that fishing revenue has become concentrated among fewer vessels over the past several years, but it’s too early to tell whether the new system is adding to that trend.
“We need to know more about the costs, the profits, how that’s distributed, and how some kinds of things might be getting concentrated into fewer hands,” Frady said.
Critics of the new “catch-share” system say it is putting smaller operations out of business. | <urn:uuid:efb8e94e-b156-4794-96a2-3d329cff065e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wbur.org/2011/09/22/fishing-report-2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948492 | 186 | 2.3125 | 2 |
No single politician since Ronald Reagan has done more to set back America’s leadership in clean technology than Newt Gingrich.
National Zoo plaque [click to enlarge, credit: J. Maskit]
Emperor Newt is pro-poison, that’s for sure (see “Gingrich proposes abolishing EPA” and Report Details How Fox News Fueled Newt Inc. and Pushed His “Drill Here, Drill Now” Agenda).
So it’s no surprise, he is also anti-antidote. In the 1990s, the Gingrich Congress tried to shut down the Department of Energy, slash all clean energy research, stop the joint government-industry effort to develop a superefficient hybrid car, and zero out all programs aimed specifically at reducing greenhouse emissions and accelerating technology deployment (for some history, see my 1996 Atlantic Monthly article and this 1997 article).
He didn’t succeed — but he did stop the significant expansion of clean energy funding Clinton-Gore had begun. And he did force the DOE to sharply scale back its programs aimed at clean energy deployment and GHG reduction.
A decade later he tried to pass himself as a friend to the environment. In 2007, he wrote A Contract with on the Earth. As I wrote at the time, if you look up the word ‘Orwellian’ on Wikipedia — “An attitude and a policy of control by propaganda, misinformation, denial of truth, and manipulation of the past” — there should be a picture of Newt’s new book.
To cut to the chase, readers will not be surprised that a conservative pretending to care about the environment adopted the anti-regulation, pro-technology approach suggested by GOP strategist, Frank Luntz, and popularized by his protege, George Bush (see Bush climate speech follows Luntz playbook: “Technology, technology, blah, blah, blah”).
Since Gingrich continues to push this misdirection, I’ll excerpt some of my earlier posts on Newt.
Newt famously co-authored and then worked to enact the anti-environmental Contract with America. But Newt tried to rewrite history with Salon:
I don’t think that the environment was a central focus of the Contract With America. I don’t think that it was bad for the environment. I don’t know of a single thing in the Contract that was bad for the environment.
I think Salon had to pause in the interview at that point to allow Newt to douse the flames that began engulfing his trousers. In fact, the CWA was a clever, stealthy attack on the environment as detailed by NRDC in a lengthy analysis (summarized here) by the Sierra Club, and by the National Wildlife Federation, which wrote at the time: “Taken as a whole, the House plan constitutes the broadest and deepest attack ever mounted against laws that protect public health, the environment, natural resources and wildlife.”
The only thing more gut-busting than Gingrich claiming that the CWA and related legislation wasn’t bad for the environment is his embrace of technology as the answer to climate/energy problems.
Last year, Newt proposed replacing the EPA with an “Environmental Solutions Agency.” It’s no surprise that Newt is unaware we already have an Environmental Solutions Agency that develops innovative new technology — it’s called the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, which I helped run in the mid-1990s. Gingrich tried to kill it when he became speaker in 1995. He probably thinks he succeeded.
It should leave everyone ROTFLMAO that when Salon asked Newt a few years ago, “What do you think that the U.S. should do about global warming right now?” he answered:
I think we should have a billion-dollar tax-free prize for a hydrogen engine that can be produced at a commercially available price. I think that we should have a substantial prize for developing the first engine that can be mass produced that gets 100 miles or more to the gallon of fuel. I think that we should have a substantial research program under way for dramatically better ethanol products than corn or cane sugar.
We should have a 100 percent tax write-off for investment in the technology needed to make composite-material cars using the material comparable to that which works in the 787 Dreamliner that Boeing is building. Because composite material is stronger than steel and much, much lighter than steel, and you could produce a safer car at lighter weight, which would get dramatically more mileage.
Unless you can create economically desirable, environmentally positive technologies, you are never going to get China and India to adopt.
Technology, technology, blah, blah, blah. Same as Luntz, Bush, Crichton, Lomborg, and the rest of the global warming delayers. This phony environmentalism is what I call the technology trap in Hell and High Water.
This answer also ended any claim that Gingrich is a tech-savvy person. After all, you can build an affordable hydrogen engine today: It’s called an internal combustion engine (which can easily be modified to burn hydrogen), but it is low-efficiency, and thus worthless (since hydrogen production is also an inefficient process). What the Department of Energy has been trying to do for over a decade with Detroit — a program the Gingrich Congress (and the automakers!) ironically tried to gut — is build an affordable high-efficiency hydrogen fuel cell. And the hydrogen advocates claim fuel cells would be commercial today — if we could only get unit sales of fuel cell cars to a few hundred thousand a year (up from zero today).
Moreover, a viable hydrogen engine without a solution to the hydrogen storage problem or tens of thousands of hydrogen fueling stations around the country (costing tens of billions of dollars) is completely useless. So this prize idea is dumb. A pure waste of government dollars of a kind Newt used to mock.
To beat this near-dead hydrogen horse, let me note that Gingrich goes on to say:
If you had a hydrogen car and the French level of nuclear power production for electricity, you’d have a very high quality of life, great mobility, lots of electricity, and virtually no carbon-loading. You can create very advanced technological solutions that dramatically improve life in a way that’s better. The quality of air in California is better than it was 30 years ago. The quality of water in the country is better than it was 30 years ago.
Seriously! First, even forgetting the problems with building hundreds of new nuclear plants to more than quadruple U.S. nuclear capacity — at a cost of many trillions of dollars (see here), basing your transportation system on cars using hydrogen made from zero-carbon electricity is possibly the dumbest transportation policy idea ever conceived as I explain in my Energy Policy article, “The car and fuel of the future” .
Why is California’s air — and the country’s water — better than it was 30 years ago? Gingrich disingenuously implied the answer is “very advanced technological solutions that dramatically improve life” but, in fact, the answer is very tough government regulations — indeed, California is allowed tougher air regulations than the rest of the country, as Newt must know since he is so damn smart.
Yes the environmental gains Gingrich praised and used to defend a “technology only” strategy were made possible by the kind of regulations Gingrich tried to gut in the 1990s and that he continues to oppose today — including a cap and trade system for carbon emissions:
We have been caught in a trap where environmental solutions are defined on the left as higher taxes, bigger government, more regulation and more litigation, and so conservatives just shrug their shoulders; since they oppose all four of those solutions, they refuse to get engaged in environmental issues.
One of the major reasons that Terry Maple and I wrote A Contract With the Earth was to reopen the debate, and to say that there are solutions which involve incentives, science and technology and markets. Entrepreneurs are potentially much more powerful and successful than regulatory and litigation solutions. We ought to be having a dialogue about which solution works better rather than being engaged in a purely partisan debate to see who can yell “anti-environmentalist” more.
As someone who fought for years against the Gingrich Congress’s assault on incentives and technology and market-based solutions, I can only laugh at Gingrich’s attempt to rewrite and whitewash history.
If you seriously think we could end up with 80% of our power from nuclear energy (like France) and hydrogen cars also running on nukes any time soon — without any major new regulations — and if you think that outcome would be a good strategy for dealing with global warming (and assuming you buy anything this used-car salesman is selling), then Newt is your guy.
Otherwise, try to enjoy the unintentional humor from Gingrich’s public statements. It’s the only positive thing Newt has to contribute to the debate.
Emperor Newt spies a tasty treat [Credit: J. Maskit]. ”The scientific name of the emperor newt (Tylototriton shanjing) is derived from two Mandarin words, “shan” meaning mountain and “jing” meaning spirit or demon.”
NOTE: In the unlikely event Newt loses the South Carolina primary, we can be quite confident it will still be won by someone who would defund clean energy — see “Okay, Romney, Now You’re Just Lying About Solar” and “Romney Energy Plan Doesn’t Give a Mitt About Foreign Oil, Clean Cars, Jobs.” But Nate Silver’s projection this afternoon suggests Newt has little to worry about except how big his victory is going to be.
- My 1996 warnings and predictions: “MidEast Oil Forever?” — Part I: Drifting Toward Disaster
- Slate and the Post are suckered by anti-environmentalist Newt Gingrich
- OPEC joins Bush, Gingrich, and Lomborg in climate technology strategy
- NYT’s Andy Revkin and E. O. Wilson get suckered by Newt Gingrich’s phony techno-optimism | <urn:uuid:6b6440ab-3566-47bd-979a-dca7ea937ca4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/01/21/408681/newt-gingrich-clean-energy-defunder-wins-south-carolina-primary/?mobile=nc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954582 | 2,127 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Unicorns aren't real. Everyone knows that… except the people who want to believe they're real. Like most mythical creatures—such as the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot—unicorns have a pretty strong appeal to some people. So tapping into that popularity is a fine way to stage a good hoax.
Every few years or so someone claims to have spotted Bigfoot or trapped him. And it always turns out to be a hoax. Yet so many people want to believe, that they end up getting suckered every time.
Enter the Ontario Science Center, which has a new exhibit to promote called "Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns, & Mermaids," which I learned about from our good friend Nalts. Looking to drum up some publicity for the exhibit, the museum concocted a viral video hoax that is every bit as slick as it is fun. Here's the video they uploaded to YouTube about a week ago:
Now, if you're like me—and you believe that mythical creatures don't actually exist and never did—then you immediately cry "fake" upon seeing this clip. If you're a fan of fantasy, mythology, and conspiracy theories… maybe you pause for a second and wonder if this could finally be some measure of proof. And regardless of your reaction, you probably forward the video to a few friends, and you definitely remember it.
Creating a video that causes the viewer to wonder if what they've seen is real or fake is one of the most reliable paths to viral success. And though most everyone knew this one was a hoax from the beginning, the museum is still playing along and acting coy—they've issued warnings about what to do if you spot a unicorn in the wild—don't use sudden movements or flash photography! And they have also voiced concerns about the safety of unicorns and humans should the creatures get too close to civilization and become frightened. Hilarious.
The video is nearing 100,000 views, and for a local science center looking to create some buzz about a new exhibit… that's more than enough to certify this as a viral success.
Viral video can work for businesses both small and large. I have no doubt that the buzz related to this video will fuel interest, media attention, and ticket sales for the Ontario Science Center. They took a proven concept (videos that cause viewers to wonder, "Real or fake?”) and combined it with their own topic (unicorns)… all on a fast-food budget. Outstanding work, from concept to execution, and I hope it inspires more local businesses to do something similar. | <urn:uuid:744330c7-4568-45b1-9f32-efc89fdfe2f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reelseo.com/unicorn-video-hoax-genius-piece-viral-marketing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973951 | 530 | 2.390625 | 2 |
Not every mistaken belief about the natural world is a scientific mistake. A scientific mistake is when one engages in the scientific process and, for whatever reason, emerges with a mistaken conclusion. To quote one definition, science is systematized knowledge derived from observation, and experimentation carried out in order to determine the nature or principles of what is being studied. But a mistake which did not involve engaging in the scientific process is simply a mistaken belief about the natural world.
I think it could be argued that the steady-state theory of the universe held until the Big Bang became accepted was not a scientific mistake. To my knowledge, it wasn't as though the steady-state theory was based upon any experimentation. Rather, it was simply a holdover from the beliefs of antiquity.
Likewise, Chazal rarely engaged in what we would call science. Statements about the sun going behind the sky at night, or about mice being generated from dirt, are not scientific mistakes; they are simply mistaken beliefs about the natural world. (But it is sometimes cumbersome to write that, which is why I sometimes takes the sloppy shortcut and write "scientific mistakes.")
I noticed a similar error in a different context. I once challenged a certain protege of YBT (a very unusual yeshivah which teaches that Maimonidean-style philosophy is the sole legitimate and traditional path of emunah) to account for Rav Moshe Taku, a Tosafist who believed that God is corporeal. He replied that Rav Moshe Taku "made a philosophical mistake."
For the last few months, I have been working on a translation of Rav Moshe Taku's Kesav Tamim. I'm about two-thirds of the way through, and one thing that I can say for certain is that Rav Moshe Taku did not make a philosophical mistake. That's not to say that I agree with Rav Taku's position that God is spatially located vertically above us in heaven and that God has substance and appears in a variety of human forms; with my education, it's impossible for me to subscribe to such a view. But his corporealist view is a mistake about a theological matter, not a philosophical mistake.
Rav Moshe Taku did not engage in philosophy. He was far more familiar with philosophy that many of his predecessors in Ashkenaz, who had probably never even read Rav Saadiah Gaon's "Book of Beliefs," and certainly did not actively engage in dispute with philosophy as he did. In fact, the early scholars in Ashkenaz were barely aware of philosophy at all. In Prof. Avraham Grossman's article "Rashi's Rejection of Philosophy - Divine and Human Wisdoms Juxtaposed," he writes as follows:
It is generally agreed that Rashi's work contains no direct reference to philosophy, a field that exerted no apparent influence on his writing. Scholarship has customarily held that this is due to a lack of knowledge of the subject on Rashi's part. While interest in philosophy was not prevalent in the Christian Europe of Rashi's time, among the Jews in Moslem lands it enjoyed widespread appeal thanks to the significant role played by science and philosophy within Moslem society. This fundamental statement is certainly true. Apparently, however, although Rashi had no intimate knowledge of philosophical study and its nature, he did possess a general knowledge of it, which generated in him an aversion to the subject. He indirectly urged people to keep their distance from it... I wish to emphasize that Rashi was not familiar with any philosophical works, nor was he acquainted with philosophers in his environment or had read their work. Nevertheless, as someone whose entire literary activity was infused by a rare intellectual curiosity he was exposed to this field, if only by way of general knowledge.
Rav Taku actively engaged those who wrote about philosophy. But he did not engage in philosophy. And thus he did not make a philosophical mistake. | <urn:uuid:806b7085-b99c-4107-a312-bb55af42e9b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rationalistjudaism.com/2010/11/scientific-and-philosophical-mistakes.html?showComment=1291133203225 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980934 | 802 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Animal Care Technicians
The technical department at Friendship Hospital for Animals is staffed 24-hours a day to provide the best possible care to our patients. Our technicians have diverse backgrounds and interests. All are committed to Friendship’s vision to uphold high standards of patient care and client communication. The role of veterinary technicians in the hospital is to provide compassionate nursing care and emergency care to our patients. The technical staff also plays a vital role in communicating with clients about their pets and is available 24-hours a day to give updates about patients in the hospital.
Keeping our skills up to date is a continuing and critical process. Training is very important to Friendship. Training for the technical department includes hands-on skill training as well as written tests for knowledge. We have regular lectures and labs in the hospital. In addition, every year technicians attend veterinary conventions around the country, where the latest techniques and skills are taught. It’s a great way to meet other technicians and just talk about problems (and solutions!) that we can all share. Our department also has technicians dedicated to and specially trained in surgery, dentistry, internal medicine, and oncology.
Currently Friendship Hospital for Animals employs about 50 technicians. Our caring technical staff come from a variety of backgrounds and includes foreign veterinarians, students, science professionals, and those pursuing veterinary school. In fact, every year it seems that we lose some of our staff to veterinary school. Many of these techs have come back to Friendship for either an internship or to work as a staff veterinarian. | <urn:uuid:d4f8a2fe-1cfe-49af-acee-db01e09aff02> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.friendshiphospital.com/about/animalcaretechs.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95822 | 311 | 2.03125 | 2 |
How to Set Clear Business Efficiency Goals
The first step in addressing business efficiency is to get an idea of the issues you want to address, and then you have to state what sort of improvement you’re seeking.
Not only does a goal provide context for determining an action plan — the steps to save $1,000 are often far different from the steps to save $100,000 — but it’s also the only way you can know when you finish a project and whether that project was a success.
Although the process for reaching goals may vary, every efficiency-enhancing methodology from Lean to Six Sigma incorporates the same focus on setting goals that are easily understood across the organization.
Define clear efficiency goals
The best goal is one that an objective outsider can immediately understand and, more importantly, evaluate. Even if she has no background in the subject matter, this stranger should be able to clearly say whether the goal was met after hearing the goal and reviewing the associated data points.
Vague or warm and fuzzy ideals, like create a fun work environment are good mission statements or company guidelines, but make for lousy goals because there’s no associated objective measure.
If you want to measure fun in the workplace, you’d have to come up with your own metric system (Moh’s Scale of Fun, perhaps?) with data points you can measure, such as employee satisfaction scores on a survey, the number of social events held in a month, the number of attendees at optional social events (assuming that attendance at an optional event indicates employees are enjoying themselves), or pieces of flare.
As you set your goals, make sure you’re consulting functional representatives who can speak to the feasibility of your objectives. For example, you wouldn’t want to set a goal to make the company website load in half the time without talking to someone knowledgeable from IT.
You can and should also explore external resources for vetting your goal’s feasibility — perhaps internal IT support isn’t aware of certain speed-enhancing technologies that a consultant specializing in website enhancements can share.
Types of efficiency goals
Goals are multidimensional, and a variety of goals ensures that you are keeping an eye on the big picture and that a single point of failure does not necessarily stop you from succeeding in multiple other arenas.
Your team may set goals relating to finances, sentiment (employee or customer — or even vendor!), product or service quality, speed of production or response times, employee or customer retention, knowledge gain and transfer, safety, or any other metric relevant to your organization.
Strategies for choosing efficiency projects
You need to set goals before selecting specific projects, because a project is largely defined by what it’s supposed to accomplish. You may also need multiple projects to achieve a set of goals, or often multiple projects to achieve one single goal.
There’s no one-size-fits-all way to choose which project to tackle first. Strategies include picking those that save the most money, are easiest or fastest to complete, solve an obnoxious problem that aggravates employees, or are the hardest to accomplish (with the idea that getting the hard stuff out of the way can provide serious onward momentum for all subsequent work).
You don’t need to tackle every goal all at once. Project selection doubles as a goal prioritizing process. Goals that won’t be addressed this time around get tabled until you have the resources to take on additional projects. | <urn:uuid:2f06c5f4-44da-4b0c-a623-48b43a38a5e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-set-clear-business-efficiency-goals.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947093 | 716 | 1.90625 | 2 |
OPPOSITION claims the state government had neglected proper maintenance of the Great Ocean Road have been slammed by Roads Minister Terry Mulder as scaremongering.
A confidential VicRoads memo to the minister obtained by the Opposition under Freedom of Information warns the level of current rehabilitation funding increases the likelihood of extensive and significant pavement failure.
It lists 33 sites for reconstruction, but not funded in this year’s budget.
Opposition roads spokesman Luke Donnellan claimed the Baillieu government was potentially putting motoring families and tourists at risk.
“You don’t need to be Einstein to realise that without proper funding for vital maintenance works on the road there is a real likelihood of more accidents,” he said.
However, Mr Mulder said any comment the government and VicRoads were willing to put lives at risk was “simple scaremongering”.
“The Great Ocean Road is safe to travel on,” he said.
“The Coalition government is getting on with the job of fixing errors of the past decade from the previous Labor government and restoring assets damaged by repeated years of flooding.”
VicRoads regional director William Tieppo said $6.85 million had been allocated for maintenance of the coastal road between 2011 and 2013, plus geo-technical inspections at high-risk locations.
He said the 33 sites in the memo were part of a forward program, which had to be considered alongside other work across the state.
“The memo only indicates there is potential for more work to improve the Great Ocean Road,” he said.
“This is in addition to routine maintenance which is based on minimising risks and maximising service to the community in the most cost-effective manner.
“Significant work is being undertaken on the Great Ocean Road.”
A recent report on tourism opportunities suggests spending $50m to make it a “showcase” road producing a short-term economic spin-off of $114m and 293 jobs.
“It is essential that the road is maintained and developed to meet forecast demand from visitors,” it says.
The report suggests premium road surfaces, shoulder sealing and improved linkages to other roads. | <urn:uuid:5b81cdad-7497-411b-9028-d9137544dfc7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.standard.net.au/story/232826/mp-says-claims-of-great-ocean-road-neglect-is-scaremongering/?cs=72 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959227 | 461 | 1.609375 | 2 |
No matter how tech savvy you are, you’ve got to admit that setting up and sharing a wireless connection is more hassle than it should be. Or, at least, it used to be thanks to the Cisco Valet.
Wireless internet is everywhere. Yes, that’s kind of the point, but beyond the pun, it’s true. Virtually every laptop you can buy has a built in wireless card and even most desktops come with them today too. The days of wires are fading quickly, which is a good thing.
To this point, setting up a wireless connection hasn’t been alarmingly easy. There are lots of numbers, channels, and encrypted pass codes to keep track of. Once all that’s established, you’ve got to log-in all of the computers in your house. Then, when your friend shows up, he’s got to type in the 26 digit key to access the internet too. While this isn’t rocket science, it’s annoying.
This is also coming from someone with four years experience in computer services. Setting up wireless connections is part of what I do and even I hit a road bump here and there. If it can cause even our digital generation to stumble, you can imagine how much older generations may struggle. After all, there are a lot of people alive to this day who sent telegrams. Telegrams.
Enter the Cisco Valet which advertises itself as “home wireless made easy.” The base model retails for under a hundred bucks and operates under Wireless-N standards, giving it increased speed and range over the still popular Wireless-G band.
Honestly, there is not much to say about this thing other than it is literally the easiest internet connection I’ve ever set-up. The whole process takes under five minutes and that includes the time it takes to open the box. You simply plug the unit into the wall for power and then plug in your Ethernet cable. Then you take the “Easy Setup Key” and plug it into your USB port and follow the on-screen instructions, which basically just amounts to you clicking “Okay.”
You’re done. Seriously. Connected to the internet with a secure, password protected connection. Want to set-up another computer? Plug in the USB key again. Done.
The included program, Cisco Connect, lets you change all the settings – if you want. You can rename your wireless account, change the password, set parental controls, all that good stuff. But you don’t have to. You never have to remember any of that information again, as long as you have the USB key. Just plug it in and go.
The Valet system also sets up a guest network (if you want it to) so you don’t have to share the key with friends who are just stopping by briefly. They can log-in to the guest network and that way any shared documents or printers are protected if your friend is of the sketchier variety.
In terms of speed and performance, the Valet works just as well as any other wireless router I’ve ever used. It’s compatible with Mac and PC. This thing works and works fast. If you’re in the market for an affordable Wireless-N router, I can’t see why you wouldn’t want to go with the Valet and just make things simpler on yourself.
Check out the Cisco Valet on Amazon. | <urn:uuid:c201093b-f299-4d56-9c91-6fdb80e6ddad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.primermagazine.com/2010/learn/wireless-made-simple-a-review-of-the-cisco-valet | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94273 | 733 | 1.695313 | 2 |
The EepyBird guys from Maine, best known for creating fizzing fountains from Diet Coke and Mentos, claim they have set a distance record in their homemade rocket car with Coke Zero and Mentos powered propulsion.
Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz have created a single-passenger rocket car powered by 54 bottles of Coke Zero and 324 individual Mentos candies in another glorified attempt to transform everyday life into something unforgettable, says their website.
According to the video description the Mark II, piloted by "one idiot," traveled 239 feet, improving upon last year's 220 feet, set with by the Mark l, with only half the fuel. Other attempts by the team can be found on their YouTube channel.
The EepyBird teams shared the secret behind the rocket car propulsion system:
"The Coke Zero & Mentos Rocket Car uses a piston mechanism: a six-foot long rod sits inside a six-foot long tube attached to each bottle of Coke Zero. When the Mentos drop into the soda, the pressure tries to push the rod out of the tube. With 54 rods all pushing at once, that gives us a lot of power."
"All that power is pushing against a solid wall that's attached to a sheet of plywood that runs under the rocket car itself -- so the wall won't move, the rocket car will. We get one big push for six feet, and then it's all coasting from there."
The duo warns viewers against trying this at home. "There is a huge amount of power involved, and we don't want you to get hurt," they said.
Grobe and Voltz shot to fame in 2006 after a video was posted on YouTube that showed them dressed in lab coats, wearing goggles, as they orchestrated the "Extreme Diet Coke and Mento's Experiment." That display, shown below, garnered over 14 million viewers on the video-sharing website, and another 20 million on their EepyBird.com site earning them the first-ever Webby Award for viral videos in 2007.
The colorful geysers created by Grobe and Voltz have their own cult-like following that has resulted in nearly 100 million views to content available online.
The team says the question they are most often asked:
What happens if you drink soda and then eat Mentos?
Their reply: "Well, a lot of the fizz goes away as you drink. Then when bubbles are released in your stomach, your stomach can expand a bit. And your stomach also has ways of, umm, releasing excess gas. The MythBusters showed that your stomach won’t explode, but it still wouldn’t be a lot of fun. Do not, repeat, do not be stupid and test the limits of your stomach. Don't even think about it." | <urn:uuid:b32cfe9a-30c6-47b3-a08c-d1ffc9a7fba5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/315862 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955959 | 583 | 1.789063 | 2 |
The two-day CropLife North America Conference wrapped up yesterday in Charlotte. Adrian Percy, VP for group development North America for Bayer CropScience US:
“The conference is called the Crop World North America, and it’s really a conference to bring together professionals in the crop protection business from across North America…there were also folks, that came in from other parts of the world ready to discuss a lot of issues that our industry is facing at the current time.”
Percy outlines the agenda of the conference:
“Well there were a number that mentioned sustainability, we’re really working very hard as an industry as to how we can contribute to sustainable agriculture moving forward. There is a lot of discussion, of course, around the effects of agriculture on the environment and how we can work together as an industry, to make sure that while we’re meeting some of these immediate needs of a growing population, more so preserving the environment for future generations. That’s one of the topics.
Another topic that I’m very passionate about is really making sure that we have a qualified workforce in the future in the agricultural sector. And there is a lot of evidence that there are deficits, particularly in the scientific areas of individuals that we really need to optimize the full potential of our industry.”
As a keynote speaker of the conference, Percy, and some of his collegues covered a wide range of topics:
“I was talking about how we need to recruit and train and retain the next generation of leaders within agriculture. I’m particularly, obviously, very interested in the crop protection part of the business. I was a part of a panel, that was really a very diverse panel, that was designed to give very different perspectives, so there was myself and another industry representatives from one of my competitor companies, BASF, there was a representative from academia, so we had professor Jim Moyer from NC State, he’s professor of crop pathology, and also we had a youth, ag youth organization, the FFA represented, because I think they can also be a very key part in making sure that we’re enticing in bringing kids into ag, getting them excited about agriculture, teaching them the importance of ag science, and hopefully inspiring them to go to college and eventually become part of the work force in the ag sector.”
We’ll talk further with Adrian Percy on getting youth involved in agriculture tomorrow, on Inside Agriculture. | <urn:uuid:1e34444a-c419-4413-aa13-9a3ebee487a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sfntoday.com/audio/default.aspx?programID=2&audioID=7709 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975411 | 513 | 1.5 | 2 |
The project will soon be upgraded to "VigEye Shree", "VigEye Vibhushan" and "VigEye Ratna" to encourage people to fight corruption.
The Central Vigilance Commission with the help of the Indira Gandhi National Open University and the Union Human Resource Ministry will soon launch “VigEye”, short for vigilance eye. The eye will be a platform for submitting complaint against corruption through mobile phones and Internet. This project is set to reach the rural population through the university’s regional centres.
The “VigEye” was announced on the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day here on Sunday in which IGNOU hosted a teleconference session with the CVC in which vigilance commissioner R. Sri Kumar said: “People can lodge their complaint with the help of photographs, audio and video.”
He also announced that the project will soon be upgraded to “VigEye Shree”, “VigEye Vibhushan” and “VigEye Ratna” to encourage people to fight corruption. “There has to be a change in the strategy. It is a long process today; by the time we take action the time elapses. Now, through “VigEye”, we shall reach out to the common people and tell them, what should be done and what should be avoided,” he added.
He explained that participative vigilance can be incorporated among the masses through mobile phones. “You can send a blank SMS or “VIGEYE” to 09223174440 to get an SMS containing the registration link in your mobile. You have to register first, before filing a complaint,” he said. The project will have volunteers at the village level to help spread awareness.
He added that they wanted to take this project further to the public domain for students and make it simpler to use so that the complaints can be lodged easily in audio, video and photography mode.
IGNOU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Gopinath Pradhan announced a new curriculum in the university that would include moral ethics and vigilance.
CVC director Keshav Rao said the transparency in public vigilance, particularly in procurement and defined corruption as monopoly plus discretion minus accountability. “Transparency, fairness, quality, time and value for money are various factors propagated by CVC for addressing different departments.” | <urn:uuid:ea4020f5-9a3b-4c63-9529-df66b44377e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/fight-against-corruption-now-at-your-fingertips/article4184226.ece | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945359 | 507 | 1.75 | 2 |
How China's Leaders Think: The Inside Story of China's Past, Current and Future Leaders , Revised Paperback
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As China continues its rapid ascent, attention is turning to its leaders, who they are, and how they view the country's incredible transformation over the last thirty years. In How China's Leaders Think: The Inside Story of China's Past, Current and Future Leaders, Revised, bestselling author Lawrence Kuhn goes directly to the source, talking with members of China's ruling party and examining recently declassified Party material to provide readers with an intimate look at China's leaders and leadership structure, visionary principles, and convulsive past, and tracing the nation's reform efforts.
Focusing on President Hu Jintao's philosophies and policies, the book looks to the next generation of China's leaders to ask the questions on everyone's lips. Who are China's future leaders? How do they view China's place in the world? Confronting China's leaders head on, Kuhn asks about the county's many problem, from economic imbalances to unsustainable development, to find out if there's a road map for change. Presenting the thoughts of key Chinese leaders on everything from media, military, banking, and healthcare to film, the Internet, science and technology, and much more, the book paints an intimate, candid portrayal of how China's leaders really think.
- Presents a fascinating insight into how China's leaders think about their country and where it's headed
- Asks the tough questions about China's need for reform
- Pulls together information from over 100 personal interviews as well as recently declassified Party documents
Taking readers closer to Party officials than ever before, How China's Leaders Think documents China's thirty-year struggle toward economic and social reform, and what's to come.
Buy Both and Save 25%!
How China's Leaders Think: The Inside Story of China's Past, Current and Future Leaders , Revised Paperback (US $40.00)
Total List Price: US $66.95
Discounted Price: US $50.21 (Save: US $16.74) | <urn:uuid:f379c448-ca0b-4a12-9e7f-f51cd93e687d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118085906,descCd-description.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921203 | 458 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Europe's in crisis. Unemployment is at a fifteen-year high after climbing for ten straight months, thanks to the austerity measures imposed on it by conservative leaders in France, Germany, and the international financial community.
But if you think things are bad over there, imagine what they'll be like if Republican budget measures are imposed here. The GOP budget makes European austerity look like summer camp.
Ever wonder why lemmings jump off cliffs?
While England Slept
Great Britain blazed the trail for Europe with a series of steep cuts to government spending - and it soon led the continent in economic misfortune. Unemployment skyrocketed, consumer confidence plummeted, and growth stagnated.
That's what austerity economics does to struggling economies. When you ask already-beleaguered middle class and lower-income people to bear the burden for the mistakes that made other rich the results are predictable: real income falls, demand for goods and services drops, and the entire economy drops back into a death spiral.
You'd think that Europe and the world would have learned from Britain's mistakes, but they haven't. In fact, even Britain hasn't learned from its mistakes. As the New York Times reports, the UK is doubling down on the madness.
In its latest round of budget announcements the government announced that it's continuing to push for additional spending reductions but wants to cut taxes for the wealthiest citizens, including those who got rich from the bank speculation that broke the economy! As critics have correctly observed, the UK government is paying for this rich person's tax cut through a 'stealth tax' on low-income retirees.
Britain's misplaced emphasis on reducing government deficits is even backfiring where deficits are concerned. From the Times: "The Office for National Statistics said Wednesday that Britain's budget deficit almost doubled in February, to £15.2 billion, far exceeding economists' expectations of about £8 billion. "
Now the rest of Europe is following Great Britain's lead. Unemployment is officially 10.8 percent and expected to reach 11 percent soon. Seventeen million people are out of work.
Austerity mania spread through Europe like a plague. Unemployment's now at 23.6 percent in Spain and 21 percent in Greece. How is a country expected to lower its deficits when a quarter of its working population isn't paying taxes and doesn't have disposable income? Apparently the financial geniuses running things there didn't think about that.
Ireland was once touted as austerity's success story. They're not bragging on Old Eire much now that it's officially back in a recession. Spain's problems disprove the theory that government debt is the source of all economic woes since, as Paul Krugman notes, Spain has been a much more thrifty government spender than Germany. Further austerity measures there are going to be disastrous.
Then there's Greece. According to reports, there are no working traffic lights left in the city of Athens. People have taken to bartering for goods and services in a world where many people have little or no sources of currency income while the streets swarm with formerly middle-class Greeks who are now being described as 'the new poor.'
In fact, there are encampments of the working poor throughout Europe. Even the leading European economy, Germany, is losing ground because of Chancellor Merkel's obsession with austerity measures - while France, the other austerity leader, is also struggling.
What do they plan to do, now that they have the benefit of experience? More austerity, according to reports. Merkel even thinks that's the road to her own re-election.
The Home Front
Which gets us to the United States. The Republicans in Congress have just passed a budget that makes Europe's austerity measures seem positively genteel. Rep. Paul Ryan, the Pied Piper of nihilist economics, said when it passed that we're in a "debt-driven crisis, and so we have an obligation -- not just a legal obligation but a moral obligation -- to do something about it."
That budget's "moral obligation" doesn't extend to our military budget, which the Republicans voted to massively expand - or to tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, whose current historically low tax rates will plunge if their budget ever goes into effect. And, as we now know, the GOP budget would essentially shut down every other function of government that Americans have valued for the last century and a half. 62 percent would come from programs for lower-income people and Pell grants to help young people go to college.
And what a time for austerity: As Matt Stoller notes, one in seven Americans is being pursued by debt collectors. Student loan debt exceeded $1 trillion last year, even as young people face sky-high unemployment. 8.8 percent of student loans defaulted in their first two years of payment last year and more than one-fourth of student loan payments are now delinquent.
Robert Schiller, arguably the world's top economic expert on real estate, says that prices for suburban real estate aren't coming back in our lifetime. Consumer debt is soaring. US growth is expect to turn even more sluggish, which even has Ben Bernanke pushing for more government action.
But while the projected deficit reductions in the GOP budget are a hoax, the cuts to vital programs, including its hidden cuts to Medicare, aren't. As Mike Konczal notes, states like Florida are a preview of a Ryan-budget America. Konczal coauthored an article with Bryce Covert which showed that "Of the eleven states in which Republicans came into power in 2010 -(five) lost more than 2.5 percent of their workforce from December 2010 to December 2011."
The budget-cutting rhetoric of the right is too often echoed by Democrats, at a time when they (or someone) should be proposing a more common-sense and more humane approach to the economy. Talking about deficits today is the moral equivalent of lecturing firefighters about water conservation while the town is burning down.
We need to put out the fire first. We urgently need spending to create jobs, especially when the government can borrow money for virtually nothing. Or, to put it another way -
This is your country:
(job recovery after current & previous recessions, United States)
This is your country on austerity:
And yet there are still those in the White House and Congress who dream of a "grand bargain" with the Republicans like the one the President nearly finalized last year - the kind of bargain that would send the nation's economy over a cliff.
People used to believe that lemmings committed mass suicide. Scientists now say that they follow migration patterns which sometimes lead them straight into the ocean. Either way, a lot of them drown because they followed the tail of the rodent in front of them.
The US seems determined to cling to Europe's ragged tail as it plunges into the icy waters below. The Republicans would drown our economy in a way that would make Europe's problems seem mild by comparison. (At least they still have working governments over there.) But few Democrats are willing to challenge the austerity fundamentalism that's gripped Washington. Instead they prefer to debate means to an austere end, rather than the end itself.
It's all insane. But this Ryan budget - now the official budget of Republicans in Congress, and warmly embraced by presumptive GOP candidate Mitt Romney - is the biggest sign of insanity yet.
Not that our national leaders are lemmings. Far from it. They're intelligent economic actors behaving in a way that ensures they'll receive future rewards. So if we don't like the way this story ends, we'll have to change it ourselves.
No, politicians aren't the lemmings in this story. Until the time comes when we demand something different from our leaders in Washington ...
... we are. | <urn:uuid:cf408210-07f0-45bf-9d21-a343ffdaba2f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://institute.ourfuture.org/node/72182 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96009 | 1,588 | 1.851563 | 2 |
The Scoop Reivew of Books is happy to be able to to re-publish Scott Hamilton’s introduction to Ted Jenner’s recently published Writers in Residence and other captive fauna.
For Reality, Against Certainty: an Introduction to Ted Jenner
I first encountered the name Ted Jenner in 1991, when I was fossicking in the dimly-lit back shelves of the Rosehill College library. Ted was one of the writers included in The New Fiction, the fat, baffling collection of ‘experiments in prose’ edited and introduced by Michael Morrissey, a man whom I then imagined to be related to the lead singer of The Smiths. The texts in The New Fiction broke all the golden rules we had been taught by our English teachers at Rosehill: there were stories without plots, let alone trick endings, pages broken into multiple columns of texts, and characters whose names seemed to change with every new paragraph.
I duly showed the strange book to my English teacher, a rotund, bearded man who wore braces and loved GK Chesterton. He flipped through a few pages, turned up his bushy eyebrows slightly, and chuckled ‘Ah, yes! The zonked-out-of-one’s-skull in Ponsonby school of writing!’ But the strangest and most compelling piece in The New Fiction was written some distance from Ponsonby, and showed no sign of being the product of mind-altering substances. Ted Jenner’s ‘Progress Report on an Annotated Checklist for a Motuihe Island Gazetteer of Ethnographical Topology and Comparative Onomatography’ seemed to have little in common with the other texts in The New Fiction, let alone the Chesterton stories which our English teacher loved to read aloud.
Jenner’s text had been composed while he wandered around Motuihe, the two hundred hectare island nestled between Waiheke and Motutapu in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf. Jenner discussed the topography and history of Motuihe in a series of numbered paragraphs, and provided a carefully-drawn map to help his readers.
As I read for the first time through the ‘Progress Report’ I decided it must be an excerpt from one of the textbooks we had to read in geography classes, a piece of dull, pedagogical prose which had unaccountably been mixed in with the wild experiments that filled the rest of The New Fiction. I soon noticed, though, that the text’s careful structure and sober tone hid all manner of tricks and treats. The author was liable to interrupt a solemn discourse about one of Motuihe’s coves or cliffs with a story from Polynesian mythology, or a sudden invocation of a long-forgotten Mediterranean god, or a description of events occurring before his eyes. Layer upon layer of fact and allusion built up, as Jenner created a portrait of Motuihe Island that included his own, very subjective response to the place. Jenner seemed to ridicule the pretensions of his text, even as he added more and more detail to it:
12. A grove of forty olive trees, said to have been planted by Sir Logan Campbell, who farmed the island in 1843. Perhaps the largest plantation of olives in Australasia, the trees are authentically gnarled, the fruit is bitter. (Quotation here on the civilised and destructive impulse of nostalgia.)
Despite or because of the weight of his knowledge, Jenner was superbly alert to the scene before him, as he wandered across Motuihe:
7. A brilliantly screen-printed silk falcon swoops over the slender isthmus linking Hine-Rehia with Turanga-o-Kahu; here several groups of SE Asian ESL students establish pockets of cultural identity almost immediately upon disembarkation.
Jenner’s extraordinary text made me realise for the first time that there is no Chinese Wall between different types of writing, and that the ‘technical’ languages of subjects like botany, linguistics and geography can be as poetic as Keats’ nightingale and Wordworth’s daffodils. Long after I had forgotten about the other pieces in The New Fiction, I remembered Ted Jenner’s ‘Progress Report’, and wondered what else the man might have written.
Years after my escape from Rosehill College, I encountered Jenner’s name again, at the bottom of a series of contributions to the journal A Brief Description of the Whole World, which was founded by Alan Loney in 1996 and nowadays bears the less cumbersome moniker brief. Jenner’s gifts to A Brief Description of the Whole World included of translations of obscure, fragmentary poems written fifteen hundred years ago in Greece, and long, impressionistic accounts of life in modern-day Malawi. The ‘Notes on Contributors’ page at the back of Loney’s journal claimed that Jenner was teaching Greek and Latin at the University of Malawi, and had only intermittent contact with his literary friends in New Zealand. I found the idea of anybody teaching Homer and Plato in the hinterland of Africa surreal, and wondered if either Ted or Alan Loney was perpetrating some quirky postmodernist joke, but texts like ‘Luminous Details: Malawi 1998-2001’ were convincingly full of vivid detail:
Early morning mist dissolving over last season’s maize. Dry, shrivelled stalks rustling in the breeze like the pages of a Latin Grammar, rattling off their responses at the first hint of rain…Pied crows on campus scratching the blister domes of the library’s roof.
It was only after Jenner’s return from a decade in Malawi in 2006 that I finally got to meet him, and to learn more about the life that lies behind the texts in Writers in Residence. Jenner grew up in the working class South Dunedin suburb of St Kilda, where his father practised medicine. In a recent interview he remembers wandering the windswept streets of his neighbourhood with gangs of friends, then going home and lying awake for hours in bed, listening to the waves pounding the dunes of St Kilda beach, worrying ‘that the vastness of the Southern Ocean might wash over me’. The St Kilda boy soon developed a fascination with the world of classical antiquity, largely because ‘it seemed so distant and exotic’. ‘If I’d grown up in modern Greece or Rome, then I probably would have been fascinated by Polynesia’, he suggests.
In the middle of the sixties the young Ted Jenner enrolled in Classics and English at Otago University. Over the next few years he published his first poems in the student magazine OU Review, learnt the Greek and Latin languages, discovered the poetry of Ezra Pound and TS Eliot and the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, and took part in some of the demonstrations against the Vietnam War which shook up New Zealand’s campuses in the second half of the sixties. ‘I was very much opposed to the war and inclined towards left-wing politics’, he remembers, ‘but my classical studies gave me a sense of pessimism. I saw that some of the problems we were struggling with in the twentieth century had existed in the world of Plato and Aristotle. I couldn’t abide the naïve optimism I found in parts of the protest movement and the counterculture’.
Since graduating from Otago with two Masters Degree at the end of the ‘60s, Jenner has divided his time between Britain, continental Europe, Malawi, and New Zealand, working as a teacher in a succession of schools and universities. He has published a stream of poems, translations, imaginative prose pieces, and scholarly essays in a variety of journals, as well as several small collections of poems, the best-known of which is probably the 1980 Hawk Press volume A Memorial Brass. The verse and prose texts in Writers in Residence have their origins in Ted’s adventures over the past few decades; by bringing them together, Titus Books allows us to make an assessment of what was previously a scattered and hard-to-access oeuvre.
It is hard to read even a page of Writers in Residence without being impressed by the breadth and depth of Jenner’s learning. His writing is full of allusions to physics and philosophy as well as philology and poetry, and he ranges with disconcerting speed through many epochs of human and natural history. Despite his learning and his love of allusion, Jenner is never a show-off: in fact, the texts in Writers in Residence show a profound uneasiness with the Western intellectual tradition that stands behind them.
Jenner’s ambiguous attitude to tradition is reflected in his sceptical attitude to the Greeks. When he was asked why he spent some much time studying ancient Greek society, the great Swedish poet Gunnar Ekelof replied ‘because I hate it’. In certain moods, Ted Jenner might offer a similar answer. Instead of relegating the ancients to an idealised, untouchable past, Jenner is determined to show that their world is in many ways like our own.
Jenner admires the pre-Socratic philosophers, whose poetic, wildly speculative fragments resist attempts at simplification and generalisation, but he despises Plato and Plato’s many disciples. For Jenner, Plato’s elaborate philosophical system and authoritarian political prescriptions represent a hubris that appears again and again in the history of the Western world. He is fond of pointing out that Plato’s Republic was a favourite text of Hitler, Mussolini, and the late dictator of Malawi, H Kamuzu Banda. The certainty which Plato tried to find through philosophy is dangerous, Jenner believes, because it leads to the creation of closed, dogmatic systems of thought, and to the suppression of the facts and opinions that inevitably challenge such systems. In a memorable section of his ‘Progress Report’ on Motuihe Island, Jenner notes the danger that false certainty might close his eyes to the surprises that his subject matter brings:
19. There is a risk that the writer will hold fast to his notebook, in which the rubber constantly catches up with the pencil, and to his temporary conclusions, which, from this moment on (4 p.m.), will become definitive, unverifiable, beyond all recall, accurate, so to speak, corresponding to the truth.
Even an attempt to make an exhaustive catalogue of the contents of a tiny piece of the world like Motuihe Island is doomed to failure, because reality is infinitely complex and continually in flux. To experience reality properly we need poetry, myth, and magic, as much as philosophy, philology and physics. Plato was wrong to want to exclude poets from his Republic.
Jenner’s horror of dogmatic ideology and rigid categories is reflected in his continual undermining of scholarly conventions and procedures. His texts show us the limits of our understandings of the world, and the inadvisability of using dogma to cover for our ignorance. More than a few of the pieces in Writers in Residence feature a narrator or monologuist whose pretensions to omniscience are gradually undermined, until confusion replaces certainty.
Jenner’s texts often use extreme detail to disturb established ways of looking at the world, and to force us to see things afresh. He has never had much of an appetite for creating fictional worlds: the texts in Writers in Residence are set in real places. Jenner rejects the clichés of travel writing, though, in favour of an intense apprehension of the teeming world around him. In the middle of one of his poems about the Scandinavian wilderness, Tomas Transtromer suddenly exclaims:
This is not Africa.
This is not Europe.
This is nowhere other than ‘here’.
Like Transtromer, Jenner is determined to make us see the particulars that our general theories and categories can hide. Ted’s attention to detail reflects the influence of the French ‘miniaturist’ poets Francis Ponge and Michael Deguy, as well as the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. Heidegger often notes that the normal, everyday world around us – ‘the given’, in his jargon – is usually something we take for granted, a sort of ‘equipment’ that we use to achieve our ends. In moments of crisis or inspiration, though, we can experience a ‘break in familiarity’ that suddenly makes us aware of the concreteness and sheer detail of the world that surrounds us. This sort of experience can be disconcerting. In Jean-Paul Sartre’s Heidegger-inspired novel Nausea, the anti-hero describes his sudden apprehension of the presence of what he had long taken for granted:
A little while ago, just as I was coming into my room, I stopped short because I felt in my hand a cold object which held my attention through a sort of personality. I opened my hand, looked: I was simply holding the door-knob. This morning in the library, when the Self-Taught Man came to say good morning to me, it took me ten seconds to recognise him. I saw an unknown face, barely a face. Then there was his hand like a fat white worm in my own hand. I dropped it almost immediately and the arm fell back flabbily.
Jenner’s text ‘Writers in Residence 1: A Quiet Shape’ dramatises a similar experience:
My head is a quiet, earthbound shape excreting a running monologue, insistent (‘I wish there was nothing else’) or obsessive (‘if there was something else?’). My wet feet mark the linoleum of the bathroom with traces of a methodical snail-wake…
Even if it can be initially disconcerting, the experience of viewing the world afresh can eventually enrich our sense of where and who we are. Writers in Residence has many moments of hard-won beauty, when we see details and connections that had been hidden by our certainties and schemas. Near the end of ‘Luminous Details’, for instance, the writer finds his past, and perhaps his future, in a tiny fragment of Africa:
Holding to one ear the spiral shell of the fresh-water snail that plays host to the bilharzia fluke, I hear the dumping of breakers on a west-coast beach (Piha?), even ‘the turn of the waves and the scutter of receding pebbles’ (Pound out of Homer) at a distance of almost four hundred kilometres from the Indian Ocean.
Ted Jenner should be read for his erudition, his wit, his remarkable attention to detail, and his insistence on remaining continually open to the richness and flux of the world. Writers in Residence is the fruit of decades of travel, study, thought, and writing. It’s a book I’ve been waiting for since 1991. | <urn:uuid:fa01d89f-48c8-4cac-9206-ae30c8784bf8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://books.scoop.co.nz/2009/05/11/a-brief-discription-of-an-alternative-view/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959021 | 3,151 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Too often, executives have viewed corporate social responsibility (CSR) as just another source of pressure or passing fad. But as customers, employees, and suppliers—and, indeed, society more broadly—place increasing importance on CSR, some leaders have started to look at it as a creative opportunity to fundamentally strengthen their businesses while contributing to society at the same time. They view CSR as central to their overall strategies, helping them to creatively address key business issues.
The big challenge for executives is how to develop an approach that can truly deliver on these lofty ambitions—and, as of yet, few have found the way. However, some innovative companies have managed to overcome this hurdle, with smart partnering emerging as one way to create value for both the business and society simultaneously. Smart partnering focuses on key areas of impact between business and society and develops creative solutions that draw on the complementary capabilities of both to address major challenges that affect each partner. In this article, we build on lessons from smart partnering to provide a practical way forward for leaders to assess the true opportunities of CSR.
Mapping the CSR space
There is no single accepted definition of CSR, which leads to plenty of confusion about what constitutes a CSR activity. We can begin to develop a working definition of CSR by thinking about its dual objectives—benefiting business and society—and the range of potential benefits in each case (Exhibit 1).
Corporate social responsibility encompasses dual objectives—pursuing benefits for the business and for society.
Many businesses pursue CSR activities that can best be termed pet projects, as they reflect the personal interests of individual senior executives. While these activities may be presented with much noise and fanfare, they usually offer minimal benefits to either business or society. In the middle are efforts that can make both sides feel good but that generate limited and often one-sided benefits. With philanthropy, for example, corporate donations confer the majority of benefits on society (with potential but often questionable reputational benefits to the business). Similarly, in what’s best referred to as propaganda, CSR activities are focused primarily on building a company’s reputation with little real benefit to society. Some cynics suggest that this form of CSR is at best a form of advertising—and potentially dangerous if it exposes a gap between the company’s words and actions.
None of these approaches realize the opportunities for significant shared value creation that have been achieved through smart partnering. In such ventures, the focus of the business moves beyond avoiding risks or enhancing reputation and toward improving its core value creation ability by addressing major strategic issues or challenges. For society, the focus shifts from maintaining minimum standards or seeking funding to improving employment, the overall quality of life, and living standards. The key is for each party to tap into the resources and expertise of the other, finding creative solutions to critical social and businesses challenges.
So how does this work? The examples in the two accompanying sidebars (see “Addressing rural distribution challenges in India” and “Ensuring sustainable supplies of critical raw materials”) illustrate smart partnering initiatives at Unilever. Both address long-term strategic challenges facing the company and help to build creative partnerships that accrue significant benefits to both sides.
Initial questions for any leader should be, “Where have you focused CSR activities in the past?” and, more important, “Where should you focus them for the future?” All organizations have to balance limited resources and effort, so the challenge is how best to deploy yours to maximize the benefits to your business (and your shareholders and stakeholders), as well as to society. Start by mapping your current portfolio of CSR initiatives on the framework shown in Exhibit 1 and ask: What are the objectives of our current initiatives? What benefits are being created, and who realizes these? Which of these initiatives helps us to address our key strategic challenges and opportunities?
Focusing CSR choices: Guiding principles
Companies are likely to have activities scattered across the map, but that’s not where they have to stay—nor is it how the benefits of CSR are maximized. Many companies start with pet projects, philanthropy, or propaganda because these activities are quick and easy to decide on and implement. The question is how to move toward CSR strategies that focus on truly cocreating value for the business and society. The accompanying examples suggest three principles for moving toward this goal.
Concentrate your CSR efforts. Management time and resources are limited, so the greatest opportunities will come from areas where the business significantly interacts with—and thus can have the greatest impact on—society. These are areas where the business not only can gain a deeper understanding of the mutual dependencies but also in which the highest potential for mutual benefit exists.
Build a deep understanding of the benefits. Even after selecting your chosen areas of opportunity, finding the potential for mutual value creation is not always straightforward. The key is finding symmetry between the two sides and being open enough to understand issues both from a business and a societal perspective.
Find the right partners. These will be those that benefit from your core business activities and capabilities—and that you can benefit from in turn. Partnering is difficult, but when both sides see win–win potential there is greater motivation to realize the substantial benefits. Relationships—particularly long-term ones that are built on a realistic understanding of the true strengths on both sides—have a greater opportunity of being successful and sustainable.
Appling these principles to choosing the appropriate CSR opportunities prompts additional questions—namely: What are the one or two critical areas in our business where we interface with and have an impact on society and where significant opportunities exist for both sides if we can creatively adjust the relationship? What are the core long-term needs for us and for society that can be addressed as a result? What resources or capabilities do we need, and what do we have to offer in realizing the opportunities?
Building the business case
In smart partnering, mutual benefit is not only a reasonable objective, it is also required to ensure long-term success. But this commitment must be grounded in value-creation potential, just like any other strategic initiative. Each is an investment that should be evaluated with the same rigor in prioritization, planning, resourcing, and monitoring.
Now you need to define the array of potential benefits for both the business and for society. This will not always be easy, but a clear business case and story is important if you are to get the company, its shareholders, and its stakeholders on board.
You can assess the benefits across the following three dimensions:
Time frame. Be clear on both the short-term immediate objectives and the long-term benefits. In smart partnering, the time frame is important, as initiatives can be complex and take time to realize their full potential.
Nature of benefits. Some benefits will be tangible, such as revenue from gaining access to a new market. Others will be equally significant, but intangible, such as developing a new capability or enhancing employee morale.
Benefit split. Be clear about how benefits are to be shared between the business and society. If they are one-sided, be careful you are not moving into the philanthropy or propaganda arena. Remember that if the aim is to create more value from partnering than you could do apart, then benefits must be shared appropriately.
Exhibit 2 outlines two contrasting benefit arrays for the Unilever examples discussed in the accompanying sidebars. With Project Shakti, the short-term tangible benefits are extremely clear and powerful, while in the case of Kericho the long-term intangible benefits are strategically critical for both the business and the communities in which it operates. Remember that it is not essential to have benefits in every section of the matrix. However, if you are struggling with any of the dimensions—for example, there are no long-term or tangible benefits or if most of the benefits are one-sided—go back and ask if this is a real partnering opportunity where significant mutual value creation is possible.
Smart partnering initiatives deliver short-term and long-term benefits to businesses and communities.
As you develop a clear array of benefits, a business case, and a story to communicate to all stakeholders, ask: Do we have a clear understanding of the entire array of benefits and the associated business case, on which we can focus, assess, and manage the potential CSR activity? Does the activity focus on fundamental value creation opportunities where we can really partner with society to realize simultaneous benefits? Are the opportunities significant, scalable, and supportive of our overall strategic priorities?
Implementing CSR with consistency and determination
Partnering, as we all know, can be challenging. It requires planning and hard work to assess potential mutual benefits, establish trust, and build and manage the activities, internally as well as externally. But is it worth it? Companies at the forefront of such partnering suggest the answer is a resounding yes, but an additional two principles need to be followed to ensure success:
Go in with a long-term commitment. Having a positive impact on societal issues such as living standards is not a “quick fix” project. Leaders who want to partner therefore need to have a long-term mind-set backed up by solid promises and measurable commitments and actions. Your initiative must demonstrate added value to both shareholders and stakeholders over time.
Engage the entire workforce and lead by example. Your workforce can be one of your greatest assets and beneficiaries when it comes to CSR activities. Increasingly, employees are choosing to work for organizations whose values resonate with their own. Attracting and retaining talent will be a growing challenge in the future, so activities that build on core values and inspire employees are key. Unilever, along with other leaders in smart partnering, actively engages its employees in such initiatives, seeing improved motivation, loyalty, and ability to attract and retain talent as a result. Engaging the workforce starts at the top. Leaders must be prepared to make a personal commitment if the activities are to realize their full potential.
This is the tough bit of the process: taking action, rather than speaking about it, and keeping up the momentum even when targets are far in the future. As you plan the implementation of your chosen initiatives and follow through, ask: Can we build the commitment we need across the organization to make this happen—and are we as leaders willing to lead by example? Have we planned effectively to ensure that implementation is successful, with resources, milestones, measurement, and accountability? How can we manage the initiative, focusing on the total array of benefits sought, not just the short-term financials?
What’s a leader to do?
When it comes to CSR, there are no easy answers on what to do or how to do it. A company’s interactions and interdependencies with society are many and complex. However, it is clear that approaching CSR as a feel-good or quick-fix exercise runs the risk of missing huge opportunities for both the business and society. Taking a step-by-step approach and following the principles outlined here offers leaders a way to identify and drive mutual value creation. But it will demand a shift in mind-set: the smart partnering view is that CSR is about doing good business and creatively addressing significant issues that face business and society, not simply feeling good. And smart partnering is not for the faint of heart. It requires greater focus, work, and long-term commitment than do many standard CSR pet projects, philanthropic activities, and propaganda campaigns, but the rewards are potentially much greater for both sides.
Continuing the conversation—Authors’ response to reader comments
In January 2010, the authors reviewed our readers’ comments on their original article and weighed in on the conversation with new insights and suggestions.
Many thanks to those who read and considered the ideas in our article “Making the most of corporate social responsibility”—and particularly to those who shared their thoughts and experiences on smart partnering. As many rightly pointed out, there has been a groundswell of interest in CSR, as well as a growing number of powerful examples of smart partnering. This momentum reflects an improved understanding of the potential benefits to companies and the increasing maturity of social organizations. Both see the potential for mutually creating value.
Our aim was to advance the debate on how to make CSR an integral part of core strategic thinking rather than a feel-good add-on to it. Where should we take this conversation? Many of the responses came from academics or from executives responsible for CSR activities in their firms. While this is natural, it raises the question of how best to engage (or help these executives to engage) senior business leaders who make strategic choices and set the direction of companies—particularly the next generation of leaders, who face more pressing global and societal issues than ever before.
Our work, that of others in this field, and the input of McKinsey Quarterly readers suggest that there are three basic challenges to making smart partnering a strategic imperative and opportunity for companies. They also suggest ways to overcome those challenges.
1. Get CSR on the strategy table
For CSR to achieve its potential, it must focus on key areas of interaction between a firm and its environment and address value creation activities at the center of the strategic agenda. The challenge is to get innovative CSR thinking on the table when business strategies are being explored and decided. How can we make CSR approaches an integral part of the strategic toolbox for business unit leaders?
First, the potential benefits of CSR, notably smart partnering, need to be demonstrated in practice if mainstream senior business leaders are to recognize the significant opportunities it offers. That is why sharing your and our examples is so important. Next, key CSR executives must be part of core strategy processes. Ultimately, CSR must cease to be a separate function and become part of the skill set of all business leaders as an innovative way to solve critical problems.
2. Stretch your strategic ambition for CSR
Several readers spoke of favorably received CSR activities within their organizations in the realms of philanthropy and partnering. As we suggested, the starting point in any CSR strategy should be to outline the CSR activities a company already undertakes and to be clear on their intent and fit within the overall portfolio. Where CSR activities are primarily philanthropic in nature, they can create a strong base for building a company’s reputation and engaging employees. Philanthropy also has other obvious advantages: it is relatively easy to undertake, can often be set off against tax, and requires less effort and commitment across the organization.
The questions with this approach are: What benefits are being left on the table, both for society and the business? What opportunities are being missed? The challenge is to stretch strategic ambitions for CSR and to move actively toward smart partnering, where the biggest opportunities are to be found. Stretching means going beyond common practice. While it is extremely encouraging to see a growing recognition of the benefits of CSR for building employee engagement, this is only the tip of the iceberg. In the examples we described, the benefits matrices set out much broader ambitions and arrays of benefits (short and long term, tangible and intangible) for both society and core business strategies. How can you stretch your company’s ambitions in a similar way? Whom do you need to involve, particularly among mainstream business leaders, to gain new perspectives and challenge conventional wisdom?
3. Reinforce your core values, internally and externally
When corporate visions and strategies are described, there is often a reference to core values, which shape individual behavior and expectations about how we work and interact together. But we often limit discussions about values to internal behavior and actions. As several readers noted, shouldn’t senior executives also be held accountable for how companies live core values in their interactions with all stakeholders?
Businesses have an impact on societies, and vice versa, so there is a need to recognize the mutual responsibilities that this entails. Within societies, trust in businesses is low, public scrutiny of firms is constant, customer choice criteria include the reputations and values of suppliers, and the next generation of leaders will choose employers whose values match their own. For businesses, one potential challenge is whether the way they operate externally—not just internally—will ultimately have an impact on their “license to operate.” Many companies that approach CSR strategically recognize this symbiosis and build on strong values, living them internally and externally.
Clearly, we do not advocate smart-partnering initiatives solely because they reinforce a company’s core values; this is heading into the realm of propaganda. But as you consider the benefits of a potential initiative, do explicitly consider its impact on your corporate values. If you cannot see a direct link to them, think about how you could create one—for example, reinforcing values through employee involvement or building additional external relationships based on the initiative.
What’s your next step? First, engage with key senior business leaders to identify two or three critical interactions with society. Then for each, map out what you have to offer in capabilities, knowledge, resources, relationships, and so on that would make a difference in addressing the challenges you have identified, both for your business and society. Consider what ideal partners could offer to complement the things you bring to these challenges. For the Unilever–Kericho example in our original article, a critical interaction with society involved raw materials (in particular, tea). Mapping the possible complementary strengths of a partnership could produce a kind of balance sheet.
|Unilever tea business
|Strategic challenges: Ensure sustainable supplies of critical raw materials; enhance corporate reputation
||Strategic challenges: Increase income and skills of rural farmers; ensure long-term source of income through sustainable agriculture
|What we can offer:
Ongoing, high-volume purchases of tea—ie, sustainable incomes
Agricultural knowledge and experience to help improve quality of farming and crops
Long-term perspective to allow time to realize mutual benefits
Reputation and relationships to help build trust among and attract reputable partners—eg, NGOs, governments
|What an ideal partner can offer:
Critical mass of farmers and farming communities prepared to work together to improve sustainability and quality of tea supplies—ie, communities that recognize the potential for mutual benefits and are committed to realizing them
Local- and regional-government relationships (and potentially investments) to support improvements in sustainable agriculture and environmental management
Partners with local energy and habitat-conservation knowledge and experience
Use the balance sheets you have developed as a starting point in identifying issues and discussing them with key internal stakeholders and potential external partners. In a world of burgeoning technology, we may even one day see some type of CSR “dating agency” where potential partners could share their balance sheets. As discussions progress, a balance sheet can also help you and your partners construct the benefits array and business case for your smart-partnering initiative.
In this sort of process, experienced CSR executives can really start to move CSR onto the strategic agenda by engaging executives on real business challenges. That means helping these executives to identify the opportunities, share concrete examples, think more broadly about solutions, and move forward.
Smart partnering is good business. Our readers’ experiences and ideas confirm that momentum is building toward a time when CSR will be absorbed into core strategy and business activities rather than treated as an orphan in need of a special label. With your help, this momentum will build. Share your experiences, shape your activity portfolios, develop your balance sheets and benefits matrices, and challenge the business community to keep changing mind-sets for the better. | <urn:uuid:3e12245c-babc-433d-9157-7b8dd24f90dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/corporate_social_responsibility/making_the_most_of_corporate_social_responsibility | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946623 | 4,034 | 2.0625 | 2 |
Overview of Tremor
Tremor is involuntary trembling involving a certain part of the body. Essential tremor (ET) is tremor that occurs with purposeful movement (e.g., holding a glass to drink, shaving, writing, or buttoning a shirt). It occurs most often in the hands and head but it also can affect the arms, voice box (larynx), trunk, and legs.
Essential tremor is caused by abnormalities in areas of the brain that control movement and does not occur as the result of disease (e.g., Parkinson's disease). ET usually does not result in serious complications.
Incidence and Prevalence
Essential tremor affects approximately 5 million people in the United States. Incidence is highest in people over the age of 60. | <urn:uuid:afbf65ef-0ff6-464c-8c7a-4f5d3ee17a84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthcommunities.com/essential-tremor/essential-tremor-overview.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955664 | 162 | 3.71875 | 4 |
Reichert may differ with constituents on gun control, polls suggest
The congressman, a former King County sheriff, also is at odds with several major law-enforcement groups.
Seattle Times Washington bureau
WASHINGTON — As a former King County sheriff, U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert is one of only six former law-enforcement officers in Congress. And as co-chairman of the bipartisan House Law Enforcement Caucus, the Auburn Republican would seem to hold particular sway on the debate over gun control.
Yet two polls last week in Washington state and in Reichert’s own district highlight a divide between the public’s support for curbing firearms and Reichert’s more muted stance on increased restrictions.
Four out of five voters in Reichert’s 8th District favor mandatory background checks before every gun purchase, according to a poll by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a national anti-gun-violence group. That mirrored findings from a new Elway Poll showing that 79 percent of state voters support universal background checks.
Reichert, by contrast, won’t say outright whether background checks ought to apply to all gun sales, not just to those handled by federally licensed dealers, as is currently required.
President Obama urged Congress to require universal background checks after the December mass shootings in Newtown, Conn., as part of his proposal to reduce gun violence.
Reichert believes background checks should be tightened to keep guns out of the wrong hands but has not said whether he favors 100 percent background checks.
Reichert also opposes any new restrictions on the types of firearms that can be sold, a position at odds with several leading law-enforcement groups seeking to ban new sales of semiautomatic assault weapons as well as to limit ammunition clips to 10 rounds.
Reichert is hardly the only Republican whose stance may conflict with their constituents’ sentiments. Among the 21 states and 36 congressional districts included in the mayors’ poll, voters in even Republican-dominated states like Kentucky backed background checks by a 4-to-1 margin.
And Reichert’s position is largely in sync with the GOP. For instance, most of the five other House members who are former sheriffs or FBI agents are united in their belief that outlawing certain types of weapons and ammunition wouldn’t do much to reduce gun crimes.
Reichert’s office has declined requests for interviews or to elaborate on his views on gun control. His spokeswoman, Leighanna Driftmier, said by email that Reichert thinks background checks should be improved — but would not say whether they should be expanded.
“We must ensure that those who should not have guns, such as criminals and the mentally ill, do not obtain them,” a statement from Reichert said.
As for banning particular types of weapons, Reichert said, “It is not assault weapons and high-capacity magazine bans that reduce gun violence. Instead, gun violence is best reduced through data-driven approaches and the enforcement of our laws.”
Reichert recently introduced legislation that aims to help police combat gun violence in part by targeting the most likely offenders, including gang members and felons. He also supports providing more money to schools to install metal detectors or to hire security officers, and has talked about the need to improve mental-health care.
Reichert’s 8th District was redrawn a year ago to shift eastward and straddle the Cascades, becoming more rural and more Republican. Still, 80 percent of the 400 registered voters surveyed in the district favor requiring all gun buyers to undergo background checks, according to the poll by Mayors Against Illegal Guns. The group, whose co-chairman is New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, represents mayors from more than 800 towns and cities, including Seattle, Tacoma, SeaTac, Enumclaw and Issaquah.
The Elway Poll found that nearly the same percentage of voters surveyed statewide support universal background checks.
. Guns bought privately, including over the Internet, are exempt. That leaves what some gun-control advocates estimate are 40 percent of firearms sales, or some 6.6 million transactions annually, beyond screening for mental illnesses or criminal records.
The Elway Poll also found 54 percent support for banning the sale of semiautomatic weapons and magazine clips carrying more than 10 bullets. The poll of 412 registered voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
Washington’s congressional delegation is largely split along partisan lines on gun control. Republican Rep. Doc Hastings of Pasco, for instance, has said an assault-weapons ban will never pass the House and has called on Congress to focus, instead, on improving services for the mentally ill.
Democrats — among them Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and Reps. Jim McDermott of Seattle, Rick Larsen of Everett and Adam Smith of Bellevue — want to ban assault-type weapons and high-capacity magazines.
Democratic House freshman Denny Heck of Olympia has been more equivocal on gun control. Two other freshman Democrats, Reps. Suzan DelBene of Medina and Derek Kilmer of Gig Harbor, support universal background checks, and Kilmer said he favors limits on ammunition magazines.
Since the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in December, where 20 first-graders and eight adults died, law-enforcement groups have been among the most vocal proponents of curbing access to guns.
Last month, police leaders from the National Law Enforcement Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence appeared in Washington, D.C., to call for tighter gun laws. The partnership is an alliance of nine organizations, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Major Cities Chiefs Association.
All the member groups of the partnership, formed in 2010, support universal background checks and limits on magazine capacity; seven of the nine groups also back outlawing new assault-type weapons.
One notable absence is the National Sheriffs’ Association. The organization initially belonged to the partnership but does not today. Unlike police chiefs, sheriffs are elected, not appointed.
Larry Amerson, the Calhoun County sheriff in Anniston, Ala., and president of the association, said the group leaves it up to individual sheriffs to express their opinions.
Seattle Times news researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report.
Kyung Song: 202-383-6108 or email@example.com | <urn:uuid:e5eeeb34-2149-4007-a902-89aaae32b025> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020531576_reichertguncontrolxml.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944033 | 1,341 | 1.5 | 2 |
Poor Sleep Among Preschoolers May Be Tied to Special Ed Needs Later
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 5 (HealthDay News) -- New research suggests that sleep problems early in life may boost the risk of developmental disabilities by the age of 8.
Researchers found that kids who suffered from problems like sleep apnea and snoring in their infant, toddler and preschool years were more likely to need special education services for conditions such as speech and behavioral problems a few years later.
Although the study found an association between the two factors, it did not prove cause and effect. The higher risk of disabilities could be a statistical fluke, or something else besides sleep problems may explain it. Also, the results were limited because the children, all from England, were 98 percent white.
Still, the findings are worrisome, said study author Karen Bonuck, a professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine's Department of Family and Social Medicine, in New York City.
"We've got a generation of children potentially at risk from long-term developmental deficits that might occur from these sleep problems," Bonuck said. "Parents need to be vigilant."
The study authors looked at previous research involving thousands of children. Their parents had answered surveys about whether the kids showed signs of sleeping problems -- such as snoring, nightmares, waking in the night and mouth-breathing -- at various ages from 6 months to more than 5 years. The researchers then followed up to track the number of children who appeared to have special education needs at age 8.
Kids with the worst sleeping problems, as defined by the researchers, made up 934 of 11,049 children, about 8 percent. They had the highest risk of having special education needs at age 8, even when researchers adjusted their statistics so they wouldn't be thrown off by factors such as high or low numbers of kids with certain IQs.
In another analysis, 1,825 kids -- out of a total of 13,024 -- had special education needs. More than 71 percent of them had suffered from earlier sleeping problems, compared with 63 percent of all the children.
Do sleeping problems lead to disabilities? Or does some other factor -- the environment in which the kids live, for example, or whether their mother smoked -- lead to both? Or could something else be going on?
It's not clear. But previous research has shown that sleep problems affect the brain, Bonuck said.
Joseph Buckhalt, a professor of education at Auburn University who advocates for better sleep for children, agreed.
Research has shown that sleep deprivation disrupts the making of memories in the brain, he said. But that may not be the entire picture. As he explained, it's possible that genetics could explain both sleep problems and disabilities. "Genetic research in sleep is exploding, and we should soon be able to test that hypothesis," he noted.
What to do?
Buckhalt said pediatricians should routinely monitor kids for sleep problems. "Just asking a few questions is enough to begin the screen. For example, many parents don't think anything about a child who snores. They may even think it is 'cute,'" he said. "But snoring is indicative of poor breathing during sleep."
"Sleep is not just 'rest' where the body needs to restore energy," he said. "The brain is active 24/7, and we now know that not only important aspects of learning and memory happen during sleep, but emotion regulation is also dependent on sleep."
The study appeared online Sept. 3 and in the October print issue of Pediatrics.
For more on children's health, try the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
SOURCES: Karen Bonuck, Ph.D., professor, department of family and social medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City; Joseph Buckhalt, Ph.D., professor, department of education, Auburn University, Alabama; October 2012 Pediatrics | <urn:uuid:05aaae96-4432-45be-89c4-6415d41c298a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.martinhealth.org/taxonomy/relateddocuments.aspx?id=0&ContentTypeId=6&ContentID=668312 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971289 | 807 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Arden Clarke and Nkrumah in reciprocity
By: SAMUEL TOPRAH,
Information Services Department
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and Sir Arden Clarke, the then Governor of the Gold Coast, co-operated with an unusual political understanding and skill although the two of them came from two different ideological positions; one was a Capitalist and the other a Socialist.
The result was that despite some conservative and traditional opposition, especially in the regions, the Gold Coast had by 1957 been converted into an independent member of the British Commonwealth and the United Nations and eventually into a Republic on July 1, 1960.
Sir Arden Clarke, referred to as “The Guv” or “noble Charles” by the CPP Cabinet, was a forthright person who genuinely desired the Gold Coast to be independent through an orderly transfer of power. He did this by ensuring that the Joint Cabinet team worked in a sound and meticulous way.
Arden Clarke also gave the highest priority to the training and recruitment of Africans for the highest posts in the civil service, to the establishment of effective Local Government and the expansion of Teacher Training Education in order to provide free primary education and the positive encouragement of Technical Education. This was the best way to prepare the Gold Coast for independence and self determination.
In his autobiography, Nkrumah recalls his relationship with Arden Clarke.
Although Sir Charles Arden Clarke and I had been opposition each other for so many months past. I had no idea what he looked like, for we had never met. I wondered how I should be received. Had I known this man before, I should not have doubted the courtesy that would be shown me.
A tall broad-shouldered man, sun-tanned, with an expression of firmness and discipline but with a twinkle of kindness in his eyes came towards me with his hand outstretched, a hand that I noticed with large and capable looking.
He welcomed me and asked how I was. As we both sat down, I sensed that he must be feeling as alert and suspicious of me as I was of him. We lost little time, however, in coming down to the business in hand. I did my best to make it clear to him that I would be prepared at all times to place my cards face upwards on the table because it was only by frankness that mutual trust and confidence could be established.
He agreed with me wholeheartedly on this and I sensed immediately that he spoke with sincererity. He was, I thought, a man with a strong sense of justice and fair play, with whom I could easily be friends, even though I looked upon him as a symbol of British imperialism in the country”.
Nkrumah was faced with a dilemma that, having taken on the responsibilities of office, there was the need to assure his extreme followers that he had not sold out to the imperialists and at the same time he had to restrain the party form attacks on British civil servants, especially the District Commissioners. As a great tactician, he also did his best to reassure the British colonial administration, from the Governor downwards, that the continuing attacks at local CPP meetings were not condoned by the party leadership.
Nkrumah, as it were was wedged between the colonial administration and the CPP party leadership and had to walk the tightrope to harmonise relations between these two parties. This cordial relationship established helped Nkrumah and Arden Clarke to ensure a smooth administration of the Gold Coast.
In keeping with the give-and-take policy, Governor Arden Clarke announced, as a matter policy, that Britain did not want to impose British officers on the Gold Coast if they were not wanted.
This declaration brought some calm to the CPP Cabinet, but Nkrumah saw it as an opportunity to emphasise publicly the urgent need for the skills and experience of expatriate staff. The colonial administration felt relieved because this time me, the request for expatriates was from the CPP Cabinet and not an imposition and this made the CPP more tolerant of the expatriates to ensure a peaceful working environment.
Although Nkrumah and Arden Clarke had contrasting characters, on the economic front, two of them were able to synergise in an amazingly perfect manner. The latter was an initiator and the former an implementor.
For instance, the development plan of 1951 and the subsequent Volta River Scheme were initiated by Arden Clarke before Nkrumah came to power but were both implemented with the full support of Nkrumah.
Again, Sir Arden Clarke advocated a sound and restrained development as seen initially in the 1951 development plan which curtailed capital investment to prevent sudden inflation. Nkrumah on the other hand, was a man in a hurry. He stood for massive capital investment and accelerated development. Nkrumah wanted the 10 year development plan to be completed in five years.
However, a middle ground was reached as seen in the implementation of the 10-years development plan. £2million was allotted to the enlargement of Takoradi Harbour, and a further £16million to the building of a major new port at Tema. Several capital commitments were made in other areas of infrastructure development. This was a gradual but steady preparation of the Gold Coast for independence through the innovative and visionary leadership of Arden Clarke and Kwame Nkrumah.
The Arden Clarke and Nkrumah partnership ensured an increase in the number of primary schools from 1,000 to 3,000 and the number of pupils in both Primary and Secondary schools increased from 2000,000 to over 500,000 from 1951-1956.
Again, the co-operation between the two, led to the establishment of Kumasi College of Technology in 1951 and later the National Broadcasting Service.
The Akosombo Dam, which was Nkrumah’s Flagship Project had its origins from schemes initiated by Arden Clarke, this clearly demonstrates, again, an initiator and a finisher.
It is instructive to note that the reciprocal harmony that existed between Nkrumah and Arden Clarke ensured a smooth transition of the Gold Coast from its colonial status to Independence of 6th March 1957 and eventually to a Republic on 1st July, 1960.
Compared to some British colonies that had turbulent transitions to independence, the Gold Coast was blessed with an open minded Governor who did not want the colony to descend into chaos and lawlessness.
Sir Arden Clarke, therefore, co-operated with Nkrumah and his colleagues to ensure an almost seamless transition.
Daily Graphic page: 21 Wednesday July 7, 2010 | <urn:uuid:2f153dbd-74f0-4b9c-9bac-d2408e8c6305> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ghanaculture.gov.gh/index1.php?linkid=65&archiveid=1724&page=1&adate=07/07/2010 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980446 | 1,369 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Trading, Smuggling, Privateering & British Assaults in summer 1814
Greetings to all:
I stumbled onto your site while searching for any activity the Maine State Historian might have initiated to commemorate the War of 1812- yeah, I know- no photographs so wishful thinking. First allow me to invite you to contact me directly if you wish. My personal email is firstname.lastname@example.org.
For those of you who are not aware of who I am or what I do:
I used to be a high school educator. My MA Ed was curriculum and Instruction- LD/BD. My two undergraduate degrees were Secondary Education BA Ed. and History with an emphasis on late Renaissance Europe and the rise of Nationalism. BA. History. US history wasnt even my specialty but I had a grandmother who was fully committed to carrying on familial traditions and her mother was the first woman elected to a school board- in 1892-25 plus years before she could vote for herself! We were expected to know our own history. I have at least 6 familial lines that date back to District of Maine 1640s & 50s and at least that many more from Massachusetts. Im DAR, Sons & Daughters of First Settlers of Newbury, Mass, DUV, and if I pushed For it, could also be Colonial Daughters. IM a direct descendant of Dominicus Jordan and Hannah Tristram. Dominicus was one of the original proprietors of Falmouth, killed by indians in 1703 and his wife and children carried off to Canada and held for Ransom, only to return years later to find Boston has resold their father's land in Falmouth. My Jordan Line married into my Chase line(Newbury, Mass) in the early 1800's in Pejebscot, Cumberland County now Auburn, Androscoggin. That's my grandmother's father's side. My Grandmother's mother's side is "northern Maine" and the focus of my contemporary "life". On her side, are the Nova Scotia Refugees of 1785 who went with Col Eddy during the Revolutionary war to Fort Cumberland. they fought in the War of 1812 with the Kennebec volunteers, they settled the Penobscot River after the treaty was signed in 1818 and went to the Aroostook 1830-35 and have lived there ever since.
I was diagnosed with a personality disorder akin to agoraphobia in 2000 and had to stop working. I lost my husband Gene in 2002 (Agent Orange) and came back to Maine to recoup and regain my soul. Also in 2002 I learned that the State did not recognize the Aroostook War on thier "I Vote in Honor of a Veteran" buttons and wondered why! This was our most important war. When I applied for the national "Ticket To Work" Vocational rehabilitation program in 2004, I had a business plan involving internet marketing and a genealogy based target market. That took care of the agoraphia problem but it highlighted a bigger, uglier one- Maine doesnt think people with personality disorders can be productive! As a teacher i learned Apple programs, IBM compatibles are like Greek to me- I needed to be educated. The state didnt want to, so I had to take a different tact. It has been 5 long years but with some serious support of some key people- Congressman Michaud, Sen. Elizabeth Schneider, Rep Bob Deschense, Sen. Kevin Raye and my current State Rep. Beth Turner, We finally got through House Paper 1177 last Legislative Session, Requesting the President, Leaders of Congress and our own Maine Congressional Delegation to enact Legislation making Protectors and Defenders of the Northeastern Frontier of the United States and State of Maine Veterans. The Maine Secretary of State has already sent the letters and Sen. Snowe has a staffer working on drafts of the Act of Congress as Im writing this. (actually since last April LOL).
But it was while attempting to identify or create a committee or commission that would determine eligibility, issue certificates and determine who would be able to be placed on the wall at the Northern Maine Veterans' Cemetery that I learned what a mess our State Historian's office is in; and while doing a genealogy look-up for an Arizona resident with Maine Roots that I encountered an 1807 Resolve in the Massachusetts' General Court calling for a complete Vote in the District of Maine on the issue of Separation. That was 205 years ago! Why isnt that known! Why isnt there a committee or commission working to get all Maine's towns ready for our birthday? We need planning, committees, fundraisers, information gathering and we need to publicize it nationally, I contacted the Maine State Historian AGAIN- third time in as many years but still got no response. My state rep. Beth Turner contacted his office and his office passed me off to Mr Phillips the Director of the Maine State Museum in Augusta. No help there either. We are going to be competing with Alabama who came into the Union in December 1819, and Missouri who hi-jacked our petition for statehood to get admitted as an original state thus avoiding a discussion on Slavery. As it is the rest of the nation considers us just - "The other half of the Missouri Compromise". Maine didnt become a state overnight nor with the wave of a magic wand. We should be commemorating each step of the process and educating our children about our own history. I found a sympathetic ear on the Governor's staff.
So I started rattling cages in Augusta and learned the Maine State Historian's appointment is up next year and I would like us to get one who actually does the job of education and promoting our history! Of having a state website that lists all the community activities like this one so that "Mainers in Exile" can find out what is happening and make plans to visit and participate.
I just got back from Boston- Massachusetts' State Archives and they have some great stuff that we should have. If any one is interested in how Hancock County voted in 1807 regarding Separation, I'd be glad to share and if you have any doubts on the impact of the War of 1812 on the shift of opinion by 1819- let me put them to rest! The impact was significant regarding our association with Massachusetts.
And for the record- the War of 1812 was not the first one engaged in by US forces after Independence. While Thomas Jefferson was Secretary of State and during his Presidency, US naval forces were used to fight the Bey of Algiers during the Barbary Coast Wars( 1806 plus) . Again, those were primarily New England Vessels getting hi-jacked and ransomed, sailors killed and ships blown up. Jefferson refused to pay tribute to the Bey of Algiers who fronted for the hi-jackers and tried to get Britain, France, Holland and Norway to fight the so called pirates but they refused and we went it alone and eventually stopped it, So much for the great relationship the US has had with muslim countries that our President touted in Egypt a while back "sigh".
Tell me what I can do to help, although my resources are limited and I dont drive, know very little about computers but i can research, mail, create flyers and rattle cages in Augusta. IM also a member of Maine Genealogy Society and will have a table in Bangor at their annual conference Sept. 24th & 25th if someone wants to attend with me and pass out information on your event.
The 1837 Foundation of Northern Maine
Dedicated to the Protectors and Defenders of the Northeastern Frontier of the US and State of Maine. | <urn:uuid:732e90aa-3542-453b-b8d5-69968aec4571> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eastportmainewarof1812.ning.com/profiles/blogs/thank-you-for-accepting-me-1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96559 | 1,586 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Throat Cancer Treatment
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Throat Cancer Treatment - Throat cancer treatment depends on several factors, including the type, stage, and severity of the cancer, as well as the patient's age and overall health. Conventional throat cancer treatment options may include surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation therapy. Surgery is often used to treat early stages of throat cancer, or if the cancer has spread to lymph nodes in the neck. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy may be used alone, or in combination with surgery, to treat more advanced stages of throat cancer.
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Back to the Cancer Glossary | <urn:uuid:432c02a7-732c-4cd6-9ee9-0c063549bd60> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cancercenter.com/glossary/throat-cancer-treatment.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929917 | 142 | 2.25 | 2 |
In the era of Intellectual Property and making a one billion [insert Dr Evil pinkie finger in corner of mouth] dollars of your amazing idea … an ER doc [and medical student with and engineering background] on a little city in Canada invented something and gave it away for free.
EDUS2 is a way to create a virtual ultrasound to use in simulation cases. This is amazing in terms of increasing the fidelity of sim cases. It’s an innovation that 100% of people out there [including myself] would have tried to make money off. Paul and Paul decided to let others have it for free
What? There’s a catch right? … No…No catch. The EDUS2 blog [click this link] describes the evolution of their idea and how they came to give it away. Knowing Paul O. and speaking to him he is deeply passionate about EDUS and felt that this is too good NOT to share it freely and widely with anyone who wants it.
These guys in Australia describe their experience [click this link] with creating their own version. Even with a free road map, they found challenges and obstacles that highlight the barriers that exist when trying to innovate in healthcare.
Kudos to Paul and Paul for bucking the trend with their incredible invention and even more incredible philanthropy. | <urn:uuid:f6227bc4-e320-42d1-b27d-4179aba58d83> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://liphelonglurnerdok.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/nothing-is-for-free-in-america-or-is-it/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960776 | 267 | 1.726563 | 2 |
New Yeast Species Looks Like Saturn
Maquipucuna cloud forest in Ecuador yields new species of yeast
"We are actively looking for new yeasts with the ability to ferment plant material to produce bio-energy," said Dr Steve James from the National Collection of Yeast Cultures at the Institute of Food Research in Norwich.
The collection of yeasts at the institute is already used for bread and brewing as well as many other biotechnological applications. They are also studied for their role in causing food spoilage and human infections.
The scientists have named the new yeast, which produces characteristic Saturn-shaped spores, Saturnispora quitensis in honour of the residents of Quito, who are known as the Quiteňos.
The Maquipucuna Reserve is the gateway to the Chocó Andean Corridor, one of the earth's top three biodiversity hotspots. The Reserve harbours at least 350 species of birds or 4% or the earth's bird diversity, 45 species of mammal, more than 250 species of butterflies and over 2200 plant species including a rich diversity of epiphytes.
The team has a further 300 to 400 yeasts to characterise, isolated from a wide variety of insects and plants collected in Ecuador. Other related species have been isolated in neotropical regions from a variety of sources including flies, flowers, forest soil, insect droppings, leaf litter, tree bark and exudate, and wild mushrooms.
Professor Javier Carvajal is lead scientist of the Ecuadorian team from the Colección de Levaduras Quito Católica (CLQCA) at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador.
"Dr Carvajal and his team are boldly going into habitats never previously explored by yeast biologists," said Dr James.
"It's exciting not only to see and describe the new yeast biodiversity from this neotropical region, but also to look for species with novel biotechnological properties."
"It also seems a strange coincidence that a yeast found on the Earth's equator should produce spores reminiscent in shape to that of the planet Saturn, which has rings orbiting around its equator!"
The work was funded with a competitive strategic grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). | <urn:uuid:45b48c98-f463-428c-b65f-55af1db5ed02> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.astrobio.net/includes/html_to_doc_execute.php?id=3849&component=news | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938423 | 474 | 3.390625 | 3 |
As the military action against Libya to give teeth to U.N. Security Council resolution 1973 began, one question kept nagging away: Why, precisely, were the governments of Britain and France in the lead? Why were their armed forces taking part in the military action, and why had their diplomats done the grunt work in the negotiations that led to adoption of the resolution?
It is not an easy question to answer. British Prime Minister David Cameron said that the military action against Muammar Gaddafi was "necessary, it is legal and it is right." Right, "because I don't believe that we should stand aside while this dictator murders his own people." French President Sarkozy said, "If we intervene on the side of the Arab nations it is because of a universal conscience that cannot tolerate such crimes." I'm not one of those cynics who assumes that such statements are devoid of content; in any event, they are grounded in language that was already quite condemnatory of Libya in resolution 1973. But the rhetoric doesn't really answer the question: Why intervene?
Is what happens in Libya of direct national interest to Britain and France? To be sure, Libya is across the Mediterranean Sea from Europe, and its trade is directed mainly there. But Libya is a nation of only 6.5 million people. For comparison, that is a bit more than the population of El Salvador and a bit less than Honduras', and whatever happened in the Cold War, it's been a while since U.S. policymakers have argued that what goes on in Central American nations is of such pressing national interest to the U.S. that it would legitimize armed intervention there.
Libya has oil and gas, yes but less than 2% of the world's oil reserves, while technology is about to make gas available in such abundance that it hardly matters which country has it. It's hard to make the case that there is some pressing commercial reason for Britain and France to take the lead in the way that they have done, which will not stop those who see oil companies behind every foreign military adventure doing so.
Immigration? Yes, instability in the Maghreb tends to produce flows of migrants north. And in the case of Libya, even if those fleeing the fighting go first to Italy, they can make their way eventually to other nations of the European Union. But it's pretty hard to imagine that there would be some unmanageable refugee crisis in North Africa if Muammar Gaddafi held on to power in Libya. The Mediterranean is a wide sea; it's not a border that you can just walk across.
History? Britain, despite its rapprochement with Gaddafi under the government of Tony Blair, has little reason to love or trust the Libyan leader Libyan agents were responsible for the downing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland, and a London policewoman, Yvonne Fletcher, was shot dead from the Libyan embassy in 1984. But horrible though those crimes were, nobody is suggesting that their memory is a reason to go to war.
Getting back in people's good books? Sarkozy started off on the wrong side of the Arab Spring, his government staying cozily entwined with that of Tunisia when the street had turned against it. I've heard it suggested that he's taking the lead on Libya so as to recover France's reputation in the Arab world. If so, this is a mighty risky way of going about it: military intervention in Libya is not guaranteed to be a success, and nor is it uniformly popular among Arabs, even those who have been demonstrating for democracy around the region.
What about delusions of grandeur? There will be those who argue that France and Britain are behaving the way they are simply because they think their history entitles them to, because they want to show that they are still great powers. But assuming that Cameron and Sarkozy are rational decisionmakers (I do) that just doesn't fly. Both Britain and France are democracies. In neither of them is military adventurism popular with voters.
That leaves two factors that might go some way to explain the Franco-British policy. First, I suspect that there is a genuine belief in both governments that while the U.S. is still the world's balance wheel, the indispensable nation, it cannot do everything and should not be asked to that the world is a more secure place if other democracies help the U.S. carry the diplomatic and military load of ensuring global stability. To be sure, such a policy can go disastrously wrong, as most British observers would say was true of their country's alliance with the U.S. in the Iraq war. But that does not mean that the principle is worthless.
Second, it would not surprise me if both governments and that of the U.S. came to a conclusion that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair elaborated on in an article in the Times of London and the Wall Street Journal. When faced with a crisis like that of Libya, Blair argued, "Inaction is a decision, a policy with consequences. The wish to keep out of it all is entirely understandable; but it is every bit as much of a decision as acting."
Britain, France, the U.S. and every nation under the sun could, I suppose, have said nothing at all when Gaddafi started turning on those demonstrating against his rule three weeks ago. But they did not. They condemned him out of hand. To have done nothing now, when it seemed as if Gaddafi was going to win Libya's civil war, would have been a decision in and of itself, and one, moreover, that would have exposed the weakness of those who had so recently called for him to go.
Looked at in that light, the decision to start military action in Libya however wise or unwise that may turn out to be starts at least to be comprehensible. | <urn:uuid:bf38abf4-2e16-4fc6-b902-dce5c4a94655> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2060412,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981223 | 1,190 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Idiot Alert – The Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Invokes The “Good and Welfare Clause”Posted by Al @ 11:05 am
This crusty relic of a Senator is the Chair of one of the most powerful Senate Committees, the Senate Judiciary Committee. You would hope that these progressives would at least learn about the founding of our country and the Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence (at a minimum) before being allowed in these committees, much less be allowed to run for elected office. However, when interviewed regarding the constitutionality of government mandated socialized healthcare, he declared it was allowed under the “Good and Welfare Clause”. Watch, but be warned this may cause blood to shoot from your eyes.
That’s right -just make this stuff up (including the rules) as they go.
What is the importance of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee
Established in 1816, the Judiciary Committee is one of the standing, or permanent, committees of the U.S. Senate. In 1868 the Senate directed the Judiciary Committee to examine and screen, for the full Senate, all Presidential nominations to the Supreme Court. Since then, one of the highly visible and very important duties of the committee is its investigations and recommendations about Presidential nominations to the Supreme Court.
-The Judiciary Committee quickly became a powerful influence on national legislation
-It is most popularly known for investigating nominees to the federal bench
-The Judiciary Committee receives the president’s judicial nominations from the full Senate for investigation – The committee’s handling of nominations has been a subject of controversy almost from the origins of that practice…it is not unusual for committee chairs to further delegate responsibilities to subcommittees for reviewing lower court nominees.
This helps solidify the argument that all Congresspeople and members and appointees of the Executive Branch should be certified in American Constitutional knowledge. This clueless buffoon is one of the many in the Legislative Branch with no clue regarding America’s founding. What they do learn is used as a point of reference to promote progressivism, socialism, communism, Marxism, etc.. only
Please help educate America about the enemies of our Constitutional Representative Republic and how these traitors, both Republican, Democrat, and Independent, have no other goal for America that to have Lady Liberty holding a “Hammer and Sickle”.
Keep exposing these traitors and fight to remove them from Congress. | <urn:uuid:c2363315-bd38-4ab8-981e-4db8f84c83b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thelibertyjournal.com/2010/03/23/idiot-alert-the-senate-judiciary-committee-chair-invokes-the-good-and-welfare-clause/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93822 | 495 | 1.742188 | 2 |
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only.
As the new year began, the newspaper Newsday ran an editorial headed “Congress Made This Mess” with a subhead declaring that the “fiscal cliff” is a “metaphor for failure.” It was accompanied by a cartoon depicting the dropping of a ball—labeled “dysfunction—alongside the Capitol Dome.
“So the new year may start off much like the old ended, with an epic failure to govern,” opined Newsday.
No matter what may happen about the “fiscal cliff,” the U.S. Congress is now widely seen as deeply dysfunctional.
This past summer, Gallup reported that its polling showed only one-in-10 Americans “approve the job Congress is doing.” This tied, it noted, with the “all-time low” of 10 percent approval in a Gallup poll the year before “as the lowest in Gallup’s 38 year history of this measure. Eight-three percent disapprove of the way Congress is doing its job.”
Much of this has to do with the public perception—an accurate one—that most members of Congress are bought and paid for notably via campaign contributions by special interests.
Indeed, making the rounds of the Internet in recent years has been the posting: “Members of Congress should be compelled to wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers, so we could identify their sponsors.”
And then there’s this repeated posting:
“Now I understand! The English language has some wonderfully anthropomorphic collective nouns for various groups of animals. We are all familiar with a Herd of cows, a Flock of chickens, a Schoolof fish and a Gaggleof geese. However, less widely known is a Pride of lions, a Murder of crows…an Exaltation of doves and, presumably because they look so wise, a Parliament of owls. Now consider a group of baboons. They are the loudest, most dangerous, most obnoxious, most viciously aggressive and least intelligent of all primates. And what is the proper collective noun for a group of baboons? Believe it or not….a Congress!. I guess that pretty much explains the things that come out of Washington! Look it up. A group of baboons is a congress.”
A very low opinion of the U.S. Congress is not new in America.
Over a century ago, Mark Twain wrote: “Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” Twain also said that “there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress.”
Decades later, Will Rogers said: “The country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.” Milton Berle, yet later, said: “You can lead a man to Congress, but you can’t make him think.”
But now confidence in and respect for Congress has reached a nadir.
And the perception matches reality. For example, the 112th Congress, which ended this week, “is set to go down in American history as the most unproductive session since the 1940s,” wrote Amanda Terkel last week on The Huffington Post. It passed slightly more than 200 bills that became law. This is “far less than the 80th Congress (1947-1948) which President Harry Truman infamously dubbed the “Do-Nothing Congress” which passed 900 bills that became law.”
Part of the problem is what has been termed “congressional stagnation”—a theory holding that the U.S. Congress has become stagnant as a result of the continuous re-election of nearly all of its incumbents.
Indeed, notes the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington: “Few things in life are more predictable than the chances of an incumbent member of the U.S. House of Representatives winning reelection. With wide name recognition, and usually an insurmountable advantage in campaign cash, House incumbents typically have little trouble holding onto their seats.”
Also, making members of Congress ever more the instruments of special interests with money is the ever-skyrocketing cost of campaigns—mainly for political TV commercials.
The Center for Responsive Politics notes that the 2012 election campaign was the “most expensive election in U.S. history”—costing $6 billion. Much of that, more than $2 billion, involved the presidential race. “House and Senate candidates combined will spend about $1.82 billion.” And “congressional races are being affected by the huge increase in outside spending.”
“In the new campaign finance landscape post-Citizens United, we’re seeing historic spending levels spurred by outside groups dominated by a small number of individuals and organizations making exceptional contributions,” said Sheila Krumholz, director of the Center for Responsive Politics.
As Alex Gibney, maker of the documentary “Casino Jack and the United States of Money,” has said, we have “a system of legalized bribery in Washington.”
This reflects directly on the low, low level of Congress doing anything—and, when it does, mainly serving special interests.
Change—major change—is desperately needed!
Karl Grossman, professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College of New York, is the author of the book, The Wrong Stuff: The Space’s Program’s Nuclear Threat to Our Planet. Grossman is an associate of the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion. | <urn:uuid:4e41317e-7671-4e29-a286-55d8a499ae7e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/01/01/congress-and-the-fiscal-cliff/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959407 | 1,224 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Roundabout Inspires Number of Objections
Opponents of a Carolina Vista roundabout are concerned that the project has proceeded with little local input, particularly from longtime residents. They know the street's history and reject the idea that this project is good for Pinehurst for these reasons:
1. Historic: The Federal Landmark District, the first such in the nation for a golf resort, was intended to preserve and protect the best of Pinehurst.
It honors James Tufts and Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed the village, and recognizes lifelong contributions of Leonard and Richard Tufts who honored Olmsted's plans, including Carolina Vista, one of its signature streets.
The state's own preservation experts agree the DOT plan is flawed.
2. Environmental: The DOT plan results in destruction of too many mature pines. To be safe at night, the roundabout will have to be brightly lit, bringing a Las Vegas brightness to a village that prefers it to look just "as it has for over 100 years."
3. Traffic/Safety Improvement: The DOT plan will not improve flow on N.C. 2 heading toward N.C. 5 because the traffic light there will continue to stop cars.
Pinehurst's own traffic consultants proposed that if a roundabout were to be constructed, it should be at N.C. 2 and N.C. 5. Placed there, it would eliminate the traffic light and allow unimpeded traffic flow.
Pedestrians and bikers now cross only one major street to get from hotel to Member's Club. With a Carolina Vista roundabout they would cross several streets, thus increasing risk of accidents, not reducing them.
I suggest that the newly appointed Pinehurst Historic Preservation Commission advise DOT and its environmental experts how they feel about this ill-conceived project that will impact negatively upon properties and streets within their mandated area of concern.
Paul R. Dunn, Pinehurst
More like this story | <urn:uuid:4deca5d7-b648-4928-8d0c-aea1f9692f42> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thepilot.com/news/2006/dec/26/roundabout-inspires-number-of-objections/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943224 | 399 | 1.648438 | 2 |
- Snakehead Kommando motto.(src)
|De facto leader||
Overseer Hanz Brucker
The Snakehead Kommando was a Kel-Morian vehicle-mounted infantry unit serving on Turaxis II during the Guild Wars. Its area of operations was the norther sector of Overseer Hanz Brucker's zone of command, and was tasked with writing scouting reports, as well as stopping Confederate patrols. It was commanded by Foreman Kar Ottmar.
In 2488, the Confederate Special Tactics and Mission Platoon (sometimes referred to as "Heaven's Devils") attacked Overseer Hanz Brucker's base of operations, Kel-Morian Internment Camp-36, killing him and rescuing the hundreds of POWs found there. The remaining Kel-Morians contacted Foreman Ottmar and warned him of the impending attack. Due to a Hellhound attack, the Kommando tracked the Confederates to a mineral stripper they were hiding under.
The Kommando's light attack vehicles and armored sloths headed to the scene of battle. The Confederates hid within the mineral stripper. A sniper shot one of the LAV drivers, forcing a switch, while another Confederate soldier fired a series of rockets at Ottmar's LAV, killing him and his fellow.
As the Kommando reached the Confederates, their vehicles were taken out by vulture attacks and grenades. As the last LAVs made a run for it, Confederate Avengers descended out of the sky and destroyed them. The Confederates and their POWs were saved, and the battle was over.
The Confederates followed the Kommando's tracks to their rear echelon, capturing it. | <urn:uuid:b6eef93d-3f34-4b0e-9cff-4f8e8d936e55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Snakehead_Kommando | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949151 | 348 | 1.695313 | 2 |
In this article the author focuses mainly in the last part of Ronald Dworkin´s Justice for Hedgehogs and in his argument for a partnership conception of democracy. For that purpose, first, he recalls some of the main features that Dworkin had advanced in previous but intrinsically related works, about political morality, equality and democracy; second, he reassess the arguments for a partnership conception of democracy; third, he reconsiders the resistance produced by Jeremy Waldron in his “A Majority in the Lifeboat” and the response provided by Dworkin, but since it may appear insufficient, he intends to present an alternative—or complementary—riposte in order to meet Waldron’s challenge; and, finally, he insists in the importance of taking Ronald Dworkin seriously.
4 Problema: Anuario de Filosofia y Teoria del Derecho 65-103 (2010)
Scholarly Commons Citation
Flores, Imer, "Ronald Dworkin’s Justice for Hedgehogs and Partnership Conception of Democracy (With a Comment to Jeremy Waldron’s 'A Majority in the Lifeboat')" (2010). Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works. Paper 1117. | <urn:uuid:1a37e02c-1078-4bc5-a571-737abcc05fe4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/1117/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901802 | 258 | 1.882813 | 2 |
Watching TV is among the most enjoyable activities for the whole family. As a matter of fact, this most likely consumes the whole night time of the family. As a parent, having a network TV can be among the cleverest thing to do. The best thing about it is the fact that you can choose the channel that is appropriate for you and your kids. You need to bear in mind that the shows that your kids watch can greatly affect their life and their behavior and so you need to be very crucial upon choosing the right shows for them. There is other more things that you need to consider and they are as follows.
To begin with, you need to check if the channel is child friendly. This simply means that the programs in it contain languages and scenes that are good for children. It should never have violence of any kind. You should be careful not to choose a program that might cause your children to have virtual reality of what the world really is. Make sure that you are sitting next to your child as well so you can explain if there are any scenes in which they can’t understand. Your presence is something that your kids really need and you need to seriously consider this. During those times that you are not at home then you need to ask someone to watch over your kids while watching television. You can either ask your older children to watch over their younger siblings.
Aside from violence, you need to be more than certain that your kids are not exposed to any obscene scene. In today’s world where everything seems to be okay, you need to let your kids understand that watching obscene film or programs is never okay and it will never be. Make time to talk to them over these matters so they can understand this may later on carry this in their adulthood.
Television can be classified to be among the most influential piece of appliances but you are still in control of your kids. You can’t just let TV direct their path because that is your sole responsibility. You need to make time for your kids no matter how busy you may get at times because at the end of the day they are the ones that matters the most. There is no other way you can become a better parent than by being their in their side for as often as you can. | <urn:uuid:36abd258-38aa-4eea-8160-36c660429136> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://buzz18.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981263 | 462 | 1.703125 | 2 |
vol. 13 no. 4, December, 2008
The detailed title of the project is 'The value creating network in preventive health care. Medical doctors as information providers and knowledge producers in counselling in the context of obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes type 2.'
The aim of the research is to explore how the value-creating health care network is set up to prevent obesity and its health consequences by counselling and what is the role of the medical doctors and medical knowledge in this network. The purpose of this study is to add knowledge about existing practices in medical consultations in the context of preventive health care and to increase understanding of people's information behaviour within networked environments. The theoretical background of the research is based on the social network theory and the framework of value constellation (Normann and Ramirez 1994) extending the theories of knowledge management complemented with every day information seeking theory of Chatman (1991; 1996; 1999; Huotari and Chatman 2001; Huotari and Iivonen 2004, 2005).The outcomes of this research may have an impact on practice by improving the effectiveness of interventions in lifestyle counselling by identifying the boundary processes of the different professionals involved in preventive health care.
The epidemic of obesity poses one of the most serious public health challenges in the WHO Europe region (WHO 2006). The health consequences range from increased risk of premature death to serious chronic conditions such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes type II and cardiovascular diseases. Lifestyle interventions focusing on changes in dietary and exercise habits have been shown to be effective in the prevention of type 2 diabetes among high risk subjects. (Tuomilehto et al. 2001; Yamaoka and Toshiro 2005; Dale et al. 2007). The information provided especially by medical doctors is considered to be trustworthy and most patients feel that physicians have a significant role in weight management (Eriksson-Backa 2003; Tan et al. 2006).
Information is crucial in preventive health care. Medical research has focused on how the diseases were developed, what kind of changes they cause, and how to treat them. Less attention has been paid to prevention of metabolic syndrome and obesity in general, to compliance with health regimens in particular, and to what the role of information is in compliance and support provided for patients by health care professionals. The impact of information should be a major concern in preventive health care and support for patients in counselling. Effectiveness requires comprehensive understanding for how health and related information are mastered in the health risk groups.
A rich flow of information and improved knowledge are not the same as good health behaviour. Research on knowledge management indicates that information is not synonymous with knowledge, neither is the transformation of knowledge into behaviour a simple or linear process. Many different highly educated health care professionals work in the primary health care but the responsibility of the care of the patient is shared, not collective. The health care organizations are divided into many actors and multiprofessional collaboration is limited. (Sinervo and Lindström 1992, Saaren-Seppälä 2006: 330.) The value-creating network, constructed by activities of a number of stakeholders involved in joint information and knowledge processes (Normann and Ramirez 1994), is a potent conception to analyze this complexity. According to Jaana Parviainen (2006: 156-157) the construction of collective knowledge is useful to both the professionals and to the organization. The collective knowledge is more than the knowledge of individuals.
This research is a subproject of the Health information practice and its impact. The context of metabolic syndrome and obesity project conducted at the Information Studies Unit, University of Oulu and at the Department of Information Studies, åbo Akademi University, which received an grant from the Academy of Finland for 2008-2011.
The framework of this dissertation is based on the theories of knowledge management and on the small world-theory in everyday life information seeking (ELIS) by Chatman (Huotari and Chatman 2001, Huotari and Iivonen 2005, Chatman 1991, 1996, 1999), on the social network theory and on the idea of value creating networks presented by Normann and Ramirez (1994).
Organizations, including health care organizations, are social networks consisting of health care professionals and e.g. administrative and assisting personnel. Each individual is an actor of the network with links or ties to other actors inside the organization and also outside the organization. The patient and his or her own social networks are linked to the health care organizations networks. Health care organizations are highly knowledge-based. The knowledge is embodied in the experts, embrained and encoded in patient records, databases and documents, embedded in routines and ways to function and also encultured in the organizational culture and social and intellectual capital of the organization.
Value is created in the network by knowledge sharing and combining and creating new knowledge. The knowledge processes can be divided into three categories: generative, productive and representative. (Huotari and Iivonen 2005). The density of the network is an essential attribute in knowledge sharing. In the context of preventive health care the created value to be considered is health information that has an impact on the patient's knowledge of health behaviour which can lead to healthier choices in lifestyle related issues.
Organizational culture describes the attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values of an organization. It is a collection of values and norms that is shared by people and groups in an organization and that controls the way they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the organization. The information behaviour in the organizations can be inspected with the concepts of Chatmans´ small world theory (Chatman 1991, 1996, 1999). Social norms allow members of the organization to approach or ignore information. Worldview is a shared outlook on life and it shapes the value systems and beliefs of the members. Categorizing people to social types such as insiders and outsiders define to the members of the social network whom to trust or distrust as an information source.
The aim of the research is to add knowledge about the existing practices in the medical consultations concerning counseling in the context of preventive health care.
The main research questions are:
The empirical study will be performed in collaboration with the Nursing Science and Medical Science at the University of Oulu and it is based on a qualitative approach and triangulation of research methods. The information and knowledege processes related to preventive health care and counselling will be indentified trough social network analysis and interviews with different professionals involved in the preventive health care and possibly completed with a questionnaire for the patients receiving counselling. Guidelines for research ethics in humanities, nursing sciences and medical science will be carefully followed.
I started as a doctoral student at the University of Oulu in January 2008 and so far I have been doing the research only part time, so the work is still at its beginning. The dissertation proposal and a poster have been presented in the doctoral workshops of the international conferences USE 2008, in Oulu, Finland 24-25 June 2008 and in ISIC 2008 Vilnius, Lithuania 16-19 September 2008. This year I have been working with the literature review and designing the research plan and my intention is to start a pilot study in the beginning of 2009 at the Paediatric Department of the Oulu University Hospital, which has been developing a regional treatment chain consisting of different health care professionals for the care of obese children. The gathering of data and writing of the thesis is planned to take four years.
The preliminary schedule:
Jan 2008-Dec 2008: Up-dated literature review, designing the final research plan
Jan 2009-Dec 2009: Data collection, starting data analysis writing the first article, starting the second article
Jan 2010-Dec 2010: Data analysis, reporting the findings, writing the second and third article
Jan 2011->: Writing the fourth article, finishing the dissertation, presenting findings in conferences.
|Find other papers on this subject| | <urn:uuid:0dcea4ea-7b89-4e80-ab95-84162d74bff0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://informationr.net/ir/13-4/wks08.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930646 | 1,591 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Leo Marks (24 September 1920 – 15 January 2001 / London)
Biography of Leo Marks
Born the son of an antiquarian bookseller in London, he was first introduced to cryptography when his father showed him a copy of Edgar Allan Poe's story, "The Gold-Bug". From this early interest, he demonstrated his skill at codebreaking at an early age by deciphering his father's secret price codes.
His father, Benjamin Marks, was joint owner of the Marks & Co bookshop at 84 Charing Cross Road, which achieved international fame with the 1970 book of that title by New York writer Helene Hanff and the later plays and movie.
As a teenager, he earned pocket money by setting the notoriously difficult Times cryptic crossword.
HIV Vaccine Awareness Day
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International Museum Day
memory + creativity = social change
Happy Birthday Omar Khayyam!
(1048-1131) Persian mathematician, poet, and philosopher
Happy Birthday Friedrich Rückert!
(1788-1866) German poet, translator, and professor of Oriental languages.
The Life That I Have
The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours. | <urn:uuid:1746addb-6901-433f-8781-f1fecda59e28> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.poemhunter.com/leo-marks/biography/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940331 | 277 | 1.835938 | 2 |