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What causes patellofemoral pain syndrome?
The exact cause of patellofemoral pain isn't known. It probably has to do with the way your kneecap (patella) moves on the groove of your thigh bone (femur).
See a list of resources used in the development of this information.
Written by familydoctor.org editorial staff | <urn:uuid:23a7f657-06db-42ba-aaa3-626099584407> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://familydoctor.org/familydoctor/en/diseases-conditions/patellofemoral-pain-syndrome/causes-risk-factors.printerview.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916541 | 78 | 2.546875 | 3 |
According to The National FFA Organization (formerly Future Farmers of America), creating a proposal and getting started is easier than you think.
Revitalize your community with these tips for starting a Transition Initiative.
Cranky neighbors take the fun out of urban farming. Follow these tips to help everyone get along.
Take these five lessons from the top of the urban-farm food chain to improve your backyard, rooftop, patio or community garden.
Talk the talk and walk the walk by getting involved in urban farming in your community.
Launch a local-food campaign with these fruit foraging tips.
Win the trust and respect of your city council to help further your urban-farming initiative and change laws.
Community dinners support a sustainable lifestyle through involvement and local food. Here's how two started in New York City.
Show your neighbors how beautiful food can be by pulling up your grass and replacing it with homegrown produce.
Plugging into urban-farming-related organizations across the U.S. will help you find the support you need to build your urban-farming-community network.
Location: Cincinnati, OH
Day Job: writer
Why I'm Getting Dirty: for the love of the earth, her fruits and her creatures. The urban agriculture movement is perhaps the one movement that will have the greatest impact on restoring our connection to the earth.
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*Content generated by our loyal visitors, which includes comments and club postings, is free of constraints from our editors' red pens, and therefore not governed by I-5 Publishing, LLC's Gold Standard Quality Content, but instead allowed to follow the free form expression necessary for quick, inspired and spontaneous communication. | <urn:uuid:01be82ff-b3b6-4be4-a538-6fef07423159> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.urbanfarmonline.com/sustainable-living/urban-community-building/community-building-topiclist.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920746 | 471 | 1.59375 | 2 |
MADISON, Wis. -- A state board voted Tuesday to limit a new law expanding hunting rights in state parks, after dozens of Wisconsin residents said they wouldn't feel safe visiting parks where hunters might be active.
The Natural Resources Board held a public meeting in Madison about Act 168, the so-called Sporting Heritage Bill that goes into effect Jan. 1. The law, with some restrictions, will allow hunting in virtually all state parks and state trails.
Tuesday's meeting came after residents inundated the Natural Resources Board in recent weeks with about 2,000 letters and emails, 96 percent criticizing the new law. That prompted the DNR to propose a compromise, suggesting in part that about one-third of state parkland area be exempted from the law.
The board -- which oversees DNR policy -- approved that proposal, and went further by restricting the dates when hunting would be allowed. While the DNR had proposed allowing hunting in the remaining parks from mid-October to late May, the board limited hunting to one month in autumn and another in spring.
Board Chair David Clausen said he believed hunters would approve of the compromise.
"I think once they understand it and see how it works they'll be happy," he said.
The vote came after three hours of spirited testimony from dozens of attendees, many of whom said hunters already have enough places to hunt without expanding to state parklands as well.
Jeffrey Baylis, a hunter from Cross Plains, told
"I have friends who are hunters and not a single one thinks this is good idea," he said. "I think this will fuel a general antipathy toward hunting."
Other residents said they worried about keeping their families and pets safe. Several said they love parks but would never go again if it meant having to hear gunfire or worry about their pets getting maimed or killed by animal traps.
The law does allow the DNR to prohibit hunting and the setting of traps in certain areas, such as within 100 yards of a trail or near campgrounds. Still, many speakers said that provided little comfort.
"My family is not opposed to hunting and trapping. We own guns, we hunt -- just not in a state park," said Cynthia Gagan, of Cedarburg. "It is only a matter of time before people or pets are hurt by a stray bullet."
The public meeting drew a standing-room only crowd of about 100 people, 64 of whom registered to speak. After each had a turn, the board members debated several options -- approving the DNR plan, rejecting it or accepting it with modifications.
Board members including William Bruins seemed content to preserve 2012 rules rather than implement Act 168 and its expansion on hunting in state parks. The board conferred with its legal counsel, Tim Andryk, who confirmed that the Legislature granted the board full authority to take whatever action it saw fit.
But DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp said the board should remember that lawmakers passed the law with the intent that hunting be expanded.
"Ours is not to debate what the elected officials decided," she said.
Clausen countered that lawmakers left ultimate decision-making power with the board.
While most of the attendees seemed to oppose any new hunting rules, some argued that concerns about safety were overblown. Bob Welch, who represented the Wisconsin Hunters Rights Coalition, said most hunters wouldn't bother going to areas where people would be around because there would be no game in the area. And other speakers countered arguments about the dangers of traps by holding up actual traps and attempting to demonstrate how they could be used without threatening pets.
The board passed its measure 7-0.
Among the other rules approved by the board:
-- It will be illegal to shoot across a state trail.
-- All traps would have to be approved as safe for dogs.
-- Buckhorn State Park in Necedah and Governor Nelson State Park in Waunakee are off-limits for hunting because any proposed hunting sections would be too close to recreational areas. | <urn:uuid:d7e4c6f6-736e-4fc2-923c-81e819ae03fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.twincities.com/politics/ci_22167754/wisconsin-board-considers-opening-parks-trails-hunting?source=most_emailed | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96932 | 817 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Witcher developer adapting Cyberpunk tabletop RPG
CD Projekt RED, makers of The Witcher games based on Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski's works, are now adapting the pen-and-paper RPG Cyberpunk.
The developer made the announcement today at its Summer Conference, saying it “will not be a game for everybody.” It will be a mature and violent title with a non-linear narrative and gameplay mechanics evolved from the tabletop RPG. The game will also feature character classes and a “gigantic” assortment of weapons, upgrades, and implants, as well as “cool, high-tech toys.”
R. Talsorian Games originally published the role-playing game in 1987. It's the company's most famous product, along with Castle Falkenstein.
CD Projekt has recruited the game creator, Michael Pondsmith, to assist the development team. The studio wants the title to break new ground for futuristic RPGs.
Follow @wita on Twitter for tales of superheroes, plumbers in overalls, and literary adventures. | <urn:uuid:3f34731d-87c4-4a6d-a29c-9f7b7b9e375d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gamezone.com/news/2012/05/30/witcher-developer-adapting-cyberpunk-tabletop-rpg | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93064 | 224 | 1.5 | 2 |
From the archives:
Arguably golf’s interesting origin began five centuries ago. It is a historical fact that
due to the interference of golf with much more serious combat drills James II of Scotland
banned golf in an act of Parliament on March 6 in the year 1457. There is general agreement
among historians and golf fans alike that the Scots were the first golfers who became
somewhat addicted to the sport. However the persons responsible for the invention of golf is
open to debate. And debate will ensue if you breech the subject with the right persons.
It has been suggested that bored sheepherders became quite exceptional at knocking round
shaped stones into rabbit holes with their wooden shepherds staffs. Making a competitive
game of the boredom seemed inevitable. After all women’s lib was not yet even considered
so that means the shepherds were men. Lets face another fact of history, men tend to be more
of a competitive nature. Various forms of golf were played as early as the fourteenth century.
These games were played in Holland, Belgium, France as well as in Scotland, thus the debate
of golf’s origin is rightly fueled.
There is another historical fact that Scottish Baron, James VI, was the man who delivered the
game we know today as golf to the English. For many years the game was played on severely
rugged terrain, where no proper upkeep was required. In most accounts golf was played with
crudely cut holes in the ground where the earth was reasonably flat.
It was a group of Edinburgh golfers who first formed an organized club. In 1744 the
Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers was established. At this time in history the first
thirteen laws of golf were drawn up for an annual competition. This first competition
consisted of players from any part of Great Britain or Ireland.
One of the earliest golf clubs that were formed outside golf’s debatable native home of
Scotland was the Royal Blackheath Golf Club of England. Blackheath came into existence in
1766 and the Old Manchester Golf Club was founded on the Kersal Moor in 1818.
By the late 1800’s the Royal Montreal Club and the Quebec Golf Club were to become the
first in North America. It wasn’t until 1888 that golf resurfaced in the United States with
more fervor than each prior surfacing. Even then it was a Scotsman, John Reid, who first
built a three-hole course in Yonkers New York. St. Andrews Club of Yonkers was built in a
thirty-acre site near to the original three-hole course.
From the hesitant and fitful start golf grew rapidly as the new national pastime in America.
Modern for its time the golf club, Shinnecock Hills was founded in 1891 and in the nine years
left in that century more than one thousand prestigious golf clubs opened in North America.
The historical value of golf is as interesting as any part of our heritage. Following the path
that golf took to get from a shepherds field to the amazing golf courses that dot our culture
today it is no wonder golf remains a popular pastime in all parts of the world. | <urn:uuid:dba8edd6-9254-43c6-b039-08fe081cb99e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://golfing-magazine.com/2010/03/the-history-of-golf/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979499 | 677 | 2.609375 | 3 |
The World Wide Web took one small step into outer space on Friday, January 22, 2010, bringing life in orbit closer to home. As Astro_TJ, Timothy J. Creamer posted his first entry to Twitter:
Hello, Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station -- the 1st live tweet from space! :) More soon, send your ?s
Since then, thousands have become followers, sending questions and comments, while Astro_TJ tweets away with replies and status updates. Regular tweets provide a peek into daily doings on the Space Station (ISS). In this lesson, you will get a chance to explore the ISS in other ways to better understand what living there is really like. You will also discover how lessons
learned on the ISS help pave the way for future space residents.
On the ISS
Launch yourself to the International
Space Station for a tour with the help of the ISS Interactive Reference Guide. Listen to Commander Mike Fincke explain the purpose and goals of the ISS, and also how multiple partners must work together to achieve success. (Closed Captioning may be turned on to read his explanation instead.)
Following the introduction, get an overview of the station with the ISS 360 Tour. Check out the Internal View, External Views, and the Fly Around Animation.
Get some technical details about the station in the How It Works section. Read the interesting facts that rotate along the right-side of the screen. You can also click on different parts of the image to learn more about each part. Then, use the top buttons to hear Commander Fincke explain How It's Operated, How It's Built, and How It's Supported.
Next, get an idea of How the Crew Lives on the ISS. As you explore this section, use a blank sheet of paper with two columns written on it. On one half of the sheet, label the column "ISS Crew"; on the other half of the sheet, label the column, "Me". Again, listen to Commander Fincke's overview, and then use the buttons near the top of the screen to explore some of the details about How the Crew Eats, How the Crew Sleeps, and How the Crew Exercises. Make sure to watch the video in each section. On your sheet of paper, write short notes in the ISS Crew column about how they eat, sleep, and exercise. In the Me column, list some brief descriptions about how you eat, sleep, and exercise.
Hop over to another NASA site for more details about Living
in Space. As you explore life on the station, make sure
to watch some of the videos in each section. During your research here, continue making notes during in the ISS Crew and Me columns. Investigate the station's Space
Food menu, what kinds of Space
Wear to pack, and how to get some Space
Sleep. Space Work comes with its own challenges, of course, and there are times when the crew can have a little Space Fun. What has been the space station's primary purpose? Why is it important that the crew get time to relax and do things like disco-dancing?
When you are done with learning about living in space, analyze your descriptions in your two columns to compare and contrast eating, sleeping, exercising, clothing, working, and having fun. Discuss your observations with one or two other classmates.
Now, test what you have learned at CosmicQuest's Living
in Space: Design a Space Station site. Click Let's
Find Out!, read the introduction, and then Let's
Continue through your training program to prepare for Working in Space, and then take the final challenge to design a self-sufficient space habitat.
If you have time, explore the ISS Laboratories and the ISS Attitudes. Get the Unity Web Player installed on your computer to take a Station Spacewalk, completing a few missions as part of the crew.
Browse current issues of the e-edition looking
for news about the ISS or other space missions. Pick one aspect of living or working in space mentioned in
one or more of the articles. The aspect may relate to eating, exercising, sleeping, communicating with Earth, scientific research, etc. Based on the information in the article, along with what you learned during this lesson, create a one or two-page reference guide for future ISS crew members that explains how this aspects compares to what they are familiar with on Earth, what to expect, how to prepare, and helpful tips for dealing with the differences. Include any graphics that help to illustrate your key points. | <urn:uuid:9b4b7bfa-8b17-4df6-8e0d-fc4f760261e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cincinnati.com/niecincy/archive/2010/01/25/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922517 | 940 | 2.84375 | 3 |
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July 30, 2011CHICAGO - The concept of monetary compensation to pay for expenses not covered by an athletic scholarship has been around decades.
Twenty years ago Chris Webber expressed his frustration at not having the money for Big Mac at a time when college basketball fans were shelling out 50 dollars for his jersey at stores around the University of Michigan campus.
Webber's sentiments were captured by Mitch Albom in his 1994 bestseller Fab Five, Basketball, Trash Talk, The American Dream. The book generated a measure of public support for the concept of providing student athletes monetary compensation beyond their athletic scholarships to pay for expenses related to everyday college life such as fuel, parking, entertainment, and car repairs.
Webber's frustration was disingenuous. Less than a decade after Fab Five was published, disgraced Michigan booster Ed Martin disclosed that he had made payments totaling $280,000 to Webber between 1988 and 1993 during statements required by a federal plea deal for running an illegal lottery at the Ford plant where he worked.
College athletics has not been rocked with a scandal as big as the one that hit the Michigan basketball program during the late 1990s, but both college football and basketball have had dozens of high-profile incidents involving compliance-related issues since that time.
The recent scandal at Ohio State involving Terrelle Pryor and several other Buckeye stars selling memorabilia ultimately cost Buckeye football coach Jim Tressel his job and his reputation. The scandal has also re-opened the debate on whether college athletes should be compensated above and beyond their tuition and room and board.
Coaches and players from each football program represented at Big Ten Media Days earlier this week in Chicago were asked to weigh in on the debate over additional financial compensation for student athletes. The most eloquent and well-thought response came from Michigan State senior Kirk Cousins.
The Spartan quarterback is not taking a stance in the debate. But the three-year captain and three-year starter firmly believe that the complicated issue should be examined in depth by the NCAA.
Click below to here Cousins' perspective on the debate over student-athlete compensation. | <urn:uuid:99266ea7-a3d4-4693-b97e-21b270d01fd6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nebraska.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1245808 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976157 | 459 | 1.625 | 2 |
Im not sure if this is more of a stack overflow question but ill see how we go here first.
I have been trying for the past few days to compile my own kernel for the GS3 (without any modifications just to prove it works) and have finally succeeded in both compiling and flashing to my phone.
The whole reason i attempted this was i was aiming to get the phone to act as a HID keyboard so that it could be used for text entry on a PC (My backup idea was an Arduino borad with a NFC chip on it so i could transmit what is typed to it and it could be the HID device, but this isn't as neat as just plugging the phone in).
Anyway, after successfully compiling the kernel i ran make menuconfig and started looking threw the options. When i found
Device Drivers -> USB Support -> USB Gadget Support -> USB Gadget Drivers (HID Gadget) I got my hopes up that the device may support this right away, but after enabling this and attempting to compile the kernel i received the following error :
arch/arm/mach-exynos/built-in.o: In function `midas_machine_init': <PATH_REMOVED>/GS3/Kernel/arch/arm/mach-exynos/mach-midas.c:2756: undefined reference to `s3c_device_android_usb'
I have attempted to research this but can find no one that has experienced this error (just searching for s3c_device_android_usb with just about any other key words returns 0 results on google).
So my question to you is firstly, does HID Gadget do what is expect or is it a wast of time straight away (if so can you suggest which USB driver to compile with to allow HID functionality or if that is not available, the best one to be able to expand and add the functionality). Second if this is the correct driver then any help with the above error would be greatly appreciated. The third and final question is, if i get all this to work (HID keyboard support) to allow others to use this will they have to flash this kernel (or a similar one depending on the device) or can the modifications done in order to get it to work be compiled into a ROM to extend the users current kernel?
Thanks for you time | <urn:uuid:4cce1fa7-fe74-47f9-a275-1908e8561681> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/27199/compiling-ics-kernel-for-galaxy-s3-with-usb-gadget-drivers-hid-gadget?answertab=oldest | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936669 | 493 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Explorer's dram returns to icy home
Ernest Shackleton and two of his team within 180 kilometres of the South Pole in 1909. Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Three bottles of perhaps the most famous and most travelled Scotch whisky are a step closer to returning to their icy home.
The 100-year-old whisky, from the supplies of one of the heroic Antarctic expeditions of the early 20th century, were ceremoniously handed back on Saturday night at New Zealand's Scott Base.
Five crates of spirits were donated to Ernest Shackleton's British Antarctic Expedition between 1907 and 1910, which narrowly failed to reach the South Pole.
The three cases of whisky and two of brandy, the bottles encased in ice, were discovered three years ago by conservators trying to preserve Shackleton's hut at Cape Royds, 100 years after he made his base there in 1908.
Three bottles were sent back to the distillers, Whyte and Mackay, in Scotland, where they were analysed and the whisky recreated.
A needle was used to pierce the cork to withdraw a small sample from the original bottles. The cork then sealed itself and the bottles were restored.
The artefacts program manager for the Antarctic Heritage Trust, Lizzie Meek, who couldn't attend the ceremony at Scott Base because she was snowed in at Cape Evans, joined the ceremony via radio.
She said the find had been amazing and it was extremely pleasing to see the bottles returned after a long journey.
It was enjoyable to work with an artefact that had such a pleasant aroma, compared with most other items in the hut, she said. The bottles were still in good condition.
Meek said there was no way the treasure would be sampled.
Was it the good stuff? "The information we had from Whyte and Mackay was that it was pretty good," Meek said. | <urn:uuid:800501dd-03c2-4937-aca1-ab442525028d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theage.com.au/executive-style/top-drop/explorers-dram-returns-to-icy-home-20130121-2d2pm.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987506 | 392 | 2.546875 | 3 |
June 12, 2011
Pentecost Sunday Readings: Acts 2:1-11;
1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13; Jn 20:19-23
As I write this pastor message we are expecting extraordinary thunder storms during the month of June. I have always been amazed and a little fearful of the power and beauty of thunder and lightning. I realize that science is able to explain this phenomenon, but it reminds us of the unseen power that is present in the universe and world that we are a part of. For the ancient world, a thunderstorm was a powerful reminder of the Divine Power of God. Psalm 29 tracks a thunderstorm traveling through the country as the "voice of the Lord" thundering.
Today's feast of Pentecost reminds us of the Power of God that is alive in the world around us and that is present in our lives through the grace of the Holy Spirit. The Jewish feast of Pentecost was also called the feast of weeks because it landed seven weeks, or fifty days, after Passover. It originally was the feast of the first harvest of that which was planted during the time of Passover. For the Church it became the feast of the New Harvest for which the Holy Spirit is responsible.
On the night of Pentecost we find the Eleven Apostles still gathered in the upper room afraid and unwilling or unable to begin the mission they were sent to accomplish. The Lord sent them forth from the Ascension to continue to baptize and teach, but they remained trapped in their indecision and fear until the Holy Spirit was made manifest to them. Like their own personal thunderstorm, suddenly there came from the sky "A noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were" (Acts 2:1). The Hebrew word for Soul, nephesh, literally means wind and it symbolized the breath of life that was breathed into each one of them. Today's Gospel has this gift of the Holy Spirit given on the night of the Resurrection as Jesus "breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit"(20:22). The breath of God came to give new life to the Apostles and through them to us the Church.
For us who live in Southern California fire is a very powerful symbol. We have all witnessed the destructive force of fires burning through our hills and mountains destroying all in its path. Fire also gives light, gives comfort, purifies food and warms us on cold winter nights. On the night of Pentecost tongues of as of fire appeared to those gathered in the upper room. Just as the power of lightning strikes the earth, so they were struck with the power of the Holy Spirit, giving them the "jump start" they needed to leave the upper room.
The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit -- wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord -- all can be represented as tongues of fire descending upon the Apostles. This is the power that has also been given to us, first through our Sacrament of Baptism, and later as we are sealed with the Sacrament of Confirmation.
Finally the Holy Spirit was manifested to the world on the Night of Pentecost through the gift of multiplication of languages. I remember as a child my great-grandmother who only spoke Italian. Somehow she was able to communicate to us without us understanding her words. She spoke a clearer language, the language of love. Today at Mary Star of the Sea Parish we will be gathering at 10:30 am for one of the Liturgies that make Mary Star the great parish that it is. We have cancelled all of our special language Masses so we can come together in the language of God's love and celebrate His presence amongst us. None of us will understand all of the words spoken at this Mass as we will use English, Spanish, Croatian, Italian and Tagalog. All of us will be able to understand God's love being spoken to us through the manifestation of the Spirit alive in our hearts. The Love of God in the Person of the Holy Spirit is able to break all barriers and bring unity from the chaos of our world. When we allow the power of the Holy Spirit to reign in our lives, the breath and fire of God will wipe away all the chaos in our lives and fill us with His unity and peace.
ó During the 10:30 am Mass we will also be recognizing five of our parishioners for their generosity and dedication to serving our parish community. Congratulations to them! See the next page for their biographies!
ó I am looking forward to our pilgrimage to Croatia. There is still space if you wish to join us. For our parishioners who will be in Croatia during these days we look forward to meeting you in your home towns. Our itinerary will be: Aug. 6 Dubrovnik, Aug. 7 Medugorje, Aug. 8 & 9 Split, Aug. 10 & 11 Komiza, Aug. 12 & 13 Zadar, Aug. 14 & 15 Zagreb with the Velike Gospe in Marija Bistrica. If you will be able to host or visit us while you are in Croatia please call the office so we can make arrangements.
Rev John F. Provenza | <urn:uuid:438f3634-fb20-41c3-8a5e-7717bf293ba1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sanpedronewspilot.com/profiles/blogs/pastors-message-pentecost | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955175 | 1,087 | 1.703125 | 2 |
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- PR Watch
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- The Huffington Post
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- Wired Latinos
Are you getting what you pay for?
If you’re like most people, you probably have no idea how fast the data access is on your smartphone. Or, you may have an idea—but its largely informed by what the carriers and advertisements tell you.
But can we count on that?
Now, the FCC wants to know. On Wednesday, the FCC announced it has plans to “measure the performance of wireless broadband services across the country” in a program called Measuring Mobile America. Cute.
Alliteration aside, the test results could be interesting. Turn on your TV, read a magazine, or walk through a mall and you’re bombarded with ads by wireless carriers bragging about the speed and/or coverage area of their network. But how accurate are these statements? If the results are anything like the “Measuring Broadband America” test (a similar test that looked at wired Internet speeds) then actual speeds might be only 80-90% of the advertised speed—i.e. what you’re paying for. Hmm, that’s not exactly “you get what you pay for.”
The carriers argue this is due to factors like nearby physical structures, distance from a cell tower, the time of day, the number of users connecting at the same time or even whether you’re inside or outside. No doubt there is some truth to this. But what is also true is that 1) the art of sale involves a great deal of manipulation and 2) advertisements are routinely full of exaggerations, over-statements and incomplete information. Couple this with the realization that broadband access is now a necessity for everything from education and healthcare to employment and public safety—and you begin to understand why so many people are paying for faster speeds at higher prices.
While this is an issue for fixed Internet—the potential harm to communities of color is even greater on wireless. Often due to price, nearly 18% of blacks and 16% of Latinos use cell phones as their only means of Internet access. Most people don’t see this as a problem. This is largely because the public narrative has shaped a story whereby communities of color are cast as the ‘leading adopters of new mobile and social media technologies’ and described as ‘leapfrogging’ over fixed broadband.
In other words, we’re hip and cool and people should buy the things we buy. How’s that for played out advertising stereo-types?
Although aspects of this story are flattering—it’s also an incomplete and dangerous characterization that overlooks the role that predatory pricing, low digital literacy, redlining, and censorship play in our Internet experience. Are we really choosing wireless as our exclusive on-ramp? Or, have we been pushed onto a second-class platform—separate and unequal? At CMJ, we’d say the latter. In fact, with MAG-Net we’ve been saying that all along.
The FCC is planning an open meeting on Sept. 21, to discuss the new program—we’ll be keeping an eye on what happens, and we hope you do to. With wages at an all-time-low and the racial wealth gap at an all-time-high, our communities cannot afford to pay for speed they aren’t getting. Especially, when it’s the only access point to the Internet for so many of us.
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In this edition of VisionTalk, Saru Jayaraman talks about how Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United) are building a powerful movement to improve the working conditions and wages of the nation’s 10 million restaurant workers. | <urn:uuid:089cc976-81e4-490b-a996-9b223c2c5a31> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://centerformediajustice.org/2012/09/07/are-you-getting-what-you-pay-for/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931881 | 897 | 1.976563 | 2 |
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This refers to the article by P. Sainath, “Reaping gold through cotton, and newsprint” (May 10). TheHindu must be congratulated on very fair and accurate reporting, and investigative journalism. TheHindu has been consistent and sincere when it comes to focussing on issues involving agriculture, especially farmer suicides. Many of India's so-called success stories should be revisited.
Deepa Nagaraj, Bangalore
Greed, insensitivity and apathy of all the key players mentioned in the article have all formed a dangerous formula like the Bermuda triangle, sucking out the lives of farmers without leaving any trace. The government should answer why it promoted expensive, inferior and unsuitable seeds. The multinational should be dealt with severely.
Dr. D.V.G. Sankararao, Nellimarla
Mr. Sainath's revelations are startling. The Times of India editorial spokesman's assertion that “... the reports (of 2008) were written very honestly and in good faith....” sounds too hollow to carry any conviction in the face of what has been laid bare by Mr. Sainath. The article should serve as a timely reminder to policymakers who are only too eager to provide unhindered market access to any product including agriculture while disregarding ground realities.
S.K. Choudhury, Bangalore
The feature is a blow against all unethical and incorrect practices of pseudo-journalism. What must be appreciated is an article that maintains high standards in reporting and upholds the true spirit of journalism.
Antony Pancras, Chennai
Mr. Sainath has busted one more myth about our success story in the agricultural sector. This along with media reports of rotting grain shows that our priorities are completely wrong.
K. Nehru Patnaik, Visakhapatnam
The article has showed us: how misleading media reports can be; the true state of our farmers in Vidharba, and how MNCs try to influence people and governments.
Rahul Bapat, Bangalore
The media has a bounden duty to disseminate accurate information of what is happening in the country. The sordid happenings in agriculture was interesting.
S. Ramakrishnasayee, Ranipet
It is appalling to know that the media, a pillar of democracy, can be bent to suit the wishes of a few with vested interests.
Abhinav Sharma, New Delhi
Keywords: Times of India Bt Cotton report | <urn:uuid:308cffdc-fca9-4578-a8d7-76d9564ad993> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/letters/the-story-that-wasnt/article3405510.ece | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940909 | 516 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Feb 22 2008
This is an addendum to my previous entry on Bayesian statistics for clinical research.† After that posting, a few comments made it clear that I needed to add some words about estimating prior probabilities of therapeutic hypotheses. This is a huge topic that I will discuss briefly. In that, happily, I am abetted by my own ignorance. Thus I apologize in advance for simplistic or incomplete explanations. Also, when I mention misconceptions about either Bayesian or “frequentist” statistics, I am not doing so with particular readers in mind, even if certain comments may have triggered my thinking. I am quite willing to give readers credit for more insight into these issues than might be apparent from my own comments, which reflect common, initial difficulties in digesting the differences between the two inferential approaches. Those include my own difficulties, after years of assuming that the “frequentist” approach was both comprehensive and rational—while I had only a cursory understanding of it. That, I imagine, placed me well within two standard deviations of the mean level of statistical knowledge held by physicians in general.
Opinions are Inescapable
First, a couple of general observations. As Steven Goodman and other Bayesian advocates have argued, we do not now avoid subjective beliefs regarding clinical hypotheses, nor can we. There is not a legitimate choice between making subjective estimates of prior probabilities and relying exclusively on “objective” data, notwithstanding the wishes of those who zealously cling to the “frequentist” school. The inescapable fact is that there is no logical resolution to the age-old epistemological dilemma of induction vs. deduction. “Frequentist” statistical tools, designed for deductive inference, do not address the question of how data from a particular experiment affect the probability of a hypothesis being correct—an inductive exercise.
The simplest illustration of the problem, as discussed by Goodman and others, is the “P-value fallacy“: while most physicians and many biomedical researchers think that a “P” of 0.05 for a clinical trial means that there is only a 5% chance that the null hypothesis is true, that is not the case. Here is what “P=0.05″ actually means: if many similar trials are performed testing the same novel hypothesis, and if the null hypothesis is true, then it (the null) will be falsely rejected in 5% of those trials. For any single trial, it doesn’t tell us much.
“Non-Informative Priors”: Bayes Factors are the new P-values
Turning to the matter at hand, it’s important to reiterate that the usefulness of Bayesian analysis does not depend exclusively on unique or known prior probabilities, or even on ranges that a group of experts might agree upon. The power of Bayes’ Theorem is to show how data from an investigation alter any prior probability to generate a new, “posterior probability.” Thus one class of prior probabilities, dubbed “non-informative” or “reference priors,” is arbitrary. As discussed in Goodman’s second article (pp. 1006-8), their usefulness stems from a term in Bayes’ Theorem that is entirely objective: the Bayes Factor. Recall that the Bayes Factor is a “likelihood ratio,” which in its simplest form compares how well the data reflect the best supported hypothesis to how well the data reflect the null hypothesis. This means that the Bayes Factor can be the useful “measure of evidence” for a single trial that most of us had previously assumed, incorrectly, the “P-value” to be. Goodman advocates this use and develops an “exchange rate” between the two values (p. 1007).
This can be illustrated by an example. A few years ago a report concluded: ”we found thatsupplementary, remote, blinded, intercessory prayer produceda measurable improvement in the medical outcomes of criticallyill patients.” The effect was said to be demonstrated by lower “CCU course scores” in the prayed-for group compared to the controls, which the authors deemed “statistically significant” because ”P=.04.”
Although there were numerous flaws in the study, this discussion will be restricted to the P-value claim. The previous couple of paragraphs will have already alerted the reader to the fallacy of the “P=.04″ assertion, but let’s put the cards on the table:
- The authors appeared to believe, and seemed to expect readers to believe, that their data showed that there was only a 4% chance of a “null” effect.
- Referring to Goodman’s assumptions for “exchange rates” between P values and Bayes Factors, P=.04 can be shown to be equivalent to a “minimum” Bayes factor (i.e., the one most consistent with the data) of slightly less than 0.15 (Table 2, p. 1008).
- Thus picking an arbitrary, “non-informative” prior probability of 50% (even odds) would yield a posterior probability (by Bayes Theorem) of the “null” effect of about 12%: far greater than the ≤5% that we have been taught to think of as “statistically significant” evidence of a treatment effect.
- Using the same table, it can be seen that to be truly 96% confident of a non-null effect after the study, the prior probability of “intercessory prayer”—people praying from a distance for patients they do not know and who are unaware of it—would have to have been about 70%. (That is, the prior probability of the null hypothesis would have to have been about 30%).
By starting with a “neutral” prior, using Bayesian statistics in this case demonstrates that the data did not show what the investigators concluded. Alternatively, there needn’t have been a unique prior probability estimate, or the investigators might have been asked to offer their own estimates—even if those might have seemed unrealistically “enthusiastic”—which could then have been compared to “skeptical” priors offered by others. Both of those terms appear in Bayesian literature as examples of arbitrary priors—or so I gather. Whatever the estimates, they would have been available for others to scrutinize.
Extrapolating to more reasonable prior probability realms (see below), it would have required far more dramatic findings to reach a posterior probability of ≥95% of a non-null effect. If we also impose varying estimates of bias, the posterior probabilities of a non-null effect become lower, maybe vastly lower.
Estimating “reasonable prior probability realms”—which offers the fullest use of Bayes’ Theorem for clinical trials and health care policy questions—is a topic of major interest in the field. Rather than address it myself (I’m not competent to do so), I’ll make a brief introduction and then refer readers to more informative sources. First, although there is always a subjective element, there are systematic means to estimate “priors,” and these add considerable rigor to the exercise. Second, such priors are expected to be “transparent,” i.e., the bases for their derivation must be clearly stated. This is quite different from the way subjective opinion is typically introduced now, as illustrated on p. 1002 of Goodman’s first article. Third, priors (of all types) are usually given as distributions, not as discrete numbers. Fourth, they are expected to be derived from all pertinent information. This is from the non-quantitative, online Primer on Bayesian Statistics in Health Economics and Outcomes Research (O’Hagan & Luce):
Prior information should be based on sound evidence and reasoned judgements. A good way to think of this is to parody a familiar quotation: the prior distribution should be ‘the evidence, the whole evidence and nothing but the evidence’:
- ‘the evidence’ – genuine information legitimately interpreted;
- ‘the whole evidence’ – not omitting relevant information (preferably a consensus that pools the knowledge of a range of experts);
- ‘nothing but the evidence’ – not contaminated by bias or prejudice.
A more sophisticated, quantitative treatment can be found here. Peruse the table of contents, especially chapter 5.
Most Hypotheses are Wrong…
There is at least one broad theme regarding estimating prior probabilities. It is virtually self-evident that most hypotheses are wrong. This follows from two premises: 1. the number of possible hypotheses is limited only by human imagination; 2. most people’s imaginations are not informed by a sophisticated appreciation for nature or science. Even those who are exceptions to the second premise are humbled by the elusiveness of fruitful insights. Consider the words of Nobel laureate Peter Medawar, one of the great immunologists of the 20th century:
It is a layman’s conclusion that in science we caper from pinnacle to pinnacle of achievement and that we exercise a method which preserves us from error. Indeed we do not; our way of going about things takes it for granted that we guess less often right than wrong…
It is likely that the multitude of less gifted scientists will guess right even less often. John Ioannidis, whose recent paper “Why most published research findings are false” is a favorite among your SBM bloggers, asserts in his article that “the majority of modern biomedical research is operating in areas with very low pre- and post-study probability for true findings.” (Hold the phone! Steven Goodman, our other hero of Bayesian analysis, disagreed with Ioannidis, although not entirely; Ioannidis replied here).
According to FDA Consumer,
More often than many scientists care to admit, researchers just have to give up when a drug is poorly absorbed, is unsafe, or simply doesn’t work. The organization Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America estimates that only 5 in 5,000 compounds that enter preclinical testing make it to human testing, and only 1 of those 5 may be safe and effective enough to reach pharmacy shelves.
Even granting a degree of self-serving exaggeration by “BigPharm,” it is clear that most proposed, biologically plausible drugs never pan out.
…Hence Most Priors are Low (but you still have to estimate each on its own terms)
Add to all of that the ridiculous certitudes of the hopelessly naive, and it is clear that there is a surfeit of guessing wrong about how things work. Does that mean that most proposals for trials have a prior probability of, say, less than 0.5? You bet it does (much less, in most cases), although that fact does not properly figure into the estimate of any single proposal.
Later: some words about other useful comments regarding the “Galileo gambit” and more.
† The Prior Probability, Bayesian vs. Frequentist Inference, and EBM Series:
16. What is Science?
29 Responses to “Prior Probability: the Dirty Little Secret of “Evidence-Based Alternative Medicine”—Continued” | <urn:uuid:52f7335c-00f8-4337-86ed-778b0fa984b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/prior-probability-the-dirty-little-secret-of-evidence-based-alternative-medicine/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945387 | 2,397 | 1.867188 | 2 |
TORONTO, Jan. 11, 2013 /CNW/ - Graduate students are disappointed with a decision by the Liberal government to spend $8.4 million to fund private-sector internships through the Mitacs Accelerate program. The funding announced today will go to a program that funds applied research almost exclusively in the private, for-profit sector to address 'business research challenges.'
"This announcement is just the latest example of government policy that shifts research funding away from being a public function of our universities and into the hands of private, for-profit companies," said Brendan Lehman, Chairperson of the Ontario Graduate Caucus of the Canadian Federation of Students. "This move further encourages close ties between our public universities and private companies, which compromises the integrity of research conducted by graduate students."
In January 2012, the Liberal government eliminated the Ontario Research Fund (ORF), which provided $42 million in research grants, including grants for graduate students and academics doing research in social sciences, arts and humanities. Graduate students are also ineligible for the Ontario Tuition Grant that was launched last year.
"Unfortunately, this program does not undo the damage of previous Liberal decisions that have left Ontario graduate students paying the highest tuition fees in the country with few financial supports," said Sarah Jayne King, Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario. "This money would be better served to address the high cost of graduate studies and to create more research opportunities within our public universities."
The Ontario Graduate Caucus, a caucus of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario, unites more than 50,000 graduate students at 17 universities in Ontario and works to promote the interests of graduate students to the provincial government and other external authorities whose jurisdiction affects graduate student affairs.
SOURCE: Canadian Federation of StudentsFor further information:
Kaley Kennedy, Communications and Government Relations Coordinator: 647-302-3891 (mobile) or firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:b8c18ad7-d716-401c-80d5-059ad86a8e6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yugsa.ca/index.php?section_id=6 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937378 | 394 | 1.5625 | 2 |
The province is cracking down on the unregulated use of dirty, metal-cutting torches at city scrap yards.
But environmentalists say the polluting practice outdoors should be scrapped altogether.
Several metal recyclers have recently received or applied for provincial approval to operate metal-cutting oxyacetylene torches, which can release harmful dust, nitrogen oxides and toxic metal particles into the air.
The queue was spurred by a multi-year inspection blitz by the Ministry of the Environment that found some local metal recyclers using the torches without a required environmental approval, said district manager Geoffrey Knapper.
“We've been visiting a lot of operations,” Knapper said. “We've got most of them into compliance … some are still in the process.”
Environment Hamilton head Lynda Lukasik said it's important for the ministry to regulate businesses that have “clearly fallen through the cracks.”
But she added hazy Hamilton would be better protected by forcing the dozens of city scrap recyclers to move all torch-cutting indoors. The group is urging residents to say so via public comments on the active compliance applications listed on the Environment Registry at www.ebr.gov.on.ca.
Knapper said some operators mistakenly believed less frequent torch-cutting was exempt from formal approvals, which spell out legal obligations for subject companies.
Aaron Posner said until recently, his family-owned recycling operation had used a metal-cutting torch for years without complaints from neighbours — or the ministry.
“We've been in this city for 40 years. As far as I know we've always been in compliance,” said Posner, who added employees take weather and wind direction into account in deciding whether to use a cutting torch. “We try to be good neighbours ... without enforcement.”
Posner caught an earful from city councillors worried about air emissions after applying for a zoning amendment in July to expand his Beach Road scrap yard. Posner has applied for an environmental compliance approval, but Tuesday he promised to stop using metal-cutting torches until the ministry gives him a formal thumbs-up.
Moving indoors, however, would be prohibitively costly for smaller operators, he said. “You're talking a purpose-built structure with negative air pressure, specialized pollution and safety controls.”
Councillor Sam Merulla, who decried the lack of oversight of scrap yard emissions this summer, called Posner a “responsible neighbour.”
But he also called on the province to keep a closer eye on scrap yards, to ensure they follow the rules.
“Regulation has to come with enhanced monitoring,” he said. “Residents in my ward are worried … about living in one of the worst places in Hamilton for air quality.”
905-526-3241 | @Mattatthespec | <urn:uuid:535f015a-0dd8-4bff-a483-c5155f6a217a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thespec.com/news-story/2257814-environment-ministry-targets-scrap-yard-pollution/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956446 | 590 | 2.671875 | 3 |
NEW YORK (AP) — Eateries around New York City have gotten a last-minute reprieve from the first ever U.S. ban on big sugary drinks, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg is urging them to shrink their cups and bottles, anyway.
After a judge struck down the 16-ounce (473 milliliter) size limit for sodas and some other sweet drinks as arbitrary and outside city health regulators' purview, Bloomberg defended it as a groundbreaking anti-obesity effort and all but challenged businesses to comply out of concern for their customers.
The big drinks ban sparked reaction from city streets to late-night TV talk shows, celebrated by some as a bold attempt to improve people's health and derided by others as just the latest "nanny state" law from Bloomberg during his 11 years in office.
"Despite yesterday's temporary setback, I don't think there's any doubt that momentum is moving in our direction," Bloomberg said Tuesday during a visit to a Manhattan diner that is now voluntarily complying with the policy, ditching 20-ounce (600 milliliter) bottles of soda and reserving 24-ounce to-go cups for iced coffee.
"We are confident that we will win that (appeal), but while the legal case plays out, the conversation we started about the dangers of the portion sizes of sugary drinks has prompted many people ... to take action," he said.
A few hours later, the city filed formal notice of its plan to appeal. The American Beverage Association and other business groups that sued the city said they felt the judge's decision was strong and were "confident in the ruling,"
The drinks limit follows other efforts by the Bloomberg to improve New Yorkers' eating habits, from compelling chain restaurants to post calorie counts on their menus to barring artificial trans fats in restaurant food to prodding food manufacturers to use less salt. The city has successfully defended some of those initiatives in court.
The city has also won fights over outlawing smoking in bars and offices, and has promoted breast-feeding over infant formula. Last week, the Bloomberg administration announced a campaign to warn young people they risk hearing loss from cranked-up earphones.
These efforts are a sign of how aggressively Bloomberg sees the city's role in pushing New Yorkers to improve their health habits and nudging other cities to do likewise. But it remains to be seen whether the city that was first to compel chain restaurants to post calorie counts and bar artificial trans fats in restaurant food will ultimately prevail in capping soda portions.
For now, though, the ruling it means the ax won't fall Tuesday on supersized sodas, sweetened teas and other high-sugar beverages in restaurants, hot dog carts, arenas and even coffee shops.
Monday's ruling came just hours before the restriction was to take effect, handing a victory to the beverage industry, restaurants and other business groups that called the rule unfair and wrong-headed.
"The court ruling provides a sigh of relief to New Yorkers and thousands of small businesses in New York City that would have been harmed by this arbitrary and unpopular ban," the American Beverage Association and other opponents said.
State Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling said the restriction was arbitrary because it applies to only some sugary beverages and some places that sell them. For various reasons, it doesn't cover alcoholic drinks or many lattes and other milk-based concoctions. Nor does it doesn't apply at supermarkets or many convenience stores.
"The loopholes in this rule effectively defeat the stated purpose," Tingling wrote in a 36-page ruling that examined the scope of power that should be afforded an administrative board for regulations.
Tingling, a Democrat elected to the trial court bench in 2001, said the Bloomberg-appointed Board of Health intruded on the elected City Council's authority when it imposed the rule. He cited in part a case from the 1980s which questioned whether a state public health council had the authority to regulate smoking in public places.
The appeal likely will turn on whether a higher court "feels that the mayor has gone too far in ruling by decree in bypassing City Council," said Rick Hills, a New York University law professor who has been following the case.
In defending the rule, city officials point to the city's rising obesity rate — about 24 percent of adults, up from 18 percent in 2002 — and to studies tying sugary drinks to weight gain.
The judge acknowledged the impact of obesity on the city's residents, and noted that those bringing suit likewise didn't dispute obesity is a significant health issue, but questioned how much sugary drinks can be blamed for it. Ultimately Tingling said whether the issue of obesity is an epidemic is not the key issue here, but whether the board of health has the jurisdiction to decide that obesity is such an issue that it could issue a cap on consumption of sugary drinks.
The judge found that the regulation was "laden with exceptions based on economic and political concern."
Critics said the measure was too limited to have a meaningful effect on New Yorkers' waistlines. And they said it would take a bite out of business for the establishments that had to comply, while others still could sell sugary drinks in 2-liter bottles and supersized cups.
Associated Press writers Meghan Barr, Verena Dobnik and Deepti Hajela contributed to this report.
Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz | <urn:uuid:ab0b54ce-c99a-4028-ba3f-4d96fb809981> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kvue.com/news/consumer/NYC-mayor-soda-decision-just-temporary-setback--197615121.html?ref=prev | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971771 | 1,116 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Wet spring still needed
Weekend snows helped, but they hardly heaped up hopes for an improved water outlook in the Colorado River Basin.
If anything, the storm underscored just how dry the winter has been.
“Seriously, what snowpack?” Colorado River Water Conservation District spokesman Chris Treese said when asked about early indications from weekend snows.
“This is bad. It may not be desperate — yet. We can still creep closer to normal, but it’s going to take a very wet spring, and that’s not the long-term forecast.”
The first look at new snowpack on Grand Mesa feeding Ute Water Conservancy District was marginally more encouraging.
Ute’s watershed reached 78 percent of average in the Mesa Lakes area and 72 percent of average at Park Reservoir, while the overall Colorado River Basin is at 78 percent of average, spokesman Joe Burtard said.
“While this snowstorm has helped our snowpack levels, it is still not enough to ease the concern of domestic water providers in the Grand Valley.
At this point, we will need an above-average snowpack by the time spring hits our mountains” in early April.
Rick Brinkman, water services manager for Grand Junction, said he noted about a foot of new snow atop the mesa over the weekend, but cautioned that little can be concluded for one or two months.
The city’s watershed was at 98 percent of normal snowpack at the beginning of February.
The Drought Response Information Program, a joint effort of water providers in the valley, is still gearing up for water restrictions, said Chairman Dave Reinertsen, also the assistant manager of Clifton Water District. | <urn:uuid:9d55ca70-1075-498d-b429-a5b5736d3d84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gjsentinel.com/special_sections/articles/wet-spring-still-needed | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939886 | 364 | 1.90625 | 2 |
The sad case of Karen Klein: a bullied grandmother and the collapse of authority
By now, most people have seen the heartbreaking video of Karen Klein, a bus monitor, being endlessly tormented by a group of middle school students, who mocked, poked, and threatened her. Klein does her best to ignore the taunts, but at one point, she breaks down into tears. It’s upsetting to watch, but also perplexing. What’s wrong with these students? Don’t they have any compassion for a 68-year-old grandmother?
As a teacher, I have seen firsthand the growing audacity of the youth. I had a healthy fear of my parents, teachers and elders instilled in me from a young age, but today, things are different. Most of my students are not malicious, and I never had to dismiss a student from class, a benefit of teaching at the college level. Yet, a growing number have no respect or deference for individuals in authority, and I am troubled by their casualness when they text message during lectures, come into class 10 minutes late, or chat with the person next to them. It’s not a big deal for them to blatantly break the small rules, and they are surprised, even shocked, if asked to stop.
Few people are more qualified to discuss this topic than Father Val J. Peter, former director of Boys Town, an organization that helps youths with emotional and physical problems, and author of more than 20 books on childcare and spiritually. Initially, he offers an historical reason for the collapse of authority. Over the last century, many influential individuals have abused their power, causing people to fear all forms of authority. It’s not hard to imagine why powerful people were questioned after Hitler and Stalin, and why we celebrate people who stand up and protest abuses of authority.
Father Peter contends this historical context led to a revolution in child rearing. After World War II, experts advocated adjusting the traditional model for raising children, and Father Peter labels Dr. Benjamin Spock as the leader of this movement. His Baby and Child Care (1945) was the most sold book in the United States over the next five decades after the Bible, influencing a generation of mothers. According to Father Peter, the traditional style of parenting was interpreted by Spock as “authoritarian, unfair, and unproductive. Punishment, said Spock, is not healthy for child and mother. Punitive disciplinary practices need to be abandoned.”
Traditionally, parents were tasked with instructing their children that lying, stealing and bullying were wrong, and they punished their children when they did these actions. The new approach suggests counseling or negotiating with children when they misbehave, or better yet, not to punish misbehavior, only reward good behavior. A flood of new works in the 1960s and 70s upheld this new philosophy, and Father Peter offers a succulent summary of their approach: “Parents should be therapists, not moralists.”
I am not advocating a return to corporal punishment or dismissing the value of some of the new methods, but pointing out that modern parenting can result in children who do not know right from wrong, do not expect consequences when they do something wrong, and think they are above any system of rules. In short, it produces middle school children who torment an elderly lady on the bus, without one bystander sticking up for her.
To add to this discouraging story, the boys behind bullying have received countless death threats, and now they live in fear. We should be upset, but bullying the bullies is also wrong, needlessly perpetuating the problem.
Fortunately, the story has a happy ending. A fundraising site has been collecting funds for Klein, and contributions are over a half million dollars. Klein plans to help her family with the money as well as donate some of it to charity. Some of the boys also offered heartfelt apologizes.
More importantly, the benefit of the video was that it shocked the nation into realizing our collective failure of parenting. If you think there is only one Klein in America, you are living under a rock. Every bus, classroom, and playground has children being mean and hurtful. We need to realize that our top priority is not to raise children who are good as sports or top in the class or have self-confidence, a critical intellect, or strong personalities. First and foremost, parents need to instill morality into their children, and only then will they be respectful.
6/28/2012 3:47:13 PM
By Dr. H. P. Bianchi | <urn:uuid:49d35dfd-8a7c-4e29-82c2-0b0b0f36f362> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.catholicreview.org/blogs/fertile-soil/2012/06/28/the-sad-case-of-karen-klein-a-bullied-grandmother-and-the-collapse-of-authority | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969263 | 938 | 1.976563 | 2 |
- Freight Planning Branch
- Freight Plans & Studies
- California Freight Mobility Plan
- Goods Movement Action Plan
- California State Rail Plan- Freight Rail Element
- Regional Goods Movement Plans
- Fact Sheets
- Specialty Areas
- Trade Corridors Improvement Fund (TCIF)
Joanne McDermott, Chief
Freight Planning Branch
Division of Transportation Planning
Freight Planning Branch
California's Freight Transportation System
Goods movement is a complex, decentralized, dynamic network of systems – a mixture of public and private infrastructure, carriers and shippers, planning and regulatory bodies, public involvement, and other players interacting at global, national, regional, and local scales.
California is a major gateway and hub in terms of international trade on a global scale. The State’s large population and market size also create huge domestic demands within its own borders. While goods movement activities are critical in terms of jobs and the economy, freight movement may also have adverse effects on infrastructure, communities, and the environment.
Freight Planning Activities
The Freight Planning Branch develops strategies, policies, and methodologies that work to improve the freight transportation system in California. The Freight Planning Program is focused on the following activities:
Goods Movement Modes
Trucks, freight trains, container ships, and cargo aircraft move countless tons of goods that buyers and consumers demand from manufacturers and suppliers all over the world. Aside from the state highway system, much of the freight transportation network is privately owned and operated. For this reason, partnerships with the private sector and local and regional agencies are critical to fostering and maintaining coordinated and efficient freight planning and implementation.
These links provide more information about the goods movement modes and environmental considerations.
The Freight Planning Branch conducts analyses of freight transportation system performance and future trends, develops freight mobility plans and modal studies, and recommends improvements to goods movement systems and operations through system planning, regional planning, intergovernmental review, participation on multi-state goods movement advisory committees, and other activities.
Among the Branch’s current planning activities are the following (click on the links for more information): | <urn:uuid:0517ba7d-9264-4bf5-90a6-b17575e13219> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www1.dot.ca.gov/hq/tpp/offices/ogm/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900104 | 437 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Upload & Sell: Off
Cgardner - You make a really good point about different aspects fighting for attention. Your crop still pulls you into the background but in a much smoother fashion it seems. Thank you.
That's due to the physiology of human vision. Our eyes move around a scene or photo in a series of saccades (quick jumps) and fixations between things that attract attention. In person we react to sound, movement and other stimuli a photo doesn't have. In a photo our eyes react to contrasts in tone, color, texture, etc.
In your original crop the carving on the wall on the right seen out of the corner of your eye when looking at the statue on the right is screaming to your brain "HEY COME LOOK AT ME" because it has contrasting texture that piques curiosity. So the brain tells the eyes to dart across the frame to look at it. That eye movement in the photo has a effect similar to how you'd react if you hear a noise coming from that direction and were startled. The stronger the contrast of the object moving the eye across the frame, the fast the eye darts across to find it and the greater the sense of tension there is in the photo.
One of the things that makes your photo work, and the detail on the right so distracting, is its narrow color palette and range of tone. When all the colors and tones in a photo are similar it will make other types of contrast, such as detail and relative sharpness of objects more of a factor in how the eye moves around a photo. In your original the statue attracts attention because it is a human face, large and sharply focused. The carving on the wall attracts attention because of everything else on the frame it has the most detail.
The other significant element that catches the eye is the column/post on the ground immediately behind the statue. It isn't as distracting as the carving on the right because your eyes can see it more or less at the same time as the statue without any rapid eye movement across the frame.
By removing the contrasting detail on the right with my crop I removed the reason for the eye to dart over in that direction so when it does wander off the statue to explore the background context it does so at a more relaxed pace creating a more harmonious sensation.
Once you become consciously aware of how this "ping-ping" dynamic in composition triggers a sensation of tension or harmony you can start to use it effectively to intentionally creating the impression of harmony or conflict between photo elements. For example if you want to depict a married couple fighting you'd want to compose the shots with one on either edge of the frame with an huge empty space in the middle. If you want to depict them as being very much in love you'd want to pose them together, heads touching with no gap seen between them. Compositionally the first would be competing centers of interest and the second unified centers of interest. The first forces the eye to jump across the frame to see both the second allows both to be seen at the same time.
It's not just physical separation which creates that type of reaction but also the degree your centers of interest contrast with the background. That's why in my edit I also lightened the background to make the darker statue contrast. Blurring the background has the same effect. The degree to were to blur it in that shot will control whether or not the viewer will be tempted to explore the background context.
I blurred it a bit in my edit to make the background a bit less compelling than in your shot, but not so much blur the sense of context was lost. That type of judgement on foreground / background balance via DOF control is often quite difficult to make when shooting. Cameras focus wide open with minimal DOF and when shooting other than wide open the resulting photo will have more DOF than seen when framing the shot unless the DOF preview button is used. Using the DOF preview button used to be more or less an automatic reflex for me back in the days of manual focused lenses like the ones on my Nikon F, but nowadays I just gauge the DOF at the shooting aperture it via the playback. | <urn:uuid:e84225fc-d68a-4a0e-aa50-c4ffa5e20aa0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1074954 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952402 | 846 | 2.078125 | 2 |
I left yesterday (Friday) from Cleveland at 10am, and had a very long layover in Atlanta, which was made more pleasant eventually by the arrival of Rocky Oliver and his 15 year old daughter, Kris. We were all travelling together, and we managed to get three exit seats next to each other, which made the long trip to Düsseldorf much more pleasant. We arrived at about 7am, where we were met by Bernfried Geiger, our host from Bundled KnowHow, and a good friend besides. Bernfried and his wonderful wife, Birgit, had agreed to take us to Trier, a city said to be the oldest in Germany. I don't think any of us realized how long the trip would take, but Birgit cheerfully drove us all through miles and miles of countryside and the occasional traffic jam, while Rocky, Kris and I kept fading away in the back seat due to lack of sleep.
When we finally arrived, it was clear it had been worth the effort. This is the old Roman gate, originally built in about 300AD, which still stands at the entrance to Trier. The town itself is one of those wonderful mixes between old and new that you find in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. There are modern shops nestled under buildings that have been around hundreds of years. The justaposition is sometimes jarring, sometimes entertaining.
One of the two highlights, for me, was seeing the cathedral. It was started in 384AD, but not finished for centuries. It is hard to capture the whole building, but here is a door that really appealed to me.
The other highlight took me completely by surprise. As we were leaving Trier, Bernfried drove us over to the old Roman arena. It was unbelievable.
More later, when I am less tired.
Copyright © 2007 Genii Software Ltd.
Technorati tags: Travel | <urn:uuid:740a6bf3-bbca-4849-93c1-4fd991ae0917> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.geniisoftware.com/showcase.nsf/GeniiBlog?OpenForm&Year=2007&Month=02 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987243 | 388 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Review: Wheels of Change by Sue Macy
Title: Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way)
Author: Macy, Sue
Length: 96 pages
Genre: Non-Fiction, Young Adult, History
Publisher / Year: National Geographic Children’s Books / 2011
Source: Purchased from Amazon.
Why I Read It: I’ve been biking more locally, and this looked like an interesting look at the history of women biking.
Date Read: 16/06/12
“Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel.” Susan B Anthony in “Champion of Her Sex” by Nellie Bly, New York World, February 2, 1896 (page 77)
In this book Macy has compiled a history of the bicycle as it relates to women. She covers the early history of bicycling, advancements in the bikes themselves (and the various names they’ve had through the years!), racing and women racing, clothing, road conditions, and more. It may surprise many to hear how much history can actually be traced back to the bicycle. Road ways were improved for them, women’s clothing restrictions lessened, women could exercise more, women had more freedom to come and go, and more. Of course, there were also people who were vocally against the bicycle for women. The book contains many quotes from both sides of the debate, some of which I’ve shared through this review.
“Many a girl has come to her ruin through a spin on a country road.” Charlotte Smith, Brooklyn Eagle, August 20, 2896 (page 28)
Also included throughout the book are images from the time of women bicycling and many images from advertisements. These images and excerpts give the book a fun and engaging feel while still being informative. Macy covers quite a bit of the early history in the United States and includes many materials from the time. The book is well-researched and also well-written.
As with many of the non-fiction books coming from the US, my main issue was that the book was heavily US focused. Although Britain was mentioned a couple of times in passing, as the source of many of the advancements, the people who were discussed were the Americans who brought the advancements in bicycling to the US or manufactured them locally rather than those whose ideas originated the advancements. The rest of us (read: non-Americans) can read the book and enjoy it, but we certainly won’t find much about bicycling outside of the US.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote that the bicycle taught “an equality in social relations without distinction as to color or previous conditions of servitude.” (page 81)
Recommended for those who like history, want to know more about women and bicycling, enjoy biking, or for children and teens who want to learn a bit more about the history of the United States and the part the bicycle played in it. | <urn:uuid:0aa2fbf8-91e6-4b95-a698-0884a34f3256> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://amckiereads.com/2012/08/10/review-wheels-of-change-by-sue-macy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981165 | 659 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Unmarried domestic partners -- same sex and opposite sex -- also had access more often to these benefits if they were unionized. Workers with union representation also had 89 percent of their health insurance premiums paid by their employer for single coverage and 82 percent for family coverage. For nonunion workers, the comparable numbers were 79 percent and 66 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And 93 percent of unionized workers have access to retirement benefits through employers compared to 64 percent of their nonunion counterparts.
Job security. Nonunion employees are typically hired "at will," meaning they can be fired for no reason. There are exceptions. Employers can't terminate a worker for discriminatory reasons such as race, religion, age and the like. Nor can they fire an at-will employee for being a whistleblower and certain other reasons.
However, workers with union jobs can only be terminated for "just cause," and the misconduct must be serious enough to merit such action. Before an employee can actually be fired, he or she can go through a grievance procedure, and if necessary, arbitration.
"If I know I can't be easily fired, I can speak up more freely," says Monica Bielski Boris, assistant professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois.
Strength in numbers. Unionized workers have more power as a cohesive group than by acting individually. "What you gain is the muscle of collective action," says Hoyt Wheeler, a professor emeritus at the University of South Carolina who is now a labor arbitrator. Through collective bargaining, workers negotiate wages, health and safety issues, benefits, and working conditions with management via their union.
Seniority. Rules differ among collective bargaining agreements, but in the event of layoffs, employers usually are required to dismiss the most recent hires first and those with the most seniority last -- sometimes called "last hired, first fired."
In some cases, a worker with a union job who has more seniority may receive preference for an open job. Seniority also can be a factor in determining who gets a promotion. The idea is that seniority eliminates favoritism in the workplace.
"The chief advantage of seniority is it is objective," Wheeler says. | <urn:uuid:e2f5d6ff-90ff-4cc0-8e37-7d52b5e0a6cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bankrate.com/finance/personal-finance/pros-cons-union-jobs-1.aspx?ec_id=cmct_02_comm_PF_image_headline | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978056 | 448 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Debunking 10 Aging Myths
Many older Americans lead healthy, interesting, and productive lives well into their later years. But that’s not what we usually hear about. Instead, the emphasis is often on the limitations people experience as they get older from problems as varied as falls, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.
The result is that we tend to have a bleak picture of getting older. Fortunately, the future can be far brighter.
Myth 1: Old people are lonely.
In actuality, older adults are less lonely than younger people think they are. In a recent study, 61 percent of Americans ages 18 to 34 said that loneliness was a serious problem for those over age 65. In the same study, however, only 33 percent of those over age 65 actually thought it was a problem—and only 13 percent said it was a problem for them.
Myth 2: You’ll end up in a nursing home.
More than 40 million Americans are older than 65, but only an estimated 1.8 million of them were in nursing homes in 2006. This indicates that a lot of older people are not relegated to a nursing home.
Myth 3: Everyone will eventually get Alzheimer’s disease.
Only about 13 percent of Americans ages 65 and older have Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia. That’s just a shade over 5 million people, and it hardly constitutes everyone who is an older adult.
Myth 4: Your bones will get weak and brittle.
It’s true that about half of all women and a quarter of all men will break a bone in old age because of osteoporosis. But this is not an inevitable part of aging. You can fight brittle bones by eating a diet rich in calcium and vitamin D, taking supplements, exercising, avoiding smoking, and asking your health care provider if medications might help.
Myth 5: Older people have to scale back their physical activity.
As long as you’re generally fit and healthy, recent recommendations from the CDC put virtually no restrictions on activities for people older than age 65. Those recommendations include a total of 2½ hours of moderate aerobic activity (or an hour and 15 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity) paired with two or more strength training workouts each week.
Myth 6: Falling is a normal part of aging.
Although falls are more common as people age, they shouldn’t be viewed as normal. In fact, falls should always alert family members to have their parent or older loved one checked by his or her doctor, as the falling could be a sign of another illness. An assessment can often be made with a physical exam and possibly a few simple tests.
Myth 7: Older people need a lot of medication to function properly.
Taking medication may be vital for some older adults, and it's important to listen to a doctor's advice about taking them, but the reality is that all those medications now being prescribed can sometimes cause problems for older adults. That's why it’s important to monitor them carefully to avoid dangerous drug interactions or unusual side effects. Also, as people grow older, their body often becomes less efficient at processing medication or excreting it from the body, so it’s critical to keep your eye out for anything unusual when your loved ones are taking medication. Contact the doctor if you see anything out of the ordinary.
Myth 8: Older people need fewer fluids than younger people.
Older people tend to drink fewer fluids than younger people, but this is not out of a diminished need for fluids. Rather, as you age your body doesn’t notify you as readily when you are thirsty. This means that older people need to be more conscientious about getting fluids on a regular basis to avoid symptoms of dehydration, which can be severe and debilitating in later years.
Myth 9: Older people all experience urinary incontinence.
Levels of urinary incontinence can run as high as 10 to 42 percent among hospitalized older adults, but it is not inevitable and it’s also highly treatable. If you experience urinary incontinence, don’t hide it in shame. First, see your health care provider—a number of conditions, from an infection to medication side effects, might be causing your incontinence. Then ask about treatments that might correct the incontinence.
Myth 10: You don’t need as much sleep when you are older.
Actually, older adults need just as much as sleep as younger adults—seven to nine hours a night. Unfortunately, not enough older people get that recommended amount of sleep due to a variety of physical and emotional factors. Some lifestyle changes that can help older adults get more sleep at night include avoiding daytime naps, getting more exercise, and talking with their health care provider about changing medications that might be affecting sleep habits. | <urn:uuid:c3617ca6-4b5a-4944-8f7a-a3f38d6debfe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://healthcare.utah.edu/healthlibrary/library/wellness/prevention/doc.php?type=1&id=4509 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964836 | 995 | 2.703125 | 3 |
It’s not Chinese New Year
First of all to be politically correct, it’s not Chinese New Year, it’s Lunar New Year. Lunar New Year is celebrated by Korea, Mongolia, Tibet and Vietnam, together with related communities around the world. As a matter of fact, the Chinese lay no exclusive claims to it either. Chinese call it 農歷新年 Agricultural Calendar New Year or otherwise 春節 Spring Festival.
Lunar New Year is an important occasion, with China getting as much as 5 days off (I remember a time when it was actually 10 days). Hong Kong gets “only” 3 days. For Chinese people, New Year celebrations technically go for 15 days, so we are nonetheless shortchanged by modernity!
Gong Hei Fat Choi!!
As far as greetings go, I notice Hong Kong people tend to favor 恭喜發財 (Cantonese: gong hei fat choi/Mandarin: gong xi fa cai) or “Hope You’ll Strike It Rich!”, reflecting Hong Kong’s primary passion as a financial center. On the other hand, I hear the “traditional” 新年快樂 or Happy New Year much more often in China. Other common wishes include 身體健康 for good health and 萬事如意 which literally translates to “many things as you wish”.
Serial Eating Ensures
This is the minimum “required” set of meals (and yes, there’s a lot of eating and a lot of great food):
- New Year’s Eve dinner, 團年飯 “Year Gathering Meal”
- New Year’s Brunch, 開年飯 “Year Opening Meal”, on the Second Day
- New Year’s dinner at the in-laws (if married), also on the Second Day
And on the Third Day
The Third Day is called 赤口, literally “red mouth”. One shouldn’t visit anyone on this day because tradition believes that arguments are more likely to occur on this day. A lot of people in Hong Kong go to a temple called 車公廟 (or General Che’s Temple) to pray for good fortunes in year ahead. General Che was a general in the Song dynasty (960 to 1279AD) who put down an uprising in southern China and subsequently escorted the last Song emperor while being chased all the way to the water’s edge in Hong Kong by Mongol armies (the emperor eventually hung himself in Hong Kong). The general’s real claim to fame however came several hundred years later when a temple erected in his name in Hong Kong was credited for stopping an epidemic.
Tourists who came to Hong Kong hoping to see the stereotypical firecracker scene is bound to be disappointed. Firecrackers and other explosives were banned by the British Colonial government after the 1967 leftist riots in Hong Kong. Fortunately firecrackers are legal in Macau (an hour away by boat) all year around and in China during the New Year.
When it comes to those little red envelopes, called 利是 (lei see) in Cantonese or 红包 (hong bao) in Mandarin, there are certain rules to it. 利是 generally goes only from married people to unmarried people. (Some bachelors/bachelorettes chose to avoid these occasions as they are invariably accompanied by inquiries about relationships.) You will also see 利是 going from senior members of the family/company to the more junior members of the family/company regardless of marital status. Gainfully employed adults also give 利是 to their parents and their grandparents as a way to give them more liquidity during the festivities.
Word of Caution If You are Moving Here
Lastly if you are relocating to Hong Kong around the Lunar New Year, it might be difficult getting a vacated flat. Traditionalists believe that one shouldn’t move during the entire first lunar month, so you might have to wait a little longer if there’s a existing tenant in your apartment of choice.
So here we go, I hope this helps you gain a bit more insight into the one of most important festivals in the Asian culture. I am happy to take questions!
- Chinese New Year Gallery (jshroot.wordpress.com)
- AP PHOTOS: Celebrating Lunar New Year around world (cnsnews.com)
- Lunar New Year and Valentine’s Day means flowers everywhere! (meanwhileinchinanews.com)
- Year of the Snake: Celebrations around the world ring in the Chinese New Year (news.nationalpost.com)
If you like this, please support this Guide by SUBSCRIBING (“Subscribe” button on the top right) and getting notifications of the latest posts by email. Otherwise, you can also connect via Business Life Asia Facebook page or the Google+ page! Thanks!! | <urn:uuid:2b4a1e11-91dd-4984-a1b8-98c20425a899> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://businesslifeasia.com/2013/02/16/lunar-new-year-in-hong-kong-what-actually-happens/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93317 | 1,094 | 2.578125 | 3 |
I would recommend you look at John Dobson's _Learn New Testament
Greek_, published by Baker. Dobson takes a helpful step-by-step
approach (e.g., giving the student practice with first person verbs
before introducing second person). The student gets into the New
Testament quite quickly through that course, and that encouages
people to stick with it.
Of course you will generally lose some folk anyway from a volunteer
program once they discover they actually have to work at the
I also suggest you contact Pam Everly at firstname.lastname@example.org.
Pam has taught at least two sessions of church-based Greek courses
and has been developing materials with that goal in mind. | <urn:uuid:dbd477b4-bf43-4d0d-872a-8739a57251a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/archives/96-08/0583.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951879 | 156 | 1.859375 | 2 |
A team of scientists has found a new planet which orbits the wrong way around its host star. The planet, named WASP-17, and orbiting a star 1000 light years away, was found by the UK’s WASP project in collaboration with Geneva Observatory. The discovery, which casts new light on how planetary systems form and evolve, is being announced today (12th August) in a paper submitted to Astrophysical Journal.
Since planets form out of the same swirling gas cloud that creates a star, they are expected to orbit in the same direction that the star spins. Graduate students David Anderson, of Keele University, and Amaury Triaud, of Geneva Observatory, were surprised to find that WASP-17 is orbiting the wrong way, making it the first planet known to have a “retrograde” orbit. The likely explanation is that WASP-17 was involved in a near collision with another planet early in its history.
WASP-17 appears to have been the victim of a game of planetary billiards, flung into its unusual orbit by a close encounter with a “big brother” planet. Professor Coel Hellier, of Keele University, remarks: "Shakespeare said that two planets could no more occupy the same orbit than two kings could rule England; WASP-17 shows that he was right.”
David Anderson added “Newly formed solar systems can be violent places. Our own moon is thought to have been created when a Mars-sized planet collided with the recently formed Earth and threw up a cloud of debris that turned into the moon. A near collision during the early, violent stage of this planetary system could well have caused a gravitational slingshot, flinging WASP-17 into its backwards orbit.”
The first sign that WASP-17 was unusual was its large size. Though it is only half the mass of Jupiter it is bloated to nearly twice Jupiter’s size, making it the largest planet known.
Astronomers have long wondered why some extra-solar planets are far bigger than expected, and WASP-17 points to the explanation. Scattered into a highly elliptical, retrograde orbit, it would have been subjected to intense tides. Tidal compression and stretching would have heated the gas-giant planet to its current, hugely bloated extent. "This planet is only as dense as expanded polystyrene, seventy times less dense than the planet we’re standing on", notes Prof. Hellier.
Professor Keith Mason, Chief Executive of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, which funded the research, said, “This is a fascinating new find and another triumph for the WASP team. Not only are they locating these far flung and mysterious planets but revealing more about how planetary systems, such as our own Solar System, formed and evolved. The WASP team has proved once again why this project is currently the World’s most successful project searching for transiting exoplanets.”
WASP-17 is the 17th new exoplanet (planet outside our solar system) found by the Wide Area Search for Planets (WASP) consortium of UK universities. The WASP team detected the planet using an array of cameras that monitor hundreds of thousands of stars, searching for small dips in their light when a planet transits in front of them. Geneva Observatory then measured the mass of WASP-17, showing that it was the right mass to be a planet. The WASP-South camera array that led to the discovery of WASP-17 is hosted by the South African Astronomical Observatory.
Image Caption: An artist’s impression of a transiting exoplanet. Credit: ESA C Carreau
On the Net: | <urn:uuid:3f30dc08-cc7f-4b7a-b3c5-1990cdc2f1b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1736557/planetary_billiards/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960234 | 774 | 3.828125 | 4 |
State of the World's Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2012 - Kenya
|Publisher||Minority Rights Group International|
|Publication Date||28 June 2012|
|Cite as||Minority Rights Group International, State of the World's Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2012 - Kenya, 28 June 2012, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4fedb3f9c.html [accessed 24 May 2013]|
|Disclaimer||This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.|
The year 2011 was supposed to be the one in which many Kenyans would realize the fruits of the new Constitution promulgated in August 2010. Kenya's new Constitution has been hailed as a progressive document that holds the potential to advance the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples and a host of key legal and institutional reforms. The reform process was held up by delays in appointing officials to fill key judicial posts, due to political jostling. The eventual appointment of Dr Willy Mutunga, a staunch human rights defender, as the new Chief Justice of the Republic of Kenya was celebrated by civil society.
Although the Constitution includes numerous positive provisions for minorities and indigenous communities, these groups feel that constitutional gains may not translate into real positive developments. The increased ethnicization of politics has deepened their exclusion. While the new Constitution could address the problem of political participation, the lack of political will to address issues relating to minorities is disturbing. Several court rulings in favour of minority communities against the government remain unimplemented to date. For instance, in 2006, the Kenya Constitutional Court found that the state had violated the right of the Ilchamus people to political participation and must ensure adequate representation of minority interests. The Kenyan government has also failed to restore ownership to the Endorois people of their ancestral lands around the Lake Bogoria National Reserve, as recommended by the African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR) two years ago.
The Nubian minority faces ongoing social exclusion. Nubians are not recognized as citizens in Kenya and have not been granted full property rights, although they have occupied Kibera, an expansive slum area outside Nairobi, for well over a hundred years. This situation has led to violent conflict with majority groups and mass displacement, most recently in November 2001. Having failed to secure citizenship through the Kenyan courts, Nubians took their case to the ACHPR in 2006. The case was declared admissible in 2009, but no decision has so far been taken. But in March 2011, the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child found Kenya in violation of the rights of Nubian children to non-discrimination.
The government has ambitions to turn Kenya into an industrialized middle-income country. In order to achieve this goal, it has designed a series of flagship projects (known as Vision 2030), that will transform parts of the country into modern cities at the expense of the livelihoods and cultures of minority and indigenous groups who live there. For instance, the government is set to develop Lamu, the largest town on Lamu Island and one of the oldest and best-preserved settlements among Swahili towns in East Africa, into a port, airport and a refinery. This will have potentially harmful impacts on the livelihoods and cultures of minority and indigenous communities in the area. Early in 2011, the governments of Kenya and Ethiopia signed an agreement to construct a railway line between Lamu Port and Addis Ababa. The proposed route will pass through northern Kenya, affecting communities such as Bajuni, Boni and pastoralists who reside in Isiolo area.
On a positive note, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) is currently formulating a policy on national cohesion that will have a significant impact on how minority and majority groups relate, focusing on the need for tolerance education.
NCIC has also emphasized the need for inclusion in public sector appointments. Its ethnic audit, released in April 2011, revealed that 70 per cent of all jobs in the civil service are occupied by members of the Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Luhya, Kamba and Luo communities.
The year 2011 saw the prosecution of six senior political figures – known as the 'Ocampo Six' – before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in April. Although they are accused by the ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, of bearing the greatest responsibility for crimes against humanity committed during the 2007/8 Kenya post-election violence, Kenyans are split along political and ethnic lines regarding the ICC case. Supporters of those on trial view it as political intrigue. In January 2012, the ICC confirmed charges against four senior Kenyans. The Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura and Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta were charged in relation to killings, forced transfers and rapes, allegedly committed in Nakuru and Naivasha in January 2008 especially against those perceived as supporters of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), in particular those belonging to the Luo, Luhya and Kalenjin ethnic groups. Suspended Higher Education Minister William Ruto and Head of Operations at Kass FM Joshua Arap Sang are charged separately for crimes they allegedly committed in the Rift Valley against supporters of President Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) in 2007. The judges, however, refused to confirm charges against Police Commissioner Hussein Ali and former Industrialization Minister Henry Kosgei, due to lack of adequate evidence.
In March, two activists from the Ogiek hunter-gatherer community in Ngongogeri in Mau Forest, Rift Valley Province, including one woman, were attacked. The activists were protesting against attempts by land speculators to forcibly take over Ogiek land in Ngongogeri. The Mau Forest, home to an estimated 15,000 Ogiek, is often the scene of inter-ethnic clashes between the Ogiek, who are the indigenous owners of the land, and neighbouring majority communities. In 2009, Ogiek and other indigenous families were evicted by the government from the Mau Forest without due consultation under the guise of protecting the environment. Currently, more than 25,000 people, including Ogiek, Kipsigis and Maasai continue to live in camps around the forest. The Ogiek case is now pending before the African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights. | <urn:uuid:36ee9b78-fdce-4a04-b1b9-e82fd237715d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?page=country&category=&publisher=&type=&coi=KEN&rid=&docid=4fedb3f9c&skip=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961156 | 1,344 | 2.6875 | 3 |
What happened to NDADS?
When the ROSAT archive at GSFC was officially opened on 1 Nov 1992, the prime source of ROSAT data was the NSSDC NDADS system. Users would access data via e-mail request to the NDADS ARMS server, and data would be staged by ARMS to an anonymous ftp account where users could then download it to their local machine. On 18 Apr 1997, a memo of understanding between the HEASARC and the NSSDC was signed in which prime responsibility for serving ROSAT data to the public was moved from the NSSDC to the HEASARC, with the NSSDC having ultimate responsibility for the deep ROSAT data archive.
Users can now access ROSAT data at GSFC directly from the HEASARC jukebox, and via the BROWSE on-line interface and/or the W3BROWSE web-based archive interface.
Page Author: Michael F. Corcoran
Last modified April 28, 1999
Please use the Feedback link if you have questions on ROSAT. | <urn:uuid:c914cfa0-a746-47f3-82c0-a73aa6c3b453> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/rosat/faqs/archive_access_faq3.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920991 | 220 | 1.578125 | 2 |
To a colorful group of Americans — the Washington terrorism expert, the veteran C.I.A. officer, the Republican operative, the Kansas City lawyer — the Libyan gambit last March looked like a rare business opportunity.
Even as NATO bombed Libya, the Americans offered to make Col.Muammar el-Qaddafi their client — and charge him a hefty consulting fee. Their price: a $10 million retainer before beginning negotiations with Colonel Qaddafi’s representatives.
“The fees and payments set forth in this contract are MINIMUM NON-REFUNDABLE FEES,” said the draft contract, with capital letters for emphasis. “The fees are an inducement for the ATTORNEYS AND ADVISORS to take the case and nothing else.”
Neil C. Livingstone, 65, the terrorism specialist and consultant, said he helped put together the deal after hearing that one of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, was interested in an exit strategy for the family. But he and his partners were not going to work for free, Mr. Livingstone said.
“We were not an eleemosynary organization,” he said.
Mr. Livingstone, a television commentator and prolific author who moved home to Montana this year to try a run for governor, said he had long been a vocal critic of Colonel Qaddafi and was briefly jailed by his government on a visit to Libya in the 1970s. The goal of the consulting deal, he insisted, was not to save Colonel Qaddafi but to prevent a bloodbath in Libya by creating a quick way out for the ruler and his family.
“The idea was to find them an Arabic-speaking sanctuary and let them keep some money, in return for getting out,” he said. The consultants promised to help free billions of dollars in blocked Libyan assets by steering the government into compliance with United Nations resolutions.
But the Americans did not get the Treasury Department license they needed to accept payment from Libya, which was then subject to sanctions. Colonel Qaddafi was ousted from Tripoli in August by rebel forces backed by NATO airstrikes, and was captured and killed Oct. 20.
Now the confidential documents describing the proposed deal have surfaced on the Internet, offering a glimpse of how some saw lucrative possibilities in the power struggle that would end Colonel Qaddafi’s erratic reign. A Facebook page called WikiLeaks Libyahas made public scores of documents apparently found in Libyan government offices after the Qaddafi government fell.
The papers contained a shock for the Americans: a three-page letter addressed to Colonel Qaddafi on April 17 by another partner in the proposed deal, a Belgian named Dirk Borgers. Rather than suggesting a way out of power, Mr. Borgers offered the Libyan dictator the lobbying services of what he called the “American Action Group” to outmaneuver the rebels and win United States government support.
Noting that the rebels’ Transitional National Council was gaining control of Libyan assets abroad, and attaching a registration form showing that the rebels had engaged their own lobbyists, Mr. Borgers said it was time for Colonel Qaddafi to fight back with his own Washington representatives.
“Our group of Libyan sympathizers is extremely worried about this and we would like to help to block the actions of your international enemies and to support a normal working relationship with the United States Government,” the letter said. “Therefore it is absolutely required to speak officially and with one strong voice with the American Government.”
Mr. Borgers ended the letter with the words “Your Obedient Servants,” signing his own name and adding those of the four Americans.
The letter is especially awkward for Mr. Livingstone — described by Mr. Borgers in the proposal as the “recognized best American anti-terrorism expert” — who closed his Washington consulting firm in April to plan his campaign for governor.
But Mr. Livingstone said that he had never seen the letter before this week and that it distorted his intentions. “That doesn’t reflect our view at all,” Mr. Livingstone said. “Our whole goal was to get the Qaddafis out of there as fast as possible.”
Another member of the proposed American team, Marty Martin, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who led the agency’s Qaeda department from 2002 to 2004, said he, too, was chagrined to see Mr. Borgers’s letter this week.
“We were not there to be lobbyists for Qaddafi,” said Mr. Martin, who retired from the C.I.A. in 2007. “I was not told anything about that letter.”
The other American partners were Neil S. Alpert, who had worked for the Republican National Committee and the pro-Israel lobbying group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and Randell K. Wood, a Kansas City, Mo., lawyer who has represented Libyan officials and organizations since the 1980s. (Neither Mr. Alpert nor Mr. Wood responded to requests for comment.)
Mr. Borgers, reached at his home in Belgium, dismissed his former partners’ complaints about his letter to Colonel Qaddafi — though he said he “might not” have shared its text with them.
“Let’s not argue about semantics,” he said. He was in Tripoli at the time, he said, watching the chaos and violence escalate, and he thought Colonel Qaddafi should remain in power at least until an election could be held.
Mr. Borgers said he, too, wanted to “stop the butchering,” but he offered a positive spin on Colonel Qaddafi’s record.
“I don’t think he was that brutal a dictator,” Mr. Borgers said. “He created a country out of nothing over 42 years. He created a very good lifestyle for the people.”
Of the $10 million fee the group sought, Mr. Borgers said, “The aim was not to make money.” On the other hand, he added, “If you want to put up a serious operation in Washington, I think you need at least $10 million.”
Mr. Borgers, who said he was a project engineer who had worked on infrastructure projects in many countries, was told by Libyan officials a week after sending his letter to Colonel Qaddafi that the proposal had been rejected. He said he had no idea if the leader saw it.
The documents on the aborted deal are not the first with an American angle to surface in post-Qaddafi Libya. In September, journalists and human rights advocates made public correspondence between Libyan intelligence and the C.I.A., including discussion of the rendition of terrorist suspects to Libya.
Seven months after the $10 million deal that was not to be, Colonel Qaddafi is dead. His son Seif is believed to be in hiding, possibly in Mali or Niger. Mr. Livingstone is focused on the problems of Montana, not Libya. Mr. Borgers, 68, said he was “trying to retire,” though he said he just might entertain international business opportunities if they arose.
But the wheels of the Washington bureaucracy grind slowly. A Treasury Department spokeswoman, who would speak of confidential licensing matters only on the condition of anonymity, said the group’s application to accept millions from the vanquished Qaddafi government “is still pending.” | <urn:uuid:84368ecb-e114-44ed-95b8-ef6cf4f34fcf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.truth-out.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=5025&Itemid=228 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977362 | 1,563 | 1.515625 | 2 |
A very basic concept when dealing with either
is the idea of equilibrium or balance.
Forces and torques are vector quantities which means
that they have both a magnitude and a direction associated with
them. Two forces with the same magnitude but different directions
are not equal forces.
In general, an object can be acted on by several different forces
or torques at any one time.
The vector sum of all of the forces acting on a body is
a single force called the net force.
The vector sum of all the torques is a single torque called the
net torque. If the net force (net torque) is equal to zero,
the object is said to be in equilibrium.
In equilibrium, because there is no net force (torque) on the object,
then from Newton's
of motion, the object continues to
at a constant speed.
Some examples will help to explain the concept of equilibrium.
On the left of the slide we show a computer drawing of the Wright 1902
glider as it is descending. There are three forces acting on the glider;
The weight is always directed towards the center of the earth, the lift
is directed perpendicular to the flight path, and the drag is along the flight
path. The flight path is inclined to the horizontal at an
When the aircraft is in equilibrium, the vector sum of these three forces
is equal to zero. Because it is a vector sum, there are two component
equations (one vertical, one horizontal) which are
shown below the graphic.
W = L * cos(a) + D * sin(a)
L * sin(a) = D * cos(a)
The aircraft has a constant forward and downward velocity along
the flight path. Notice that the lift, drag, and weight all continue to
act on the aircraft. In equilibrium, the action of some forces are exactly
balanced (cancelled out) by other forces. If the drag was to suddenly increase,
(the pilot sticks his head up), then the aircraft would no longer be in
equilibrium and the aircraft would begin to decelerate (accelerate in the
direction of the drag).
On the right of the slide we consider a torque problem. Two weights are
placed on opposite ends of a bar which is placed over a wedge as a pivot.
The weight on the left (F1) is placed a distance (L1) from the pivot
so it generates a torque (T1) which tends to
rotate the bar counter-clockwise around the pivot.
T1 = F1 * L1
The weight on the right (F2) is placed a distance (L2) from
the pivot, generating a torque (T2) which would
rotate the bar clockwise.
T2 = F2 * L2
When the system is in equilibrium, T1 equals T2, the torques cancel each other
out and the bar does not rotate in either direction.
T1 = T2
F1 * L1 = F2 * L2
If we were to add more weight to F2, then T2 would be greater than T1 and
the bar would rotate clockwise. The system would no longer be in equilibrium.
- Re-Living the Wright Way
- Beginner's Guide to Aeronautics
- NASA Home Page | <urn:uuid:9a23f294-0dbd-4938-9f07-feee1f767527> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/Wright/airplane/equilib.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917132 | 710 | 4.40625 | 4 |
Be judicious when passing along breaking news.
In breaking news situations, timeliness and accuracy can be in conflict. When news is breaking, we may need to pass along information reported by others because the public should know about it immediately. This is particularly true when safety is an issue (severe weather events or other types of emergencies, for example). In all cases, take special care in using information from wire service stories, reports by other news organizations, newspaper clips or articles in other publications.
If it’s determined that something is so important that the public needs to know about it now, even before we’ve had a chance to thoroughly vet the information, be transparent: state what we’re certain of, what we don’t yet know and how our information was acquired. And again, if we have information that might cause significant grief (to a victim’s family, for example) or might potentially put someone in harm’s way, we do not report it until it’s been thoroughly verified and senior editors have given their approval.
Few in our audience will know or care which news organization was first to report a breaking news story. But if we get it wrong, we leave a lasting mark on our reputation. In rare moments, we might be late; we might not be perfect. But we will always be responsible and careful in exercising our best judgment — the judgment that has earned our organization the respect and loyalty of its audience. This is the core of our programming philosophy. (Source: NPR managing editor memo, 2003.)
October 21, 2011 | <urn:uuid:2a5cadc6-f16e-4bb6-94a9-dfb3a99040eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ethics.npr.org/a1-accuracy/be-judicious-when-passing-along-breaking-news/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952368 | 326 | 2.59375 | 3 |
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Teacher Resources by Grade
|1st - 2nd||3rd - 4th|
|5th - 6th||7th - 8th|
|9th - 10th||11th - 12th|
Cover to Cover: Comparing Books to Movies
|Grades||6 – 8|
|Lesson Plan Type||Unit|
|Estimated Time||Seven 50-minute sessions|
Movies can be an integral part of the language arts classroom when they are used in ways that encourage and develop students’ critical thinking. In this activity, students explore matching texts—novels and the movies adapted from them—to develop their analytical strategies. They use graphic organizers to draw comparisons between the two texts and hypothesize about the effect of adaptation. They analyze the differences between the two versions by citing specific adaptations in the film version, indicating the effect of each adaptation on the story, and deciding if they felt the change had a positive effect on the overall story. Students then design new DVD covers and a related insert for the movies, reflecting their response to the movie version.
- Grades 6–8 Book and Film List: This text list includes books and their corresponding movies that are appropriate for the middle school classroom.
- DVD Cover Creator: This online tool allows users to type and illustrate CD and DVD covers and related booklets for liner notes and other information.
Movies have long been a part of the educational setting, but they can take on the role as simple entertainment unless teachers develop lessons that ask students to move beyond seeing the film as "just entertainment." Renee Hobbs explains that "When we use film and television in the classroom, it is important to do so in ways that promote active, critical thinking" (48). Hobbs urges teachers to design activities that "engage and motivate reluctant readers, enabling them to build comprehension strategies" (45). As students compare novels and the related film adaptations in this lesson plan, they move beyond simple entertainment to the kind of deeper critical thinking Hobbs advocates.
Hobbs, Renee. "Improving Reading Comprehension by Using Media Literacy Activities." Voices from the Middle 8.4 (May 2001): 44-50. | <urn:uuid:0ca61c03-097d-4040-8fb6-8cb7f2f1fc0a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/cover-cover-comparing-books-1098.html?tab=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907886 | 529 | 4.15625 | 4 |
Having just visited an ATM today, this alert from the Grand Rapids Police Department caught my eye. Thieves are at work in Grand Rapids, rigging up ATMs to steal your information and then hack into your bank account. It's called ATM skimming. Crooks set up a replica key pad, replica card scanner and a camera on or near the ATM to collect info from each transaction. Creepy, right? | <urn:uuid:4a62de68-afc0-40a7-b950-537591e12153> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wfgr.com/tags/atm-scam-grand-rapids/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954227 | 82 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The following is a guest-post by Adnan. More of his reflections on life, love and spirituality on his blog
He decides to pack up and fly across the country to go and spend some precious time with his beloved professor before his inevitable death from this incurable disease. Professor Morrie sits with him on Tuesdays and talks to him about the big things in life i.e. love, family, marriage, aging, greed, fear, society, culture, and death. It was a very touching story about a student and his teacher giving him one final lesson.
My focus in this post is on only one of the topics that the professor expounded upon: death. It is the ultimate of inevitabilities, yet the vast majority of human beings do not want to discuss it or even think about it. Here's what Professor Morrie said about death and how we should view it:
“Learn how to die, and you learn how to live.” So what exactly does he mean by this statement? He goes on to explain:
“Everyone knows that they're going to die, but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently.”
Hmm, interesting. He continues:
“To know you're going to die, and to be prepared for it at any time…that's better. That way you can be more involved in your life while you're living.”
More involved in your life while you're living? Wow! Simply stated, yet very meaningful. He continues:
“Everyday… ask… is today the day? Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?”
What powerful questions! The Prophet Muḥammad (peace be upon him) used to encourage us to make much remembrance of the destroyer of pleasures (death). Remember it often. When we do that, it helps us to stay focused and use our time wisely. Professor Morrie goes on:
“…most of us all walk around as if we're sleepwalking. We really don't experience the world fully, because we're half asleep, doing things we automatically think that we have to do.”
What he meant by this was that we spend so much of our lives doing things that we think are extremely important when in reality they are not. For example, we work tirelessly so that we can buy that item we wanted or get that promotion we wanted, all at the expense of precious time spent with family and friends or in contemplation and prayer.
The student in the book (the author Mitch Albom) responds, “And facing death changes that?” Professor Morrie says:
“Oh yes, you strip away all that stuff and you focus on the essentials. We are too involved in materialistic things and they don't satisfy us. The loving relationships we have, the universe around us, we take these things for granted.”
I couldn't agree more.
In order to emphasize this message of the finality of life to the reader, Albom describes in heart wrenching detail the physical demise of his former professor. As the book moves along, the physical state of his professor gets worse and worse and the author makes it a point to describe this slow withering away in great detail. The beginning of the book describes a man who loves to dance and go for long walks with his students. The end of the book describes a man who can't walk, breathe properly, nor feed and clean himself. Probably the most poignant of these descriptions for me as the reader is when the professor concedes that he can no longer clean himself after his excretions. He concedes to these physical limitations, yet still refuses to feel sorry for himself or lose his positive spirit.
At first, I wondered why the author went into so much detail in physically describing Professor Morrie's demise, but after some reflection I realized the reason. One of the main points that the professor tried to get across to the author, his last student, is that we should accept the fact that we're going to die. As we are all well aware, we live in a death-denying culture. We live in a culture in which everyone dreams of being young again and staying young for eternity, a culture in which we take our old and decrepit and put them in buildings by themselves so we do not have to be witnesses to their demise.
But in doing these things, we are merely denying our own destinies. We are not allowing ourselves to witness the realities that will one day face us as well. Essentially, we are making it harder for ourselves for when we get old, and we're building a culture that neither appreciates the wisdom of the elders nor sets a place for them at the table. We take our old and put them in institutions far from our view so we don't have to see their illnesses and their physical limitations and therefore we don't have to think about our own end.
Is this the kind of culture that we want to establish as Muslims here in the West? I certainly don't think so.
One of the best things that my parents did for my siblings and me was to bring my grandparents from overseas to live with us during their old age. My grandparents moved in with us, because they could no longer take care of themselves. In our culture nowadays, this may seem like a huge burden! But for me as a nine year old kid, this was a great blessing.
I remember like it was yesterday, holding my grandmother's hand and being so surprised by the looseness of her skin and her large protruding veins. I would sit there and stare at the blotches of discoloration on her face wondering if they had always been there or if they were a result of her old age. One day I asked my mom to show me an old picture of my grandmother when she was young, so she found one. When she showed it to me, I understood right at that moment as a nine year old boy what millions of adults in our country fail to accept and embrace: if Allāh (God) keeps us alive long enough, we are all going to have wrinkles and blotches on our skin one day i.e. we're all going to face a slow, physical withering away.
I remember, as time went by, I had to help my grandmother get out of bed and I always looked forward helping her in whatever way I could. Sometimes my insistence on helping her actually became a burden, since a nine year old boy moves at a slightly different pace than a woman in her 60s. I would hold her hand and try to force her to run with me to our destination. Of course she could not do so, but I tried anyway. I remember my grandmother's beautiful smile, and in particular, I remember a look that she gave me when I placed my Yankees baseball helmet on top of her head (yes, over her hijab) and took a picture with my arms wrapped around her.
My grandfather, like my grandmother, also had deteriorating health, so I had to begin helping him do basic menial things that we take for granted everyday, like bathe. He could no longer stand in the shower nor reach all parts of his body, so he used to sit down in the tub (with a cover over the lower half of his body) and I would apply the soap to his back, which he could no longer reach himself, and his hair.
What I'm trying to say is that I cherish those experiences so much, and it's because of those experiences that I understood early on in my life what old age meant and what it entailed.
The greatest lesson I learned was when my beloved grandmother woke up one morning completely discombobulated. She didn't know where she was, what day it was or even who she was. I stood there quietly at the doorway of her bedroom watching as the paramedics asked her questions that she could not answer. When my mom saw me standing there watching the scene unfold, she immediately reprimanded me and told me to leave the room. The last time I saw my grandmother alive was when she was being rolled out of my house on a stretcher into the ambulance that was parked in our driveway.
The next afternoon, as I sat on the school bus looking out of the window about to get to my stop, I saw many cars parked outside of my house and I immediately knew what happened.
I attended my grandmother's funeral. I saw her body being lowered into the ground, and her grave being covered by dirt. I prayed for her and said goodbye.
The reason that I mention all of this is not just to simply reminisce on the life of my grandparents. Rather, it is to show that the elders of our society can play a great part in our lives. They can teach us lessons in their lives as well as in their deaths, lessons that can last a lifetime.
It is because of my grandparents and my experiences with them that I can now easily accept and understand death as a part of life.
I do not want our society to become one that does not value its elders. I do not want to accept a culture in which people do not tend to the needs of the elderly when they need us, as they tended to our needs when we needed them.
I still see my grandmother in my dreams to this day. I have a recurring dream in which I walk into a room and see my grandmother standing there. I immediately run to her and give her a hug and ask her how she's doing; she tells me she's doing well. I tell her that I miss her, and she gives me that same smile that warmed my heart twenty some years ago.
I pray that Allāh (God) blesses my beautiful grandparents with a peaceful existence in their graves and gives them a place in heaven. I pray that Allāh blesses me with the ability to see them and hug them again in heaven. I pray that Allāh gives us the wisdom to take care of our elders and to learn from them. Āmīn. | <urn:uuid:bc70865d-6d55-4d9c-8ad7-0f405edbcb95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://muslimmatters.org/2010/02/02/tuesdays-with-morrie-and-our-death-denying-culture/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983561 | 2,081 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Frankly, that’s splitting hairs. The notion of ‘tags’ has done 3 things:
- Given us an excuse to lauch websites without a pre-defined categorization schema, and allow that schema to grow and change over time.
- Made it acceptable for things to live in multiple categories.
- Gotten completely out of hand.
For me, there’s not difference between categorization and tagging – especially if something can belong to multiple categories.
“Tags” are good for 2 things:
- Making it easy to describe things that computers have a hard time parsing from audio, video, or images; i.e. “my dog”, “yummy cake”, “blue shirt”.
- For text – including things that shouldn’t, couldn’t, or weren’t included in the text – i.e. resturants with bad services. Tagging with the same words that are included in the copy is a complete bonehead move. | <urn:uuid:e97fe253-4cca-41cf-ba43-880f74f44181> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mnteractive.com/archive/tags-uncategorized/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900859 | 220 | 2 | 2 |
High-School Teachers To Study at Harvard
Fifteen teachers of English, history, science, and social studies from high schools scattered throughout the country will spend next year at the University as John Hay Fellows.
The Hay fellows do not have a fixed schedule of classes to attend and will not work toward a degree. Instead, they will "read, study, reflect, associate with scholars, and refresh themselves intellectually" under the terms of the program.
Five other U.S. colleges are associated with the program, which this year will allow 75 teachers in all to pursue individual study along the lines of their own choosing: the University of Chicago, Columbia, Northwestern, and the University of California.
The fellows will meet weekly with a university advisor to plan their work. The meetings are designed to acquaint the teachers, most of whom are from the social sciences or humanities, with scholars from all disciplines.
Among the states represented by the 15 high-school teachers coming to the University under the program are New York, Ohio, Illinois, California, Masschusetts, and Michigan. | <urn:uuid:58c94a55-a709-465e-85ca-ecfcdda3d5d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1962/6/13/high-school-teachers-to-study-at-harvard/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949938 | 219 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Fighting HIV and AIDS in the Democratic Republic of Congo
EGPAF started supporting vital HIV prevention services in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2001. Currently, we provide prevention of mother-to-child transmission for HIV (PMTCT) services to the majority of the country's population through clinics and hospitals across the country. Additionally, EGPAF is credited with introducing PMTCT to DRC in 2001.
As a result of our HIV prevention and treatment work, 600,000 women have been tested, counseled, and treated to prevent the transmission of HIV to their children. As one of the main providers of PMTCT services in DRC, EGPAF has saved the lives and improved the livelihood of thousands of people in the country, and spreads hope that the future of DRC will be brighter without HIV. (Photos: EGPAF/James Pursey, 2012) | <urn:uuid:c1bc877a-b0c8-425d-9234-95b66195cc1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pedaids.org/Multimedia-Gallery/Photo-Stories/Fighting-HIV-and-AIDS-in-the-Democratic-Republic-o | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93691 | 185 | 2.5 | 2 |
Paying more to attend a big name school doesn’t pay off.
Getting a degree from Harvard or Yale might sound prestigious and it might help you get your first job, but there is no evidence that an undergraduate degree from super elite schools is better than a degree from a lower tier, lesser known school.
The research on this has been repeated over and over again with similar results. The studies have looked at students who were accepted into the Harvards and Yales of the world but for whatever reason ended up attending a state school or middle of the pack private school. These students were compared to the students who were accepted and actually attended the elite schools. Five, ten, fifteen, twenty years out of college there was no discernible difference between the two groups in terms of income, happiness, job satisfaction, etc.
Getting into an elite school does identify you as an exceptional student, but you will be successful in life NOT because of what that elite school gives you in terms of connections or a better quality education but simply because of who you are already! It should be noted that this research is only for undergraduate degrees, there is evidence that going to more elite schools for graduate degrees does in fact make a difference and is often worth the extra money these schools cost.
The moral to the story? If you’re an elite student, only go to an elite school if you’re getting an aid package that makes it comparable in price to other schools. Otherwise you’re better served saving your money and enrolling in the honors program at a more affordable college.
Click here to learn how you can save money on the cost of college. | <urn:uuid:8f5d3a5b-332b-4b83-911c-25295c24a7be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bellevue.patch.com/groups/crystal-andersons-blog/p/bp--paying-more-for-the-ivy-leagues-is-it-worth-it | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978775 | 338 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Since 2000, Creative Planet has educated over 300 students. The students/performers of Creative Planet all know how to dance ballet, hold a yoga pose, compose music, play piano, perform Shakespeare, write a play and still test in the top 20% of the nation on their SAT’s.
CPSOA offers an accelerated approach to K-8th grade academia that believes all students have the ability to achieve high levels of education when given the self-esteem, discipline, and opportunity to excel in a safe, nurturing and positive environment. A highly skilled staff of teachers and assistant teachers, provides students with advanced skills in Reading, Phonics, Language, Writing, Math, Science, History, Geography, Spelling, Yearbook and Computers.
Students take electives during the school day in Drama, Dance, Music and Visual Arts. The after school program also adds Acting, Music, Piano, Hip Hop, Ballet, Creative Writing, Tap, Jazz, Voice, Yoga, Modern Dance and Choir.
Creative Planet offers its incredible educational experience for only $300 per month. A Student-Artist Scholarship program helps over 30 students a year by offering a reduced tuition. All students are encouraged to apply for scholarships.
Take the next step for your children’s education!Download the CPSOA Enrollment Form | <urn:uuid:adfaefde-fd2a-40da-ae3f-604c88c7b9b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cpsoa.org/about-the-school/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930211 | 272 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Location: Home - Quartz Glass Products - Quartz Tubes
MAKMAL-SAINS.COM supply quartz tube, quartz glass tube, quartz heating tube from OD 1.2mm to OD 360mm with any length for thermolouples, lamps, heater, semiconductor, thermouples and etc.
Glass tubes or glass tubing are hollow pieces of borosilicate or flint glass used in laboratory glassware. They are commercially available in various thicknesses and lengths, according to known standards.
Glass tubes can be cut by scoring with a diamond cutter, and bending, giving a break with a clean edge. The ends are preferably flame polished before use to remove the edge. Hose barbs can be added to give a better grip and seal when used with rubber tubing. Glass tubes can be bent by heating to red heat in a non-luminous Bunsen flame. The glass tubes are fitted to rubber bungs by drilled holes. | <urn:uuid:13002f1a-8780-435e-8a68-c1e421c4bf0f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://makmal-sains.com/En/ProductList.asp?SortID=49 | 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 | 0.926011 | 194 | 1.726563 | 2 |
New Research Confirms Central-City Comebacks
We can now add even smaller cities with populations under 250,000 to the convincing body of evidence showing that the decades-long trend of urban decline in America has been reversed. In most American cities, the opposite is now true: central cities are growing, and growing faster than their suburbs.
This is immensely hopeful news for those of us who care about sustainability. Nothing has been worse for our environment or, I would argue, our social fabric than the unbridled suburban growth that sprawled across our landscape in the second half of the 20th century, sucking investment and life out of our cities. Although it has become trendy to focus on the so-called “shrinking cities” in the nation’s Rust Belt, the truth is that virtually all American cities were shrinking until quite recently. Even Washington, DC, whose downtown is now considered to be booming, lost 20 percent of its population between 1950 and 2000.
I believe it is just a matter of time before even the Rust Belt cities begin to grow again (some already are), which is why I have urged caution regarding the disturbing trend on the part of some city leaders and advocates to basically give up on these communities’ most disinvested neighborhoods. Boston’s Dudley Street, Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine, and St. Louis’s Old North, until recently the most severely disinvested and abandoned districts in each of those cities, now offer dramatic evidence that comebacks can occur. We should all be glad that their historic fabric – much of it, at least – was not demolished, allowing those neighborhoods to recover when the time came.
Earlier this year, I wrote about an analysis of 2011 census data on the 73 US cities with populations greater than 250,000, showing that 52 of them are now growing faster than their regional averages. Indeed, primary cities in large metropolitan areas with populations of more than one million grew by 1.1 percent last year, compared with 0.9 percent in surrounding suburbs. Cities switching from declines to gains included even Pittsburgh and Milwaukee, both older industrial cities thought to be in decline. I presented a lot of discussion in that article about why I think the reversal of fortune for cities is likely to stay; I won’t repeat it here.
Newly released analysis of Census data from Smart Growth America reveals that smaller cities are growing, too – and most are growing faster than their suburbs. The organization calculated population change between 2010 and 2011 in 171 of the nation’s smaller metropolitan areas of 150,000 or more people. Overall, 22 percent of the U.S. population – more than 69 million people – live in these small metro areas. Of these, 39 percent, or 27 million people, live in the census-defined cities of the small metro areas.
Between 2010 and 2011, 86 percent of small metro areas saw an increase in the number of people living in the city. Both cities and suburbs in these areas gained population, but the overall rate of suburban growth was somewhat less than that of the cities. A little more than half – 55 percent – of the individual cities grew faster than their suburbs. This is a stark reversal: in our 1999 book Once There Were Greenfields, we reported that, between 1988 and 1996, central cities together had suffered a net outmigration of over two million people in each year, while suburbs experienced a collective net gain of between two and three million people each year.
According to Smart Growth America, the top ten small metros where cities added population at a greater rate than their suburbs were these:
- Clarksville, TN-KY
- Lexington-Fayette, KY
- Fort Smith, AR-OK
- Lynchburg, VA
- Athens-Clarke County, GA
- Lincoln, NE
- Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL
- Greensboro-High Point, NC
- Bloomington, IN
- Durham-Chapel Hill, NC
The report may be downloaded here.
SGA’s statement issued with the new analysis says that the results are surprising, but I believe they should only be surprising to people unaware of demographic trends over the last decade. For me, these new data only confirm and strengthen the findings of closely related research. Cities are back.
Note: I am a board member and founder of Smart Growth America, but I was uninvolved in this research and only became aware of it when it was released.
Move your cursor over the images for credit information.
Kaid Benfield writes about community, development, and the environment on Switchboard and in other national media. For more posts, see his blog's home page. Please also visit NRDC’s Sustainable Communities Video Channels.
Director, Sustainable Communities, NRDC; co-founder, LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system; co-founder, Smart Growth America coalition; author, Once There Were Greenfields (NRDC 1999), Solving Sprawl (Island Press 2001), Smart Growth In a Changing World (APA Planners Press 2007), Green Community (contributing author; APA Planners Press 2009); voted one of the "top urban thinkers" in ...
Sustainable Cities Collective | <urn:uuid:98f7703a-6020-495a-8397-7e99a27bb56b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sustainablecitiescollective.com/node/103776 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95966 | 1,080 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Evidence of things unseen
Dark matter makes up 85 percent of the material in our universe. It envelops our galaxy—yet scientists have never seen it. That's why physicist Betty Young is looking—right here on Earth.
Betty Young is claustrophobic. Being inside an MRI machine feels “icky” for her, and one of her childhood nightmares was getting buried alive.
But in February 2002, she traveled to a mine near Ely, Minn., squeezed into a cage with about 20 other people, and descended through a pitch-black shaft to a cavern nearly half a mile underground.
Looking for dark matter: physicist Betty Young. Photo by Charles Barry.
“It was so exciting,” says Young, a professor of physics at SCU.
Why would she want to do such a thing? Young is part of a worldwide effort to hunt for dark matter, the enigmatic substance that composes most of our universe’s matter. Physicists have never seen dark matter directly—yet they believe dark matter exists because, for starters, they can see its gravitational effects on the speeds of galaxies and stars. Scientists can also detect dark matter indirectly by watching how light from faraway galaxies bends around it. In March, for example, researchers reported observations with the Hubble Space Telescope showing a core of dark matter that remained from a collision of galaxy clusters more than 2 billion light years away. But scientists are not quite sure what dark matter is made of. Their best guess is that it consists primarily of particles called weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs. Young and her colleagues are searching for these elusive WIMPs—and to screen out the background noise of everyday particles, they must house their ambitious experiment in the Soudan Underground Laboratory, a 2,341-foot-deep scientific facility in an old mine.
Young’s contribution to the project is her expertise in detectors, incredibly sensitive instruments that can pick up the tiniest effects of incoming particles. Building and running these detectors demands the use of ultra-clean fabrication techniques similar to those employed by high-tech computer chip manufacturers. It also requires cooling semiconductor materials to near-absolute zero—the equivalent of about -460 degrees Fahrenheit—and coaxing information from minuscule sensors. “I’m doing the ultimate in benchtop physics,” she says.
Hooked on physics
When she was a kid, Young seemed like a prototypical physicist-in-training. She made a scale model of the solar system, built a small replica of the Apollo spacecraft, and took an extra science program after school. But she didn’t consider science a potential career. “Girls weren’t encouraged to take any science and math classes,” she says. “I thought it was something I could do at home.” So Young focused on music in school, playing percussion instruments such as drums, timpani, and marimba.
But when she took physics as an undergraduate at San Francisco State University, “that was it,” she says. “I just got involved with physics night and day and nonstop.” Young worked with physicist Roger Bland—“the MacGyver of laboratory physics”—on an experiment to search for particles called quarks in ancient samples of mercury and water.
Young then worked in research labs at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, helping develop detectors that could sense elusive dark matter particles. These detectors relied on semiconducting materials such as silicon and germanium, the same materials used for computer chips. In an ultraclean basement fabrication facility at Stanford, Young—dressed head to toe in a white “bunny suit” to prevent contamination—was trained by chip industry experts to deposit thin layers of metal on a silicon wafer and etch features less than a hundredth of a millimeter wide.
The missing piece
Today, similar technology powers the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS), a collaboration of about 75 U.S. and international experts on the hunt for dark matter. Young helped develop, test, and run the detectors, bringing her years of experience to bear on a tantalizing problem in physics. “She’s been one of our stars on that,” says Dan Bauer, who is based at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, and is the CDMS project manager.
The idea of dark matter goes back about 80 years. In the 1930s, astronomer Fritz Zwicky discovered that galaxies in a cluster were moving faster than expected, based on the amount of mass the cluster was thought to contain. He suggested that some unknown, additional mass was contributing to the effect. Later, other scientists found that stars on the outskirts of galaxies were also moving too quickly to be accounted for by the known mass in each galaxy.
“We find that more and more of it just doesn’t quite add up,” says Young. “So there’s some missing piece.”
Scientists called this missing piece “dark matter”—matter that does not emit or absorb light and thus can’t be seen with standard observing techniques. Astonishingly, this unseen material makes up about 85 percent of the matter in our universe. It envelops our entire galaxy, and the Earth is passing through it. “It’s going through us all the time,” says Young. “The hypothesis is that if dark matter exists, we are certainly in the wind of dark matter.”
When asked why this work matters, she answers, "It's sort of like asking Galileo, well, why bother using a telescope to look out there?"
The next question was: What was it made of? No known particle fit the bill. Therefore, it had to be a particle never seen before. The particle must have no charge, since matter that includes charged particles would emit or absorb light. It must interact with normal matter very rarely. And some scientists predicted that each particle has a relatively high mass, compared to other particles.
So scientists called this particle a “weakly interacting massive particle,” or WIMP. But the nature of the WIMP presents a problem. If the particle almost never interacts with normal matter, then detecting it is a formidable challenge.
Detecting a signal
That’s where the detector technology that Young helped develop comes in. The basic premise is this: Make a roughly hockey puck shaped piece of material, say germanium. A WIMP will almost never hit an atom in the germanium puck. But once in a very long while—perhaps every few years or so—it will.
When a WIMP hits an atom, that collision sends vibrations through the germanium crystal. Those vibrations travel to the crystal’s surface. If scientists can detect the vibrations, they know a particle has hit the detector.
But there’s a problem: At normal temperatures, the atoms in the crystal are already vibrating. So it’s virtually impossible to detect “new” vibrations amidst the existing chaos. “Everything is rattling,” says Young. “We would never see our signal. It would be lost in the noise of everyday life.” Imagine a bunch of tennis balls held together in a lattice by springs, all wobbling around. If you poke one of the tennis balls, it will wobble, but there’s no way to distinguish that wobbling from everything else.
The solution is to cool the detector close to absolute zero, the temperature at which essentially all atoms stop moving. That way, new vibrations from a particle collision will stand out.
Scientists need incredibly sensitive tools to pick up these vibrations. They know the vibrations will heat up the crystal by a tiny amount. So each hockey puck shaped detector has minute tungsten sensors patterned on its surface that detect changes in temperature. “They basically act like thermometers,” says Young.
These are no ordinary thermometers. If tungsten is cold enough, it acts as a superconductor, meaning that electrical current will pass through it with no resistance. But if the tungsten is heated by even a couple thousandths of a degree Fahrenheit, its resistance will shoot up. Researchers exploit this property by running a current through the sensor. If the resistance suddenly jumps, they know that the crystal has just gotten warmer.
On the cusp
Of course, WIMPs won’t be the only particles hitting the detector. If a detector is extremely sensitive, “it’s sensitive to everything,” says Matt Cherry ’07, a physical sciences research assistant at Stanford who is part of the CDMS team. “You can’t tell it to ignore something.”
To figure out if the collision came from a WIMP or another particle, researchers also measure a second effect of the collision. The collision will jolt electrons out of their normal spots, leaving free electrons and positively charged “holes” where the electrons used to be. Scientists can measure this charge signal. Together, the heat and charge measurements give researchers enough information to distinguish WIMPs from most other particles.
There is, however, one particle that is especially tough to tell apart from a WIMP: the neutron. Like WIMPs, neutrons also have a relatively high mass and no charge. And neutrons are everywhere. When cosmic rays from space slam into the atmosphere, they produce huge showers of particles, including neutrons. The best way to avoid them is to go deep underground. “Our worst possible nightmare would be to be in an environment where we had an uncontrollable or unknowable neutron background,” says Young.
|The detector: size of a hockey puck, and a tool to help answer the question, "What is everything?" Though they tend to come without an image of hundreds of billions of stars superimposed on them.
In 2003, stacks of these super-cooled detectors began running in a cavern in the Soudan Mine, as part of the CDMS II project phase. In late 2009, the team reported it had picked up two particle collisions that matched what they would expect for WIMPs. But because the team also expected about one spurious event caused by radioactivity, the evidence wasn’t convincing enough to declare victory.
Last year, the team installed bigger detectors as part of the next phase of the project, called SuperCDMS Soudan. Astrid Tomada ’01, M.S. ’06, a sensor engineer at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park who works on CDMS, compares the detector to a butterfly net: The bigger the net, the better your chances of catching a WIMP. And the team hopes to install even bigger detectors in the underground SNOLAB facility in Canada, which is three times deeper. “It’s deep enough that the rock actually starts to feel warm,” says Fermilab’s Bauer.
Young is unfazed that the team hasn’t seen a definite result so far. CDMS II still provided useful information: If an experiment doesn’t catch any WIMPs, researchers can narrow down how frequently a WIMP should interact with normal matter. Those results then allow scientists to rule out certain theoretical models of WIMPs. The team is now looking in the “sweet spot” of remaining models’ predictions, says Young. “It does feel like we’re on the cusp,” she says. “It really could happen.”
If that sounds too optimistic, rest assured that Young isn’t the type of person to chase after nothing. “You could say, well, it could just go on forever,” she says of the dark matter search. “I, for one, wouldn’t be interested.” CDMS isn’t the only group on the hunt; there are about a dozen other experiments in various stages of operation all over the world attempting to directly detect WIMPs colliding with ordinary matter. Other scientists are searching for evidence of WIMPs annihilating each other in space, while researchers at the Large Hadron Collider, a particle accelerator at the border of Switzerland and France, hope to create WIMPs by smashing other particles together.)
At home in the lab
While Young is intrigued by dark matter, she becomes the most animated when talking about her true passion: the lab. Many physicists spend most of their time at the computer running analyses, but Young is not one of them. “What really hooks me is pushing the envelope on technology,” she says. In one of her labs on the Mission Campus, a small, high-ceilinged room in the Daly Science Center, Young surveys the instruments, wires, and tools with the air of an experienced carpenter. She pulls herself up a short stepladder and sits on the top rung, feet tucked under her. “The astrophysics stuff is neat, but this is my bread and butter,” she says.
The National Science Foundation has provided strong support for Young's work at Santa Clara. Young, in turn, has passed down her enthusiasm for the lab to many students. Tomada and Cherry, whom Young advised during their undergraduate days at SCU, now help fabricate the CDMS detectors. And Young tries to instill experimental skills in her current undergraduates. She is derisive of programs that rely on “dry” labs, where computers simulate the experiment for students. “Forget it!” she says. “I mean, what is that? That is not teaching a person to be an experimental physicist. It’s not. It’s just ridiculous.”
Young got to work at the ultimate lab bench when she did shifts at the Soudan mine, helping to set up the cryogenic equipment and run the detectors. “I think that’s one of the things I will never forget in physics,” she says. “It’s spectacular. And it’s almost like walking into a futuristic world.” But, she says, “it feels like home because it’s just got physics stuff in it.”
When asked why this work matters, she answers, “It’s sort of like asking Galileo, well, why bother using a telescope to look out there?” That’s the role of science, says Young. “And that’s what physics does, fundamentally. What are we made of? What are we? What is everything?”
For Young, the fact that her expertise on detectors can be applied to one of the most fundamental problems in science today is “almost too good to be true,” she says. “It’s the ultimate physicist high, because you know what you’re doing matters.”
Roberta Kwok has covered science for Nature, Salon.com, Conservation, and others. She is the recipient of the American Geophysical Union’s Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism. This is her first feature for SCM.
Who wears the costume today may be classified information. But here's one secret revealed: how Bucky came to be.
Marking 50 years of coeducation at Santa Clara—and recognizing that it’s not just the composition of students that has changed profoundly.
The 2013 Solar Decathlon is on! Santa Clara is competing for the third time, after third place wins in 2007 and 2009.
Baseball Coach Dan O’Brien goes old school. He wants players—and fans—to rekindle a love affair with the game.
Introducing Casa Bayanihan—a place to learn, work, and be changed forever. | <urn:uuid:4a86787f-4bb0-49b9-aadc-7ffa2bc85b7d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scu.edu/scm/spring2012/features.cfm?b=439&c=12574 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944283 | 3,311 | 4.09375 | 4 |
Using Probiotics to Ward of Cold Weather Colds
There are loads of things I love about the fall: the changing leaves, the chill in the air, chili bubbling in the crockpot, the return of the pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks...
But there's another fall return I absolutely hate: the return of the sniffles.
So, as the days get colder and shorter, I find myself consulting all my trusted sources on new cold-prevention research. The goal: to keep myself cold-free all fall and straight through winter.
Now, that's not an easy task. But by building my cold-fighting arsenal now, I may just make it to spring without so much as a sniffle.
At the top of my list, especially after new research reported in The Cochrane Library, is a well-known immune system booster. You've heard them called "friendly bacteria," and there's good reason for that. Probiotics can keep your system healthy--and increase your chances of staying cold-free.
Study participants who took a daily dose of probiotics via yogurt or supplements had 12 percent fewer incidences of acute respiratory tract infections (a much longer way of saying "cold"). They also demonstrated lower use of antibiotics when they did come down with the sniffles.
The study of 3,451 people showed that probiotics reduced the number of people who had at least one cold by a pretty impressive 42 percent. Other trials have showed similar results.
Other studies on older adults that have focused on upper respiratory tract infections in addition to the flu have shown even more promising reasons to add probiotics to your daily regimen. They showed lower duration of winter infections, and a 3.4-fold reduction in the risk of getting a cold or coming down with the flu.
I'll be keeping my eye out for more cold-prevention tips and tricks as the leaves continue to change and fall.
Related articles of interest: | <urn:uuid:b7df7e8b-7ed9-49c4-b77a-23cd420a7c8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthiertalk.com/using-probiotics-ward-cold-weather-colds-4777 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958803 | 397 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Tennis Elbow, or Lateral Epicondylitis which is a form of tendonitis, occurs when tendons that attach to the lateral epicondyle of the elbow are too tight or restricted, causing irritation. This bony attachment point is located on the top of the forearm (in line with the back of the hand) near the elbow. It is the bony point that can be felt about one inch away from and on top of the point of the elbow.
Several muscles attach to the lateral epicondyle. Two of the major muscles that attach there are the Anconeus muscle and the Supinator muscle. These two muscles rotate the forearm to a palm-up position. A typical example of this motion would include twisting the forearm to carry a tray.
Another group of muscles that are implicated in cases of Tennis Elbow or Lateral Epicondylitis are some of the extensor muscles. The extensor muscles lift the fingers or wrist away from the palm toward the back of the hand. Constant bending of the wrist in this direction, especially when it is associated with strain of any kind, can often be responsible for the development of Tennis Elbow (Lateral Epicondylitis). A common example of this type of stress is when a computer user rests their wrists on a wrist rest or on the desk as they type, allowing the wrists to sink toward the desktop.
To learn more about Tennis Elbow (Lateral Epicondylitis), visit the following sections:
Tennis Elbow Symptoms
Tennis Elbow Self Care
Most people don't have a clue what to do to get rid of their Tennis Elbow symptoms. If this describes you and you would like expert guidance in overcoming the effects of Tendonitis, including Tennis Elbow or Lateral Epicondylitis, then read more about my Tendonitis Self Care Program. It's fully guaranteed to help you or your money back!
Tendonitis Self Care Program
If you would like to read about another repetitive strain injury, then return to the
Tendonitis Self Care Toolkit - Learn More! | <urn:uuid:3e1326ec-43c3-440f-aa31-16c066d4a1a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.selfcare4rsi.com/tennis-elbow-anatomy.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932627 | 427 | 2.90625 | 3 |
In a six-week, double-blind study, DHEA was both an adjunct to treatment and a monotherapy (Wolkowitz et al., 1999). Participants were 22 individuals with major depression (20 with unipolar depression and two with bipolar II disorder, depressed phase) meeting DSM-IV criteria and pre-study ratings of greater than or equal to 16 on the HAM-D. Participants were also medication-free or had been stabilized on an antidepressant medication for greater than or equal to 2 months. Five of the 11 patients treated with DHEA showed a 50% or greater decrease in depressive symptoms; however, this was not seen in the 11 patients given placebo. No differential effect of sex or pre-existing medication status (medication-free versus stabilized antidepressant regimen) was found through subgroup analyses.
Wolkowitz et al. (1999) explained that the mechanisms by which DHEA might have mood-elevating or antidepressant effects were unclear but suggested some possibilities. Dehydroepiandrosterone is partially metabolized to testosterone and estrogen, both of which may have mood effects of their own. Also, DHEA may modulate the bioavailability of testosterone by means of allosteric changes in albumin's affinity for testosterone. In discussing other possible mechanisms of action, Legrain and Girard (2003) noted, "[DHEA-S] is a neurosteroid which modulates neuronal excitability via specific interactions with neurotransmitter receptors and DHEA is an activator of calcium-gated potassium channels."
Beyond treating depression, Binello and Gordon (2003) have noted that evidence is accruing in support of DHEA supplementation for schizophrenia, adrenal insufficiency, hypopituitarism, osteoporosis and systemic lupus erythematosus.
Strous and colleagues (2003), in a double-blind trial, investigated the efficacy of DHEA in the management of negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Significant improvement was found in individuals receiving DHEA in negative symptoms (p<0.001) as well as in depressive (p<0.05) and anxiety (p<0.001) symptoms.
Baulieu and colleagues (2000) conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled, one-year trial of oral DHEA 50 mg/day with 280 men and women ages 60 to 79 (the so-called "DHEAge Study") and found some effects on bone turnover, skin and libido. In addition to the re-establishment of a "young" concentration of DHEA-S, small increases in testosterone and estradiol(Drug information on estradiol) were noted, particularly in women. In women who were older than 70, bone turnover improved selectively as assessed by the dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) technique, and there was a decrease of osteoclastic activity. Also in these older women, a significant increase in most libido parameters was found. In terms of hydration, epidermal thickness, sebum production and pigmentation, improvement of skin status was observed, again particularly in women. The investigators concluded that a number of biological indices confirmed "the lack of harmful consequences of this 50 mg/day DHEA administration over one year, also indicating that this kind of replacement therapy normalized some effects of aging, but does not create 'supermen/women' (doping)."
Genelabs Technologies, Inc., has funded several studies of a synthetic form of DHEA (Prestara) for the potential treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus. In August of 2002, the U.S Food and Drug Administration issued an approvable letter for the Prestara New Drug Application. Additionally, the National Institutes of Health is studying DHEA as an alternative HIV/AIDS therapy (Heavey, 2004).
Side effects of DHEA therapy in women have included increased facial hair, weight gain, acne, temporary breast tenderness, loss of head hair and skin rash (Munarriz et al., 2002). Doses above 1500 mg/day have been known to result in insulin resistance in humans and pre-neoplastic pancreatic lesions in rats (Alternative Medicine Review, 2001). Potential interactions between DHEA and pharmaceuticals include enhanced sedation seen in patients on benzodiazepines and related central nervous system active drugs. | <urn:uuid:3bac001b-c5ef-41fc-a4b7-6123d03c0554> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/48171?pageNumber=3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939065 | 906 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Articles by Olson, Lindsay
Many graduates lowball what they expect they’re worth by about $10,000.
The American Jobs Act aims to prevent many teachers, firefighters, and police from being laid off.
A new survey says men were 25 percent happier at work and 8 percent happier at home than women.
If you decide to stay with your current employer your loyalty may be questioned.
Never threaten to quit if you don't get a raise you ask for.
By 2012, telecommuting roles are expected to increase by 65 percent.
Tips for making your cover letter stand out
How to make your resume stand out
How asking the right questions can help you find the best fit | <urn:uuid:0e2c78fc-66db-41e7-b4f7-feb5e8800d98> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://money.usnews.com/topics/author/lindsay_olson/usnews?page=17 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952782 | 145 | 1.507813 | 2 |
I once answered that question with "Their problems started when Reagan invited the religious right to join the Party and they were numerous enough to make "compromise" a dirty word."
I've since read some of the Party's history and now wonder if their problems began:
1. In 1948 when Dem Harry Truman defeated Eastern Repub Tom Dewey for the presidency,
2. In the 1950s when Birchers called President Eisenhower a communist because he was too liberal, or
3. In 1964 when they nominated Barry Goldwater and tossed moderates from the Party.
It's certainly no longer the Repub Party of Lincoln that freed the slaves.
How long before the Party splits or dies, or the Red States secede?
Returning to the topic (when did the Repubs start shooting holes in their feet?):
The federal government's reign is not quite supreme.
Soon after Bush 2's election, his AG Ashcroft (Repub) sued Oregon (if not Demo then independent) to block that state's attempt to deal with health care costs. The federal courts reminded Ashcroft that the states are "laboratories" and tossed his suit.
Tom - you mean, "Bush 2's 'selection,'" don't you?
overthrow-dissolve..succeed..and when the U.S. government refused to recognize that the south, by had the right to dissolve the Union/Constituion, the south resorted to aggression. (Ft. Sumpter). Just the fact that they formed a separate government indicated that they wanted to dissolve the CONSTITUTIONAL Union.
The Constitution (DOI) says that when the government is unresponsive to the PEOPLE (not just the south because they wanted, among other things, to keep people enslaved) they have the right to rebel. I know you are probably a child of the south, but personally, I think there's something wrong with your reasoning.
I know that this is not enough facts for your truth.
Whether or not I am or am not a child of the south is irrelevant.
You seem stuck on slavery. While that was the reason the south seceded, that wasn't the reason Lincoln gave for going to war. So while slavery was a blight on our country, it was not what the war was fought over. Freeing the slaves was a by-product of the war. One of those, "while we're here, we may as well" type things.
So the civil war was not about slavery, it was about: from Lincoln's point of view, union and from the south's point of view, the right to self-determination or as we call it today "states rights". You see it was a common belief in that day (contested, but commonly held) that STATES were sovereign and could, if they so desired, withdraw from the union BECAUSE THEY WERE SOVEREIGN. While there were alot of shennanigans that went on in some of the southern states when they seceded, most had some type of legal process they went through. Hell, Virginia even had its legislative vote ratified by a popular vote!
As to your comment about the government being unresponsive to the people, what people? How many? How far does it have to go before a group (states (duly elected governmental bodies) in the case of the civil war) before they decide they've had enough? By your logic, we should still be english because the crown wasn't unresponsive to everyone, just the colonists.
NOPE, ain't stuck on enslavement (but it may make you feel more comfortable if I were), re-read my post and you'll see the direct response was about POWER, (states rights). The snippet about Lincoln had to do with his attempts at COMPROMISE.
In 1865 the people were white men both north and south. In 2012 the people are the elite class.
Nope "the majority" of the people in the then "colonies" in 1776 wanted to free themselves from England. But in 1862 it was the majority of white men in the south only...see the difference? I doubt it..
Thanks for the conversation Shabaka, but I'm done. If you think that most colonist wanted to be free from England in the 1770s-80s, you really need to study American history. Only about 1/3 actually wanted independence.
"The balance of federal powers and those powers held by the states as defined in the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution was first addressed in the case of McCulloch v. Maryland (1819). The Court's decision by Chief Justice John Marshall asserted that the laws adopted by the federal government, when exercising its constitutional powers, are generally paramount over any conflicting laws adopted by state governments."
It was a common belief by the south maybe?
Obviously. However, the defining question would have been: What are "...its constitutional powers"?
For example, where in the constitution does it grant the federal government the power to compel a state to remain in the union? It doesn't.
Please bear in mind that the constitution was (no longer is) a document that had amongst its purposes to limit the power and reach of the federal government. Hence the 10th amendment: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Since there is no constitutional requirement for a state to remain in the union, it is (well, it was) within a states' right to withdraw.
Ironically, in our history, under The Articles of Confederation, the predecesor to the Constitution in Article 13, every state WAS required to remain in the union (confederation as it was called), but that language was dropped in the Constitution.
Scott, when will you stop refighting the Civil War and return to the topic?
Scott if I'm the one who you think "attacked" sorry but that's just my way of dealing with people. It may be f-up but it's NOT an attack.
"don't wave the Constitution around if one doesn't like the party in power at the moment since we haven't abided by the Constitution for 150 years. Licoln's war gave rise to all of it."-Scott
Further, if we abide by the premise that the Supreme Court is the arbitrator of the law of the land, (Supremacy Clause) then the 1819 McCulloch vs. Maryland was not just for the Northern half of the United States and the South could just pick and choose or make its own laws in opposition to the Constitution if they are still members of the Union as they were in 1859. Therefore secession was an act of treason in 1860-1. | <urn:uuid:eab07458-ac3f-4f56-a65f-44d0564d4448> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thinkatheist.com/forum/topics/when-did-the-problems-that-today-s-republicans-are-having-start?commentId=1982180%3AComment%3A1081106 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979072 | 1,408 | 1.898438 | 2 |
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Promoting education and achievement of adults learning English
Philosophies and Approaches in Adult ESL Literacy Instruction
Joy Peyton, National Center for ESL Literacy Education
JoAnn Crandall, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Five approaches currently used in adult English as a second language (ESL) literacy instruction include Freirean or participatory education, whole language, language experience approach, learner writing and publishing, and competency-based education. This digest gives an overview of these approaches, which represent a range of practices used in native language and biliteracy programs as well as in ESL classes, with learners whose literacy ranges from limited to advanced.
Paulo Freire is an internationally known educator who has helped initiate, develop, and implement national literacy campaigns in a number of developing countries (see, for example, Freire, 1985). Freire began his work in the late 1950s, working with a team of anthropologists, educators, and students to develop a program of initial literacy instruction in Portuguese for rural Brazilian peasants and villagers. Members of the literacy team spent time in the communities developing lists of words and vocabulary that were key to the life there. From these lists, they chose generative words that became the basis for helping learners develop basic decoding and encoding skills. Since then, his ideas have been adopted by government-sponsored literacy programs and by nongovernmental organizations throughout the world. Also called participatory, learner-centered, or liberatory education, Freirean approaches revolve around the discussion of issues drawn from learners' real-life experiences. The central tenet is that education and knowledge have value only insofar as they help people liberate themselves from the social conditions that oppress them. The following concepts are central:
- Generative words and themes. These are the basis for conversation, reading, and writing activities. Learners begin with encoding and decoding exercises and move to more complex activities.
- Collaboration and dialogue among equals. A traditional lecture format, where the teacher talks and the learners listen passively, is replaced by a culture circle, where teachers and learners face one another and discuss issues of concern in their lives.
- Problem posing. Using objects, pictures, and written texts, teachers and learners describe what they see, examine the relationships among the objects and people represented, and talk about how they feel about what they see. Ultimately, they articulate the problem illustrated and propose solutions.
Among adult educators in the United States, Freire's ideas have been adapted to fit diverse learners and educational contexts. The primary revision is the notion of emergent curriculum (Auerbach, 1992), where learners identify their own problems and issues and seek their own solutions. Teachers, freed from doing extensive research to identify problems for learners, become facilitators of class discussions and activities, and learn along with the class.
Like Freirean philosophy, whole language is not a specific method or collection of strategies, techniques, or materials. Instead, it presents a perspective on language learning and teaching (Edelsky, Altwerger, & Flores, 1991). Whole language educators emphasize that language must be kept whole when it is learned or it is no longer language, but rules, patterns, and lists; that written language is as natural as spoken language and needs to be integrated with it in learning; that language uses are diverse and reflect different styles and voices; and that language is social and learned in interaction with other speakers, readers, and writers.
Whole language classes consist of communities of learners who work together to develop the curriculum, read and write for and with each other, and evaluate products together. Classroom activities might include extended reading and writing, with both sustained silent reading and oral reading of a variety of published and student-written works; group development of written texts that grow out of individual or group experiences (language experience approach, described below); direct instruction in effective reading and writing strategies; and ongoing student and teacher evaluation of student work and class success.
Whole language approaches are used in a number of basic and family literacy programs as well as in some workplace literacy programs (Pharness, 1991). A well-known program is located at the Invergarry Learning Centre in Surrey, British Columbia (described in detail in Sharing What Works, Center for Applied Linguistics, 1993). Learners entering the program are given a blank, lined notebook and asked to write whatever they want. As they continue to write, their notebooks become reading texts and sources of ideas for further writing. New learners, more experienced learners, and tutors work together as they sit at round tables writing, reading, talking, and conferring about their writing.
Language Experience Approach
The language experience approach (LEA)‹really a teaching technique or teaching strategy‹is consistent with a whole language perspective. Learners' experiences are dictated, then transcribed, either by the teacher or other learners, and the transcription is used as reading material. Although LEA originated with teachers of elementary school children (Stauffer, 1965), it is used extensively in adult programs. It is ideal for ESL learners with well-developed speaking skills and low-level literacy skills because it capitalizes on their strengths and allows their reading and writing to evolve naturally from their activities and spoken language. LEA also addresses a common concern in adult ESL classes: the lack of appropriate and interesting texts for beginning readers.
Language experience stories can grow out of individual or group experiences that occur naturally or are staged for the class. Personal experiences can be dictated by a learner to a teacher or an aide who transcribes them, reads them back to the learner, and then helps the learner read them. For group experiences, the class can choose an experience (such as making lunch or taking a trip somewhere), develop a plan of action (such as assigning ingredients or making schedules), and go through the experience. After the experience, the learners discuss it orally, compose a narrative about it, read the narrative, and participate in follow-up activities (such as developing vocabulary lists and cloze passages, or writing related stories). A teacher acts as the group's transcriber until learners become proficient enough to transcribe for themselves.
Learner Writing and Publishing
A major problem facing adult ESL literacy programs until recently has been the lack of authentic reading materials of interest to adult learners and appropriate for their various levels of English proficiency. Increasing numbers of adult literacy instructors are encouraging adult learners to write about their experiences, and programs internally publish these writings, making them available for other learners to read. Some writing collections have been commercially published and are available for program use throughout the United States and Canada. Writing for publication and reading the writing of peers provides learners many opportunities to reflect on what constitutes good writing. As adult learners find that others are interested in and can benefit from their thoughts and experiences, their experiences are validated, and they are motivated to express themselves in more interesting, worthwhile, and readable ways; as they work to produce a publishable piece of writing, they manipulate language at all levels, from selecting effective genres and discourse structures to correcting grammar and punctuation.
Most writing-based classrooms follow a writing process approach in which learners and the teacher brainstorm writing topics, draft pieces, share and confer about their writing, revise, edit, and publish in a workshop atmosphere in which reading, writing, and talk are integrated and support each other.
Competency-based education (CBE) has been widely used in adult ESL literacy instruction since the mid-1970s. In 1975, the Adult Performance Level project identified a set of competencies (knowledge and skills) viewed as basic for adults to function in the United States (Adult Performance Level Project, 1975). CBE formed the basis for the language and orientation programs in most refugee programs overseas in the 1970s and '80s and in many U.S. programs. It also had an important influence on the development of adult language training programs in the U.S. Peace Corps and is often used in academic and workplace programs. A competency-based learner assessment system‹the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS) (1982)‹is frequently used to satisfy funders' requirements for adult literacy program evaluation.
A competency is an instructional objective described in task-based terms such as "Students will be able to ..." that include a verb describing a demonstrable skill such as answer, interpret, or request. Competencies include basic survival skills such as answering personal information questions, using public transportation, or obtaining food and shelter; or more academic or work-related skills such as taking notes during an academic lecture, following directions for a work-related task, explaining one's position on an issue, or distinguishing between fact and opinion in a newspaper article. Thus, a CBE approach can be used for learners with academic, employment, and self-enrichment goals as well as for those with basic survival goals.
A CBE approach has four components‹assessment of learner needs, selection of competencies based on those needs, instruction targeted to those competencies, and evaluation of learner performance in those competencies. Through the initial needs assessment and ongoing evaluation of learner goals and progress, competency-based programs are continually adapted and refined.
Although five approaches have been described separately in this digest, in reality, there is considerable overlap among these approaches, and programs often combine them. For example, programs that have adopted a competency-based approach often incorporate language experience and process writing in their classes; likewise, programs with a holistic or participatory focus may incorporate task-based learning, a CBE practice, in their classes.
Adult Performance Level Project. (1975). Adult functional competency: A summary. Austin, TX: University of Texas, Division of Extension. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 114 609)
Auerbach, E.R. (1992). Making meaning, making change: Participatory curriculum development for adult ESL literacy. Washington, DC and McHenry, IL: Center for Applied Linguistics and Delta Systems.
Center for Applied Linguistics. (1993). Sharing what works: A series of videos for staff development. Washington, DC: Author.
Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System. (1982). Life skills survey achievement tests. San Diego: Author.
Edelsky, C., Altwerger, B., & Flores, B. (1991). Whole language: What's the difference? Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Freire, P. (1985). The politics of education. New York: Bergin & Garvey.
Pharness, G. (1991). A learner-centered worker education program. NCLE Digest. Washington, DC: National Center for ESL Literacy Education. (EDRS No. ED 334 872)
Stauffer, R.G. (1965). A language experience approach. In J.A. Kerfoot (Ed.), First grade reading programs: Perspectives in reading No. 5 (pp. 86-118). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Published Learner Writing
If I were a door‹ a collection of poetry and prose written by adults in an ESL program. (Available from VOICES: A Creative Community, P.O. Box 2444, Raleigh, NC 27602.)
My Name is Rose‹the best known of several student-written publications, published by East End Literacy Press in Toronto, Ontario. (Available from Pippin Publishing, 380 Esna Park Drive, Markham, Ontario, Canada L3R 1H5; 800-567-6591 or 416-598-1866.)
New Writers' Voices‹student writing published by New Readers Press. (Available from New Readers Press, P.O. Box 888, Syracuse, NY 13210-0888; 800-448-8878.)
Voices: New Writers for New Readers‹a student-produced magazine. (Available from The Canadian Centre for Educational Development, 9260 140th Street, Surrey, British Columbia V3V 5Z4; 604-584-5424.)
This digest summarizes the ideas presented in Approaches to Adult ESL Literacy Instruction (J. Crandall & J.K. Peyton, Eds., 1993, McHenry, IL and Washington, DC: Delta Systems and Center for Applied Linguistics). Contributors are JoAnn Crandall (overview and social context), David Spener (Freirean philosophy), Pat Rigg and Francis Kazemek (whole language), Marcia Taylor (language experience approach), Joy Kreeft Peyton (publishing students' writing), and K. Lynn Savage (competency-based approaches). Detailed information on implementing these ideas is given in the book (available from Delta Systems at 1-800-323-8270).
This document was produced at the Center for Applied Linguistics (4646 40th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20016 202-362-0700) with funding from the U.S. Department of Education (ED), Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), contract no. RI 93002010. The opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of ED or OERI. This document is in the public domain and may be reproduced without permission. | <urn:uuid:83542842-3d54-4eef-9db9-6e973f1903ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cal.org/adultesl/resources/digests/philosophies-and-approaches-in-adult-esl-literacy-instruction.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941268 | 2,735 | 3.453125 | 3 |
By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Sept. 19 -- Devon Energy Corp. received regulatory approval to immediately start production of Jackfish 2, Devon's second oil sands project in Canada.
Once fully operational in 2012, Jackfish 2 will produce about 35,000 b/d through steam-assisted gravity drainage. Over the project's life, Devon expects to recover about 300 million bbl of oil from Jackfish 2.
Meanwhile, Devon is ramping up production at its original Jackfish project, which started operations in 2007. Both Jackfish and Jackfish 2 are in northeastern Alberta.
Jackfish expected to reach its full production capacity of 35,000 b/d in first half 2009. | <urn:uuid:c82a2ae8-2d56-4ab3-a883-d0a0907c733e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ogj.com/articles/2008/09/devon-gets-nod-for-second-jackfish-oil-sands-project.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947484 | 141 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Nikola Tesla entered the world in 1856. Born in Austria-Hungary, his mother stayed home to raise the children and his father
was a Serbian Orthodox preacher. Tesla was a quick study and learned six languages. He graduated at the age of 14 and started
college. While in college he became fascinated with science though his parents hoped he would become a priest or enter the
military. When he fell ill from cholera and survived he earned his father's blessing to study electrical engineering at
Graz, Austria's Polytechnic Institute. It was in college where he started to question why motors had to convert alternating
current (AC) to direct current (DC). He aspired to create a motor that used AC power directly without the conversion. After
switching to the University of Prague, he ran out of funding to remain in college and entered the working world. Eventually,
his job brought him to Paris where he took a junior engineer job with Compagnie Continental Edison.
While Tesla worked with the Edison plant in France, he kept thinking about creating a system that operated on AC power
rather than DC. He didn't see the point in taking the extra step to convert the current. His colleagues continued to create
DC motors, but he kept focusing on his own ideas. When he was sent to Strasburg, Germany to repair damage to an Edison system
that exploded, he spent his free time working on an AC motor and generator that proved successful. That success brought him to
New York in 1884. In New York, Tesla met Thomas Edison and worked on improving the efficiency of his systems. When he did not
receive the bonuses he believed Edison promised him, he left the company and founded The Tesla Light and Manufacturing Company.
His financial supporters however, ended up swindling him out of his patents leaving him broke. He was forced to dig ditches but
his foreman recognized his abilities and The Tesla Electrical Company opened in 1887. He soon had patents in hand and George
Westinghouse, owner of Westinghouse Electric Company, purchased rights to Tesla's system soon after.
To create his system, Tesla built a device that had an iron rotor revolving between two electrified wire coils. The
resulting magnetic field produced AC current. That current moved to another device, an induction motor, that created the energy
needed to power the motor in an appliance. He went on to expand the system to have a generator, lights, motor, transformer, and
transmission lines. He figured that three circuits set up out of sequential order would be more efficient for transmitting
electricity. With single-phase power, there was a gap between phases that led to loss of power, a three-phase system ensured
there was never a gap, so the electricity could travel farther. The system went on display in the 1893 World's Exposition
in Chicago. It later went into a hydroelectric plant in Niagara Falls. Despite his success, by 1899, Tesla would run out of
money and needed financial support. He received funding to build a new power plant in Long Island, New York. Eventually, the
money ran out and the project was abandoned in 1905. He turned his focus on inventions that could reach space and the use of
radio waves to find ships. In 1943, he died with little money left, but his inventions continued to shape and change the
Nikola Tesla's inventions play an important part in today's technology. People would not have computers,
rechargeable electronics or lighting fixtures in their homes without his inventions. AC power is the power that comes into a
person's home, sent over transmission lines that run from the power plant to businesses and residences. The AC system is
used in electronic equipment, such as radios and televisions and vehicle starters. Even the expensive electric-powered sports
car manufacturer, Tesla, tips its hat to Nikola Tesla for creating the motor that powers Tesla vehicles. Without Tesla's
foresight, people would be reading by candlelight, cooking over open fires and using horse and carriages to get around town.
Every time someone turns on a light, uses an electronic device, or feels the blast of heat from an electric-powered furnace,
Tesla is the man to thank.
To learn more about Tesla's life, visit these websites. | <urn:uuid:bfe1a30e-36ca-489c-b8e5-7cb0c3120004> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.americanhvacparts.com/cms-alternating-current-a-nikola-tesla-invention.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977513 | 884 | 3.453125 | 3 |
For the past 30 years, IIR has successfully competed for the opportunity to manage and support law enforcement-centered government programs. IIR excels in developing and delivering national criminal justice training and technical assistance programs that address the specialized needs and issues of the participating law enforcement organization, whether metropolitan, rural, campus, or other. IIR has categorized its numerous programs into three specialized areas: Information and intelligence sharing, criminal justice training, and gang initiatives.
A critical component of safeguarding our communities and our country is the timely sharing of information among law enforcement and public safety entities. IIR continues to be at the forefront, supporting the criminal justice community in its efforts to enhance information sharing efforts among all levels of government while ensuring that citizens’ privacy and civil liberties are protected. IIR is integrally involved in federal and state agencies’ efforts to organize and support fusion center operations and suspicious activity reporting criteria and platforms.
IIR maintains a full-scale training department with extensive experience in developing, coordinating, and delivering training programs. Since IIR’s inception, training of law enforcement has been a top priority and has resulted in numerous successful programs. IIR’s ability to coordinate and deliver law enforcement training across the country is nationally recognized. IIR has delivered training in every state and in several U.S. territories.
Gangs continue to be a significant problem across the country. IIR’s extensive experience with and support for anti-gang initiatives and training assist state and local gang investigators and officials, as well as communities, in a variety of ways. IIR has historical and extensive knowledge in this area, due to its pioneering efforts in the field. IIR’s close association with various gang investigator associations and gang investigators from around the country gives IIR the ability to call upon recognized experts and to respond to regional needs.
The program evaluation work of IIR has constituted an important portion of its operations to date. These efforts have included local, multijurisdictional, and nationwide program evaluation activities based on comprehensive research designs and guides. Extensive data collection efforts and detailed descriptive case studies have been key ingredients of IIR's program evaluations. Each evaluation is thoroughly planned through detailed background information compilation, review of program characteristics, design of research questions, establishment of evaluation objectives, and extensive methodological consideration. Products, task plans, and site visits are all specifically scheduled and monitored according to a detailed evaluation management plan.
Major policy analysis efforts have been designed and conducted by IIR, primarily at the multistate and national levels. Thoroughly prepared research designs are an integral part of IIR's analysis activities. The research has included the use of literature reviews, mail surveys, personal interviews, data collection through standardized instruments and on-site collection, and data analysis and presentation, including the use of computerized statistical analytical programs. IIR has also provided technical training to hundreds of agencies throughout the United States and has been funded by the federal government to deliver major technical training services nationwide to federally funded program efforts.
IIR provides comprehensive research and education services to a broad range of functions in the public safety domain and also provides assistance to the private sector. The areas of special competence of IIR include management and organization, operations, information systems, planning, research, technical assistance, program evaluation, curriculum development, training, policy development, and implementation. IIR specializes in research and education services involving intergovernmental issues—local, state, tribal, and federal—in the areas of law enforcement, criminal justice, homeland security, and juvenile justice, with concentration in law enforcement agency organization and management, youth gang research, grants management, economic crime, organized crime intelligence, homeland security, and major criminal conspiracy investigations and prosecutions.
IIR develops and conducts customized training workshops and seminars for personnel of federal, state, tribal, and local governmental agencies to improve leadership, technical, and managerial skills.
Programs have been delivered throughout the United States in the following topic areas:
Criminal Justice Information Systems, including Criminal Intelligence Systems Operating Policies
Narcotics Task Forces
Narcotics Control and Organized Crime
Violent Crime Response
Grants Management and Programmatic Training
Check the IIR events page for a training schedule. | <urn:uuid:cb47fad0-c119-4e60-8cc5-ccb5e6a9c3e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iir.com/Home/WhatWeDo | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938491 | 860 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Bracing solid surface
It is correct that 1/4" thick material is not suitable for horizontal applications. However, the minimum distance between supports in the "bridgework" for 1/2" material is 24". Technically, a 2' X 2' square or 4 square feet of Corian® will support itself in the field with proper perimeter support. By law, a ladder structure must be built using moisture resistant MDF or plywood. The strips should be between 3-4" wide and joined with biscuits, dowels or rabbited seams, screwed and glued. Also, the supports must travel the full width of the countertop (front to back) at all cutouts, i.e. sinks and cook tops.
The standard counter thickness for solid surface is 1/2", however the exact thickness does vary, so be sure to check it before fabrication. The bridge network described above is correct for 1/2" thick solid surface, however the spacing and allowable overhangs increase with the use of 3/4 material, although finding it could be a problem. SSV by Wilsonart is installed over a solid substrate such as particleboard or MDF, however a backer sheet must be used to balance the sheet. This may be where you saw solid backing. No SS manufacturer will warrant their product if installed over a solid surface such as a sheet of plywood, PB, or MDF. This is due to heat dissipation and expansion and contraction, the two major causes of failure (cracks).
It is correct that there are no solid surface manufacturers that will warrant a countertop with a solid substrate. The main reason is heat! Solid surface is not a good conductor of heat. If a heat source is applied to solid surface, it will not dissipate throughout the sheet, but must vent through the bottom. If the bottom is fully covered by a substrate, the resulting expansion from the heat will crack the surface. Lesser extremes of heat that may not crack the surface will whiten the contact area.
Expansion and contraction of the substrate is not as big of an issue. Using a moisture resistant substrate and balancing it can minimize the expansion rate to a point where it will not affect the solid surface. Certain manufacturers will give special consideration to using a solid substrate with 1/2" or 1/4" solid surface material. In applications such as an end table or cafe table, the product will not encounter a heat source. Original Equipment Manufacturers have been producing such products for several years now. But be careful if you do this, as there truly is no warranty. My point is that people are successfully using solid substrates in specific applications.
I cannot address other materials, but with Corian, part of its cost-effectiveness is that you do not need to make your product and then surface it.
1/2" Corian is strong enough to stand on when simply applied to a frame for an end table or coffee table. 3/4" has been out of vogue for such applications for over 15 years.
Out of vogue for sure, but still in the manuals and a special order, to say the least! There are some overhangs, such as bar tops and specialty furniture that may make use of this, although it sure does sound like something an architect would demand that you do! I had the same problem three or four years ago with 1/4" Corian. The local supplier quit stocking it due to the cost of breaking it in inventory, but it was still in the manual and the architect wanted it. Luckily, I did my research before signing the contract and declined to take the job (it had trouble written all over it).
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Have you reviewed the related Knowledge Base areas below? | <urn:uuid:23e9076e-ece2-445e-9aa9-ba637739782c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Bracing_solid_surface.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952165 | 792 | 1.9375 | 2 |
|Acts of Parliament by states preceding the United Kingdom|
Of the Kingdom of England
Of the Kingdom of Ireland
Of the Kingdom of Scotland
Of the Kingdom of Great Britain
Parliament of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom Statutory Instruments
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Measures and Orders
Statutory Rules of
|Church of England|
|Measures · Instruments|
Most delegated legislation in Great Britain is made in the form of a Statutory Instrument. (In Northern Ireland, delegated legislation is organised into Statutory Rules, rather than Statutory Instruments.) The advent of devolution in 1999 resulted in many powers to make Statutory Instruments being transferred to the Scottish Government and Welsh Assembly Government, and oversight to the Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales. Instruments made by the Scottish Government are now classed separately as Scottish Statutory Instruments.
A Statutory Instrument is used when an Act of Parliament passed after 1947 confers a power to make, confirm or approve delegated legislation on:
'Minister of the Crown' includes the Welsh Ministers and various Acts provide that delegated legislation, although made by another person (for example, the General Dental Council), is also to be made by Statutory Instrument.
Use of a Statutory Instrument is not required where the parent Act does not specify it. This may be the case where delegated legislation is of only limited application and therefore not of general importance. Instead, other provisions may be made for publishing the legislation. So, for example, an Order providing for the transfer of contracts from one National Health Service body to another may only be notified to the affected bodies, and by-laws made by a local council may be publicised through an announcement in local newspapers.
The main effect of delegated legislation being made by Statutory Instrument is that as soon as it is made it is numbered, catalogued, printed, made available for sale and published on the internet. This ensures that the public has easy access to the new laws.
Numbers are assigned by Her Majesty's Stationery Office and are sequential within the year of making. The number provides a means of citing the Statutory Instrument in addition to the title given by the Instrument itself. So, for example, The Income Tax (Exemption of Minor Benefits) (Amendment) Regulations 2003 are numbered and may be cited as SI 2003 No. 1434 or SI 2003/1434.
In addition to the main numbering system, there are a number of subsidiary numbering systems which may indicate an Instrument's position within a particular series of Instruments (in the following list n indicates the number):
Statutory Instruments will be classified by subject heading in the annual edition printed by Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
Printed copies of a Statutory Instrument will generally be on sale within a week of the date it is made.
Most Statutory Instruments (SIs) are subject to one of two forms of control by Parliament, depending on what is specified in the parent Act.
It should be noted that Parliament's control is limited to approving, or rejecting, the Instrument as laid before it: it cannot (except in very rare cases) amend or change it.
The more common form of control is the ‘negative resolution procedure’. This requires that either:
A motion to annul a Statutory Instrument is known as a 'prayer' and uses the following wording:
Any member of either House can put down a motion that an Instrument should be annulled, although in the Common unless the motion is signed by a large number of Members, or is moved by the official Opposition, it is unlikely to be debated, and in the Lords they are seldom actually voted upon.
If a resolution to annul an Instrument is passed, it will be revoked by the Queen through an Order-in-Council. Between the date of the resolution to annul and the date when the Order-in-Council is made, the Instrument remains law but ineffective. Anything done under the Instrument whilst it was in force remains valid, and the Government is free to make a new Statutory Instrument.
The last occasion on which a Statutory Instrument was annulled was when, on 22 February 2000, the House of Lords passed a motion to annul the Greater London Authority Elections Rules 2000 (SI 2000/208). The last time the House of Commons annulled a Statutory Instrument was in 1979 when it rejected the Paraffin (Maximum Retail Prices) (Revocation) Order 1979 (SI 1979/797).
Statutory Instruments which are subject to affirmative resolution are less common, making up about 10% of the total. This is the more stringent form of parliamentary control as it requires positive approval, rather than the absence of a decision to annul. Accordingly, it is used where the delegated legislation may be more controversial.
The parent Act may require that the proposed Statutory Instrument is approved by both Houses of Parliament (or, in the case of an Instrument which relates to financial matters, by the House of Commons only) either:
Once the Instrument is laid before Parliament, the Government will move a motion in each House that the Instrument is approved.
The last time a draft Statutory Instrument subject to affirmative procedure was not approved by the House of Commons was on 12 November 1969 when the House rejected four draft Orders relating to parliamentary constituencies.
The Regulatory Reform Act 2001 enables the Government to make an Order to change Acts of Parliament so as to remove burdens on business or others, so long as it can be done without removing ‘necessary protections’. Because of the extensive powers given to the Government to amend primary legislation, a special, extra-rigorous, form of affirmative procedure has been introduced.
Firstly, the Government must produce a draft proposal and consult interested organisations. It must then lay the proposal and the results of the consultation, along with a detailed explanation, before Parliament for 60 days. Select Committees of both Houses then debate the proposal and examine it against criteria including maintenance of "necessary protection" for those who may be affected, the adequacy of public consultation, the extent of the burden to be lifted, financial implications and compliance with European law. The Committees then report their findings to the House. The Government has to take those findings into account when deciding whether to proceed with the proposal. If it does, it then lays a draft Order before Parliament along with an explanation of any changes made, which is again considered by the Committees before finally being put to a vote of each House for approval.
Examples of the use of Regulatory Reform Orders have included The Regulatory Reform (Sunday Trading) Order 2004 (SI 2004/470) which repealed section 26 of the Revenue Act 1889 (and so re-legalised the selling of methylated spirits on a Saturday night or a Sunday), and The Regulatory Reform (Trading Stamps) Order 2005 (SI 2005/871) which repealed the entirety of the Trading Stamps Act 1964.
The Human Rights Act 1998 created a procedure under which, if the courts find that an Act of Parliament contravenes the European Convention on Human Rights, the Government can make a Remedial Order to correct the Act in question.
Before making a Remedial Order, the Government must lay a proposal before Parliament for 60 days, during which time it will be considered and reported upon by the Joint Committee of both Houses on Human Rights. After the 60 days have passed, the Government may then lay a draft Order before Parliament, following which there is another 60 day period in which the Joint Committee will make a recommendation to both Houses whether the Order should be approved.
An emergency procedure allows for Remedial Orders to be made immediately and debated afterwards; they must be approved within 120 days or will cease to have effect.
Some statutory instruments are made under provisions of Acts which allow the instrument to change the parent Act itself, or to change other primary legislation. These provisions, allowing primary legislation to be amended by secondary legislation, are known as Henry VIII clauses, because an early example of such a power was conferred on King Henry VIII by the Statute of Proclamations 1539. The Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Select Committee of the House of Lords issued a report concerning the use and drafting of such clauses, an issue its chairman remarked "goes right to the heart of the key constitutional question of the limits of executive power". Such clauses have often proved highly controversial — for instance, that in the Nationality, Immigration & Asylum Act 2002 which prompted the aforementioned report, and more recently the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006.
There are three Committees which have a general supervisory role in relation to Statutory Instruments.
The Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments (a Committee of both Houses of Parliament) checks that an Instrument is being made in accordance with the powers granted to the Minister making it. It does not consider the policy of Instruments, but is concerned only with technical matters. The Joint Committee may draw the attention of both Houses to an Instrument if it:
Where an Instrument is required to be laid before the House of Commons only, then the Commons' Select Committee on Statutory Instruments undertakes a similar examination.
The House of Lords Committee on the Merits of Statutory Instruments considers the policy of Statutory Instruments and would draw the attention of the House of Lords to a Statutory Instrument if it:
In addition, the House of Commons may refer a Statutory Instrument to a Standing Committee for detailed debate on the merits of the legislation if a motion to annul (in the case of an Instrument subject to negative resolution) or approve (in the case of an Instrument subject to affirmative resolution) is made. The Committee will report its conclusions to the House which will then vote on the motion to annul or approve (as the case may be).
Most Acts of Parliament stipulate that their provisions shall not come into force until a date to be fixed by one or more Commencement Order made by the Government, thereby giving the authorities time to make necessary preparations. Commencement Orders are laid before Parliament but are not subject to either the affirmative or negative procedure.
Many Statutory Instruments (indeed, the largest group after those subject to the negative resolution procedure) are not required to be laid before Parliament at all, and are therefore not subject to any Parliamentary control.
As with all delegated legislation, because Statutory Instruments are made by a person exercising a power conferred by an Act of Parliament for a specified purpose, rather than by Parliament exercising its sovereign law-making powers, they can be struck down by the courts if it is concluded that they are ultra vires (literally, outside the powers conferred by the parent Act). This would be the case if the Government attempts to use delegated legislation for a purpose not envision by the parent Act, or if the legislation is an unreasonable use of the power conferred by the Act, or if pre-conditions imposed by the Act (for example, consultation with certain organisations) have not been satisfied. | <urn:uuid:1aeedd84-9f8b-42eb-87a8-27ac9e0cacd8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thefullwiki.org/Statutory_Instrument_(UK) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924244 | 2,346 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Chord glissando? Was Ravel crazy?
Well chords... they're only thirds, but even so, yes it is quite painful if the keys are not very light.
I wonder, can anyone think of something that hasn't been done on the piano? I know of fists, elbows or even whole arms being used to play huge chunks of keys in some contemporary music. Another weird thing is putting screws in between the piano wires to create ringing overtones. (That was done for the soundtrack of the movie "Grizzly Man".)
What about the piece of cardboard prescribed for the Hawthorne movement of Ives' Concord Sonata ! Use to press about 30 keys at a time. sometimes black, sometimes white. A really weird effect.
How about tuning a piano in quarter-tones? Twenty-four keys to an octave? That's something George Crumb would do!
Earlier this year I attended a demonstration on a microtone piano. It was really weird, the pianist running up and down the (normal) keyboard producing sound waves covering only 2 octaves. This guy (Dutch pianost Maarten van Veen) is really good in this kind of thing. Must take enormous concentration to play this sort of thing. | <urn:uuid:eca928db-2aff-4963-82ab-27b87bb2725d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pianosociety.com/new/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=2948 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95394 | 256 | 2.03125 | 2 |
ND voters reject animal cruelty measureNorth Dakota voters defeated a measure aimed at increasing protection of animals by adding a felony punishment for certain extreme cases of animal cruelty. More than 65 percent voted no.
By: Chuck Haga, Forum Communications
North Dakota voters defeated a measure aimed at increasing protection of animals by adding a felony punishment for certain extreme cases of animal cruelty. More than 65 percent voted no.
Veterinarians, animal shelters and others who care for and about animals found themselves on opposing sides in the fight over Measure 5. It was supported by North Dakotans to Stop Animal Cruelty and would make it a Class C felony to “maliciously and intentionally” harm a dog, cat or horse.
It would not have applied to production agriculture or to lawful activities of hunters, trappers, licensed veterinarians or scientific researchers, or to people acting in defense of life or property.
North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states without a felony animal abuse penalty.
The measure was opposed by North Dakota Animal Stewards, a coalition of farming, ranching and other interests, who said they prefer to see the 2013 North Dakota Legislature deal with the issue.
There was an attempt during the 2011 session to pass such a law, but the effort stalled.
Both sides spent heavily to promote their respective call for a “yes” or “no” vote on Measure 5, with campaign finance reports filed with the secretary of state’s office totaling well more than $1 million by last week.
Much of the funding for the measure came from the Humane Society of the United States, which opponents sought to discredit as a radical organization.
“Their agenda is to change how animal agriculture functions and works and to stop the ‘exploitation’ of all animals in the United States,” said Doug Goehring, state commissioner of agriculture.
Goehring said he fears passage of Measure 5 “may send a signal to legislators that they don’t need to deal with this issue.”
Ellie Hayes, campaign coordinator for North Dakotans to Stop Animal Cruelty, dismissed warnings about the HSUS as unfounded. She also said she is reluctant to leave the issue to Goehring’s coalition and the Legislature.
“These are the same groups that blocked animal cruelty bills in the past,” she said.
Julie Ellingson, a leader of the North Dakota Animal Stewards coalition, said she is “very confident” the 2013 session will produce “a comprehensive piece of legislation” to better protect animals.
Editor’s Note: This article is from Forum Communications, which owns Agweek. | <urn:uuid:74e2d561-1d7f-4150-ad9c-772cac9797b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.agweek.com/event/article/id/20225/publisher_ID/80/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953556 | 557 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Anyway, it's better if I put things in my own words. After all, as much as I like the sites I link to, that doesn't mean I agree in lockstep with everything they say.
So, last week I asked the question, "Why Naturalism?" But since I already addressed "Why Buddhism?" in my first post, and because people in the West have such a variety of ideas about what Buddhism actually is, I thought it might be better to explore a little bit of what I understand Buddhism to be.
I think the first, most important question to ask is, Is Buddhism a Religion? By this I mean a religion in the Western sense, with supernatural beliefs, rituals, scriptures, dogma and the like. Of course, like most things involving Buddhism, the answer is... complicated. In fact, all the answers I'm going to give in this post are going to be mere glimpses at a much more complicated answer, but there's no way I can give such a broad topic as Buddhism the proper scholarly treatment in a single blog post. So I'm going to answer the best I can, from my perspective; take this post with the proper amount of salt.
So, first off, Is Buddhism a religion? No. But, are there Buddhist religions? Yes. Lots of them.
What I mean is this: there is nothing inherent in Buddhism itself that requires supernatural beliefs or explanations.
What about karma, rebirth, enlightenment? I'll get to those in a bit, but in order to understand Buddhism you first have to understand the context in which it arose. The Buddha--or whoever invented Buddhism--lived in India in the 400's BCE. Hinduism was the primary religion of the day, and Buddhism was not created as a rival religion. It was introduced as both a philosophy and a practice, and was more interested in explaining pragmatic answers to life here and now, rather than postulating where we came from or where we are going. As such, you will find many Hindu beliefs mixed in with the Buddhism of Hindu countries, but those beliefs are easily passed off as allegory or ignored all together without losing anything from Buddhism.
The Core of Buddhism
What is at the core of Buddhism that does not change whether it's imported to a Hindu culture, or a Confucian/Taoist culture, or even a Western non-dualist culture? Two things:
The first is the philosophy, or worldview, of Buddhism: Impermanence and Interconnectedness. A Buddhist understands and accepts that all things arise and all things pass away. There is nothing permanent; not a feeling, not a relationship, not a stone, not a mountain, not the planet and not even the universe. All things change, nothing stays the same.
Furthermore, this arising, changing, and passing away does not happen in a vacuum--all things are connected in relationships of cause and effect. This applies not only in physics, but also in psychology and interpersonal relationships. (For a very quick, rough example of this, think about what happens to your relationships when you're late for work, or you have a headache. Physical, external factors have as much of an impact on our actions as our internal personality)
The second part is the practice, the active part of Buddhism. This is rooted in the understanding of interconnectedness. We realize that even our suffering and our happiness are rooted in causes, and by stilling our minds and examining things from the right perspective we can eradicate conditions that cause suffering and create conditions that cause happiness.
Note that this doesn't mean we try to control our environment to suit our needs. The conditions I'm talking about are conditions of the mind. Buddhism points out that bad things will always happen--that's part of life--but our response to those things determines whether we experience suffering or peace. If we cling to the way things are now, we will suffer when they (inevitably) change. If we cling to the idea that material acquisitions will make us happy, we will never know peace. Obsessions, aversions, irrational attachments; these are conditions that will plague us with suffering. But these mental states are conditions of the mind, they are not permanent. Buddhism is about recognizing them and finding practical ways of dealing with them.
And that, I believe, is the core of Buddhism--eradicating suffering, increasing happiness; not just for the practitioner but for all living beings. A simple, pragmatic approach to the realities of life; an honest approach, examining our intentions and desires in order to find the most skillful means of realizing them.
Soon to follow: karma, rebirth and enlightenment--I'll be explaining these concepts from a naturalistic viewpoint, and why they tie in intimately with the realities of impermanence and interconnectedness. | <urn:uuid:ce6a85aa-572b-48fd-ad29-1e16916349c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thenaturalbuddhist.blogspot.com/2010/01/exploring-natural-buddhism-part-two.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954748 | 977 | 1.867188 | 2 |
The Bachelor Farmer is housed in a historic brick-and-timber warehouse located in the North Loop neighborhood of Minneapolis. Built in 1881 and expanded in 1902, the building was home to a number of small businesses over the years, including McMillan Fur and Wool, Northwestern Grease Wool Co. and Marvel Rack. Eric Dayton purchased the property in 2008 and with his brother, Andrew, began a complete renovation. Their intention was to preserve as much of the original character of the building as possible. They renamed it Peer House because they hoped it would become a place that would bring people together and eventually feel like home.
In 2011, Eric and Andrew Dayton opened The Bachelor Farmer on the building’s first and second floors. The restaurant consists of a dining room and small adjacent bar on the first floor. A second dining room and a series of three rooms for private dining and events are located upstairs. The Bachelor Farmer grows its own produce on a small farm located on the roof. | <urn:uuid:b7b734ad-960e-4458-9ea1-0b0fb5744971> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thebachelorfarmer.com/restaurant/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984683 | 199 | 1.625 | 2 |
Is modern technology teaching our kids to be lazy?
I teach high school remediation. All of my students are juniors, and must pass the state test in March. The spelling and writing skills of many of my students are extremely below grade level. Some have rarely used a dictionary and don't know what guide words are. They have so much knowledge about the computer, and use spell check to correct mistakes. Hand them a cell phone, and they can text message all day long. Give them a calculator and they can figure out any problem, but hand them a pencil and paper and they go blank.
I advocate for technology as a resource for learning, but it seems that this is the reason that so many students are unable to do things manually. I know that the basic skills should be mastered in elementary school, but my kids are juniors already and they haven't gotten there yet. Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggestions or comments are welcome. | <urn:uuid:e6b11b03-43fa-4268-bd83-00b95c6a637d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.edutopia.org/groups/walden-university/9752?page=4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96984 | 193 | 2.359375 | 2 |
It was bound to happen. Cochlear implants from the main manufacturers are too expnesive for many in foreign countries. Now India's scientists have come up with an inexpensive cochlear implant of their own, which will have clinical trials soon. How inexpensive? The Indian news media reports that the expected cost is as little as 1 lakh, compared to 7 to 10 lakh for the ones from the main manufacturers.
In India, a lakh is 100,000 rupees. An international currency converter (http://www.xe.com/) shows 100,000 rupees equal to $2,021.22 as of today. That means an implant today costs as much as $20,000 in India.
Who knows? Not too far in the future, we could see Americans and others heading to India to get cochlear implants. Not everyone has insurance that will cover the cost of a cochlear implant. | <urn:uuid:314fa1ba-34ef-42bb-bd16-b71ac5db44a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://deafness.about.com/b/2012/02/10/indias-own-inexpensive-cochlear-implant.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969239 | 185 | 2.484375 | 2 |
African Policy Criticized; Our Rejection of Earlier Request for Official Negotiations Recalled
HERBERT J. SPIRO ();
December 03, 1964,
, Section , Page 44, Column , words
If Prime Minister Kenyatta accurately attributed to United States Ambassador Attwood "his idea . . . that the quickest and humanitarian way was to use force" (Times, Nov. 28), then an American diplomat has made a most severe self-indictment of the State Department's African policy. | <urn:uuid:9234836d-25fa-4144-9d85-a538cd1ed554> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50B1FFC39581B728DDDAA0894DA415B848AF1D3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912165 | 105 | 1.804688 | 2 |
IUCN releases final evaluation report of Strengthening Voices for Better Choices (SVBC)
08 December 2009 | News story
IUCN has made available in full the final report of the external evaluation of Strengthening Voices for Better Choices (SVBC), its global forest governance project.
Daily and all over the world, decisions are taken in forest governance that have unintended consequences. Choices are often made on the basis of flawed assumptions. Unfortunately we pay for these mistakes with the loss of forests, income, biodiversity and other benefits. In the project Strengthening Voices for Better Choices, IUCN aimed to give a nudge in the right direction to forest departments, companies, communities and other stakeholders in forest governance. It did so by facilitating dialogue and offering platforms for interest groups to find common ground and seek better choices that respect each group's freedoms and interests.
SVBC was essentially about improving arrangements for decision making in forest governance regimes. Legality might have been the project's entry point, but sustainable development was the vision that IUCN offered. Financed mainly by the European Commission in the framework of the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan, SVBC was implemented in Brazil, DR Congo, Ghana, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Vietnam from 2005-09. The external evaluation, carried out between June and July 2009, also aimed to give a nudge in the right direction - what can be learnt from four years' work in six different countries?
Update (19 January 2010): A summary of the evaluation report is now available in English, French and Spanish. Please see download links opposite. | <urn:uuid:dbfaaa67-1b13-4fb1-a189-5da3d1fe019f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cms.iucn.org/news_homepage/news_by_date/2009_news/?4343/final-evaluation-report-svbc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958037 | 340 | 1.945313 | 2 |
"Broadens Understanding of Science"
From Optonics and Photonics Focus, February 18 2010:
Is Light slowing Down?
The speed of light is a universal constant — or is it? Some evidence seems to suggest it might actually be slowing down. Will we soon have to revise our cosmological beliefs?
If light were slowing down, we would have to revise many of our astronomical beliefs: from the age of the Universe to the distances between galaxies, from the dark matter to the definition of many physical constants. What a tremendous set of implications! Some evidence that this might indeed be the case starts piling up, as recently reported by Yves-Henri Sanejouand from the University of Nantes in France.
From Vertical News:
Research from Y.H. Sanejouand et al broadens understanding of science
2010 JAN 26 - (VerticalNews.com) -- According to a study from France, "Possible empirical evidences in favor of the hypothesis that the speed of light decreases by a few centimeters per second each year are examined. Lunar laser ranging data are found to be consistent with this hypothesis, which also provides a straightforward explanation for the so-called Pioneer anomaly, that is, a time-dependent blue-shift observed when analyzing radio tracking data from distant spacecrafts, as well as an alternative explanation for both the apparent time-dilation of remote events and the apparent acceleration of the Universe."
"The main argument against this hypothesis, namely, the constancy of fine-structure and Rydberg constants, is discussed. Both of them being combinations of several physical constants, their constancy implies that, if the speed of light is indeed time-dependent, then at least two other ''fundamental constants'' have to vary as well," wrote Y.H. Sanejouand and colleagues.
The researchers concluded: "This puts severe constraints on the development of any future varying-speed-of-light theory."
Sanejouand and colleagues published the results of their research in Epl (About some possible empirical evidences in favor of a cosmological time variation of the speed of light. Epl, 2009;88(5):59002). | <urn:uuid:a04c1ee8-fa68-4d73-8d87-b3980cbd72b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://riofriospacetime.blogspot.com/2010/03/broadens-understanding-of-science.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938641 | 456 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Botulinum toxin is a neurotoxin protein produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. It is one of the most poisonous naturally occurring substances in the world, and it is the most toxic protein.BotoxDysport for this purpose. The terms Botox and Dysport are trade names and are not used generically to describe the neurotoxins produced by the clostridia species. Though it is highly toxic, it is used in minute doses both to treat painful muscle spasms, and as a cosmetic treatment in some parts of the world. It is sold commercially under the brand names and
Researchers discovered in the 1950s that injecting overactive muscles with minute quantities of botulinum toxin type A decreased muscle activity by blocking the release of acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction, thereby rendering the muscle unable to contract for a period of 4 to 6 months.
Alan Scott, a San Francisco ophthalmologist, first applied tiny doses of the toxin in a medicinal sense to treat 'crossed eyes' (strabismus) and 'uncontrollable blinking' (blepharospasm), but needed a partner to gain regulatory approval to market his discovery as a drug. Allergan, Inc., a pharmaceutical company that focused on prescription eye therapies and contact lens products, bought the rights to the drug in 1988 and received FDA approval in 1989. Allergan renamed the drug Botox.
Cosmetically desirable effects of Botox were quickly discovered thereafter when the frown lines between the eyebrows were observed to soften following treatment for eye muscle disorders, leading to clinical trials and subsequent FDA approval for cosmetic use in April 2002. As of 2006, Botox injection is the most common cosmetic operation in the United States.
Besides its cosmetic application, Botox is used in the treatment of
- cervical dystonia (spasmodic torticollis) (a neuromuscular disorder involving the head and neck)
- blepharospasm (involuntary blinking)
- severe primary axillary hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating)
- achalasia (failure of the lower esophageal sphincter to relax)
Other uses of botulinum toxin type A that are widely known but not specifically approved by FDA include treatment of:
- involuntary microexpression facial triggers (concealing a lie)
- pediatric incontinence, incontinence due to overactive bladder, and incontinence due to neurogenic bladder.
- spastic disorders associated with injury or disease of the central nervous system including trauma, stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, or cerebral palsy
- focal dystonias affecting the limbs, face, jaw, or vocal cords
- Reduction of the Masseter muscle for decreasing the size of the lower jaw
In the Journal of Dermatologic Surgery, Eric Finzi claims to have treated clinically depressed patients with botox. On Good Morning America, he claimed that by taking away the ability to frown, he was somehow taking away the ability to feel depressed.
Treatment and prevention of chronic headache and chronic musculoskeletal pain are emerging uses for botulinum toxin type A. In addition, there is evidence that Botox may aid in weight loss by increasing the gastric emptying time.
Side effects can be predicted from the mode of action (muscle paralysis) and chemical structure (protein) of the molecule, resulting broadly speaking in two major areas of side effects: paralysis of the wrong muscle group and allergic reaction. Bruising at the site of injection is a side effect not of the toxin, but rather the mode of administration. In cosmetic use, this means that the client will complain of inappropriate facial expression such as drooping eyelid, uneven smile, loss of ability to close the eye. This will wear off in around 6 weeks. Bruising is prevented by the clinician applying pressure to the injection site, but may still occur, and will last around 7 - 10 days. When injecting the masseter muscle of the jaw, loss of muscle function will result in a loss or reduction of power to chew solid foods. All cosmetic treatments are of limited duration, and can be as short a period as six weeks, but usually one reckons with an effective period of between 3 and 8 months. At the extremely low doses used medicinally, botulinum toxin has a very low degree of toxicity.
There are seven serologically distinct toxin types, designated A through G; 3 subtypes of A have been described. The toxin is a two-chain polypeptide with a 100-kDa heavy chain joined by a disulfide bond to a 50-kDa light chain. This light chain is an enzyme (a protease) that attacks one of the fusion proteins (SNAP-25, syntaxin or synaptobrevin) at a neuromuscular junction, preventing vesicles from anchoring to the membrane to release acetylcholine. By inhibiting acetylcholine release, the toxin interferes with nerve impulses and causes flaccid (sagging) paralysis of muscles in botulism as opposite to the spastic paralysis seen in tetanus.
It is possibly the most acutely toxic substance known, with a median lethal dose of about 1 ng/kg, meaning that a few hundred grams could theoretically kill every human on earth (for perspective, the rat poison strychnine, often described as highly toxic, has an LD50 of 1,000,000 ng/kg, and it would take four hundred tons to kill every human).
It is also remarkably easy to come by: Clostridium spores are found in soil practically all over the earth.
Food-borne botulism usually results from ingestion of food that has become contaminated with spores (such as a perforated can) in an anaerobic environment, allowing the spores to germinate and grow. The growing (vegetative) bacteria produce toxin. It is the ingestion of preformed toxin that causes botulism, not ingestion of the spores or vegetative organism.
Infant (intestinal) and wound botulism both result from infection with spores which subsequently germinate, resulting in production of toxin and the symptoms of botulism.
The toxin itself is rapidly destroyed by heat, such as in thorough cooking. However, the spores which produce the toxin are heat-tolerant and will survive boiling at 100 degrees Celsius for an extended period of time. 3-8
Botulin toxin has always been considered an inferior agent for chemical warfare since it degrades rapidly on exposure to air, and therefore an area attacked with the toxic aerosol would be safe to enter within a day or so. In fact, the agent is so unstable that the medicinal form is generally shipped on dry ice. There are no documented cases of the toxin actually being used in warfare; however, it has been claimed to have been used in the Operation Anthropoid to kill top Nazi Reinhard Heydrich and in "Operation Mongoose", where in 1961, the CIA saturated some cigars, of Fidel Castro's favorite brand, with botulinum toxin for a possible assassination attempt. The cigars were never used, but when tested years later were found still effective. The notorious Japanese biological warfare group Unit 731 fed botulinum to prisoners during Japan's occupation of Manchuria in the 1930s.
There has been concern over the use of botulin toxin as a terrorist weapon, but it appears not to be ideal for this purpose. The vials used therapeutically are considered impractical as weapons because each vial contains only an extremely small fraction of the lethal dose. Nor is home-growing very viable; the bacterium in question is anaerobic and grows poorly in the presence of oxygen. This would make it difficult for terrorists to produce the toxin in bulk without specialized microbiological expertise.
The toxin's properties did not escape the attention of the Aum Supreme Truth cult in Japan, who had set up a plant for bulk production of this agent, though their subway attacks used the nerve agent sarin instead, because of its easy dispersal and faster-acting properties.
It has been recently revealed that the CIA made attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro with several botulinum toxin pills placed in his drinks. The attempts failed when the operatives asked out of the operation.
Biochemical mechanism of toxicity
The heavy chain of the toxin is particularly important for targeting the toxin to specific types of axon terminals. The toxin must get inside the axon terminals in order to cause paralysis. Following the attachment of the toxin heavy chain to proteins on the surface of axon terminals, the toxin can be taken into neurons by endocytosis. The light chain is able to leave endocytotic vesicles and reach the cytoplasm. The light chain of the toxin has protease activity. The type A toxin proteolytically degrades the SNAP-25 protein, a type of SNARE protein. The SNAP-25 protein is required for the release of neurotransmitters from the axon endings. Botulinum toxin specifically cleaves these SNAREs, and so prevents neuro-secretory vesicles from docking/fusing with the nerve synapse plasma membrane and releasing their neurotransmitters.
Though it affects the nervous system, common nerve agent treatments (namely the injection of atropine and 2-pam-chloride) will increase mortality by enhancing botulin toxin's mechanism of toxicity. Attacks involving botulinum toxin are distinguishable from those involving nerve agent in that NBC detection equipment (such as M-8 paper or the ICAM) will not indicate a "positive" when a sample of the agent is tested. Furthermore, botulism symptoms develop relatively slowly, over several days compared to nerve agent effects, which can be instantaneous.
On July 2, 1971 the FDA released a public warning after learning that a New York man had died and his wife had become seriously ill due to botulism after eating a can of Bon Vivant vichyssoise soup. The company began a recall of the 6,444 cans of vichyssoise soup made in the same batch as the can known to be contaminated. The FDA discovered that the company’s processing practices raised questions not only about these lots of the vichyssoise, but also about all other products packed by the company. The effectiveness check of the recall had revealed a number of swollen or otherwise suspect cans among Bon Vivant’s other products, so FDA extended the recall to include all Bon Vivant products. The FDA shut down the company’s Newark, New Jersey plant on July 7, 1971. Although only five cans of Bon Vivant soup were found to be contaminated with the botulin toxin, all in the initial batch of vichyssoise recalled and part of the first 324 cans tested. The ordeal destroyed public confidence in the company’s products and the Bon Vivant name. Bon Vivant filed for bankruptcy within a month of the announcement of the recall.
Treatment of botulinum poisoning
The case fatality rate for botulinum poisoning from 1950-1996 was 15.5%, down from approximately 60% the 50-years prior. Death is generally secondary to respiratory failure due to paralysis of the respiratory muscles, so treatment consists of antitoxin administration and artificial ventilation. If initiated on time, these are quite effective. Occasionally, functional recovery may take several weeks to months.
There are two primary Botulinum Antitoxins available for treatment of botulism.
- Trivalent (A,B,E) Botulinum Antitoxin is derived from equine sources utilizing whole antibodies (Fab & Fc portions). This antitoxin is available from the local health department via the CDC.
- The second antitoxin is Heptavalent (A,B,C,D,E,F,G) Botulinum Antitoxin which is derived from "despeciated" equine IgG antibodies which have had the Fc portion cleaved off leaving the F(ab')2 portions. This is a less immunogenic antitoxin that is effective against all known strains of botulism where not contraindicated. This is available from the US Army. On June 1, 2006 the US Department of Health and Human Services awarded a $363 million contract with Cangene Corporation for 200,000 doses of Heptavalent Botulinum Antitoxin over five years for delivery into the Strategic National Stockpile beginning in 2007. | <urn:uuid:ac3bc4d9-0369-4647-9c11-3084e8fc18fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pangaeamedicine.com/Cosmetic-Head-Face_15%7CBotox_68.xhtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943378 | 2,580 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Future of Catholic health care: In service to community, poor
"Without that, we would have a hard time distinguishing ourselves from other not-for-profit hospitals," said Robert Stanek, retired president and CEO of Catholic Health East in Newtown Square, Pa., and current chairman of the board of trustees of the Catholic Health Association.
Corrine Parver, health policy attorney and former executive director of the health law program at American University's Washington School of Law, expressed dismay that only 60 percent of those who are uninsured today are expected to be insured by 2019, when the health reform law is fully implemented.
That situation will give Catholic hospitals "an opportunity to provide more community benefit," she said.
Jesuit Father John Haughey, a research fellow at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center, focused on Catholic health care's role as a continuation of Christ's healing ministry. He said that understanding should infuse any Catholic health care institution, "from the CEO down to the one who mops the corridors."
The three speakers were part of a panel discussion during a daylong colloquium Feb. 14 at The Catholic University of America in Washington. Sponsored by the university's Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies and its School of Nursing, the conference had as its theme, "Learning from the Past, Planning the Future."
Reviewing changes in Catholic health care over the past few decades, Stanek said most Catholic hospitals are now part of health care systems, many of them multistate, and the number of women religious who are hospital administrators or CEOs has gone from 770 in 1968 to eight now.
As lay leadership of Catholic health care continues to grow, he said, the challenge will be to keep the systems true to their faith-based mission.
"The Catholic health ministry will be strengthened when we hold onto the concept that we are not institution-based, but based on healing, on the personal touch," Stanek said. "If our health care delivery system is truly person-centered, the Catholic ministry will be alive and well regardless of what form it takes."
He said this is the first generation of lay leaders not working side by side with women religious in Catholic health care.
Stanek said the lay leadership has progressed from saying, "Sister, tell me what to do" to asking "What would the sisters do?" But they need to continue to progress to the point of asking, "What will we do, from a perspective totally consistent with our heritage?" he said.
Saying that the "variety of rapidly emerging technologies will impact Catholic health care very strongly in the future," Stanek said he did not believe the major emphasis of health care in the future will be large acute-care hospitals.
"We can't afford as a society to continue to treat people in the most expensive vehicle possible," he said.
Parver, a member of the board of trustees of Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Md., said home- and community-based health care is the wave of the future and described some of Holy Cross' outreach programs to underserved and vulnerable segments of the population.
In addition to two health centers for uninsured adults, she said, the hospital has programs focusing on preventive care and treatment for several diseases -- including breast cancer, diabetes and heart problems.
In the policy arena, Parver expressed concern that some major employers have said they might not to continue offering health insurance to their employees under the new health reform law. In addition, she said, it is not clear where the money is going to come from for expansion of the Medicaid program, as required by the law.
Father Haughey said the major responsibility of Catholic health care institutions is to represent "Christ's healing presence, one that is sufficiently tangible with God's presence that it can ignite or reignite faith and hope and love in its patients and personnel."
He warned against a tendency toward "nostalgic piety" or to the "myopic" view that reduces "responsibility for the religious mission of the institution to the pastoral care unit."
What people should experience through Catholic health care is "more than competence, though that, more than efficiency, though that too, more than professionalism, though that too," Father Haughey said.
"It is people giving of themselves, emptying themselves to serve their brothers and sisters," he said. “If that is what is experienced in your facility, you are extending Christ's healing mission in that facility at this time." | <urn:uuid:fccb014d-2dff-4987-bfa2-491cc2df124d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.the-tidings.com/index.php/news/newsnational/2127-future-of-catholic-health-care-in-service-to-community-poor | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975082 | 917 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Petikan berkaitan maharaja Shih Huang Ti-Bab 2
Ch'in Shih-huang-ti was a formidable figure in ancient Chinese history. As the emperor of the Ch'in Dynasty he established the parameters of dynastic rule that all others would follow for the next 2,000 years. During his rule, he unified much of China with his aggressive government, which was based on the teachings of Legalism. In fact, the name for China derives from the Ch'in dynasty. It was under Ch'in Shih-huang-ti that much of the Great Wall of China was built, as well as a huge burial compound now known as the Ch'in tomb.
Between 771 and 221 B.C., China consisted of numerous independent states found mostly in the north. Each state was fighting for control of land, in what was known as the "Warring States Period." The Ch'in, a small state in the northern regions of the Wei River Valley, gained power in the wake of this period. Ch'in Shih-huang-ti, who was first known as Ch'eng, was made king of the Ch'in state in 246 B.C. at the age of 13 while his father was held hostage in the state of Chao. Not originally intended for the throne, his mother, guided by financial motives, worked to put him there. Until Ch'in Shih-huang-ti came of age in 238 B.C., the government was run by his mother. Upon taking control of the throne he executed his mother's lover, who had joined the opposition, and exiled his mother for her role in the disobedience.
The Ch'in dynasty began in 256 B.C., but it was not to achieve its greatest power until years later, when under the advice of Li Ssu and Chao Kao, his advisors, Ch'in Shih-huang-ti began a mission to unify all the northern states under his rule. It was then that he took the title "Ch'in Shih-huang-ti," or "The First Sovereign Emperor of the Ch'in." Ch'in Shih-huang-ti then formed a government that was based on the ideals and principles of Legalism, as taught to him by his advisors. Legalism held that people were essentially selfish and base and needed a strong central government with strict rules and harsh punishments in order to function as a society. At the center of the new government were the emperor and his ministers. A harsh, sometimes cruel, autocratic rule was the result, replacing the old feudal system of aristocracy and nobility. Other schools of thought and philosophy were outlawed, especially Confucianism. Many of its teachers were executed and their books burned. By 221 B.C. Ch'in Shih-huang-ti had conquered his rival states and unified China. In an effort to reinforce the idea of a unified China, Ch'in Shih-huang-ti instituted a program to standardize the Chinese language, as well as measurements for width and length, and a series of roads and canals were built to converge on the capital city of Xianyang.
To protect his state from a Hunnish tribe of people to the north known as the Hsiung Nu, Ch'in Shih-huang-ti embarked on an amazing effort to connect the walls and fortresses, created during the Warring States Period, to protect his kingdom. The result was the Great Wall of China. It spanned, not including its many branches, 4,160 miles (6,700 km), and is one of the largest manmade features on Earth. Construction started under General Meng T'ien in 214 B.C., and lasted 10 years. Another structure of astounding proportions built under Ch'in Shih-huang-ti was a massive burial compound, known as the Ch'in Tomb. It was discovered byarchaeologists in 1974, near the present-day city of Xiam. The tomb, encompassing 20 square miles (50 sq km), was a huge subterranean complex, landscaped to resemble a low, wooded mountain. In the chamber, 6,000 life-sized terracotta soldiers were found in battle formation, and in adjoining chambers thousands of smaller figurines were found. A stable of skeletonized horses was discovered and the remains of bronze gilded chariots accompanied them. Valuable gems, jade carving of trees and animals, as well as silks were also unearthed. The emperor's actual burial tomb has yet to be excavated. It was purported that it took 700,000 men more than 36 years to complete.
In the later years of his life, Ch'in Shih-huang-ti survived three assassination attempts and weathered the constant threat of revolt. When he came to power, Ch'in Shih-huang-ti claimed his government would last 10,000 years, but in fact it collapsed only four years after his death in 210 B.C., and was replaced by the Han Dynasty. Ch'in Shih-huang-ti and the Ch'in dynasty were regarded as evil aberrations, but the fact remains that the Ch'in dynasty served as the basis for all subsequent dynasties. The power achieved by the Ch'in in such a short time continues to stupefy historians. The Great Wall and Ch'in Tomb stand as testament to that great power.
BENGKEL SPM 2013 (TINGKATAN 4) & BENGKEL SPM 2012 (TINGKATAN 5)
1. BENGKEL SEJARAH SPM 2013. Bagaimana teknik skor sejarah A+ : Wajib kepada murid tingkatan 4. Keperluan memahami kertas 1, 2 dan 3 Kertas Sejarah SPM 2013. Keperluan bagi menjawab dan skor A+ Kertas sejarah akhir tahun 2012. Rabu 26 september 2012. 2.BENGKEL SPM 2012; TERBUKA KEPADA MURID TINGKATAN 5 2012. 15 HB. OKTOBER 2013. ISNIN. Bagaimana Skor A+. Bengkel tahun ke 4; tahun lepas berjaya mencapai 65% A (A+, A- dan A) bagi peratusan lulus sejarah sekolah SMK Damansara Jaya. | <urn:uuid:f293aa3a-dc1d-4719-a528-904deba3c2d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://djlovehistory.blogspot.com/2008/05/contoh-esei-tingkatan-4-3-maharaja-shih.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97957 | 1,363 | 3.609375 | 4 |
War Spending Adds to Deficits,
Slowly but Steadily
Spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan after nine years of fighting totals around $1 trillion. Whether or not you think those efforts are worthwhile or necessary, what is indisputable is that they are being financed through borrowing.
War spending isn’t the biggest item in the budget, but borrowing to pay for it shifts the fiscal burden to future generations, says Stan Collender, a budget analyst and a partner with Qorvis Communications. Other wars have been financed with debt, but taxes played a role, too. In his book about the history of U.S. debt, Hamilton’s Blessing, John Steele Gordon writes that as far back as the War of 1812, part of the financing for fighting involved some component of taxes, whether on commodities or on income.
This time, we’re borrowing it all, and adding to the national debt. The costs calculated by the Congressional Budget Office include activities related to the wars such as some veterans’ benefits and some activities by the Justice Department, diplomatic efforts and aid to various countries to help fight terrorism. But the lion’s share, about 95%, goes to military operations.
These expenses will continue, though a decline in the rate of spending is in sight as the U.S. winds down its presence in Iraq. President Obama penciled in $50 billion for spending in FY 2011, but the final amount likely will be closer to the $150 billion appropriated for the current fiscal year. Later this decade, costs will hinge on the progress of fighting and nation building in Afghanistan.
The price tag so far exceeds the nearly $700 billion, adjusted for inflation, spent on the Vietnam War, according to an analysis conducted by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). Topping the list, according to the CRS study, is $4.1 trillion spent on World War II. As the CRS points out, comparisons are tricky due to adjustments for inflation and differences in exactly which expenditures are counted. But the numbers seem reasonable.
The gross U.S. debt, which includes pledges by the Treasury to pay back money siphoned from Social Security taxes, is now more than $12 trillion—about 88% of gross domestic product. There’s no magic number that would automatically trigger a crisis such as the one being experienced by Greece. But, Moody’s Investors Service last month published a warning to the U.S. that the nation is on a path that threatens its triple-A credit rating.
What’s the impact of a lower credit rating? While the situation is not exactly the same, Greece finds itself having to pay up to five percentage points more to sell government bonds. Were the U.S. to incur the same financial penalty, financing costs would double, and the resulting rising interest rates would result in slower economic growth and higher unemployment.
It’s too late, of course, to push through Congress some form of higher taxes to help finance the war effort. In any case, lawmakers would balk. Collender thinks the politicians don’t want to put the cost of the war on taxpayers directly—that would drum up war protests. But the cost is there, and it will be paid for, with interest. | <urn:uuid:6912c916-3a0e-4e76-b93b-13a5b07ffc7e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kiplinger.com/article/business/T019-C012-S001-war-spending-adds-to-deficits-slowly-but-steadily.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955057 | 674 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Mohd Arif Business Educational World
A business grow, so does their awarness of opportunities is foreign market. Intially, they may merely attemt to export a product to a particular country or import supplies from a foreign manufacturer.
An understanding of internation financial management is crucial to not only large MNCs with numerous foreign subsidiaries, but also to the small business engaged in exporting or importing. 75% of the 43,300 U.S firms that export have less than 100 employees. international business is even important to companies that have no intention of engaging in international business.
A country,s balance of payment is commonly define the record of transaction between resident and foreign residents over a specific perion. each transaction is recorded in accordence with the principles of double entry book-keeping. meaning that the amount envolved in each transaction is entered on each of the two sides the balance of payment always balance.
However, their is no keeping requirement that sums of two sides of aselected number of balance of payment account should be same, and it happens that the (im) balance shown by certain combinaion of account are considerable interest to analysts and government officials. it is those balances that are often reffered to as "surplus" or "deficit" in the balance of payments.
working papers series
Date posted: May 24, 2008
© 2013 Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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It's clear that summer has arrived. Temperatures are climbing. Hours of daylight have increased. And, America's students are out of school. As a former teacher, I know that kids need a break from the rigors of school. But a vacation from school doesn't have to be a vacation from learning.
There are still plenty of opportunities for our students to challenge themselves.
Students looking for ways to apply their skills, exercise they're knowledge, and help their government solve important problems need look no further than Challenge.gov. This website makes it easy for Americans to get creative and get involved.
And DOT is excited about the three challenges for students that we have open right now:
- Distracted Driving Design: Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for American teens. And young people are also among the most likely to text and talk behind the wheel. That's why we’re inviting high school students to help spread the word on distracted driving by designing a profile icon that can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and other social networking sites. We’re looking for icons that send a clear message: cell phones and driving don’t mix.
- Motorcoach Safety Data: Choosing the right bus company for your travel is an important safety decision. Access to a carrier's safety record can make that decision easier. We challenge you to make our safety data accessible to more people so they can make better decisions.
- Recognizing Aviation and Aerospace Innovation: We're looking for students at high schools and universities, including graduate programs, to develop and share their own solutions to real-world aviation and aerospace issues. This is your chance to make a measurable impact on air travel.
So, if you know a student looking for a way to beat the heat that doesn't involve diving into a community swimming pool, please let them know that DOT and Challenge.gov have just the ticket. And if you're a student looking for a way to grow --independently from school-- take the plunge at Challenge.gov.
Whether our challenges test your engineering skills, your eye for visual design, or your ability to communicate, they all offer a chance to test yourself against real-world problems. And I promise that none of them will be on the final exam! | <urn:uuid:0eda8557-43b5-4b19-b272-5ccef51b7ca4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fastlane.dot.gov/2012/06/summer-a-time-to-challenge-yourself-independently.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957624 | 466 | 2.453125 | 2 |
Did you know there are three times as many native species living in prairie streams than in trout streams? When Martha started working on prairie streams, few scientists knew the bounty she'd find in the course of her stream restoration work. Restoration of stream ecology is one of Martha's personal passions and just one element of WWF’s conservation efforts that she oversees as managing director of the Northern Great Plains program.
Martha is completely at home in the vast expanse of the prairie, which may stem from a childhood spent by the ocean in her native California. Based in Bozeman, Montana, her connection to WWF goes back almost a decade, when she began looking at the state of the streams on the first ranch purchased by WWF partner, American Prairie Foundation.
Today, she manages an area that encompasses five states and some of the least known or understood terrain in the 'Lower 48.' She works with local ranchers, Native American tribes and government agencies to increase protection for the landscape, create economic incentives for conservation, and restore native species including iconic and rare animals such as bison, prairie dogs, sage grouse and the most endangered mammal in North America, the black-footed ferret.
Martha is also a co-founder of the Montana Outdoor Science School, a Montana-based non-profit that utilizes field-based inquiry to teach K-12 youth about natural sciences. She encourages everyone to come and experience the wide open space of the prairie. "It's getting harder and harder to find places where a person can feel small in the grandeur of a vast and remarkably rich landscape…." | <urn:uuid:fdf4a108-61e8-40f1-9471-8788c8c027a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://worldwildlife.org/experts/martha-kauffman | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954645 | 327 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Like most libraries in the 21st century, the Hugh and Hazel Darling Library is both a library with and without walls. We know that there's a lot to learn when using our library for the first time, especially if you never have to come to our physical location! Use this guide to help orient yourself to how the library works and how to use the research tools we offer our students.
How to find books and more!
Watch the following video tutorial to get a basic overview of how to look for books (specifically electronic material!) from the library:
How to access your library account online
To use online self-service options such as placing holds on books to check out from the library, renewing library books online, and requesting interlibrary loans, learn how to set up your Darling Library Account. Watch the video below for step-by-step instructions or read our training instructions. | <urn:uuid:6fe206d9-27ac-4d6e-ab52-c45b27bbb46d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://library.hiu.edu/research/orientation.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92749 | 181 | 1.976563 | 2 |
The world is changing. The growth of the internet has seen to that. The way that people do business, in just about every field, has changed so much that it is almost unrecognizable. Working from home has become a reality for many people, and the advantages that it brings to the brave hearted and forward thinking individual are many. Never to see traffic jam in their lives is sufficient reward for money people, but for those with a head on their shoulders, there are unlimited rewards to be picked of.
One of the most talked about online businesses is to become a foreign exchange trading. Most people would shy clear of this business or be scared of by the astronomical sums being traded. However the one basic fact is that the trader can only really lose the working capital they are prepared invest, and not the large sums that they deal in. Basically foreign exchange trading is a cash business, and credit is only for the very key players, and not for more than 24 hours at a time.
So once someone has made the fundamental decision to become a foreign exchange trader they have to clearly defined guidelines on how they intend to run their online business. The guidelines should be as follows:
How much time will they have to devote the business? The more time spent the more chances of serious profits.
Do they have a computer sufficiently powerful to handle the volume of information they will need to process.
Will they have exclusive access to the computer 24/7?
They should have sufficient capital to justify a daily turnover. If the prospective foreign exchange trading is limited in capitol, and has to borrow from the bank to finance the operation, they may well find themselves working for the bank and not for themselves.
Do they have any knowledge of the basics of foreign exchange trading
If you are interested in becoming a foreign exchange trading, then you should be able to meet these criteria. If you don’t have all these assets and talents at your disposal, then you should seriously reconsider taking a step or two back till you do.
Because of the increased awareness and public demand to move into this potentially very lucrative business, there are many internet courses that are available for beginners. These courses are relatively inexpensive, and should rapidly recoup their costs. The same companies who run these courses also provide foreign exchange trading simulation software free of charge. This will allow you to get the feel of the market, and the procedures involved in being a foreign exchange trader.
When the day dawns when you feel ready to take the plunge into the real and exciting world of foreign exchange trading, your success or failure will be at your fingertips. | <urn:uuid:27ef6d43-5b24-4878-abd9-0fc15b737798> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forexpro.biz/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971697 | 529 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Child Support Resources for Single Parents
- Child Support Calculators (50)
- Child Support Guidelines (51)
- Child Support Offices (51)
- Child Support Payments (6)
- File for Child Support (12)
- Nonpayment (28)
- Private Child Support Help (2)
What You Need to Know About Child Support and Filing for Government Assistance
Should you file for child support or public assistance? Parents need to know that the state will file on your behalf, even against your wishes, when you file for government assistance. In addition, they will keep the child support money, as well. Find out the best way to file for government assistance without losing potential child support...
Remarriage and Child Support
Remarriage and child support bring up a lot questions. If a custodial mom remarries, will she continue to receive child support from her ex? And if a non-custodial parent marries, will his or her spouse have to chip in for increased child support payments. Find out the answers to these common questions and more.
Stop Child Support Payments
Although rare, there are times when both custodial and non-custodial parents agree to stop paying or receiving child support payments. However, the process may be rather involved, or even impossible, based on whether the court agrees to permit a parent to stop receiving child support payments.
Child Support Guidelines in All 50 States
Child support guidelines differ from state to state. Learn what to expect when filing for child support, or when a child support order has been filed against you, in the state where you live.
Learn How Child Support is Calculated
Child support calculation methods differ from state to state. Learn about the two most prominent methods of child support calculation used by the courts today.
Myths About Deadbeat Parents
In the public perception, it seems that a deadbeat is anyone who s ever fallen behind on child support payments. However, if you look at the wording of the Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act of 1998, a deadbeat is someone who chooses not to pay child support. It s a willful act. Many parents fall on hard times and find that they cannot...
Having access to accurate child support information is critical. Use these resources to get the information you need for any step of the process, from deciding whether to file for child support to modifying an existing child support order.
Readers' Child Support Modification Stories
Child support modification may be necessary, but it isn't usually easy. Find out what to expect when you request a child support modification by reading these real-life reader stories. (And if you've filed for a modification yourself, take a moment to share your experience with us!)
Are You Eligible for Child Support Modification?
Child support modification is becoming more common due to the economy. Find out what you need to know about modifying your child support order, including when to request a modification, and more.
Frequently Asked Questions About Child Support
Get the answers to common child support questions, from what is considered a typical child support payment, to what child support can be used for, and more.
Decide Whether to File for Child Support
Child support is a sensitive issue for many single parents. Some single moms would prefer to make it on their own, without the financial support of an ex-spouse or ex-boyfriend. Others fear opening the door to the other parent's visitation rights. Find out what you need to know in order to decide whether filing for child support is the right...
What Are "Extraordinary Medical Expenses?"
Courts frequently order parents to cover "extraordinary medical expenses" without defining what exactly is meant by extraordinary. Learn what types of costs may be considered extraordinary medical expenses for child support purposes.
Recover Unpaid Child Support
Child support recovery is crucial for children who are owed back child support payments. Learn how to recover child support on behalf of your child.
Will Getting Married Again Impact Child Support Payments?
Many parents who are considering remarriage wonder whether that could lead to a child support modification down the road. Learn more about the impact of remarrying and how it factors into the courts' determination of child support.
Child Support Help
When major life events occur, such as death, disability, and unemployment, child support help is often needed. During these times, custodial parents will need help determining how to continue to collect child support, and non-custodial parents will need help determining how to continue to pay child support. Here is some information for parents...
Child Support Following a Parent's Death
The death of a parent is an event that will effect every aspect of a child's life, including child support. Refer to this article to determine how to handle child support when a parent dies.
Unpaid Child Support and Visitation
Unpaid child support can be extremely disruptive, and many custodial parents wonder whether the other parents has the right to continue visits with the child is payments cease. Refer to this article to determine how unpaid child support affects a parent's visitation rights.
Unemployment and Child Support
Child support collection has been hampered by rising unemployment rates. Refer to this article to determine how to handle child support payments when a parent is unemployed.
Disability and Child Support
Refer to this article to determine how parents should handle child support when a parent is disabled.
Child Support Statistics
Child support statistics are staggering. In 2007, more than $34.1 billion dollars was owed to custodial single moms and dads. Find out what the current child support numbers have to say about children being raised in single parent homes.
Failure to Pay Child Support is a Federal Offense
Child support payments should be paid on time and in full. Failure to pay child support payments will result in penalties. Refer to this article to learn what those penalties are and how the federal government handles child support non-payment.
Child Support Modification Guidelines
Child support modification may be considered when necessary, due to job loss or income reduction. Refer to these child support modification guidelines to learn about different types of court-imposed child support modifications.
Where to File for Child Support in Your State
Under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act, the U.S. government established the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE). However, the title of each state's OSCE office varies. Find out how to access both federal and local child custody resources in your state.
Before You Use a Private Child Support Collection Agency
There are several independent child support collection agencies out there that claim to help parents collect unpaid child support. However, in most cases, they can't really do any more for you than your local Office of Child Support Enforcement. Find out what questions you should ask before you use an independent child support collection service.
"Most Wanted" Deadbeat Parents
Most wanted deadbeat parents: Many counties are now making them, and the details of how much each individual owes, available online. Find out which states are currently making this information about deadbeat parents available.
Questions About Deadbeat Parents and Unpaid Child Support
Deadbeat is a word you hear tossed around quite a bit, but what does it really mean? Find out with this list of frequently asked questions about deadbeat parents and unpaid child support.
Child Support Payments and Unemployment
Child support payments may be modified in the case of unemployment or underemployment. Learn how child support payments are calculated when this happens how the courts approach the issue.
Emancipation and Child Support Payments
Emancipation of a child impacts child support payments. Refer to this article for an understanding of what happens to child support payments when a child is emancipated.
Child Support Enforcement
Child support enforcement is handled at both the federal and state level. Learn more about methods of child support enforcement and the government's a role in enforcing child support orders.
Methods of Child Support Collection
Refer to this article for an understanding of methods used to collect child support.
Incarceration for Non-Payment of Child Support
Incarceration is just one of the consequences parents face for non-payment of child support. Learn more about how the courts handle child support incarceration, including how long parents can be incarcerated and what parents can do to improve their situation.
Do Incarcerated Parents Still Pay Child Support?
It is very difficult to handle a parent's incarceration, especially when a custodial parent is dependent on an incarcerated parent's child support payments. Refer to this article for an understanding of what happens with child support payments when a non-custodial parent is incarcerated.
How the Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS) is Used to Find Parents
The goal of the Federal Parent Locator Service(FPLS) is to work with several agencies to find parents and ensure that children have the opportunity to be financially supported by both parents. Learn more about the Federal Parent Locator Service and who can utilize its services.
Child Support Payments
It is difficult to understand the components of child support payments and what factors may affect child support payments. Learn more about how child support is calculated, what happens when child support is unpaid, and how to collect back child support payments. In addition, several events may allow parents to decrease or stop making child...
Child Support Income and School-Aged Children
Do you ever wonder how to spend child support income received from a non-custodial parent? Parents with school-aged children who want more information about which expenses should be covered by child support payments should read this article.
Child Support Income and Toddlers
When you're raising a toddler, you may not be sure how to spend child support income. Should it be used for immediate expenses, or should you save some for later? Learn how to best use your child support income when you're raising a toddler.
Child Support Payments and Teenagers
Child support payments can be used for a variety of purposes, including daily necessities, entertainment, and more. Find out how to use child support income to meet your teen's dynamic needs.
Should the Attorney General Be Involved in My Child Support Case?
Certain states use an Attorney General to obtain or enforce child support payments. Learn more about the role of the Attorney General in the child support enforcement process.
What Information Do I Need Before I File for Child Support?
Navigating the child support system can be difficult. Learn more about child custody laws and what to expect with this Q&A about various child support issues.
Child Support and Unwed Mothers
Unwed mothers often wrestle with whether to file for child support against the child's father. The decision depends on several different factors. Find out what you need to know about filing for child support as an unwed mother.
Child Support and Right to Counsel
A parents' right to counsel isn't always clear, and yet it may be difficult for parents to navigate the court system when they are held in contempt due to child support nonpayment. Find out what to do if you require the services of an attorney but are ineligible for court-appointed legal services. | <urn:uuid:5817d90d-f0a8-4954-a5b5-b7a57304cb23> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://singleparents.about.com/od/statebystateresources/Child_Support_Resources_for_Single_Parents.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944785 | 2,286 | 1.585938 | 2 |
I'm making a game and I don't know where to start with my 3D modelling stuff
I don't know what book from Paul Steed I should buy can someone help
3D Modelling where to start?
1 reply to this topic
Posted 12 April 2004 - 01:28 PM
blender is a free modelling programm. there are also many tutorials on the web about using blender. milkshape is another program that jumps my mind right now. if it's of concern to you, gametutorials.com has a tutorial on loading milkshape models
If Prolog is the answer, what is the question ?
1 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users | <urn:uuid:f89df4f1-1a0b-4919-86bf-aac80b72179a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://devmaster.net/forums/topic/751-3d-modelling-where-to-start/page__p__5578 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955584 | 152 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Kinship Care Subsidy Program
child who resides with a qualified relative other than a parent.
Do I Qualify for KCSP?
A child may meet the eligibility requirements for both the Family Independence Temporary Assistance Program (FITAP) and Kinship Care Subsidy Program (KCSP) but may only receive assistance in one program.
To receive KCSP for a child, the qualified relative must meet all the conditions listed below:
- The child must live in the home of one of the following qualified relatives (either biological or adoptive): grandfather or grandmother (extends to great-great-great), brother or sister (including half), uncle or aunt (extends to great-great), stepfather, stepmother, stepbrother, stepsister, first cousin, including first cousin once removed, and nephew or niece (extends to great-great), or the legal spouse of the above-listed relatives.
- The child must have income of less than $222 per month.
- The child must be under 18 years of age.
- The child must be a resident of Louisiana.
- The child must be a citizen of the United States or a qualified alien.
- The qualified relative must provide proof of immunity or immunization against vaccine-preventable disease for each child under 18 years of age.
- The qualified relative must possess or obtain within one year of certification, either legal custody or guardianship or provisional custody by mandate of the eligible child who is living in the home. Legal custody or guardianship must be granted by a court and verified through court records or other reliable documents. Provisional custody by mandate is a notarized authorization made by the child´s parent or parents to a person of legal age to provide care, custody, and control of a minor child. Certain requirements must be met for the execution of this document. Provisional Custody by Mandate is valid for one year or until ended by the parent.
- The family must have an annual income of less than 150% of the federal poverty threshold, in accordance with the qualified relative's family size. Income from all sources is considered in determination of eligibility. This includes income from Social Security, Veteran’s benefits, Railroad Retirement, wages and any other regular income.
- The qualified relative must assign to the state rights to child support from any other person and cooperate with Support Enforcement Services in obtaining child support for the child unless good cause is established.
- The qualified relative must not have been convicted of or released from incarceration for a felony of possession, use or distribution of a controlled substance within the past year.
- The qualified relative must furnish or apply for a social security number for the child.
- The parent(s) of the child must not live in the home of the qualified relative.
Applicants must be interviewed and provide proof of statements made on the application regarding eligibility. This proof may include a birth or baptismal record to show the child’s age, a copy of the court-awarded custody or guardianship documents or notarial statement, or other documents needed to establish the child’s relationship to the qualified relative.
What are My Rights?
As an applicant, you have certain rights. You have a right to:
- Receive an application the same day you ask for it.
- Turn in your application the same day you receive it.
- Receive your benefits (or be notified that you are not eligible for the program) within 30 days after you turn in your application.
- Have a fair hearing if you disagree with any action taken on your case.
If you believe that you have been discriminated against because of age, sex, color, race, handicap, religious creed, national origin, or political beliefs, it is your right to file a complaint either through your local Economic Stability parish office or directly to the Economic Stability Division or to the Federal Government. If you wish to file such a complaint, you may secure the complaint form from your local Economic Stability parish office.
How Are My Benefits Issued?
Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) is a method of delivering governmental benefits to recipients electronically. Louisiana uses magnetic stripe card technology. The card, which is referred to as the Louisiana Purchase Card enables recipients to access benefits at ATM’s and Point-of-Sale (POS) machines.
Cash benefits are posted to recipient accounts during the first five days of the month. Recipient benefits are accessible by 5:00 a.m. the morning after they are posted. Benefits are posted on the same date every month regardless of the day of the week. Holidays and weekends do not affect the date of benefit availability.
Benefits are secure and accessible only to persons authorized by the recipient. The Personal Identification Number (PIN) is selected by the recipient and must be correctly entered in order to successfully complete all electronic transactions. As purchases or cash withdrawals are made at grocery store checkout lanes and ATM’s, recipient accounts are debited and the recipient is given a receipt which provides the remaining account balance.
KCSP HistoryThe Department of Children & Family Services, Economic Stability Division implemented Louisiana's Kinship Care Subsidy Program (KCSP) on March 1, 2000. This program is funded by Louisiana's Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Block Grant and was implemented as a result of legislation passed during the 1999 Louisiana State Legislature. | <urn:uuid:8b2a6c85-b60d-4bd1-a825-66d3f0993ee4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dss.state.la.us/index.cfm?md=pagebuilder&tmp=home&nid=165&pnid=158&pid=138 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932439 | 1,108 | 1.5 | 2 |
In Shakespeare's day the play was also known as All is True. However, scholars are divided on whether this was a subtitle or the original main title.
When was Henry VIII first performed?
The date of the first performance of Henry VIII is unknown. The earliest recorded performance of the play was by the King's Men on June 29, 1613, at the Globe Theatre. The cannon fire called for in the first act of the play set the thatched roof ablaze and the Globe burned to the ground. According to tradition, Shakespeare likely directed the performance himself. We have many contemporary accounts of the fire, but the most famous is the account written by a spectator named Sir Henry Wotton:
Now, to let matters of state sleep, I will entertain you at the present with what happened this week at the Bankside. The King's players had a new play, called All is True, representing some principal pieces of the reign of Henry VIII, which was set forth with many extraordinary circumstances of pomp and majesty, even to the matting of the stage; the Knights of the Order with their Georges and garters, the Guards with their embroidered coats, and the like: sufficient in truth within a while to make greatness very familiar, if not ridiculous. Now, King Henry making a masque at the Cardinal Wolsey's house, and certain chambers being shot off at his entry, some of the paper, or other stuff, wherewith one of them was stopped, did light on the thatch, where being thought at first but an idle smoke, and their eyes more attentive to the show, it kindled inwardly, and ran round like a train, consuming within less than an hour the whole house to the very grounds.
Lee, Sidney. A Life of William Shakespeare. London: Lee, Smith, Elder, and Co., 1899.
How to cite this article:
Mabillard, Amanda. Henry VIII Q & A. Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2000. (date when you accessed the information) < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/faq/henryVIIIfaq.html >. | <urn:uuid:bc829dbe-a706-44a8-a313-825503929b49> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shakespeare-online.com/faq/henryVIIIfaq.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970268 | 436 | 3.421875 | 3 |
New Tuberculosis Drug
I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English HEALTH REPORT.
Research scientists say they have discovered a new drug that will help the fight against the disease tuberculosis. The substance is called R-two-zero-seven-nine-one-zero. Experts say it has been shown in animal experiments to clear tuberculosis infections two times faster than other medicines. Scientists have just begun to test the experimental drug in people.
The researchers described the drug in Science magazine.
Tuberculosis infects at least eight million people each year. It also is the second leading cause of death around the world. The disease kills two million to three million people each year. Only Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome kills more. Eleven million people are infected with both tuberculosis and the virus that causes AIDS.
Tuberculosis spreads easily through the air, by coughing, sneezing or even talking. But people infected with the tuberculosis mycobacterium will not necessarily become sick. The organism can live in the body for years before becoming active.
Koen Andries led the effort to develop the new anti-tuberculosis drug. Doctor Andries is a researcher with the drug maker Johnson and Johnson in Belgium. He said the new drug is the first such medicine to be tested in people since rifampin was developed in nineteen-sixty-three.
Today, rifampin is used in combination with two other medicines to treat tuberculosis. The drugs must be taken for up to nine months. But experts say the drug treatment is no longer effective against the disease in many parts of the world. They say this is because the mycobacterium has developed defenses against the treatment. Doctors say the resistance resulted from patients failing to follow directions for the medicines.
The experimental drug is one of a new group of chemicals called diarylquinolines. Doctors say it works differently than other anti-tuberculosis drugs. Older drugs work by interfering with the manufacture of different systems in the mycobacterium.
Doctor Andries says the new drug blocks the energy supply of the organism. He also says the drug appears to be most effective when given in combination with the older drugs.
Limited human tests of the new drug have shown that it is safe. But some researchers warn that it may not work as well in people as it has in mice.
This VOA Special English HEALTH REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Gwen Outen. | <urn:uuid:76bd5a70-5faf-48cc-a35e-9675aa8451ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.manythings.org/voa/0/11484.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961138 | 508 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Wheaton College takes any form of sexual assault very seriously, and is committed to establishing and maintaining a safe and healthy environment for all members of the community by providing resources for prevention, support, education, and a fair disciplinary process.
If you are concerned that your student is in a potentially harmful relationship, contact the Office of Dean of Students at 508-286-8218 or Public Safety at 508-286-8213.
If your daughter or son lets you know that he or she has been sexually assaulted, your primary concern, of course, is his/her safety and well-being. If safety is an immediate concern, Public Safety or the Norton Police should be notified without delay. Once safe, your student can call Public Safety (508-286-8213) and ask to speak with the Area Coordinator-on-Call/Dean-on-Call or, for confidential crisis support, care, and information, the Wheaton College Counseling Center (508-286-3905).
In addition to the information below, the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center provides information specifically intended for parents.
If your student feels unsure about what has happened to him/her, he/she should know that sexual assault is ANY unwanted sexual contact that occurs without a person's consent. A sexual act is non-consensual if it is initiated through coercion, manipulation, force, threats, intimidation or helplessness.
Sexual assault is traumatic. It is often difficult for someone who has been sexually assaulted to be alone, especially immediately after the assault. Encourage your student to find a friend to stay with him/her.
Encourage your student to seek medical attention as soon as possible, even if he/she does not want to report the assault to the police. Even if it has been awhile since the assault occurred, your student may still benefit from medical attention.
Medication to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections is available at Norton Medical Center or any hospital ER.
Support your student and listen non-judgmentally. Listen and then listen some more. Do not blame or ask "why" questions. Allow your student the freedom to choose when and where to talk about the assault. It can be helpful and empowering for your student to make his/her own decisions regarding discussing and/or reporting the assault. | <urn:uuid:f127ce87-d2c3-432b-b501-4b1c3dfe721b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wheatoncollege.edu/sexual-assault/parents/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950322 | 470 | 1.875 | 2 |
Mental illness often ignored by many churches
A new study by Baylor University has found that some church communities are sadly lacking when it comes to support for families in their congregation who are affected by mental illness and this can destroy a family’s connection with their church.
Almost 6,000 people from 24 churches from four Protestant denominations were surveyed as part of the research and asked about family stresses, strengths, faith practices and desires for assistance from the congregation.
Mental health support a priority for those with mental illness
Out of those who took part, 27 percent of families were found to be affected by mental illness. They reported more problems and requested more assistance than the others, and for them, support with issues surrounding mental health was a priority.
The researchers found that those who had a member of the family with mental illness ranked help with issues like depression and mental illness as second on the list of desires for assistance from the congregation.
Difference in response “staggering”
Support for mental health issues wasn’t considered as important for those who weren’t affected by mental illness as they ranked mental health assistance from the church as 42nd on the list of priorities.
“The difference in response is staggering, especially given the picture of distress painted by the data: families with mental illness reported twice as many problems and tended to ask for assistance with more immediate or crisis needs compared to other families” said study co-author Dr. Matthew Stanford, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor.
“The data give the impression that mental illness, while prevalent within a congregation, is also nearly invisible.”
Lack of awareness and understanding
Dr Diana Garland, Dean of Baylor’s School of Social Work and a co-author of the study says the findings suggest that it amounts to lack of awareness and understanding.
“Families with mental illness stand to benefit from their involvement within a congregation, but our findings suggest that faith communities fail to adequately engage these families because they lack awareness of the issues and understanding of the important ways that they can help” said Dr Garland.
“Mental illness is not only prevalent in church communities, but is accompanied by significant distress that often goes unnoticed. Partnerships between mental health providers and congregations may help to raise awareness in the church community and simultaneously offer assistance to struggling families.”
The study is the first study to look at how mental illness of a family member influences an individual’s relationship with the church and appears on-line in the journal Mental Health, Religion and Culture.Learn how I beat Depression | <urn:uuid:be89cd8f-9f32-42ce-b5f6-72496ede13df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fightingdepression.co.uk/mental-health-support-a-priority-for-those-with-mental-illness | 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 | 0.976066 | 533 | 2.109375 | 2 |
School of Natural Sciences
The School of Natural Sciences conducts research, and delivers teaching, on all aspects of the natural world, from the formation of the earth, the behaviour of the environment, the evolution and ecology of its organisms and its interactions with human society. We are engaged with solving some of the major challenges facing human society through our teaching, research and partnership with industry and policy development both nationally and globally. We currently accommodate ca. 40 academic staff, 20 postdoctoral research fellows and 140 graduate research students. We have an annual research income in excess of €4 million and produce an average of 150 publications per year.
Our School’s taught programme is varied, offering nine undergraduate degrees and four taught Masters Courses mirroring our research activities. Postgraduate research students working towards Masters and PhDs are embedded in the research teams across our School.
Research in the School of Natural Sciences focusses on understanding the world in which we live. Our School consists of ca. 40 principal investigators who lead teams of postdoctoral researchers and postgraduate students. | <urn:uuid:bf269a29-bc11-43d8-b830-75e50a238e90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.naturalscience.tcd.ie/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950517 | 212 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Based on her book of the same
title, this seminar will speak to the mature soul,
notwithstanding one’s age. Dr. Thibault will bring us
to a deeper awareness of God’s presence throughout the
various transitions we experience as we grow older. The
‘radical freedom of age’ can also have negative
consequences: greed, mourning and an overall feeling of
discontent. We will explore the inner work necessary
for a healthy spirituality in later life, including the
process of dedicated suffering, a practice recently
fashioned by Dr. Thibault.
Jane Marie Thibault, a retired gerontologist and professor of Family and Geriatric Medicine at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, lives in Louisville, Kentucky. She is the author of 10 Gospel Promises for Later Life and A Deepening Love Affair: The Gift of God in Later Life. Thibault is co-author (with Richard Morgan) of No Act of Love Is Ever Wasted: The Spirituality of Caring for Persons with Dementia.
A Poster of this event is available for your parish or community board in the left sidebar under Publications.
Friday, May 24, from 7 pm to 9 pm and
Saturday, May 25, from 9 am to 4 pm, followed by Mass.
Loyola High School
7272 Sherbrooke Street West, corner West Broadway.
Please bring a lunch. Coffee and snacks provided.
To register or for more information, please contact
The Ignatian Centre
This workshop will explore
seven common styles of being a “Messiah” and some of
the ways in which we can become more aware of unhealthy
patterns in our helping relationships. We will also
look at healthy models of Christian service and
In an interactive way, we will explore the balance in our own lives of service, increase our awareness about how we make decisions and how to find balance in our busy lives.
Date: May 4, 2013
Time: 9 am - 3 pm
Place: The Ignatian Centre
Please contact the Centre at 514-481-1064, or at firstname.lastname@example.org, for more information or to register.
May 10 and 11, 2013
As many of you know, our annual Book and Yard sale is a vital source of income to the Centre and a labor of love for the volunteers, who tirelessly sort through and organize the donations we receive.
Please consider donating gently used items, including clothing and house ware, small appliances and electronic items which are in working order, and of course, our pièce de résistance, BOOKS, to the Centre for our next sale.
Please note that items may be dropped off during regular office hours, Monday to Thursday, 9 am to 4 pm. Please contact the Centre at 514-481-1064, or at email@example.com, if you need to make an appointment outside of these times.
Date: Saturday, March 2, 2013
Time: 9am - 3 pm
(Coffee and cookies included. Please bring a lunch)
New and experienced pray-ers may feel their prayer life is flat or “boring” at times. The saints often called this the “desert.” This feeling of God’s absence can be reflected in our workplace or through the crises in our Church and parishes or in family transitions. What do the mystics, both modern and traditional, have to tell us?
This workshop will tap into the traditional spiritual wisdom of the Desert Mothers and Fathers, including John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila as well as the experience of more contemporary writers.
To register or for more information, please contact the Ignatian Spirituality Centre at
514-481-1064 or firstname.lastname@example.org
Institutions, please consider printing and posting the poster for this event, to be found under Publications in the sidebar, on your community bulletin board. Thank you!
...will be in town for 2 events!
1. BEYOND BELIEF: BEYOND CERTAINTY
What does it really mean to be people of faith when traditional religious structures seem to be straining
and breaking down? When dangerous fault-lines are opening up between faith and theism, between
different faith traditions, and within our own traditions and practices? Is faith simply our assent to a
series of theological propositions, or is it a question of trust? What is this mystery we call God and how
might we be in relationship with such mystery? Who is Jesus for us? And what about faith community?
An opportunity to explore questions we might not dare ask in church.
Thursday, November 29, 2012, at 7 p.m.
Fulford Hall, 1444 Union Ave., Montreal (Metro McGill)
FREE ADMISSION. ALL WELCOME.
The Ignatian Spirituality Centre (514 481-1064)
The Spiritual Direction Group, Diocese of Montreal (Anglican)
2. LIMPING INTO LIFE
An opportunity to reflect on some of the key events in Ignatius’ story, and uncover the patterns of how divine grace works through human imperfection to bring about transformation beyond anything we can imagine, not just in the life of an evolving saint, but in our own lives too. Based on Margaret’s latest book ‘Just Call Me Lopez’, Getting to the Heart of Ignatius Loyola, Loyola Press, Chicago, 2012.
This theme provides a framework in which we can explore topics like discernment, detachment, living with tension, and the power of visionary experience, as demonstrated in the initially very ‘limping’ life of Ignatius and in our own limping efforts to live into God’s Dream.
On Friday, November 30, from 7 pm to 9pm, and, Saturday, December 1, from 9 am to 4 pm. Mass celebrated at 4pm. Coffee and snacks provided on both days, however, please bring a lunch for Saturday.
At: Loyola High School, 7272 Sherbrooke West, corner West Broadway, H4B 1R2
To register, please contact the Ignatian Centre at 514-481-1064 or by email at email@example.com
FOR POSTERS, please look under Publications in the sidebar.
Margaret Silf travels widely in her work as a retreat director and speaker on Ignatian spirituality. Her latest book, Just Call Me Lopez: Getting to the Heart of Ignatius Loyola, appeared in 2012. Her other books include The Other Side of Chaos, Simple Faith, Compass Points, Inner Compass, Close to the Heart and Going on Retreat (Loyola Press) and The Gift of Prayer: Embracing the Sacred in the Everyday (Bluebridge). She lives in Scotland.
with facilitator, Mary-Ellen Francoeur
This will be a meditative experience as we explore the presence of Compassion from the creation of the universe to the hearts of the present day. Blending spirituality, psychology and cosmology, we will experience the life-giving and healing power of Compassion.
Mary-Ellen is a Sister of Service. She has a doctorate in clinical psychology, years of experience as a spiritual director, with an interest in the richness of all the spiritual traditions and the spiritual dimension of cosmology. Friday, October 19, from 7 pm to 9 pm and
Saturday, October 20, from 9 am to 4 pm (please bring a lunch)!
Mass celebrated at 4 pm
Coffee and cookies provided both days.
At The Ignatian Centre
4567 West Broadway
Mtl, QC H4B 2A7
To register, please contact the Centre at 514-481-1064 or by email at firstname.lastname@example.org.
If this seminar may be of interest to others, please consider using our poster, which can be found on the left sidebar under Publications.
We are very
excited about the programs offered this year.
below for details
on upcoming fall events, and our
Calendar in the
sidebar for the full year events.
An Invitation to Prayer is a new, eight week session for those interested in learning to pray with Scripture. If registration permits, Elizabeth and Cathie will return with Hearing God in Others, a course open to all, especially those who feel called to become prayer companions. Registration is now open for the Contemplative Retreat in Daily with Father Krull.
Please do not hesitate to contact the Centre at 514-481-1064 or email@example.com for further information or to register.
Carl Krull, S.J.
A contemplative program in everyday life for those who have a longing for a simpler and more direct union with God, having formerly meditated on scripture with satisfaction, but feel an increasing frustration and inability to go on doing so.
Participants must be ready to put aside an hour a day for prayer and attend weekly group meetings. Regular meetings with a spiritual director is recommended.
PLACE: The Ignatian Spirituality Centre of Montreal
DAY and TIME: To be determined by participants
COST: Suggested contribution: $100 for 20 sessions (no one will be turned away due to a lack of funds).
Contact: The Ignatian Centre, 514-481-1064 or at firstname.lastname@example.org
Macaulay and Elizabeth Koessler.
This 6 session course is designed to develop a spirituality of listening. Basic skills for fostering communication in family and pastoral care relationships are put into practice during this course.
PLACE: The Ignatian Spirituality Centre of Montreal
DATE & TIME: Tuesdays, beginning mid-September, at 7:30 pm
To register or for more information, please contact The Ignatian Centre at 514-481-1064 or email at email@example.com | <urn:uuid:77773d6a-a116-4d17-907f-d09304496761> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ignatiancentremtl.ca/news.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909981 | 2,120 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Making Technology Accessible
AFB is committed to helping companies supply user-friendly devices to individuals with vision loss. The AFB Tech team evaluates mainstream and assistive technology and collaborates with companies to ensure the latest products meet the needs of consumers with visual impairments. These evaluations are published in AFB's popular online magazine, AccessWorld®, as well as in leading industry journals. In 2011, AT&T, Verizon, and Sony Ericsson worked with AFB's consulting arm to help make their popular cell phones more accessible to people with disabilities.
"Thanks again for your excellent work, in particular your continuing coverage of the cell phone market. Your articles on cell phones and other equipment help me greatly personally, and in [the] work I do to assist other blind and visually impaired people through the Kansas Rehabilitation Services."
—Todd, vision rehabilitation counselor and AccessWorld reader
(Photo Caption) 42% of Americans with disabilities have broadband at home, considerably below
the national average.
Source: FCC survey, October-November 2009 | <urn:uuid:e8a24ff7-6ea8-4d26-a203-cc0d25814b51> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.afb.org/section.aspx?SectionID=42&TopicID=461&DocumentID=5613 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933882 | 208 | 2.078125 | 2 |
I usually try to buy local and organic foods, but am not always successful. Choosing to buy locally is often inconvenient, while buying organic can be expensive. Most grocery stores do not stock local foods, so I need to go to the farmer’s market to purchase it, which eats up a Saturday morning. Organic food is now widely available in grocery stores, but is almost always more costly than non-organic purchases (sometimes more than twice as much). But when I see an article about how pesticides are killing off bird populations, or when there’s another recall on beef, I feel that I need to make every effort to buy locally produced and organic foods for my family. As a parent who thinks a lot about the food my family eats and where it comes from, I have often wished to share this type of information with my children in an age-appropriate way. So I was excited when I recently learned about an organization in the Bay Area whose main focus is on teaching children about organic farming and environmental education.
Hidden Villa, which is a working organic and sustainable farm in Los Altos Hills, is dedicated to helping parents and teachers do just this. So when my daughters’ classes scheduled a trip to Hidden Villa, I knew I absolutely had to chaperone so I could see their educational program up close.
Hidden Villa was founded in 1924 by Frank and Josephine Duveneck. With a vision of social justice, they turned their farm into a gathering place where people from all over the world could take part in “discussion, reflection, and incubation of social reform.” In 1937, they created a hostel to house their guests (the first hostel on the West Coast), and in 1945 created a multiracial summer camp amid protests. A trust for Hidden Villa was created in 1960, when it became a nonprofit organization.
In addition to being an organic farm, Hidden Villa spends much of the school year providing educational programs to elementary school children. The entire second grade for my daughters’ school visited Hidden Villa this week, participating in their Farm and Wilderness Exploration program, which provided an open and honest look at real organic farming and food cycles. When we arrived, I was immediately taken with the serenity and beauty of the place, and, after a day’s visit, impressed with the depth and diversity of the curriculum as well.
On our tour, we met pigs, cows, goats, sheep, and chickens and learned not only what they eat and how they live, but also what people use them for. When we visited the pig sty, the kids were all able to pet the pigs and see them eat (with a lot of oohing and aahing about how cute they were), but this wasn’t just a petting-zoo experience. After we interacted with the pigs, we were directed to a learning center outside the sty where Susan, our guide, led a discussion on the many things people make from pigs. In addition to the obvious chat about ham and pork chops, Susan showed the children a dog chew made out of pig skin, marshmallows made from gelatin (which I hate to admit has pig collagen in it), a fancy hair brush with bristles made of pig hair, and a leather water pouch made of pig skin. She also told the kids that Hidden Villa slaughters some of their pigs and that using the animals is part of what happens on a working farm. The information was straightforward, yet age-appropriate, and the kids accepted it very maturely, and made some thoughtful comments of their own.
Our tour also included an expedition to Hidden Villa’s extensive vegetable gardens and green house. In the composting area, the children were given shovels to help a little with the farm work, while we talked about growing seasons and fertilization. We then wandered through the vegetable beds, where Susan pulled sorrel leaves, rhubarb spears, and herbs to make “burritos” of all the vegetables wrapped in lettuce for the kids. Not one child moaned about hating vegetables. Everyone was eager to taste the burritos and exclaimed how much they loved them. One of my daughters has been begging me to grow sorrel since we’ve returned home.
After our farm visit, we wandered into the wilderness area, which is the largest part of Hidden Villa, for a hike that included discussions on plant communities, food webs, predator and prey relationships, and good stewardship of the land in a friendly and accessible way. Susan taught the kids how to make face paint by rubbing river rocks together and sent each child on a short (and safe) hike alone to reflect on the individual aspects of the forest and the surrounding area. When I asked my daughters and a friend of theirs what they liked the most about the trip to Hidden Villa, they shouted “the hike!” – with all three mentioning the solo walk as the best part of their day.
The Farm and Wilderness educational program at Hidden Villa is meant for 2nd – 6th graders, with tours every Tuesday through Friday. They also have farm tours, which are shorter and don’t include the wilderness hike, for Pre-K through 1st graders. Weekend tours are available for families. During the summer months, Hidden Villa emphasizes the Duveneck family’s commitment for nurturing relationships between people of different cultural, religious, economic and racial backgrounds through their summer camp program. Both day and overnight camps are offered, always with an emphasis on caring for each other and the environment.
If you live on the Peninsula, you’re close enough to participate in Hidden Villa’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, which allows you to purchase a share of the harvest at the beginning of the season, and then receive a basket of vegetables once a week from May until Thanksgiving. Hidden Villa participates in this program so people can get to know the farmers who grow their food and visit the land that produces it.
If you are a teacher or parent interested in teaching your kids about food cycles and organic farming, I highly recommend a visit to Hidden Villa. To learn more about this great resource, visit their web site or call (650) 949-8650. | <urn:uuid:934eb747-74da-4c08-b34b-b6ea56998659> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2008/04/05/hidden-villa/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972949 | 1,279 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Authors need to know about book publishing, especially if they intend to have their books published. Going into publishing your book based on perceived misconceptions is what leads to mistakes that can sometimes be costly in dollars and your book’s success. Trying to get your book released without learning anything about publishing is like trying to bake a cake without bothering to learn the basics of an oven. If you’re not careful, you’re liable to get burnt.
First, let’s start with the basics.
Below are a list of words used when discussing publishing that every writer hears all the time. However, many new authors assume they know what they mean. These words are thrown about so much by publishers, agents, and authors that many writers are intimidated to ask questions about them for fear of giving away their naivety. (Okay, if I have to be the only author that was afraid to admit I didn’t know what an ISBN was when I started out, so be it!)Well, there’s no need to pretend any longer that you know what authors and publishers are talking about—or make any assumptions.
ARC: Advanced Review Copy: When you traditionally publish, approximately 3-4 months before a book is released, the publisher will send out advanced copies of books to publications, reviewers, or even celebrities. Authors will sometimes offer ARC’s as giveaways or prizes for fans.
The purpose of this advanced release of the book is two-fold:
1. The reviewers are able to read the book and provide reviews, which will come out at the time as the release.
2. In the meantime, the author is reviewing the book for any last minute errors he/or she may catch. For the author, the ARC is their proof. It comes off the same press at the same time as the ARC. On television or in the movies, you will hear authors refer to these as galleys or galley proofs.
When you receive your ARC, you should sit down to read it carefully. A hard copy book reads differently than it does on a computer screen or in loose pages spread out across your bed. This is not the time to make grand sweeping changes, but it is your last chance to catch mistakes. I guarantee you’ll find mistakes. Don’t be ashamed of how many mistakes you do find. It is better to find them now, rather than after your book is released and reviewers posts reviews on Amazon about your typos, which they will do.
Authors who independently publish can also send out ARCs. With Old Loves Die Hard, I had compiled a list of reviewers wanting to review the second the second installment of my Mac Faraday Mystery. When I ordered my proof for Old Loves Die Hard, I simply ordered extra copies to send to them. While I was going over the last proof, these reviewers were reading the ARC the exact same way reviewers get advance reviews ready for traditionally published books. In the same week I approved Old Loves Die Hard for release, two reviewers posted reviews for it on their website.
Advance: An advance is an approximation of what the publisher thinks your book will earn you in royalties in (perhaps) a year. It is an advance payment on those earnings, thus the name. Essentially, an advance is a loan that you don’t pay interest on (and would only pay back in cases covered by the contract). It’s the publisher gambling that there will eventually be money in that book. Usually, the publisher is wrong. According to a New York Time article I read recently, 7 out of 10 titles do not earn back their advance. If you do not earn back your advance, the publisher will not take your next book.
Now, you are an unknown, and by that I mean you do not have paparazzi waiting in your driveway for you to leave your home in the morning. Therefore, the publisher will be expecting you to spend that money on marketing and promotion. Either you can do it yourself or hire a publicist, whatever you have to do to make your book sell enough copies to cover that advance on your royalties. Don’t be expecting the publisher to put any money into the marketing of your book. Unless you’re Dan Brown or Stephen King, they’re not going to be putting anything into promoting your book for you. The publishers only invest marketing money into their authors who are in the top 5 percent of book sales. The rest are on their own. It is going to be your responsibility to make this book a success.
Because an advance is a sort of loan, you won’t start earning royalties until your accrued royalties have earned back that advance. So when you see on the news about Stephen King or Dan Brown getting a multi-million dollar advance, keep this in mind: Those authors won’t be getting any royalties until their books sell enough to cover that advance, and if it doesn’t—It won’t be pretty.
Now you could blow your advance on a cruise or take it to Vegas and have a weekend to remember. The publisher won’t stop you. But, if that book does not earn back what he’s invested in you, then you won’t be able to sell him your next book. If your book is a bomb, your publisher will be passing on the word to the other publishers. They do talk to each other.
Copyright: These days, almost all things are copyrighted the moment they are written, and no copyright notice is required. Registration with the Copyright office provides a documentation of your copyright. You can now register your copyright online with the Library of Congress. Simply upload your file. It does take a long time for them to process it, but that does not mean that your work is not yours until you get your certificate. Your work is still protected even if you have not registered it. The fee is $35.
ISBN/ISBN-13:“ISBN” stands for “International Standard Book Number”. An ISBN is a number, not the bar code. One agency per country is designated to assign ISBNs for the publishers and self-publishers located in that country. In the US that is Bowker. The ISBN identifies the title or other book-like product (such as an audiobook) to which it is assigned, but also the publisher to be contacted for ordering purposes.
The ISBN does not have anything to do with the publisher’s rights to your book. I have had authors think that if they self-publish through CreateSpace and they get the ISBN from CreateSpace that they are handing over their rights to Amazon. No, that is not the case.
When participating in the ISBN standard, publishers and self-publishers are required to report all information about their titles to which they have assigned ISBNs. When an author calls up a bookstore, or a customer calls a store to order your book, then the first thing the bookstore want to know is the ISBN. They type that into their computer and they will get everything they need to know – including the publisher and distributor.
ISBN/ISBN-13 stays with the publisher, and a book can have more than one ISBN.
For example, Five Star Mystery, the traditional publisher for A Reunion to Die For obtained the ISBN for my title. When I re-released the print version through CreateSpace, I couldn’t use the same ISBN/ISBN-13 because the ISBN stayed with Five Star. I had to obtain a new ISBN from CreateSpace. When I published the Kindle version, I got another ISBN from DTP, which is another Amazon company. When I published the e-version with Barnes and Noble Pub-It, I got another ISBN, because Barnes and Noble is yet another publisher. A Reunion to Die For has still another ISBN through Books-In-Motion, who publishes the audio version. A Reunion to Die For has five ISBN numbers from five different publishers, but none of them have any rights to that book. I have all the rights for A Reunion to Die For.
Many authors will buy their own the ISBN/ISBN-13 from Bowkers in order to avoid having a known self-publishing company’s imprint on their book so that it will not be readily identified as an independently published title. When going through CreateSpace, you simply give them the ISBN number and they will place it on the cover. In this case, you will be listed as the publisher with Bowkers. CreateSpace is acting as your printer.
Distribution: When it comes to print publishing, distribution is important. Distribution is sending the printed book to the warehouse or the store to get it on the shelf. The vast majority of bookstores will not carry your book in their store or book you for a book signing, if they can’t get your book from their wholesale distributor. Why? Because they pay a whole lot less for it from the distributor. We’re talking a fraction of the full price. Then the bookstore will turn around and sell it for full price and make a nice profit. The biggest distributors are Ingram and Baker and Taylor.
If your book is not available to the major distributors: Baker and Taylor, Ingram, etc, then the bookstores won’t be able to make your book available to readers. You can shovel tens of thousands of dollars into promotion and have thousands of people calling Books-A-Million begging for your book. But, if it isn’t with their wholesale distributor, they’ll come back to the customer and say, “Sorry, we can’t get it.” If bookstores won’t buy it, it will be harder for customers to get. If your book is hard for customers to get, then they’ll give up and you will lose a sale.
You need to make your book available with the wholesale distributors. If your publisher doesn’t list your book with Ingrams and Baker & Taylor, don’t waste your time. It is the same with E-books. On the e-book side we have Lightning Source who distributes the e-books to the online e-bookstores. Since the wholesaler distributors are buying your book from the publisher at such a discount, then that means that you will get less money per book in your royalties when the book is purchased through the wholesaler.
This is the point at which many new authors will get confused (because it is confusing) when it comes to their royalty statements.
Let’s say an author is expecting ten percent in royalties on their $20 book. They are expecting $2 royalty for every book sold. However, royalties based on wholesale prices (books sold through the distributors) are called net royalties. Things get more complicated here.
Again assume that you’ve written a book that retails for $20, but it is sold to the wholesaler for a sixty percent discount. That means it is now $8. Ten percent of $8 is eighty cents. Many authors forget, or aren’t even aware, of wholesale sales when their book comes out. They will do a quick calculation:
Two dollars per book. A thousand-dollar advance. Sell five hundred books to earn back my advance.
Unfortunately, if the majority of your books are sold through wholesale distributors, which they very well could be, as you can see by the math, you need to sell a whole lot more to earn back your advance.
Marketing and promotion is the process of compelling the readers to go to the bookstore or the online bookstores to buy your book. That is sending out ARC’s to reviewers to get people talking about your book. Sending out press releases to the media. Booking events at bookstores. Booking visits onto blogs. Social marketing on Facebook and Twittering. Designing book markers, postcards, and other media. Getting booked onto author panels at book conferences and book fairs.
Distribution and Marketing are not one and the same.
I had a new author contact me that she was signing with a publisher because they told her that her book was going to be in all the bookstores because it was going to be with the wholesale distributors. I thought, “Hmm, my books are with the distributors but they’re not in every bookstore.” During further conversation, I came to find that by the publisher telling her that her book was going to be sent to the wholesale distributor, she thought that meant that her book was automatically going be on the bookshelves in every bookstore. She was envisioning seeing her book on display right inside the door at Barnes and Noble.
She was confusing distribution with marketing. She is not alone. Many authors will do this.
When a publisher tells you that your book is going to be listed with Baker & Taylor and Ingrams and available to all the bookstores, that means your book will be available for them to purchase. That is distribution, it is not marketing.
Print on Demand (POD), sometimes called publish on demand, is digital printing. It is a printing technology and business process in which new copies of a book (or other document) are not printed until an order has been received. “Print on Demand” was developed only after digital printing began because it was not economical to print single copies using traditional printing technology.
Many traditional small presses have replaced their traditional printing equipment with POD equipment or contract their printing out to POD service providers.
Many small publishers use CreateSpace as a printer. Their cover designer actually has a spot on the cover for publishers or independent authors to place their own logo. The advantage of Print on Demand for self-publishers and small presses is that they don’t have to invest in a large inventory. Before print on demand, self-publishers or small presses would have to shell out of pocket thousands of dollars to print up an inventory of say 500 books. Then, if those books didn’t sell, they would be out that money and have a warehouse full of books.
Another advantage of print on demand, is that if the author or publisher finds a glaring mistake in the book, then they can more readily fix it. All they do is make the correction on the file and upload it. From that point forward, any runs that are made will have the corrections. Of course, you can’t do anything about the copies that have been printed and are in distribution, but it is better than having to wait for a second printing, which authors would and still have to do with the major publishers.
I heard about an author whose traditional publisher failed to make the corrections she had requested from her proof. We’re not talking about one or two missing commas or period. Somehow her requested changes had slipped through the cracks and the publisher released the uncorrected proof to the public. Thousands of copies had been printed and sent to the distributors. All the publisher told the author was, “Oops. Sorry.” There was nothing they could do. Since she was new and unknown they didn’t think she was worth the investment of throwing out all those thousands of books and printing up new copies of the corrected version.
Print on Demand is so cost effective, especially for a small print job, that some companies are courting bookstore to purchase POD machines that will actually print the book in the store while the customer waits. As you can in this video, the Expresso Book Machine is a little bit larger than a copier and works almost as fast.
I’m sure there are words that I have missed, but these are the ones that I have been asked most frequently about. If I have missed any that you would like to know about, or even think that other authors should have clarification on, please let me know.
Now, young author, you are fully arms for your next conversation with publishers, agents, or even other authors. Go forth now and prosper.
Come back next week for my posting which will give you the low down in traditional publishing and the pros and cons of pursuing this route.
About the Author: Lauren Carr
Lauren Carr fell in love with mysteries when her mother read Perry Mason to her at bedtime. The first installment in the Joshua Thornton mysteries, A Small Case of Murder was a finalist for the Independent Publisher Book Award. A Reunion to Die For was released in hardback in June 2007. Both of these books are in re-release. Last year, the first installment of her new series, It’s Murder, My Son was released. It has received only rave reviews from both reviewers and readers. The Mac Faraday Mysteries take place in Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, where Lauren and her family vacation. The second installment is entitled Old Loves Die Hard. In addition to being an active member and director of the Association of Independent Authors, Lauren is a popular speaker who has made speaking appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. Visit Lauren at her website: http://laurencarr.webs.com for more information. She lives with her husband, son, and two dogs on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV. | <urn:uuid:77c17734-167d-4906-b676-12bcf7fa3f0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/blog/2011/08/what-are-you-talking-about/?afilter=links | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964622 | 3,567 | 1.773438 | 2 |
August 29, 2012
PASADENA, Calif. -- Posing for portraits for NASA's Cassini spacecraft, Saturn and its largest moon, Titan, show spectacular colors in a quartet of images being released today. One image captures the changing hues of Saturn's northern and southern hemispheres as they pass from one season to the next.
The images can be found at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://ciclops.org .
A wide-angle view in today's package captures Titan passing in front of Saturn, as well as the planet's changing colors. Upon Cassini's arrival at Saturn eight years ago, Saturn's northern winter hemisphere was an azure blue. Now that winter is encroaching on the planet's southern hemisphere and summer on the north, the color scheme is reversing: blue is tinting the southern atmosphere and is fading from the north.
The other three images depict the newly discovered south polar vortex in the atmosphere of Titan, reported recently by Cassini scientists. Cassini's visible-light cameras have seen a concentration of yellowish haze in the detached haze layer at the south pole of Titan since at least March 27. Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer spotted the massing of clouds around the south pole as early as May 22 in infrared wavelengths. After a June 27 flyby of the moon, Cassini released a dramatic image and movie showing the vortex rotating faster than the moon's rotation period. The four images being released today were acquired in May, June and July of 2012.
Some of these views, such as those of the polar vortex, are only possible because Cassini's newly inclined -- or tilted -- orbits allow more direct viewing of the polar regions of Saturn and its moons.
Scientists are looking forward to seeing more of the same -- new phenomena like Titan's south polar vortex and changes wrought by the passage of time and seasons -- during the remainder of Cassini's mission.
"Cassini has been in orbit now for the last eight years, and despite the fact that we can't know exactly what the next five years will show us, we can be certain that whatever it is will be wondrous," said Carolyn Porco, imaging team lead based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
Launched in 1997, Cassini went into orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004. It is in its second mission extension, known as the Solstice Mission, and one of its main goals is to analyze seasonal changes in the Saturn system.
"It is so fantastic to experience, through the instruments of Cassini, seasonal changes in the Saturn system," said Amanda Hendrix, deputy project scientist, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Some of the changes we see in the data are completely unexpected, while some occur like clockwork on a seasonal timescale. It's an exciting time to be at Saturn."
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
Jia-Rui C. Cook 818-354-0850
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Joe Mason 720-974-5859
Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. | <urn:uuid:e3f9ea06-bbc8-4304-8b63-e76a3fba0e7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-267 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933431 | 752 | 3.078125 | 3 |
This is for the people who fit is this proverb; “A small amount of knowledge can mislead people into thinking that they are more expert than they really are.”
One of the greatest errors is for people to act according to their own logic, or to the value judgments widespread in their society, which often is far from Islam, and not to the logic prescribed by Allah in the Qur’an. In other words, they approve of, ignore, or implement, comfortably and without thinking, the very behavior of which Allah disapproves and thus will punish in the Hereafter.
Lying is the most prominent behavior of this type. Even though most people know that lying is a bad moral characteristic, some people merely pay lip service to this knowledge because so many people have turned this serious character defect into a habit. Allah points out this fact in the following verse of the Qur’an:
Interestingly, most people who come into contact with a liar know when he or she is lying, but do not bother to expose the lies. In other words, they allow the liar to continue spreading his or her lies. Lying is a secret language among people, one about which everybody remains silent.
When something valuable is broken, for instance, the person who broke it may lie and deny having done so, thereby saving the day according to his own mentality. In fact, he puts himself in a very bad position, because if it is revealed that he is lying, he will greatly damage the very pride that he is trying to protect. Even more important, he has earned Allah’s disapproval. To the same extent that a Muslim avoids eating pork and makes sure to pray five times a day, he is scrupulous about not lying.
However, people who do not consider that lying is forbidden immediately resort to lies to protect themselves whenever they find themselves in a difficult position. Maybe at that moment they rescue themselves from what really is a difficult position, or believe that they have done so, but, as unrepentant and dishonest people, they will be held responsible for their lie in the afterlife.
Allah tells us in the following verse that those who do not believe in the Qur’an’s verses are liars:
Some people lie with great ease because they do not think about the Hereafter or believe that lying causes any harm. An example of this is the expression “white lies,” which signifies small untruths that are believed to be innocent and harmless, or that rescue the person from a particular situation. However, any type of lying indicates insincerity, hypocrisy, and falsity under any circumstances, for those who engage in it are deceiving and disrespecting others. For this reason, “white” lies are the same as “black” lies, and have their own harmful effects.
Allah has forbidden lying, as has our Prophet (saas), as seen below:
2. “False witness has been made equivalent to attributing a partner to Allah. Avoid the abomination of idols and speaking falsehood as people pure of faith to Allah, not associating anything with Him”
3. “Be careful of falsehood as it is the companion of the sinners and both will be in Hell.” | <urn:uuid:924fc20b-5ac9-4a3d-a64c-c76c2f03ce0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://justsimplyinlove.wordpress.com/2012/08/16/forbidden/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976168 | 669 | 2.671875 | 3 |
January 29, 2013
(USA TODAY) -- An updated schedule of recommended vaccinations, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, aims to clarify and simplify the list of shots that kids need to stay healthy and avoid preventable diseases.
The 2013 schedule has been approved by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Family Physicians. The schedule features several changes from the 2012 edition, including a redesigned layout, which allows for easier reading and more room for clarification in footnotes, says H. Cody Meissner, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at Tufts Medical Center and a contributor to the statement.
Also, a single schedule for kids up to age 18 replaces separate schedules for 6 and under and kids 7 to 18.
Key among vaccination changes is the new recommendation that pregnant women or teens be given the combined tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccination during each pregnancy to protect their infants from pertussis (whooping cough), even if they have previously had a Tdap shot.
"The rationale is that by vaccinating the mother during pregnancy, she'll make antibodies that will cross the placenta and pass to the baby," Meissner says. This will give infants protection "for the first few months of life, when they are too young" to get their own shots, he says.
The CDC adopted the recommendation in December in response to the dramatic increase in the number of whooping cough cases and outbreaks across the country. The highly contagious respiratory disease is marked by uncontrollable, violent coughing that makes it difficult to breathe. It mostly affects infants and young children and can be fatal, especially in babies under 1 year.
Parents can download the updated vaccine schedule for kids and teens at www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules.
Copyright 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. | <urn:uuid:3e4ebbf7-38fd-46f2-84f9-7d1c35f91711> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSNRM000/333/7228/1472986.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94614 | 405 | 2.671875 | 3 |
My AEI colleague Peter Wallison has cowritten one of those rare books that makes the lightbulb over one's head go "ping!"
Wallison and co-author Joel Gora have taken on the vexed subject of campaign finance--a topic where every past reform has made things worse. A generation of attempts to limit contributions and control speech has ended by entrenching incumbents and empowering the super-rich. Candidates spend up to half their time raising money, and typically from the very interest groups that most seek to influence them. As Wallison and Gora wryly comment, if the purpose of the system is to combat the appearance of corruption, it is singularly poorly designed.
How'd we end up here?
Like so many disasters, the American campaign finance mess began with a single poorly considered step. Back in 1940, Congress imposed a limit on the amount of money a political party could give its own candidates in congressional and senatorial campaigns.
These limits seemed ample at the time, but they have not kept pace with inflation. Unable to rely on money from national parties, candidates had to raise funds for themselves: first just a little extra to top up the money they got from their party, then more and more and more as the cost of television advertising pushed up the expense of campaigning and inflation ate away the value of the party money. By the late 1960s, candidates were raising almost all of their campaign funds themselves.
This shift from party-centered financing to candidate-centered financing has had dramatic effects on American politics and American government.
In other countries, the central party organizations raise money, conduct polls, state a platform, hire experts, and present advertising. In the United States, every candidate must do these functions for himself or herself. That may sound admirably independent. But in liberating candidates from dependence on party, we have left them beholden to donors--unless of course they can afford to pay the costs of their campaigns themselves, as happens more and more often.
Acting as independent entrepreneurs, candidates refuse to be bound by party programs. This makes governance more difficult for the majority party while making it more difficult for the minority people to articulate a national message. In Britain, Canada, Australia or Germany, the opposition party offers alternative policies: in the United States, the party that loses the presidency can find itself--as Republicans now find ourselves--without any agreed message at all.
More ominously, while parties want to want lots of seats, individual candidates care intensely only about winning their own. So a vicious cycle has been unleashed: as the parties weaken, politicians look out for themselves. Self-seeking office-holders strike deals with officeholders of the other party to protect all incumbents against all challengers--which is what almost every so-called reform since 1974 has tended to do.
Since the 1970s, liberals and conservatives have battled over a stale and familiar menu of reforms: liberals want government financing; conservatives want higher donor limits and more transparency. Wallison and Gora convincingly argue that these reforms either miss the point or will make matters worse.
Challengers need to spend more money than incumbents to have any hope of overcome the advantages of incumbency. Government funding, by preventing this, would favor incumbents even more grossly than they are favored today, while simultaneously restricting rights of free speech and democratic participation.
Yet the conservative pet reforms also have flaws. Donor transparency makes it easier for incumbents to retaliate against interests that dare to fund challengers.
Wallison and Gora urge that we strike at the root of the system by restoring the role of the parties: let parties give unlimited amounts to their candidates (and then put reasonable limits on the ability of individuals to give to parties). The parties will then do the job that consultants do now. Candidates can focus on campaigning, not fund-raising, and office-holders will have more time to do the work of legislating.
Elections will become more competitive as the parties put money where it will have the greatest impact. Voter choice will become more meaningful, as the parties develop clearer policy platforms in order to attract national support.
Wallison is a Republican and Gora--a former counsel to the ACLU--is presumably a Democrat. They present their case in nonpartisan terms. Yet their idea should have special appeal to Republicans concerned with party modernization.
Under the present system, the "out" party tends to veer to policy and rhetorical extremes. Members from swing districts lose their seats. As the party shrinks, its message becomes more extreme--and no countervailing force exists to push it back to the center. But a central party organization wants to win elections. It can be that countervailing force. Both parties would benefit from a tilt in the incentives toward more pragmatic politics, but the Republicans would today benefit most.
Better Parties, Better Government is a careful legal study, written in a cool and precise style. But there is nothing more exciting than a good idea, and the urgency and power of the idea argued here makes this specialized monograph one of the most thrilling books I've read all year.
David Frum is a resident fellow at AEI. | <urn:uuid:ed76a1fc-12a2-49d9-8c78-8ba2fee2040f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://aei.org/article/politics-and-public-opinion/elections/embetter-parties-better-governmentem/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962088 | 1,055 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Recent strategic decisions by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) on Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts to China suggest that the time has come for Congress to take a serious look at the way the U.S. government manages its international broadcasting services. Even Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in her testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 1, expressed strong concern over the state of U.S. international broadcasting. Of course, Clinton herself has a seat (usually deputized to Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Judith McHale) on the BBG, so she has the opportunity and responsibility to act on her concerns.
The fact is that, as currently constituted, the mostly unpaid, part-time BBG, which meets once a month and has no real CEO, is no way to run a complex media organization with over $750 million worth of broadcasting entities paid for by U.S. taxpayers. This is no reflection on the board members (four Democrats and four Republicans, in addition to the Secretary of State) who volunteer their time, work hard to serve their country, and do so for idealistic reasons. Yet, with other responsibilities and day jobs, board members are not able to devote the time or resources to U.S. international broadcasting that it deserves. Congress should look at changing this situation.
BBG Shrinking While Needs Are Growing
Congress established the BBG in the mid-1990s to isolate broadcasting from political interference. At the time, broadcasting continued to have a connection to U.S. public diplomacy through the United States Information Agency, but when the agency was closed down in 1999, the BBG became a free-standing government agency. Yet it has been troubled from the start. Members are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, and “it has become clear that the BBG, rather than functioning as a political ‘firewall,’ has become a political ‘football,’” noted a Senate Foreign Relations Committee report in June 2010.
For six years the board was not fully staffed, and for two years it had no chairman. The confirmation of the current board was held up for months while frustrated Senators demanded greater accountability by the broadcasting services. Now the board has signed off on a budget that has tremendous strategic implications for the future of U.S. public diplomacy in Asia.
Members of Congress should be concerned that while the Chinese government is investing billions in public diplomacy efforts and broadcasting, the BBG has presented a budget that would cut 45 positions at the VOA China branch, reduce the overall broadcasting in Mandarin, and eliminate the Cantonese service as early as October 2011. It should be noted that the BBG’s proposed 2012 budget is a 2.5 percent increase over current funding. These changes reflect a cost-shifting rather than a cost savings and are a distinct re-prioritization of services not necessarily born out of frugality.
The BBG’s Internet Gambling
The cuts in the Chinese service are part of an overall BBG strategy focused strongly on building Internet capacity at the expense particularly of radio. (Other VOA shortwave services that were cut in January are Vietnamese, Indonesian, and French to Africa, following numerous other cuts in recent years.) Speaking about the impact of the social media in the Middle East uprisings and of the thrust of the BBG’s Web-based products, BBG chairman Walter Isaacson recently stated, “This is an exact template of what I think the future of international broadcasting will be like. It’s crowd-sourcing, mixed with great journalism, mixed with social networking so that people are empowered by accurate information.”
This strategy is problematic for several reasons. While social media and cell phones are highly effective at connecting individuals and fostering citizen journalism, traditional mass media—in this case broadcast—is often still the most effective means by which to disseminate news and information to certain areas of the developing world. In the case of BBG outreach to China, while the developed coastal areas might indeed be best served through the Internet and cell phones, rural areas (where the majority of the population lives) is often reachable mainly by shortwave radio.
In fact, even the Chinese government, which is buying up shortwave frequencies en masse, uses them in part to communicate with its own hinterlands. And while the Internet and cell phones are vulnerable to government interference—especially in China, where the entirety of the telecommunications infrastructure is government-owned—radio, particularly shortwave, is difficult to block if enough is invested in signal strength and bandwidth.
Even if only 0.04 percent of people in China are using shortwave, as has been stated by the BBG, in a country of 1.34 billion people, that amounts to a very significant amount of the population that may no longer be influenced by U.S. international broadcasting.
And of what does get through on the Internet, will that content remain unchanged? Chinese filtering of the Internet is well known, with keywords deemed to be a threat to the Chinese Communist Party regularly blocked in an obvious fashion. But what will keep hackers or the state from more subtly redrafting information and affecting the ultimate presentation of VOA news that the end user receives?
The fact is that the BBG is throwing all of VOA-China’s chips into one Internet/new media basket in a gamble that it will be able to overcome not only hackers from inside “the great firewall” but certainly also those from without.
Just a week after the 2012 BBG budget was made public on February 21, VOA’s own Web sites in the U.S. were knocked offline and users sent to extremist propaganda, causing another blow to confidence that the BBG’s Internet-dominated approach would result in the successful fulfillment of its mission in China (or elsewhere, for that matter). And if the gamble fails, will VOA-China be able to shift back again to reincorporate broadcasting?
Who Is in Charge Here?
At this time, Congress should seriously consider replacing the board with a more professional broadcasting management structure or potentially giving it advisory (as opposed to managerial) responsibility. A $750 million corporation in the private sector could ill-afford the absence of fully engaged and accountable leadership. The five international broadcasters that the BBG oversees represent a staff of nearly 4,000 personnel and need a non-partisan, paid, full-time president and CEO with the resources and time to engage in long-term planning and implementation strategies for U.S. international broadcasting.
In addition, Congress itself should also take a far more active role in oversight of this important tool of U.S. foreign policy. Paying attention only when things go wrong is not enough.
Helle C. Dale
is Senior Fellow for Public Diplomacy in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies, a division of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies, and Nick Zahn is Asia Communications Fellow and Director of The Washington Roundtable for the Asia Pacific Press at The Heritage Foundation. | <urn:uuid:cdcff0dd-96f9-41e8-a10d-5375fabaf2dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/03/time-to-rethink-the-broadcasting-board-of-governors | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96302 | 1,462 | 1.945313 | 2 |
Could Hillary Clinton finally break through that glass ceiling she cracked in 2008? A recent Gallup poll shows that only 52 percent of Democrats would support President Obama in his re-election bid if Clinton were to challenge him for the Democratic nomination. Thirty-seven percent said they would definitely support Clinton, rather than Obama. Ten percent had “no opinion.”
Although the likelihood of Clinton leaving her Cabinet position and running against her boss is unlikely, anything is possible, particularly if the President continues to compromise and cater to the need of Republicans.
A dentist in Chicago already has a head start. In September, William DeJean, spent $5,000 of his own funds to launch a makeshift advertising campaign, complete with a television commercial.
Hillary has said she won’t run for President again. | <urn:uuid:394e945b-a6ba-4c3d-be80-115823f9076c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.politigarb.com/2010/10/2548/poll-at-least-37-percent-would-choose-hillary-over-obama-in-2012/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982683 | 162 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Friday, November 7th, 2008
I have been following the U.S. Presidential Elections now for exactly 60 years. In 1948, as a boy, I was in a New York hospital during the Truman/Dewey’s election, and in Washington for President Truman’s inaugural parade in January 1949. Since then I have followed each American election with much interest. This year’s one has, by far, been the most exciting and one of the most historic in American history. That a man of African descent, Barrak Husein Obama, could overwhelmingly win the election to the highest office in the United States is itself an astounding event, given the appalling history of cruelty and discrimination against blacks for centuries.
Each century produced one outstanding President, George Washington in the eighteenth, Abraham Lincoln in the nineteenth and Franklin Roosevelt in the twentieth. Will Obama be the one in the twentyfirst? Here is a man who comes across not only as an eloquent and mesmerizing speaker but as one possessing maturity, compassion and steadfastness. I was particularly impressed that at the height of the battle he took fortyeight hours off to visit his dying grandmother in Hawaii. His campaigns, first against Hillary Clinton within the Democratic Party and then with Senator McCain were a model of how such exercises should be organized. Obama never once lost his temper or raised his voice, and reacted with amazing grace to the often vicious attacks and smear campaigns of the opposite camp. Apart from the racial aspect, which has for so long bedeviled America, there are some other aspects of this campaign that are of special interest.
Firstly, although Senator Obama comfortably outspent his opponent, his funds have been mostly made up of small donations from a very large number of people. Unfortunately in India we have not adopted this practice, as a result of which huge funds for our elections are far from transparent. Indeed this whole question of funding our elections is one that needs closer attention. The Election Commission has tried to make some improvements, but they do not seem to have demonstrably changed the situation on the ground. Perhaps the Obama model could be attempted in India also.
Another point that impressed me was the manner in which, for two whole months, both the candidates crisscrossed the country, speaking directly to people from all walks of life, addressing huge public meetings as well as small Town Hall and village square gatherings. This requires each candidate to answer questions and to spell out clearly the policies that they intend to adopt. Here again, while our MLAs do go virtually from door to door, senior leaders from all parties are confined to large public meetings where they cannot be directly questioned. Perhaps a series of television debates could help fill this gap.
Senator Obama represents a major transition in American leadership in terms of demography, race and public participation. The President of the United States is the most powerful man in the world, and therefore to see a person of such caliber being elected in these very troubled times is a matter of satisfaction far beyond the boundaries of his own country. Without going in the specifics of Indo-US relations, which will need a separate in-depth analysis, it is worth noting that as a key player in the emerging global society India has a vested interest in the U.S. projecting a progressive and visionary leadership. Obama’s pro-poor, inclusive agenda is in line with our own approach, as is the pattern of a mixed economy that is emerging from the debris of the global financial meltdown.
I recall the thrill that my generation felt when Kennedy was elected President way back in 1960. I was attending a Governors’ Conference at Rashtrapati Bhavan when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru got a message and made the announcement. Now, almost half a century later, there is again a thrill of anticipation and hope generated by Obama’s victory as the President of the second largest democracy in the world. With Indo-American relations having strengthened over the years, including a strategic relationship, one can look forward to a new dimension in which our two nations could together become a major force for peace and harmony in a troubled world. An aggressive unipolarity must give way to a more inclusive and enlightened paradigm that can effectively meet the challenges of climate change, global warming, terrorism and poverty elimination that are faced by the emerging global society. | <urn:uuid:bfdae616-2ff4-4e4a-a184-2fe6bfa8a325> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.karansingh.com/blog/?tag=elections | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973952 | 877 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Most of us are not very creative with winter vegetables. This recipe will help your children enjoy fresh carrots, a vegetable we are beginning to understand is one of the healthiest foods we can eat.
- 4 large carrots, peeled
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 cup beer
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon dill weed, dried
Cut carrots into small sticks and saute in butter, uncovered, over medium heat until barely browned. Add beer and dill and cover. Cook slowly until carrots are tender, stirring often, about 15 minutes. Add salt and sugar and continue to cook, uncovered about 3 minutes more.
Posted in Fruits and Vegetables | <urn:uuid:a4abe874-6b50-438d-b3f5-b602ccf03a5c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.farmanddairy.com/recipes/fruits-and-vegetables/carrots-in-beer-and-dill | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921684 | 144 | 2.1875 | 2 |
We believe that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities...
Are defined by their own strengths, abilities and inherent value, not by their disability
Are equal before the law
Belong in the community in natural proportions - to live, to work, and to participate fully in community life
Have a voice in their own well-being
Are contributing members of society
Established six decades ago, The Arc United States is one of the ten largest
not-for-profit organizations in the country. The Arc Colorado participates in public policy
that affects people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and collaborates
with eleven local chapters, including Mesa County. The Arc Mesa County serves the
Western Slope through individual advocacy, community education, and systemic
change, along with information and referral. The majority of funding comes from Arc Thrift Stores, grants, fundraising, memberships, and donations. | <urn:uuid:82b5f213-ac78-4e0b-a35b-e47fe3aa08e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thearcmesa.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94313 | 178 | 1.898438 | 2 |
A high throughput microfluidic platform brings the ability to understand biological network function a step closer.
Many high-throughput methods allow the function of proteins to be probed, but very rarely can more than the presence of a specific interaction be observed. The new microlaboratory allows quantitative measurement of biomolecular interactions allowing the functional differentiation of proteins by virtue of how strongly they bind to different biomolecules giving new insights into which genes proteins regulate.
The device may eventually find application in drug target discovery and studying the interactions between drug and target, especially in looking for off-target drug interactions.
There are two major problems associated with measuring biological interactions; firstly that any interaction is governed by a logistically challenging number of variables; the other is that these interactions are often transient or weak. These factors are particularly problematic for high throughput methods such as yeast two-hybrid and tandem affinity mass spectrometry as well as protein-protein and protein-DNA binding microarrays where weak interactions are often missed.
The new technique, described by researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the January 12 issue of Science, involves trapping a type of protein known as a transcription factor to measure the binding energy between the protein and specific DNA sequences.
According to the lead author of the paper, Dr Stephen Quake, measuring the binding energy of a transcription factor and a single DNA sequence is not enough. It is far more meaningful to know the energy involved in a transcription factor binding to many different DNA sequences, giving researchers a more complete picture of the binding energy landscape.
To this end, the authors created an apparatus consisting of 2,400 individual reaction chambers less than a nanolitre in volume, each controlled by three valves and including a button membrane. The mechanically induced trapping molecular interactions (MITOMI) device fits over a 2,400-unit DNA microarray.
The apparatus is constructed by producing a silicon mold using the same photolithography process used to make the microarrays before casting the elements of the MITOMI device in rubber and bonding them to the array.
Transcription factors are then pumping into the chambers that each contain a slightly varied DNA sequence anchored to the microarray chip before the button membranes expel any unbound molecules from the chambers and ensure that no bound material is washed away from the array.
A DNA array scanner then allows quantification of the binding energy of the trapped transcription function.
Quake emphasized that this technique is can be used to measure the interactions between any two proteins as well as between a protein and DNA. The measurements allowed the researchers to predict the biological function of two different yeast transcription proteins Pho4p and Cbf1p that regulate a range of cellular processes including cell proliferation, development and metabolism; all of which play a role in cancer growth.
According to Quake: "We discovered a wealth of interesting things - to me the most important being that by using the binding data for different sequences we could predict which genes the yeast transcription factors would regulate." | <urn:uuid:eb072c8f-4b0c-47e4-8f6d-19e312e7f7c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.outsourcing-pharma.com/Preclinical-Research/Microlaboratory-unravels-protein-function | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936732 | 609 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Image-concious Angelenos have always been into healthy eating (you'll find a sushi or salad joint on almost every corner of the city), but last week, Los Angeles city officials went a step further.
On Friday, the L.A. City Council unanimously passed a Meatless Monday resolution supporting "comprehensive sustainability efforts" and extending efforts to get Angelenos to adopt more veggie-rich diets.
The idea behind Meatless Mondays—a campaign to reduce meat intake one day a week—is that by skipping the steak, we can reduce food-related illnesses and deaths and shrink our carbon footprint. Meat, which is high in saturated fat, has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.
Production of meat also takes an environmental toll. According to the Meatless Monday Campaign, a single pound of beef requires 1,800 to 2,500 gallons of water to produce. Meanwhile, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that nearly one-fifth of man-made greenhouse gas emissions come from the meat industry.
And of course, there's a third reason to be a part-time vegetarian: a kinder cuisine. Human lives aren't the only ones spared; cutting back on a meat-filled diet helps protect animals, too.
Compassion Over Killing (COK), a nonprofit animal welfare organization, worked with council members on the initiative. They've applauded the decision as a victory.
"This is an important step in further mainstreaming the idea of vegetarian eating," Jaya Bhumitra, Campaigns Director at COK, tells TakePart. "We're thrilled that the Council is officially recognizing the benefits of eating more plant-based foods and encouraging residents to participate in Meatless Mondays."
Animal rights organizations are stuck in a tricky position to support Meatless Mondays. To organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), for example, endorsing one meatless day per week implicitly condones meat-eating the other six days of the week. But COK approaches the issue pragmatically.
"For many, change happens gradually, and sometimes easing into change can make it more sustainable," Bhumitra explains.
COK helps beginners get started with a Vegetarian Start Guide and easy vegan recipes. One week per year in April, the organization also hosts a VegWeek campaign—think potlucks, movie screenings, and community events—to help people stretch Meatless Monday into a seven-day pledge.
Every meal, Bhumitra notes, is a chance to make a difference. "What we ultimately hope to convey is that we have the opportunity to stand up for our health, the environment, and animals each time we sit down to eat, simply by choosing vegetarian foods," she says.
Her perspective echoes the sentiments of LA Councilmember Ed P. Reyes, a co-author of the resolution.
"When dealing with issues as big as global warming, or even as personal as battling diabetes or obesity, it's easy to feel helpless, like there's little we can do to make a difference," he said. "But the small changes we make every day can have tremendous impact. That's why this Meatless Monday resolution is important."
The Meatless Monday campaign is becoming a familiar term across American dinner tables. In a 2011 nationally representative survey of 2,000 American adults, 50.22 percent of survey participants were aware of the campaign. Twenty-seven percent reported that the campaign had affected their eating habits, encouraging them to cut back on meat.
Restaurants in L.A. have taken notice too, Bhumitra says, pointing out that the city has one of the most vegetarian-friendly dining scenes in the country, with hundreds of meat-free options. And the facts support her: The New York Times recently reported that vegan food is "mainstream" in Southern California.
No surprises there—lean legs and healthy skin are staples in the City of Angels. After all, nothing's glamorous about heart disease. Wheat grass shot, anyone?
Related Stories on TakePart:
A sucker for sustainable agriculture and a good farmers market, Megan likes writing about food almost as much as eating it. If you don't want to know what's in your fruit/milk/meat, don't invite her to lunch. @babybokchoy | TakePart.com | <urn:uuid:4110b1be-9fcf-4905-9970-2fc15d9fb656> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://in.news.yahoo.com/los-angeles-officially-endorses-meatless-mondays-055858810.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956939 | 893 | 2.359375 | 2 |
The air we breathe
Air quality in urban environments
R E Hester and R M Harrison (eds)
Cambridge, UK: RSC Publishing 2009 | 162pp | £54.95 (HB)
Reviewed by Paul Seakins
The volume begins with an introductory chapter introducing the issues around urban air quality and the relationships between air quality, emissions and meteorology. Three chapters then follow looking at urban meteorology, chemical processes and particulate matter. These chapters provide a good introduction to the topics, accessible to the relevant audience and with comprehensive and up to date referencing for further reading.
The final chapters of the book will be particularly useful to atmospheric chemists, as they provide an excellent link between the compositional and mechanistic studies that are such a strong feature of UK research, and health and policy impacts that provide the underpinning rationale for such research. Sotiris Vardoulakis discusses human exposure, highlighting the importance of the indoor as well as outdoor environments, Robert Maynard provides an excellent discussion of health effects (with a set of references that will be a boon to grant writers for many years to come!) and finally Martin Williams discusses the links between air quality and policy.
The absence of a specific chapter on urban emissions (indoor and outdoor) is perhaps the major weakness of this volume. Road traffic is the accepted major outdoor source of pollution in developed urban environments, but other sources are important. The introductions to several chapters mention the importance of megacities in the developing world (which are likely to have very different emissions profiles to their counterparts in the developed world), yet the chapter contents focus almost exclusively on developed cities. This may reflect the lack of research on megacities. | <urn:uuid:9a671207-a555-41c7-b643-86ab6e7ea007> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/Issues/2010/April/Reviews/TheAirWeBreathe.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932267 | 346 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Among the many martyrs who long ago gave up their lives, rather than deny their Master, we love to remember one little maid—a child-martyr and saint. We do not know a great deal about her, for she lived so very long ago, but what we know makes us love and honour her, and speak her name with reverence.
Faith was the name of this little maiden, and her home was in France, in the pleasant country of Aquitaine. Her parents were rich and noble, and she was brought up carefully, and taught to be courteous and gentle to every one. But she did not need much teaching, for her nature was sweet and pure, and her face was fair, with the beauty that shines from within.
The town in which little Faith lived was called Agen, and lay at the foot of a high rugged hill, which seemed to keep guard over it. It was a quiet little place, and most of the people who dwelt there were Christians, living happily together with the good bishop at their head.
But one day a heavy cloud of dust was seen rolling along the highroad that led over the mountains to the city gates. And messengers came running breathlessly into the town, warning the people that a great company of soldiers was marching towards them. It was thought they had come from Spain, and the news spread like wildfire through the town that Dacian, the cruellest governor of all that country, was riding at their head.
In fear and trembling the people waited. They stood in little knots, talking under their breath of all the evil this man had done; or shutting themselves into their houses, they scarcely dared to look out at the windows. And soon the great company came sweeping in, swords clattering and armour glittering in the sunshine, rough soldiers laughing carelessly as they rode past the frightened faces. And at their head a cruel, evil-looking man who glared from side to side, as if he were a wild beast seeking his prey.
Doubtless it pleased him to see how every one trembled before him, and he smiled scornfully to think how easy a task it would be to teach these Christians to deny their God and drag their faith in the dust.
And soon the reason of his coming was known to all, for he ordered it to be proclaimed in the market-place, that every Christian who refused to sacrifice to the heathen gods should be tortured and put to death. And to make his meaning quite plain, the soldiers spread out all the terrible instruments of torture, so that men might know exactly what lay before them if they refused to deny Christ.
But in the night the terrified Christians stole silently out of the town, and climbing the high hill that overlooked the city, they hid themselves in the great caves among the rocks.
Scarcely any one was left behind: even the good bishop was afraid to stay and face the danger, and it seemed as if Christ would have no one to fight on His side against the evil company.
But when morning came, and the furious Dacian discovered that every one had fled, he sent his soldiers to search and bring any who might remain hidden in the city, that he might wreak his vengeance on them.
And among the few that were left they brought to him the little maid Faith. She was only a little child, but she did not know what fear meant.
“‘You cannot hurt me,” she said, looking at the cruel, angry faces around her, “because I am not yours, but God’s.”
And then she signed herself with the sign of the cross, and with bent head prayed:
“Lord Jesus, teach my lips to answer their questions aright, so that I may do Thee no dishonour.”
Then Dacian looked in anger at the child standing there with clasped hands and steadfast eyes, and asked her roughly:
“What is thy name?”
“My name is Faith,” the little maid replied with gentle courtesy.
“And what God dost thou serve?” asked the cruel governor.
“I am a Christian, and I serve the Lord Christ,” replied the child.
“Deny Him, and sacrifice to our gods,” thundered the governor, “else shalt thou endure every kind of torture, until there is no life left in thy young body.”
But Faith stood with head erect and hands clasped tight together. Not even the ugly instruments of torture could frighten her.
“I serve the Lord Christ,” she said, “and you cannot hurt me, because I am His.”
Such a little maid she was, standing there among those rough, cruel men, offering her life gladly for the faith of her Master. Such a few years she had spent in this bright world, and so many stretched in front, holding pleasures and promises in store. And now she must give up all, must put aside the little white robe and golden sandals, and take instead the robe of suffering, and go barefoot to meet the pain and torture that awaited her.
And though they scourged her, and made her suffer many cruel torments, they could not bend her will, nor break her faith. Indeed it seemed as if she did not feel the pain and anguish.
And God stooped down, and gathered the little faithful soul into His bosom. And when the people looked, the child was dead.
But in the cave among the mountains that very day the bishop sat, sad and troubled.
He was gazing away across the plain to where the town lay half hidden in the mist, thinking of those faithful few who had chosen to stay behind. And suddenly the mist broke in front, and a vision stood out clear before him. He saw the child Faith being scourged and tortured; he saw the flames leaping around her, and then, as he looked again, lo! her head was encircled with a golden crown set with precious stones, each jewel sparkling with light. And from heaven a white dove came gently flying down, and rested on the child’s head, while from its wings a soft dew fell that quenched the flames.
And as the vision faded, the bishop bowed his head in his hands and wept. The thought of what this child had dared to endure for her Master, while he had shrunk from suffering aught for His sake, filled his heart with shame. He could not stay there in safety while any of his people might suffer as she had done.
So that night he returned to the city to help and comfort the few remaining Christians. Before long he too was called upon to suffer death for his Lord, and many others gave themselves up, led by the example of little Faith.
Some say that even the rough soldiers were touched by the child’s death, and many became Christians. They began to think that such a religion was worth living for, if it could teach even a child to die so bravely.
And so, though she lived such a short time on earth, she did a very wonderful work for God, and we call her now Saint Faith, thinking often of her as we read these words:
“A little child shall lead them.” | <urn:uuid:3f5359e6-806d-4b7c-bdf6-137285157cec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://saints.sqpn.com/amy-steedman-saint-faith/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986755 | 1,526 | 2.59375 | 3 |
- Angkor Wat draws hundred of thousands of tourists to Cambodia each year. But Phnom Penh, just a little more than four hours away, is a vibrant if often overlooked city. Here some reasons to visit. [Y Travel]
- America’s national park system gives us a chance to indulge in nature, but can also teach us about the past. Find out more about indigenous cultures in the American West at these four parks. [Lonely Planet]
- When you want to travel, but you’re on a tight budget, Martha’s Vineyard doesn’t usually make the list. Lucky for us, we have the Frugal Traveler to show us how to go Capeside without going broke. [New York Times]
Got Radar? Follow us on Twitter @NatGeoTraveler and tag your favorite travel stories from the web #ngtradar. Check back on the blog for our roundups. | <urn:uuid:3714cf1f-36c5-454d-9699-e2d90106b451> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://intelligenttravel.nationalgeographic.com/2012/09/05/the-radar-finding-phnom-penh-native-america-moneywise-in-marthas-vineyard/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902633 | 199 | 1.679688 | 2 |