text stringlengths 213 24.6k | id stringlengths 47 47 | dump stringclasses 1
value | url stringlengths 14 499 | file_path stringlengths 138 138 | language stringclasses 1
value | language_score float64 0.9 1 | token_count int64 51 4.1k | score float64 1.5 5.06 | int_score int64 2 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Human Bot Fly
The Human Bot Fly: Yes, It is True
Trypophobe or trypophobia are not commonly heard words. They are used more by doctors treating their patients who seem to have these fears. If you do not know about this type of fear, it is the fear of holes in your body with maggots or some other insects coming out. But why and where does this fear called trypophobia get inside the minds of people? Let us take a closer look.
Have you heard about botfly? It is a stout, hairy bodied fly found in Americas (mostly Argentina and Chile) that lays eggs on the bodies of mosquitoes (female) and when these mosquitoes bite human beings, these eggs get inside the skin of the hapless human beings. These eggs grow and hatch to become larvae. The development of these larvae takes place inside human skin and finally when an individual suffers from red skin that bulges where this larva is parched inside that he comes to know about a parasite inside his body. Botfly larva is easy to kill by asphyxiating it. If you put some crème like Vaseline over the lump, the larva does not get air for survival and dies down. But in this case, you will have to make use of tweezers to take out larva from your body. The same process can be done after spraying nail polish remover over the affected area.
It is really horrifying a thought to have a parasite developing inside your body and this fear of holes makes many feel revulsion at the mere mention of human bot fly in front of them. But it is true and there exist such flies in Americas. However, what is reassuring is that this fly occurs in small numbers, and very rare are the instances when mosquitoes serve as vectors and carry the eggs of this fly inside human bodies. It is not just human bodies where these parasites develop as larvae but they are also found developing inside the tender skin of wild rabbits. These wild rabbits are considered delicacies in some parts of the world and eaten with zeal. It has to be remembered that these rabbits can have such larvae of bot fly inside their bodies and can harm humans upon consumption.
When the development of larvae is complete, they drop off from the skin of the host and pupate in soil. In normal circumstances, there is no permanent damage to host body because of larvae development inside his body. The chances of injury are more when larvae development is complete and it desires to get outside the body of the host. We do not wish to induce fear of holes in you but there are true instances when entomologists have reared eggs of botfly inside their bodies to develop specimens of adults as they are rarely captured.
If you feel of have a fear of such an egg inside your body, just place cotton dipped in camphorated coconut oil on the affected area and tape it. With no air to breathe, the worm will come out in 8 hours if there indeed is one inside your body.
To learn more about trypophobia CLICK HERE | <urn:uuid:af944aea-ec36-40d1-8c68-41cbc80e63dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://trypophobia.net/trypophobia-triggers/bot-flies/human-bot-fly | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968981 | 623 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Welcome to the American Studies Program at Bellevue College
Courses in American Studies offer students a unique opportunity to examine change and continuity in American culture. The focus on American life and society provides an understanding of our own culture as well as its impact on other countries in the world. American Studies uses a multi-disciplinary approach to draw upon the special interests of faculty from many departments in the college.
Both the flexibility and the stimulating topics of American Studies are primary reasons for students to enroll in this program's courses. In addition, its courses enable students to analyze and evaluate aspects of American identity and the products of culture.
The American Studies program offers students the ability to concentrate courses in this discipline, thereby facilitating their transfer to a university. The program is developing and expanding its course offerings each quarter.
Comments or questions should be directed to
Jeff Cofer at firstname.lastname@example.org or (425) 564-4186.
site updated:October 12, 2009 | <urn:uuid:840cd356-97d3-443e-af66-4e82d916b82e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bellevuecollege.edu/artshum/americanstudies/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937115 | 201 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Cancer is one of the scariest words you can hear from your doctor. Life-threatening or not, cancer is intense and typically involves extensive treatments. Fortunately, many individual and group health care plans provide some coverage for the medical treatments and bills incurred by cancer patients. So, if your traditional plan provides coverage, do you even need cancer insurance and is it worth it?
While many health care plans provide some coverage, the price of cancer treatments is so high that the responsibility to pay just 20 percent of a treatment cost is unrealistic for most patients. And, because the majority of cancer treatments are ongoing, the bills can accumulate, leading to debt and the inability to cover other costs of living like mortgages, car payments and utilities.
With that in mind, critical illness insurance is an option worth consideration. It is a supplement to a traditional health care policy and requires the insurer to pay a lump sum cash payment to the policyholder if the insured is diagnosed with a qualified cancer.
The benefit of cancer insurance is the policy money can be used towards a variety of expenses, not just medical bills, and can help cover lost wages for unpaid time you take off work. Without cancer insurance, a majority of your income may go towards paying off the bills from your treatment, leaving you and your loved ones with minimal finances to pay your mortgage or rent, food and other basic needs. Cancer insurance enables patients and their loved ones to fulfill their financial responsibilities without making serious sacrifices.
Cancer insurance can also provide coverage for experimental treatments, or treatments at out-of-state locations, that traditional policies may not cover, allowing you to seek the best treatment for you regardless of policy restrictions.
So, should you purchase a cancer insurance policy? It ultimately depends on a variety of factors including health history, financial situation and personal preference.
To learn more about cancer insurance, ask questions and see answers, visit Health Insurance Central. | <urn:uuid:a9056045-4e42-439a-ac0d-dc46f5da69c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ahealthiermichigan.org/2013/02/26/is-cancer-insurance-right-for-me/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953934 | 387 | 1.882813 | 2 |
with congressional Republicans and his top presidential rivals, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.
"Anyone who tells you America is in decline or that our influence has waned, doesn't know what they're talking about," Obama said — a clear response to the White House hopefuls who have pummeled him for months.
In an attack on the nation's growing income gap, Obama called for a new minimum tax rate of at least 30 percent on anyone making more than $1 million. Many millionaires — including Romney — pay a rate less than that because they get most of their income from investments, which are taxed at a lower rate.
"Now you can call this class warfare all you want," Obama said. "But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense."
Obama calls this the "Buffett rule," named for billionaire Warren Buffett, who has said it's unfair that his secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does. Emphasizing the point, Buffett's secretary, Debbie Bosanek, attended the address in first lady Michelle Obama's box.
Obama made his appeal on the same day that Romney released some of his tax returns, showing he made more than $20 million in a single year and paid around 14 percent in taxes, largely because his wealth came from investments.
In advance of Obama's speech, Romney said, "Tonight will mark another chapter in the misguided policies of the last three years — and the failed leadership of one man."
Obama highlighted his national security successes — the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the diminished strength of al-Qaida and the demise of Moammar Gadhafi. In hailing the men and women of the military, the commander in chief contrasted their cooperation and dedication with the divisions and acrimony in Washington.
"At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations," Obama said. "They're not consumed with personal ambition. They don't obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together. Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example."
Obama leaves Washington for a three-day tour of five states crucial to his re-election bid. On Wednesday he'll visit Iowa and Arizona to promote ideas to boost American manufacturing; on Thursday in Nevada and Colorado he'll discuss energy; and in Michigan on Friday he'll talk about college affordability, education and training.
He also addresses a conference of House Democrats focused on their own re-election in Cambridge, Md., on Friday.
Polling shows Americans are divided about Obama's overall job performance but unsatisfied with his handling of the economy.
Biden was interviewed on ABC's "Good Morning America," NBC's "Today" show and "CBS This Morning." Cantor appeared on CBS and MSNBC. | <urn:uuid:4bba073f-a6b0-45e7-9eeb-d9060c4bf1e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ebony.com/news-views/obama-to-republicans-game-on/2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982446 | 581 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Using this photo and referring to it is encouraged, and please use it in presentations, web pages, newspapers, blogs and reports.
For any form of publication, please include th link to this page and give the photographer credit (in this case Peter Prokosch)
Inuit youths with captured Ringed Seal (Pusa Hispida), Baffin, Canada
The Ringed Seal is the most common marine mammal in the Arctic. Traditionally, they were the main food source for the local Inuit community, and remain an important contributor. The distribution of mammals in this area is strongly defined by the sea-ice coverage. Open water occurs only for a couple of months, and as ice cover develops, Ringed Seals must create a network of breathing holes, that are maintained throughout the Winter. As soon as the ice firms, polar bears make their way onto the ice to hunt after a long Winter fast. | <urn:uuid:704aa5e7-4ea6-4b3f-9113-5b55b8298a8c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.grida.no/photolib/detail/inuit-youths-with-captured-ringed-seal-pusa-hispida-baffin-canada_f705 | 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 | 0.927263 | 187 | 3.25 | 3 |
C. Rangarajan: RBI rate cuts to depend on inflation scene
"It (policy rate cut by RBI) will depend upon how inflation behaves," Rangarajan told reporters on the sidelines of an event organised by International Chambers of Commerce (ICC) here.
Inflation measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) had declined to 6.62 per cent in January. It was 7.18 per cent in December and 7.24 per cent in November.
In January last year the WPI inflation was 7.23 per cent.
Rangarajan further said that the central bank will also take notice of action taken by the government on fiscal front to contain fiscal deficit.
In the union budget for 2013-14, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had said fiscal deficit for the financial year ending March 31, 2013 will be 5.2 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). For the next financial year, the fiscal deficit target has been fixed at 4.8 per cent.
RBI Governor D Subbarao in the third quarter monetary policy review had surprised the market by cutting short-term lending rate called repo by 0.25 per cent to 7.75 per cent and Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) by similar margin to 4 per cent, releasing Rs 18,000 crore primary liquidity into the system.
On RBI's decision to allow companies having exposure in real estate to apply for banking licence, Rangarajan said,"I think the RBI, will take a decision
Be the first to comment. | <urn:uuid:ea14577c-842e-4087-8f3d-7c6b0d12a166> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.financialexpress.com/news/c.-rangarajan-rbi-rate-cuts-to-depend-on-inflation-scene/1085184 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955992 | 326 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Honour and certainty are both qualities an individual may desire having. To be honoured by one’s name, or to be certain that through life they’ve made the right decisions. Honour is a clear sense of what is right and proper while maintaining great respect; certainty is freedom from doubt. In a sense these two traits are connected; with honour comes certainty, and with certainty comes honour. People want to be certain that what they are doing is right and will be satisfying in the end. With certainty in actions comes pride and honour with the results. Although before the pride and honour come into play, the right decision must be made and making this decision is a struggle for most individuals. Deceiving and conniving may seem simpler than being honest and working hard. There may seem like many quick and easy ways to do things at the last minute but they aren’t honorable. In Hamlet, William Shakespeare suggests that individuals struggle to restore honour and certainty because of procrastination and deception.
Throughout the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare presents many soliloquies. The character Hamlet for example has a few soliloquies in which he contemplates whether to take vengeance on his uncle or not. Shakespeare is constantly calling attention to Hamlet’s worries and delays. He repeatedly raises the issue of delay in decision making. Even though as the reader, an individual may think it is something he/she imposes on the play, but the play raises the issue itself. In Hamlet’s first soliloquy, Shakespeare shows the first true insight into Hamlet’s contemplative nature and his suppression of the passionate feelings towards Gertrude and Claudius. Hamlet agonizes over his hopelessness in carrying out the deed to avenge his father and is always searching for reasons why he is acting the way he is. No matter how much he... [continues]
Cite This Essay
(2012, 11). English 30. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 11, 2012, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/English-30-1256270.html
"English 30" StudyMode.com. 11 2012. 11 2012 <http://www.studymode.com/essays/English-30-1256270.html>.
"English 30." StudyMode.com. 11, 2012. Accessed 11, 2012. http://www.studymode.com/essays/English-30-1256270.html. | <urn:uuid:017485d4-eb2b-4074-854e-72b80b0da4d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.studymode.com/essays/English-30-1256270.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921081 | 517 | 3.765625 | 4 |
|Proceedings of the Conventions of the Province of Maryland,|
held at the City of Annapolis, in 1774, 1775 & 1776.
June 22 - June 25, 1774
November 21 - November 25, 1774
December 8 - December 12, 1774
April 24 - May 3, 1775
July 26, 1775 - August 14, 1775
December 7, 1775 - January 18, 1776
May 8 - May 25, 1776
June 21 - July 6, 1776
August 14 - November 11, 1776
The seventy-seventh volume of the Archives of Maryland series was originally published in 1836. The Archives of Maryland edition was published in 2000 by the Maryland State Archives. This volume covers the Proceedings of the Conventions of the Province of Maryland, held at the City of Annapolis, in 1774, 1775 & 1776.
The conventions can also be viewed in the Early State
Records Collection in their original printed form. The Proceedings for 1775 can also be found in
volume 11 of the Archives of Maryland series.
The first digital edition of the Archives of Maryland series is being published by the Maryland State Archives through a grant from the Information Technology Fund of the State of Maryland. As part of an ongoing effort to provide greater access to Maryland Legal History, the Archives will be bringing the printed Archives of Maryland series online and expanding the contents with links to scans of historical documents.
Proceedings of the Conventions of the Province of Maryland, held at the City of Annapolis, in 1774, 1775
& 1776. (Baltimore: James Lucas & E. K. Deaver and
Annapolis: Jonas Green, 1836). L1053 (8-3-2).
CONVENTION OF MARYLAND (Proceedings)
1775-1776, MSA S 68-1/7 | <urn:uuid:86f27554-8505-473d-8bf1-0587d143c377> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.archivesofmaryland.net/000001/000078/html/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910415 | 396 | 1.804688 | 2 |
From the busy BEES at Drexel University, worry that beach sand temperature 40 to 50 centimeters deep will be affected by the global warming air temperature rise of 0.8C over the last century, projected to increase. The models identified this as the leading projected cause of climate-related decline in leatherback turtles. They say “if actual climate patterns follow projections in the study, the eastern Pacific population of leatherback turtles will decline by 75 percent by the year 2100.” Gosh.
But they write in their press release as if the projections are actually happening:
Leatherback turtles, Spotila says, are in critical need of human help to survive. “Warming climate is killing eggs and hatchlings,” Spotila said. “Action is needed, both to mitigate this effect and, ultimately, to reverse it to avoid extinction. We need to change fishing practices that kill turtles at sea, intervene to cool the beach to save the developing eggs and find a way to stop global warming. Otherwise, the leatherback and many other species will be lost.”
It makes you wonder how the turtles ever survived the Roman Warm Period or the Medieval Warm Period or the early part of the Holocene?
Rising heat at the beach threatens largest sea turtles, climate change models show
PHILADELPHIA (July 1, 2012)—For eastern Pacific populations of leatherback turtles, the 21st century could be the last. New research suggests that climate change could exacerbate existing threats and nearly wipe out the population. Deaths of turtle eggs and hatchlings in nests buried at hotter, drier beaches are the leading projected cause of the potential climate-related decline, according to a new study in the journal Nature Climate Change by a research team from Drexel University, Princeton University, other institutions and government agencies.
Leatherbacks, the largest sea turtle species, are among the most critically endangered due to a combination of historical and ongoing threats including egg poaching at nesting beaches and juvenile and adult turtles being caught in fishing operations. The new research on climate dynamics suggests that climate change could impede this population’s ability to recover. If actual climate patterns follow projections in the study, the eastern Pacific population of leatherback turtles will decline by 75 percent by the year 2100.
Modeling the Ebb and Flow of Turtle Hatching with Climate Variation
“We used three models of this leatherback population to construct a climate-forced population dynamics model. Two parts were based on the population’s observed sensitivity to the nesting beach climate and one part was based on its sensitivity to the ocean climate,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Vincent Saba, a research fishery biologist with the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service Northeast Fisheries Science Center, visiting research collaborator at Princeton University, and a Drexel University alumnus.
Leatherback turtle births naturally ebb and flow from year to year in response to climate variations, with more hatchlings, and rare pulses of male hatchlings, entering the eastern Pacific Ocean in cooler, rainier years. Female turtles are more likely to return to nesting beaches in Costa Rica to lay eggs in years when they have more jellyfish to eat, and jellyfish in the eastern Pacific are likely more abundant during cooler seasons. Turtle eggs and hatchlings are also more likely to survive in these cooler, rainier seasons associated with the La Niña climate phase, as this research team recently reported in the journal PLoS ONE. In addition, temperature inside the nest affects turtles’ sex ratio, with most male hatchlings emerging during cooler, rainier seasons to join the predominantly-female turtle population.
The researchers applied Saba’s combined model of these population dynamics to seven climate model projections assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The climate model projections were chosen based on their ability to model El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) patterns on the temperature and precipitation in the region of Costa Rica where this team has conducted long-term leatherback studies.
Hot Beaches, More Warm Years Threaten Turtles’ Recovery
The resulting projections indicate that warmer, drier years will become increasingly frequent in Central America throughout this century. High egg and hatchling mortality associated with warmer, drier beach conditions was the most significant cause of the projected climate-related population decline: This nesting population of leatherbacks could decline by 7 percent per decade, or 75 percent overall by the year 2100.
The population is already critically low.
“In 1990, there were 1,500 turtles nesting on the Playa Grande beach,” said Dr. James Spotila, the Betz Chair Professor of Environmental Science in the College of Arts and Sciences at Drexel. “Now, there are 30 to 40 nesting females per season.”
Spotila, a co-author of the study, has been studying leatherback turtles at Playa Grande in Costa Rica, the largest leatherback nesting beach in the eastern Pacific, with colleagues and Drexel students, for 22 years.
Poaching of turtle eggs was a major cause of the initial decline, and was once such a widespread problem that virtually no turtle hatchlings would survive at Playa Grande. Spotila and colleagues worked with the local authorities in Costa Rica to protect the leatherbacks’ nesting beaches so that turtle nests can hatch in safety. By catch of juvenile and adult turtles in fishing operations in the eastern Pacific remains a threat.
For the population to recover successfully, Spotila said, “the challenge is to produce as many good hatchlings as possible. That requires us to be hands-on and manipulate the beach to make sure that happens.”
Spotila’s research team is already investigating methods such as watering and shading turtle nests that could mitigate the impact of hot, dry beach conditions on hatching success.
Link to this Nature Climate Change study: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/NCLIMATE1582
Link to recent news release about a related study by this research team in PLoS ONE: http://www.drexel.edu/now/news-media/releases/archive/2012/May/El-Nino-Climate-Change-Threaten-Leatherback-Sea-Turtles/
Maybe this is a bigger problem? From Wikipedia:
Asian exploitation of turtle nests has been cited as the most significant factor for the species’ global population decline. In Southeast Asia, egg harvesting in countries such as Thailand and Malaysia has led to a near-total collapse of local nesting populations. In Malaysia, where the turtle is practically locally extinct, the eggs are considered a delicacy. In the Caribbean, some cultures consider the eggs to be aphrodisiacs. | <urn:uuid:41cfe320-f4b9-46b2-9dec-d9146875ad69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/07/02/oh-noes-models-say-that-climate-change-enso-and-beach-sand-heat-will-kill-sea-turtles/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935677 | 1,388 | 3.640625 | 4 |
|What is embryo donation?
Embryo donation is an assisted reproduction technique during which embryos of different male and female genetic background are transferred. This treatment is used when both parts of the couple are unable to become pregnant with their own oocytes and spermatozoa.
EMBRYO DONATION PROGRAMME
The transferred embryos can be of the following origin:
A. From couples who have been in in vitro treatment and don't want more children and therefore donate officially the embryos to other couples. The embryos are from oocyte and/or sperm donation. The embryos are frozen.
B. They can also come from couples who decided to have only fresh embryos transferred. According to Spanish law couples have the right to freeze surplus embryos but are not obliged to.
In Institut Marques we do treat many foreign patients, often from far away countries who do not want to freeze their embryos since they prefer to repeat treatment directly with fresh embryos in order to increase their success chances.
Therefore every week we do have fresh embryo donations, mainly of oocyte and sperm donation origin.
EMBRYO ADOPTION PROGRAMME
The embryos come from healthy patients who are younger than 35 years and received successfully in vitro treatment and decided to have no more children.
These embryos often come from egg cell and/or sperm donation.
THEY PERFORM EMBRYO DONATION TRANSFER
- Couples with long term sterility problems and repeated failures with in vitro fertilization and/or egg donation.
- Women of good physical health.
- Women without male partner who wish for a child.
- Patients with repeated miscarriages.
Due to the restrictive laws in other states, patients come from different countries.
TREATMENT FOR EMBRYO DONATION
It's easy and painless.
The preparation of the uterus to receive the embryos consists of patches which are applied on the skin and vaginal suppositories. In a few days the uterus is prepared and the embryos can be thawed and transferred. No committal to the hospital is needed, merely physical efforts should be avoided.
After two weeks a pregnancy test needs to be done.
If you get pregnant, this pregnancy is considered a normal one. It is necessary to continue with the hormonal replacement therapy until you are 70 days pregnant.
The pregnancy check-ups are performed by your local gynaecologist.
PROCESS OF EMBRYO DONATION
During the initial consultation the woman's health is checked and a gynaecological examination is performed. Please bring any previous revelant medical report with you.
A scan will be performed and a painless catheter test is done. This is to choose the best catheter for transfer.
You will receive indications on how to proceed with the treatment and a date for the thawing and transfer of the embryos will be agreed.
The success rate in 2012 for each embryo adoption cycle in our centre was 50%.
The success rates are higher than for Embryo Adoption since some of the donations are fresh embryos.
SYSTEM OF EMBRYO ASSIGNMENT
To avoid the risk of future coincidence among the siblings, the especially designed assignment system assures that the embryos are distributed over different states or countries.
The last 500 cycles correspond to women coming from 30 different countries.
PRICE LIST FOR EMBRYO DONATION CYCLE
The initial consultation fee is 155 Euros.
The complete charge for the entire cycle is 3585 Euro.
There is no waiting list, as soon as all previous tests have been made and the preparatory treatment has started transfer takes place approximately two to four weeks later.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EMBRYO ADOPTION AND DONATION
The difference lies within the legal situation. For the "Donation Programme" the embryos come from couples who explicitly and in writing give their embryos away to other couples. In the "Adoption Programme" the destination of the embryos has not been chosen and therefore they are legally under the protection of the centre.
In any of these two cases it is only necessary to sign the consent form for the Assisted Reproduction Technique. | <urn:uuid:a37cb95a-c226-4c3d-8862-5016e9033996> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.institutmarques.com/embryo-donation.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934067 | 854 | 2.515625 | 3 |
About Associate Degrees and Certificates at Ohlone College
Go to the list of currently offered Associate Degrees and Certificates.
Ohlone offers associate degrees that are designed for students indending to transfer; with a general focus for students whose immediate educational goal may be to complete an associate degree or to transfer; and with an occupational focus for students interested in preparing for employment in certain fields, although these degrees may also be used by students indending to transfer. These associate degrees combine the focus of an emphasis or major within a discipline and the breadth of general education. See also Associate Degrees for Transfer (AA-T/AS-T).
Certificates of Achievement do not include the breadth of general education but allow a student to focus primarily on their chosen occupational program. Associate degrees require a minimum of 60 semester units whereas Certificates of Achievement are 18 semester units or more.
Both associate degrees and Certificates of Achievement are approved by Ohlone's Curriculum Committee, the Ohlone Community College District Board of Trustees, and the Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges. Accordingly, associate degrees and Certificates of Achievement may appear on a student's transcript.
Certificates of Accomplishment
Certificates of Accomplishment are awarded upon the completion of an organized course of study for a specific course, usually career or job related. Certificates of Accomplishment consist of a maximum of 17.5 semester units and allow students to finish the program in a shorter period of time.
Certificates of Accomplishment are approved by Ohlone's Curriculum Committee and the Ohlone Community College Distrcit Board of Trustees, but are not approved by the Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges. Therefore, per Title 5 of the California Education Code (Section 55070.b), Certificates of Accomplishment may not appear on a student's transcript.
In order to earn a Certificate of Accomplishment, students must:
- complete satisfactorily the courses listed for the particular certificate.
- complete at least 50% of the required units at Ohlone College.
- maintain a 2.0 grade point average. | <urn:uuid:c77b9386-0010-4e13-ba4c-e8103d47875e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ohlone.edu/core/academicprogramsabout.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931988 | 454 | 1.65625 | 2 |
|Jennifer Josef, ILGA-ASIA|
|Jennifer Josef, ILGA-ASIA|
We, Palestinian Queers for BDS (PQBDS) and Pinkwatching Israel, are appalled by the Equality Forums decision to highlight Israel as the featured nation of their 2012 Summit in Philadelphia this May. While attempting to celebrate the purported advancements of LGBT civil rights within Israeli society, the Equality Forum is partnering with the Israeli Embassy in Washington and the Israeli Ministry of Tourism in promoting the Tel Aviv gay tourism agenda.
Even more disturbing is the Equality Forums willingness to provide Israel with a platform to market itself as a state that protects human rights. We call
upon the Equality Forum leadership to reverse their complicity in Israels propaganda campaign.
The State of Israel realizes that its crimes have been exposed to the world. Israel is one of the largest violators of United Nations resolutions and has committed major atrocities against countless innocent civilians. Palestiniansboth queer and straightwho live in Israel suffer from significant discrimination and displacement and are denied fundamental rights merely because they do not belong to the Jewish ethno-religious group. Additionally, those Palestinians who live in the Israeli-occupied territories of the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank have faced decades of a brutal apartheid regime. Israel also denies millions of Palestinians who live in exile or in refugee camps the right to return to their ancestral homes as enshrined by United Nations Resolution 194.
Rather than end its ongoing ethnic cleansing and military occupation, Israel has instead pumped millions of dollars into the Brand Israel campaign which includes state propaganda aimed at altering its image around the world. A central pillar of this has been pinkwashing, or the shifting of discourse away from Israel as an apartheid state to Israel as a so-called gay haven.
In response, queer Palestinian and Arab grassroots organizations and initiatives, including alQaws, Pinkwatching Israel, and PQBDS, have worked tirelessly to highlight the myriad forms of persecution that we face, including Israels denial of our basic rights such as freedom of movement.
Rather than stand in solidarity with queer human rights activists who are resisting Israeli state hegemony, the Equality Forum has designated Michael
Oren as its keynote speaker. In addition to being a propagandist for war crimes, Oren is the Israeli ambassador to the United States. This is akin to the Equality Forum inviting a white South African ambassador as a keynote speaker during the apartheid era. We condemn the Equality Forums direct links with the Israeli Embassy in Washington and the Israeli Ministry of Tourism.
PQBDS and Pinkwatching Israel also denounce the decision of the Equality Forum to aggrandize Israel by rendering invisible the gay-rights violations
within Israel as well as the oppression of queer and straight Palestinians. The Equality Forum is flaunting its disregard for decades of Palestinian and
Israeli anti-occupation activism, including the 2005 Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions call. As a result, many people of conscience are joining the chorus criticizing the Equality Forum, including Sherry Wolf and Uri Horesh.
If the Equality Forum chooses to proceed with this agenda of Israeli state-sponsored propaganda and to promote gay tourism in an apartheid state, then we request that speakers and participantswho are genuinely committed to equality, social justice, and human rightsboycott the 2012 Equality Forum Summit.
- Palestinian Queers for BDS and Pinkwatching Israel | <urn:uuid:126ac3e8-3cc2-44bd-b6b7-ea86040f5ca2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ilga.org/ilga/en/article/nrGGll81qM | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935417 | 681 | 1.585938 | 2 |
- First member corporation established in 1898
- Joined Mayo Clinic Health System in March 1996
The first hospital in Mankato began in 1886 when Colonel John Tourtellotte donated $8,000 to the city to build a place where the poor could be treated free of charge. That first hospital was built one mile from the city and had a bed capacity of 20.
In 1897, city trustees asked the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother to take charge of the hospital. They agreed to operate the hospital for one year for a fee of $1,000. The following year the sisters purchased the Willard House on North Sixth Street and opened St. Joseph's Hospital in July 1898, with a bed capacity of 22. Later additions brought the capacity up to 120 beds and in 1953 the decision was made to build a new building on the hilltop of Mankato. The five-story building was built in the shape of a Greek cross. An adjoining service building, connected to the main building by tunnel, contained the laundry and boiler plant.
Immanuel Hospital was begun in 1906 by the German Lutheran Hospital Association under sponsorship of Immanuel Lutheran Church of Mankato. The hospital underwent several additions and in 1941 it became community sponsored.
In January 1969, the two hospitals merged in what is believed to be the first such merger of a Lutheran and a Catholic hospital in the United States. The actual physical merger took place nearly ten years later, in 1978, with the construction of an addition to the hilltop facility.
In March 1996, Immanuel St. Joseph's became part of Mayo Clinic Health System - an organization that includes clinics, hospitals and other health care providers that care for patients in communities in Iowa, Georgia, Wisconsin and Minnesota. As part of Mayo Clinic, a leading caregiver with nearly 150 years of patient care, research and medical education expertise, we offer a full spectrum of health care options to local neighborhoods, ranging from primary to highly specialized care. It's why we're recognized as one of the most successful regional health care systems in the United States..
For information about our organization today, please see the Mayo Clinic Health System Fact Sheet. | <urn:uuid:5819c999-aac4-4bc4-aceb-13ce8b64fa61> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mayoclinichealthsystem.org/locations/mankato/about-us | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966103 | 437 | 2.3125 | 2 |
Obama as the Anti-Bush
In a column headlined "George W. Obama," Washington Post deputy editorial page editor Jackson Diehl writes on Sunday that Obama is behaving like George W. Bush in trying to take advantage of a crisis to ram through his ideological agenda.
Also in Sunday's Post, White House correspondent Michael D. Shear writes in an opinion piece that Obama's constant use of the word "responsibility" creates a risk "that the word -- and the president who deploys it -- may suffer from its overuse, especially if 'responsibility' moves from reassuring to lecturing, from calming to hectoring, turning this young new president into the father-knows-best figure that kids tune out."
But what both essays overlook is how much the Obama presidency has turned out to be, at heart, all about fixing the mistakes of the Bush years and addressing the issues he overlooked -- and how Obama stresses "responsibility" to telegraph an agenda that is the antithesis of the Bush approach.
Redressing the errors of the last eight years has become so central to the Obama presidency that, despite his efforts to foster bipartisanship, he hasn't shied away from blistering critiques of his predecessor's legacy at the key moments of his presidency.
Remember, for instance, his inaugural address, in which he said it was time "to set aside childish things," and called on Americans to "pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America."
"[W]e have lived through an era where too often short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity, where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election," he said. "A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future. Regulations -- regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn't afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day.
"Well, that day of reckoning has arrived, and the time to take charge of our future is here."
Diehl supports his argument with several analogies such as this one: "Just as Bush promoted tax cuts as a remedy for surplus and then later as essential in a time of deficits, so Obama has come up with strained arguments as to why health-care reform, which he supported before the economic collapse, turns out to be essential to recovery."
But when it comes to their substance, Bush's tax cuts really don't have a lot in common with Obama's health care plan. Indeed, Bush's tax cuts, primarily for the wealthy, were arguably never appropriate, while health reform has been an urgent need for decades, and certainly no less so during an economic crisis. It's nearly impossible to find any serious thinker who supports the status quo for health care; and it's only slightly easier to find one who will argue that Bush's tax cuts were a good idea, ever.
Examples of Bush's irresponsibility -- and that's exactly the right word -- are legion, starting with those tax cuts but, of course, also including the invasion of Iraq under false pretenses, the occupation of Iraq based on faulty assumptions, the sanctioning of anti-terror policies that inspired rather than deterred terrorism, the punting on such key issues as climate change and health care -- and a complete failure to anticipate the financial crisis born of massive deregulation. Obama is taking a dramatically different course in all those arenas.
By contrast, it's precisely in the places where Obama really is acting like Bush -- such as his vague bank bailout strategy, his slowed-down Iraq pullout and his assertion of some specious executive powers -- that he seems on the shakiest ground, responsibility-wise.
The Obama as Bush metaphor gets another backer this morning in The Post, with opinion columnist Robert Kagan writing: "President Obama's foreign policy team has been working hard to present its policies to the world as constituting a radical break from the Bush years....
"When it comes to actual policies, however, selling the pretense of radical change has required some sleight of hand -- and a helpful press corps."
But the facts generally demonstrate that -- with a few exceptions -- Obama has already taken, as Bridget Johnson conveniently writes for The Hill this morning, a "sharp turn on foreign policy."
Consider how in just seven weeks, Obama has renounced torture, is reaching out to Iran and Syria, and has made it clear that he may abandon Bush's proposed missile-defense bases in Eastern Europe -- just for starters.
Meanwhile, Washington Post opinion columnist Robert Samuelson has harsh words for Obama, primarily because he won't raise taxes enough.
"Obama is a great pretender. He repeatedly says he is doing things that he isn't, trusting his powerful rhetoric to obscure the difference. He has made 'responsibility' a personal theme; the budget's cover line is 'A New Era of Responsibility.' He says the budget begins 'making the tough choices necessary to restore fiscal discipline.' It doesn't."
Samuelson's biggest concern is the looming deficit, and he is upset that Obama isn't raising taxes, eliminating all farm subsidies, and cutting Social Security and Medicare for the wealthy, for starters.
"Like many smart people, he believes he can talk his way around problems. Maybe. He's helped by much of the media, which seem so enthralled with him that they don't see glaring contradictions. During the campaign, Obama said he would change Washington's petty partisanship; he also advocated a highly partisan agenda. Both claims could not be true. The media barely noticed; the same obliviousness persists. But Obama still runs a risk: that his overworked rhetoric loses its power and boomerangs on him."
Posted by: walterzz | March 9, 2009 2:49 PM | Report abuse
Posted by: constwkr | March 9, 2009 3:46 PM | Report abuse
Posted by: motorfriend | March 9, 2009 4:12 PM | Report abuse
Posted by: BigTunaTim | March 9, 2009 4:32 PM | Report abuse
Posted by: tryks | March 9, 2009 4:36 PM | Report abuse
Posted by: herzliebster | March 9, 2009 5:48 PM | Report abuse
Posted by: Stan_Krute | March 10, 2009 7:37 AM | Report abuse
Posted by: mihager | March 10, 2009 11:33 AM | Report abuse
The comments to this entry are closed. | <urn:uuid:d02b3c21-8257-42d1-b5e2-ebc5b672b2a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://voices.washingtonpost.com/white-house-watch/looking-backward/obama-as-the-anti-bush.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97531 | 1,384 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Hair loss occurs as a result of chemotherapy and other drugs to suppress breast cancer. The depletion of estrogen is often the primary cause of experienced hair loss. When hair grows back, it is often in an altered state: wavier texture, duller color, sparser consistency, thinner feel, dissimilar growth pattern. Remedies include hair regrowth products, trendy headscarves, wigs, extensions, semi-permanent human hair attachments, hair implants.
When I first learned I was going to have chemotherapy, there were two thoughts that roared into my head like a freight train. One, I’m going to be terribly sick, nauseous and vomiting, and man, I’ve always HATED throwing up. And two, I’m going to lose my hair and be bald. WOW. It was a lot to absorb all at once. The doctor wrote out on a… | <urn:uuid:4242becb-0289-49c2-8675-921fa57dbc32> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/general/living-with/hair-loss/community/4?expert_activity= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961552 | 186 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Look for firm, bright carrots without cracks on the sides or sprouts where the green tops have been removed.
If desired, peel just before cooking—or, to retain more juices and nutrients, try scrubbing instead. To preserve their natural sugars and sweet flavor, cook carrots in as little liquid as possible.
Cut carrots diagonally and combine with diced turnips, potatoes, and onions. Toss with olive oil and rosemary, and bake at 400°F (200°C) until tender.
Carrots are an excellent source of vitamin A.
Copyright © 2013 Aisle7. All rights reserved. Aisle7.com
The information presented in the Food Guide is for informational purposes only and was created by a team of US–registered dietitians and food experts. Consult your doctor, practitioner, and/or pharmacist for any health problem and before using any supplements, making dietary changes, or before making any changes in prescribed medications. Information expires June 2014. | <urn:uuid:47eefdac-1305-4589-8b2a-add507ac26dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goodnnatural.com/healthnotes.htm?resource=%2Fassets%2Ffood-guide%2Fcarrots%2F~default | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921438 | 201 | 1.726563 | 2 |
When you boil it all down sustainable living is about efficiency. That’s why no serious discussion about sustainable practice can ignore the rise of big bloated governments and their attendant bureaucracies.
Fact is the institution of government is directly responsible for unsustainable practice.
The French philosopher and libertarian, Bastiat, said it best:
“Government is the myth whereby one half of the population live off the other half.”
That’s precisely the problem faced by all so-called developed economies and the world at large. We are seeing the sickening, debilitating rise of an unproductive sector.
An ever-growing percentage of our workforce is engaged in a whole range of unproductive pursuits; administration, ensuring compliance, rubber-stamping, pen-pushing, bean-counting and big brother style tracking of others.
Big bloated governments have a natural tendency to drive the growth of non-productive “work”. Their focus on “full employment” or low unemployment as an election aid means they do not consider the intrinsic value to the community of the jobs created. To them it’s job creation and simply a numbers game – a job is a job.
But the reality is we’re seeing an explosion of administrators and public servants paid reasonably well for doing unreasonably little of real value for the community. They’re given perk packages, government cars and travel allowances to abuse. All in the name of job creation and low unemployment.
It’s essentially a grandiose public dole scheme that’s open to abuse. And abused it is…
The government sector suffers from entrenched cronyism and jobs-for-the-boys mentality that ensures further growth of the non-productive sector.
What we are seeing is an explosion of parasitic bureaucracy and over-regulation that stifles creative enterprise and produces vast inefficiencies. Big bloated governments are unsustainable. Tell them to get a real job. | <urn:uuid:1983b7ee-0927-4ed6-a8b6-4ebf7c63675e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.littlegreenguide.com/living-green/2007/05/governments-bureaucracy-and-sustainable-living/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903384 | 402 | 1.859375 | 2 |
The battle between President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney isn't the only important political race up for grabs this Tuesday. There are 33 U.S. Senate seats throughout the country to be voted on as well. Brooke speaks with CNN's Dana Bash about a few of the high profile senate races that could shift the balance of power in congress.
Ohio, Florida, Colorado and Iowa are four of the crucial swing states that will likely decide this election for either President Barack Obama or Governor Mitt Romney. Brooke speaks with CNN's Martin Savidge, John Zarrella, Poppy Harlow and Kyung Lah to get a feel for how voters are handling all the extra attention being placed on their states.
It's a possibility few people know about. But thanks to our electoral system, it could happen.
An electoral tie between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney could hand the power of choosing the president and vice president over to Congress - which could, in turn, lead to a Romney-Biden White House.
Here's an animated look at how that could happen.
What do you think of the electoral system? Join our discussions on that and other topics surrounding the election at Facebook or Twitter. | <urn:uuid:8712d27a-fc92-421a-8804-44a95fd512b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newsroom.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/05/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964906 | 241 | 1.726563 | 2 |
May 16, 2013
Since the end of the 19th century, Europe has boasted the best public transportation systems in the world. Nearly every capital European city has a reliable public transit system that includes rail and bus service. Major cities have historic trolleys and trams that run right through the busy streets. The old tracks through cobble paved roads give light rail passengers a sense of history.
Some major European cities also have trolley buses that are powered by overhead electric wires, something that isn’t as common in (more…)
May 13, 2013
Are you in the process of planning a trip to Europe in the near future? If so, then you may be wondering just how you are going to get around once you are there, especially if you plan on arriving there by plane. Of course, renting a car is always an option but it is one that is often quite expensive. So if you are looking to travel on a budget, there is a good chance that you are going to rely on the bus as your primary mode of (more…)
May 11, 2013
Using the bus system in Europe involves knowing the best way to get the ticket or pass you need for the journey you want to make and the times to travel when the bus is least crowded and the fares are cheapest. For those wanting an alternative to automobile rental if visiting or ownership if residing on the continent, the bus system in Europe affords the traveler a safe and cost-effective option. Knowing the fare to pay and the route to take (more…)
May 8, 2013
Using the rail system in Europe can be a convenient and enjoyable way to travel around the continent quickly and in comfort. Passengers traveling in any European country need to know the type of ticket needed, the policies governing etiquette on the trains themselves, and the way to plan journeys to make the easiest and most efficient use of the network of interconnected stations. For those considering which pass to purchase, there are a vast array of ticket types to suit the (more…)
May 6, 2013
Europe is well-known for having some of the best public transportation systems in the world. Every year, thousands of visitors learn to master buses, trains and subways in countries such as the United Kingdom, France and Italy. Not only is using public transportation a great way to experience an authentic side of life in a foreign country, but rides are extremely affordable alternatives to taxis and rental cars. Furthermore, the convenience of public transportation makes it a smart choice for any traveler to (more…)
October 15, 2012
This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging! | <urn:uuid:85ea3155-fa34-4a80-90f4-2ebcf67c00bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ertms.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954516 | 533 | 1.734375 | 2 |
1) v. to ask the court not to allow a particular question asked of a witness by the opposing lawyer on the basis that it is either legally not permitted, confusing in its wording or improper in its "form." An attorney may also object to an answer to the question on the basis that it is not "responsive" since a witness is limited to answering a question as asked and is not allowed to make unsolicited comments. The trial attorney must be alert and quick in order to object before the witness answers. This is called an "objection" and must be based on a specific list of legal restrictions on questions. 2) n. a particular thing. 3) n. an aim or purpose, as "the object of the contract..." | <urn:uuid:84f56089-fdd4-4490-bbb3-593277a9a659> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=1363 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976836 | 150 | 2.484375 | 2 |
"Mr. Warren compared same-sex couples to incest."
Barney Frank on Sunday, December 21st, 2008 in TV interview
Warren on gay marriage and incest
One of the first controversies faced by freshly elected Barack Obama came with his selection of evangelical Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his Jan. 20 inauguration.
Although viewed by some as a moderate, Warren's outspoken support of California's recently passed Proposition 8 — which amended the state constitution to ban gay marriage — angered some in Obama's liberal base, particularly those who support gay marriage.
In the days after Obama announced that Warren would deliver the invocation, one of the popular sound bites coming from opponents was an accusation that Warren recently likened gay couples to incest.
Leading the charge was U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who is openly gay.
"Mr. Warren compared same-sex couples to incest," Frank said in an interview on CNN's Late Edition on Dec. 21, 2008. "I found that deeply offensive and unfair."
Frank repeated his objections to Obama's pick during an interview with MSNBC the following day: "I think Rick Warren's comments comparing same-sex relationships to incest is deeply offensive, wildly inaccurate and very socially disruptive."
The comments Frank is referring to come from an interview Warren gave in mid December to Steven Waldman, editor in chief of Beliefnet.
Context is the critical thing here, so we'll provide a generous helping of Warren's statements to give you a complete view:
Waldman: Do you support civil unions or domestic partnerships?
Warren: I don't know if I'd use the term there. But I support full equal rights for everybody in America. I don't believe we should have unequal rights depending on particular lifestyles, or whatever stuff like that. So I fully support equal rights.
Waldman: What about partnership benefits in terms of insurance or hospital visitation?
Warren: "Not a problem with me ... I'm not opposed to that as much as I'm opposed to the redefinition of a 5,000-year-old definition of marriage. I'm opposed to having a brother and sister be together and call that marriage. I'm opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that a marriage. I'm opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage."
Q: "Do you think those are equivalent to gays getting married?"
A: "Oh, I do. For 5,000 years marriage has been defined by every single culture and every single religion...as a man and a woman."
We'll note here that Warren's statement about the 5,000-year history of marriage seems wrong on its face, given that several cultures and religions have accepted polygamy. But we're not rating that statement here, just the allegation that he compared gay couples to incest.
On the one hand, Warren did throw out examples of brothers and sisters marrying (incest) or an adult marrying a child (pedophilia) in the context of explaining his opposition to gay marriage. But they were cited as examples of unions outside his definition of marriage. And he agreed that same-sex couples would be another.
Warren did not, however, compare "same-sex relationships to incest" or say they are similar. He only said they all fall outside his definition of marriage. That's an important distinction.
In fact, Warren noted that he is okay with partnership benefits for same-sex couples. Later in the interview, Warren noted that he has "many gay friends. I've eaten dinner in gay homes. No church has probably done more for people with AIDS than Saddlebrook Church. Kay (his wife) and I have given millions of dollars out of the Purpose Driven Life helping people who got AIDS through gay relationships. So they can't accuse me of homophobia. I just don't believe in the redefinition of marriage."
For his part, Obama opposes gay marriage, though he supports extending "full and equal rights and benefits to same-sex couples under both state and federal law." And Obama opposed Proposition 8, calling it "divisive and discriminatory."
While noting that he differs with Warren on some issues, Obama defended Warren's selection, saying, "During the course of the entire inaugural festivities, there are going to be a wide range of viewpoints that are presented. And that's how it should be, because that's what America is about."
Frank agreed that "everybody should speak, and there could be a dialogue." But, he said, "giving that kind of mark of approval and honor to someone who has frankly spoken in ways that I and many others have found personally very offensive, I thought that was a mistake for the president-elect to do."
You can argue the appropriateness of Obama's choice, and you can argue the appropriateness of Warren citing examples of incest in the context of explaining his opposition to gay marriage, but Frank distorts Warren's words when he says Warren "compared same-sex couples to incest." He didn't. He just cited them as types of relationships that should not be eligible for marriage. We rule his comment Barely True.
Editor's note: This statement was rated Barely True when it was published. On July 27, 2011, we changed the name for the rating to Mostly False.
Published: Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 8:07 p.m.
YouTube, MSNBC interview with Rep. Barney Frank , Dec. 22, 2008
Beliefnet, "Steven Waldman Interviews Rick Warren," December, 2008
Washington Post, "Frank Criticizes Obama's Invocation Choice," Dec. 22, 2008
Sacramento Bee, "Obama rejects proposed California gay marriage ban" by Aurelio Rojas, July 1, 2008
We want to hear your suggestions and comments.
For tips or comments on our Obameter and our GOP-Pledge-O-Meter promise databases, please e-mail the Obameter. If you are commenting on a specific promise, please include the wording of the promise.For comments about our Truth-O-Meter or Flip-O-Meter items, please e-mail the Truth-O-Meter. We’re especially interested in seeing any chain e-mails you receive that you would like us to check out. If you send us a comment, we'll assume you don't mind us publishing it unless you tell us otherwise.
Keep up to date with Politifact:
- Sign up for our e-mail (about once a week)
- Put a free PolitiFact widget on your blog or Web page
- Subscribe to our RSS feeds on Truth-O-Meter items
- Subscribe to our RSS feeds on GOP Pledge-O-Meter items
- Subscribe to our RSS feeds on Obameter items
- Advertise on PolitiFact
- Shop the PolitiFact store for T-shirts, hats and other PolitiFact swag | <urn:uuid:9ca3f512-7821-4d04-8291-918e48e96e84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/jan/13/barney-frank/warren-gay-marriage-and-incest/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969877 | 1,435 | 1.976563 | 2 |
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-015 is impossible to move, and is contained on-site. A gap of at least 2 m (6 ft) needs to be maintained around the entire structure containing SCP-015 at all times, and no structures of any kind are to make contact with SCP-015's current containment structure. Exploration is permissible, but only in teams of three (3) with full safety lines and GPS tracking. Any protrusions from SCP-015 must be capped and sealed immediately, with the new site recorded and logged.
No aggressive action is to be made within SCP-015. No hand or power tools are allowed anywhere inside SCP-015. No repairs or maintenance are to be made anywhere on SCP-015.
Description: SCP-015 is a mass of pipes, vents, boilers and other various plumbing apparatus completely filling a warehouse in ███████. The pipes appear to grow when not under observation, attempting to connect to nearby structures via sewer systems and underground plumbing. SCP-015 contains, at current estimate, over 190 kilometers (120 miles) of pipes, ranging in diameter from 2.5 cm to over 1 m. Some pipes appear new, while others are rusted and leaking. Pipes have been reported as being made of bone, wood, steel, pressed ash, human flesh, glass, and granite. No pipes composed of lead, PVC plastic, copper, or any other traditional material for the production of pipes have been found.
SCP-015 reacts to tools and aggression. Any personnel acting violently, carrying tools, or attempting to damage or repair SCP-015 in any way, will trigger a reaction. Any pipes near the subject will burst, spraying on the subject for several seconds before the flow suddenly stops. Pipes have been reported containing oil, mercury, rats, a species of insect not yet identified, ground glass, sea water, entrails, and molten iron. Pipes will continue to burst around subject until death or retreat.
SCP-015 was cut back to its current structure after attaching to 11 other structures in the area. Currently, 11 personnel have been killed, and 20 more are still missing. Reports have been made of banging and screaming coming from within SCP-015. | <urn:uuid:aa1f12e0-8066-4558-860e-6fdc01b31d15> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-015 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95002 | 460 | 2.09375 | 2 |
ELY - Lily the Internet-famous black bear has given birth again, to a pair of cubs early Saturday morning in a den near Ely.
As with the birth of Hope in 2010, and Faith and Jason in 2011, the arrival of the two new cubs was broadcast live around the world via a Web camera placed in the den.
“Lily was restless Friday evening and surprised us by giving birth a week earlier than she has previously,” Lynn Rogers of the North American Bear Center said in a news release. “We’re thrilled to hear the sounds of healthy cubs.”
Lily, who is now 6 years old, gave birth to one cub just before 1 a.m. Saturday, and the other 20 minutes later. Newborn cubs typically weigh about a pound and are about nine inches long, the Bear Center reported in its news release. Cubs’ eyes usually remain closed until early March.
The births prompted a rush of activity Saturday on the “Lily the Black Bear” Facebook page, which has accumulated more than 146,000 “likes” in recent years. More than 100 volunteer den-watchers from around the world will continue recording observations about Lily and her cubs until they leave the den in spring.
The camera in Lily’s den is one of two that researchers have placed into dens near Ely this winter. The other, in the den of Lily’s sister, Jewel, shows her with yearling cubs Fern and Herbie.
The cubs born Saturday have not yet been named. In past years, the Bear Center has held a "name-the-cub" contest in the months after the cubs were born. | <urn:uuid:0631a21a-acc1-4881-830a-a2f196b26ede> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/content/lily-black-bear-internet-fame-gives-birth-two-cubs-near-ely?qt-latest_trending_article_page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972825 | 357 | 1.867188 | 2 |
One thing no one denies about Oscar Pistorius is that he’s a world class sprinter with the heart of a champion. Pistorius is billed as “the fastest thing on no legs.” Because of birth anomalies, both of his legs were amputated just below the knee when he was eleven months old. Now 20 years old and outfitted with carbon fiber prosthetic legs that look somewhat like slender bent paddles, he has developed himself into a sprinter whose times are nearly good enough to qualify for the Olympics, and are still improving. He has excelled in the Paralympics. Now he’s aiming for the Olympics.
This is where the disagreement begins. Some are strenuously opposed to letting him compete in the Olympics, and their exchange with his supporters has led to difficult questions about the very nature and point of sport and the significance of “natural” human bodies. Track and field’s governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federation, argues that the prosthetic legs may give Pistorius an unfair advantage by lengthening his stride. His proponents counter that because of how the legs store energy, they still leave Pistorius at a disadvantage; worse, the IAAF’s stance reflects an ugly but common revulsion toward people with disabilities. Unfortunately, the IAAF’s way of articulating its position fans the flames. One IAAF official has tried to explain the organization’s opposition to Pistorius’s possible enhancement by appealing to the “purity of sport”; inevitably, though, such language suggests that disabled athletes are “impure.”
Other prominent views about the nature and point of sport are not much more helpful. The World Antidoping Agency opposes enhancements on grounds that they violate the “spirit of sport.” This language also gets Pistorius’s case wrong, since it implies that he is cheating. But he is not hiding his legs, and he did not acquire them in order to run. His drive and determination and his willingness to expose himself to failure on a national stage seem the very embodiment of the spirit of sport.
A few years ago, the President’s Council on Bioethics argued that athletic performance is valuable because it is a venue for “excellent human activity,” and that doping undermines the value of sport because it reveals a dissatisfaction with the human body and a desire for something more. Presumably this analysis would apply to mechanical enhancements. But it doesn’t seem to fit Pistorius’s situation: he did not have his legs removed because he wanted a different body, and his struggle to make the best of what he has been given displays excellent human activity as well as anyone ever has. Indeed, making the best of what one has been given is exactly what the President’s Council said athletes should do.
The failure of these attempts to say why Pistorius should not be in the Olympics should not end the debate, though. Perhaps, after all, we should relinquish the search for a unifying theory of sports – particularly one that can be formulated in three neat words and will explain in every case what’s acceptable in sports and what’s not. Perhaps we should say simply that sports are pursued in various ways, under the aegis of various organizations, to celebrate various things. Sports are valued because they involve behavioral traits that we value – diligence, drive, grit, cool-headedness, creativity, and so on – and physical traits – strength, speed, quickness, endurance. But different sports, and different organizations, will pick out different traits. Each is a kind of subculture, distinguished from others by its commitment to a set of values that not everyone in the society is compelled to share.
This more complicated view of sports lets us reframe the debate about Pistorius. The hard work he’s put into refining his abilities undeniably argues for letting him have a go at Olympic gold. He merits it. Also, he undeniably turns in remarkable performances that are fun to watch: he’s real fast. Nonetheless, the IAAF can justifiably deny him the right to compete in the Olympics. The view of sports adopted by the IAAF and put on display in the Olympics celebrates performances that are achieved with only human bodies – unenhanced and unaided – and Pistorius brings something more than human legs to running.
From the IAAF’s perspective, Pistorius is a true “para-athlete,” and maybe one of the first of a new sporting tradition. He helps us see that the Paralympics is – or can be – a parallel line, not a lesser venue. Pistorius is not less deserving than standard issue Olympic athletes, not necessarily less competitive, and not even necessarily less “abled.” Possibly he is “more abled.” More to the point, others with prosthetic legs probably someday will be. Like Pistorius, these athletes of the future will not be violating any grand eternal plan by competing in sports. But that is still not grounds for including them in the Olympics. | <urn:uuid:72cc4cbb-dce9-4e0a-b76b-a1cfd19c147e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thehastingscenter.org/bioethicsforum/post.aspx?id=436&blogid=140 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964144 | 1,054 | 2.140625 | 2 |
The use of Ultrasound in small animal veterinary medicine has grown rapidly in Village Vet practice in the past 5 years. This has allowed early diagnosis and better management of diseases which previously went undetected for months or years.
What is Ultrasound?
An ultrasound examination is an imaging technique in which deep structures of the body can be visualised by recording echoes of ultrasonic waves which are directed into the tissues. Unlike x-rays which are potentially dangerous, ultrasound waves are considered to be entirely safe.
What is the difference between ultrasound and other types of scan?
Because you get a moving image with ultrasound – as opposed to a static one that you get with an x-ray or brain scan – you can see precisely how the body is functioning in a non-invasive way.
We can check the size, structure and appearance of internal organs to see how each one is working in action.
Which parts of the body do you use ultrasound for?
With the heart, we can use it to watch how it beats, look at its size and see if there is an enlargement. With the intestines, we can assess if muscles are contracting properly as part of the body’s mechanisms for processing food. It is ideal for getting a close look at small organs (kidneys, liver and spleen) and to check for foreign structures in the chest. Images can be frozen and then printed from the computer to provide a positive record of the examination.
Do you choose to use either ultrasound or x-ray?
No, it depends on the condition or what we are trying to find out. When it is appropriate, we may use it as the first line of investigation, such as with a urinary tract problem. Ultrasound may be used in conjunction with x-ray to give a full picture of what might be wrong.
What are the benefits to a pet?
There is no need for sedation or anaesthetic, and it is often okay for the pet to eat beforehand – which makes owners and pets feel happier! Importantly, it is well tolerated by pets, there is no pain, nor is there any exposure to rays. One of the greatest benefits is that it can help us identify problems, like an adrenal gland tumor, which one might not see on x-ray.
Does the technique have any drawbacks?
Ultrasound examinations are of little value in the examination of organs that contain air. Ultrasound waves will not pass through air and therefore it cannot be used to examine the lungs.
Do you need to be specially trained to use ultrasound?
Yes, the machine is totally operator dependent. Our expert has spent ten years developing skills, including one to one training with a top US radiologist, and a specialisation in internal veterinary medicine.
Is the technique affordable?
Ultrasound has become more affordable of late. It is proving its value, particularly in respect of cases such as pregnancy diagnosis, evaluation of the size and normality of internal organs, evaluation of heart function, blood flow and examination of structures within the eye, which make its cost very well worthwhile.
Please contact your local Village Vet practice for more information. | <urn:uuid:29316b63-9df3-4f1b-b227-a60b838d80c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.villagevet.co.uk/expertise/ultrasound/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957724 | 649 | 3.125 | 3 |
Also, it’s possible that some of [Chief Justice Shirley] Abrahamson’s colleagues have had problems taking directions from a woman, says Deborah Rhode, a Stanford Law School professor whose work focuses on gender, law and public policy. She notes that many studies suggest women in leadership positions face trade-offs that men don’t.Speaking of things that are "possible"... it's possible to say something more generic about the relations between men and women in the workplace.
“What’s assertive in a man is abrasive in a woman,” Rhode says, mentioning a report on women in leadership roles by Catalyst, a nonprofit group that focuses on expanding opportunities for women in business. It surveyed female executives, and many of them attributed some of their success to finding a management style that made men feel comfortable.
And there's this from Leah Ward Sears, the former chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court:
“You have to know when to hold them, and know when to fold them. Sometimes people don’t know when to walk away... Because everybody is a sovereign state... sometimes you have to push hard, because some justices can be bullies. But that doesn’t mean you choke anyone or push anyone out the window.”Noted. | <urn:uuid:7b4d7c18-67cd-4601-9457-efcdb8156843> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.althouse.blogspot.com/2012/01/does-aba-journal-shed-any-new-light-on.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96962 | 266 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Today's Daily Tip
Yoga Does Every Body Good
By May 2002, personal trainer and triathlete Jaime Powell had been enjoying a vigorous Ashtanga Yoga routine for three years. But that spring her practice was transformed in an instant when a truck hit her while she was out on her bike for a training ride, breaking two of her ribs, chipping two vertebrae, fracturing her sternum, and badly injuring her knee.
It was more than a year before Powell could return to her Ashtanga practice, and going from having a body that could bend like a pretzel to one that had to rely on a walker for two months permanently altered her approach to yoga. "The accident helped me become much less competitive," she says, "more self-reflective and tuned in to subtleties. I realized that being present and patient and slowly working an edge is the same for everyone, regardless of physical ability."
With luck, few of us will face such a life-threatening event. But nearly everyone will eventually encounter some health challenge—a less dramatic accident, a tweaked back or knee, a chronic condition, the vagaries of growing older—that temporarily or permanently alters our asana practice.
For some, this shift in abilities is gradual, as it has been for Wyoming resident Barbara Gose, a 65-year-old retired professor of political science whose arthritis has made practicing many familiar poses increasingly difficult and painful. Others, like Eric Small, may find themselves turning to yoga for help after the onset of an illness. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 21, Small was told he probably wouldn't live to 40. Now a muscular, vigorous man in his mid-70s, Small credits Iyengar Yoga with keeping his MS at bay. He holds a Senior Level II Iyengar teaching certificate and has been teaching the practice to other students with physical challenges for decades.
COME TO THE MAT
Medical research has documented yoga's benefits for some special-needs populations. Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University found that older adults and people with multiple sclerosis who participated in a weekly yoga class and home practice for six months showed significant improvement in measures of fatigue compared to a control group that didn't practice yoga. "We also demonstrated improvements in forward bending and one-legged standing ability," says neurologist Barry Oken, M.D., who has practiced yoga for 15 years. Such improvements are especially valuable for seniors, since fractures resulting from falls are a leading cause of disability among older adults.
Better posture is another plus, says Julie Lawrence, an Iyengar-certified instructor who collaborated with colleague Jane Carlsen to create the yoga class used in the Oregon study. "Slumping constricts the internal organs and interferes with respiration, circulation, and digestion," says Lawrence. "Good alignment helps people breathe better, which has a calming effect on the entire body." Also, she says, just as slumping can reflect and magnify a downbeat emotional state, so good alignment can help you feel more cheerful and energetic.
Yoga's ability to help stooped seniors stand taller was demonstrated in a recent study of older women with hyperkyphosis (a.k.a. dowager's hump). Research by Gail Greendale, M.D., of the University of California, Los Angeles, found that one-hour yoga sessions twice a week for 12 weeks helped participants increase their height, reduce the forward curvature of their spines, and improve their scores on physical tests that assessed everyday tasks like walking, rising from a chair, and reaching for an object in front of them. Participants also said the yoga helped reduce pain, improve breathing, and increase endurance. "More than 60 percent reported increased feelings of well-being," says Greendale.
Although Western scientists are just beginning to study yoga's potential to alleviate many chronic health conditions, a large number of practitioners swear it's made a huge difference in their lives. Some are like Eric Small, who's continued to thrive for 35 years longer than his doctors expected him to live. Others, like Gose, credit it with helping them build and maintain strength, flexibility, and balance. And countless practitioners, like Jaime Powell, have used yoga to help them maintain physical and emotional strength and rehabilitate after injuries and accidents.
LET FORM FOLLOW FUNCTION
This usually requires breaking down complex poses into their most basic parts. If you've been hunched over for years, for example, simply lifting your chest up and away from your navel can stretch your belly and act as a backbend. Conversely, says Kraftsow, the most basic piece of a forward bend involves contracting the abdominal muscles on your exhalation to provide a gentle stretch for the lower back.
FIND A GUIDE
If you're injured or sick or have other physical limitations, you need to "start where you are and let go of any image of what you should look like in a pose," says Vandita Kate Marchesiello, who directs the Kripalu Yoga Teachers Association and teaches yoga for special populations. She recommends taking an "adaptive," "therapeutic," or "gentle" yoga class. (For more information, see "Class Cues," end of article.) Teachers offering such classes often use props like chairs, blocks, bolsters, blankets, and straps to modify postures; what's more, says Marchesiello, "the classes also foster a sense of support and community."
REMEMBER TO BREATHE
Mukunda Stiles, director of the Yoga Therapy Center in Boulder, Colorado, and author of Structural Yoga Therapy (Weiser Books, 2000), echoes Sarvaananda's emphasis on the breath. Learning to breathe deeply and move with the breath is crucial, he says, whether you're lifting just one pinkie finger or your entire body—and it's especially crucial in adaptive, therapeutic practice.
Students dealing with chronic aches and pains can use the breath to ease discomfort. "I breathe into my hip whenever I feel a catch in it, and my arthritis pain melts away," says Gose, who thinks yoga and breathing have helped her cut back on pain medication.
TAKE IT TO THE FLOOR
If you're still fearful and unsure of your ability, try holding on to a sturdy, stable chair placed on top of a yoga mat and braced securely against a wall. Use a folded yoga mat near the chair to pad the floor and make kneeling more comfortable. When Francina teaches older students, she stands nearby to make sure they don't fall. "If the students are having a hard time, I encourage them to try their other side to see if it's stronger." She also encourages them to take all the time they need to come to the floor—and to rest as long as they need before trying to get back up. "As with anything else," she says, "it gets easier with practice. I constantly remind my older students to sit on the floor every day." If your yoga teacher isn't comfortable helping you with these skills, Francina suggests working with an occupational or physical therapist.
If it's impossible to get down on the floor, don't worry about it: You can do a complete practice on a chair. Mary Cavanaugh, an 83-year-old yoga teacher who began practicing in her mid-40s to heal back pain exacerbated by factory work during World War II, created a DVD set (Secrets to Feeling Better) that includes a modified Sun Salutation done on a chair. For would-be yogis with even less mobility, the DVD also includes a practice you can do in bed. (Cavanaugh died this year. For a brief biographical note and review of her other CD, Secrets to a Long and Healthy Life, see page 115 of the May/ June 2005 issue of Yoga Journal.)
FIVE YOURSELF PROPS
If unsupported standing poses are too challenging, you can practice them with your back against a wall or by holding on to a chair. If the poses feel too difficult even with these modifications, you can lie on the floor on your back and practice them with your feet on a wall.
If you have a rounded spine and find just lying facedown to be a fairly strong backbending action, the floor may be the only prop you need. If you can move into a somewhat stronger (but still passive) backbend, lie faceup with your back gently arched over a bolster or tightly rolled blanket; keep your legs straight or, to protect your lower back against compression, bend your knees and keep your feet flat on the floor.
If seated postures are uncomfortable because of stiff hips and hamstrings, sitting on a bolster or folded blankets can help you lift through your spine and open your chest. If your lower back still slumps, sit with your back against a wall for extra support. In seated twists, place your hands against a wall or a heavy piece of furniture for more stability and leverage. In seated forward bends, use straps to bridge gaps between your hands and feet, and support your upper body with bolsters or folded blankets, or by placing your arms on a chair. If you can't reach the floor in standing forward bends, put your hands on yoga blocks or a stable piece of furniture.
Even the basic inverted posture Viparita Karani (Legs-up-the-Wall Pose) is possible with props. If swinging your legs up the wall is too difficult, rest your lower legs on a chair seat for an easier version. In fact, even if you're bedridden you can create a similar position by propping your legs up on bolsters or cushions.
Finally, props can give you the full restorative benefits of Savasana (Corpse Pose) by maintaining the natural curves of the spine and making you as comfortable and relaxed as possible. (For information on propping restorative poses, consult Judith Hanson Lasater's book Relax and Renew, Rodmell Press, 1995.)
FACE YOUR FEARS
One of the most powerful limitations to starting or restarting a yoga practice can be your own fear. If you've suffered an accident or confronted a serious illness, you may be so traumatized that you're afraid to be fully present in your body, says Maria Mendola, a registered nurse in Tucson, Arizona. Mendola knows this dynamic intimately; eleven years ago, she broke her back, and she says letting go of fear in her body and mind took more than five years. Now certified in Integrative Yoga Therapy, Mendola addresses her students' fears not just physically but also emotionally. "To help with a fear of falling, for instance, I teach them to establish a firm base," she says, "but I also encourage them to formulate positive intentions like 'I am becoming stronger and more stable' and 'I am healing.' This influences the subconscious and can have a profound effect."
Viniyoga teacher Kraftsow also stresses the mental benefits. "It can transform the mind," he says. "Much of its healing power is rooted in its ability to nourish self-confidence and help you see your potential and overcome a sense that you're limited." Feelings of anxiety and depression may ease as you get in touch with your body in a curious, inquiring way, as you start taking steps to improve your health, and as you see your efforts making a difference. You may become more accepting of yourself, less focused on your limitations, and more grateful for what your body can do. At the same time, as a spiritual tradition that seeks to connect you with the divine, yoga can help you recognize that you're more than just your body, which is particularly valuable when you have physical challenges.
Best and most basic of all, yoga can help you learn to enjoy movement again, says Niika Quistgaard, a clinical Ayurveda specialist in western New Jersey. Diagnosed with fibromyalgia eight years ago, Quistgaard knows what it means to be miserable in your own body. "That's one reason my classes go beyond the traditional asanas," she says. "I include shoulder rolls, self-massage, and other juicy, exploratory, pleasurable movements that help people enjoy the experience." While many of her students come to yoga "to fix something," she says, "I like to emphasize that we're already completely whole, and we can enjoy ourselves even when everything isn't physically perfect. It comes down to loving ourselves just as we are, which brings its own healing."
CALL AROUND Contact local yoga studios, wellness centers, and even churches and YMCAs. Classes designed for people with specific health conditions are increasingly common. In addition, classes labeled "Gentle Yoga," "Yoga for Seniors," or "Yoga Therapy" may be appropriate and are likely to include students with a wide range of physical issues.
START YOUR OWN If you can't find a suitable class, ask local studios whether any of their teachers are qualified to teach special-needs students. If a studio receives enough such requests, it may create a class; if not, you may find an instructor willing to offer private lessons to you or to a group you create.
LOOK ONLINE The International Association of Yoga Therapists lists members at www.iayt.org (or call 928-541-0004). Teachers trained in Integrative Yoga Therapy can be found at www.iytyogatherapy.com. A Web search can yield teachers trained in Iyengar Yoga and Viniyoga, noted for adapting practice to people with health concerns. Kripalu Yoga also offers teacher trainings on working with special-needs students.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK Whether checking out a publicly offered class or considering private instruction, ask your prospective teachers questions about their training and experience. Have they had extensive training and been teaching for at least three or four years? Generally, the longer they've been practicing and teaching, the better. It's also useful if they've had special training in therapeutic yoga. Have they worked with someone in your condition? Such experience is a plus, but not a necessity. Your comfort, rapport, and communication with the teacher may be just as important.
TALK TO YOUR DOCTORS Ask your health care providers if there are any precautions you should take in your yoga practice, and communicate these to your teachers.
BREATH IS THE KEY TO YOGA, says Swami Sarvaananda, who teaches at the Integral Yoga ashram in Buckingham, Virginia. Full, even breathing is especially valuable for people with limited mobility, who often have chronically shallow breathing because they sit so much and tend to slump. A technique called Deergha Swaasam (Three-Part Breath) can help. At first, practice it for just a minute, then gradually build to 5 minutes.
Relax and exhale completely, imagining that you're releasing all the tensions and impurities from your body.
Inhale deeply through the nose in three stages: First, fill the lower lungs so the belly swells like a balloon, then the middle lungs, and finally the upper lungs.
Exhale though the nose in reverse order, emptying the upper lungs first, then the middle lungs, and finally the lower lungs.
Carol Krucoff, a yoga teacher and journalist in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is coauthor, with her husband, Mitchell Krucoff, M.D., of Healing Moves: How to Cure, Relieve, and Prevent Common Ailments with Exercise (Writers' Collective, 2004), www.healingmoves.com.
Find helpful resources on how yoga can help one overcome physical challenges in our Online Extra archives. | <urn:uuid:0f100e81-870f-4fa7-98d5-3046b7046a45> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yogajournal.com/health/1767 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962197 | 3,238 | 1.875 | 2 |
Beside playing drums I'm toying with software to create music. The problem is when I need to advance further. I may have some good, let's say "riffs" (or pieces, or melodies, or ideas), and I'm pretty harsh with everything I create (until I'm really proud out it, it's crap to me), but have no idea how to make it longer. I have lots of "samples", short melodies, but I just can't make them last longer.
Is there any way to make creating music little easier? Some music theory stuff? And how to connect pieces, how to extend existing one? That are things I'm really interested in.
I would be very grateful for any answer., I love both music and creating it, but the lack of ability to "continue" is getting me down.
And I know that there was thread for composing, but it was aimed for guitar, and I'm seeking more general tips. | <urn:uuid:1eddae56-d65d-4a1f-8b14-00055c549920> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://music.stackexchange.com/questions/6974/is-there-any-way-to-improve-composing/6975 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979633 | 199 | 1.71875 | 2 |
|Home > About Kitchen Kapers > In the News > Press Releases > Press Release: Tap Water Bottle from Arvind|
Spending hundreds of dollars on bottled water? Troubled by the number of plastic bottles you toss into the recycling bin? Or concerned that your plastic water bottles might be leaching harmful chemicals into your drinking water?
Tap Water Bottle from Arvind: Bottle Your Own and Save Money, the Environment, and Kids Around the World*
Now you can put your concerns to rest by pouring tap water into your own glass Tap Water Bottle by Arvind.
Increasingly, studies are indicating that tap water in many American municipalities may actually be safer than bottled water since tap water is tested more frequently for harmful impurities.
Arvindís Tap Water Bottle is perfect for use at home, in the office, or even in restuarants and hotels. It's made of glass so it's environmentally friendly, is cleverly labeled to indicate your environmental awareness, and is made with foodsafe colors that meet California's Proposition 65.
*A portion of the proceeds of the sale of each Tap Water Bottle will go to Water.org.
Kitchen Kapers is a family-owned, upscale kitchenware retailer with 12 stores throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.
March 6, 2009
Updated December 30, 2009
|Company Info Store Locations Careers In The News Homemade Fun! Newsletter||Contact Us Shipping Info Security & Privacy FAQ's Return Policy||Gift Registry Recipes & Tips Cooking Classes Store Events Special Offers Kapers Blog| | <urn:uuid:8d26479c-3e8a-4795-8667-2a9e3682cc40> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kitchenkapers.com/press-release-tap-water-bottle.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902558 | 319 | 1.953125 | 2 |
Whiskey: Frequently Asked Questions
What is WHISKEY?
The term whiskey means, simply, a distilled liquor made from the fermented mash of grains. That encompasses all of these wonderful-in-their-own-way treats: Bourbon Whiskey, Tennessee Whiskey, Scotch Whisky, Irish Whiskey, and Canadian Whisky . Each type of whiskey has its own guidelines and distillation process that makes itIt is important to remember that they are all part of the same family...so when going to a liquor store to ask about a "good whiskey," you must first figure out which whiskey it is that you are needing.
whiskey/whisky: from the Gaelic “usquebaugh”(alt. sp. “uisge-beatha”) meaning “water of life.” Simply, whiskey is an alcoholic liquor distilled from grain and aged in wood casks. What defines a whiskey’s type and classification (and even the spelling) is a little more complicated. Whiskey, most commonly, is distilled using barley, corn, rye, wheat or oats. Technically, anything capable of producing neutral spirits can be turned into whiskey (beet whiskey anyone?). ...
How much whiskey is in a barrel?
There are many variables in the yield of a barrel, but on average, our 15 gallon barrel option will yield 100-110 750 ml bottles at 80+ proof. There is a bit of loss through Angel's Share (evaporation) and initial absorption, but these factors are fairly predictable. We barrel most whiskey at right around 120 proof (60% alcohol by volume) so when it's cut to bottling strength the yield is higher with the added water. If you want to do the math, take 60% (120 proof) of 15 gallons for a total of 9 gallons of alcohol. ...
What is small batch whiskey?
Small batch whiskeys are bottlings from a "batch" of barrels that have been mixed prior to the bottling.
What is Single Malt Whiskey?
Malt whiskey that is only vatted with malt whisky from one distillery. It may also be a single barrel
What is single barrel whiskey?
Whiskeys are called single barrel when they are the bottled from one barrel of
What is grain whiskey?
Whiskey made from barley, or corn that was not malted. It is usually distilled in a Coffey still.
Why is this whiskey called bourbon?
It takes its name from Bourbon County, located in the central Bluegrass region of Kentucky. It was formed from Fayette county in 1785 while still a part of Virginia and named to honor the French Royal Family and was once the major transshipment site for distilled spirits heading down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. Barrels shipped from its ports were stamped with the county's name, and Bourbon and whiskey soon became synonymous.
Is whiskey expensive?
The price of whiskey varies greatly depending on the style, age, classification and availability. You can find some really great deals out there. Canadian whisky Forty Creek Barrel Select is less than $30. One of the best deals in Irish whiskey is Redbreast pot stilled whiskey at around $40. With single malt Scotch, you will probably not find anything worth drinking for less than $40 (if you find one, let us know). I am sure there are deals out there though. ...
Is all whiskey BOURBON?
All bourbons are whiskey, but not all whiskies are bourbon. Bourbon is one of the 5 major types of whiskey: Bourbon, Irish, Scotch, Canadian, and Tennessee. By law, to be called a straight bourbon whiskey , the mash bill must contain at least 51 percent corn, be distilled at no more than 160 proof and aged in new, charred oak barrels for a minimum of two years.
Is RYE WHISKEY bourbon?
Bourbon guidelines state that, at least, 51% of the mash utilized is corn . As the name states, rye whiskey uses rye as the primary grain in its mash.
What is the difference between American Whiskey and Irish Whiskey?
There are several differences between the two. The primary being Irish whiskey is made from mostly malted barley and American whiskey is made from mostly corn.
Is Devil Whiskey free?
No, it isn’t. We will be releasing a fully-playable demo containing one sub-quest, the beginning of the main plot, most of the classes (with a level cap at 13), and the majority of the rest of the features of the game. This demo will be free to download and play. If you like it, we ask that you support us and the rest of the contracted developers who have worked on the game, creating everything from the original artwork and audio tracks to the full game engine, from the manual and story content to the storyline and map design. ...
What is Devil Whiskey?
Devil Whiskey is a party-based, turn-based, grid-mapped, 3D role playing and adventure game, based on the interactive play styles of the popular role-playing games of the late 1980’s. It is a completely original title, developed by the minds at Shifting Suns Studios, LLC, and brought to you, the fans of a style of gaming that has since been deemed ‘old’ by the industry, but that we believe can still provide hours of enjoyment.
What are the health benefits with scorpion and cobra whiskey?
The story is that scorpion and Cobra whiskey's are used in SE Asia as very strong Aphrodisiacs; they have also been know to have many medical uses, such as the treatment of back and muscle pain. To Wear 13. No questions Other 14. No questions Terms & Condtions
Who Buys An Entire Barrel of Whiskey?
Most of our customers are simply individuals who love whiskey and realize that making their own is a totally unique experience. In some cases, groups of 2-4 people will get together and share the cost of a barrel. Our primary customer types are: * Whiskey Enthusiasts * Groups of Friends * Bars * Restaurants * Liquor Stores * Corporate & Fraternal Groups A barrel of whiskey can also be a fantastically symbolic gift for a major life event. ...
Is whiskey spelled with or without an 'e'?
I think you just answered your own question there, mate. Q: I don't know how much water I should add to my Ardbeg 22. A: Send us your bottle of Ardbeg 22, and we shall return it filled with what we feel is an appropriate amount of water.
I think you just answered your own question there, mate. Q: I don't know how much water I should add to my Ardbeg 22. A: Send us your bottle of Ardbeg 22, and we shall return it filled with what we feel is an appropriate amount of water. Q: The Ardbeg 22 you sent back to me is now perfectly clear, whereas before it was amber in color--what gives? A: The newsgroup is about scotch whisky, yes.
What Is the Difference Between Bourbon and Whiskey?
Bourbon is the whiskey originally distilled in Bourbon Country, Kentucky. It is made from a mash of not less than 51 percent corn plus malt and rye. Whiskies constitute the other grain mash liquors that use a mash that is less than half corn. Whisky, without the "e", refers to the grain mash liquor of Scotland.
Are you working on a new Whiskey Mattimoe mystery?
I'm motivated to continue the series—thanks to the glam hounds and equally gorgeous humans I've met at dog shows and book signings. For preview chapters, see the Whiskey Mattimoe page. And check my Whiskey Mattimoe blog for updates.
What’s Canadian Whiskey?
Canadian Whisky is made primarily from corn or wheat, with a supplement of rye, barley, or barley malt. There are no Canadian government requirements when it comes to the percentages of grains used. Unlike Bourbons, Canadian Whiskies are aged, primarily in used oak barrels. The minimum age for Canadian Whisky is three years, with most brands being aged four to six years. Virtually all Canadian Whiskies are blended from different grain whiskies of different ages. Ask A Question
Where else can I buy custom whiskey?
To our knowledge, the only other custom whiskey facility is Mackmyra in Sweden. If there are others, please let us know.
Does Four Roses still make a blended whiskey?
When ownership changed in 2002, we stopped the production and sale of blended whiskey to focus our attention exclusively on Four Roses Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. Have a sip and I think you’ll agree with our decision 100%.
Is there any truth to the whiskey conspiracy in Complicity?
From alt.books.iain-banks Jens Tingleff( email@example.com ) says : I thought that the Whisky conspiracy story in 'Complicity' was - more or less - just another fictional entity (like that computer game ;-) ). In yesterday's Independent (UK quality daily newspaper), the comic columnist Miles Kindston carries on about this. (He claims to have picked up on someone from the FT writing about the Whisky conspiracy. ) The good part is that there is a shop in Edinburgh which does non-filtered non-caramel-added Whisky. ...
Does Big Whiskey play Weddings?
Of course we do. Being upfront we are not your typical wedding band. We aim to please with our wide variety of material, and we encourage you to add songs of your choice to our setlist for your event. We can even MC your wedding for an additional charge. We can also be booked for private parties, corporate functions, country clubs, and anywhere you can think to have Big Whiskey perform. Email us for a complete songlist. firstname.lastname@example.org
Is Devil Whiskey multi-player enabled?
No, it isn’t. A turn-based game is poorly adapted to simultaneous multi-player capabilities, as either every player would be waiting on every other to make each move, or time could not be synchronous. In our quest to develop a role playing and adventure title that met the requirements we set out for it, we decided that the turn-based nature of the game was more important than enabling multi-player functionality. ...
What do I need to know before buying scorpion and cobra whiskey?
The buyer accepts responsibility that the sale complies with all applicable laws and delivery regulations in their own country. Only buyers of lawful age will be accepted for purchasing items containing alcohol.
What was your inspiration for the Whiskey Mattimoe mystery series?
When I wrote Whiskey on the Rocks , the book that launched the Whiskey Mattimoe series, I was sharing my rural home with Lucille, a dog rescued in late pregnancy by my then-husband and me. Not remotely an Afghan hound, Lucille was a mutt with fast legs, a scary snarl and bafflingly high self-esteem. Like Abra, she had no apparent maternal instincts and a libido that wouldn't quit. She also had a propensity for chasing anything that promised misadventure. ...
How much time is supposed to elapse between Whiskey Mattimoe mysteries?
One season. Because the series is set in the resort town of Magnet Springs, each mystery takes place during the next major tourist event on the calendar. In the first book, Whiskey on the Rocks, it's autumn, which is leaf-peeping season. In Whiskey Straight Up, it's winter sports season. Whiskey and Tonic takes place in the spring, otherwise known as blossom-spotting season. Whiskey and Water is set in late June, during the start of water sports season . . . which is why humans and dogs end up in Lake Michigan.
Do you have any advice for first time whiskey drinkers?
Take your time. Savor every sip. Have some patience. You may fall in love with whisk(e)y with your first dram. However, you may try several before you find one you like. You may never find one you like. Chances are, out of the many styles, classifications and distilleries you will be able to find something you enjoy. The best advice is to find somewhere to drink that has a good whisk(e)y selection or seek out an organized whisk(e)y tasting. You may even find a liquor storeowner that has taster bottles. ... | <urn:uuid:e24e1a85-9d56-4b9b-9563-d2fbf1a87f87> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.snappyfingers.com/faq/drink/whiskey/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948617 | 2,632 | 2.265625 | 2 |
Centrepoint via cgi.ebay.co.uk
This four-tier square fruit cake was created by the Welsh National Culinary Team and donated to charity in honor of the royal wedding.
Hoping to own a little piece of royal wedding memorabilia, one U.K. woman hit eBay and bid on a souvenir she never thought she would win, a wedding cake created in honor of the royal wedding. Little did she know that she would end up paying £500, or about $820, for the confection.
“It’s too beautiful to eat,” Alexandra Sharpe told the News and Star newspaper. “It was a complete shock to actually get the cake. I went over my budget. It’s wonderful to have a piece of history like this.”
The four-tier square fruit cake with ivory icing was made by the Welsh National Culinary Team and is decorated with the monograms of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, along with the Welsh dragon and a harp.
"It took about 300 hours to create and we estimate that it’s worth about £3,500 ($5,770),” Graham Tinsley, manager of the Welsh National Culinary Team, told the Windsor Knot. “When the royal couple got engaged, we wrote to the prince asking if we could do something for the occasion and the palace suggested that we make a cake to be donated to charity."
The money raised by the auction will be given to Centrepoint, an organization supported by Prince William, which helps young homeless people turn their lives around.
This isn’t Sharpe’s first foray into the world of royal cakes. She already owns a piece of Princess Anne’s wedding cake. And she's not the only one with an appetite for decades-old cake – pieces of Prince Charles and Diana’s wedding cake pop up every now and again at auction. In 2008, a slice from one of their 27 cakes was sold at auction by a former royal servant, who had kept it wrapped in clingfilm in an attic for the past 27 years. | <urn:uuid:e289b2c5-3fc6-4241-b2c4-c1fab54b04ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://windsorknot.today.com/_nv/more/section/archive?author=rachel-elbaum | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967623 | 440 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Individual Savings Account
UK tax-free account for savings and investment in the United Kingdom, a tax-free savings or investment account. Both cash ISAs and stocks and shares ISAs are available. The maximum that can be invested per tax year is capped, at £11,280 for 2012–13, up to £5,640 of which can be saved in cash. Formerly, Mini ISAs allowed investment in either cash or stocks, and Maxi ISAs investment in both together.
Related definitions of "Individual Savings Account"
- Abbr ISA | <urn:uuid:a0486117-eae0-45ea-bc33-348a5dc9a30a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.qfinance.com/dictionary/individual-savings-account | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946309 | 115 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Go to Admin » Appearance » Widgets » and move Gabfire Widget: Social into that MastheadOverlay zone
Hundreds of conferences, cable news specials, and panels have tried time and again to answer this age old question… What is wrong with our youth? There are many answers to this question but few tend to tackle another important issue at hand which is the distinctive cultural & generational gap between older blacks and the youth, especially in lower income communities. Due to this generation gap, black youth are often dismissed as uncivilized, sagging pants wearing lunatics. A failure to bridge this gap may impact new and fresh black leadership for years to come.
Take a walk in the hood and ask some random teens who their role models are. Sure, you’ll get a few who may name President Obama but the majority of their responses will be athletes, entertainers, or most will state that they don’t have any role models at all. Sorry to say, but Obama’s election to the presidency did not create the widespread excitement amongst the youth that most had expected or hoped for. This may seem like a blasphemous statement but the fact is that many simply don’t relate to a President Obama or similar figures that are seen as the model of black success. Many youth are living and thinking about day to day survival, not about graduating from Harvard Law School. Youth relate more to athletes and entertainers because they are people who look like them, speak their language, lived their struggle and provided a blueprint to get out of the ghetto. This is not to say that there are not successful black college graduates, doctors, lawyers, and business people that rose from poverty because there are many. The primary question is how many of these individuals willingly try to connect and give back to our youth population while still maintaining a level of authenticity?
How does all of this affect the future of black leadership? Our liberation movement has always been youth led with support from elders who were able to pass down a rich sense of history, guidance, and inspiration. The cultural and generational gap has eliminated this dynamic which has created an environment where there are young people using their brilliant leadership skills without any guidance or sense of who they are. We need more mentors to help guide our youth so they can use their natural leadership skills to create positive change.
Without building a base of young, smart, and dedicated soldiers, our progress will continue to be minimal at best. Time and time again, we look to recruit, market, and showcase the same mediocre prototypes to be leaders in politics, education, business, etc. There are numerous young people who have the ability to lead and want to make a difference but they often feel like they don’t have a voice, let alone a seat at the table. Next time you attend a panel, conference, or town hall meeting look around the room and you’ll notice how everyone looks and acts the same. We can not continue to be afraid of black youth and dismiss them as lost causes as they bring value to the table as well.
As long as we continue to dismiss those who talk, look, and act differently than what is considered to be mainstream and safe, our community will continue to be out of touch and the lifeline to future leadership will be disconnected. | <urn:uuid:a6b7edd9-5f07-4c0c-952e-eccde19402ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yourblackbloggers.net/2012/06/black-men/touch-stop-dismissing-black-youth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970356 | 671 | 1.945313 | 2 |
KLAN RALLY IN PITTSBURGH SEEKS CATHOLIC SUPPORT
On Saturday, April 5, the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is scheduled to march in downtown Pittsburgh. This branch of the Klan, which is headquartered in Indiana, is making an appeal to Roman Catholics, hoping to garner their support. A recent story in the Tribune-Review, a newspaper from the eastern Pittsburgh community of Greensburg, suggested that in the past decade “the Klan dropped its anti-Catholic message.” Stories like this have fed the rumor that the Klan is now receptive to Catholics.
Commenting on this development is Catholic League president William Donohue:
“From its inception, the Klan has been viciously anti-Catholic, as well as anti-black and anti-Jewish. All the phony appeals to Catholics that are now being made can never change the Klan’s notoriously anti-Catholic heritage. That is why it is important for all Catholics, and especially Catholic leaders, to denounce without equivocation the march in Pittsburgh.
“It is especially disturbing to read news reports, like the one that appeared in the Tribune-Review, that say that the Klan has dropped its anti-Catholic message. It has done nothing of the kind. Indeed, I personally contacted the sociologist who was cited in the story as the basis for this conclusion and she quickly branded the statements attributed to her as false. Professor Kathleen Blee, Director of the Women’s Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh, maintains that the Klan has not ceased to be anti-Catholic and nothing in her scholarship has ever suggested otherwise.
“Because the Klan is a paramilitary terrorist organization, it should be given no presumptive right to exist in a democratic nation. However, the authorities have seen fit to protect their right to march. This makes it all the more imperative for Catholics to reject the Klan’s overtures by joining the scheduled counter-demonstration against them.” | <urn:uuid:639db42b-41f5-4633-a489-6e7dfb6a7129> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.catholicleague.org/klan-rally-in-pittsburgh-seeks-catholic-support/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970451 | 403 | 1.625 | 2 |
The British Council has released 120 old films of UK life and culture, including several reels of London.
“This film was put in production during the days when the Blitzkreig on London started,” announces a caption, in oddly Teutonic font, at the start of ‘City Bound‘. The 10 minute film from 1941 relates the daily challenge of transporting London’s population to work, all with stirring music and a narration in upper-class tones that sound hilarious to the modern ear. Opening caption aside, there’s hardly an indication that the war is going on. This is London ‘getting on with it’, not making a fuss, going about its business.
It’s one of several London-based films from the archive. During the war years, the British Council busied itself promoting the country overseas to embassies, consulates and schools, with positive messages about Britain’s spirit under adversity. London was a large part of that.
In ‘London 1942′, we get glimpses of London transforming. Vegetables grow on City roofs, air-raid wardens patrol streets under blackout and, cited as one of the biggest changes, “women are being mobilised”. If you’re as infantile as us, you won’t be able to listen to the ludicrously upper-class narrator for more than a few seconds without giggling and attempting an impersonation.
You can watch these and other old films about London for free on the British Council website.
Like this? See also the London Archive Film Festival, which runs 3-5 May 2012. | <urn:uuid:b6dc76d7-8e8c-455c-9958-226ae1711456> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://londonist.com/2012/05/british-council-releases-old-footage-of-london.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94174 | 340 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Winston Churchill, British war hero, brilliant military tactician, and prime minister, was a towering figure, an icon of the 20th century. When he came to power in the wake of Neville Chamberlain's failed appeasement strategy in May 1940, Churchill inherited a war-torn country on the brink of military disaster.
Yet Churchill persevered, and convinced his fellow countrymen to do the same. In his first speech to the House of Commons as Prime Minister, Churchill explained, "The Battle of France is over, and I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin."
He continued, "Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization… Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'"
Churchill's relationship with President Franklin Roosevelt was instrumental to American involvement in World War II, and the Allied strategy. Though Britain voted Churchill out of office in 1945, his influence continued until his death twenty years later.
Historian and author William Manchester set out to publish a three-part biography of Winston Churchill. He wrote the first two in the 1980s, but the third was delayed by writer’s block, and then Manchester suffered two massive strokes.
William Manchester died in 2004, but before his death, he enlisted journalist Paul Reid to finish his lifelong work. The result is "The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Defender of the Realm 1940-1965." | <urn:uuid:bddc178e-16b9-4d07-bd09-83b432725373> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thetakeaway.org/2012/nov/28/winston-churchill-last-lion/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965995 | 311 | 3.234375 | 3 |
Reading over the Supreme Court’s recent decision on hate-speech laws once again, the thing that keeps going through my head is: where has the Court been the last 20 years?
The ruling essentially revisits the Taylor decision of 1990, in which the Court upheld the notorious Section 13 (1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act. Yet it contains scant acknowledgement of certain salient events since then. Among other things, it seems completely divorced from the actual experience of how such legislation has been applied.
In Taylor, then Chief Justice Brian Dickson contentedly predicted that, given the court’s interpretation of s. 13 (1) as applying only to “unusually strong and deep-felt emotions of detestation, calumny and vilification,” human rights tribunals would desist from using it as a sword against free expression. The present Court quotes him without irony: “There is little danger,” he wrote, “that subjective opinion as to offensiveness will supplant the proper meaning of the section.”
Little danger. You would never know from this that human rights tribunals, provincial and federal, had in fact spent the last two decades hauling this or that individual or organization in front of them for, inter alia, publishing the Danish cartoons or excerpting a bestselling book about the challenges to Western society from Islamic fundamentalism.
You’d never know the farcical history of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in particular, with its perfect conviction record and staff of pretend Nazis filling up the on-line comment boards of the nation. Dickson could perhaps be excused: he was writing in 1990, when the tribunals were just getting warmed up. But how today’s Court could be so purblind is astonishing.
Let’s see, what else has happened in the interval? Oh yes: the Internet. In Taylor, the medium for communicating hate-speech consisted of recorded messages on telephone answering machines (the hate purveyors’ that is: to be “exposed” to their hateful speech, you had to call up the number and listen.) Today, your average 13-year-old could find a vast torrent of equally loathsome material online within seconds, almost all of it out of reach of the human rights commissions.
Indeed, had William Whatcott, the anti-gay nutter whose case precipitated the latest ruling, not chosen the quaintly outmoded medium of handing out printed flyers to deliver his broadsides, I doubt we’d ever have heard of him. The court’s summation of this fundamental technological revolution, which has overturned nearly every assumption about communications — including the efficacy of state censorship? “In terms of the effects of disseminating hateful messages, there is today the added impact of the Internet.”
But a certain unworldliness is hardly the worst of the decision’s defects. It’s more fundamental failing is that it reverses the onus, the burden of proof that must be discharged by one side or the other. A society that takes free speech seriously places the burden on the state to prove why it must be restricted, in the same way and for the same reasons as the accused in a criminal trial is presumed innocent.
But the court signals throughout its disdain for this principle as it applies to those accused of hate speech. (How is this supremely subjective concept, involving as it does appraisals of the emotional state not only of the speaker, but of his intended, though possibly never reached, audience, supposed to be defined? “Objectively,” the court advises.) At various points the ruling seeks to distinguish between those types of speech worthy of protection from state interference, and others, like hate speech, that are further from “the core values” said to justify such guarantees.
Hate speech, it says, “lies at the periphery of the values underlying freedom of expression.” It “contributes little to the aspirations of Canadians or Canada in either the quest for truth, the promotion of individual self-development, or the protection and fostering of a vibrant democracy.” In other words, hate speech is not useful speech.
But it’s not up to the speaker in a free society to prove his speech is useful — and in any case the court cuts off any possibility of it contributing to the “quest for truth” since it rules out truth as a defence. (I am accused of caricature on this point. Let me quote the Court: “the use of truthful statements should not provide a shield in the human rights context…. not all truthful statements must be free from restriction… To the extent that truthful statements are used in a manner or context that exposes a vulnerable group to hatred, their use risks the same potential harmful effects on the vulnerable groups that false statements can provoke.” Etc. etc. etc.)
It is not, I repeat, up to the speaker to prove why he should be allowed to speak. It is up to the state to prove why he should not. And here, as I argued last time, the court consistently takes a pass, accepting the “reasoned apprehension of harm” in place of evidence. Granted, we are not talking here of a criminal trial, but in a matter as important as freedom of speech, the same principle ought to apply.
And we need not be actually jailing someone to see how speech might easily be suppressed, in the fevered times we live in. A case in point was provided this week by the firestorm over comments by Tom Flanagan, the prime minister’s former adviser. I offer no defence for the content of his remarks: there is none, in my view. In a way, his sin was the reverse of the court’s: If the court was too willing to ban speech without evidence of harm, Flanagan was unwilling to ban it even where the harm, as in child pornography, is self-evident.
But for goodness sake. He was not engaged in making child pornography. He did not counsel others to make it. He offered a mistaken assessment of where and when criminal sanctions ought to apply to it: mistaken, eccentric, even repugnant. But that is all it was. Unlike the Court, he is in no position to impress his views upon the rest of us. | <urn:uuid:1d4dc81f-f54d-4299-aa77-00bc22ed08ff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.montrealgazette.com/opinion/andrew+coyne+society+that+takes+free+speech+seriously+places/8038392/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960668 | 1,318 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Photo Courtesy of National Autism Resources
What an AMAZING opportunity! When I was first getting into college, one thing I was always disappointed in was the lack of scholarship opportunities out their for learning disabled individuals. It was amazing however when I heard this year that National Autism Resources were coming out with 2 scholarship opportunities for our autism community! 1 scholarship will be going to an autistic individual pursuing a college education and the other will be going to some pursuing a college education in the autism field. Each scholarship is worth $500 dollars and can be used to play for classes, textbooks, or tuition.
To learn more about the scholarship opportunities please check out the requirements and application here. The deadline for autistic individuals to get there application in is Monday, September 24th @ 5 pm EST and the deadline for those pursuing an autism education is Dec 17, 2012. Please refer to their website for all inquiries! Thanks everyone! | <urn:uuid:061be7e5-26f7-48c8-826e-c387b108e8cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.myautismmyvoice.com/2012/08/national-autism-resources-announces.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968504 | 182 | 1.734375 | 2 |
FAIRMEAD -- What was once called a "spaghetti bowl" of 14 potential high-speed rail routes in and around Chowchilla has been narrowed to four, and residents got their first close-up look at how their town could be affected in a workshop Wednesday.
More than 100 people showed up at the Galilee Baptist Church in Fairmead, five miles south of Chowchilla, for the event hosted by the California High-Speed Rail Authority.
Large tabletop maps detailed four alternatives for what engineers call the "Chowchilla Wye," a Y-shaped junction where high-speed tracks will branch off from the initial Merced-Bakersfield line to head west toward Gilroy and San Jose. Three of the routes run along Highway 152, the highway between Gilroy and Chowchilla, while a fourth follows Avenue 21, about two miles south of Highway 152.
Two options would send 220-mph electric trains around Chowchilla to the west near Road 13, while two others would bypass the city on the east, near Road 18.
Engineers and planners fielded questions from curious -- and sometimes skeptical -- residents.
TIM SHEEHAN / THE FRESNO BEE - Sampath Goola, a consulting engineer with the California High-Speed Rail Authority, shows Chowchilla resident Kate Hutson how one high-speed rail route option may affect her family's farmland. Hutson was one of more than 100 people who turned out for an open house workshop on the Chowchilla route options Wednesday, March 20, in Fairmead.
TIM SHEEHAN / THE FRESNO BEE - David Leverenz of Parsons Transportation Group, a consultant to the California High-Speed Rail Authority, and Fairmead resident Robert L. Williams look over a map of potential route options around Chowchilla at a workshop in Fairmead on Wednesday, March 20.
Kate Knutson, whose family has 60 acres just south of Highway 152 near Road 16, learned that on three of the route options, an overpass to carry traffic over Highway 152 and the high-speed tracks would encroach on property now planted in grapes and pasture.
"I don't want either one," she said of the routes. "I feel like it's being rammed down our throats."
"We'd be better off if they spent this money for education," added Knutson, the business services director at Chowchilla High School.
Kole Upton, a Chowchilla farmer, said he was pleased to see none of the routes going through his property. An earlier option, he said, had the potential to put him out of business because it ran across one of his farms at an angle that would make it useless for agriculture.
"On a micro level, I feel better because (the authority) has done an honest job of working with us," Upton said.
Upton reserved comment, however, on the larger issue of high-speed rail's effect on agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley. He is a board member of two organizations that, along with Madera County and others, are suing the rail authority over the Merced-Fresno route.
Wednesday's workshop and another session March 27 in Chowchilla (read the Merced Sun-Star's coverage of that meeting) represent the start of a new stage of analysis, including an environmental report and rounds of public hearings. Last year, when the agency adopted the Merced-Fresno route, it excluded the area around Chowchilla so that the junction could be studied more. At that time, the authority asked that the Chowchilla Wye be evaluated as part of the San Jose-Merced section of the statewide rail project.
But as the authority prepares to start building its first section of the line in the Fresno-Madera area this summer, authority CEO Jeffrey Morales said the agency is speeding up the analysis of the Chowchilla Wye in preparation to build northward toward Merced if finances allow.
The authority has about $6 billion available -- a combination of rail and stimulus money from the federal government and money from Prop. 1A, a 2008 high-speed rail bond -- to build a line from east of Madera to near Bakersfield.
The draft environmental impact report for the Chowchilla Wye could be released this summer, and a final choice on the route could come in the spring of 2014, said Gary Kennerley, a project manager working for consulting firm Parsons Brinckerhoff on behalf of the rail authority.
The map below shows the current options for high-speed rail routes in and around Chowchilla. To see a document in a larger screen, click on the box in the upper left-hand corner of the map window.
Rail board to present recommended routes at Fresno meeting
Engineers' recommendations for high-speed train routes around Chowchilla and Hanford will be presented Thursday when the California High-Speed Rail Authority's board meets in Fresno. The authority will also consider amending two major contracts with consultants for work in the San Joaquin Valley, increasing its consulting budget by more than $47 million. The meeting begins at 10 a.m. at Fresno City Hall.
Fresno rail meeting gives Valley opponents a platform
More than 200 people crammed their way into Fresno City Hall on Thursday, making the most of their chance to tell the California High-Speed Rail Authority how they feel about plans for a statewide high-speed train system and proposed routes through the San Joaquin Valley.
It may be a little late in the game, but a Madera County supervisor is floating a last-ditch alternative for a high-speed train route between Merced and Fresno.
The Bee's story-comment system is provided by Disqus. To read more about it, see our Disqus FAQ page. If you post comments, please be respectful of other readers. Your comments may be removed and you may be blocked from commenting if you violate our terms of service. Comments flagged by the system as potentially abusive will not appear until approved by a moderator. | <urn:uuid:4d8fd9e4-8ebd-4897-8670-802b664d5570> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/03/20/3222639/madera-count-residents-get-look.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961432 | 1,253 | 1.75 | 2 |
Cataract surgery in cancer patients and its impact on quality of life as measured by the National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire - 25 (NEI-VFQ-25)
Purpose. The measurement of quality of life has become an important topic in healthcare and in the allocation of limited healthcare resources. Improving the quality of life (QOL) in cancer patients is paramount. Cataract removal and lens implantation appears to improve patient well-being of cancer patients, though a formal measurement has never been published in the US literature. In this current study, National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ-25), a validated vision quality of life metric, was used to study the change in vision-related quality of life in cancer patients who underwent cataract extraction with intraocular lens implantation. ^ Methods. Under an IRB approved protocol, cancer patients who underwent cataract surgery with intraocular lens implantation (by a single surgeon) from December 2008 to March 2011, and who had completed a pre- and postoperative NEI-VFQ-25 were retrospectively reviewed. Post-operative data was collected at their routine 4-6 week post-op visit. Patients' demographics, cancer history, their pre and postoperative ocular examinations, visual acuities, and NEI-VFQ-25 with twelve components were included in the evaluation. The responses were evaluated using the Student t test, Spearman correlation and Wilcoxon signed rank test. ^ Results. 63 cases of cataract surgery (from 54 patients) from the MD Anderson Cancer Center were included in the study. Cancer patients had a significant improvement in the visual acuity (P<0.0001) postoperatively, along with a significant increase in vision-related quality of life (P<0.0001). Patients also had a statistically significant improvement in ten of the twelve subcategories which are addressed in the NEI-VFQ-25. ^ Conclusions. In our study, cataract extraction and intraocular implantation showed a significant impact on the vision-related quality of life in cancer patients. Although this study includes a small sample size, it serves as a positive pilot study to evaluate and quantify the impact of a surgical intervention on QOL in cancer patients and may help to design a larger study to measure vision related QOL per dollar spent for health care cost in cancer patients.^
Health Sciences, Ophthalmology|Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery
Janhavi M Modak,
"Cataract surgery in cancer patients and its impact on quality of life as measured by the National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire - 25 (NEI-VFQ-25)"
(January 1, 2012).
Texas Medical Center Dissertations (via ProQuest). | <urn:uuid:d07f075d-a66c-49d5-a439-c3f2b721d6b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/dissertations/AAI1516314/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938703 | 579 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Question: Are you against niche level marketing?
Lucas Conley: Yeah, I am. I think there are a couple areas in particular. Word of mouth marketing is an interesting field and I can talk about that and neuromarketing where the use of brain scans and understanding of how the brain works is being applied to marketing. And I think those two areas while they’re still nascent fields are going to require regulation within the next decade or two. We’re going to get to a point where neuromarketers talk about searching for the buy button in the brain, and the idea is simply how can we get you to buy? It’s... This is a for-profit relationship we have with marketers and with the- but the intention is to sell goods if it’s- whether it’s with neuromarketing, understanding how your brain works, what photos, what images, what words work to kind of shortcut your critical thinking and go straight for your emotions or if it’s word of mouth it’s formalizing a campaign in to kind of conversations and actually sending out materials to groups of people who essentially work for you as part of a community and will pitch these goods to their friends, their coworkers, their family, whether it’s teens or moms. There’s hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. right now who are part of formal word of mouth marketing campaigns, and 850,000 work for Procter and Gamble which doesn’t require them to reveal their affiliation with the products they pitch which are not just Procter and Gamble products. They’re Coca-Cola products or Toyota products or Warner music. The connection is lost in the actual word of mouth campaign. You don’t know sometimes that you are being pitched these goods, that it’s not a genuine organic recommendation, and that’s a trust issue. That’s... It’s an important thing that we rely on, word of mouth, whether it’s online or in person to get good products, to find good services. It’s buzz, what’s new, what’s interesting, and when marketers can kind of find their way into that, that’s also something we should be concerned about.
Recorded on: 7/23/08 | <urn:uuid:529d0fc8-9bb2-4d53-ae62-013508415265> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bigthink.com/videos/obsessive-branding-goes-undercover | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947481 | 490 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Food & Farm News
» December 19, 2012 «
With the benefit of relatively mild winter weather and year-round crops, California has expanded its offerings of winter farmers markets to more than 280. That's nearly double last year's total and the most in the nation. The US Agriculture Department says year-round and winter markets lead to more stability for farmers and help people access fresh fruits and vegetables, even as temperatures cool. USDA offers a listing of winter farmers markets online.
Many tree crops, including apples, pears and cherries, benefit from chill hours, when the temperatures drop below 45 degrees. The cold helps trees develop flower and leaf buds. The University of California allows farmers to track chill hours online, and calculate how the trees are progressing. So far, many areas in the Central Valley have seen fewer chill hours than a year ago. Farmers will continue to monitor chill hours until springtime.
The cool mint flavor of a holiday candy cane may have started on a California farm. Farmers in the Pacific Northwest, including far Northern California, produce peppermint oil that is used to flavor everything from toothpaste to ice cream. The University of California has created a video to explain the distillation process. According to UC, each acre of peppermint can produce between 40 and 120 pounds of oil.
A couple from Hollister has been named to the American Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmers and Ranchers Committee. The Young Farmers and Ranchers organization includes men and women between the ages of 18 and 35. April and Todd Mackie will help coordinate its national leadership conference and competitive events. April Mackie is food safety director for a vegetable farm and Todd manages the family petroleum business.Top | <urn:uuid:ab9330c2-c828-4e05-b4b5-2394d0266078> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cfbf.com/news/FoodAndFarmNews.cfm?FFNID=1320 | 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 | 0.94874 | 342 | 2.453125 | 2 |
"Entrepreneurial Ability, Venture Investments, and Risk Sharing"
Volume: 36 | Issue: 10 | Pages: 1232-45
Publication type: Journal article
A number of issues that relate to the desirability and implications of new venture financing are examined within a principal-agent framework that captures the essence of the relationship between entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. The model suggests: (1) As long as the skill levels of entrepreneurs are common knowledge, all will choose to involve venture capital investors, since the risk sharing provided by outside participation dominates the agency relationship that is created. (2) The less able entrepreneurs will choose to involve venture capitalists, whereas the more profitable ventures will be developed without external participation because of the adverse selection problem associated with asymmetric information. (3) If a costly signal is available that conveys the entrepreneur's ability, some entrepreneurs will invest in such a signal and then sell to investors; these entrepreneurs, however, need not be the more able ones. The implications for new venture financing of these and other findings are discussed and illustrated by example.
Each author name for a Columbia Business School faculty member is linked to a faculty research page, which lists additional publications by that faculty member.
Each topic is linked to an index of publications on that topic. | <urn:uuid:7e858621-3993-4e34-b2e4-c066a7f8e503> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/finance/faculty?main.pubid=1544&main.uni=&main.ctrl=publicationsmgr.list&top.showright=no&main.view=publications.detail&top.pagetitle=&main.orderby=&top.mainboxid=mainbox | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928978 | 260 | 1.734375 | 2 |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
20 Years of Success: New Federal Study Finds Family and Medical Leave Act Has Worked Well for Workers, Businesses — But 40 Percent of Workers Not Covered, and Millions More Cannot Afford the Unpaid Leave the Law Provides
Organization that Wrote, Championed FMLA Urges Lawmakers to Expand It
Washington, D.C. — February 4, 2013— The first federal study in 13 years to examine the impact of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) finds that the law has had an overwhelmingly positive impact on workers, families and businesses. The FMLA is the only federal law ever to help workers meet the dual demands of job and family. The National Partnership for Women & Families wrote and championed the FMLA, and has led efforts to defend and expand it in states and at the federal level. The organization today hailed the results of the new Department of Labor study, Family and Medical Leave in 2012, and urged Congress to expand the law and to adopt a national paid family and medical leave program.
Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the day President Bill Clinton made the FMLA the first legislation he signed into law. The FMLA allows eligible workers up to 12 weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave to recover from serious medical conditions, care for a family member, or bond with a new child. Workers have used FMLA leave more than 100 million times. Since 2008, the law has allowed military families to care for injured service members for up to 26 weeks and to address certain circumstances arising from a service member’s deployment.
The Labor Department study, released this morning, interviewed more than 2,800 adults nationwide. It found that 16 percent of workers took FMLA leave within the last year, businesses have few problems implementing the law, and inability to afford unpaid leave is the primary reason workers do not take the FMLA leave they need.
“We intended the FMLA to be the first step on the road to a family friendly nation,” said National Partnership for Women & Families President Debra L. Ness. “It’s had an enormous impact, letting tens of millions of workers take leave when they needed it the most, and changing the culture in this country. Those are women who needed medical care during difficult pregnancies, fathers who took time to care for children fighting cancer, adult sons and daughters caring for frail parents, and workers taking time to recover from their own serious illnesses. Because of the FMLA, their health insurance continued and their jobs were waiting when they returned to work. The law has been a huge success but it’s time — past time — to take the next step. We are asking Congress to expand the law so more workers can take leave for more reasons, and to adopt a national paid family and medical leave program.”
Key findings from the new Department of Labor study, available here reveal:
- Women made up 56 percent of employees who took leave in the past year. The rate of leave taking among men has increased in small but steady increments in the 20 years since the FMLA was enacted.
- A majority of employees reported taking leave for their own illness (57 percent). Twenty-two percent said they took leave for reasons related to a new child (including pregnancy, birth, adoption or foster care), and 19 percent reported taking leave to care for a parent, spouse or child with a serious health condition.
- Most leaves were relatively short. Forty percent of workers reported they were away from work for 10 days or less; 70 percent were back at work within 40 days. Only women who took leave to care for a new child reported taking longer leaves, averaging about 58 days; men who took leave to care for a new child took average leaves of about 20 days.
- Two-thirds of workers (66 percent) reported receiving at least some pay while on leave. However, there are significant gaps that hurt middle and lower income families: 54 percent of workers in middle and lower income families (median family income less than $62,500 per year) reported that they did not receive any pay while on leave, compared to just 18 percent of workers in higher income families.
- Nearly half of workers who needed leave but did not take it (46 percent) said they were unable to afford unpaid leave. Nearly one-fifth (17 percent) were worried they might lose their jobs, despite the FMLA’s guarantee of job protection.
- Women made up 64 percent of those who needed but did not take leave. Workers of Hispanic background, those who are not white, those with earnings below $35,000 per year and unmarried workers were more likely than their non-Hispanic, white, wealthier and married counterparts to need leave but not take it.
- 90 percent of worksites covered by the FMLA reported that compliance with the FMLA has had a “positive effect” or “no noticeable effect” on “employee productivity, absenteeism, career advancement and morale, as well as the business’ profitability.” More than one-third (37 percent) reported a positive effect.i
The FMLA applies only to employers with 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius and people who have worked at their current employer for at least one year and 1,250 hours within the past year. The definition of “family” under the law is narrow; FMLA leave is not available to caregivers of parents-in-law, grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, domestic partners or same-sex spouses. The FMLA does not provide leave for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking. And it does not provide any wages during periods of leave.
“This new study from the Department of Labor makes a compelling case to expand the law and adopt a paid leave plan,” Ness added. In particular:
- This study confirms that Congress should revisit the FMLA’s employer-size and employee eligibility requirements. The Department of Labor study estimates that two-thirds of workers (67 percent) would be covered by the FMLA if the law applied to worksites with 20 or more employees. Sixty-three percent of workers would be eligible if employees were required to work 780 hours in the previous year instead of the 1,250 hours, as required now.
- Congress should consider a national paid family and medical leave insurance program. The Department of Labor’s survey results show the hardships workers face when they cannot afford leave without pay, take a shortened leave, or jeopardize their families’ financial stability while on leave. Economic security policies, including paid family and medical leave insurance, have overwhelming voter support, according to polling commissioned by the National Partnership. And states have model paid leave programs that are working well. Creating a national paid leave insurance program would ease burdens for both employees who need paid leave and employers who cannot afford the full cost of offering paid leave to their workers.
Paid family leave programs are working well in California and New Jersey, but such a program has not been adopted at the federal level.
The National Partnership will host a congressional reception with current and retired lawmakers who are champions of family leave today, Monday, at 5:00pm in the Capitol Visitor Center.
# # # #
iThe worksite survey provides multiple units of analysis. The findings summarized here reflect worksites that report they are covered by the FMLA and report having 50 employees within a 75-mile radius. The survey report refers to these worksites as “50/75” worksites. In addition, the survey analysis provides a choice of two weights. Here, we report “weighted by worksite” figures, which gives each surveyed worksite equal weight. This seems the better method for capturing the experience of the average worksite on the particular measures we highlight here.
The National Partnership for Women & Families is a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group dedicated to promoting fairness in the workplace, access to quality health care and policies that help women and men meet the dual demands of work and family. More information is available at www.NationalPartnership.org. | <urn:uuid:8885e6ab-45a3-4265-9007-7cfbe063ac40> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nationalpartnership.org/site/News2/936884424?page=NewsArticle&id=37884&security=2141&news_iv_ctrl=2182 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973856 | 1,667 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Note: This message is displayed if (1) your browser is not standards-compliant or (2) you have you disabled CSS. Read our Policies for more information.
What is rBST? Should I be concerned about consuming rBST?
Bovine somatotropin, or BST, is a natural protein produced in the pituitary glands of all cattle and it helps adult cows produce milk. rBST is the synthetic or man-made version of this hormone. Chemically they are identical and there is no laboratory test that can distinguish one from the other.
Consuming rBST free milk is a personal choice. There is no difference in nutritional content or BST levels in milk from cows given rBST.
How can I be sure there aren't any antibiotics in my milk?
Every load of milk must be tested for antibiotic drugs before the dairy plant receives it.
I want to make cheese to sell from my own milk at my homestead/farm. Why do I have to test for antibiotics?
The Pasteurized Milk Ordinance states that all milk must be tested for antibiotic residues prior to being processed but it doesn't differentiate between small homestead processors and large commercial processors. The BOAH's mission is to ensure consumer safety and having everyone test for antibiotics regardless of size of operation is one way to accomplish that. For more information about becoming a homestead processor go to Grade A & Manufactured Grade Products Processing.
What testing is performed on a regular basis on the milk I buy at the grocery store to insure its safety?
Each month the BOAH dairy staff obtains random samples of all products made by a manufacturer at that manufacturer's facility. These samples are tested by the Microbiology Laboratory at the Indiana State Department of Health for bacteria, coliform, antibiotic residues and proper pasteurization. The samples are also tested for fat levels as a labeling concern. Action is taken to stop production and correct inadequacies if a problem is identified. | <urn:uuid:b52d5f46-6153-4d29-8d19-85392c7b5fc1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://in.gov/boah/2530.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945238 | 404 | 2.828125 | 3 |
ABOUT US - OUR HISTORY
The Lyceum opened its doors in September 2003 with just 13 students and three full time faculty. The Lyceum is the only secondary school in Northern Ohio and indeed one of the few in the country that is dedicated to providing a Catholic classical education. Although a relatively young school, The Lyceum has a 100% college acceptance rate, with alumni having been accepted at dozens of colleges and universities. Now in its ninth year, the school has an enrollment of over 45 students, served by six faculty.
Among the advantages that The Lyceum had in its founding was the twenty years of shared experience of its founders, teaching at a little school called Trivium in the heart of Massachusetts. Started by founding Headmaster Mark Langley's father-in-law nearly 30 years ago, Trivium School is a pioneer in the field of independent, lay run Catholic liberal arts and fine arts high schools. The Lyceum has built upon Trivium's success, and joins with it in its goals of educating youth and fostering a culture of Goodness, Truth, and Beauty.
The Lyceum has also been blessed to have the support of parents, who, especially in this last generation, are much more directly involved in the education of their children than they have been in many decades. In this atmosphere of parental support for our shared vision of Catholic classical education, The Lyceum supplements the work of parents, who are the primary educators of their children. | <urn:uuid:27ac2235-258f-4d81-95a9-90ec65714c70> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thelyceum.org/history.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981172 | 305 | 1.632813 | 2 |
I'm not a physicist; I'm just curious about what would happen.
According to this video "Explained ! The Double Slit Experiment" (at 2:50):
"Somebody decided to leave the detectors on but just not take any data. [...] So if it was also going to a magnetic tape - there was no magnetic tape loaded. [...] And what do you think happed? They got this. They got the diffraction pattern."
So the act of measuring (beeing concious of the data) destroys wave-form pattern?
If so lets consider these cases:
- What if I'd throw a dice after the experiment to decide if I should look at the data or to destroy it? (e.g. look at the data if the number on dice is even)
- What if the information about measurement would need to travel longer period of time than the particle would need to hit the wall?
To above cases: Would it mean that information travelled instantly - faster than light or that "the particle can look into the future"? | <urn:uuid:5e0bb75a-260e-4294-bc95-dd109fbac7de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/47711/the-double-slit-experiment-delayed-measurement | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957816 | 217 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Get 1/2 off shipping when you buy Italian wine in quantities of 6 bottles or more with code "blake23"Wine Business Insider had an excellent story yesterday describing a new whiz-bang winemaking gizmo that, if I understand it correctly, uses heat and a vacuum chamber to remove the character of grapes.
The idea is that underripe grapes can have bell pepper characters removed. The resulting beverage will have a little higher alcohol because its sugars are concentrated.
It's not a reach to say it will be jammier. Ripe fruit + vacuum + heat + sugar = jam, right?
I guess I'm supposed to wring my hands about the future of wine. But it's telling that this machine is in Lodi, source of fine $7.99 reds, but a little challenged at the high end of quality. If somebody's drinking a $7.99 California appellation Cabernet, I don't think they care about native-yeast fermentation, and neither do I. Enjoy your beverage.
The question is, will high-end California winemakers soon see this as another way of getting more intense, concentrated, higher-octane, smoother $150 Cabernets?
Dan Berger recently reported in his newsletter that some high-end wineries are harvesting grapes overly ripe, fermenting them to dryness (can't do that with natural yeast), removing some of the alcohol through reverse osmosis for barrel aging, then adding the alcohol back in. It sounds like light-beer processing, but Americans love light beer.
My colleague Remy Charest did a great piece for Palate Press on natural wine in which he seems to intimate that the wine media cares a lot more about what goes on behind the winery doors than the public does. I think he's right, but that's no reason for us to stop talking about it. But I do have to keep this in perspective: I predict nobody will comment on this post who doesn't either write about wine or work in the wine industry. If you're a "civilian" and you care about this stuff, let me know.
Congratulations to Crushpad, which claims to make more than 1% of all commercial wine in the U.S. (Not by volume, by unique SKUs.)
For those who don't know Crushpad, it's a Napa-based business that allows anyone -- yes, you too -- to make small amounts of wine from quality grapes, with advice and support from their in-house pros. It has allowed folks to transition from making a few cases of Viognier for their friends to making a few dozen cases of commercial Viognier that they now have to figure out how to sell.
Crushpad has been responsible for 3,247 different labels filed with the US TTB. In 2010 alone, Crushpad received approval for 787 different wines. These are not just different labels on the same juice, but unique small-production wines.
It's part of the reason I could walk into a restaurant three blocks from me recently and not recognize a single label on the wine list -- that hadn't happened to me, I think, ever. Bully for Crushpad for not only letting a lot of people realize their expensive dreams, but for keeping even wine geeks on our toes.
But memo to Crushpad dreamers: I don't care if it cost you $30 to make that Monterey Viognier, I'm not paying $60 for it on the wine list. There's a reason they call it "economy of scale." Count on losing money until somebody -- like the folks below -- notices you.
I'll admit that, cravenly, when I got "The New Connoisseurs' Guidebook to California Wine & Wineries" by Charles E. Olken and Joseph Furstenthal and noticed there were four pages recommending wine blogs, I wondered why this one wasn't listed.
But then I started looking for some of my favorite wineries and discovered that I'm in excellent company.
Here are a few wineries not listed in the 456-page book:
A Donkey and Goat
Natural Process Alliance
Those are just a few that I thought to look for; I'm sure there are others. It's a pity because the book has nice, concise summaries of wineries' backgrounds, and I'd like to know more about some of the wineries above. You might note a common theme: many, but not all, are part of the "natural wine" movement, which to my mind makes them more, not less, attractive to "connoisseurs."
Hey, Charles and Joseph, try reading a few more blogs, you might learn something. | <urn:uuid:48d34bfd-f578-40c5-959a-5888f42d12f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.wblakegray.com/2010/10/more-unnatural-wine-and-other-notes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958679 | 976 | 1.554688 | 2 |
ElizabethM, I agree. The systems and gadgets shown in the slideshow were pretty impressive. Wondering if the Kawasaki High Performance Palletizing Robot was for entertainment or on display for customer inquiry. How big of a turn out was it at the show? Nice looking slides Jennifer!
I think you did a fine job presenting some of the more eye-catching designs and inventions, Jenn. It's fascinating to see what is coming out of the minds of designers these days! I couldn't help be reminded of Star Wars when I saw the holographic woman and the Solid Concepts robot (the latter looking strangely like the Star Wars character Boba Fett--yes, I am a nerd!). Intersting how long it's taken for some of the scifi dreamed up in films to become a part of reality.
It's worth mentioning that additive manufacturing was huge at the show. Seemed like it was everywhere. The futurist who spoke at one of the show's keynotes even predicted that it would eventually be bigger than the Internet.
Jenn, your first six slides were interesting, but did not seem somehow, well, practical. I was going to comment on the virtual woman, but that would just get me in trouble.
I did find interesting the automation robots and systems in the later slides. Industrial robotics just keeps getting more sophiscated. I work with some companies that make components for such devices and it is a very interesting field.
By experimenting with the photovoltaic reaction in solar cells, researchers at MIT have made a breakthrough in energy efficiency that significantly pushes the boundaries of current commercial cells on the market.
We looked at a number of sources to determine this year's greenest cars, from KBB to automotive trade magazines to environmental organizations. These 14 cars emerged as being great at either stretching fuel or reducing carbon footprint.
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is | <urn:uuid:57721b13-6274-4ba1-a829-92ca0c916939> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=259117&piddl_msgid=945926 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963201 | 508 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Most graduate and professional programs require three letters of recommendation. Letters should be written by people who can comment on your experience and abilities relevant to graduate study in your chosen field. Professional schools often look for letters from employers and instructors. It’s best to have some letters from professors in your major. The strongest references grow out of established relationships, so visit your professors’ office hours and take small classes.
These letters should be as personalized as possible; this is more important than the rank of the instructors writing the letters. It is better to have a strong letter from a junior faculty member or a graduate student teaching assistant who knows you well than a weak letter from a prestigious professor.
The materials you give your letter writers should help them address the field and programs you have chosen. Include a copy of your statement of purpose, relevant class and employer evaluations, papers you’ve written for the letter writer’s class, your resume, and any other relevant materials. Provide an outline of points you would like the letter to include.
You can request letters to support a weaker part of your application. If you do poorly on the GRE verbal test, an instructor can praise your verbal abilities. Letter writers should be reminded of any special request.
Many students worry that their instructors will not remember them if they ask for letters of recommendation after graduation. It’s common practice to reconnect with professors to request letters of recommendation. Reintroduce yourself and provide your instructors with materials that remind them of your merits. Consider the advantages of each approach: while getting letters during your senior year ensures your instructor remembers you, asking for them later allows you to ask for letters customized for the programs to which you’re applying.
Discuss whether to waive your right to see letters of reference with your letter writers. Some graduate admissions committees prefer waived letters, feeling they have more credibility while others give equal credibility to all letters. | <urn:uuid:6369c18b-25c7-4e1e-9929-021bb8d1ce67> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utexas.edu/ugs/csacc/career/gradschool/letters-of-rec | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94161 | 387 | 1.953125 | 2 |
Graphics cause file bloat. Remember, half of the world is still using dial-up connections. It's common for people to leave a site before it even finishes loading.
Text images are sometimes appropriate for snippets of text such as
Make sure the areas that people may want to copy and paste, such as addresses, are selectable. The Flash-based version of this site neglects to make the content on this page selectable. There is an icon for a printer-friendly version of the page, but it will be missed because its design is too obscure and it is far away from the main area of the page. Even
People are annoyed by blinking or moving text on Web sites because it distracts them from what they are trying to do. They also associate dynamic text with advertising and are likely to ignore it. Ironically, moving text is one of the tactics intended to grab people's attention that actually ends up driving them away because they think it is promotional and untrustworthy.
People are annoyed by blinking or moving text. They want to control their own reading pace, and dynamic text takes that control away.
As we saw in our studies in Japan, moving text is particularly
Very few people in our study even noticed the moving text at the top of the U.S. Social Security homepage. Those that did could see only a little text at a time in the miniscule content area, and if they couldn't read it fast enough, they had to wait for it to recirculate. Scrolling text may be effective on specialized
We asked people to use Pergo.com to figure out what | <urn:uuid:8559be94-2a0b-41de-9df5-a39b36b4ebb5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://flylib.com/books/en/4.119.1.52/1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957018 | 329 | 2.375 | 2 |
Col. Scott Brenton, with the Air National Guard at a base in Syracuse, N.Y.,… (Carolyn Cole, Los Angeles…)
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Strapped into the cockpit of an F-16 jet fighter, Air Force Col. Scott Brenton has dropped bombs over Bosnia, screamed over the desert in Iraq and strafed Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. But on a recent morning, Brenton flew his combat mission from a leather easy chair in a low-slung cinder block building on the edge of Syracuse.
Brenton's unit, the 174th Fighter Wing of the New York Air National Guard, traded in its fleet of F-16s for unmanned Reaper drones two years ago. Since then, the reserve pilots have been flying nearly around-the-clock combat operations over Afghanistan from a base about five miles from this city's nearest Wal-Mart.
This is what the future of air power looks like.
The Air Force is pulling jet fighters from the flight lines by the hundreds and replacing them with Predators, Reapers and Global Hawks, all piloted from cockpits bolted firmly to the ground. As a result, more and more of war is being waged from home — thousands of miles from the snap of gunfire, shock waves and shrapnel.
"Ultimately, it is conceivable that the majority of aviators in our Air Force will be remotely piloted aircraft operators," Gen. Norton Schwartz, chief of staff of the Air Force, told reporters last week.
Critics say the shift blurs the boundaries of the battlefield and makes it too easy to decide to drop a bomb.
Brenton, the wing's full-time operations group commander, spent a recent morning here with his finger on the trigger of two 500-pound bombs and a rack of Hellfire missiles nearly 7,000 miles away in Afghanistan.
"I walked out of that building and put on my 'Syracuse hat' and just talked to my wife on the phone," said Brenton, 47, after his combat mission. "It's a different way of fighting a war." He would not say whether he had fired any weapons that day.
Because attack drones can be piloted from anywhere, the technology is beaming the war in Afghanistan into once-sleepy 9-to-5 airfields around the United States.
Air National Guard units based in New York, North Dakota, Texas, Arizona and California have traded some or all of their manned jets for drones, which are piloted here but take off and land on runways overseas.
Air Force reserve pilots are sometimes dismissively called "weekend warriors" because they are required to work only one weekend a month and two weeks a year. Now they're finding themselves stepping into heated combat — and firing live ammunition — for a few hours at a time.
The transition to robots is creating a major cultural shift for the Air National Guard. Weekend training exercises that used to take pilots 30,000 feet above their hometowns at 1,000 mph have been replaced by combat shifts on an air-conditioned base.
Last year, the Air Force trained more drone pilots than the total number of conventional bomber and fighter pilots combined. In the last decade, the Air Force has pulled more than 250 manned fighters off the flight line and plans to retire 123 more next year. During that time, the Air Force drone fleet has ballooned from 39 Predators, Reapers and Global Hawks to 280. When small drones in use by Army scouts and other services are included, the tally of unmanned aircraft in the military shoots to more than 7,000.
Older pilots refer to the newest crop as the "PlayStation generation" but will admit that they have an instinctual feel for the computers that run the drones. The cockpit has a keyboard, a joystick and up to six flat-screen monitors showing the altitude and pitch of the plane, the video feed, maps, navigation charts and mission plans.
"Let's be honest. I miss getting in an airplane," said Col. Greg "Gabby" Semmel, the wing commander for the 174th Fighter Wing. Semmel, 48, who has flown more than 3,000 miles in an F-16, said the remote-piloting technology allows the wing to do what it was trained to do — fly close air support for soldiers on the ground.
"But I can tell you that I get just as excited walking into the GCS [ground control station] to go fly a combat mission. I can tell you when things get busy — and they get busy very often during those missions — my adrenaline gets going just as much as it did sitting in the cockpit of an F-16. My heart gets pounding just as much," Semmel said.
Bringing Reapers to Syracuse saved hundreds of jobs on Hancock Field Air National Guard Base; those jobs would have left in March 2010 when the final F-16 was flown off the base to be mothballed in a boneyard of decommissioned jets in Arizona.
Many of the welders and machinists that patched the aluminum frames of the F-16s and kept the single-seat fighters fast and safe were retrained as imagery analysts and computer technicians. Keeping Reapers aloft and understanding the massive amount of video and radar data they collect requires dozens of technicians, intelligence analysts and sensor operators. | <urn:uuid:c6b219db-2c1d-4cfa-b67c-e893eeae7722> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/29/nation/la-na-drones-bases-20120729 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956383 | 1,103 | 2.03125 | 2 |
The Gordon-Conwell Nursery School is a preschool guided by the philosophy that all children can learn. Located on the campus in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, our program provides a child-centered learning environment which enables children to learn and develop actively at their own pace and in their own ways. This preschool is a play-based program which seeks to promote a developing awareness of God. Each member of the staff acts as a model in helping each child understand God's love.
The staff at the Nursery School is concerned with the total and unique growth and development of each child. The integrated curriculum is designed to enhance the spiritual, cognitive, social, emotional, physical, and educational development of each child. Your child will be in a stimulating learning environment encouraging independence and socializing.
- An auxiliary enterprise of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
- Child/staff ratio is 8 to 1
- Guided by the philosophy that all children can learn
- Structured for children ages 33 months (2 years, 9 months) to pre-kindergarten age
- Organized to conduct half-day classes in the morning, Monday - Friday.
- Offers a two or three day option
- Runs from September to early June
Join us for our Open House on March 16, 2013, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Click here for more information.
GCNS is now enrolling new children for the 2012-13 year! Click here for information.
The Nursery School children recently participated in a "Hop-a-thon" for Mission Chad. The children give monthly offerings collected during worship to help support the orphans and widows in Village Altonodji. The money raised through the Hop-a-thon is a Christmas donation to them.
If you have questions regarding the Nursery School, use our contact form.
The Nursery School is open to families in South Hamilton and the surrounding communities. You can find us by going here. | <urn:uuid:f0f5a034-7e48-4da9-8801-ca3281a63d0a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gordonconwell.edu/hamilton/current/Nursery-School.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950242 | 412 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Last week, the Information Office of the State Council, or China’s Cabinet, issued a white paper on “Progress in China’s Human Rights in 2012”[i] as a part of its propaganda activity for the upcoming Universal Periodic Review later this year. Unsurprisingly, the white paper praised Chinese progress in human rights—pointing almost exclusively to the benefits of China’s continued economic development. However, behind the self-congratulatory praise and statistics lie China’s underlying philosophy of human rights, which fundamentally misunderstands the international human rights system. China’s white paper is oblivious to the indivisible and universal nature of human rights, and that guaranteeing human rights requires action and not just mere hollow proclamations.
According to the white paper, human rights are divisible and unrelated by treating economic development and the corresponding rights as supreme. The first section of the white paper concerns “Human Rights in Economic Construction” and states that, “it would be impossible to protect people’s rights and interests without first developing the economy to feed and clothe the people.” Rhetoric from China concerning the importance of economic development before even addressing civil and political rights is not new. During the Cold War both capitalist and communist states frequently advocated for either civil and political right or economic, social and cultural rights and ignored the other. This division was a political tool and never accurately described the international human rights system or the philosophy of human rights. [Continue reading] | <urn:uuid:414e9ae2-83ee-4aef-8237-9f809b179e9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tchrd.org/?option=com_content&view=article&id=265:indiscriminate-beatings-detentions-mark-two-more-self-immolations-in-ngaba&catid=70:2012-news&Itemid=162 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937911 | 310 | 2.375 | 2 |
Land Use Plans (LUPs) and planning decisions are the basis for every action the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) takes and serve as its primary tool to disclose information about BLM’s land and resource management programs. In addition, the planning process provides the opportunity for public involvement in managing those resources.
BLM has been preparing land use plans since the 1960s. Although some of the BLM’s plans are current, others date as far back as the mid-1970s. Most LUPs lie in the mid-range category of "aging" plans that are in need of updating to reflect current conditions and statutory requirements.
New Planning Initiatives. As you may know, many of the BLM’s older land use plans (LUPs) need updating to address the growth of outdoor recreational activities, the need for land tenure adjustments, new energy demands, and other important issues familiar to those who live and work in Utah. For more information on these specific RMPs, contact the Field Office on the list to the right. | <urn:uuid:457df600-5b9f-4837-8ee0-c94e07cb0ef7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/prog/planning/new_plans.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948394 | 216 | 2.46875 | 2 |
In both the opening and closing stories of The Things They Carried, imagination is linked to an idealized, unattainable woman—Martha, a girlfriend at home, and Linda, a childhood sweetheart who died at nine. The first story plays one of the many variations on the imagination-reality motif and picks up where O'Brien's earlier novel, Going after Cacciato, left off, with Paul Berlin imagining himself pleading for peace at the Paris Peace Talks but admitting: ''Even in imagination we must be true to our obligations, for, even in imagination, obligation cannot be outrun....
(The entire page is 2683 words.)
Want to read the whole thing?
Subscribe now to read the rest of this article. Plus, get access to:
- 30,000+ literature study guides
- Critical essays on more than 30,000 works of literature from Salem on Literature (exclusive to eNotes)
- An unparalleled literary criticism section. 40,000 full-length or excerpted essays.
- Content from leading academic publishers, all easily citable with our "Cite this page" button.
- 100% satisfaction guarantee READ MORE | <urn:uuid:e97a6eb0-b882-40a8-a737-7c48aaafe5c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enotes.com/things-they-carried/things-men-do-gendered-subtext-tim-obriens | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911961 | 238 | 2.234375 | 2 |
It seems that many of these beginning posts have dealt with names and their differences. As a genealogist, I have become aware of the importance of knowing a person's name or even names and the variations there may be. I have already written about patronymics in the Scandinavian countries but the practice really does make a big difference in knowing who to search for.
I decided, a couple of years ago, to try and find others who are related to Ole and Maria so that I could gather and share information with as many people as possible. I thought it might be a good idea to start doing collateral research--looking for Ole and Maria's brothers and sisters and their descendants.
It had not dawned on me that Ole's siblings had a different surname but they did. Ole was the illegitimate child of Ole Olsen and Gulline Olsdatter. His parents never married but when he was almost 11 years old, his mother married Jens Johansen. Jens and Gulline had 3 children, David, Johannes and Antone. David and Anton's surname was Jensen and Johannes' was Jensdatter.
A bell went off in my head--I had see a David Jensen also living in the Preston, Idaho area. Preston is where Ole and Maria settled in America. It ended up that this David Jensen was indeed Ole's younger brother. I have been blessed to find contacts on that side of Ole's family and they have shared wonderful information.
David moved to Franklin, Idaho in 1867 and Ole arrived in the area in 1876.
I am glad there was family waiting for them in this strange new country of America! | <urn:uuid:0e78f19e-dcd4-48db-8556-7a367034dfc5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://petterborggenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/03/two-brothers-with-completely-different.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98554 | 334 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The Biofuels Center of North Carolina has the long-term task of developing a large-scale biofuels industry sector to reduce the state's dependence on imported petroleum.
BIG engages high growth entrepreneurs to create a sustainable and innovative global community
CED ignites entrepreneurial success through know-how and networks.
A technology incubator located in the heart of Research Triangle Park, N.C., which offers 20,000 square feet of leasable office and lab space to startup biotechnology, healthcare and pharmaceutical companies that want to relocate to North Carolina
The Life Sciences Foundation is recording, preserving, and making known the history of biotechnology.
NCBIO is North Carolina's state-level affiliate of the national Biotechnology Industry Organization.
SBTDC steers North Carolina's businesses toward a better future.
The Institute of Forest Biotechnology (IFB) is the only organization to address the sustainability of forest biotechnology on a global scale
N.C.'s Department of Commerce is the state's advocate for economic, community and workforce development.
One of the oldest and largest science parks in North America, The Research Triangle Park (RTP) is a 7,000 acre development that is home to more than 170 companies employing over 42,000 full-time knowledge workers and an estimated 10,000 contract employees. | <urn:uuid:0774bcf2-d99a-4bdc-ae0d-d2b62fdb5e10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ncbiotech.org/about-us/center-partners | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902355 | 271 | 1.710938 | 2 |
How Hacktivism Affects Us All
In December 2010, a group of nearly 3000 activists under the name “Operation Payback” launched online attacksagainst PayPal, MasterCard, and Visa, briefly knocking the three financial services’ sites offline and attempting to prevent consumers from accessing their online banking services. The activists retaliated against the three companies for severing ties with WikiLeaks, an online repository for whistleblower data that had recently included thousands of secret communications from the U.S. State Department and other world governmental agencies. Nine months later more than a dozen people--most between the ages of 19 and 24--were arrested in connection with these denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, even as new attacks were hitting corporate, military, and government sites worldwide.
A combination of hacking and social activism, hacktivism is defined as the use of digital tools in pursuit of political ends. The earliest example dates back to 1999, when the loose network known as Cult of the Dead Cow created “Hacktivismo,” an organization espousing that freedom of information was a basic human right. The group designed software to circumvent censorship controls on the Internet that some governments used to prevent citizens from seeing certain content.
Lately, however, the hacktivism term has been applied to protests against multinational organizations, governments, and even rural law enforcement agencies, and the tactics now include DoS attacks on sites, as well as leaks of confidential documents to the public. And although hacktivists typically go after nonretail organizations, the fallout from these attacks can still affect millions of people.
“The generation that grew up with the Internet seems to think it’s as natural to show their opinion by launching online attacks as for us it would have been to go out on the streets and do a demonstration,” says Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer for F-Secure. “The difference is, online attacks are illegal while public demonstrations are not. But these kids don’t seem to care.”
“If you have a public presence, you are susceptible to attack--whether from a hacktivist or from legitimate cybercrime,” says Alex Eckelberry, vice president and general manager of security software for GFI Software. “It is something that every organization, especially ones with a high level of potential public scrutiny, must be concerned with,” Eckelberry says. For example, following the airing of a TV special critical of WikiLeaks, PBS saw its website defaced--and private documents breached and posted publicly--in May.
“Hacktivism has shown just how fragile an underbelly most enterprises and governments have, as well as much of the security industry,” says Dave Marcus, director of security research and communications for McAfee. Many of the attacked organizations had some security in place, but not enough to withstand the protests. “Hacktivism has revealed how poorly many companies handle the process of securing data, much of which is consumer,” Marcus notes. “I think consumers should be asking the companies that hold their data, ‘How well are you really protecting my info?’”
Today’s hacktivism creates a high level of embarrassment that goes beyond corporate press releases about data breaches, or identity theft. “This stuff gets out there and can be very public and quite dangerous, not only to the institution being hacked, but, by collateral damage, to innocents,” Eckelberry says.
In protesting recent police actions on the Bay Area Rapid Transit system in San Francisco, someone posted the names, addresses, and mobile phone numbers of more than 2000 MyBART subscribers online--ordinary riders. A week later, online attackers posted the names and addresses of 102 BART police officers online. Both disclosures were complemented by real-world protests at BART stations.
Sony is another prime example of the ripple effect that hacktivism can cause. In 2010, teenage researcher George Hotz reverse-engineered the Sony private key and published it online, thereby allowing almost anyone the opportunity to rewrite the firmware and, by declaring themselves a developer on the Sony network, gain free access to any of Sony’s online games. This action fits the hacker philosophy that all information--even proprietary information--should be free.
Sony subsequently sued Hotz, and as a result attracted the attention of hacktivists. The company then suffered many embarrassing DoS attacks and a data breach, including the exposure of 12 million customer credit card numbers. Sony Pictures had 75,000 “music codes” and 3.5 million “music coupons” exposed. Sony has estimated its total losses to be $173 million, including increased customer support, incentives to welcome customers back, legal costs, loss of sales--and better security.
Some politically motivated data breaches have inspired full-blown revolutions. In the spring of 2011, protestors, often young, took to the streets in the Middle East, rallying against their governments, some of which had been in power for decades. They were emboldened by, among other things, technology. For some, WikiLeaks and a decentralized online organization known as Anonymous created the environment that gave rise to the “Arab Spring” by posting secret government documents online.
About the same time, Anonymous split and formed a smaller group called Lulz Security, or LulzSec. That group allegedly attacked an affiliate of the FBI because it was investigating Anonymous, and later it attacked the Arizona Department of Public Safety because the group disagreed with Arizona’s immigration policy. After 50 days, LulzSec rejoined with Anonymous, although in mid-July the group split off once again with the express purpose of attacking Rupert Murdoch’s News International, ostensibly protesting that organization’s alleged celebrity cell phone hacks by posting Murdoch’s email online.
No Upside to Hacktivism?
None of the security experts interviewed condoned the recent actions of the hacktivists. Random disclosures could endanger lives--a high price to pay for increased security awareness. Throughout the spring and summer of 2011, thousands of pages of confidential documents and personnel information from targeted companies have appeared on public sites such as Pastebin. Law enforcement appears to be slowly catching up with the parties responsible.
Already one former member of Anonymous regrets his involvement. In an interview with Cisco Security, “SparkyBlaze” said he was “fed up with [Anonymous] putting people’s data online and then claiming to be the big heroes.” He goes on to say: “Getting files and giving them to WikiLeaks, that sort of thing, that does hurt governments. But putting user names and passwords on a pastebin doesn’t [affect governments], and posting the info of the people you fight for is just wrong.” | <urn:uuid:12bc5814-7fb1-4094-8f1b-2f282f27e7c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pcworld.com/article/239594/how_hacktivism_affects_us_all.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957315 | 1,404 | 3.078125 | 3 |
WWII veteran Williard Dominick’s story is one of many in the new exhibit: “The Soldier Experience” at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle. The following account is based on a 2000 interview with Dominick.Williard Dominick was born in Bolivar, Westmoreland County, Pa., in 1920. He started drawing at an early age and discovered that he had an innate talent for sculpture. In the 1930s, he entered a soap-carving contest sponsored by the Ivory Soap Co. He won a national prize by carving a colt. While he was growing up, he kept sketchbooks and diaries.
His basic training was done in New Cumberland. He was then sent to Camp Wheeler, Ga., where he was trained in jungle warfare. Almost the entire training camp was sent to the South Pacific. He was placed in the 25th Infantry Division, “a gung-ho outfit.”
“I was kind of a mean character when I came back, but I got over the combat mode,” he said. “In our hardest campaign in the northern Philippines, we had a battalion commander by the name of Col. Robert Louis Stevenson. He was a West Point graduate, gentle-spoken but firm and had great leadership quality. I was his Battery OPS Sergeant. As we went through the war, the feeling of service and allegiance to our country and to these leaders was unifying to us.”
Time in Guadalcanal
“We were sent to Guadalcanal because the Marines had landed there in September. We landed a few days before Christmas,” he added. "The Japanese were in command of the seas around Guadalcanal then. There was continuous bombing every night. Our hardest fight was at Arundle Island. We were pursuing the Japanese and were pinned down by them. The Marine Corps tanks saved us, and the Navy stopped the Japanese from reinforcing.
“For my first assignment, I was a rifleman but transferred into the anti-tank company. The fight on Guadalcanal was very unstructured, but we cleared the island in a couple of weeks.”
Time in the Solomon Islands
“The uniform for the jungle was green fatigues and laced-up leggings. Later, we wore combat boots. Our equipment was very good and much superior to the Japanese. Our hand grenades and mortar rounds were very, very powerful and effective. Our main weapon, the M-1 rifle, was a workhorse and would fire when it was red hot and with dirt, sand and leaves in it — a greatly admired weapon.”
About his artwork
“I was attuned to sketching the environment around me, also it was therapeutic to me to get my mind on this rather than the realities around me. I had always sketched and kept a diary so I wanted to continue during the war. Another motivation was that I had intentions of writing a book about the human aspect of being in the conflict. Since the Guadalcanal diary and so many other books were written, I decided not to do the book.
“How I got the art supplies that I needed was from my sister Ann. She sent me sketchbooks, brushes, watercolors, etc., and this enabled me to do the artwork. Some of the artwork was official — map rendering, topography models and so forth.
“I had no capacity as an artist under the military. In fact, what I was doing was illegal. You were not allowed to have a camera or to take photographs, not allowed to have a diary or sketchbook. The officers knew I was doing this, and they overlooked it.”
Sometimes, he sketched in a hurry when everyone was on the move, and other times, like when he was manning a big gun for days, he could take his time and sketch every nut and bolt. Generally, he tried to get the essence and action of the place when he sketched.
He didn't sketch when he was in the hospital in New Zealand. He had malaria. He also was diverted from sketching in New Zealand because he found a girlfriend for the few months he was there. They left New Zealand because the high command thought there were too many distractions there for training. They moved to French New Caledonia to train. He stopped writing daily in his diary when he became a message center clerk, and he really preferred drawing more.
They were then sent to the Philippines via Guadalcanal. His first assignment there was as an anti-tank gunner with a crew of five men. Later on, he was in the message center at HQ 2nd Battalion. He did sign painting and animated artwork for training films. He was with the same unit throughout the entire war — the 27th.
He sketched until the end of the war. He left the service in September/October 1945 after three years, three months and 21 days overseas and four months of continental service.
“When I returned, I was a sick boy and I was mentally damaged material. Four years of that was too much,” he said. When his train arrived at the station in Baltimore, his father pushed him out of the way to look for his son because he hadn’t even recognized him.
When he went into the army, he was a 155-pound varsity wrestler. He weighed 118 when he came out. When he got home, he went to visit his cousin in Altoona. Dominick had his uniform on and his cousin said if he would just put on a sports jacket he would get more attention “from the chicks.”
After he got back to college, he was deeply into sculpture, drawing and painting. He finished at Indiana University and got a job teaching and supervising art in Clearfield. When asked what he would like people to learn from his service and these sketchbooks he answered: “To reinforce a time-honored slogan that war is hell and it should be avoided at all costs.
“If I could pass anything on to them, it would be that the enemy we encountered were really our brothers. I saw, lying on the trail, a young, handsome, little 16-year-old Japanese boy with his face turned up and on his person he had photographs of his family, and I could have happily been that student’s art teacher. I could have associated with them at home. And that is the tragedy of war, that leaders of nations cannot compromise and cannot have successful diplomacy.” | <urn:uuid:f39da9e7-8ecc-42f2-9510-4a450ac5d57d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pennlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/11/veterans_day_pennsylvania_soldiers_art_helped_him_get_through_wwii.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.993185 | 1,366 | 2.15625 | 2 |
The sudden decision by the Oppenheimer family to sell its 40% stake in De Beers to diversified global miner Anglo American [JSE:AGL]
for $5.1bn (R40bn) has raised questions about the impact of nationalisation talk on investment.
Eskom chief economist Mandla Maleka said: “Anglo American has for years been unsuccessful in its attempt to buy the stake from the Oppenheimers.
One wonders whether the Oppenheimers are selling the stake due to commercial reasons or if there was pressure coming from certain quarters, like the nationalisation debate.”
The Oppenheimers loosened their grip on De Beers after an almost 80-year involvement with the company. The deal will increase Anglo’s stake in De Beers from the current 45% to 85%, although the Botswana government – which owns the remaining 15% – could decide to take part in the transaction and increase its own stake
in De Beers to 25% by way of pre-emption rights.
A statement issued by Anglo reads: “In the event that (Botswana) exercises its pre-emption rights in full, Anglo American would acquire an incremental 30% interest in De Beers, taking its total interest to 75%, and the consideration payable by Anglo American would be reduced proportionately.”
De Beers was established by British imperialist Cecil John Rhodes in 1888, but Ernest Oppenheimer, a German-Jewish immigrant who formed Anglo with American financier JP Morgan in 1917, took control in 1927.
The company was later run by his son, Harry, who handed over to grandson Nicky. Between the three, they built De Beers into a global diamond empire that currently sells about a third of the world’s rough diamonds.
Nicky Oppenheimer, the De Beers chairperson who also represents the Oppenheimer family interests, said the decision to sell was tough.
“This has been a momentous and difficult decision as my family has been in the diamond industry for more than 100 years and part of De Beers for more than 80 years,” he said.
“After careful and deliberate consideration of the offer, and what is in the best interests of the family, we unanimously agreed to accept Anglo American’s offer.”
Maleka said the sale should have been scrutinised by competition authorities because it would result in big industry players further monopolising mining.
Frans Baleni, the general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (Num), said the union would try to schedule a meeting with Nicky Oppenheimer to find out why his family was pulling out.
“We would like to have some discussion with Nicky to understand why he is disinvesting in mining because this sends a signal of lack of confidence in the local mining industry. We also don’t know what he is going to do with the huge (sum of) cash from the sale of the Oppenheimer stake.
“He has played a big role in developing mining in South Africa, but we also think he should have done more from a social responsibility point of view. Over the past few years, De Beers has been retrenching workers,” said Baleni.
The Oppenheimers sold about $102 million of Anglo shares in December last year, leaving their stake in the company at about 1.9%. In 2006, they sold 1.13% of Anglo to billionaire Larry Yung’s China Vision Resources for about $803 million.
The family has “no intention at this stage” of further reducing its holding, according to James Teeger, the managing director of E Oppenheimer & Son Group.
Baleni said the Num would hold talks with Anglo, the new controlling shareholder, to understand the deal’s impact on labour. “We will sit down with Anglo to discuss the implications for workers following the change of control in De Beers,” he said.
Industrial Development Corporation chief economist Lumkile Mondi said if the Oppenheimers repatriated the cash into South Africa and converted it into rands, this could strengthen the local currency.
“But if the money comes in dribs and drabs, it will not have any impact on the rand,” he said. – Additional reporting by Bloomberg
- City Press | <urn:uuid:ef67c032-d04e-4c00-b970-255e428b8dd5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fin24.com/Companies/Mining/Oppenheimers-sell-stake-in-De-Beers-20111106 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969031 | 913 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Last month, an article with the provocative title, "Elephants in Academic Medicine," by Souba et al addressed the anechoic effect, but was unable to discuss what people in academic medicine cannot discuss.(1)
In summary, the authors surveyed chairs of departments of medicine and surgery at all accredited US medical schools to ask about the "elephants in their living rooms." By this they meant the problems which people are unwilling to discuss at their medical schools. Their goal was to assess "organizational silence" in academic medicine, as they discussed in their introduction:
Morrison and Milliken popularized the term 'organizational silence,' which refers to the collective-level phenomenon of doing or saying very little about the problems facing an organization. Organizational silence derives both from people's fears of negative feedback and from a set of behavioral cues adopted by supervisors that lead to structures, procedures, and processes that discourage speaking up. Two common structural features of organizations that foster organizational silence are centralized decision making and a lack of formal feedback mechanisms.
Some organizations face an apparent dilemma in which employees know the truth about specific problems within the organization yet dare not speak that truth to their superiors. A key factor that fosters the creation of a climate of organizational silence is senior leaders' fears of receiving criticism, especially from subordinates. The unwritten message from the top is 'No bad or unpleasant news.' Fearing retaliation or the label 'not a team player' if they speak their minds, subordinates become silent; even if they do speak up, they may discover that their feedback is disregarded. A culture of silence becomes ingrained.
The investigators sought to learn from these academic leaders:
(1) What are the major elephants in your AHC [academic health center]? (2) What do you believe to be the most prevalent reasons people do not speak up? and (3) What are the consequences of remaining silent?
The survey response rate was 55%. The major elephants, in the order that they were ranked by the participants, were
- misalignment between goals and available resources
- ignoring information that clearly indicates a performance problem
- unwillingness to give up on a failed strategy
- unwillingness to speak up about inequities (e.g., pay, space, favoritism, special deals)
- failure to deal with disruptive behavior
The wording of these items were chosen by the investigators. The survey allowed for respondents to write in additional items, but the paper did not discuss any such responses. Its discussion of the results did not further define the nature of any elephants.
In addition, survey results suggested that more open discussion is unlikely to be in the offing.
- The majority of respondents thought that the elephants were someone else's problem:
Both chairs of surgery and of medicine believed that elephants are more commonly ignored by deans and hospital leaders than by other department chairs or themselves. Surgery chairs were more likely to say that hospital leaders ignore elephants, whereas medicine chairs were more likely to say that deans disregard elephants.
- The majority thought that other leaders did not encourage discussion of elephants:
Only 52 of the chairs (37%) said that elephants are usually discussed in an appropriate venue, whereas 87 (63%) said that elephants are discussed in less constructive venues or not discussed at all. Less than a quarter of the chairs (32; 23%) reported that the top leaders at their institutions actually encourage people to call out and deal with elephants. More commonly, the chairs (77; 55%) reported that the top leaders of their institutions say they want people to be frank about elephants, but their actions or nonverbal cues indicate otherwise. A higher percentage of medicine chairs than of surgery chairs (16 of 53 [30%] versus 16 of 86 [19%]), said that top leaders pretend that elephants do not exist.
- An important minority did not think the elephants were a problem at all:
nearly a fifth (26 of 139; 19%) agreed that, indeed, some issues are best left undiscussed.
- While the majority favored discussing elephants, they did not think it would be easy to do so:
two-thirds (92 of 137; 67%) felt that creating a culture in which elephants are openly discussed would be very or moderately difficult.
Their and Our Discussion
It was particularly striking that an article about elephants in the living room did not more fully describe what sorts of elephants they were. The descriptions of elephants above, taken verbatim from the survey instrument, were vague. They were not clarified in the discussion section of the article.
Particularly lacking were the sort of nasty elephants described by Pololi et al in a qualitative study of barriers to the advancement of primary care faculty.(2) As we summarized in our letter,(3) these elephants included academic leaders who put revenues ahead of patient care, teaching, and research; and who allegedly used deception for personal gain. Also lacking were nasty elephants we have discussed on Health Care Renewal. We have discussed examples of self-interested, conflicted, and corrupt leadership of health care organizations, including academic medical institutions.
I am glad that Souba et al brought up the topic of elephants in academic medicine's living room. However, I am disappointed that these elephants were never clearly identified. It seems that while we are getting to the point of being able to say there are things we cannot say, we are not yet at the point of saying what those things are. The strength of the anechoic effect is demonstrated by cases in which we cannot talk about what we cannot talk about.
Souba et al concluded:
We believe that AHCs are designed, often subconsciously, to keep the range of conversation limited to a few voices, usually the voices of those in power. The powerful silence the voices of others because they consider others' views to be either contrary to the status quo or of limited value.
We would add that those in power often may value the status quo not merely because of philosophical conservatism, but because maintaining the status quo supports their self interest. In particular, it has become increasingly lucrative to be in a leadership position in a health care organization, even in a non-profit academic institution. Executive compensation at these institutions has been rising inexorably, driven by increasing institutional relationships with corporate health care. Individuals in leadership positions in academic medicine frequently have their own, increasingly lucrative financial relationships with the health care industry. (A study by Campbell et al showed that the majority of department chairs, like those who answered the survey above, have such relationships.) Ever increasing hunger for institutional and personal revenue may lead to a variety of practices that are hostile to the academic and professional mission. Discussing any of these aspects of the status quo may offend and threaten those who are profiting from it.
However, as long as we cannot even talk about such problems, the problems will only get worse.
1. Souba W, Way D, Lucey C, Sedmak D, Notestine M. Acad Medicine 2011; 86: 1492-1499. Link here.
2. Pololi L, Kern DE, Carr P, Conrad P, Knight S. The culture of academic medicine: faculty perceptions of the lack of alignment between individual and institutional values. J Gen Intern Med 2009; 24: 1289-95. Link here.
3. Poses RM, Smith WR. Faculty values. J Gen Intern Med 2010; 25: 646. Link here.
4. Campbell EG, Weissman JS, Ehringhaus S et al. Institutional academic-industry relationships. JAMA 2007; 298: 1779-1786, link here.] | <urn:uuid:6089e0a5-5f85-401b-83fc-c6bb1af074ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2012/01/elephants-we-can-notice-but-cannot-name.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961569 | 1,558 | 2.453125 | 2 |
NetWellness is a global, community service providing quality, unbiased health information from our partner university faculty. NetWellness is commercial-free and does not accept advertising.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Pros and Cons of Colonoscopy?
Everything I usually hear about colonoscopy screening presents it as all positive and zero negative (i.e., only an idiot would not want to rush out and have one).
But I have also seen an alternative opinion that people with no symptoms and no risk factors do not necessarily need this just because they`ve had some magic number of birthdays. The article that I read said that screening large numbers of healthy people leads to false positives, unnecessary surgeries and unnecessary stress, not to mention unnecessary costs.
I have never heard of any medical procedure that has all pros and NO cons, not even teeth cleaning.
Could you give some accurate info about the pros AND CONS of colonoscopy screening for healthy people over 50 with no risk factors other than age and no symptoms?
I do not feel particularly inclined to have this screening procedure at this time, but my HMO penalizes doctors who don`t get their patients over 50 to ALL undergo this procedure, so my doctor is really pushing it.
Thank you for visiting NetWellness. A question similar to yours has been previously addressed. The links below will connect you to that information. NetWellness may also have some general information available that you can access through our search feature. Best wishes. | <urn:uuid:1cf5d032-b123-4dd6-8653-67cb4cbe724d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.netwellness.uc.edu/question.cfm/72013.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960725 | 304 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Photo courtesy of Shea Hazarian.
I have always been a fan of companies such as Terracycle, which take our trash and create usable products. But when I reflect on what wonderful work they are doing, I have to wonder is this a band-aid until we realize the products we are upcycling are not necessarily good for the environment?
I have honestly been in denial about the environmental costs of upcycling of PET plastic water bottles, which is made into carpet, polyester fabric, bags, and fleece. You know the Aquafinas of the world? I will be the first to admit, I have applauded the efforts of companies who have made useful products out all of those discarded water/soda bottles rather than the bottles ending up in a landfill. Sometimes I was indignant at times when I was challenged as to why I supported the plastic bottle upcycling I always argued people are going to use the bottles regardless of what we say or do, so at least there is an alternative so they do not end up in a landfill.
Some of you probably agree with me. Plastic bottles makes our lives convenient. It is light weight, reduces freight costs, and not breakable like glass. And as I mentioned earlier, you can recycle it. The downside of plastic is , for starters, in order to create plastic, petroleum, a natural resource, is being depleted. And what about all the plastic bottles that are not recycled which end up in our waterways hurting aquatic life or in a landfill for centuries? To make matter worse, toxic chemicals leach from the bottles.
In 2006, Shotyk et al. reported elevated antimony levels in drinking water bottled in PET containers. According to the article, “Antimony (Sb2O3) is used as a catalyst in 90% of PET manufacturing world- wide.” Despite their findings,the levels of antimony leaching were considered below EPA maximum contamination levels in water. However, in an 2007 Arizona State University study revealed that the amount of antimony that leached exceeded the EPA levels while being stored or used at higher temperatures like in a garage in the summer or in the microwave.
Then this year, a study by Martin Wagner and Jörg Oehlmann from the Department of Aquatic Ecotoxicology at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany found estrogenic compounds leaching out of the plastic water bottles.
However, given my view of the benefits of upcycling, I continued to ignore the problem. Plastic PET botttles. I even re-upholstered by falling apart couches with recycled polyester looking for durability from my rug rats who view my couches as war zones. When I questioned the manufacturer about whether there was antimony used in the process, she replied that she had never heard of that words before. So, I thought I was safe. Just doing my part for the environment.
My whole ideals on recycled plastic water bottles came crashing down the day when when my husband bought home a Eco-pure pillow which foam is made out of recycled polyester. I wanted him to take them back since they may have been processed with antimony.
That night, I went looking for more information about the pillows and stumbled upon O Ecotextiles’ blog questioning the environmentally friendliness of recycled polyester. I have always been a fan of the founders of O Ecotextiles, who create eco-friendly fabrics. I have written about them before lauding their due diligence in creating truly exceptional environmentally friendly products. Their blog has been a source of information and opened my eyes to how bamboo fabrics were made.
As I read the article, my eyes opened wider and wider. How stupid was I? The article and ensuing discussion explained:
- Plastic can not be recycled indefinitely. After it become unstable to be used in any product, it will end up in a landfill. I just thought you could keep recycling plastic to make it into new products.
- Antimony is released as a gas when PET plastic bottles are incinerated.
- Both Polyester and recycled polyester contain antimony. Recycled Poly is made out of recycled plastic bottles which themselves contain Antimony. (For that matter, all products that are made from recycled soda bottles have Antimony in it.) So, did my couches contain Antimony? Only Eco-intelligent polyester is Antimony free but made from virgin polyester. How many barrels does it take to make virgin polyester? How eco is that?
- The energy consumption to make recycled polyester is more than conventional cotton, organic cotton and hemp. (But less than virgin polyester.) I opted for recycled polyester for durability since I did not think organic cotton or hemp would last with four active children.
- Creating recycled polyester can causes toxic chemicals to leach into our waterways unless the facility treats its wastewater.
- The demand for post consumer bottles has increased so much that companies are sourcing new unused bottles from the bottle manufacturers.
What I love about the O Ecotextiles ladies is everything they write is not merely opinion. They research what they write and provide their resources. The bottom line, it seemed anything to do with new or recycled uses for PET plastic bottles is just plain bad for the environment.
To make matter worse, now I questioned was Antimony spun into the fibers a bad thing? Was the chemical inert at that point?
The Department of Health and Human Services, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not classified Antimony as a human carcinogenicity. On their Antimony FAQ site, it states,
“Lung cancer has been observed in some studies of rats that breathed high levels of antimony. No human studies are available. We don’t know whether antimony will cause cancer in people.”
However, in the work place section, the Agency states,
“Breathing high levels for a long time can irritate your eyes and lungs and can cause heart and lung problems, stomach pain, diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach ulcers.
In short-term studies, animals that breathed very high levels of antimony died. Animals that breathed high levels had lung, heart, liver, and kidney damage. In long-term studies, animals that breathed very low levels of antimony had eye irritation, hair loss, lung damage, and heart problems. Problems with fertility were also noted. In animal studies, problems with fertility have been seen when rats breathed very high levels of antimony for a few months.”
So, do I have anything to worry about? Call me hysterical but do I want to find out 10 years down the road that Antimony in carpets, fabrics, and clothing will be present in my body like flame retardants? I did not even go into the argument that bottle water is no better than tap water. That is a whole article in itself.
The bottom line? Stop making plastic bottles. Period. No need to upcycle. No need to expose workers to antimony. No need to expose us, the consumer to toxic chemicals. At the very least, readers, stop using plastic water bottles. If you stop, there will not be nothing to recycle.
So, readers here are my questions:
Would you continue supporting companies that upcycle these plastic bottles into other products? How do you feel about this?
Do you buy products made out of recycled plastic?
Could the use of new bottles (pre-consumer) to make “recycled products” be the new greenwashing ?
Is Antimony in bottles harmless when created into something different?
Any suggestions to stop the madness of plastic bottles?
Update 9/25/2010 This post is part of the Green Moms Carnival about clothing being hosted at the Big Green Purse. How eco-friendly are your clothing purchases? You know my feeling about recycled polyester.
- Plastic Free Living Book Helps You Live Healthier, Better for the Earth
- ElKay’s EZH2O Water Refill Station. The End of Plastic Water Bottles
- Reusable Water Bottle TKO’s Plastic Water Bottle in Cost Savings
- NJ Gov Offices, Stop Spending Money on Plastic Water Bottles
- Clorox’s Oxymoron Role in Reducing Water Bottle Usage | <urn:uuid:04678bf5-75d8-44de-84a1-c2b6c0eb4106> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.green-talk.com/2009/07/24/are-recycled-plastic-bottles-products-really-eco-friendly/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953978 | 1,722 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Legal Position of Women on Waves What we can do and what we are allowed to do
A short explanation of our legal situation.
According to the Dutch law of Termination of Pregnancy, (the WAZ) abortion treatment is only legal in clinics that have been granted a license by the Dutch minister of Health, Safety and Sports.
Women on Waves applied for such a license in 2001 to be able to perform first trimester abortions in its mobile treatment room.
This application was denied by the Dutch minister.
After receiving a protest followed by appeal initiated by Women on Waves, the Court of Law of Amsterdam reversed the juridical verdict on June 1st, 2004, and ruled that the minister would have to make a new decision. On July 9th, 2004, the dutch minister decided that after three years of juridical battle, Women on Waves would finally receive the license in which it would be acknowledged as an official WAZ-clinic. However, the dutch minister appended one condition to this decision, the condition that the mobile treatment room could not be used outside of a 25 kilometer radius of the Slotervaart Hospital. Women on Waves has appealed this condition in the Law Court of Amsterdam and won and since 2008, Women on Waves' mobile clinic has a first trimester abortion license.
However, very early abortions till 6,5 weeks do are not regulated by the Dutch abortion law. Therefore Women on Waves has always been able to sail out with the ship even though it did not have the clinic license. As there is no need for a operation room to take a pill, Women on Waves decided to leave the mobile clinic at home and sail out with a yacht during the campaign in Spain in 2008. This provoked the Dutch health inspection to ask the public prosecutor to start legal procedures again Women on Waves. The public prosecutor refused and said that there was no indication that Women on Waves broke any Dutch laws. | <urn:uuid:b7949e61-a255-4e1b-9aa4-1ae3d9ed6661> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.womenonwaves.org/en/page/611/legal-position-of-women-on-waves | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975685 | 391 | 1.976563 | 2 |
Professor Examines the Historic Blaze that
Destroyed Downtown Baltimore
Within an hour of the start of the Great Baltimore Fire on Feb. 7, 1904, the fire chief of the city was struck by a sparking electrical wire and incapacitated for most of the 30-hour blaze. Instead of an experienced fire chief leading the battle to contain the worst fire in Baltimore's history, the job fell to the department's district engineer and the city's energetic young mayor. Elected at age 35, Robert McLane was the youngest mayor in Baltimore's history.
The inexperienced McLane, a graduate of Johns Hopkins, stood in the streets during the fire, cheering on the firefighters, said Pete Petersen, a professor of management in the Johns Hopkins School of Professional Studies in Business and Education (SPSBE), and author of the soon-to-be-published book The Great Baltimore Fire (Maryland Historical Society, February, $29.95).
"It was the macho thing to do, to be at the fire" — but perhaps, Petersen said, not the smartest approach from a leadership point of view. McLane failed to set up a communications command center, and as a result, Petersen said, he was impossible to locate during the crisis. One result was that mayors of other cities, including New York, were unable to contact McLane to make sure he wanted those cities to send help. New York did send firefighters, but that help "came late," Petersen noted.
Petersen and other experts on the Great Baltimore Fire will take part this spring in a lecture series commemorating the 100th anniversary of the fire. The series, which begins March 2, is part of the Johns Hopkins noncredit Odyssey program, which offers a wide array of personal enrichment courses, from foreign languages, history and philosophy to writing grant proposals.
Some of the other spring offerings are "The Story of Ireland," a 10-week course delving into the rich history and heritage of the Emerald Isle; "Mystery Loves Company: Conversations with Leading Mystery Writers;" and "Sex, Terrorism and Robber Barons: The Post-Soviet Reality," an eight-week course featuring, among others, Nina Khrushcheva, granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev and Simon Kukos, CEO of Yukos oil, the Russian oil giant at the center of a confrontation between big business and the Kremlin.
Petersen will begin the course on the Great Baltimore Fire with a March 2 lecture titled "Big Fire Here: Must Have Help At Once."
In a matter of hours, more than 70 blocks of downtown Baltimore, an area equal in size to the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus, burned to the ground. More than 1,500 buildings were lost in the blaze, and damage was estimated at $150 million (in 1904 dollars).
Petersen spent four years researching and writing his 232-page work on the fire, and spent many long hours in his office in the Downtown Center at the corner of Fayette and Charles streets, with a view of the area that was destroyed by the fire. He recently sat down to talk about the book and the fire.
To listen, go to www.jhu.edu/news_info/news/audio-video/fire.html.
"The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904," a six-session series with five lectures and a walking tour, is being offered in cooperation with the Maryland State Archives and the Maryland Historical Society. For the complete list of Odyssey classes with cost and registration information, go to www.odyssey.jhu.edu.
Go to Headlines@HopkinsHome Page | <urn:uuid:2e159ea9-9c11-4e1f-89cf-1cc817d2d55d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jhu.edu/news_info/news/home04/jan04/baltfire.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954531 | 742 | 2.328125 | 2 |
RAPTORS a look into the future ?
By: Henk de Brueijs.
RAPTORS…………………a look into the future ?
Following the discussions regarding this subject in all kind of “pigeon” media I like to give from this place an insight in this subject in The Netherlands.
The surface area of the UK is 6 times that of The Netherlands while the number of inhabitants is 3,6 times larger. The so called Randstad, a continuous development of industry and houses and an estimated population of 7.100,000 is one of the largest conurbations in Europe covering an area of just approximately 8,250 sq.km. ( 860 per sq.km). The ethnic groups are 80% Dutch and 20% “multi-cultural’. The House of Representatives has 150 members of which an important part “green” or same color thinking. Even a political party with the name “Animal Party” is represented with 2 members.
In our neighborhood it happens already several times that families taking a walk through one of the very few woods were attacked by breeding raptors. The advice of the “authorities” was a simple “go out of their way”. Don’t think you can undertake any action. Once they are missing a moving “blip” of the chip on the screen they must find the bird or remains and will investigate the “case” as it was a murder. Fine, as one said € 3.500,00 only and if you have no luck even a sentence. Even you show them the places where 30 or more rings are found they shrug their shoulders and has the opinion that nature has her own device.
What can the fancier do to solve this problem? As we noticed already a very few. The national federation of pigeon fanciers in The Netherlands undertook action to the authorities but till now without any result. What can we do by ourselves ? In my direct neighborhood we are with 4 fanciers within a radius of 300 meters. Last spring and summer we lost in the beginning altogether a 30 birds and 2 of my birds were found half eaten in the immediate vicinity of my home. Together with one fellow fancier we decided to toss the young birds every day at a distance of 40 km instead to let them fly out direct from the loft. As the lost birds were almost all youngsters we noticed also that the old pigeons get used to the raptor and followed their instinct. In the beginning you will lose also old birds but after a 3 or 4 weeks you will see a change in the way the pigeons are leaving the loft and their way of training. From the young birds we did not lose one single pigeon anymore to the birds of prey. May be we were lucky but will see next month March. Follow our findings on the website: www.pigeoncare.nl
The only solution for this problem I can see is that our “superiors” in Brussels give a green light to do at least something to reduce this nuisance in the near future. With the present worldwide crises there are more important subjects to discuss but I’m sure that nobody will blame us if we talk with each other about this, for the pigeon fancier specific problem. . | <urn:uuid:b33165f7-c0e5-433d-bad9-a01b669233b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pigeoncare.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=123%3Araptors-a-look-into-the-future-&catid=8%3Aarchive&Itemid=13 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964938 | 680 | 1.828125 | 2 |
[Originally posted on Jetson Green. Notice how I used the opportunity to sneak Randolph Croxton into the article, too. I still don't think he gets enough credit for some of the groundbreaking work he has done.]
Last week, the formation of the new International Green Construction Code was announced through the partnership of several organizations already deeply connected with green building efforts. The preliminary version of the model code is now available for public review and comment.
The introduction of this additional green building standard will take some time to sort out. But it should not be viewed as competition to LEED or other rating systems so much as it is a complement to them. (USGBC’s active participation [PDF] in the new standard should make that point obvious.) Instead, there is a greater variety of standards available as tools to help all members of a building team produce better buildings.
IGCC is supported by a collaboration of the ICC (International Code Council), ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers), USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council), and IES (Illuminating Engineering Society).
This also combines ICC with the other organizations that were responsible for developing the ASHRAE 189.1 Standard for the Design of High-Performance Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings.
ASHRAE 189.1 has been criticized by some groups for not being as tough a set of requirements as it could be, but this misses the broader intent for its application. While LEED has always targeted the most progressive and forward-looking projects for certification, the new green building code from IGCC should offer a more basic, though less stringent option, that is still more effective than a building that only meets code minimum.
Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO, and Founding Chairman of the USGBC, noted that this new standard helps “establish a higher floor” for green building, which allows USGBC to “raise the ceiling” for the highest performing buildings, according to a statement.
The IGCC follows a number of development concepts which are explained on the website:
- Will use the “model” code approach;
- Will work as an overlay to the ICC Family of Codes;
- Will provide performance, prescriptive, and pre-engineered solutions;
- Minimum and advanced levels of performance (green & high performance buildings);
- Written in mandatory language that provides a new regulatory framework;
- Will account for local conditions;
- Reflects the AIA 2030 Challenge;
- Works in tandem with leading green rating systems; and
- Designed with local, state, and federal law in mind.
As with the model building codes, the IGCC will follow a regular cycle of review and improvement to increase requirements and push the industry further.
I saw Randolph Croxton — principal of Croxton Collaborative Architects and one of the earliest proponents for what has become green building design — speak in the mid ’90s, and he talked about codes and the need to build better buildings: “If you build a building and you say it meets all code requirements, all that means is that if you had done just one thing less, it would be an illegal building.“
We should aspire to do more than the minimum, and the arrival of a new standard helps to push matters in that direction.
It should not be lamented that a milder standard is available. Most of the buildings that will be built to this standard likely would not have obtained LEED certification. But this will allow more building teams to create buildings with some clear guidelines that will help them build buildings that are better than just code-minimum.
[PDF] Download a preliminary version of IGCC. | <urn:uuid:9275f6d2-c613-43d9-910d-2f265822d7ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://psproefrock.wordpress.com/category/jetsongreen/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957061 | 775 | 2.296875 | 2 |
|I planned to write my editorial about the special report in this issue on the epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases and the petition we want you to sign and distribute to demand action. But then, just days before this column was due, on a Sunday afternoon in New York City's Central Park, more than 40 women were attacked.
The women--tourists and locals, some teenagers, others adults, some alone, others with female friends or male companions--were surrounded by groups of men who heckled, restrained, sexually molested, robbed, and beat them. And in one case, a woman was stripped naked while her husband was restrained and forced to watch. The predators cheered each other on, while bystanders videotaped several of the incidents and countless other folks watched and made no effort to intercede. It happened the same day that a major parade celebrating Puerto Rican pride was being held in the area, and the police were out in force. And yet, according to several people, including a number of the victims, the police failed to respond to their pleas for help, or protect other women from being assaulted.
As fate would have it, these attacks also happened on the very weekend when women from around the world had just finished meeting at the United Nations. That gathering was called to assess the progress made since the historic U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 and to press governments to adhere to the recommendations and resolutions that came out of that event, to demand new laws and that unjust laws be changed. No surprise that violence against women was one of the main areas of concern.
As if we could forget that we live in a world where the rule of law does not universally apply to women and where nations routinely cloak men's violence toward women under the mantle of custom or religion, calling them acts of honor, duty, or love. Or that I, like most of you reading this, live in a country where men who kill their wives or girlfriends are routinely described as being "distraught," their murderous acts detailed under headlines that say things like "Love Gone Awry"--as if love had anything to do with it. If caught, these killers usually plead insanity, talk about being "pushed over the edge" and all too often are treated less harshly than the person who murders a stranger. One in six U.S. women has experienced either rape or attempted rape at some point in her life. Women are assaulted--not because the urge to rape is inherent to men's nature, but because of socialization. In this nation, women and girls are routinely stalked, the sexual harassment of girls in middle and junior high schools by their male peers has become all too common, and far more often than folks would like to admit, the sexual predation begins in the home. Yet women's suppressed memories of childhood abuse are labeled false, and people are deluded into thinking that incest is rare, that harassment is just adolescent flirtation, and that the mere fact of being female makes one a target for violence and intimidation. And then there are the officials who claim that these are simply aberrant acts--no pattern here.
How seriously does this society take violence against women? Ask the prosecutors who decide that some women aren't worthy of justice and the juries that buy into those tired patriarchal excuses for men's violence toward women. Ask the music lovers who attended the Woodstock festival last year in upstate New York and chose to be voyeurs when rape became part of the public revelry. Ask the moviemakers who regularly incite the violence done to women. Ask the schoolboys who in poll after poll state that if they spend a certain amount of money on a date, girls are obligated to provide sex. Ask the police officers who failed to respond to a female victim's cry for help and the bystanders who watched but did nothing. Ask those males who catcalled, threw water, groped and pawed and assaulted those women in the park, and the others who cheered them on. Ask the women who were targeted on that hot spring day. | <urn:uuid:cf44a20d-c593-41d2-8cb2-c50c98359beb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.msmagazine.com/aug00/edspage.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977411 | 825 | 2.140625 | 2 |
A future with fewer mobile apps?
POSTED: Sunday, July 29, 2012 - 9:30pm
UPDATED: Sunday, July 29, 2012 - 10:07pm
CNN — How many apps do you have on your smartphone? If that's an unwieldy number today, expect it to slim down considerably in the future.
ABI Research recently predicted that in coming years, smartphone users around the world will be downloading and using fewer and fewer apps.
What will they be doing instead? Using the mobile Web more and more, according to senior analyst Aapo Markkanen.
In the early days of smartphones and tablets, downloadable apps dominated the mobile experience -- mainly because browsing the Web via mobile devices, on slower 2G and 3G carrier data networks, was a painful process which often yielded clunky usability and unreliable results.
Since then, the mobile Web (indeed, Web technology overall) as well as mobile devices and wireless networks have all evolved considerably.
Now it's possible to do many things easily and well with HTML5 and mobile Web browsers -- things that previously would work well only in apps. And mobile users don't have to download, install, or remember to launch any software in order to enjoy the benefits of "Web apps."
Downloadable apps from news and magazine publishers are especially likely to become relics of the digital past, according to ABI:
"The decision by the Financial Times to pull the plug on its iOS app and bet instead on HTML5 can be seen as a hint of what is to come next."
Markkanen noted that the speedy decline of news and media apps will cause the overall app market to take a hit.
"Since news and media content already account for a large share of smartphone usage and are likely to play an even bigger role in later adopters' usage, changes in this segment alone will make subscribers on average download fewer native apps," he said.
That's not surprising, since news and magazine apps mainly deliver content rather than interactive functionality. It's cheaper, simpler, and more reliable to deliver content via the Web than to build and maintain software apps which users must then discover, download, and remember to run.
Also, many news organizations have been facing especially dire economic challenges for years now. Switching from downloadable, platform-specific apps to Web apps allows them to serve more users with a single, simple product.
This could present problems for app- and platform-dependent publishing strategies such as The Daily -- a big-budget, subscription-based publication from News Corporation, available only via an Apple iPad app.
However, certain types of mobile apps probably will remain popular.
One thing to keep an eye on is how the publishing industry evolves. Many packages of content that contain interactive content -- especially e-books, resource guides, and online courses or learning modules -- might grow more sophisticated.
It might make more sense for these to be deployed in a more app-like fashion, especially to support use when not connected to the Internet or a carrier data network.
So while "apps" as we've known them so far may be on the decline, app-like properties will probably proliferate into future generations of digital content, services, and experiences.
The opinions expressed in this post are solely those of Amy Gahran. | <urn:uuid:e000b16b-39c9-4365-afb9-8443c9a64cdf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbc33tv.com/news/tech-corner/a-future-with-fewer-mobile-apps | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947578 | 677 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Yesterday’s edition of the journal Current Biology featured an interesting study on Williams Syndrome, a genetic condition marked by cognitive deficits but also a several common personality traits. People with Williams are excessively outgoing and friendly, are often musically talented, and, most importantly to this study, show no social fear. Researchers at the University of Heidelberg have shown that children with Williams do not show racial biases, a common trait even amongst young children without the condition. Over at Neurophilosophy, Mo Costandi gives a thorough analysis of the paper; meanwhile, David Dobbs at Neuron Culture points to a feature article he wrote about Williams syndrome and offers his take on what might explain this unique trait.
- Children with Williams Syndrome don’t form racial stereotypes
- How does Williams syndrome prevent racism? It’s subtle
Ed Yong also has a post up on this study over at Discover. | <urn:uuid:961cb839-877f-4384-b288-a47d40027561> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scienceblogs.com/seed/2010/04/14/williams-syndrome-and-racial-b/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928826 | 183 | 3.4375 | 3 |
The Vail Global Energy Forum, March 1 to 3, was dominated by discussions of what Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper called “the unbelievable surfeit of natural gas.” Hickenlooper, along with many gas advocates, believes that the United States has enough economically-viable gas reserves to last a century. One pay-off: old, inefficient coal plants are closing, cutting [...]
Low-priced domestic gas will roil the solar thermal technology markets.
Natural gas has has been selling at $2.50 in the U.S. at per million Btu, thanks to fracking. That’s after bouncing around between $3.50 and $5. Gas prices peaked at $13 in 2008. It’s still selling for $5 to $10 outside North America. Folks in the gas industry claim they can provide cheap fuel here [...] | <urn:uuid:4be50ec4-fa50-4c9d-9569-bc4e9e3f4ef7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ases.org/tag/natural-gas/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95782 | 181 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Danish researchers have announced a rather wild hypothesis: Perhaps we are getting fatter and fatter because of the increasing CO2 levels in the atmosphere.
No, this is not 1 April – and this is not an April Fool’s hoax.
Mad as it may sound, Danish researchers have announced a theory that may not only explain why people all over the world are getting fatter and fatter, but also warn of the serious consequences for life on Earth of continued pollution of the atmosphere by CO2 emissions.
In itself, the theory is quite simple: CO2 contributes to making us fat.
“There’s something in the air”
The theory arose several years ago, when Lars-Georg Hersoug studied the development of obesity among people who had been followed over a number of years in the so-called MONICA studies (Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardio-vascular Disease) in Denmark. These studies have mapped the lifestyles of thousands of Danes.
Hersoug was surprised to see that both fat and thin people taking part in the studies over a 22-year period had put on weight – and the increase was proportionately the same.
Orexins – which are neuropeptide hormones – in the brain stimulate wakefulness and energy expenditure. These hormones may be affected by CO2, and this can cause us to go to bed later, affecting our metabolism so it is easier for us to put on weight. But orexins are also involved in the stimulation of food intake.
“The normal theory is that fat people get fatter because they don’t move as much as they should,” says Hersoug, now a post-doc at the Research Centre for Prevention and Health at Glostrup University Hospital. “But the study showed that thin people also get fatter, and this happened over the whole of the 22-year period of the study.” read more | <urn:uuid:b9863407-5311-493f-9c29-f17824ae86cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.talkdelaware.com/showthread.php?19502-New-theory-CO2-makes-you-fat&p=321781 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964845 | 402 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.
#1 Uhm, no. It crashed into the moon. There is a significant difference between crashing into something and landing on it.
Posted by crosspatch 2008-11-15 02:51||
#2 Yep. It's an impactor. It impacted at 3300 miles per hour.
Posted by john frum 2008-11-15 07:04||
#3 A senior Isro scientist said he would not speculate on the final condition of the impactor or the flags. "Imagine what will happen when something crashes at more than 5,000km per hour," the scientist said.
"Its job is over," the scientist said.
Posted by john frum 2008-11-15 07:07||
The lunar impactor from the Chandrayaan-1 mission today successfully made it to the surface of the moon, impacting inside the Shackleton crater on the moon's south pole. Above is an image transmitted back by the 34 kg box-shaped MIP (Moon Impact Probe) before it slammed into the moon.
Posted by john frum 2008-11-15 11:48||
#5 Yeah India!
Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-11-15 12:42||
#6 did the airbags deploy?
"Hell, this is OnStar. We have detected an airbag deployment. Would you like for us to send help?"
The chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Madhavan Nair (L) gifts a moon model to former president of India A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (R) during a conference at the ISRO center in Bangalore on November 14, 2008.
Kalam, a rocket scientist, put forward the idea during the International Lunar Exploration Working Group Conference at Udaipur in November 2004.
According to him, the probe will help in studying the moon's geological features. ''I visualise that in another four decades, the earth, moon and Mars will have economic and strategic importance.
He predicted that within 15 years, ISRO will enable Indian astronauts to walk on the moon.
Buoyed by its success, ISRO plans to send a second unmanned spacecraft to the moon in 2012 and separately launch satellites to study Mars and Venus.
Posted by john frum 2008-11-15 15:12||
#9 The TV set-sized probe, painted in the green-white-and-orange colours of the Indian flag, made a "precise-to-the-second" landing on the lunar surface late Friday after being released from the unmanned moon-orbiting Chandrayaan-1 satellite, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.
The probe's 25-minute descent to the moon was recorded "in its onboard memory for later readout. Finally, the probe had a hard landing on the lunar surface that terminated its functioning," ISRO said in a statement.
Not only has India "put our national flag on the lunar surface, we have also emerged as a low-cost travel agency to space," ISRO chief Madhavan Nair said, referring to the space mission's total 80-million-dollar price tag which is less than half spent on similar expeditions by other countries.
ISRO says its moon mission would help it achieve international "brand recognition" for India as a serious player in space.
Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts and raise your traytables in preparation for landing.
They'll be able to read out the data after they dig it up.
Posted by KBK 2008-11-15 16:17||
#10 The memory on the orbiter not the impacter. The orbiter then moved on to the dark side of the moon so it could not transmit the data until it came around again.
Posted by john frum 2008-11-15 16:45||
#11 After the MIP separated from the mother-spacecraft at 8.06.54 p.m., it followed a curved path for 25 minutes before it impacted on the moon and self-destructed. The MIP had three payloads: a video camera, a radar altimeter and a mass spectrometer. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has received enormous amount of data from these three payloads throughout the MIP's flight.
"Whatever we did [during the MIP mission], we did for the first time and without anybody telling us how to do it," said Dr. Goswami, who is also Director, Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad. ISRO was able to release it from Chandrayaan-1, spin it up, reduce its velocity of descent and then "approximately impact it at a point where we wanted to go," he said. The 35-kg MIP, which was "a mini satellite of Chandrayaan-1" did everything it was expected to do. Its three instruments collected the data during its descent and transmitted them to the mother-spacecraft, which sent it to the ground. "We were doing something new and for the first time. That is why we have reasons to feel happy about whatever we have done," Dr. Goswami said.
Posted by john frum 2008-11-15 16:48||
#12 It was on November 21, 1963 that a Nike Apache rocket from the United States took off from the beachhead in the fishing village of Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram and climbed to an altitude of 208 km. The two-stage rocket weighed 715 kg.
The Nike Apache released sodium vapour which, with its orange trail, lit up the twilight sky. The sight created a sensation in Kerala and the neighbouring districts in Tamil Nadu. The Kerala Legislative Assembly was adjourned for a few minutes so that the members could watch the spectacle on the western sky. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, former President, was present at Thumba on that day and was in charge of Nike Apache's payload.The launch signalled the start of India's rocketry programme.
The indigenous space programme began on February 22, 1969, when a "pencil" rocket weighing 10 kg. from Thumba soared a few km. into the sky.
The Chandrayaan-1 has travelled 3,84,000 km to reach its final orbit of 100 km. above the moon. The PSLV-C11 that put it into its initial orbit around the earth stood 44.4 metres tall and weighed 316 tonnes.
Posted by john frum 2008-11-15 16:49||
#13 Seems to me I remember us doing some hard landings before we tried a soft one.
Bangalore: A year from now the world will have the most detailed three-dimensional image of the Moon, complete with the precise location of its craters and mountains, thanks to Chandrayaan-1. And the first 3-D picture of the Moon's terrain, taken by the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) on board Chandrayaan, will be processed by Monday, according to M. Annadurai, project director of Chandrayaan-1.
Posted by john frum 2008-11-15 16:59||
#15 The orbiter then moved on to the dark side of the moon so it could not transmit the data until it came around again.
#16 In what could be construed as a response to India's efforts to expand its space exploration horizon, Pakistan has announced its plans for space research. Pakistan wants to become the first country to put a terrorist in orbit. This was revealed by Raza Hussain, Chairman of Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) at a press conference organized in Karachi.
Raza said that off late SUPARCO was focusing on path breaking new initiatives to inject fresh life into the nation's sagging space programme. Pakistan's only presence in space so far is a satellite PAKSAT-1, situated at 38 degree E Long in a geo stationary orbit. This satellite has been leased from Hughes Global and the lease period will expire in 2011.
"Our aim is to become the first country to put a terrorist in orbit by 2040. We are working closely with China, which has copied technology from Russia and USA for this goal," he said. When asked as to why Pakistan wanted to send a terrorist to space, he said "we have so far exported terrorists to India, USA, UK, Afghanistan, China and the list is endless. Today we have a terrorist in almost all major nations. Now is the time to look beyond earth".
Pakistan's space dreams will be fuelled by modified missiles imported from China and North Korea. "We plan to integrate the Chinese and Korean rockets and use solid propellant (provided by China from the fireworks leftover after the Beijing Olympics)," Raza claimed. It has also identified a bunch of future astronauts (suicide bombers) from its terrorist infested NWFP province for the project. "The recruits are more than willing to be part of this project as that's exactly what they are supposed to do; die here or there," a SUPARCO insider told this blogger.
"The initial plan is to have a terrorist orbit the earth in a low earth orbit and the subsequent missions may see a terrorist land on the moon. The branding team in ISI is right now working on naming an organization to which these terrorists will be affiliated to. I guess the name they have frozen on is the Moonian Mujaheedeen. If everything goes well, these guys may even blow themselves up on the moon," Raza informed.
The terrorists will also release threatening videos before touching down. "Some of these guys are also learning how to issue threats in sign language as the audio quality may not be up to the mark," the SUPARCO insider claimed.
Posted by john frum 2008-11-15 18:41||
#17 "we (the U.S.) have launched portions of several Pakis, but never achieved orbit elevation of any kind. With UAV's, it's not possible. With the Pakland Gov'ts permission, we are willing to, at our cost, experiment with larger delivery vehicles. Let us know, k?"
#18 ...we no longer have the universe at our feet. Today we lack the imagination and the will to conquer the unknown.
Sad but very true. All the national pride and drive that was evoked during JFK's speech giving his vision of the exciting goal of reaching into space has now been superceded. Our youth no longer gaze up at the stars. It's just not cool. Nowadays we just look inward, or at a screen a few inches from your nose; we no longer think in terms of light-years.
Our lofty goals have been replaced with a new direction, which is nothing more but go just where you're pointed, eyes at the ground, by the media, Hollywood, or rock-star politicos. They don't want your input, just your vote. And, since any warm body (and even some cold stone dead ones) can pull the lever, your imigination and thoughts are no longer needed.
Posted by Lemuel Gulliver 2008-11-15 19:16||
#19 Well, you guys are right, I'm being too heavy on the snark. India's achievement is remarkable, and it probably really fries China's ass.
Posted by KBK 2008-11-15 21:44|| | <urn:uuid:b5155896-056c-456d-8c60-48fffe4b9f13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?D=2008-11-15&ID=255226 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954942 | 2,422 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Secretary Spellings Announces Final Limited English Proficiency Regulations
Washington, DC — Today, U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced final regulations for Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students.
The new Title I Regulation is intended to help recently arrived Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students learn English and other subjects while giving states and local school districts greater flexibility on assessment while continuing to hold them accountable under No Child Left Behind.
"Our schools must be prepared to measure what English language learners know and to teach them effectively, with proven instructional methods," said Secretary Spellings. "No Child Left Behind has put the needs of English Language Learners front and center and we must continue that momentum of success. These regulations will ensure states and schools are held accountable for helping children learn English but will also provide them with flexibility in meeting the goal of every child reading and doing math at grade level by 2014."
The final regulations reflect the following major policies:
- Define a recently arrived LEP student as an LEP student who has attended schools in the United States for less than 12 months.
- Permit a State to exempt recently arrived LEP students from one administration of the State's reading/language arts assessment.
- Require a State to include recently arrived LEP students in State mathematics assessments, and beginning in 2007-2008, State science assessments. Recently arrived LEP students must take the State's mathematics assessment, with accommodations as necessary, but States are not required to include the results in AYP determinations.
- Permit a State to not count in AYP determinations the scores of recently arrived LEP students on State mathematics and/or reading/language arts (if taken) assessments.
- Require States that exempt recently arrived LEP students from the reading/language arts assessment to publicly report the number of students exempted for this reason.
- Make clear that Local Educational Agencies (LEA) are still responsible for providing appropriate instruction to recently arrived LEP students.
- Permit a State to include "former LEP" students within the LEP category in making AYP determinations for up to two years after they no longer meet the State's definition for limited English proficient.
- Clarify reporting requirements concerning former LEP students on report cards.
The Department of Education also is preparing a series of reports, by leading education researcher David Francis, focused on supporting the academic achievement of English Language Learners (ELLs). The three reports will provide guidance to practitioners for successful teaching methods and appropriate accommodations for assessment inclusion for ELL students.
For more information please visit http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/lepfactsheet.html or http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/finrule/2006-3/091306a.html.
Reprinted with the permission of the U.S. Department of Education.
Add your own comment
- Kindergarten Sight Words List
- The Five Warning Signs of Asperger's Syndrome
- First Grade Sight Words List
- 10 Fun Activities for Children with Autism
- Graduation Inspiration: Top 10 Graduation Quotes
- What Makes a School Effective?
- Child Development Theories
- Should Your Child Be Held Back a Grade? Know Your Rights
- Why is Play Important? Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development, Creative Development
- Smart Parenting During and After Divorce: Introducing Your Child to Your New Partner | <urn:uuid:eb1a761c-f0ae-4bbb-8cf0-d84db962a713> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Evaluation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926576 | 718 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Pete Pfitzinger: Was He Right or Wrong?
Reflection and new knowledge can open the mind on 15 years of training and racing advice
When I first wrote for Running Times in the 1990s, I would mail a 5 1/4" floppy disk to editor Scott Douglas. We subsequently evolved to 3 1/2" disks by snail mail and then blissfully launched into the Internet age, giving me an extra two days for writing each month. Technology has changed vastly in the intervening 15 or so years, but how much more do we know about training? In this article, I scan 15 years of my articles for Running Times (with topics suggested by editor-in-chief Jonathan Beverly and the enduring Scott Douglas) and look at when I was right and when, due to subsequent advances in science and coaching, I was, well, wrong. A bit of reflection is healthy and occasionally humbling!
THEN: In the November 2003 issue, I wrote this about tempo runs: "Arguably the single most important type of training for distance runners. Scientific studies have shown that tempo runs are an effective way to improve lactate threshold pace, which largely determines the pace you can maintain in a race. Unfortunately, the science does not provide much detail on how to do tempo runs. As a result, coaches and runners have interpreted them in a wide variety of ways." At the time, I recommended tempo runs of 20-45 minutes. By 2006 I had extended them to 50 minutes.
NOW: I wholeheartedly stand by the endorsement of tempo runs, but am now more open-minded about the range of effective workouts. Rather than limiting tempo runs to a maximum of 45-50 minutes, I now agree that there are benefits from a slightly less intense version of up to about 80 minutes. These runs are useful in preparation for any race of 10K or longer, and particularly for the half marathon to marathon.
Jerry Schumacher, coach of American 10,000m record-holder Chris Solinsky, includes these longer tempo runs (Jerry calls them "rhythm runs") in his athletes' training, with Solinsky gradually increasing his rhythm runs from 10 miles (50 minutes for Chris) to 18 miles. Solinsky starts these runs on the easy side and builds into them. Thinking back, many of the Boston area runners in the 1980s took a similar approach, starting our long runs relatively slowly and building the pace until we were approaching marathon race pace for the last 6-10 miles. Jerry and others have advanced the concept a step further and I bow to their wisdom.
NOTES: More open-minded now.
THEN: In the July/August 2002 issue, I recommended trying barefoot running, saying: "You can strengthen your feet and ankles by using them as they were designed to be used. Take off your shoes and let your feet move on natural surfaces. When you walk or run barefoot, you strengthen the little muscles in your feet which have been sleeping peacefully in your shoes for years. You also stretch and strengthen your calf muscles and may improve your running form. The protection provided by your shoes allows you to get away with sloppy running style. It is very difficult, however, to run barefoot with bad technique and almost impossible to overstride."
I then explained, "You need to be very careful when starting a barefoot running program. Picture your soft little feet muscles and tendons if you suddenly say to them, 'OK, we're going to start this training program by landing with 4 times bodyweight several thousand times'--a sure recipe for injury," and went on to recommend the following way to start barefoot running: "Before you start running barefoot, you should walk barefoot for a few weeks to strengthen the muscles in your feet and ankles and toughen up the skin on the bottom of your feet. Start out by walking barefoot for 5 to 10 minutes a couple of times each day. You can also do exercises while walking barefoot such as high knees and walking on the balls of your feet to prepare your feet for running barefoot."
The column continued, "Start out with 5 minutes at the very most, and increase slowly, running barefoot every two to three days. After a couple of months, you may get to where you can run barefoot for 20 minutes, but for some people a few minutes will be all they can handle. … After a few weeks of running barefoot two or three times per week, your feet and ankles will be much stronger, which should reduce your injury risk when running. You should also find that you have more spring in your step and a slightly longer stride. Approached cautiously, barefoot running can be a useful and refreshing addition to your training."
NOW: Barefoot running has boomed since 2002, with many runners ending up on the injury heap from launching into it too quickly. I stand by both my overall endorsement of barefoot running and the particularly cautious approach to incorporating it into training. | <urn:uuid:88c66311-be7c-4274-b0ff-3726f38abff1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.runnersworld.com/print/65548 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963637 | 1,016 | 1.773438 | 2 |
I found this French film, apparently shot in spring 2010, to be better than most treatments of the North Korean tourist experience. Among other things, a young North Korean “rapper” is encountered in an amusement park (at 12:31), North Korean rallies are accompanied by music by Philip Glass, and the piece benefits from the use of some selected extracts from North Korean film archives.
In Part II, one gets a sense of how French tourists experience the Korean War museum in Pyongyang, a visit which begins with one of the visitors writing an inscription about her father, who left Korea in 1950 for France, never to return, in the museum’s visitor’s book.
Of slightly older vintage (but with the same North Korean Francophone guide, and a far more vigorous and hirsute traveller) is this French documentary from 2008, which concludes, around 2’30″, with the main TV personality sprinting across a field to batter a plywood cutout of a big-nosed American soldier, which prompts some humorous dialogue with the locals.
In the following section, a man gathers edible grasses on Kim Il Sung’s birthday. Then, in section three (below), the host laughs — he has finally lost his guides, who refuse to enter the church along with him in Pyongyang.
In Part 4, the viewer can enjoy (what else?) spectacle, as the French man goes into an extended discussion with his hosts about the sex habits of ostriches, including the possibility of bisexual ostriches. This is as far from the dark and paranoiac music of Lisa Ling’s National Geographic DPRK documentary as possible! As with everything else, it seems that the results of a journey have much to do with the proclivities of the traveler.
On the more geopolitical side of things, there is this in-depth French look at current events through a historical prism, including interviews with (among others) Bruce Klingner of the Heritage Foundation which begins with a look — which I had never seen before — at the immense American flotilla sent to intimidate the North Koreans in summer 2010.
There are, somewhat less helpfully, long discourses by Jerrold Post, head of psychoanalysis [?] for the CIA, about Kim Jong Il’s cognac habits, and Klingner goes on about how the current generation of North Korean children are “mentally stunted.” But the documentary takes Kim Jong Il’s film history seriously, and, for the cultural historian, part 2 begins with extracts from the 1985 North Korean remake of Godzilla.
Not to be missed (besides the wonderful contrast between the personal stories of the casual and goateed bandana biker-styled Kenji Fujimoto and the statistics of Marcus Noland in his precisely fixed suit and tie) are North Korean television depictions of George W. Bush, seen here at 6’30″. What I find remarkable is the extent to which the continuity of the North Korean graphic styles manages to make Bush look like John Foster Dulles in 1950.
Finally, the obligatory refugee documentary, “Han, la prix de la liberte [Han, the Price of Liberty]” by Alexandre Dereims in 2009. Like Mike Kim’s book Escaping North Korea, “Han” traces the path of refugees from Yanji down to the Chinese borders with Laos/Thailand and takes them into Seoul. This is a well-known arc to anyone who follows news about North Korean defectors, but there is one point of fact which I found particularly interesting, if not happily so. At about 1’40″ of the following segment, a young woman refugee being interviewed in an apartment in Yanji describes the years of famine — 1994, 1995, 1996, she enumerates them off one by one as if to recount each as an entity deserving of individual weight — and matter-of-factly recounts that people resorted to cannibalism. Then, she says “Things are presently on the path for it to happen again.” Not good news from inside North Korea. Incidentally, although in the wake of the Laura Ling/Euna Lee debacle which managed to break up at least one network dedicated to extracting refugees from the North, the defectors’ faces here not pixelated out because they made it to Seoul, where, presumably, they are presently. | <urn:uuid:65d1be30-077a-4c85-ab04-8ab80db30a26> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://adamcathcart.wordpress.com/2011/09/05/inside-north-korea/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947994 | 906 | 1.859375 | 2 |
Your a/c unit should have a tag on it that tells you which freon is in it.
don.t mix refrigerants
I really don’t think so.
You can’t mix refrigerants. Look on the plate to see what kind of charge your unit has.
There should be a tag on the inside of the cabinet, or possibly on the face of the unit, under the filter cover, that will tell you what type of freon/coolant was used in it. I would stay with the same type.
open it up and look at it some will take the R-134 you just need to check it out first I would imagine so since it is what has become widely used
Your home air conditioner is almost certainly designed for R-22 which has a very different boiling curve than R-134.
No, No and No. Most home A/C units use R-22. They have different boiling temps. You cannot mix them.
NO! Most central units I know use R-22.
Most Central Air units used R-22. Many small window units use R-134a. Check the data tag for type and amount of charge. If it is older than about 14 yrs, it may have R-12, which is obsolete. none are interchangeable, and each unit ws designed with the characteristices of the particular refrigerant use in mind.
If central no, if window unit check tag, probably not.Do not mix!!! and do not try to substitute as each unit is designed for a particular type of gas.Are you sure you don’t need a lisense.where you live?
I agree with others here. No, Use R-22.
Click here to cancel reply.
Fields marked by an asterisk (*) are required. | <urn:uuid:98ab4fba-c67c-42d5-ba17-630c427a18dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.airconditionerwallunits.com/can-i-use-r-134-in-my-home-air-conditioner/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939404 | 382 | 2.125 | 2 |
At noon on Jan. 20, Barack Obama will place his left hand on the Lincoln Bible, a velvet-bound tome purchased by a Supreme Court clerk for the Great Emancipator's swearing in. He will raise his right hand and repeat after Chief Justice John Roberts these words from Section 1 of the Second Article of the U.S. Constitution: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
As a speech, it's short and to the point. As a symbol of the duties of public office, it's momentous. Bibles have been used to consecrate oaths for hundreds of years: they've had a role in the coronation of British monarchs since the 11th century. Swearing on Scripture in courts of law dates back to 300 B.C.
While most presidential oaths have been administered by the Chief Justice--Roger Taney swore in seven Commanders in Chief, a record--it's not required. Calvin Coolidge's father, a notary public, presided over one of his son's two oaths, in 1923. Presidents can choose to affirm instead of swear (although only one has: the devout Franklin Pierce). And most have added "So help me God" at the end, as George Washington is believed to have done, though historians now dispute it. Several Presidents, including George W. Bush, were sworn in on the Washington Bible, a 10-lb. volume belonging to a New York Freemasons' society. John Quincy Adams, to keep a barrier between church and state, was sworn in on a book of U.S. laws. Harry S Truman used two Bibles in 1949--one, a gift from friends; the other, the one he used in his 1945 Inauguration. No matter what book or how many, an oath is an oath: the swearer is officially considered President from that moment on. | <urn:uuid:c1a210c6-412b-4443-b82a-108d2c106a78> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1871905,00.html?iid=biz-main-mostpop2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964266 | 418 | 2.6875 | 3 |
God’s Gift to Kansas
August 26, 2005
Science feeds on mystery. As my colleague Matt Ridley has put it, “Most scientists are bored by what they have already discovered. It is ignorance that drives them on.” Science mines ignorance. Mystery — that which we don’t yet know; that which we don’t yet understand — is the mother lode that scientists seek out. Mystics exult in mystery and want it to stay mysterious. Scientists exult in mystery for a very different reason: it gives them something to do. Maybe we don’t understand yet, but we’re working on it! Each mystery solved opens up vistas of unsolved problems, and the scientist eagerly moves in.
Admissions of ignorance and mystification are vital to good science. It is therefore galling, to say the least, when enemies of science turn those constructive admissions around and abuse them for political advantage. It is worse than galling. It threatens the enterprise of science itself. This is exactly the effect creationism or ‘intelligent design theory’ (ID) is having, especially because its propagandists are slick, superficially plausible and, above all, well-financed. ID, by the way, is not a new form of creationism. It simply is creationism disguised, for political reasons, under a new name.
It isn’t even safe for a scientist to express temporary doubt, as a rhetorical device before going on to dispel it.
“To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.”
You will find this sentence of Charles Darwin quoted again and again by creationists. They never quote what follows. Darwin immediately went on to confound his initial incredulity. Others have built on his foundation, and the eye is today a show-piece of the gradual, cumulative evolution of an almost perfect illusion of design. The relevant chapter of my Climbing Mount Improbable is called ‘The fortyfold path to enlightenment’ in honour of the fact that, far from being difficult to evolve, the eye has evolved at least forty times independently around the animal kingdom.
The distinguished Harvard geneticist Richard Lewontin is widely quoted as saying that organisms “appear to have been carefully and artfully designed.” Again, this was a rhetorical preliminary to explaining how the powerful illusion of design actually comes about by natural selection. The isolated quotation strips out the implied emphasis on ‘appear to’, leaving exactly what a simplemindedly pious audience — in Kansas, for instance — wants to hear.
Deceitful misquoting of scientists to suit an anti-scientific agenda ranks among the many un-Christian habits of fundamentalist authors. But such Telling Lies for God (book title of the splendidly pugnacious Australian geologist Ian Plimer) is not the most serious problem. There is a more important point to be made, and it goes right to the philosophical heart of creationism.
The standard methodology of creationists — indeed, all their arguments are variants of it — is to find some phenomenon in nature which, in their view or even in reality, Darwinism cannot readily explain. Darwin said
“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.”
Creationists mine ignorance and uncertainty, not as a spur to honest research but in order to exploit and abuse Darwin’s challenge. “Bet you can’t tell me how the elbow joint of the lesser spotted weasel frog evolved by slow gradual degrees?” If the scientist fails to give an immediate and comprehensive answer, a default conclusion is drawn: “Right then, the alternative theory, ‘intelligent design’, wins by default.” Notice, first, the biased logic: if theory A fails in some particular, theory B must be right! We are encouraged to leap to the default conclusion without even looking to see whether the default theory fails in the very same particular. ID is granted (quite wrongly as I have shown elsewhere) a charmed immunity to the rigorous demands made of evolution.
Notice, second, how the creationist ploy undermines the scientist’s natural — indeed necessary — rejoicing in uncertainty. Today’s scientist in America dare not say:
“Hm, interesting point. I wonder how the weasel frog’s ancestors did evolve their elbow joint. I’m not a specialist in weasel frogs, I’ll have to go to the University Library and take a look. Might make an interesting project for a graduate student.”
No, the moment a scientist said something like that — and long before the student began the project — the default conclusion would become a headline in a creationist pamphlet: “Weasel frog could only have been designed by God.”
I once introduced a chapter on the so-called Cambrian Explosion with the words, “It is as though the fossils were planted there without any evolutionary history.” Once again this was a rhetorical overture, intended to whet the reader’s appetite for the explanation that was to follow. Sad hindsight tells me now how predictable it was that my remark would be gleefully quoted out of context. Creationists adore ‘gaps’ in the fossil record.
Many evolutionary transitions are elegantly documented by more or less continuous series of gradually changing intermediate fossils. Some are not, and these are the famous ‘gaps’. Michael Shermer has wittily pointed out that if a new fossil discovery neatly bisects a ‘gap’, the creationist will declare that there are now two gaps! But in any case, note yet again the unwarranted use of a default. If there are no fossils to document a postulated evolutionary transition, the default assumption is that there was no evolutionary transition: God must have intervened.
It is utterly illogical to demand complete documentation of every step of any narrative, whether in evolution or any other science. Only a tiny fraction of dead animals fossilize and we are lucky to have as many intermediate fossils as we have. We could easily have had no fossils at all, and the evidence for evolution from other sources, such as molecular genetics and geographical distribution, would still be overwhelmingly strong. On the other hand, evolution makes the strong prediction that if a single fossil turned up in the wrong geological stratum, the theory would be blown out of the water. When challenged by a zealous Popperian to say how evolution could ever be falsified, J B S Haldane famously growled: “Fossil rabbits in the Precambrian.” No such anachronistic fossils have ever been found, despite discredited creationist legends of human skulls in the Coal Measures and human footprints interspersed with those of dinosaurs.
The creationists’ fondness for ‘gaps’ in the fossil record is a metaphor for their love of gaps in knowledge generally. Gaps, by default, are filled by God. You don’t know how the nerve impulse works? Good! You don’t understand how memories are laid down in the brain? Excellent! Is photosynthesis a bafflingly complex process? Wonderful! Please don’t go to work on the problem, just give up, and appeal to God. Dear scientist, don’t work on your mysteries. Bring us your mysteries for we can use them. Don’t squander precious ignorance by researching it away. Ignorance is God’s gift to Kansas.
An abridged version of this essay was published in The Times (London, May 21, 2005) as ‘Creationism: God’s gift to the ignorant.' | <urn:uuid:eb75e2f3-6ef5-4c88-9bed-9e8e54191dfd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/gods_gift_to_kansas | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950129 | 1,671 | 1.90625 | 2 |
|Alzheimer's is not just a disease of old age. Younger-onset (also known as early-onset) Alzheimer's affects people younger than age 65. Nearly 4 percent of the more than 5 million Americans with Alzheimer’s have younger-onset.|
Many people with early onset are in their 40s and 50s. They have families, careers or are even caregivers themselves when Alzheimer's disease strikes. In the United States, it is estimated that more than 200,000 people have early onset.
Since health care providers generally don't look for Alzheimer's disease in younger people, getting an accurate diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer's can be a long and frustrating process. Symptoms may be incorrectly attributed to stress or there may be conflicting diagnoses from different health care professionals. People who have early onset Alzheimer's may be in any stage of dementia – early stage, middle stage or late stage. The disease affects each person differently and symptoms will vary.
If you are experiencing memory problems:
Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter
Receive tips for living with younger/early onset Alzheimer's disease and planning for the future. Subscribe now
Doctors do not understand why most cases of early onset Alzheimer's appear at such a young age. But in a few hundred families worldwide, scientists have pinpointed several rare genes that directly cause Alzheimer's. People who inherit these rare genes tend to develop symptoms in their 30s, 40s and 50s. When Alzheimer's disease is caused by deterministic genes, it is called “familial Alzheimer's disease,” and many family members in multiple generations are affected. | <urn:uuid:878d1240-9e03-45c0-bafb-fa1fd3e7f296> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_early_onset.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953859 | 332 | 3.421875 | 3 |
Food Safety Tips
Flooding that results from a hurricane can result in foodborne illness. To help protect against foodborne illnesses, discard any foods that may be contaminated after a flood, including:
- Frozen foods that have been thawed, if they have not been kept refrigerated at 45 degrees F. or lower, or consumed immediately.
- Any foods exposed to flood waters because of possible contamination.
- Food that is packed in cardboard containers, screw top jars, or bottles.
- Canned foods when swelling, rusting or serious denting is visible. | <urn:uuid:8387a31e-999b-4dfc-874e-4095f99d0050> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/emergency/weather/hurricane/food_safety.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932045 | 117 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Lord Howe-Norfolk Islands Forests
About the Area
Lord Howe Island is a crescent-shaped remnant of a volcano that formed almost 7 million years ago. These ancient and isolated islands support at least 392 distinctive species, of which 40% are found only here.
Habitats include subtropical broadleaf, palm, and conifer forests. Norfolk Island has 174 native plant species, and 51 are endemic. This includes the smooth tree-fern which is the tallest tree-fern in the world, reaching heights of 20 m (65 ft).
The climate is humid-subtropical, with a mean annual rainfall of 1,717 -1,357 mm.
56 sq. km (21 sq. miles)
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Islands off the east coast of Australia in the Tasman Sea
The flora and fauna of Lord Howe Island show a high degree of endemism. Of the 241 native species of vascular plants, 105 are endemic species. There are 5 endemic plant genera: Negria, Lordhowea, and the palms Hedyscepe, Howea, and Lepidorrhachis.
There are 129 native and introduced bird species on the islands, 27 of which breed regularly on Lord Howe. The endemic bird species include the endangered Lord Howe Island wood rail (Tricholimas sylvestris), Lord Howe rail (Gallirallus sylvestris), and Lord Howe white-eye (Zosterops tephropleurus) as well as subspecies of golden whistler, silvereye, and pied currawong. In addition, numerous seabirds are found here. The island is home to half the world's population of flesh-footed shearwaters and the greatest concentration of red-tailed tropic birds.
Endemic to Norfolk Island are Norfolk Island parakeet (Cyanoramphus cookii), and Slender-billed white-eye (Zosterops tenuirostris). Other birds of interest include green parrot (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae), morepork (Ninox novaeseelandiae), and sacred kingfisher (Halcyon sancta).
Norfolk Island has 174 native plant species, of which 51 are endemic Among the native trees found in the forests on Norfolk Island are Norfolk Island pine (Araucaria heterophylla), pepper tree (Macropiper excelsum), Bloodwood (Baloghia inophylla), and white oak (Lagunaria patersonia).
The only native mammal on the islands is Gould's wattled bat (Chalinolobus gouldii) which is locally very rare or possibly even extinct.
Introduced plants and animals, and grazing are the major threats. Introduced predators have had a devastating effect of the endemic land fauna, and introduced weeds are invading the islands and displacing native species. Continued control of existing exotics is an integral step in promoting the recovery of Lord Howe-Norfolk Islands forests’ many threatened species.
WWF works to conserve biodiversity, providing practical solutions to the greatest environmental threats. It works on the ground with local communities, and in partnership with government and industry, advocating change and effective conservation policy.
The invasion of black rats has caused the extinction of 5 bird species on Lord Howe Island and 2 bird species on Norfolk Island, with many others threatened.
Rats are one of the biggest threats to the wildlife of Lord Howe Island. A feasibility study, co-funded by WWF, found that it was possible to eradicate rats and mice from the island. In 2004, WWF sought to have rats on off-shore islands listed as a key threat under federal environment laws and called for a national action plan. In 2006, the Australian Government announced it would do both.
The government's national action plan offers an opportunity to identify priority islands rich in wildlife that would benefit from rat eradication, including those that provide sanctuaries for albatross and other seabirds. | <urn:uuid:f885cf94-96b2-4e63-bbc9-c5062f36792d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/ecoregions/lord_howe_norfolk_islands_forests.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91532 | 835 | 3.609375 | 4 |
By News Staff
WASHINGTON (AP) - Buying your own health insurance will never be the same.
This fall, new insurance markets called exchanges will open in each state, marking the long-awaited and much-debated debut of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. The goal is quality coverage for millions of uninsured people in the United States. What the reality will look like is anybody's guess - from bureaucracy, confusion and indifference to seamless service and satisfied customers.
Exchanges will offer individuals and their families a choice of private health plans resembling what workers at major companies already get. The government will help many middle-class households pay their premiums, while low-income people will be referred to safety-net programs they might qualify for.
Most people will go online to pick a plan when open enrollment starts Oct. 1. Counselors will be available at call centers and in local communities, too. Some areas will get a storefront operation or kiosks at the mall. Translation to Spanish and other languages spoken by immigrants will be provided.
When you pick a plan, you'll no longer have to worry about getting turned down or charged more because of a medical problem. If you're a woman, you can't be charged a higher premium because of gender. Middle-aged people and those nearing retirement will get a price break: They can't be charged more than three times what younger customers pay, compared with six times or seven times today.
If all this sounds too good to be true, remember that nothing in life is free and change isn't easy.
Starting Jan. 1, 2014, when coverage takes effect in the exchanges, virtually everyone in the country will be required by law to have health insurance or face fines. The mandate is meant to get everybody paying into the insurance pool.
Obama's law is called the Affordable Care Act, but some people in the new markets might experience sticker shock over their premiums. Smokers will face a financial penalty. Younger, well-to-do people who haven't seen the need for health insurance may not be eligible for income-based assistance with their premiums.
Many people, even if they get government help, will find that health insurance still doesn't come cheaply. Monthly premiums will be less than the mortgage or rent, but maybe more than a car loan. The coverage, however, will be more robust than most individual plans currently sold.
Consider a hypothetical family of four making $60,000 and headed by a 40-year-old. They'll be eligible for a government tax credit of $7,193 toward their annual premium of $12,130. But they'd still have to pay $4,937, about 8 percent of their income, or about $410 a month.
A lower-income family would get a better deal from the government's sliding-scale subsidies.
Consider a similar four-person family making $35,000. They'd get a $10,742 tax credit toward the $12,130 annual premium. They'd have to pay $1,388, about 4 percent of their income, or about $115 a month.
The figures come from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation's online Health Reform Subsidy Calculator. But while the government assistance is called a tax credit and computed through the income tax system, the money doesn't come to you in a refund. It goes directly to insurers.
Obama's law is the biggest thing that's happened to health care since Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s. But with open enrollment for exchange plans less than 10 months away, there's a dearth of consumer information. It's as if the consumer angle got drowned out by the political world's dispute over "Obamacare,'' the dismissive label coined by Republican foes.
Yet exchanges are coming to every state, even those led by staunch GOP opponents of the overhaul, such as Govs. Rick Perry of Texas and Nikki Haley of South Carolina. In their states and close to 20 others that are objecting, the exchanges will be operated by the federal government, over state opposition. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has pledged that every citizen will have access to an exchange come next Jan. 1, and few doubt her word.
But what's starting to dawn on Obama administration officials, activists, and important players in the health care industry is that the lack of consumer involvement, unless reversed, could turn the big health care launch into a dud. What if Obama cut the ribbon and nobody cared?
"The people who stand to benefit the most are the least aware of the changes that are coming,'' said Rachel Klein, executive director of Enroll America, a nonprofit that's trying to generate consumer enthusiasm.
"My biggest fear is that we get to Oct. 1 and people haven't heard there is help coming, and they won't benefit from it as soon as they can,'' she added. "I think it is a realistic fear.''
Even the term "exchange'' could be a stumbling block. It was invented by policy nerds. Although the law calls them "American Health Benefit Exchanges,'' Sebelius is starting to use the term "marketplaces'' instead.
Polls underscore the concerns. A national survey last October found that only 37 percent of the uninsured said they would personally be better off because of the health care law. Twenty-three percent said they would be worse off in the Kaiser poll, while 31 percent said it would make no difference to them.
Insurers, hospitals, drug companies and other businesses that stand to benefit from the hundreds of billions of dollars the government will pump in to subsidize coverage aren't waiting for Washington to educate the public.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, for example, are trying to carve out a new role for themselves as explainers of the exchanges. Somewhere around 12 million people now purchase coverage individually, but the size of the market could double or triple with the new approach, and taxpayers will underwrite it.
"Consumers are expecting their health insurance provider to be a helpful navigator to them,'' said Maureen Sullivan, a senior vice president for the Blues' national association. "We see 2013 as a huge year for education.''
One goal is to help consumers master the "metals,'' the four levels of coverage that will be available through exchange plans - bronze, silver, gold, and platinum.
Blue Cross is also working with tax preparer H&R Block, which is offering its customers a health insurance checkup at no additional charge this tax season. Returns filed this year for 2012 will be used by the government to help determine premium subsidies for 2014.
This tax season is one of historical significance,'' said Meg Sutton, senior advisor for tax and health care at H&R Block. "The tax return you are filing is going to be key to determining your health care benefits on the exchange.''
Only one state, Massachusetts, now has an exchange resembling what the administration wants to see around the country. With six years in business, the Health Connector enrolls about 240,000 Massachusetts residents. It was created under the health overhaul plan passed by former Republican Gov. Mitt Romney and has gotten generally positive reviews.
Connector customer Robert Schultz is a Boston area startup business consultant who got his MBA in 2008, when the economy was tanking. Yet he was able to find coverage when he graduated and hang on to his insurance through job changes since. Schultz says that's freed him to pursue his ambition of becoming a successful entrepreneur - a job creator instead of an employee.
"It's being portrayed by opponents as being socialistic,'' said Schultz. "It is only socialistic in the sense of making sure that everybody in society is covered, because the cost of making sure everybody is covered in advance is much less than the cost of putting out fires.''
The Connector's executive director, Glen Shor, said his state has proven the concept works and he's confident other states can succeed on their own terms.
"There is no backing away from all the challenges associated with expanding coverage,'' Shor said. "We are proud in Massachusetts that we overcame what had been years of policy paralysis.'' | <urn:uuid:1e0e3275-1efa-4f51-a5eb-6a1f8f80a685> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ww.abc6.com/story/20716445/consumer-alert-new-health-care-markets-on-the-way | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97253 | 1,658 | 1.9375 | 2 |
Peter Scott - a remarkable
To be born
the son of a national hero who died in tragic circumstances might
have been enough to blight anyone's subsequent life, but not Peter
Scott's, son of the ill-fated polar explorer, Captain Scott. For
sheer versatility and ability to succeed at so many activities,
his life is hard to beat. Indeed, it is sometimes difficult to decide
what he is best remembered for. One can choose between his evocative
paintings of ducks, geese and swans flying across magnificent skies,
the long series of radio and television broadcasts, especially 'Look',
which did so much to introduce natural history to the British public,
his creation of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, his role in founding
the WorldWide Fund for Nature, and the many books, or perhaps it
is all of them and more. (Photo, right,
© Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust)
achievements are worth considering, too. To be a fine ice skater
capable of winning competitions, to win an Olympic Bronze medal
for single-handed dinghy sailing and to become British Open Gliding
Champion not only argues a certain competence at whatever he chose
to take up, but highlights the drive and determination to succeed
which always marked him out. These qualities also came to the fore
during the war when he commanded a gunboat in the English Channel
and won the DSC. He didn't always succeed, everyone has failures
and one which he felt for a long time afterwards was when he skippered
the America's Cup yacht 'Sovereign' in 1964 and suffered a whitewash
4-0 defeat. The fact that the American boat was genuinely a faster
boat was little consolation.
own memories of Peter come from 25 years working for the Wildfowl
and Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge, from 1960. During that period,
Peter was not responsible for the day to day running on the organisation,
but he was always there with, cajoling and enthusing the staff.
Ideas poured out of him, some brilliant, some that seemed completely
impractical, though even those might be pursued and found, infuriatingly,
to be perfectly practical after all! Most of all, though, he was
friendly and approachable. There was always a two-way flow of communication.
Phone calls might summon me at any time to go along to his studio
in his house overlooking the wildfowl pens to hear his latest idea,
but equally I could pick up the phone and ask if I could pop along
to discuss an idea of mine or consult a book in his library.
His was, indeed,
a remarkable life.
note - You may discover more of the work of the Wildfowl and Wetlands
Trust by visiting their website at www.wwt.org.uk
Ogilvie is a natural history writer and editor, formerly a research
scientist with the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, and resident
on the island of Islay since 1986. Until 1997, a member of the
'British Birds' editorial board and also one of the editorial
team which produced 'Birds of the Western Palearctic'. | <urn:uuid:493b7778-ad0a-47f8-aa47-47ea3ff706af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.birdsofbritain.co.uk/features/mao-aug-00.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964792 | 682 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Obituary: Bruce Cassiday
Writer with as many talents as pseudonyms
He was one of the brains behind a $10,000-prize "Murder Game" novel, and compiled and edited a number of scholarly yet reader-friendly guides to detective, mystery and science fiction, including an excellent trawl through the art of ratiocination in mystery fiction before Sherlock Holmes, Roots of Detection (1983).
Cassiday's own roots lay firmly in the pulps, though not in any negative sense. He was one of the last generation of writers who not only read and enjoyed the enormous variety of pulp magazines as they were being produced, but saw them as a useful as well as entertaining entry into the writing business.
He had been a staffer with Henry Steeger's "Popular Publications" - an outfit which, back in the 1930s, was (with Street & Smith, and Ned Pines's "Thrilling" group) one of the top three pulp publishers in the United States - throwing himself into his editorial chores with unbridled enthusiasm, and grasping instantly that readers, above all else, appreciated an attention- grabbing title. Some of Cassiday's own titles - Chain-Gang Gun Moll, Brush Babe's Poison Pallet (about a homicidal artist) and Hellcat of Homicide Highway - are certainly eye-catching enough, almost attaining the surreal; the stories aren't bad, either.
Bruce Cassiday was born in 1920 in Los Angeles, growing up there, as well as in Alaska and Hawaii, where his father was chief architect of the Honolulu city hall. Later he became an architect for RKO Studios in Hollywood and from him Cassiday acquired a lifelong love of building and carpentry.
After high school, he took an English course at UCLA, graduating with highest honours before joining the US Army Air Force during the Second World War. He served in the North African and Italian theatres of war as well as, later, in the West Indies and Puerto Rico.
Back in civvy street, Cassiday was attracted to popular fiction, first of all writing for radio drama series such as Grand Central Station and the immensely popular Suspense show, before turning his typewriter in the direction of the pulps. At one stage, as an editor for the "Popular" line, he was handling two crime and four western pulps simultaneously, processing manuscripts by some of the giants of the pulp era - D.L. Champion, Hugh Cave, John D. Macdonald, Day Keene and Steve Fisher among them, as well as the early stories of the young Louis L'Amour.
In 1954 Cassiday became fiction editor for Argosy, for which, among other tasks, he selected, edited and condensed the magazine's monthly "book bonus". He also conducted a regular "home workshop" feature which became gratifyingly popular, and much later led to his writing a number of useful guides including Practical Home Repair for Women: your questions answered (1966) and The Carpenter's Bible (1981). He also collaborated with his wife Doris on Fashion Industry Careers (1977) and Careers in the Beauty Industry (1978).
When Argosy folded, Cassiday went freelance, during the 1970s writing all kinds of paperback fiction under a variety of pseudonyms, most demonstrating his delightfully dry sense of humour. On a couple of occasions he was Annie Laurie McAllister (he had an affection for the novels of Sir Walter Scott, and Scotland in general), and as Annie Laurie McMurdie he managed to sell a Gothic, Nightmare Hall, to Lancer Books before the firm crashed, and another Gothic, The Diabolist, as Mary Ann Drew (say it fast). He wrote a kung-fu thriller, The Year of the Cock, as C.K. Fong, undoubtedly recalling that the great W.C. Fields had once pronounced the word "Fong" as euphonious, using it as one of his own bizarre pseudonyms.
All his career Cassiday was happy to collaborate: with Waltraud Woeller on The Literature of Crime and Detection: an illustrated history from antiquity to the present (1988), for instance, and with Dieter Wuckel on The Illustrated History of Science Fiction (1989). With his long-time colleague Bill Adler he wrote the prize "whodunit" Murder Game (1991 - "There's a $10,000 reward for solving the crime; it could be yours!"), an entertaining biography of the talk-show host Jay Leno, The World of Jay Leno (1992), and Murder on the Internet (1999), which proved to be the last book he finished before the onset of the affliction, Parkinson's disease, that finally cut short his productive life.
Bruce Bingham Cassiday, writer and editor: born Los Angeles 25 January 1920; married 1950 Doris Galloway (one son, one daughter); died Stamford, Connecticut 12 January 2005.
That's some guestlist! Stunning images show huge dynastic wedding between Ultra-Orthodox Jewish families which attracted 25,000 guests
Man and woman arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder victim of Woolwich machete attack, named as Drummer Lee Rigby
'Sickening, deluded and unforgivable': Horrific attack brings terror to London’s streets
Video: Woolwich attack - man with bloodied hands and knife addresses camera
Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, the mother-of-two hailed as a hero for confronting Woolwich attackers, thought: 'better me than a child'
- 1 Man and woman arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder victim of Woolwich machete attack, named as Drummer Lee Rigby
- 2 'Sickening, deluded and unforgivable': Horrific attack brings terror to London’s streets
- 3 Grace Dent: I’m not sure how these people can avoid being called ‘bigots’. And the more ‘civilised’, the worse they are
- 4 Woolwich murder: They killed, then they performed - these men should be starved of our attention
- 5 Woolwich attack: The EDL will seek to exploit this evil crime for their own evil ends
BMF is the UK’s biggest and best loved outdoor fitness classes
Find out what The Independent's resident travel expert has to say about one of the most beautiful small cities in the world
Nook is donating eReaders to volunteers at high-need schools and participating in exclusive events throughout the campaign.
Get the latest on The Evening Standard's campaign to get London's children reading.
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page. | <urn:uuid:b669ca78-8f8b-4c9f-a64b-3a7bcd5a012e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-bruce-cassiday-1530098.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967503 | 1,388 | 1.695313 | 2 |
A letter-by-letter rundown of the Postal Service’s new plan
(CNN) — The U.S. Postal Service plans to halt Saturday delivery of letters and other first-class mail by August in an effort to chip away at billions of dollars in losses.
Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about the new policy:
Q: What does first-class mean and what kinds of Saturday deliveries will continue?
First-class mail service includes items weighing up to 13 ounces that in most cases are delivered within three days, the Postal Service says. That includes post cards, envelopes, letters from grandma and some bills. And while that sort of loose mail is expected to stop on Saturday, packages will continue to be delivered. Mail will also continue to be delivered to post office boxes.
Q: Is the Postal Service allowed to do this?
The U.S. Postal Service is, by law, an “independent establishment” of the executive branch of the federal government, but the move has raised questions as to whether its decision must ultimately be approved by Congress. The Postal Service says it has the autonomy to make the change. But Congress, which oversees the unit, has traditionally expected Saturday delivery service.
Q: Why did the USPS decide to do this?
Money. Last year, the cash-strapped service reported a loss of nearly $16 billion. Its woes began in earnest after a 2006 congressional mandate, which required it to prefund health care benefits for future retirees. The USPS has been borrowing billions. And if Congress doesn’t act soon, it could come close to running out of cash next month.
Q: Why doesn’t the government just privatize the Postal Service?
The U.S. Postal Service does not tap into taxpayer dollars for its regular operations. While it already functions more like a private company than a government bureaucracy, it still works under tight restrictions from Congress. Those regulations govern everything from how much stamps cost to gift card sales.
Q: Will post offices be closed on Saturday?
Post offices that are normally open on Saturday will remain open, but those facilities will not be processing mail until the start of the work week.
Q: What impact will the move have?
It will affect some 22,500 jobs, according to Patrick Donahoe, postmaster general and CEO of the postal service. But instead of layoffs, he plans to offer buyouts, eliminate overtime, and rely more on the part-time workforce.
Q: Has this ever happened before?
In 1947 and 1957, Saturday deliveries were stopped in some cities because of budget constraints. The moves led to protests and an eventual resumption of service.
Q: When does the new policy kick in?
It starts August 5, marking the end of an era; Saturday deliveries were started in 1863.
Q: What other cuts has the USPS made?
The American Postal Workers Union says the Postal Service has already begun making cuts by closing 13,000 post offices, slashing work hours and shuttering hundreds of processing centers. This has come as technological advances have reduced consumer use of traditional mail services.
CNNMoney’s Jennifer Liberto contributed to this report
™ & © 2013 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.
- Hampton Roads veterans still waiting up to 30 months for disability claims
- You're eating more calories than you think
- Dolphins surf new submarine's bow wave (video)
- Beach stabbing victim: 'The knife was just in my back, like a ninja' (Video)
- College student from Yorktown wins $1 million lottery prize | <urn:uuid:7be577ad-d633-4f7f-9070-fe6026878728> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wtkr.com/2013/02/06/a-letter-by-letter-rundown-of-the-postal-services-new-plan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950491 | 747 | 1.898438 | 2 |
My research is focused on magmas associated with the plate tectonic cycle, at both divergent and convergent plate margins. My main contributions have been to the understanding of: * Magma generation: quantifying the roles of decompression, temperature and water in driving mantle melting * Crustal recycling at subduction zones: providing global flux estimates of marine sediment subducted into oceanic trenches, and tracing sediment geochemically from the seafloor to arc volcanoes * Water content of magmas, and the effects on magma evolution and source composition.
My tools are geochemical, field work has taken me to Nicaragua and the Aleutians, and to sea. I has served on the MARGINS steering committee, the editorial boards of Geology and Earth & Planetary Science Letters, the USArray Advisory Committee, the Bowen Award selection committee, NSF review panels, and as co-chief scientist on Leg 185 of the Ocean Drilling Program. Plank received the Houtermans Medal from the European Association for Geochemistry, the Donath Medal from the Geological Society of America, and is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union.
Some of my projects include:
- Mantle dynamics and magmatism across the Basin and Range
- Volatiles In Aleutian Magmas
- Magmatic water along the Central America arc
- Volatiles in Tonga Arc Magmas | <urn:uuid:79c540b7-20d8-4a67-a4b8-4bdb78d0b1d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/user/tplank | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908192 | 286 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Two weeks after his controversial sermon on race sparked a national uproar, Rev. Michael Pfleger returned Monday to his office at St. Sabina Catholic Church, expressing gratitude to Cardinal Francis George and saying activism would always be a part of him.
Pfleger said he would wait to make further comments until mass Sunday, when he plans to address his entire congregation for the first time since George suspended him. St. Sabina, one of the most vibrant Catholic churches in the city, is predominantly African-American and draws nearly 2,000 worshipers.
"I'm good. I'll speak Sunday and give my talk then," Pfleger said as he sifted through a desk full of papers. "I'm grateful to be back and to do what I'm called to do. I'm grateful to the cardinal for letting me back."
When asked if he was the same "Michael Pfleger" as before, he said: "I'm me. I'm not changing. This is how I've been since I've been born. I'm not changing."
- - -
Rev. Michael Pfleger, well-known in Chicago for his activism, unleashed a furor last month when he delivered a sermon at Trinity United Church of Christ that mocked Sen. Hillary Clinton. Pfleger suggested Clinton felt entitled to the presidential nomination because she was white. After a snippet of the sermon was broadcast on YouTube, Cardinal Francis George ordered Pfleger to take a two-week leave from his priestly duties. | <urn:uuid:6c2118c1-a65f-4cb2-856b-82fd39956ae7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2008-06-17/news/0806170411_1_cardinal-francis-george-sermon-rev-michael-pfleger | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982291 | 310 | 1.539063 | 2 |
When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth – Sherlock Holmes. Holmes never wavered from his rule, no matter how bizarre the outcome appeared. No speculation; no projecting an easier path; no daydreaming or fantasy about what would have or could have been.
I recall as a kid, pounding the pocket into a new ball glove (they were made flat back then) and daydreaming that I would be playing like Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson, or Ted Williams. Reality set in with the very first play on the field, new glove on my hand – it would take more practice (much, much more) to get there - there's no shortcut for pounding in the pocket.
Sometimes a leader, manager, or collaborator fixates on a vision or desired outcome instead of addressing an issue head on.
Do you know of an incidence where a problem was ignored while the trivial and mundane were given priority? Or the 'let's wait and see' procedure was invoked? How did it turn out – did the problem self-correct or fester, getting worse?
Individuals rarely follow the Ostrich Model of head-in-the-sand, knowingly. However, they can be seduced by self-talk. This can be very persuasive, sound logical – even innovative – and offer a more desirable (and less painful) fantasy alternative to what's facing them right now.
Ever dread making a phone call or meeting – finding many ways to put it off? Then, the result of the call or meeting is nowhere near the disaster you had anticipated – in reality positive results happen most of the time.
I have found over and over that nothing is more effective than a direct approach. And yet, we still seek to take an indirect path or delay taking any action.
This is human nature – BUT – it is not a positive leadership trait. As with the boy and a new glove, or an adult facing a complex problem, it's not too difficult to slip into a fantasy to avoid reality.
To return to reality, I find it helpful to say the thoughts and plans out loud – to a trusted advisor. Not only will this help to better focus the ideas, it also churns up new ideas as well from both people's viewpoints. The outcome is more in tune with reality, since it is quite difficult to enroll your external self and your advisor in a fantasy. Perhaps that's why people say a good conversation is 80% listening!
As we wrestle with the gap between fantasy and reality, John Adams' words are a useful guide:
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
John Adams,'Argument in Defense of the Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials,'
How do you see fantasy and reality?
Join us at DevFestDC September 28th, for awesome new technologies and resources for building projects and companies! | <urn:uuid:2498b63c-f23f-4e87-a7ec-6d968a7e5db1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.saleslabdc.com/2012/09/fantasy-and-reality.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961087 | 613 | 1.585938 | 2 |
• plastic •
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: 1. Malleable, soft, pliable, molding easily, as a plastic clay. 2. Adaptive, able to adapt to new or changing conditions, as a plastic imagination. 3. Made of the synthetic material, plastic, as a plastic umbrella. 4. Synthetic, artificial, not real or sincere, mechanical, as a plastic smile.
Notes: Today we are focusing on the adjectival senses of this word; it also functions as a noun referring to a synthetic material made of polymerized compounds. The adjective refers not only to softness and pliability, but also the ability to assume a shape, as in a mold, and hold it. But the noun itself is now used as an adjective referring to things that are like the material plastic, artificial and unnatural.
In Play: Remember that plastic refers to things that are adjustable to various shapes: "I have a very plastic work schedule today, so it will be easy for me to adjust it to yours." But now it also refers to things that are unnatural and phony: "The plastic life of Las Vegas was more than Diane Ammick could endure so she built herself a McMansion in Beverly Hills."
Word History: Today's Good Word comes to us from Latin plasticus, a word the Romans borrowed from Greek plastikos "plastic, pliable". This word is an adjective based on plastos "molded", from plassein "to mold". The Greek word was inherited from its ancestor language, Proto-Indo-European, where pol- (sometimes pel-, sometimes just pl-) "to flatten, spread". The same root trickled down to the Slavic languages, where it ended up as Russian polye "field", a root in the name of Leo Tolstoy's estate Yasnaya Polyana. In the Germanic languages (Dutch, English, German, etc.), it became Dutch veld, German Feld and English field. In fact, the word Poland originated as a word meaning "people of the plains, flatlands". Of course, plain(s) and plane were borrowed from Latin planus "flat", another word from pol/pel/pl-. (Today we thank the plastic mind of Eric Berntson for this very Good Word.)
Come visit our website at <http://www.alphadictionary.com> for more Good Words and other language resources! | <urn:uuid:a2ccb26d-b894-4834-8852-81dd51dfa796> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alphadictionary.com/goodword/word/print/plastic | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944421 | 504 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia created by the collective, and anonymous, efforts of hundreds or thousands of people. Some of those people are experts in the fields they have contributed in, others are not. For more information on Wikipedia, including discussions of its value and danger, check out the Pathfinder for Wikipedia.
What You Can Get From a Wikipedia Article
Wikipedia is often a good introduction to a topic. But it's just an introduction. And don't be surprised if your instructor will not let you include Wikipedia as a reference in your paper. Journal articles, books, and other resources are much more important. Wikipedia is a good start, but it's only a start.
Other Things You Can Do
Resources on Researching | <urn:uuid:449969e3-ad7a-4bd5-b647-8e1f8f4f800e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://windward.hawaii.edu/pathfinders/After_Wikipedia.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933886 | 145 | 3.421875 | 3 |
Walla Walla's unemployment rate may be on the long road to recovery, according to the latest figures from the state Employment Security Department.
The unemployment rate dropped to 6 percent in October from the previous month's rate of 6.4 percent, and the number of initial unemployment claims dropped over the year, officials say.
Though the county continues to have one of the lowest jobless rates in the state, job growth is not moving near is rapidly as in other counties, said regional labor economist Arum Kone.
"It's probably going to be a long, slow, painful recovery," Kone said.
The state overall rode a five-month streak of private-sector job growth in October to hold its 9.1 percent revised unemployment rate from the previous month.
That rate nearly matched the 9.5 percent from the same period a year ago.
For Washington as a whole growth in service work outperformed goods-producing jobs during the month, according to the employment report.
The strongest private sector growth was seen in professional and business services, which added about 1,500 jobs.
Overall, the largest reported gains in October were about 4,000 jobs in government work, nearly all of them in education.
There were big losses for that category in September's report, but the agency said the statistical swings are tied to seasonal adjustments in the education work force.
The education work force in Walla Walla held up as well, despite expectations that there would be cuts in educational services, Kone said.
With cuts slated to city staffing before the end of the year, Kone said growth in the government sector will likely be weak in the next couple of years.
The slow pace of job growth is fairly typical for the community, he said, and is further reflected through the numbers of people receiving unemployment insurance.
While the number of new unemployment claims has decreased over the last year, he said the number of people receiving insurance as not dropped.
"That does show that there are a lot less people being laid off, but it's taking them a lot longer to get back into the work force," Kone said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story. | <urn:uuid:2bf7e72d-6779-4ecf-a957-40ca94d798b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://union-bulletin.com/news/2010/nov/30/walla-walla-unemployment-rate-looks-to-be-in/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97451 | 446 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Fresh off the successful launch
of its Windows 7 operating system, Microsoft is setting its sights on one of the hottest tech trends of the decade: cloud computing
. The term typically refers to decentralized, data-intensive services, like e-mail, that run primarily on the internet instead of a hard drive. On Tuesday, Microsoft announced it was entering the fray with Windows Azure
, a new, cloud-based platform for companies looking to develop applications for PCs, the web and mobile devices. Even though it doesn't officially launch until January, NASA and the AP
have already signed on as partners, and blogging software Wordpress was unveiled as the first customer. Bloggers greeted Azure with rave early reviews, but noted that Microsoft was keeping some features close to the vest.
- Bold Move Several outlets interpreted the launch of Azure as a revolutionary step forward for Microsoft. As Bill Rigby explains for Reuters: "This new approach -- giving developers a platform to write online applications, and renting out space in datacenters -- sounds like a radical departure for Microsoft, which has relied on selling packaged software for customers to install on their own machines for much of its growth." GigaOm's Stacey Higginbotham agrees that Azure is the beginning of a new phase in the company's development: "Microsoft isn't just selling software anymore; it's selling itself as a clearinghouse for information."
- Return of the King At Daily Finance, Alex Salkever acknowledges that Microsoft is facing an uphill climb as Google and Amazon have already claimed lots of territory in the cloud computing market. Yet given the early success of Windows 7 and what he's seen of Azure, he is very optimistic about Microsoft's prospects: "It sure seems like Microsoft has gotten its mojo back; perhaps the worm has finally turned for the beaten-down Redmond giant...Microsoft could end up hitting on all cylinders, with its server and desktop software business lines benefiting from a big IT refresh in the next few years, and its efforts to tap the cloud -- and nail down customers like Automattic -- yielding both big revenues and a return to the spotlight as a serious growth machine with legs and a stock chart to match."
- Now Comes The Hard Part ReadWriteWeb's Alex Williams explains that although Microsoft looks to have another stellar launch on its hands with Azure, the question remains whether or not it will be able to sustain the momentum. As he paraphrases: "When you launch a company, the feeling is awesome. In best cases, there are rave reviews. You feel elated. But then the moment passes and you are now in the desert where no one really cares about the launch anymore. You have to get across that desert to achieve success. For [Microsoft] - it's time for that walk into the wild. Welcome to the desert."
- Taking it Slow Todd Bishop, writing for Seattle-based blog Tech Flash, contends that Microsoft is being tentative with its first iteration of Azure, not pushing it too hard on the marketplace, and argues this approach reflects an admirable pragmatism: "The Redmond company makes billions of dollars on traditional servers and databases. So even as it rolls out Azure to meet the growing demand for cloud computing, the company is still positioned to benefit if companies stick with in-house corporate systems. In that way, Azure to some extent represents a hedging of its bet." ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley seconds the notion, writing that Microsoft retracted some of its earlier, more ambitious designs for Azure: "It seems more the case that it has decided some of the original pieces didn't belong as part of the core Azure platform, such as Live Services, which are now part of Windows/Windows Live. In other cases, Microsoft has repackaged other elements of its original platform in different ways (example: the slimmed-down .Net Services is now part of AppFabric)."
Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments.
You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire. | <urn:uuid:abacebc4-18c8-4157-bec6-8813521966df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2009/11/why-microsoft-azure-will-be-a-slow-burning-success/26389/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956869 | 813 | 1.882813 | 2 |
A Righteous Tzaddik
These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a good and just man. He was a pure man in his generation. [Genesis 6:9]
The saga of Noah and the flood is well known, yet Noah remains an elusive personality. What was the nature of Noah's goodness? The description of Noah as TZADDIK -- which can be variously translated as a good, just, righteous man, in other words, a saint -- but with the qualification, "in his generation," sounds like a back-handed compliment. The implication seems to be that in a rotten generation, Noah looked good. Is that what is meant here?
Rashi, the great 11th century Torah commentator offers two opinions. He writes: "There are among the sages who view Noah positively. Certainly had he been living in a generation of just individuals, he would have been more just. While some view him negatively. Had he been living in the generation of Abraham he would have been considered worthless."
In order to come down on the side of one opinion or the other, and pass judgment on the true value of Noah's goodness, we must first understand the generation in which he lived.
And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of the rulers saw the daughters of men that they were pretty; and they took as wives all those whom they chose ... The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth. And God said to Noah, 'The end of all flesh has come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.' [Genesis 6:1-2, 11-12]
The terms which the Torah uses to describe the generation of Noah include corruption and thievery. A description is given of powerful men taking any women they chose. It is a generation in which moral boundaries have broken down. The very fabric of society, its social contract, is nonexistent. In this case, what was the nature of Noah's goodness? Apparently, Noah did not partake of the licentiousness and thievery of his generation. Noah did no evil. On the other hand, we do not find him performing good deeds, either. In a sense, Noah is an island, neither hurting others, nor helping them. This is the greatness of Noah, as well as the tragedy of Noah.
The Zohar, the chief work of the Kabbalah, recounts a conversation between Noah and God which took place after the flood:
What did God answer Noah when he left the Ark and saw the world destroyed? He [Noah] began to cry before God and he said, "Master of the universe, You are called compassionate. You should have been compassionate for Your creation." God responded and said, "You are a foolish shepherd. Now you say this?! Why did you not say this at the time I told you that I saw that you were righteous among your generation, or afterward when I said that I will bring a flood upon the people, or afterward when I said to build an ark? I constantly delayed and I said, 'When is he [Noah] going to ask for compassion for the world?' ... And now that the world is destroyed, you open your mouth, to cry in front of me, and to ask for supplication?" [Zohar Hashmatot, Bereishit 254b]
God is telling Noah that as the leader of his generation, he had responsibilities toward his followers. He was commanded to build the ark, yet he did not save even one person. His leadership may be compared to a shepherd who sees his flock straying from the proper path, wandering in the proximity of dangerous wolves, and concludes that the sheep deserve to be eaten because they have strayed. This is why God called him a "foolish shepherd."
The Zohar continues:
Rabbi Yochanan said, "Come and see the difference between the righteous among the Jews after Noah, and Noah. Noah did not defend his generation, nor did he pray for them, as Abraham did. When God told Abraham that [he would destroy] Sodom and Gomorrah ... immediately Abraham began to pray in front of God until he asked of God if ten good people were found, would God forgive the entire city because of them ... Some time later, Moses came, and when God said to him, "They have turned aside quickly from the way in which I commanded them," immediately, Moshe stood and prayed ... It is said that Moses was willing to give his soul for the people in both this world and the next ... "[Zohar Hashmatot, Bereishit 254b]
The next great religious leader was Abraham. When faced with the horrific acts of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham pleads with God not to kill the good along with the evil. Noah never engaged God in a similar dialogue.
Moses went even further. After the Jews commit the terrible sin of worshipping the Golden Calf, God is prepared to destroy the entire people. Despite the people's guilt, Moshe pleads with God, challenging Him: What could be expected of a nation which had just left Egypt and had not yet had time to develop spiritually? Moses is referred to in the Zohar as a "faithful shepherd." Despite the people's guilt, Moses argued with God. He even had the audacity to tell God that if God planned to wipe out the entire people, He should "wipe me out as well."
Noah accepts the decree of God. If the people are guilty, there is no argument. Abraham tries to argue, to perhaps exonerate some of the people of the city and, at best, perhaps save the city from annihilation on the merit of the ten good men he is certain can be found there. Moses is prepared to sacrifice himself in order to save the nation,despite their undisputed guilt.
But Noah does nothing even remotely close. He toils for 120 years building the ark, yet in all that time, not one person was brought under the influence of this great religious personality. The name Noah means "comfortable" in Hebrew, and Noah was, indeed, comfortable. He was comfortable and self-satisfied in his own righteousness. When he is finished building, he boards the ark with his family and the designated animals, leaving everyone else to perish.
Imagine what would have happened had Noah refused to board the ark. But that is surely how Moses would have responded.
It is fascinating that the first time we encounter Moses, he is but a three-month-old infant being placed in an ark by his mother who can no longer hide him from the Pharoah's death-squads:
She took an ark made of reeds, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child in it; and she laid it in the rushes by the [Nile] river's bank. [Exodus 2:5-5]
Reading these lines, we have a sense this infant, floating in an ark in the Nile, is destined to begin his mission where Noah left off his own. Moses' entire career will be that of a "faithful shepherd" always willing to sacrifice self for his flock. All of his 120 years will be devoted to this single purpose, perhaps in order to rectify Noah's failure in the 120-year period during which he built the ark.
The Zohar, explaining the parallels between Noah and Moses, states that when humanity sins, God always speaks with the best man of the generation in order that the just man pray for forgiveness for all. But while this is exactly what Moses did when his flock sinned, Noah only worried about himself. This is why, centuries later when the prophet Isaiah speaks, he calls the flood waters, "the waters of Noah" [Isaiah 54:9]. Noah is himself held responsible for the downpour. [Zohar, Vayikra, 3:15a]
The Zohar looks to Moses for the rectification of Noah's lapse, and it finds it in a Biblical word play on the "waters of Noah" -- mei Noah. When Moses offers his own life for his people after the incident with the golden calf, he tells God:
Now if you would forgive their sin, and if not, erase me, I beg you, from your book which you have written. [Exodus 32:32]
The Hebrew phrase "erase me" is m'heini is an anagram of mei Noah! The Ariza'l explains that at the moment Moses said to God, "erase me" -- m'heini -- the spiritual lapse of Noah that resulted in the flood -- mei Noah -- was healed. [Ariza"l Shar Pesukim Berieshit Drush 4]
Noah's spiritual stumbling continues after he leaves the ark. He and his family are the only human beings alive -- all around him are the remains of a holocaust. He is a survivor. How does Noah cope with all this? He plants a vineyard and then gets drunk on the wine. Noah cannot cope with the enormity of the destruction that he has witnessed. Perhaps he senses his own failure -- that his passivity led to the destruction of an entire civilization.
He [Noah] drank of the wine and became intoxicated; and he unconvered himself inside his tent. And [Noah's son] Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. And Shem and Yafet took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and walked backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. [Genesis 9:21-24]
The Sages of the Talmud have two opinions about what actually transpired: "Rab and Samuel differ, one maintaining that Ham castrated him, while the other that he sodomized him." [Sanhedrin 70a] What both opinions have in common is the incredible rage Ham directed toward Noah.
Let us consider what Ham's world-view must have been. He had grown up, surrounded by a culture of violence, thievery and sexual licentiousness. And then he saw that his father's passivity caused the destruction of his world. His actions seem an expression of Ham's rage and disdain at that passivity. Furthermore, we must not overlook the fact that Noah was the only good and just man in his generation. That means that his children were like the rest of the lot. They were saved from the flood totally on their father's merit. It would seem that Noah failed even in educating his own children. Noah's passivity -- of which his nakedness is a metaphor -- was evident in all his relationships.
Noah lives for some 300 years after the flood, fathering children, witnessing the birth of numerous descendants, countless future generations. What message does Noah impart to his descendants? Again, or still, it seems that Noah remains passive; he has nothing to say, as if the rest of his life remains clouded by this intoxication, even when the world around him begins again to sin against God.
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech ... And they said one to another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, "Come, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach to heaven ... And the Lord said, "Behold, the people are one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have schemed to do." [Genesis 11:1-6]
At the tower of Babel, all the people of the world were gathered. The sages tell us that Noah was still alive, but again he was silent. This is the tragedy of Noah. It was not only his own generation that he did not try to protect and educate, but even his own children and grandchildren were deprived of the influence of that "good and just" man. We can only imagine the leadership which Noah could have displayed, the insights he should have shared with future generations, the courage and religious zeal he might have taught the generations following the flood. But tradition reports nothing.
Aside from Noah, there was another prominent individual who was present at the Tower. His name was Abraham.
The Kabbalah teaches:
We find that Noah lived ten years after the dispersion following the destruction of the Tower of Babel; Abraham was forty eight years old at the dispersion.[Seder Olam, Ch. 1]
And now the answer to our original questions comes clear. We find that Noah did live in the generation of Abraham, and indeed, he was worthless.
The image Noah left for posterity is of a man calm in the face of turbulent waters, withstanding incredible social pressures. Noah stands alone, floating on his ark, floating on his island, forming no relationships, forging no change. Alone, in silence.
Noah was there at the Tower of Babel with all of his knowledge and experience, and Abraham was there with his simple idealism. The time and place were ripe for a religious renaissance. If these leaders would have joined forces, the world could have been elevated and saved. They could have reached heaven, and would have had no need for a tower. But alas, Noah was silent. Abraham would have to start anew, alone, as we shall see in the next Torah portion. | <urn:uuid:390afa02-69e9-4762-9f87-eeb2faf72575> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aish.com/tp/i/moha/48909017.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986015 | 2,911 | 2.671875 | 3 |
The National History Teacher of the Year Award, a $10,000 annual prize, recognizes outstanding American history teachers from elementary school through high school. Fifty-three winners—one from each state, the District of Columbia, Department of Defense schools, and US Territories—receive a $1,000 award and an archive of books and historical resources presented to their school library. From these fifty-three winners, one is recognized as the National History Teacher of the Year. The award is co-sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, HISTORY®, and Preserve America.
Elementary school teachers (grades K–6) and middle and high school teachers (grades 7–12) are honored in separate categories in alternate years. The 2012 award will honor middle and high school teachers (7–12). The 2013 award will honor elementary teachers (K–6). Teachers can be nominated for either award throughout the year.
All K–12 nominees will be evaluated on the following criteria:
- At least three years of classroom teaching experience
- A demonstrated commitment to teaching American history (including state and local history)
- Evidence of creativity and imagination in the classroom
- Effective use of documents, artifacts, historic sites, oral histories, and other primary resources to engage students with American history
- Any full-time educator of grades K–12 who teaches American history (including state and local history). American history may be taught as an individual subject or through social studies, reading, language arts, and other subjects.
- Nominees must be planning to teach for at least one year following the award year.
- Past state and national winners are not eligible.
- Self-nominations are not accepted.
All teachers must be nominated on the Gilder Lehrman website, which accepts nominations for any K–12 teacher throughout the year. Nominations can be made by a student, parent, colleague, principal or other administrator familiar with the teacher’s work. A teacher must be nominated by February 1 to be considered for the current year’s award. All nominees will be notified with full instructions for submitting supporting materials to complete their nominations. To nominate a teacher, please click here.
All nominees will be invited to submit the following supporting material to be considered for the award:
- A current resume/curriculum vitae
- One letter of support from a supervisor, colleague, or other education professional familiar with the nominee’s work
- A one-page statement of the nominee’s philosophy of teaching and how it relates specifically to his or her instruction of American history (one page)
- A sample lesson plan that can be completed in one to two class sessions, demonstrating the use of primary sources (no more than five pages)
- A sample extended student project, demonstrating the use of primary documents, artifacts, historic sites, oral histories, and other primary resources (no more than fifteen pages)
All supporting materials for the current year’s award must be submitted by March 15. Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.
Announcement of State History Teachers of the Year (May)
All completed supporting materials are reviewed by state committees of education professionals who select a state winner. All nominees will be notified by the Gilder Lehrman Institute in May. State History Teachers of the Year receive a prize package including a certificate of recognition, a $1,000 award, a collection of classroom resources to be presented in their name to the school library, and an invitation to participate in a Gilder Lehrman Teacher Seminar. Each winner’s school will become a Gilder Lehrman Affiliate School. Winners are honored in a ceremony in their state.
Announcement of the National History Teacher of the Year (Fall)
All state winners are finalists for the National History Teacher of the Year Award. A panel of judges comprised of former national winners, renowned historians, professors, and teachers reviews all state winner materials and selects the National History Teacher of the Year. The winner will be announced in the early fall and will receive a $10,000 award and a trip to the national award ceremony, along with two of his or her students. | <urn:uuid:7caae21e-25c2-4b68-93b9-ababcff65571> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gilderlehrman.org/programs-exhibitions/eligibility | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943065 | 870 | 2.734375 | 3 |
"Kherson, nice river city close to Black Sea" Top 5 Page for this destination Kherson by Jojobar
Kherson Travel Guide: 58 reviews and 75 photos
Kherson lies some 200 kms east of Odessa, on the banks of the Dniepr river. Surprisingly enough for a small industrial city (around 400k people), there is a general feeling of sophistication and relative well-being.
You will find a lot of clothing stores with fashionable items, and people in the street tend to be well-dressed. You do not see many beggars on the street, nor any horse or donkey carriages like you would find in many cities in Romania or Bulgaria.
This is obviously not to say that the city has a feeling of opulence. But by the standards of the former Soviet Republics, I found the city to be above average. Streets are clean, the main streets have few potholes, and there are even a couple of pedestrian areas that are very well kept (including nice parks).
Not surprisingly for a river city in former communist countries, the city is not built around the river. All activities close to the river are of pure industrial nature, and I haven't found any parks or nice areas close to the river (I may need to go back to double check :)
- Pros:Welcoming people, relative feeling of safety
- Cons:Not enough places to stay / bad transportation
If you have little time, I do not believe there is a single attraction that stands out in the city. The pedestrian areas... more travel advice
In my research before my trip to Kherson I had found widely varying reports on how to get there from Odessa, so I... more travel advice
Kherson Travel Guide
Member Travel Pages
- "Kherson ... and sadness"
- "Kherson, nice river city close to Black Sea"
- "City of Brides"
- "Kherson..... what can I say...."
- "The Southern Port"
- "Why Kherson"
- "Life in Kherson"
- See All...
- Things to Do in Kherson
- Hotels in Kherson
- Transportation in Kherson
- Nightlife in Kherson
- Restaurants in Kherson
- Warnings and Dangers in Kherson
- See All...
Explore the World
Badges & Stats in Kherson
- 4 Reviews
- 3 Photos
- 0 Forum posts
- 1 Comments
- See All Stats
- See All Badges (2)
Have you been to Kherson?Share Your Travels
Latest Activity in Kherson
Top PagesSee All Travel Pages (1)
No friends yet. | <urn:uuid:03fe9e5f-f758-431c-bd85-b3edaeb2775d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/96378/ad65b/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932043 | 577 | 1.539063 | 2 |
In his recent book A History of the Conceptions of Limits and Fluxions in Great Britain from Neuton to Woodhouse (Chicago and London: The Open Court Publishing Company, 1919), as well as in a series of articles in the American Mathematical Monthly for 1915 on The History of Zeno's Arguments on Motion, Mr Cajori discusses certain aspects of the conception of a limit, and treats in considerable detail the controversy between Jurin and Robins that arose out of the publication of Berkeley's Analyst. I gave an account of the controversy in a paper that appears in Volume XVII. of our Proceedings, and as Mr Cajori's estimate of the respective merits of the contributions by Jurin and Robins differs greatly from mine, and as the conception of a limit is fundamental in modern mathematics I venture to draw the attention of the Society to the matter.
(Received May 12 1921)
(Revised May 12 1921) | <urn:uuid:9b026e68-a1cd-4f57-a286-2692129bc9be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=3140764&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S0013091500035926 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941765 | 192 | 1.976563 | 2 |
Walter F Baile, M.D.
Dr. Baile has collaborated with Dr. Robert Buckman on many of his projects and has refined the techniques of teaching communication skills to include video and other media. He is the director of I*CARE, the MD Anderson Program in Communication and Relationship Enhancement, and is developing the MD Anderson Library of Communication Skills in Oncology, a repository of video and contemporary educational tools to drive home the important messages of how to communicate with cancer patients. According to Dr. Baile, "Communication is the cornerstone of comprehensive cancer care… it allows oncology clinicians to build meaningful relationships with their patients."
Dr. Baile has brought his talents in teaching communication skills to many parts of the world and has led workshops and other teaching programs in Japan, Italy and Germany, to name a few. Currently he participates in a National Cancer Institute sponsored program to train oncologists to teach the same communication skills. He produced "On Being an Oncologist," a video for cancer clinicians starring the actors William Hurt and Megan Cole and is author of over 150 scientific papers, book chapters and abstracts on clinician-patient communication. | <urn:uuid:012ed226-884f-477a-a709-0ba44d6d8c5b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mdanderson.org/education-and-research/resources-for-professionals/professional-educational-resources/i-care/leadership-and-faculty/patient-doctor-communication-walter-f-baile-m-d-.html | 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 | 0.95911 | 238 | 1.65625 | 2 |
More information will be forthcoming. Keep in mind, this is early information, and not to be relied upon without consulting with a qualified immigration attorney. However, here is what comprehensive immigration reform might look like for the undocumented, based on the 17 page memo recently released from the Senate’s bill:
The Undocumented – Some will be granted a Registered Provisional Immigrant Status:
- December 31, 2011 is the cut off. People who entered after this date will be ineligible to take advantage of this Registered Provisional Immigrant Status
- Those who are not DREAM Act Eligible will be required to pay a $500 penalty plus any back taxes that are owed. We, at SwagatUSA, have long advised people that even undocumented must file accurate tax returns. It is evident that taxes will be taken into account.
- Those convicted of crimes such as felonies, aggravated felonies, 3 or more misdemeanors, or an offense under foreign law, as well as any who have unlawfully voted in an election will be ineligible.
- Spouses and children will be protected also as derivatives
- Individuals currently outside of the US who were deported, but would have qualified for this status if not for the prior deportation, will be eligible to apply and reenter.
- Those eligible will be able to work and travel outside of the US.
- Individuals in removal proceedings or with removal orders will be eligible as well.
- RPI status does not render one eligible for public means-tested benefits, or premium assistance tax credit.
- Initial approval will be for 6 years, and if good character is proven over this period, it may be renewed again, with another $500 penalty.
People in DREAM Act and Agricultural Program, can get their green cards in 5 years, and DREAM Act kids will be eligible for citizenship immediately upon receiving their green cards.
As we are slowly winding down with the H-1b season of FY2014, I thought it would be a good idea to make a blog post about some not-so-common common knowledge about H-1B Applications.
First, some observations: How quickly the H-1B cap fills has a direct correlation with the economy. In fact, H-1Bs tend to be the early predictors of a future economy. So when things seem to be on the upswing with the economy, expect numbers to be filled MUCH faster than if we are on a down-swing. Take for example this year. While the numbers are still pending, the prediction is that the H-1B numbers (65,000 applications) will be exhausted within the first week. This is drastically different from the previous three years.
Second, many may not realize that it takes AT A BARE MINIMUM 2 weeks to prepare a good standard H-1b Application. This is because the first step is to do a Labor Conditions Application, which takes 7 business days to approve. Often, when it comes to brand new companies, the first step is to get the company’s FEIN to be recognized by the USCIS, which adds at least two business days to the total processing time. Then, factor in the time it takes to mail the application, get it signed by the appropriate signatory of the company, and you are looking at 2 weeks or longer as the bare minimum time frame, easily.
Third, it makes a huge difference when an application is thoroughly prepared. I often see denials from older applications where the reason for denial is that the application was not well-supported. The relevant fields on the forms were filled with bare minimum information, and the job category was not fully vetted before filling out the application. The time that it takes to communicate and strategize with the company regarding the preparation of an application is CRUCIAL in increasing approval rates. It is no wonder that firms who bulk process H-1B applications often see lower approval rates. At the end of the day, the best way to save money, is to have your application approved. The easiest way to lose money is to try to save money by having a low-fee high-volume firm process your application in a bulk manner. We focus on each application individually and our focus on these applications is easily noted by the results we obtain.
Fourth, do your research on who specifically will work on your H-1B application within the firm. This is particularly crucial for smaller companies who are not yet experienced on the process of H-1b and the various complexities that can result. Often times, you choose the firm, but the firm chooses the case-worker. You should have some knowledge as to the experience and education level of the people involved in the processing of your H-1b application. Is it being passed off on a junior paralegal? Is it being worked on by a new law school graduate? If you are concerned about your application being approved, you should pay attention to the inside of the law firm processes as well as the overall reputation.
Fifth, and finally, is the law firm willing to work with your company’s culture? Often times high-volume firms do not take the time to understand your company and therefore are not able to work with you effectively. We like to take our time getting to know each of our clients so that we can work with you in an effective and efficient manner.
For those of you who have Cap Subject applications, you may need to wait until 2014 to get started. When you do, keep the above points in mind. For those who are fortunate enough to be cap-exempt, you must keep the above in mind before contacting an attorney.
As an immigration attorney, I often get calls from students who have received an RFE, and sometimes a second RFE, on an OPT application. They are searching for immigration attorneys to help respond. I explain to them that responding to an RFE is often not as straight-forward as providing what is being requested. Often times, the documents requested indicate a deeper problem in proving a fundamental element of the OPT requirements. Perhaps they are suspecting CPT abuse and require proof of addresses. Perhaps they want to know if you have maintained a full-time student course load as required for F1 visas. Or maybe there is a discrepancy in your F1 and OPT application, and for immigration purposes, discrepancies raise suspicion of fraud. Whatever the matter, the application must be responded to thoroughly. An attorney, no a GOOD immigration attorney, is necessary.
In any case, often the client raises the objection for fees, and always with the same reason “I am only a student.” I am going to write in this blog post, what I do not have time to explain to people who consult with me over phone. The issue that I have with students does not have anything to do with the fact that they have lack of money. It’s the lack of experience.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I was a student once, too. I remember what it is like. Free food is the best marketing tool for student organization meetings, and saving a buck or two is worth spending a half hour planning. You skip luxuries and even manage to skimp on certain ‘necessities.’ I know. I get it. But think for a minute. What is the whole purpose you have decided to attend college in the US, to pursue whatever degree you are pursuing? My guess is – to secure a brighter future – right? Now your whole future in the US hinges on your immigration status. And after all of the work and effort you have put into it, you still decide to self-file an OPT application. And sometimes even respond to the first RFE by yourself. Then, when you are in deeper trouble, facing a ‘do-or-die’ situation, you call an attorney, and even then, some object to the fees being too high? Really?
What this tells me is that the problem isn’t really lack of funds. The real problem is lack of experience. Many students have yet to experience the problems that a badly prepared immigration application can cause. They haven’t been in the position where they are looking at a rosy 80-90k paying job hinging upon the decision of a difficult H-1b application. They have not had to deal with immigration law, and immigration attorneys. So far, the international student office has been filing everything for students, for free. So many students do not value their immigration status yet because they have not had the required experiences to value it.
To make matters worse, most students ask for advice from other students, who also have not had the required experiences to understand the critical importance of their immigration applications, and of choosing a good immigration attorney.
When I think of F1 students, it reminds me of little baby turtles, who hatch in the sand, and face their first hurdle of making it through to the water. Many perish. Those who make it still have a long way to go and many struggles before they become free flowing adult turtles. But once they are adults, life is great. They have few predators (other than humans of course) and live a very long life. The OPT application is your first hurdle. Believe me, there are many more to go before you are able to be a US Citizen. So make wise decisions. The $100-$200 you are trying to save on the very critical application isn’t really worth it in the long run.
I wish you all a very bright future. May you all become adult turtles swimming freely. And I hope that you never have to look back and regret key decisions you make regarding your immigration applications.
Know a friend who can benefit from this? Pass it along. Want to know how to find a good immigration attorney? Click Here.
For many months now, we have been awaiting a change in the waiver process. It is finally final! The provisional waiver for i-601 (or the i-601a) rule goes into effect March 4, 2013.
Whom does it affect?
This affects spouses of US citizens who entered the US unlawfully. Spouses of LPRs are not yet covered. This may change in the future, but as of today, they will have to go through the old processing route.
What is the change?
Whereas before, the applicants had to go overseas to their country to file the final waiver. Now, they can go overseas with an initial approval from the United States. This significantly reduces the anguish and stress of going overseas and the fear of not being able to return. It also cuts down on the amount of time that applicants must spend overseas.
What does not change?
The standard remains the same. I-601 waivers are judged by the same standards they have always been judged on. The standard of Extreme Hardship to a qualifying relative. To learn more about this standard, Click Here.
How can we help?
We can help you file I-601 waivers of unlawful presence no matter where you live in the country. Simply contact us for a free consultation.
When should you start filing the petition to take advantage of this provisional waiver?
Ideally you should contact an attorney before beginning the I-130. The reason is this: the preparation for waivers is extensive and you need the time to be able to prepare. If you begin the I-130 right now, you will mostly be able to take advantage of the i-601 / i-601a provisional waiver. If you are at the NVC stage (which is the 2nd stage) you will likely still be able to take advantage of it. However, if you already have your appointment scheduled for interview, or if your interview is scheduled BEFORE March 4, 2013, you will not be able to take advantage of this provisional waiver.
How you can get more information?
Sign up for our free newsletter, where we will be sending you immigration updates on an ongoing basis.
Other important points
Remember that the provisional waiver is only for spouses of US Citizens. So far, not for spouses of permanent residents, or children of permanent residents or citizens.
Also, a common misunderstanding is that one does not have to leave the country at all. This is false. There is a need to leave the country after the provisional approval, but the departure will be for a short period of time (weeks, instead of months or years), and you will go knowing for sure that unless something changes, you will be able to return legally and obtain a green card.h
Historically, Mexico has had a relatively high approval rate, whereas the approval rates for countries like China are notoriously low. Having a provisional waiver determined in the United States ensures efficiency as well as fair and balanced adjudication for those of other countries. Therefore this is particularly useful for those who are citizens of countries other than Mexico.
Keep in mind that many people have been awaiting this change in the process. The sooner you get started, the better. I-601 waivers are VERY COMPLEX and hiring a competent and experienced attorney greatly improves chances of success. | <urn:uuid:ce95e038-2bdd-4df8-9b66-528d0929cc52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.swagatusa.com/blog | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966924 | 2,685 | 1.59375 | 2 |