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John and I went out for a nice, leisurely dinner last weekend, and over the course of the conversation, I somehow mentioned "that whole pink slime thing."
To which he said, "What pink slime thing?"
"You don't know what I'm talking about?"
"No. No idea. Am I supposed to?"
I had two immediate thoughts. One, that I have failed in a measurable way as an ag journalist, if even my husband doesn't know about pink slime. Granted, we've had a lot going on the past month. But still. And two, if my own husband doesn't know about it, there's a good chance other non-Facebooking, non-social media farmers don't either. I hadn't planned to write about this, given that it all went down when my mother was sick and there's no point in rehashing old news. Unless, of course, there are folks who don't know about it.
So to re-cap: about a month ago, ABC News reported on something the industry calls lean finely-textured beef or LFTB, a beef product made by Beef Products, Inc. They called it "pink slime." They said it was USDA approved, but by just one person who overruled two scientists and later went on to claim a board seat at a BPI supplier. They said it contained ammonium hydroxide, "an ingredient used in fertilizers, household cleaners and roll-your-own explosives." They said it was pet food, before USDA approved it for people.
Public outrage ensued. Then the fertilizer really hit the cooling device when reporters learned USDA planned to purchase 7 million pounds of ground beef for the National School Lunch program that contains the dread "pink slime." Mothers circulated online petitions, and folks used Facebook and Twitter to the equivalent of a bullhorn to share rampantly untrue stories of "pink slime."
By the end of March, fast food companies and grocery chains were cancelling their orders, and the BPI plants were laying off workers. Midwest governors held a press conference to explain that "beef is beef." BPI filed for bankruptcy. And Jim Avila, the ABC reporter, sat at the press conference and still called it pink slime.
It takes a long time to separate meat and fat from the bone. You can do it at home. So can a series of people with knives in a processing plant. But it takes a long time. BPI basically came up with a process to mechanically separate beef from fat (from what I understand, it's proprietary but involves a centrifuge). They treat it with a shot of food-grade ammonium hydroxide, which is ammonium and water and was approved by the FDA in 1974 and is used in a variety of products including pudding and baked goods. A puff of ammonium hydroxide is used in LFTB to kill bacteria that may be present. This is food safety. It's a good thing.
And a single person approving anything in the government? Given the layers of bureaucracy and the time involved to get anything done, I'm not sure a single person would be capable of passing or failing anything in our federal government. Indeed, ABC had no evidence of a board seat payoff. Just conjecture.
And pet food? Not hardly. That's patently false. BPI uses technology to separate the meat from the fat, kill the bacteria and very efficiently use as much of the animal as possible for human consumption. But it's beef. It's always been beef. This should seem like common sense because as it turns out, no process can make an inedible product edible. Also, efficiency is a good thing. An animal has given its life for our food supply; let's not waste any of it. Even the Wall Street Journal points out the real loser in the "pink slime" debacle is the cow.
But I digress.
What's up with the lack of understanding? Consumers say the industry isn't transparent enough. The industry says consumers didn't care, until they did care and then they bought into wild misinformation.
And what do the meat scientists think? Tom Carr's official title is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Animals Sciences at the U of I. He retired last year to his home state of Kansas, but before that he coached decades of meat judging teams. He's pretty much like the Godfather of meat science, except without the guns. And with more colorful phrases.
No surprise, but Dr. Carr has toured the BPI plant in Dakota City, Neb., several times. He reports it's "an incredible process" that increases efficiency of protein production, and that the plant is basically stainless steel and is amazingly clean.
"So much of the negative comments are simply the lack of understanding, and in some cases, an opportunity to slow down/decrease the demand for animal protein," Dr. Carr says. "This incident clearly shows the influence of social media and how quickly inaccurate information can spread."
Obviously, a lot of damage has been done.
And as Dr. Carr points out, the amazing thing is that companies were adding LFTB to their ground beef blends to improve the healthiness of the product. "The addition of the product actually reduced microbial loads; the meat was improved," he says, pointing to a University of Arkansas study that showed adding LFTB up to 20% improved fresh color, reduced spoilage and increased tenderness. And it cut the cost by 20 to 25 cents per pound of ground beef.
Again, this should be a good thing.
USDA has agreed to approve requests by ground beef suppliers to voluntarily label packages containing LFTB. So "official approval" is new, but the option to label LFTB has always existed.
"In hindsight, maybe it should have been from the start," Dr. Carr adds.
The cattle producer in me wants to ask, if beef is beef, is it really necessary? But for consumers – like my Chicago mom friends - who've heard nothing but "PINK SLIME" for a month, probably so.
For a guy like Dr. Carr, who's spent a good share of his professional career in a meat cooler, the pink slime mess is personal.
"This whole process is backed by sound science, but public perception has led to a train wreck. Will the public listen to science, if we detail every food manufacturing process? I doubt it. The only good thing we have going for us is the American consuming public has a very short memory."
Editor's note: Corporate Editorial Director Willie Vogt adds that Europe only allows LFTB in pet food, hence the dog food comments we keep hearing. Europe, you'll recall, also shuns genetically modified crops and properly used hormones and antibiotics. | <urn:uuid:c3ec4650-3099-4901-8cd4-610d5e34c790> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://farmprogress.com/blogs-how-good-product-got-bad-rap-3168 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973831 | 1,398 | 1.546875 | 2 |
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Chile: First MSF Team Arriving to Assist Earthquake Survivors
Members of the team arriving from Argentina are already in Santiago and will be traveling to the Maule region to assess needs in the coastal towns of that area. Other MSF professionals will arrive today.
February 28, 2010
The first members of an exploratory team from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins San Frontières (MSF) have already arrived in Santiago, the capital city of Chile, in order to assess the needs of victims after an 8.8–magnitude earthquake struck the country early Saturday morning. Other MSF workers will be arriving today, February 28.
MSF is already in contact with Chilean government authorities to coordinate the relief effort. The first team will travel today from Santiago to the Maule region, south of the capital, to assess the situation in that area, which was hit hard by the earthquake. The MSF teams plan to focus their work in the regions close to the epicenter, but prioritize peripheral villages and areas where aid takes longer to arrive. According to the first reports, coastal areas far from the principal urban centers seem to be among those more affected by the earthquake, and are also the most difficult to reach.
The first MSF team, some members of which are already on the ground while others are still traveling, is comprised of doctors, logisticians, and a nurse coming from Argentina, Bolivia, Panama, and Mexico to Chile. | <urn:uuid:717c4b93-ba44-42d6-8ce5-9c3e55809112> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article.cfm?id=4290&cat=field-news | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958952 | 320 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Last Modified: Thursday, September 20, 2012 2:00 PM
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Fishing boats in the Gulf of Mexico hauled in more menhaden and other species last year compared with 2010, when millions of gallons of oil spewed from a blown well, a federal fisheries report said Wednesday.
But it's too early to rule out any long-term effects from the spill, said Roy Crabtree, southeast regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The Gulf's menhaden catch last year was nearly 66 percent above that in 2010, but annual catches vary wildly anyway, and we don't know all the reasons, Crabtree said.
"I would say it's guardedly good news in that the catches are up for most of these," said Crabtree. "I certainly wouldn't say that we can rule out any long-term impacts from the oil spill. It's too soon to know that."
The Gulf's menhaden catch rose across the Gulf Coast, to 727,664 tons. In all four states hit by oil in 2010, the catch was well above both those in 2010 and 2008. The earlier figures were available on the agency's website.
With fisheries closed by the spill and fishing boats occupied with cleaning up the oil, adult fish that weren't in the oil's path might have had a better chance of surviving and reproducing, said Jackie Savitz, senior scientist for the nonprofit ocean conservation group Oceana.
Long-term effects can show up years later, she said, like the crash in Alaska's herring population after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. Populations looked normal for years, but by 1993 there were only one-quarter as many spawning adults as there had been in the late 1980s.
Some important species caught closer to shore were more varied than menhaden. For instance, blue crab and brown shrimp figures rose from 2010 in all four states, but the white shrimp catch fell in Louisiana and west Florida, while rising in Alabama and Mississippi.
The 23,850 tons of white shrimp landed last year at Louisiana docks were 8.1 percent below the 2010 figure and 16.7 percent under 2008's. Along west Florida, 187.6 tons of white shrimp were unloaded, nearly 19 percent below the 2010 figure, but 21 percent above that for 2008.
Mississippi hauled in 1,373 tons of white shrimp, almost 19 percent more than in 2010 but 4.7 percent less than in 2008. Alabama's 3,100 tons were 49 percent above 2010 and 5.8 percent above 2008.
Louisiana, the biggest oyster state on the Gulf, harvested 5,050 tons — 62 percent more than the year before, but nearly 13 percent less than in 2008. Mississippi scraped up only 112 tons, the lowest figure in more than a decade, and 83 percent below 2010. In Alabama, on the other hand, 142 tons marked the largest catch since 2008, when the oyster harvest plummeted from nearly 349 tons to 33 tons. West Florida's take of 1,236 tons was nearly 26 percent above 2010 and 9 percent more than in 2008.
"A lot of things going on in the Gulf are going back to Hurricane Katrina" in 2005, Crabtree said. "You can look and compare for those years, but a lot of things are going on, so you have to be awfully careful about coming to conclusions." | <urn:uuid:6d9c1981-e7bb-498d-9ac5-7c2cf578052f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.americanpress.com/Some-catches-in-Gulf-above-some-pre-spill-levels | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969364 | 699 | 2.625 | 3 |
National editor's pick of the top news stories in the nation and world at this hour:
Shocking the Roman Catholic Church he led for nearly eight years, Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday that he is resigning effective Feb. 28 because of physical "incapacity" and advanced age. The 85-year-old German-born pontiff made the announcement to cardinals gathered for a ceremony to name new saints. "After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry," the pope's statement said. The last pope to step down from the job was Pope Gregory XII, who resigned under pressure in 1415 at a time when several rivals claimed his seat. The College of Cardinals is expected to hold a conclave to elect a new pope in mid-March. There are several contenders but no obvious front-runner. The pope's elder brother, 89-year-old Georg Ratzinger, said his brother was having difficulty walking and was advised by his doctor not to take any more trans-Atlantic trips. "His age is weighing on him," Ratzinger said. "At this age my brother wants more rest." One reason popes usually serve to the death is to avoid schisms in the church from the existence of two living popes. Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said there is "no risk of conflict" because church law makes clear that a pope who resigns no longer has the authority to govern the church.
Former staff Sgt. Clint Romesha on Monday was awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest recognition of wartime bravery, for his leadership in a daylong fight with
The Northeast on Monday continued to dig out from a blizzard blamed for 15 deaths, while Mississippi assessed the damage from a big tornado that injured 60 people but caused no deaths. In the Northeast, power had been restored early Monday
The murder defendant who admits to killing her Arizona boyfriend but claims it was in self-defense resumed her testimony Monday, saying she once woke up to find that he was having sex with her. "He was on top of me, and had already penetrated and started having sex with me," said Arias, whose testimony has focused more on sex than killing as she tries to portray her slain lover Travis Alexander as an abuser. Arias said she didn't try to stop the sex but it made her uncomfortable, and she felt it violated the teachings of the Mormon church. She previously testified that Alexander converted and baptized her into the church -- but the same day they had painful sexual intercourse that he claimed was OK because it wasn't vaginal. She says the couple dated for five months and still had trysts after breaking up. On June 4, 2008, she stabbed or slashed him 27 times, slit his throat and shot him in the forehead. After first denying involvement and then blaming masked intruders, Arias admitted killing him but claimed she did it in self-defense.
The Wire, a summary of top national and world news stories from the Associated Press and other wire services, moves weekdays. Contact Karl Kahler at 408-920-5023; follow him at twitter.com/karl_kahler. | <urn:uuid:e8867113-10f2-41b8-8d21-f4bb7e9d3ea9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/breakingnews/ci_22566612/wire-pope-shocker-medal-honor-storm-aftermath-mali | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985736 | 668 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Plant protection products (pesticides) have many benefits, including helping ensure we have access to sufficient quantities of good quality reasonably priced foodstuffs, clean urban environments, maintaining transport infrastructures,and controlling invasive species. The Government believes that we can best minimise the risk of adverse impacts through a range of statutory and voluntary controls. It is important however that the range of controls complement each other and have clearly defined outcomes. The Government has therefore published the UK Pesticides Strategy which does this. The Strategy foreshadows the requirements of the EU Thematic Strategy for Pesticides.
- UK Pesticides Strategy. The Strategy provides a framework for plant protection product legislation, policies and initiatives contribute to goals promoting sustainable development. It will do this by helping to protect the countryside and natural resources, supporting sustainable food and farming and sustainable consumption and production. It will help minimise the adverse impacts of using plant protection products.
- EU Thematic Strategy. The EU's Sixth Environmental Action Programme committed the community to developing a Thematic Strategy for Pesticides. The Strategy seeks to ensure more sustainable use of pesticides through use of existing and new legislation.
UK national action plan for the sustainable use of pesticides (plant protection products)
Consultation start: 30 July 2012
Consultation end: 22 October 2012
This consultation invites views on the draft UK National Action Plan (NAP) for pesticides. This is the next stage in the implementation of the EU Directive on the sustainable use of pesticides which was transposed into UK law on 18 July by the Plant Protection Products (Sustainable Use) Regulations 2012.
The National Action Plan (NAP) is designed to ensure that plant protection products can be used sustainably in the UK and is to be developed in consultation with stakeholders including members of the public.
How to respond
To submit your views on the NAP and for further information, please go to the Defra consultation web page here: http://www.defra.gov.uk/consult/2012/07/30/uknap-pesticides/
The UK Pesticides Strategy cannot deliver its desired outcomes working in isolation. It relies on the support, and will support other government and industry initiatives. Some of the key initiatives are listed below.
Information and Advice
- We provide advice to those who supply and use pesticides. This includes a:
- Code of Practice (pdf, 169 pages).
- Campaign Against Illegal Poisoning advises those involved in pest control to avoid practices which may increase the risks of poisoning of pets or wildlife.
- Organic farmers need to take care to follow pesticide legislation, as well as organic rules when choosing substances to protect crops from pest or diseases.
- Integrated Farm Management (IFM) IFM involves combining traditional and modern farming practices with measures which protect the environment. These measures include careful targeting of pesticide applications.
- Pesticides Usage. The Government's Pesticides Usage Survey Programme monitors the amount of pesticides used each year. The survey monitors usage on arable, vegetable and fruit crops, grassland and fodder, hops and stored produce.
- Pesticide Practices. A report on UK Pesticide Practices (pdf, 124 pages, 1,570kb) was recently completed by ADAS. This document looks to understand practices with regard to pesticide application, machinery testing and maintenance, use of integrated pest management and pesticide waste disposal practices.
- Pesticide Poisoning Incidents. The Pesticides Incidents Appraisal Panel (PIAP) scheme monitors complaints of ill health in people associated with pesticides. PIAP reports are published annually.
- Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme (WIIS). This Scheme helps identify cases where the misuse or abuse of pesticides puts wildlife at risk of poisoning. WIIS reports are published quarterly and annually.
- Residues in Foodstuffs. A range of foodstuffs are monitored to check that there is no unauthorised use of pesticides and that residues levels do not exceed legal levels.
- Residues in Drinking Water. Pesticide residues in drinking water are monitored by Water Supply Companies who report findings to the Drinking Water Inspectorate. The law essentially requires supplies to be free of residues.
- Residues in rivers, lakes and groundwater. Pesticide residues are monitored by the Environment Agency. Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland (DoENI) carry out similar work in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Maximum residue levels (known as Environmental Quality Standards) have been set for a number of pesticides.
- Our Research and Development programme includes work on finding alternative crop protection methods and on transferring knowledge to farmers and growers.
- In terms of water monitoring, we liaise with the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland, by working closely with them in evolving environmental policy to enhance water quality. | <urn:uuid:80c421bc-e5bd-4fde-a615-b8d611d004b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/guidance/industries/pesticides/topics/reducing-environmental-impact | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903318 | 1,000 | 2.875 | 3 |
The guys who brought us Little Printer are collaborating with Twitter to create 4 beautifully crafted Twitter alerting birdhouses to be given as prizes to agencies which have demonstrated the most creative uses of Twitter.
Research company Roke Manor Research in Romsey have developed a coin-sized transmitter that requires no batteries and can send a signal as far as 12 miles.
BAT Studio has engineered a modern day representation of a scriveners’ office for Chester Performs by replacing pen and paper with a speech-to-text engine and thermal printers.
London and Tokyo based Tangent have developed KIHOU – a bubbly lighting system. The light consists of a transparent viscous liquid and a thin layer of black silicone oil. Air is pumped from the bottom to create a bubble which oozes to the top and belches out revealing the light shining from below.
The Ressence Type 3 is an ingeniously designed watch which uses refraction to bend the image onto the edges of a dome, allowing the wearer to read the time from the side.
Amy Radcliffe of the University of the Arts has created a device which captures scents. The neat machine is made up of two chambers separated by a resin. Once the selected scent is inside the first chamber air is pumped into it, forcing the scent into the resin. This resign can then be submitted for analysis to determine it’s chemical makeup, allowing an approximation of the scent to be made into the form of a perfume.
Quadcopters and drones are all the rage these days with the United States at the forefront. As with most technologies they begin super expensive and are usually controlled by governments and then eventually filter down to us, the people. I would like to draw your attention to this miniature sized beast – capable of great fun, performing entertaining tricks and should have you occupied no matter the time indoors and outdoors.
So you’ve had beautiful wooden speakers for years and you spent every evening listening to your favourite thumping techno-house-rave on them. But then “The Internet” came along and made all your Compacted Diskettes worthless. Those speakers; the ones that have been replaced by your laptop and have been gathering dust for a decade can be young again, thanks for The Vamp.
Sergey Brin the co-founder of Google and the man leading the charge of its mysterious Google X division (the unit that brought us the Driverless Car and Google Glass), took the stage at this year’s TED conference to speak candidly about Google Glass.
Webflow is a really nice WYSIWYG responsive web design web app. Like Adobe Reflow, but better.
Harlem Shake has taken the world by storm and it seems as if no one can resist its ever appealing lour. The Simpsons has now jumped on the band wagon and created their own flavour adding something new that only The Simpsons can. After 23 years they continue to adapt to ever changing trends and cultural norms. I always want to add a little vibrancy to TechMog and just came across the video. | <urn:uuid:f42b4d53-8b22-4753-990a-77e6cd421207> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://techmog.com/tag/google-cube/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95523 | 630 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Omphalism is a school of thought (titled after the Philip Henry Gosse work Omphalos) which holds that the entire universe was created with the appearance of age, and thus no date of creation for the Universe can be definitively proven.
Examples of Omphalism:
- The belief that our memories, experiences, and physical appearances were "implanted" into us at our creation, possibly at a time during what we imagine to be our own lifetimes.
- That nature shows signs of growth, renewal and damage which were posited into being, rather than occurring "naturally". These include trees (growth rings, fire scares), mountains (upheaval, erosion), and animals (offspring or supposed "evolution").
- That starlight was "already" moving towards Earth when God created it, thus disallowing accurate gauging of the Universe's age.
Reception among philosophers
Omphalism has been declaimed by many creationists, as it appears to accuse God of deceit. The movement has been mocked by both creationists and evolutionist atheists as "Last Thursdayism", with the claim that the entire Universe, with all the appearances of age and function, could very well have been created at some point in the past (such as "Last Thursday").
Omphalism occupies a strange place in theology, as, while supporting the notion of God as an omnipotent being, who has provided us with all the signs of a growing, changing word to give our lives context and function (in addition to instilling many humans with the love and faith of Christ), it does in fact appear to accuse God of deceit, since these emotions and sentiments can be said to be "programmed" into humans ex nihilo. It can thus be described as heretical. | <urn:uuid:1590d4ce-bc30-4503-a773-0daa996244a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.conservapedia.com/Omphalism | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973124 | 371 | 2.90625 | 3 |
(AP) Fewer business travelers are likely to hit the road this year as the travel industry is challenged by corporate America's persistent economic fears.
Business travelers are expected to take 431.8 million trips in 2013, the Global Business Travel Association said Tuesday. The industry trade group had forecast 435 million trips back in July.
The latest estimate would mean a 1.1 percent decline from the 436.5 million trips taken in 2012.
Fewer people traveling, however, doesn't mean lower costs. Airfare, hotel rooms, meals and car rentals have helped to push up the overall price of business travel.
In 2012, business travelers spent $254.9 billion, up 1.6 percent from the prior year. This year, the travel association expects another 4.6 percent increase to $266.7 billion. That's down slightly from the $268.5 billion predicted back in July.
Worries over the tax and budget battle in Washington were blamed for some of the 2012 declines. Now that tax changes have been approved, the business travel group is cautiously optimistic that travel will improve.
Even with an agreement to avert the fiscal cliff in the near-term, there are still many issues that need to be addressed; however, companies should now have somewhat greater confidence in their spending decisions, Michael W. McCormick, executive director of the group said in a statement.
He expects conditions to improve in the second half of the year, when pent-up demand to get back on the road should hopefully fuel accelerating growth in business travel spending.
Travel to Europe will likely decline due to ongoing economic problems, but the travel association says that a stronger Chinese economy will help boost international trips. | <urn:uuid:450a0064-da56-4d91-bb43-c9cb9571d48b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://timesleader.com/stories/Fewer-business-travelers-to-hit-the-road-in-2013,249179?category_id=103&list_type=most_viewed&town_id=1&sub_type=stories | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959398 | 346 | 1.671875 | 2 |
We all know that Christmas officially begins on Christmas Eve, but when does Christmas end?
On the Feast day of the Epiphany, January 6, the Church celebrates the event where the Magi, also called the Three Wise Men or Three Kings, traveled from the East to pay homage to the newborn King, Jesus Christ. Many Catholics believe that this is the date when the Christmas season officially ends, being the end of the 12 days of Christmas.
However, according to the Roman Catholic Calendar for 2013, Ordinary Time doesn’t officially begin until the Monday after the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which this year falls on the Sunday after the Epiphany. This means that the Christmas season actually extends beyond the “Twelve Days of Christmas.”
In older traditions (which are still kept in the liturgical calendar of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass) Christmas lasted until Candle-mas, or the Feast of the Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Jesus, which isn’t until February 2nd. This marked the end of a long 40 day “Christmastide” that corresponded to the 40 days of Lent. This was the day that Mary entered the temple with the Child Jesus when her days of purification after giving birth were fulfilled (according to the Mosaic law) and when Simeon made his well-known prophecy about Mary and the Child. It is called “Candle-mas” because of Simeon’s prophecy of Jesus being a light for the Gentiles.
Another element to throw into the mix is that the “octave” of Christmas ends on the eighth day after Christmas, which is January 1 and the Feast Day of Mary, the Mother of God. Major feast days are usually celebrated not just during 24 hours, but given the honor of an octave (8 days) which is a custom that traces its roots to Old Testament feasts. The end of the octave can been seen as the end of the Christmas feast proper, after which begins the longer Christmas season that extends either to the Baptism of the Lord for the Ordinary Form (January 13, or the Sunday after Epiphany) or the Presentation of the Lord for the Extraordinary Form (February 2). However this understanding of a proper Christmas ‘feast’ in some traditions is also associated with the 12 Days of Christmas which culminates on Epiphany.
Confusing? You bet. Unfortunately the confusion is not cleared by going deeper into Church history.
A Bit of History on the Feast of the Epiphany
The feast of the Epiphany originated in the East as a major feast day. The name Epiphany, meaning ‘manifestation’ or ‘theophany’ (understood particularly as a manifestation of Israel’s Messiah to the Gentile nations), has also been associated with the other biblical manifestations of Christ. Historically, at least three events were celebrated on the same January 6 feast day—the feast of the Nativity (not Dec. 25), the visit from the Magi, and the Lord’s Baptism—in various locations in the first centuries of Christianity. It was called generally the feast of the Epiphany because these were all epiphanies of Christ. Eastern Rite Catholics today, for example, celebrate the ‘epiphany’ of the Lord’s baptism on January 6, and not primarily the ‘epiphany’ of the visit from the Three Wise Men, while Latin Rite Catholics currently celebrate these two feasts on consecutive Sundays.
To make things even more confusing, the visit from the Magi that is today most associated with Epiphany in the Latin Rite likely occurred after the Presentation in the Temple (which is celebrated on February 2), because it was after the Magi visited the Holy Family that they fled to Egypt to escape Herod’s murderous threats.
So, When Does Christmas End?
When Christmas ends depends on what Rite you are (Latin or Eastern) what liturgical calendar you follow (Ordinary or Extraordinary) and whether you’re looking for the end of the Christmas ‘feast’ or the end of the Christmas ‘season’. But overall, here is what sounds good to me:
- Christmas itself ends on the final day of the octave of Christmas, which is the feast of Mary, the Mother of God, or January 1st. Keep your feasting and merriment going for the full 8 days.
- The ‘peak’ of the Christmas ‘season’ is Epiphany, the end of the 12 Days of Christmas. Jesus is now revealed as a light to the Gentile nations. Keep your Christmas decorations, especially your Christmas lights, up at least until this day is over (or 8 days for the full octave).
- The official end of the Christmas season is the Baptism of the Lord the following weekend (the end of the octave of Epiphany), after which Ordinary Time begins. Keep your nativity scene displayed up through this day or until the Presentation of the Lord on February 2nd.
These are just suggestions of course. The varying Christmas traditions reflect the universal nature of the Church (all tribes and tongues!) which has been going strong for 2,000 years. Everyone is on the same page generally speaking in keeping the feast of Christmas, even though there have naturally arisen differences over the millenia in exactly how this is done from place to place.
Catholic Gifts Related to the Feast of the Epiphany: | <urn:uuid:d7a1f1f1-19f6-4a77-9e02-78cd07e7857e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.catholiccompany.com/blog/does-christmas-end-on-epiphany | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959089 | 1,144 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Iran's nuclear program presents a threat to international stability. Yet successive American administrations-Republican and Democratic alike-have misread the intentions and actions of the Iranian regime. How dangerous is a nuclear Iran, even if it never detonates a weapon? What are the guiding principles of the Iranian leadership? To what lengths would the regime go to carry out its agenda? How far have Iran's leaders already gone to fund the world's most powerful terrorist organizations? And why have American leaders failed to gain the upper hand in relations with Iran during the past 30 years? In approximately 60 minutes, Iranium powerfully reports on the many aspects of the threat America and the world now faces using rarely-before seen footage of Iranian leaders, and interviews with 25 leading politicians, Iranian dissidents, and experts on: Middle East policy, terrorism, and nuclear proliferation. | <urn:uuid:81ef3972-0b9f-4951-b7e0-435252e41003> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://johnlocker.com/home/video/1232/Iranium | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935434 | 167 | 1.789063 | 2 |
The People's Party
Like this year, 1890 was an election year. And like this year, there was plenty of drama on
the political scene. Drought in 1890 killed the crops, and Nebraska's farmers, frustrated by
high interest rates, high railroad freight rates, and low farm prices, vowed, "Since we raised
no crops, we'll just raise hell."
The farmers' hell-raising took political form. Some 15,000 registered voters signed the State
Farmers' Alliance "declaration of principles" which called for the free coinage of silver,
abolition of the land monopoly, governmental ownership of railroads and telegraph lines, and
appropriate taxation of the wealthy. Based on overwhelming response to the "declaration," a
People's State Independent Convention was called to meet July 29, 1890 in Lincoln.
Over eight-hundred delegates crowded Bohanan's Hall in the Capital City to establish a
platform and nominate a full slate of candidates. John H. Powers of Trenton was selected as
the gubernatorial candidate in a convention that featured great oration and much singing.
Nearly every well-known song of the day was modified by the so-called "Populists" with
words which reflected the political times. "My Country, 'Tis of thee" was re-written as "My
country, 'tis of thee/once land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land of the Millionaire: farmers with
pockets bare, caused by the cursed snare--the Money Ring."
The Populists' protest songs were parodied by Lincoln Journal columnist A.L. "Doc" Bixby,
who offered this ditty as his comment on the movement: "I cannot sing the old songs, My
heart is full of woe; But I can howl calamity/from Hell to Broken Bow."
Not everyone took the Populists seriously until November, when election returns forced the
pundits to sit up and take notice. Democrat James Boyd was elected governor, but only by a
thousand votes. Populists were sent to Congress, and gained control of Nebraska's Senate
The newspapers could call them "hogs in the parlor," but the Populists were a political force
to be reckoned with in the 1890s.
Return to Timeline Index | <urn:uuid:621a4841-b2c0-46d9-a8b5-1b92cbd5a449> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/timeline/peoples_party.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976719 | 485 | 2.453125 | 2 |
Drago Bosnjak, standing trial for war crimes in Sisak at the County Court in Osijek, offered an alibi on Tuesday when his son, Hrvoje, testified that they were both on holiday when some of the crimes took place.
Testifying at the trial of Drago Bosnjak and Vladimir Milankovic, wartime deputy police commander of Sisak, Bosnjak's son Hrvoje, claimed that a hotel bill existed that he and his father paid for their vacation in Crikvenica on the Croatian coast in August 1991.
Ivan Galic, a hotelier in Crikvenica, confirmed that Hrvoje and Drago Bosnjak stayed in his hotel from August 18-26, 1991.
Bosnjak, former member of the Sisak special police unit known as “the Wolves”, is accused of organising and leading a group that detained and tortured Serb civilians, allegedly killing eight of the 24 victims named in the indictment.
The indictment covers 12 months, from July 1991 until June 1992.
The second indictee, Vladimir Milankovic, is charged with allowing, encouraging and failing to investigate the physical and psychological torture, illegal detention and humiliation of Croatian Serb civilians in the Sisak area.
He is also charged with personally torturing and ordering the illegal arrest of a large number of Serb civilians from Sisak, which resulted in the death of 24 people.
The prosecutor complained about Hrvoje Bosnjak's testimony at Tuesday's trial, claiming it had been prearranged to help his father.
The prosecutor also maintained that the bill from the Crikvenica hotel wasn't credible.
The trial continues Wednesday. | <urn:uuid:a3c54a5d-8bc8-46d6-8727-1c08a146e6c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/sisak-trial-defendant-offers-an-alibi/btj-topic-war-crime-trials-latest-headlines/81 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974603 | 367 | 1.578125 | 2 |
| 10/13/2011 06:44 AM
Story Courtesy of Savannah Herald
(Savannah, GA)- Bridget Stephens, a senior English Literature and Language major at Savannah State University and a member of the Gamma Upsilon Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. and Eric Jonas Stephens a graduate of Paine College and a historian, researcher and a doctoral student in the History Department at Auburn University, were selected to participate in the Breaking New Ground program, an oral history project focusing on the lives of African American farm owners since the Civil War. Both individuals were afforded the opportunity to be trained by two premier oral historians from New York and Illinois as well as gain hands on experience of conducting oral history, which included learning how to properly collect oral interviews and understand the importance of landownership to the aspirations of freedmen and women and their descendents.
Their summer was spent collecting over thirty oral interviews from African American farm owners from the Southwestern region of Georgia; focusing on communities in Decatur, Miller, Baker and Seminole counties. These interviews, which will be archived at the Southern Oral History Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, hope to illuminate the lived experiences of African American farmers from the 1930’s until the present. A part from the interviews being archived for historical preservation at Chapel Hill’s Southern Oral History Program (SOHP), they were also collected as part of Breaking New Ground, a two year project with the goal of providing a basis for beginning to understand another important facet of Southern life, history and culture, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The program’s sole purpose was to collect oral interviews which are intended to unearth the history of black farm owning families from the early twentieth century to the present, because historians have minimal information about African American actually owning farm land.
Both individuals were humbly gracious to be a part of such a historically ground breaking program and are astounded about the accomplishments they have given to not only the history of their community, but also to the history of Georgia and the South. Mr. Stephens states that: “As an historian-in-training at Auburn University, Breaking New Ground has provided me with the confidence to conduct and frame historical narratives and better understand the correlation between ownership, renting and sharecropping of land.” For Ms. Stephens, who worked with her brother, Mr. Stephens on this project states that she was “amazed by every story that I have the opportunity to collect. Growing up in a rural community I never thought my small community had such rich African American landowning history. I had the chance to listen to firsthand accounts of just how much of a rite landowning was to the African American development, sense of value and self-worth.
Ms. Bridget Stephens and Mr. Eric Jonas Stephens both confirmed that this is one of the greatest educational experiences that they have ever had. They are both confident in the fact that projects such as Breaking New Ground provide scholars with a chance to recapture a certain memory or moment in time and that moment’s interaction with the present; in essence a way of holding onto the elemental things that
To view story visit: http://savannahherald.net/two-scholars-help-resurrect-and-preserve-local-georgia-history-p2265-92.htm
(Reprinted from Savannah Herald) | <urn:uuid:50810268-963f-44b1-ada3-4ce30d55ffdb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.paine.edu/blog/post/2011/10/13/Paine-graduate-helps-resurrect-and-preserve-local-Georgia-history.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959607 | 699 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Massive Star Explosion Captured in Stunning Photo
This new view of the historical supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, located 11,000 light-years away, was taken by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR. Image released Jan. 7, 2013.
LONG BEACH, Calif. – A beautiful new image snapped by a NASA spacecraft captures the aftermath of a massive star explosion with unprecedented resolution.
The image — taken by NASA's NuSTAR spacecraft (short for Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) in X-ray light — shows Cassiopeia-A, a supernova remnant located about 11,000 light-years from Earth.
Light from the violent explosion first reached Earth about 300 years ago, researchers said.
The blue ring is made up of high-energy X-ray light. The ring formed when the shock wave from the star's death crashed into nearby particles, accelerating them to nearly the speed of light.
The new image provides an incredibly detailed view of the star's death. With earlier technology, such as that provided by NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the entire supernova explosion would have appeared as a single dot, said NuSTAR principal investigator Fiona Harrison, an astrophysicist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
The $165 million NuSTAR spacecraft launched in June 2012 on a two-year mission to probe high-energy regions of the universe, such as black holes and supernova remnants. The spacecraft should help researchers better understand how galaxies form and how black holes grow, Harrison has said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MORE FROM SPACE.com | <urn:uuid:32ffcf7c-9ab7-438b-a253-18edd7157388> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.space.com/19173-supernova-photo-nustar-spacecraft.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927193 | 332 | 3.28125 | 3 |
A December 29 article on the Washington Post's Web site described succinctly how HOT lanes work: "The carpool [HOT] lanes remain free to carpools, van pools, and buses, while other motorists pay a toll. The tolls are collected via electronic transponders, to prevent tollbooths from slowing or stopping traffic. To make sure the lanes don't fill up with cheaters, effective HOT lanes have room built in for police to ensure that vehicles have transponders."
HOT lanes are most effective, noted the article, when "The toll's price changes throughout the day to keep traffic moving, even during rush hours. When the lanes start to bog down, the price goes up to encourage motorists to leave the lanes or discourage them from entering. As road space frees up, the price drops. The fluctuating prices not only keep traffic moving, advocates say, but also 'stretch the highway's capacity by encouraging drivers to use it outside peak times.'"
According to the article, "HOT-lane advocates also tout the long-term potential for such lanes to improve transit." If a network of HOT lanes could be developed long-term to connect free-flowing toll lanes on several major highways, it could form a seamless web for express bus service.
The Washington Beltway (I-495) is one of the highest-profile locations for proposed HOT lanes, and an unsolicited proposal to add two such lanes in each direction on 12 miles of the Beltway received the formal endorsement of Virginia's Commonwealth Transportation Board in July 2003. The Fluor Daniel company submitted a detailed proposal for the $630 million project in October.
"We are out of money in our transportation trust funds throughout our region," said Lon Anderson, spokesman for the Mid-Atlantic AAA. "There's no money to make the wholesale changes many would like to see. HOT lanes offer that opportunity."
The HOT lanes alternative will be included in the region's ongoing Final Environmental Impact Statement, to be wrapped up by December 2004. The project has strong local support (e.g., unanimous endorsement by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors) but is opposed by the Fairfax Coalition for Smarter Growth, which is promoting light rail instead.
Philip Shucet, head of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), has praised the proposal as "a shining example" of a public-private partnership. VDOT will look at further applications of HOT lanes in the DC metro area using a $500,000 grant from the federal Value Pricing Pilot Program, announced in July 2003. The pilot program is also supporting further work on several other HOT lanes projects:
- A $1 million grant will help Colorado DOT plan the conversion of the High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes on I-25 North to HOT lanes.
- Florida DOT will do detailed traffic and revenue studies of a potential HOV-to-HOT conversion on I-95 in Miami.
- Texas DOT will study the addition of HOT lanes to a 15-mile section of the Northeast Corridor in San Antonio.
Other Positive Steps
In August 2003, the Atlanta Value Pricing Advisory Task Force released its report after a nearly two-year effort to evaluate how traffic pricing might help address metro Atlanta's severe congestion problems.
"Paying the Price for Congestion" concludes, "HOT/managed lanes and other congestion pricing strategies hold the greatest promise for implementing value pricing in this region at this time."
The task force looked at the possible addition of HOT lanes on 17 miles of Georgia 400 north of I-285; shifting from flat-rate to variable pricing on the tolled portion of Georgia 400; and adding HOT lanes to Georgia 316. Georgia DOT is also looking into the possibility of a network of HOT lanes on the entire freeway system.
A HOT lanes network was proposed in July 2003 by the highest-ranking official in greater Houston, Harris County Judge Robert Eckels. Eckels asked county officials to look at the feasibility of having the Harris County Toll Road Authority take over the 100 miles of HOV lanes now operated by Houston Metro, the regional transit agency.
The HOV lanes were developed originally as express busways, but were opened to carpools because they have significant excess capacity. Two of those facilities on I-10 and US 290 already have been converted to HOT lanes, and the I-10 HOT lanes will be greatly expanded in a $1.4 billion reconstruction project that began in June 2003. Metro would be ensured access for its large fleet of express buses but would no longer have to pay to maintain the limited-access lanes. Toll revenues will make it possible to expand the network of lanes.
Minnesota and Washington State also are moving into the HOT lanes camp. Minnesota enacted new legislation in summer 2003 that permits the conversion of HOV lanes to HOT lanes. The first project, as recommended by a Value Pricing Task Force, will convert the HOV lanes on I-394. Washington's Transportation Commission directed the state DOT in January 2003 to study the feasibility of converting an existing HOV lane to HOT. In December, the state DOT decided to proceed with detailed planning for converting the SR167 HOV lanes to HOT lanes.
The nation's pioneer HOT lanes project, the 91 Express Lanes in Orange County, California, had another price increase. The busiest hours of the week—eastbound on Thursday and Friday between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m.—will now cost motorists $5.50 instead of the previous $4.75. The August 1, 2003 increase is the seventh since the Express Lanes opened in December 1995.
Though political pressures led the Orange County Transportation Association (OCTA) to buy out the privately developed project effective January 1, 2004, the hopes of some officials that tolls could be reduced or eliminated have been dashed.
In addition to needing toll revenues to pay off more than $100 million in construction bonds, OCTA officials have come to appreciate the worth of the value pricing pioneered on these lanes. It's value pricing—increasingly higher rates during the busiest periods—that keeps the Express Lanes free-flowing and able to handle more vehicles/lane/hour at rush hour than the congested regular lanes.
Robert W. Poole Jr. is director of transportation studies and founder of the Reason Foundation. | <urn:uuid:27647826-2923-436e-904e-af41fd4dcfd4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://reason.org/news/printer/hot-lanes-advance-in-seven-sta | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947053 | 1,299 | 1.921875 | 2 |
"The high antioxidant potential of the methanol extract of low-grade coffee beans is due to the presence of phenolic compounds including chlorogenic acids, which make them more suitable as a source of natural antioxidant and their utility can be explored in food industry," wrote the authors from the Spices and Flavour Technology Department at the Central Food Technological Research Institute in Mysore.
The study is published in the Elsevier journal Food Research International.
Interest is growing in plant-derived food additives as replacements to synthetic antioxidants like butylhydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) to slow down the oxidative deterioration of food.
Indeed, according to a 2003 report by Frost and Sullivan, the synthetic antioxidant market is in decline, while natural antioxidants, such as herb extracts (particularly rosemary), tocopherols (vitamin E) and ascorbates (vitamin C) are growing, pushed by easier consumer acceptance and legal requirements for market access.
This natural antioxidant range could potentially include the extracts from low-grade coffee beans, representing between 15 to 20 per cent of coffee production, report the researchers behind the new study.
The researchers, led by L. Jagan Mohan Rao, looked at the potential of different solvents (hexane, chloroform, acetone and methanol) to obtain antioxidant-rich extracts from unwanted coffee beans.
They report that the highest yield was obtained by methanol, with 12 per cent, followed by hexane at eight per cent. The methanol extract also came out on top in terms of radical-scavenging activity, with 92.5 per cent.
"Further, the methanol extract showed antioxidant activity (58 per cent) at 100 ppm concentration, while the other extracts, acetone, chloroform and hexane exhibited 44, 28, and 14 per cent, respectively, at the same concentration," stated the researchers.
The methanol extract, highlighted by the researchers as the most promising extract, reportedly contained 21.9 per cent total phenolics, 34.2 per cent chlorogenic acid, and 8.25 per cent caffeine.
"This study provides evidence for the antioxidant potential of low-grade (defective/rejected) coffee beans and their extracts," wrote the researchers.
"Incorporation into food systems may require further studies on other characteristics such as carry through effect, toxicological aspects and standardization of dosage to be used," they added.
"Since the substandard coffee beans are not suitable for making coffee beverage, presence of phenolic compounds and chlorogenic acids in a considerable quantity make them suitable as a source of antioxidant/oxygen scavenger/free radical scavenger conserve/compounds. These conserves/compounds can be tried for preservation in different food systems," concluded the Indian researchers.
The research taps into the growing trend for sourcing natural antioxidants from waste sources, and then using them as nutraceutical or functional ingredients. Indeed, researchers taking part in the EC CRAFT project FAIR 98-9517 reported in 2006 the practical, economic, and industrial viability of waste products from juice production, waste from the canning industry, or remains from the harvesting of 11 different fruits and vegetables.
The study focussed on two important aspects for the extracts: Firstly, if the plant waste extracts have potential as antioxidants compared to established ones, and, secondly, if the research could lead to practical and economic applications.
Initial screening of red beet, apple, strawberry and pear residues from juice production; tomato, artichoke and asparagus from the canning industry; chicory, endive, cucumber and broccoli remains from harvesting; and golden rod herb and woad herb extracts showed that all of wastes yielded polyphenols.
The advantages of using these natural antioxidants could offer important opportunities for food preservative producers.
Source: Food Research International (Elsevier)
Volume 41, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 96-103
"Antioxidant potential of low-grade coffee beans"
Authors: K. Ramalakshmi, I. Rahath Kubra, L. Jagan Mohan Rao | <urn:uuid:fc789ce8-3a15-48f8-b2ea-57c4e9f1d293> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mobile.foodnavigator.com/Science-Nutrition/Unwanted-coffee-beans-offer-natural-preservatives | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92569 | 864 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Texas Bats Having Tough Time Amid Drought
The drought affecting Texas this summer is giving resident bats a hard time. The lack of moisture has depleted the insect population so that bats are having to depart early from their daytime dwellings because they have to travel farther to find enough to eat.
At Bracken Bat Cave, home to the world’s highest concentration of bats, the little guys are having to emerge as much as two hours before darkness.
Leaving their daytime roosts before nightfall makes them more susceptible to predators. Hawks, falcons, owls, raccoons and snakes are known to make meals of bats.
Experts have also noticed fewer bats emerging from caves and have seen evidence that more infant bats are showing up dead.
An infant bat will not survive it it’s mother cannot provide it with enough food.
“If adults aren’t able to get enough food, babies don’t,” - Diana Foss, Urban Biologist for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, to the Bryan College Station Eagle
Although it is impossible to determine the true severity until 2012, it looks as though the population will decline.
Bat colonies face adversity amid Texas drought [Bryan College Station Eagle] | <urn:uuid:eaf1cab1-8dd6-42a4-a78a-df1369f551f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cavingnews.com/20111021-texas-bats-having-tough-time-amid-drought | 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 | 0.952797 | 255 | 3.125 | 3 |
The Federal Communications Commission last week asked a federal court to dismiss lawsuits filed by cell phone service providers Verizon Communications and MetroPCS that challenge the FCC's new Net neutrality regulations.
The FCC said in a statement that the companies filed their suits in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit too early. The new rules that were approved by the Commission in December have not taken effect yet.
"The rules that govern when and how parties may challenge FCC orders are clear, and Verizon and MetroPCS filed too early when they challenged the Open Internet order," the FCC said in a press release.
Verizon and Metro PCS recently filed separate lawsuits in the same appeals court challenging the FCC's new Net neutrality rules. These rules will prevent broadband providers from blocking or favoring their own traffic over competing services' traffic.
The FCC argues that the lawsuits were filed too early. Most legal challenges occur after an FCC order has been published in the Federal Register. This has not happened yet in the case of the Net neutrality regulations. Verizon and MetroPCS each said in their suits there are certain exceptions and their cases should be considered early before the rules take effect.
The FCC also questions whether the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is the appropriate venue for the case. This is a key point, since the D.C. Circuit is the same court that last year said that the FCC had overstepped its authority when it sanctioned Comcast for violating the agency's Net neutrality principles.
But Verizon has argued that the D.C. Circuit has exclusive jurisdiction over the case, because this court can hear cases where FCC licenses have been modified. And Verizon argues that the new rules retroactively alter the license agreements that Verizon has with the FCC. | <urn:uuid:672ed166-0b71-47e7-ba19-5cdce9362bfa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20030087-266.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964016 | 356 | 1.8125 | 2 |
On June 2, 2009, the Ohio Supreme Court held that an age discrimination claim filed by a former employee of United Parcel Systems ("UPS") was barred because an earlier internal "arbitration" proceeding found that the employee had been terminated for just cause. The Court's decision in Meyer v. United Parcel Service, Inc., Slip Opinion No. 2009-Ohio-2463, highlights the importance of an appropriate internal grievance process in defending a lawsuit alleging age discrimination and offers clarification on Ohio's unique statutory framework for age discrimination claims.
UPS discharged Robert Meyer on December 1, 2003, after 25 years of employment. Meyer, a package delivery driver, had been discharged two previous times in 2003, but returned to work after filing grievances that resulted in reducing his discipline to suspension without pay. However, Meyer's grievance over his December 1 termination was denied. He appealed to the "Ohio Joint State Committee" grievance panel, which consisted of two UPS representatives and two union representatives. After a hearing, the Joint Panel found that Meyer was terminated for just cause.
Meyer filed suit against UPS within 180 days of his termination, alleging that he was terminated in retaliation for filing a workers' compensation claim. He later amended his Complaint to allege that he was terminated due to age discrimination in violation of Ohio Revised Code (R.C.) Section 4112.99. Meyer sought relief under this general provision of the Ohio Civil Rights Statute, which provides that a party who engages in discriminatory conduct prohibited by Chapter 4112 is subject to an action for civil damages, injunctive relief, or any other appropriate relief. Meyer's lawsuit sought to avoid a more specific provision of the Ohio Civil Rights Act pertaining to age discrimination, R.C. 4112.14(C). R.C. 4112.14(C) states that an employee cannot pursue a claim or seek remedies for age discrimination "in the case of discharges where the employee has available to the employee the opportunity to arbitrate the discharge or where a discharge has been arbitrated and has found to be for just cause." After a jury trial, Meyer recovered over $300,000 in back pay and damages, and was awarded attorneys' fees and reinstatement.
The First District Court of Appeals vacated the judgment, finding that Meyer's workers' compensation retaliation allegations should not have been tried by a jury and that the verdict on the age count was tainted by the improperly tried claim. The First District, however, rejected UPS' argument that Meyer's age claim was barred due to the specific statutory language barring age claims after an arbitration finding just cause for the termination.
Reversing the Court of Appeals, the Ohio Supreme Court clarified that R.C. 4112.99 serves as a "gap filling" provision under the Ohio Civil Rights Act. The Court found that filing an action under R.C. 4112.99 does not permit plaintiffs to circumvent the more specific statutory requirement barring age claims set forth in R.C. 4112.14(C). As the Court succinctly held: "pursuant to R.C. 4112.14(C) when the discharge of an employee has been arbitrated and the discharge has been found to be for just cause, the discharged employee is barred from pursuing an action for age discrimination." The Court emphasized that established grievance procedures equate with "arbitration" for purposes of R.C. 4112.14(C), when appropriate procedural safeguards and indicia of impartiality are present.
Consistent with its holding that R.C. 4112.99 serves as a "gap filling" provision under Chapter 4112, the Court signaled interest in further examining the interplay of the substantive provisions of Ohio's statutory framework for age discrimination claims, including the questions of the appropriate statutes of limitation (180 day period versus six years), varying remedies available and election of remedies. However, the Court declined to address further the interplay between the other age discrimination provisions of Chapter 4112 finding, in part, that UPS did not preserve the issue of whether Meyer's Amended Complaint for age discrimination related back to his original complaint. Accordingly, there was no dispute before the Supreme Court as to whether Meyer's Age Count was filed within the shorter 180-day period and, thus, the Court did not need to address which statute of limitations should apply.
The decision in Meyer is important in two respects. First, it indicates that Ohio employers with bona fide internal grievance-arbitration mechanisms may be able to successfully defend state law allegations of unlawful discriminatory age-based terminations by invoking the protection of R.C. 4112.14(C). Perhaps of greater import is the Court's labeling of R.C. 4112.99 as a gap-filler. This holding appears to invite employers to challenge claims generically brought under R.C. 4112.99 after the 180-day limitations period in R.C. 4112.02(N) has expired based upon statute of limitations and election of remedies grounds. As a result, Meyer may ultimately be a decision that dramatically changes the landscape of Ohio age discrimination litigation by forcing Ohio courts to re-examine the interplay of the substantive provisions of Chapter 4112. | <urn:uuid:f21f4abe-14e7-4b1a-b14c-5e7bef26162b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=52d77178-8324-4fd6-b6eb-5730089c8c51 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952587 | 1,065 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Season Stepp: Aphrodisiacs to spice up your Valentine's Day
Published: Wednesday, February 13, 2013 at 3:15 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, February 11, 2013 at 5:30 p.m.
Some foods that are considered romantic are featured in Valentine's Day dinners, while others were considered to be aphrodisiacs by ancient peoples.
Today science is able to validate some (but not all) qualities of foods that might have been considered myth and superstition. It can still be fun to think that some foods can make life a little more, shall we say, interesting.
For the most part, effects from aphrodisiacs are due in large part to the placebo effect, or the psychosomatic belief that there will be results. Many supposed aphrodisiacs are considered as such because of their appearance, shape or origin.
Chocolate is probably one of the most recognized aphrodisiac foods. Valentine's Day would not be complete without it. Cocoa contains chemical stimulants that conjure the sort of subtle feelings of well-being, often known as “feel-good” chemicals. Pure chocolate releases dopamine in the pleasure centers of the brain, possibly inducing feelings of excitement, attraction and euphoria. Cacao also contains tryptophan, known to promote a sense of relaxation.
Here's one that may not come to mind when one thinks of an aphrodisiac: Garlic! Although pungent in aroma, garlic contains compounds that increase blood flow, energy and may improve stamina.
When it comes to heat, chile peppers are chock full of capsaicin. This chemical is known to increase circulation to get blood pumping, induce flushed skin and stimulate nerve endings. It also triggers endorphins, which act as natural opiate-like neurotransmitters to promote feelings of euphoria and excitement.
Almond and asparagus are foods that may not strike one as belonging in this category. However, since antiquity almonds have been a symbol of fertility and the scent of an almond blossom is said to arouse passion.
Asparagus is a source of folate, which may act as a mood enhancer; it also contains other phosphorus nutrients to counteract fatigue and stimulate one's hormones.
Grapes have always been symbolic of love, fertility and virility. In ancient Greece, there was a tradition to give grape clusters to newlywed couples, in the belief that grape seeds would grant them many children. And of course we must thank Bacchus, the god of wine, for giving us such a tasty beverage.
Rosemary represents fidelity and is often associated with the love goddess Aphrodite, as she was often portrayed holding or wearing a sprig of the woody herb. Scientifically speaking, rosemary may improve circulation and sensitivity to touch.
Rosemary and Asparagus Risotto
½ pound asparagus
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 onion, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and grated
1-2 teaspoons fresh rosemary needles, very finely minced
1 cup short grain rice, such as Arborio
1 cup white wine
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Rinse the asparagus. Hold it by both ends and bend the stalk until it snaps toward the base. The remaining base is too woody to eat; the rest of the bunch will have about the same length of woody base. Cut all the stalks to the length of the snapped stalk. Discard the bases and cut tender stems into 2-inch pieces.
Add the asparagus to the chicken stock and simmer until bright green and slightly tender. Remove from the stock and dunk into ice water to stop cooking.
Heat a saute pan over medium-high heat. When hot, add 3 tablespoons butter. When the butter has melted, add onion, garlic and rosemary. Cook until the onion is translucent.
Add rice and stir until coated with butter. Cook rice until it is lightly toasted, about 5 minutes. Add white wine and cook until evaporated.
Begin adding stock, ladlefuls at a time, making sure that all liquid is absorbed before adding additional liquid. To determine if it is time to add more stock, push your spoon or spatula down the center of the pan. If liquid does not immediately run into the center, add more stock.
Stir risotto continuously, adding stock until rice is al dente.
Add in asparagus tips and stir. Stir in remaining butter and cheese; season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Quick Chocolate Almond Danish
1 (10-ounce) can almond paste
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
¹/³ cup finely ground almonds
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 box frozen puff pastry, thawed but chilled (preferably all-butter pastry)
1 cup good-quality bittersweet chocolate chips
Turbinado (or raw) sugar, for finishing
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat liner or parchment paper.
In a small bowl, mix together almond paste with sugar, ground almonds and 1 egg. Set aside.
In a smaller bowl, beat together remaining egg with cream. Set aside.
Roll out the puff pastry until about ¹/8 of an inch thick. Cut the chilled dough into ¾-inch wide strips. Hold the ends of the strips, twisting in opposite directions. Form the twisted strip in a loose spiral, snail-like shape. Tuck the end beneath the last row. Place onto the prepared baking sheet and top with about 1 tablespoon of the almond paste mixture. Repeat with remaining pastry, storing the pan in the refrigerator to keep cold.
Brush with the tops of the pastries with egg and cream mixture and bake until golden brown, about 10-15 minutes. As soon as the pastries come out of the oven, top with a few chocolate chips and allow to melt. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:09c82640-33e6-4c4e-9875-c8f066f45a79> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goupstate.com/article/20130213/COLUMNISTS/302131000/1101/living06?Title=Season-Stepp-Aphrodisiacs-to-spice-up-Valentine-s-Day | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937775 | 1,291 | 2.046875 | 2 |
In the case of wind, Congress even enhanced the incentive, making the industry’s requested language change, so a wind system need only be “in construction” phase, not “fully commissioned” by end of 2013. Since large wind turbine projects take 18-24 months to plan, this will provide some relief, but likely only for project developers who were ready to pull the trigger ordering turbines by Q3 of this year.
In the case of solar, Congress punted the ball down the field for two months on 1603 (cash instead of tax credit) and gave a full year extension for the bonus depreciation (MACRS) tax incentive.
It’s funny to think how just a month ago, with the cliff looming, those of us in the midst of constructing projects were scrambling.
Here in New England, Varian Semiconductor had completed it’s own $8 million turbine in Gloucester, commissioning its system in early December. But down the road a private developer for an $11 million two turbine project was racing to get the systems commissioned by year-end. In the end their installation was hampered by the interconnection process with National Grid. Millions of dollars were on the line as the ball dropped on Times Square. You can bet the fiscal cliff drama had a different meaning for that management team.
At Groom Energy our team was on a rooftop getting our final utility signoff for a solar system on New Year’s Eve, not knowing if the solar incentives would be extended.
Unfortunately we’ve now become trained to expect that government and utility incentive programs will start and stop with no warning.
Just this week Arizona, the sunniest state in the country, suddenly killed it’s developing solar industry. With one quick decision they slashed all the incentives that had existing for some time. Businesses had for years been hiring based on the availability of this program, so the effect of a complete cut will be severe to say the least.
As the soon-to-be unemployed Arizona solar workers start the trek to California in search of new jobs, there is a much bigger lesson for any politician defining an industry focused support program.
Incentive programs need time to ramp up AND ramp down.
While there will be contentious debate anytime a government funded incentive is considered – once the decision is made, policy makers must design them for the long term. This means they should recognize that companies don’t hire in a day, and customers don’t make purchasing decisions the next. Programs take time to change behavior.
But when a program ends abruptly the reverse is true – customers do stop buying immediately – and businesses shut down faster than you can say shovel-ready stimulus.
So instead of basing a program’s end on the whims of future policy makers, the original authors should define price ratchets which step down over time. The ratchets should be based on real economic metrics – i.e. the number of MWs installed, the payback of a base system or the market price of a commodity. With this signaling businesses and customers can make rational decisions during the life of the program. And policy makers can show constituents that the funding will not be required in perpetuity.
Perhaps most importantly – employees can feel better that the day after the next election a newly elected politician won’t decide whether or not they have a job.
As we watch Europe’s financial system teeter on the brink, many are preparing for the US’s own unwelcomed, but necessary austerity effort. Yet with yesterday’s deadlock by the Super Committee, we’re all left wondering if our elected leaders have been watching too much ESPN, detailing the NBA’s own failure to come to an agreement, after over two years of negotiations.
With this latest partisan gridlock in the face of a financial storm, its a fait accompli that we will see a December 31st expiration of the Section 1603 cleantech cash grant incentives. Solyndra alone has put cleantech supporting Democrats on their heels and become a “reckless government spending” lapel button on Republican sport coats. Rightly or not, large bookable losses from the DOE’s attempt to stimulate jobs make it harder for politicians to put Section 1603 in a cleantech jobs creation wrapper.
Which means the cleantech markets will need to rely only on tax credits, as opposed to grants, in order to weather the looming US austerity period, whenever our politicians decide its important enough to address.
In late 2008 George Bush’s $700 billion TARP investment put the US Federal Government into the private equity business.
With only one Limited Partner (i.e. the US Federal Government) the fund raising process was fast, accelerated by the fact that we thought the US financial system was about to collapse. Applying a unique investment approach, Bank and Automotive company CEOs were called, told how much money they would be receiving (whether they liked it or not) and to draw up the investment docs. Not surprisingly, within a few months the fund was fully invested and it’s portfolio complete.
Now in 2011, with a forecast of only $652 billion likely to be recovered, LPs (taxpayers) are left debating was actually the investing goal?
Six months after TARP, President Obama funded his own, smaller but sexier $13 billion DOE Fund I (let’s call it DOEF ) through a $100 million Cleantech carve-out within the intergalactic $825 billion Federal economic stimulus program. The remaining $87 million was delivered through job creating DOE contracts implementing everything from utility smart grid rollouts to nuclear waste cleanup to low income home weatherization.
DOEF made it’s goal to drive “US Cleantech leadership” by investing capital in the most promising organizations. The presumption was that, like venture capital, grants could help spur R&D in strong market areas and, like private equity, loans could help later-stage companies to ramp their commercialization efforts.
But unlike TARP’s “call the CEO” approach, DOEF had to first issue broad RFPs, then consider a diverse set of responses, each with their own business, technical and investment merits. And the applicant pool included for-profit venture capital backed start-ups and even large publicly traded companies, in addition to the DOE’s more typical grantee targets (DOE’s own labs and research universities.)
Like a newly announced business plan competition, DOEF’s launch spurred any company with “cleantech” in it’s vocabulary to stop in it’s tracks, study the RFPs, and begin completing the numbingly exhaustive grant and loan applications. And if an applicant had existing capital or a VC on it’s board it immediately hired a DC-based lobbyist to increase it’s DOEF lottery ticket selection odds.
While the RFPs were intended to flush out the most promising technical ideas, their practical effect was to overwhelm the DOEF investment team (i.e. DOE technical staff) with sheer response volume. I can remember being at the DOE’s offices in late 2009 and having a conversation with a senior official who commented that Steven Chu was pushing his organization to “figure out where it should all go, but $10 billion must be out the door by year-end.” (It turns out today that the money didn’t get out as fast as they had hoped.)
Once they figured it out, DOEF handed out awards with much fanfare, marketing each of the hottest Cleantech categories where they wrote the biggest checks, including $250 million for A123 battery jobs in Michigan, Wind farms in Texas and the now infamous $500 million loan guarantee to venture-backed Silicon Valley based solar PV poster child, Solyndra. DOEF historical funding amounts and their locations can be tracked here.
And while the selections were purely merit based, its remarkable how evenly the recipient’s were located across the US, allowing politicians to confirm for LPs (voters) that their regions each got their fair share. How convenient that the best Cleantech researchers, companies and entrepreneurial ideas were perfectly distributed around the country.
As a first-time fund DOEF was funded on the promise. Now two years later the strategy has moved to execution and the initial portfolio provides an early measuring stick. There are obviously some big question marks.
Some of the biggest DOEF private equity type checks were written to fund building battery and solar manufacturing plants, with Solyndra already having gone bankrupt. If a private equity firm had lost its $500 million investment within a year of funding the entire investment team would already be looking for their next job. But the big miss highlights that the DOE is not in the best to position to identify and fund the winners, which mean more losses like this are likely.
For DOEF venture capital investments, you have to ask why companies like General Electric and Dow Chemical need additional R&D funding to accelerate their investment in cleantech? And do VC backed cleantech start-ups really need DOEFs money to do what they’re doing already? And if DOEF is the “first money in” is it likely they’ll pick the best team and technology ahead of the cleantech venture capitalists?
Last week’s SunShot program awards, a program intended to “reduce the cost of solar by 75%“, made grants to both large multinational and VC backed companies, in addition to a bunch of DOE labs and research universities. But should the DOE really be trying to directly bring down the cost of solar by backing new solar R&D? Last I checked there were a fair number of VCs who have a business investing in this sort of technology.
If it’s ”cleantech leadership” the DOE seeks, let’s start with customer adoption, which drives R&D value, and therefore spurs R&D investment by all companies. Instead of DOEF trying to quickly pick the technical winners now, why not instead implement a 10-year $100 billion Federal incentive program which supports customer investments and drives revenue for the winning companies.
The US Federal Government has changed position on the incentive model enough that investors and companies discount the chances that the latest incentives are really around for the long term. As we’ve commented previously, Federal incentives for both renewable and energy efficiency investments must be continuous, predictable and bankable for the market to really invest. Unlike DOEF, which needed to push money out as fast as possible, companies and managers take a little longer to make strategic investment decisions.
So before fund-raising for DOEF II begins, let’s change direction and shift the DOE out of venture capital and private equity and into defining long term strategic incentives which drive adoption and put the US in a more competitive position in the next decade. The free market will respond, cleantech growth will follow and it will cost the LPs a lot less money.
Today I attended the Clean Economy Network‘s first conference in Washington, DC, fittingly on the eve of President Obama’s State of the Union address.
The conference covered the latest cleantech policy and legislative debates, as presented by and to venture investors, entrepreneurs, policy makers, NGO and utility executives. The topics were broad ranging, from the EPA’s role in defining GHG rules, to the challenges with upgrading our electrical grid, to alternative fuel sources for the next generation of power plants and transportation systems. The speakers were candid about their views.
My favorite nuggets:
From panel speculating on the EPA:
- Don’t expect an attempt at carbon tax/cap-n-trade legislation from the EPA anytime soon. Even if the EPA thinks they have the authority, the fastest it has ever implemented anything is 18 months – and it is always followed by years of litigation.
- However, the EPA is getting dangerously close on attacking carbon, and if it comes to litigation, history tells us Congress will back off immediately as there is no win for politicians once this happens. The better hope is that the EPA’s direction catalyzes the House and Senate to finally pass climate legislation, BEFORE the EPA reaches this point of no return.
- The US’s current implied price of carbon (based on government and utility incentives) is $90/ton for wind, $400/ton for solar PV, $200/ton for ethanol fuel and $4,000 per ton for “cash for clunkers.”
- Consider history lesson where deregulation in railroads, wireline, wireless and cable TV all led to more competitive markets, where innovation ultimately drove greater efficiency. Energy markets are ready to have the same opportunity.
From Ray Mabus, the US Secretary of the Navy’s presentation:
- Secretary Mabus reminded the audience how controversial each fuel source change to the Navy’s fleet has been – going from wind to coal to oil to nuclear. In each shift there was significant tension about whether the new fuel source was reliable enough. Now as the Navy plans to introduce a clean fuel fleet with demonstrations next year he confirms that skepticism is increasing….
From John Woolard, CEO, BrightSource Energy’s presentation:
- John described the how the renewable energy legislation vacuum beyond 2016 is already impacting any new utility scale solar thermal power plant projects. Without long term legislation investors can’t make their decisions. While we’ve commented before on the need for predictable utility incentives for energy efficiency year to year, John’s observation really puts the long term need in perspective. The cleantech market requires long term visibility and predictability.
On this last nugget, and as I sit here listening to the State of the Union address, I’m left crossing my fingers that President Obama’s outward determination to address our “Sputnik moment” will lead him to drive US cleantech legislation which outlives his presidency and has a lifetime impact on the industry.
With last night’s tax bill passage by the House, the renewable energy industry has been given a wonderful holiday gift. But this toy’s battery only lasts one year and you might not be able to replace it.
By extending the Section 1603 provision for just another 12 months Congress has extended life for renewable grants, but kicked off another year of scrambling by project developers and customers. During 2011 activity will be harried as everyone wonders if this extension will disappear in 2012, be extended yet again for another year, or be part of a broader cleantech/energy package with different economics, better or worse, starting January 1st 2012.
As we outlined a year ago the key for any energy related incentive, (Federal, State grant or utility rebate) is to have consistency and visibility. Customers, developers and investors need this in order to make long term decisions and not be encouraged to try to game the system – or worse be gamed by missing a holiday special.
While this 1603 extension was bundled into Washington’s more politically important consumer tax cut deal, we have to hope that in early 2011 our legislators can figure out how to give the cleantech market these more permanent signals about economic support, regardless of whether they’re higher or lower. Only then can they catalyze more rational, long term cleantech investment decisions.
Attention policy makers – Cleantech Grants and Utility Rebates need to be predictable and continuous
In my former life as a early stage venture capitalist I learned a traditional VC bias against investing in start ups where government subsidies were necessary to make the technology’s economic case work. Year’s later I’m scratching my head at how the VC market has thrown out this bias in cleantech investing, an example being their heavy investment in solar PV technology.
While one can’t dispute that the worldwide PV markets are getting larger, anyone who has run PVwatt knows that without significant subsidies the technology doesn’t work as an alternative to kWh from the grid. An incremental improvement in PV’s performance will not change this situation. In the US, the math says that without a relatively high kWh cost AND a belief that kWh cost will inflate at 5-10%/year AND a large State renewable grant AND a 30% Federal grant or ITC, PV just doesn’t pass a reasonable economic test.
Which means that when Federal or State policy makers contemplate any potential change to renewable grant levels, the market gets really bumpy. We experienced this at the end of 2008 when the Federal ITC extension was in question. We’re currently experiencing this again in Massachusetts where the PV incentive program is temporarily suspended as the State transitions to a REC model “sometime in 2010.“ Kind of makes it difficult on a small local solar installer while it’s customer prospects wait for new incentives….here, an absense of policy has slowed one of the fastest developing PV markets in the US.
Like State renewable grants, utility energy efficiency rebates are watched closely for the signaling effect of change. Earlier this year we saw one utility’s energy efficiency program introduce “accelerated” rebates, only to abruptly cancel the program four months later due to over-subscription. Customers who didn’t participate are left to wonder whether they should wait on the sidelines until another accelerated program comes back to the market. Here, the utility’s haphazard policy has stunted market growth.
As the US moves towards more incentives for both broader renewable and energy efficiency upgrades, Federal, State and utility policy makers need to better coordinate the management, introduction and changes to these programs. They should recognize the dual edged sword they hold – whenever they change the incentives, or worse, suggest they might change the incentives, the market adoption rate is slowed.
Just as the stock market rewards companies which produce predictable financial results with higher multiple stock prices, policy makers need to signal the market as they grow incentive programs, making them predictable and long term. The incentive programs need to reward action today, including grandfather clauses for those who would otherwise sit on the sidelines while new policies are being developed. Without this approach, human nature “wait and see” will rule the day. | <urn:uuid:c644d4a6-8981-4200-9798-3675880dd701> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.groomenergy.com/category/federal-grants/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954619 | 3,810 | 2 | 2 |
NRP Interacts With A Record Number Of People This Summer
Annapolis, Md. (July 29, 2010) — Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP)
officers have had a record summer, interacting with and serving a growing number
of citizens enjoying the State’s natural resources. Officers are working around
the clock to ensure that Marylanders stay safe on both land and water.
“I want to personally thank all of our NRP officers who put in countless hours protecting us and God’s creation,” said Governor Martin O’Malley. “All Marylanders should be able to enjoy the great outdoors without worry. Our officers work tirelessly to ensure the safety of Maryland’s greatest resource: our citizens.”
From Memorial Day to present, NRP received 5,500 calls for service, of which 909 were maritime incidents, including 150 boating accidents and 230 calls for vessels in need of assistance.
“Summer, especially weekends and holidays, keeps our officers extremely busy,” said Col. George Johnson, NRP Superintendent. “While people are enjoying vacation time, NRP increases officer presence in waterways and on land to accommodate the crowds.”
NRP officers have personally interacted with thousands of citizens throughout the summer. For example, over the three-day Fourth of July holiday weekend, NRP officers assisted nearly 18,000 people, including 10,300 interactions that resulted in 218 citations on DNR-owned public lands. NRP also came into contact with over 7,200 boaters and responded to 14 boating accidents.
NRP officers will continue to patrol the State and remind park visitors and boaters to employ caution.
Citizens are urged to report unsafe activity or emergencies to the NRP at 1-800-628-9944. More information on boating safety, fishing regulations and park information can be found at the DNR website, located at http://www.dnr.state.md.us/.
|July 29, 2010||
Contact: Josh Davidsburg
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is the state agency responsible for providing natural and living resource-related services to citizens and visitors. DNR manages nearly one-half million acres of public lands and 17,000 miles of waterways, along with Maryland's forests, fisheries and wildlife for maximum environmental, economic and quality of life benefits. A national leader in land conservation, DNR-managed parks and natural, historic and cultural resources attract 11 million visitors annually. DNR is the lead agency in Maryland's effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay, the state's number one environmental priority. Learn more at www.dnr.maryland.gov | <urn:uuid:1cc1304d-690e-4f22-b126-50c28f98aa81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dnr.maryland.gov/dnrnews/pressrelease2010/072910a.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951228 | 552 | 2 | 2 |
Leverage an existing Java Framework learning Scala.
Think software in a new way.
GigaSpaces is an excellent example of a widely used Java Framework which can be leveraged in Scala to obtain superior productivity and better designed software. It is a scalable application server which offers In-Memory Data Grid features such as data replication and partitioning together with event-driven support, .NET - Java Interoperability, linear scalability and many other features.
In this blog we will try to show how using Scala will bring improvements compared to Java, and we assume you have some knowledge of Java and experience in coding complex software systems. While GigaSpaces will be used as the basis middleware to develop our examples, not all the features will be analyzed in detail, and specifically only the required focus will be put on fault-resistancy and data partitioning. These are two complex features of XAP application server which you are encouraged to discover in GigaSpaces Wiki.
Performance-wise, Scala and Java gets compiled to the same bytecode, and while Scala suffers from longer classloading at startup, the final performances once the code has been JITTED are the same. On the contrary, you might even expect to have better performances because, getting rid of your boilerplate and improving your patterns, you will be able to put the emphasis on writing better algorithms. Our case study will be a simple financial application with a matching engine and a confirmation service. Do you feel ready? | <urn:uuid:7dad8151-e1ca-4157-99c1-a2cf7dc1fcd0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://edmondo1984.squarespace.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926782 | 302 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Andrew Barry’s new book Material Politics: Disputes Along the Pipeline is forthcoming in September in the RGS-IBG book series.
In Material Politics, author Andrew Barry reveals that as we are beginning to attend to the importance of materials in political life, materials has become increasingly bound up with the production of information about their performance, origins, and impact.
Presents an original theoretical approach to political geography by revealing the paradoxical relationship between materials and politics
Explores how political disputes have come to revolve not around objects in isolation, but objects that are entangled in ever growing quantities of information about their performance, origins, and impact
Studies the example of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline – a fascinating experiment in transparency and corporate social responsibility – and its wide-spread negative political impact
Capitalizes on the growing interdisciplinary interest, especially within geography and social theory, about the critical role of material artifacts in political life | <urn:uuid:8cacaedd-0355-4201-bd8e-914144e9b202> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://progressivegeographies.com/2013/03/03/andrew-barry-material-politics/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938573 | 194 | 1.929688 | 2 |
This weekend, Americans will be celebrating Fatherís Day, an honored tradition made official by President Richard Nixon in 1972.
It is a day of celebrating the contribution of dads everywhere to the development of our children.
I want to put a spotlight on another group of parents. In my work, I get to meet a variety of parents of children (and adults) with disabilities. These parents never cease to amaze me.
Parents of children with disabilities have challenges that most parents donít have. The decisions to be made are enormous Ė decisions about medical treatments, decisions about specialized services, decisions about adaptive equipment, decisions about educational choices and all the other decisions that are typical to raising a child.
Often, children with disabilities also need round-the-clock care long after a typically developing child would need, so parents struggle to find time for a break. If the child has complicated treatments or is fragile medically, they may also find it difficult to find someone to provide respite care.
As children with disabilities become adults, parents face more decisions about when and how to support that adult becoming independent. Services for adults with developmental disabilities are difficult to access because of long waiting lists for state-funded services. It is estimated that a person with a developmental disability who goes on a list for residential services may have to wait 15 years or more before being able to access those services.
With all the challenges, though, parents of children with disabilities become incredibly resourceful. I see parents with very young children learning early about how to become strong advocates for their childís needs. Parents have initiated practically every positive change in the educational and social-service systems that serve people with disabilities. Both as individuals and banding together, parents of children with disabilities have challenged the status quo, implemented legislation and designed programs that support the individual needs of their children. Often the battle is hard but worth winning.
Yet these battles are not without their toll. Research on parents of children with disabilities shows that the cumulative stress of the extra tasks during daily routines has an effect on the physical and mental health of the caregivers. There can also be an additional financial burden. Parents of children with disabilities are more likely to experience major life events such as divorce, illness and surgeries and frequent moves.
Good self-care is important for these parents, as is access to peer support, respite care and financial resources. The Family Support Program at Community Connections is one place to access support. There is a short waiting list for financial support, after state funding was cut over 60 percent, but the access to resources and referrals is ongoing.
If you or someone you know is a parent of a child or adult with a disability and you are looking to get connected, call 259-2464. Community Connections serves all five counties of Southwest Colorado: Archuleta, Dolores, La Plata, Montezuma and San Juan.
Tara Kiene is the director of case management with Community Connections Inc. | <urn:uuid:afe54f02-660e-49e7-93d8-f1e14995915a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20120613/COLUMNISTS06/706139938/0/taxonomy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964941 | 603 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Hodie Christus natus est : Work information
- Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck ( Music, Images,)
- Performed by
- Ex Cathedra, Ex Cathedra Baroque Orchestra, Jeffrey Skidmore (Conductor)
- Work name
- Hodie Christus natus est
- Work number
- 1619-01-01 02:00:00
- Mark Brown
- Anthony Howell and Julian Millard
- Recording date
- 1996-06-01 01:00:00
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (April or May, 1562 – October 16, 1621) was a Dutch composer, organist, and pedagogue whose work straddled the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Baroque eras. He was among the first major keyboard composers of Europe, and his work as a teacher helped establish the north German organ tradition.
Sweelinck was born in Deventer, Netherlands, in April or May 1562. He was the eldest son of organist Peter Swybbertszoon and Elske Jansdochter Sweeling, daughter of a surgeon. Soon after Sweelinck's birth, the family moved to Amsterdam, where from about 1564, Swybbertszoon served as organist of the Oude Kerk (Sweelinck's paternal grandfather and uncle also were organists). Jan Pieterszoon must have received first lessons in music from his father. Unfortunately, the latter died in 1573. He subsequently received general education under Jacob Buyck, Catholic pastor of the Oude Kerk (these lessons stopped in 1578 after the Reformation of Amsterdam and the subsequent conversion to Calvinism; Buyck chose to leave the city). Little is known about his music education after the death of his father; his music teachers may have included Jan Willemszoon Lossy, a little-known countertenor and shawm player at Haarlem, and/or Cornelis Boskoop, Sweelinck's father successor at the Oude Kerk. If Sweelinck indeed studied in Haarlem, he was probably influenced to some degree by the organists of St.-Bavokerk, Claas Albrechtszoon van Wieringen and Floris van Adrichem, both of whom improvised daily in the Bavokerk.
According to Cornelis Plemp, a pupil and friend of Sweelinck's, he started his 44-year career as organist of the Oude Kerk in 1577, when he was just 15. This date, however, is uncertain, because the church records from 1577–80 are missing and Sweelinck can only be traced in Oude Kerk from 1580 onwards; he occupied the post for the rest of his life. Sweelinck's widowed mother died in 1585, and Jan Pieterszoon took responsibility for his younger brother and sister. His salary of 100 florins was doubled the next year, presumably to help matters. In addition, he was offered an additional 100 guilders in the event that he married, which happened in 1590 when he married Claesgen Dircxdochter Puyner from Medemblik. He was also offered the choice between a further 100 guilders and free accommodations in a house belonging to the town, the latter of which he chose. Sweelinck's first published works date from around 1592–94: three volumes of chansons, the last of which is the only remaining volume published in 1694 (for reasons unknown, the composer chose to change his last name to a variant of his mother's, instead of using Swybbertszoon; "Sweelinck" first appears on the title-page of the 1594 publication). Sweelinck then set to publishing psalm settings, aiming to set the entire Psalter. These works appeared in four large volumes published in 1604, 1613, 1614 and 1621. The last volume was published posthumously and, presumably, in unfinished form. Sweelinck died of unknown causes on October 16, 1621 and was buried in the Oude Kerk. He was survived by his wife and five of their six children; the eldest of them, Dirck Janszoon, succeeded his father as organist of Oude Kerk.
The composer most probably spent his entire life in Amsterdam, only occasionally visiting other cities in connection with his professional activities: he was asked to inspect organs, give opinions and advice on organ building and restoration, etc. These duties resulted in short visits to Delft, Dordrecht (1614), Enkhuizen, Haarlem (1594), Harderwijk (1608), Middleburg (1603), Nijmegen (1605), Rotterdam (1610), Rhenen (1616), as well as Deventer (1595, 1616) his birthplace. Sweelinck's longest voyage was to Antwerp in 1604, when he was commissioned by the Amsterdam authorities to buy a harpsichord for the city. No documents were found to support a long-standing rumor first recounted by Mattheson that Sweelinck visited Venice, and similarly there is no evidence that he ever crossed the English Channel, however likely that is. His popularity as a composer, performer and teacher increased steadily during his lifetime. Contemporaries nicknamed him Orpheus of Amsterdam and even the city authorities frequently brought important visitors to hear Sweelinck's improvisations. | <urn:uuid:babb453b-1ba1-49ca-b98b-82447739f0a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.classical.com/listen/player4/index.php?token=7RCiGOGb99Gbh$0Wr0R6b2MMGV932GCWi~G&inline=1&type=mini | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974099 | 1,163 | 1.820313 | 2 |
I'm back from last week's visit to another world. I decided to visit Graphic Novel Land, and spent some time in the Sandman's dream world and the altered Victorian detective world of Ruse , which I found as a suggestion from another summer reader. I enjoyed my time "out of this world" thoroughly.
We are now in the final week of The Amazing Read, so let's end on an inspirational note: Read something that helps make you a better person. You can take the spiritual or philosophical route, or pick something that will aid in self-improvement, like The Power of Habit . You can focus on your professional life, with a book like The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future . Or, enhance your parenting skills with a book like Teach Your Children Well: Parenting for Authentic Success . Improve your physical self with the latest yoga guide or stress management tool . We all have something we could work on! What are you reading?
We hope that you've all enjoyed The Amazing Read challenge and all of summer reading this year. Don't forget to register for the program and record your titles by August 11th to be eligible for prizes. | <urn:uuid:45b60116-c582-4999-b57f-9aa15c4f9dcc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hcpl.net/print/9913 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939096 | 255 | 1.507813 | 2 |
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Cape Town - Negligence and handling a fire or electrical appliances while intoxicated are among the main causes of fires in Cape Town’s informal settlements, says city disaster management spokesman Wilfred Solomons- Johannes.
He was speaking on Sunday after several shack fires left more than 300 people homeless across the city at the weekend.
Solomons-Johannes said structures were destroyed in Seawinds, Athlone, Milnerton, Langa and Philippi.
He said most of the fires occurred in the early hours of the morning.
The city’s disaster response teams assisted the fire victims with food parcels, hot meals, clothing, blankets and building material. No one was injured.
When the Cape Argus visited the informal settlement in Langa on Sunday, residents were clearing debris and trying to rebuild their homes.
Ncediwe Makiva, a mother of a two-month-old baby, said she had lost everything in the blaze.
She had been living in the shack for five years.
“It’s the first time my house has burnt down. I feel so sad right now,” Makiva said.
Solomons-Johannes said the cause of the fires was still unclear.
He said there had been a noticeable reduction in shack fires this year compared to the previous year, thanks to fire safety awareness campaigns the city had run throughout the year.
“We are doing our utmost by engaging with the community regularly, but it’s also up to them to prevent those [fires] from happening by being vigilant,” he said.
Solomons-Johannes said most fires were caused by unattended cigarettes, matches, lighters, candles, and cooking and heating appliances.
Earlier this month, two people were killed in a shack fire in Joe Slovo Park, Milnerton.
Days earlier, 43 people were left homeless in Scottsville, Kraaifontein. Five days later another 43 people were displaced in separate fires in Strand, Lotus River and Parkwood Estate.
On October 28, a child burnt to death in a shack fire at the Kosovo informal settlement in Philippi. Three men aged between 30 and 40 died in separate fires in Khayelitsha and Heideveld in August. One fire was caused by an unattended electrical stove.
City fire and rescue spokesman Theo Layne said the city had enough manpower and resources to deal with the recent spate of fires.
“There are some periods where there are more incidents than others, like now, but we have enough resources to handle them,” he said.
How to prevent shack fires:
*Keep a close eye on paraffin stoves. Don’t cook near a window with a curtain.
* Make sure candles are secure and can’t fall over. Don’t go to sleep with candles still burning.
* Teach children about the dangers of fire.
* Watch out for discarded cigarette butts.
* Be aware of the dangers of illegal and faulty electricity connections, which also cause fires.
* Keep a bucket handy to fill with water so you can extinguish flames easily.
* Keep a bucket of sand to put out paraffin fires.
* Build dwellings a good distance (at least 3m) apart to prevent fires from spreading throughout the area. Make sure this space is kept open for emergency purposes. | <urn:uuid:313eec4b-150d-4d81-ab33-1851e6c61528> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/fires-raze-shacks-in-five-city-areas-1.1430595 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963147 | 728 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Here, in one sentence, is what’s wrong with Stewart Baker’s testimony on cybersecurity before the Senate Homeland Security committee today:
If an asset is not designated as “covered critical infrastructure,” then the owner has no obligation under the bill to guard against attack by hackers, criminals, or nation states, leaving those who depend on the asset unprotected.
The logic here is that if a private network is not forced by government to protect itself, then it will be left unprotected and wide open for attack. There is no private incentive to secure one’s investment, the argument seems to be. If you’d like an explanation of why this isn’t logical, see Eli Dourado’s paper on cybersecurity market failure.
One more thing: according to Baker, present network insecurity “could easily cause the United States to lose its next serious military confrontation.” I understand asymmetric threats, but here is a listing of military spending by country. “Easily” doesn’t come to mind. | <urn:uuid:21be6d6e-5334-4a1e-897f-e7b8c032b03b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jerrybrito.org/post/23994383829/too-big-to-face-incentives | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945822 | 219 | 2 | 2 |
Industry Analysis & Industry Trends
A recovery in the automotive industries will spur demand for transmission and power train parts provided by the industry as manufacturers benefit from the improving economy. The electronic and technological content of this industry's products is particularly expected to expand, driven by consumer demand for greater vehicle performance and functionality. Over the next five years, transmission manufacturers will look to innovate their products to complement new, fuel-efficient engines. Successful manufacturers will invest in similar technology to accommodate the changing trends in automobile production... purchase to read more
Industry Report - Industry Products Chapter
The Automobile Transmission Manufacturing industry is one of the principal suppliers for manufacturers of both light and heavy vehicles. Transmissions and related parts are integral components in the mechanical systems central to automobiles. The products this industry manufactures convert torque produced by a vehicle's engine and distribute that force to the vehicle's wheels.
Automobile transmissions are the most complex product this industry manufactures. Transmissions are the first major connection point between the engine, through a crankshaft, and the rest of the drivetrain. Transmissions adapt the high rotational speed output of an engine to a lower speed more suitable for driving wheels using gear ratios... purchase to read more | <urn:uuid:4ae978ec-7e15-4af3-8e0e-b7aeef4ebdaf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ibisworld.com/industry/default.aspx?indid=834 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913786 | 243 | 2.078125 | 2 |
(NASHVILLE SKYLINE is a column by CMT/CMT.com Editorial Director Chet Flippo.)
I'm watching the Dallas Cowboys play the Chicago Bears tonight, the first of October. This is a pretty pathetic performance by a Dallas assemblage that has so long been heralded as "America's Team." The Bears intercept poor, inept Dallas QB Tony Romo five times tonight. The Cowboys are once again humiliated. Totally crushed. Stomped into their expensive artificial turf by the score of 34-18.
This game was in the majestic, new $1.2 billion Cowboys Stadium, the looming, glistening mothership from outer space, where the 'Boy' win-loss record is now 14-12 since moving into this enormous Swankienda. The Dallas Cowboys' lifetime win-loss-tie record from 1960 through 2011 is 481-357-6. Yet they still get away with calling themselves "America's Team" as a corporate marketing effort. Which remains very successful.
One drawback about the stadium, which is actually located in Arlington, is that there's very little public transport there from Dallas, Fort Worth or from anywhere else. It's totally a car culture in this area.
When the Cowboys' original Texas Stadium opened in 1971, it was inaugurated by a 10-day evangelical Billy Graham crusade, presided over by the crusade's chairman, Cowboys coach Tom Landry, with former president Lyndon Johnson and first lady Lady Bird Johnson and country music icon Johnny and first lady icon June Carter Cash onstage, as well.
From my childhood in Fort Worth, the Cowboys were the ideal for me and my friends. I still remember, as a kid, being awed by meeting and shaking hands with Dallas running back Dan Reeves in the Fort Worth department store, Leonard's. Growing up in Fort Worth, my heroes and my friends' heroes were the Cowboys. Our local TCU football team, in what was then a strong Southwest Conference, was a punching bag in those years.
But the Cowboys were a source of regional pride. They were big and strong and proud. They beat the snotty big-city New York Giants. They stomped the arrogant East Coast Washington Redskins. They were the standard-bearers for Texas.
The Cowboys were also the impetus for a major technological push in the Southwest. Cowboys' fans, especially in suburban and rural areas, bought satellite dishes in record numbers so they could get their by-God Cowboys games every week. And, as my family members' history attests, Cowboys fans easily moved on from satellite technology to computers and onto the Internet.
Of all the NFL teams, the Cowboys' history is unmatched for drama. Now, Texas writer Joe Nick Patoski, whose last book was a comprehensive -- and highly readable -- biography of Willie Nelson, has written a massive history of the "'Pokes," as the Dallas Times Herald newspaper liked to abbreviate them in headlines. 'Pokes = Cowpokes= Cowboys. Get it?
Patoski's huge 805-page work is titled The Dallas Cowboys: The Outrageous History of the Biggest, Loudest, Most Hated, Best Loved Football Team in America. I love well-told sports history, which also encompasses urban and regional history. Patoski accomplishes all that in this well-researched work.
But it's the characters themselves that propel this book along. Characters such as the country music-singing QB Dandy Don Meredith, whom Howard Cosell dubbed "the Danderoo" when they, along with former New York Giant Frank Gifford, were the commentators on Monday Night Football. Meredith's finest moment may have come on one telecast, when a single solitary fan was sitting in the otherwise isolated upper deck. The camera focused in on him and he raised a feisty up-yours one-fingered salute. The camera shot lingered for an uncomfortably long time, and Meredith finally broke the tension by observing, "He's just saying that we're No. 1."
He also was famous for singing Willie Nelson's "The Party's Over" on game telecasts when it became obvious the game's outcome was already decided, no matter how much time was left.
Cowboys' characters were legend. Such as Bubbles Cash, the young stripper who -- as a fan in the stadium -- turned cotton candy dancing into an art form when the early Cowboys played at the Cotton Bowl. She and her abbreviated costume and dancing became the template for the later Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders' look and demeanor.
Cowboys' original president and GM Tex Schramm (who was from San Gabriel, Calif.) later filed suit against Pussycat Cinemas Ltd. for copyright infringement for the movie Debbie Does Dallas, claiming it harmed the Cowboys Cheerleaders' brand. Go figure.
Or Crazy Ray, the black man dressed up in full cowboy regalia, who paraded up and down the sidelines during games, riding a toy wooden horse and waving toy six-shooters. By day, he shined shoes at a downtown barber shop. On Sundays, he was the image of the Cowboys and a favorite of NFL telecast highlights.
And, of course, there was the dour and stoic coach Tom Landry, who -- as far as I'm concerned -- is the only real coach the Cowboys have ever had. Even my mother liked the Cowboys because Coach Landry always wore a coat and tie and hat on the sidelines. Unlike this guy in New England these days who distinguishes himself by wearing a cheap team sweatshirt on the sidelines.
The Cowboys have also inspired novels and movies, the best of which is North Dallas Forty, the book by ex-Cowboys player Peter Gent. The movie starred Nick Nolte as a very convincing banged-up and doped-up pro footballer.
And there remains the ongoing soap opera that is the Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. His first act was to fire Tom Landry. Jones and coach Jimmy Johnson did not get along since Jones knew more about coaching than any mere coach. Their head-banging came to an end at an NFL owners meeting at Disney World in Orlando, Fla.
Jones came up to a table where Johnson was drinking with a number of former Cowboys employees, whom Jones had fired, and their wives. Jones banged on the table with his glass of scotch and proposed a toast to the Cowboys and all those 'Boys employees who had contributed to two straight Super Bowl wins. No one at the table lifted a glass in the toast.
"F**k you," Jones said. "Have your own party!"
Jimmy Johnson was soon fired as the Cowboys' coach. | <urn:uuid:aeca0057-a658-4326-8c06-7a86a51ca18b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cmt.com/news/nashville-skyline/1694982/nashville-skyline-the-dallas-cowboys-as-rich-as-gold-as-country-as-dirt.jhtml?rsspartner=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972342 | 1,381 | 1.515625 | 2 |
The following piece is reprinted from the “From the Archives” blog. Written by Wofford archivist, Phillip Stone, the article tells the story of the distinguished Wofford alumnus, Albert C. Outler, whose understanding of his own liberal arts education is as relevant today as it was in the early 20th century.
Born in Thomasville, Georgia, Dr. Outler was the son of a Methodist minister and district superintendent in the South Georgia Conference. He came to Wofford in 1925 and was a stellar student, earning distinctions in Bible, English, history and sociology as a sophomore and in Bible, Greek, geology, religious education, English, and chemistry as a junior. He earned enough credits to graduate a year ahead of his class, taking his AB degree in 1928. After graduation, he became a clergy member of the South Georgia Annual Conference of the Methodist Church and earned his BD degree from Emory University. He studied for his PhD in religion at Yale University, taking that degree in 1938. He became an instructor, and later professor at Duke University in 1938, remaining there until 1945, when he answered Yale’s call to their faculty. While at Yale, he became the Dwight Professor of Theology. In 1951, he moved to Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology, where he spent the rest of his career.
That’s the official list of appointments, but it completely fails to do justice to Albert Outler’s contribution to Methodist theology. Outler’s 1961 article “Toward a Re-appraisal of John Wesley as a Theologian” helped revive John Wesley’s reputation as an original theologian rather than a “cult hero and theological featherweight,” in the words of an Emory alumni magazine article about Outler. He is regarded as the most original Methodist theologian in the history of the church and was one of the foremost experts in the life and works of John Wesley. He was the author of numerous books and articles and a much sought-after speaker and lecturer. He was the editor of The Works of John Wesley and was the principal annotator of Wesley’s sermons. He created the term “Wesleyan Quadrilateral” to describe the basis of John Wesley’s theology – the reliance on scripture, reason, church tradition, and personal experience in reaching theological conclusions.
He was a representative at the World Methodist Council and at the World Council of Churches, and from 1962-65, was an official observer at the Second Vatican Council.
Wofford honored Albert Outler in a number of ways. He was elected an alumnus member of Phi Beta Kappa in 1948, was awarded an honorary degree in 1952, gave the Commencement address in 1968, and received the alumni distinguished service award in 1987. The Albert C. Outler Chair in Religion was endowed in his honor as well. In 1985, only a few years before he died, and over fifty years after he graduated from Wofford, Albert Outler presented the inaugural Lecture in Religion, Ethics, and Society at the college. In that lecture, he paid tribute to the liberal arts education he received at Wofford.
In a letter he wrote to Lewis Jones in 1980, responding to a request for his thoughts on the liberal education he received at Wofford, Outler explained, “my vague recollection is that my college major was English, but it has been the discoveries of what could be done with the English language that have stayed with me after the details of the courses have long since blurred.” He noted that he never learned enough in any discipline to be considered an “expert,” and in that sense, his education was “useless” in terms of the current mania for a career and vocational education. But, it was useful in that it freed him from some of the biases that came with each discipline, and that with enough lead time, he could “master the rudiments of any new field, and what I would know then would be more up-to-date. “This is why I shall be eternally grateful that I wasn’t confined by a more specialized or vocational curriculum. Instead, we got a synoptic view of the world at large, and an organic sense of the life of learning.” | <urn:uuid:84d56d9c-b5b7-48f0-b71f-d67ba3c42261> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.wofford.edu/rethinkingeducation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982161 | 904 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Contradictory economic forces have merged to intensify a growing trend in travel: the mass pursuit of meaningful experiences.
Pre-recession, the pursuit of la dolce vita meant tearing through the Mediterranean on a chartered yacht, renting a Bahamian island, upgrading to a presidential suite.
Post-recession, those who aren't opting for the increasingly popular "stay-cation" have pared down their travel preferences to adapt to a consumer culture that frowns on excess and prefers an an altruistic tone: "We're just back from building a school in Peru" or "We were on safari in Kenya and helped dig a well in the village."
In spite of the recession, considerable disposable income remains available for high end travel. For those who have exhausted the first wave of consumer pleasures -- luxury items that anyone can plunk money down to buy -- the stakes have been raised. In travel, one trend is the pursuit of "meaningful," "experiential" activities.
Taking their cue from those that can't afford or are now offended by conspicuous spending, and perhaps inspired by media sightings of celebrities in remote Third World villages, today's "meaningful" traveler wants to return home with the experience that s/he has done more than just vacation: He has made a difference to others; she has opened her family's eyes to the rest of the world. (In parentheses, read: surely the kids now realize how spoiled they are and will henceforth appreciate everything they have -- hopefully in time to put together a better college resume.)
Note that this trend accomplishes much:
Those of us that have a stake in the sustainable, philanthropic side of travel might want to feel some alarm at the current trendiness in this arena. What will happen when "meaningful" travel becomes old news for consumers? What will next impress?
Already a dark-sided market opportunity has emerged: apocalyptic tours featuring environmental destruction or disaster. In parts of the world that have experienced devastation that is beyond repair, there is curiosity in witnessing post-disaster conditions, often with very little accompanying interest in doing anything about life there. Like "slum tourists" or "poverty voyeurs" who are merely curious in living conditions that are in extreme contrast to their own, "apocalyptic tourists" are drawn to regional disasters that either portend similar eventualities at home or affirm the home advantage of the traveler.
The lesson best learned early by this trend is not to leave one's common sense and decency at home. Wherever you go, there you are, in the picture and how that goes depends on your own sense of agency and ethics. One hopes that volunteers in Haiti will continue to care about communities there after the celebrities have left; that families assisting with endangered species projects in Madagascar are raising generations that will vote for international conservation laws and that the current interest in "giving back" will encourage local tour operators, hotels, lodges and other institutions to positively invest in their communities.
For more information about travel that gives back, visit Elevate Destinations.
Follow Elevate Destinations on Twitter: www.twitter.com/elevatetravel | <urn:uuid:7ed0e673-75db-42af-95f5-f991bcb3a036> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elevate-destinations/trends-in-travel-making-meaning_b_1652982.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953491 | 647 | 1.625 | 2 |
Bringing U2 into a conversation with a group of Christians can be a dangerous occupation. Once up held as the prime examples of Christians in the music business, many people now view the band as arrogant and egotistical, having long since abandoned their early religious fervour.
In fact, many churches will point to U2 as evidence of the fact that the music industry is too full of corruption and depravity for even the most committed believers to hold out against, almost as mothers used to frighten their children into good behaviour with stories of the hobgoblins that awaited the ill-behaved child! Viewing U2 on the surface this can be understandable, but a deeper look at what the band are doing portrays a very different story.
Without a doubt U2 have changed a lot since their early albums. Many believe that U2 no longer possess the Christian beliefs which so obviously underpinned these albums, and in many respects amidst the images which U2 have created their beliefs can be difficult to unearth.
Often such use of artistic subterfuge is deeply frowned upon by Christian fundamentalists who argue that the gospel message should be perfectly clear; however, this is ignoring the fact that much of the Bible is itself written in artistic prose, rich in hidden meanings and multi-faceted nuances, whilst several books merely contain poetry - the most artistic of all writing forms.
Jesus himself taught in parables, using the images of the day to bring across truths about God, and most of the time leaving the people scratching their heads and wondering what he meant. | <urn:uuid:a6d52f0e-b4e0-4584-b753-3b1c82b3f31c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.u2tourfans.com/u2-daily-tour-news/?tag=Christian | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969385 | 317 | 1.757813 | 2 |
The growing tensions between Israel and Egypt may affect the Yom Tov of Sukkos this year.
According to a report on IDF Army Radio on Wednesday, Egypt has decided not to export Lulavim to Israel for Sukkos this year. The report said that the reason cited for the decision is the deterioration in ties between the two countries.
The Yom Tov of Sukkos begins in just four weeks, on the evening of Wednesday, October 12.
Egypt is the central exporter of Lulavim to Eretz Yisroel, and provides about half a million palm fronds annually, the general demand being 600 to 700 thousand Lulavim. IDF Radio said that export of Lulavim to the Jewish communities in the United States and Europe has also stopped.
The report said that the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture has announced that Egypt’s decision is expected to result in an increase in the price of Lulavim for Israelis this year. The Ministry reportedly said it tried to negotiate with the Egyptian authorities to get them to change their minds, but they stubbornly refused.
The Ministry will try to ensure that there is a steady supply of Lulavim at reasonable prices, mainly by increasing financial assistance to Israeli palm growers.
IDF Radio said that other alternative sources to import palm fronds are being examined, among them Jordan and Spain. The report said that Israel is even looking at the possibility of importing Lulavim from the Gaza Strip to meet demand without significantly raising the price.
Last year, Egypt also banned the export of lulavim, but did so three and a half months before Sukkos and not four weeks before Sukkos.The reason given for the ban last year was that Egypt sought to protect its 12 million palm trees which it felt were being decimated by the large number of Lulavim exported.
READ MORE: ARUTZ 7 | <urn:uuid:c4475c96-a7d7-4d67-a768-7f49e486f7e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dusiznies.blogspot.com/2011/09/egypt-will-not-export-any-lulavim-big.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969538 | 397 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Rates down almost 25 percent since July
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Jan. 2, 2009) – SCE&G adjusted the purchased gas portion of its natural gas rates for January, resulting in a decrease of $1.43, or 1.04 percent, from December in overall costs to residential customers based on average usage for the month. Compared to year ago levels, the average January bill will be down $29.56, or 17.91 percent. Since last July the cost of natural gas for the average residential customer (based on an average use of 100 therms) has decreased almost 25 percent.
Purchased-gas costs account for about 60 percent of a customer’s overall gas bill. The cost of gas purchased by SCE&G through its wholesale providers is passed on to customers without any markup. SCE&G does not profit from this portion of its rates.
To help level out the impact on customers of price changes in the wholesale natural gas market, SCE&G makes monthly adjustments to natural gas rates based on a rolling 12-month forecast of purchased gas costs. These adjustments are reviewed and approved by the South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff and the Public Service Commission of South Carolina.
SCE&G is a regulated public utility that provides natural gas service to approximately 303,000 customers in South Carolina. SCE&G also is engaged in the generation, transmission, distribution and sale of electricity to approximately 649,000 customers throughout the state. Information about SCE&G is available on the company’s web site at www.sceg.com. | <urn:uuid:f7287f75-af93-4769-bd6a-58ef25bc9b66> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scana.com/en/news-room/archives/2009/SCEG-adjusts-purchased-gas-portion-of-natural-gas-rates-for-January.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94936 | 333 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Over half of all households receiving food stamps have children, yet Congress may now take away many of these meals from our neediest.
The congressional “super committee” in the coming months will cut trillions from government spending, and some members prefer to slash vital support to the nation’s children in order to protect tax cuts for the wealthy.
As the economy continues to struggle and millions of Americans are still out of work, we need to make sure the next generation of American scientists, nurses, and teachers has the food they need at home to succeed.
Please let the committee members know that children should not go hungry while the wealthy enjoy tax breaks. Take action to protect food stamps and other programs like it. | <urn:uuid:e039128b-e332-4abc-855d-fb13c41baedb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ncchildren.org/2011/09/14/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967791 | 146 | 2 | 2 |
While the term homeopathy may remain as foreign to the American consumer as allopathy, as a relative “class” within each of the respective categories where homeopathic remedies exist, more and more shoppers are placing those homeopathic products in their baskets.
According to a survey conducted by the market research firm Kline, the usage and perception of what Kline couches as “natural OTCs” — which includes digestive solutions like probiotics — revealed that more than 45% of consumers consider natural OTCs effective, and more than 40% believe that natural OTCs may be safer or have fewer side effects than
Kline expects that sales of OTC “natural” products will eclipse $750 million by 2016.
One of the faster-growing categories — not only across homeopathy, but also in general — is sleep, noted Les Hamilton, VP sales for Hyland’s. The sleep category used to include only diphenhydramine formulations and the occasional melatonin, Hamilton said. But now that category is popping.
“This whole section has grown from half a dozen SKUs to 20-plus that really are meaningful within the category,” he said. Hyland’s currently fields the No. 10 sleep brand overall and leading homeopathic remedy in that space, Calms Forte.
However, across many retailers, sleep solutions are merchandised synergistically alongside analgesics across the bottom of the shelf. Bringing the category closer to eye level could drive additional sales.
“[One retailer] has pulled it off of the base and merchandised [sleep] together with allopathic and homeopathic medicines on one shelf,” Hamilton said, noting that there’s been a lift. “As retailers are trying to drive the consumer to this very profitable category, they really need to look and focus on merchandising it in a place where it’s going to catch the eye of the consumer.”
Business opportunities vary across product categories, noted Laura Mahecha, industry manager at Kline’s Healthcare practice. “For instance, while cough and cold preparations are expected to grow at a rate of only 5% to reach $320.9 billion in 2016, it is anticipated that sleeping aids will grow by about 18% per year to reach $54 million in 2016 from $23.5 million reported in 2011,” she said. “Growth in natural OTCs will be dependent on whether consumers continue to find them effective and safe.”
Looking forward, external analgesics containing arnica may become another growth driver Hamilton suggested. “You’re going to see the leg cramps and the arnica really come full force in the next 12 months,” he said. Menthol rubs are common across the category, he added, and the homeopathic external analgesic solutions could supply some “newness” to the category. “Arnica is a newer ingredient to the food, drug [and] mass arena that really does work,” he said. “Not only does it reduce the swelling and pain, [but] arnica also reduces bruising.”
Other categories experiencing growth by way of homeopathy include baby and kids cough-cold. Within cough-cold, a lot of the success of homeopathic solutions can be traced to the Food and Drug Administration meetings questioning the safety and efficacy of monographed allopathic medicines being administered to children in 2007. Following that, kids’ cough-cold sets were made up of single-ingredient allopathic medicines indicated for children over the age of 4 years and homeopathic medicines indicated for children over the age of 2 years.
The article above is part of the DSN Category Review Series. For the complete Homeopathy Buy-In Report, including extensive charts, data and more analysis, click here. | <urn:uuid:83ee70b8-781f-4723-9773-7b66f97b5ed4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://drugstorenews.com/article/natural-goes-mainstream | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947591 | 804 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Another fine member of the ‘GenerationNext’
Carol Byrne – ‘Organic Carol’ – is first organic fruit and veg trader in Birmingham’s Bull Ring market.
She left her work as a teacher and film-maker in London to take over her late father’s stall and pioneered the selling of affordable locally grown food, some of it organic and some, though grown in a similar way, uncertified. Prices are well below those in supermarkets.
Those who want to buy fruit and vegetables grown within a forty mile radius can go to a nearby farmers’ market once a month, join a box scheme, or select their own from Tuesday to Saturday at Carol’s stall in the Bull Ring outdoor market which is open each week.
Though many make a special journey to this stall, people shopping in the outdoor market and, passing by, are also attracted by the reasonably priced produce.
This is a replicable model which could and should be a feature of every market in the country.
With her colleague Bernice Ellis, other traders and great public support she is currently working for a campaign to save the Birmingham Wholesale Markets – a prime 21-acre site which the council wishes to see redeveloped.
Read about her linking of this issue with her concern for those thousands who would lose employment: “thousands of young people in Birmingham feel desperate, excluded and marginalised . . .” | <urn:uuid:c994373c-f6c0-4a9b-a271-29fec3d22f5e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://neweranetwork.info/generationnext/carol-byrne/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967329 | 298 | 1.59375 | 2 |
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, September 25, 1911: Our old teacher Mr. Northrop came back to teach school today. I like him better than the substitute we had. Sold Mollie’s calf today. Weighed 145 lbs. Came to $10.87. Quite a vast sum to get all at once. Guess I’ll save it and get a watch or something as useful.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Mollie was a cow that Grandma owned. The calf was a little over a month old. (It was born on August 19.)
It’s uncanny—but this diary entry brings back strong memories of my own childhood. It’s amazing how some child rearing practices go forward from one generation to the next. . . .
My parents taught me about money by enabling me to become the owner of a cow. I’m now guessing that my father was taught the value of money by becoming the owner of a cow—just as his mother (Grandma) had before him.
When I was 9 or 10 I joined a 4-H club—and wanted to show a calf. My father said that I could buy a calf from him for $25. I only received a dollar a week allowance—and did not have anything close to $25. So he got an envelope out, labeled it “Sheryl’s calf”, and said that I should put half of my allowance into it each week. He then stuck the envelope in a cubby hole of his large roll-top desk.
Every week, I’d pull the envelope out and put two quarters into it. Occasionally I’d count the money to see how close I was to $25. Sometimes I’d ask my parents if I could exchange some of the quarters in the envelope for dollar bills. And then later I exchanged dollars for five- or ten-dollar bills.
The money accumulated and in less than a year I owned my own calf named Dolly. After Dolly grew into a cow, she had calves of her own. If it was a male calf, the calf was sold and I received the money. If it was a female calf it was mine—and the size of my personal herd grew. | <urn:uuid:9d17dcd6-a51d-4be8-bfc9-6f1262b7c456> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ahundredyearsago.com/2011/09/25/teaching-farm-kids-the-value-of-money/?like=1&_wpnonce=8f8cc21eb5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986505 | 490 | 2.21875 | 2 |
At what time of year is the most insecure software written? And what could account for the seasonal variation?
Data collected by Veracode reveals that the density of bugs in code in in the early stages of the development lifecycle rises dramatically in the autumn.
Whereas the average flaw density in alpha and beta-stage applications for a 2-year period was 24 flaws per megabyte of executable code it peaked in October at 53 flaws per megabyte.
(Click chart to expand)
Fergal Glynn, Director of Marketing at Veracode who produced the chart based on an analysis of thousands of applications early in the development life cycle speculates in an article on Threat Post:
Maybe the build up to Thanksgiving has developers distracted? Are developers adjusting after the Summer break when "the living is easy" and the roads are quiet? Fall brings the extra pressure of dropping kids at school and rushing in the evenings to pick them up after sports. There is also the added pressure to produce a high volume of code to meet end of year deadlines and releases.
The graph raises a question that can be used to provide another explanation. The gap between the median of 3 flaws per megabyte and the average of 24 flaws per megabyte indicates that the sample is very skewed - but as it covers both alpha stage and beta stage projects this is only to be expected. And maybe that provides the clue - the development cycle.
Just as the academic year starts in September, perhaps that is also when new code projects are started. Add to this the phenomenon of a new influx of rooky programmers and the pressure of milestone deadlines prior to the holidays and we have the interaction of three factors: new projects; inexperienced programmers; and deadline pressures; resulting in a surge of bugs.
It seems reasonable to us at least. Programmers are human and subject to the same pressures, including the seasons, as the rest of the world.
To be informed about new articles on I Programmer, subscribe to the RSS feed, follow us on Google+, Twitter, Linkedin or Facebook or sign up for our weekly newsletter. | <urn:uuid:5264c882-124f-4238-b1f5-bb8c174271b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://i-programmer.info/news/99/3527.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948053 | 424 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Recent studies suggest that carbohydrate restriction can improve the training-induced adaptation of muscle oxidative capacity. However, the importance of low muscle glycogen on the molecular signaling of mitochondrial biogenesis remains unclear. Here, we compare the effects of exercise with low (LG) and normal (NG) glycogen on different molecular factors involved in the regulation of mitochondrial biogenesis. Ten highly trained cyclists (VO(2max) 65 ± 1 ml/kg/min, W (max) 387 ± 8 W) exercised for 60 min at approximately 64 % VO(2max) with either low [166 ± 21 mmol/kg dry weight (dw)] or normal (478 ± 33 mmol/kg dw) muscle glycogen levels achieved by prior exercise/diet intervention. Muscle biopsies were taken before, and 3 h after, exercise. The mRNA of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator-1 was enhanced to a greater extent when exercise was performed with low compared with normal glycogen levels (8.1-fold vs. 2.5-fold increase). Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase isozyme 4 mRNA were increased after LG (1.3- and 114-fold increase, respectively), but not after NG. Phosphorylation of AMP-activated protein kinase, p38 mitogen-activated protein kinases and acetyl-CoA carboxylase was not changed 3 h post-exercise. Mitochondrial reactive oxygen species production and glutathione oxidative status tended to be reduced 3 h post-exercise. We conclude that exercise with low glycogen levels amplifies the expression of the major genetic marker for mitochondrial biogenesis in highly trained cyclists. The results suggest that low glycogen exercise may be beneficial for improving muscle oxidative capacity.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Fasted Training? Exercise with low glycogen to be a better fuel burner
This is a very interesting one! Exercise in a depleted state seems to look like it could lead to more mitochondria in the muscle and therefore more capacity to burn fuel and create energy and movement..... So one up for fasted training? | <urn:uuid:ba9558c3-1e21-44c8-8cd6-44a9e4daa6c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://conditioningresearch.blogspot.com/2012/10/fasted-training-exercise-with-low.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929273 | 445 | 1.976563 | 2 |
Bad news for the well manicured: If the cosmetics you slather yourself with contain phthalates, you may be more likely to get type 2 diabetes. A new study finds a link between the man-made chemicals—which can mimic human hormones and are found in everything from nail polish to shampoo to hairspray—and the disease. Women ages 20 to 80 were studied, and those whose urine contained the highest concentration of the chemicals were almost twice as likely to have diabetes as those with the lowest concentrations.
Even those with moderately high levels had an increased risk of about 70%, the Daily Mail reports. Researchers hypothesize that phthalates might mess with the metabolism of fat tissue, thus leading to insulin resistance, often a precursor to diabetes. But your self-tanner and moisturizer may not be doing all the damage: The researchers did note that phthalates aren't exclusively used in cosmetics; you'll find them in everything from vinyl flooring to food packaging to toys. You can tell if your favorite soap contains phthalates by reading the label's ingredients list. | <urn:uuid:6a85e3ac-3a7b-4e05-af7d-3a9a7866cb31> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newser.com/story/150190/nail-polish-hairspray-linked-to-diabetes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968453 | 218 | 2.359375 | 2 |
The British are noted throughout the world for being a nation of impassioned tea drinkers, understandable considering that they drink over 165 million cups of 'char' every single day. Ironically, the practice is relatively new in the country, after being popularised as late as the mid-1600s by King Charles II's wife, Portuguese tea-addict Queen Catherine of Braganza. Legend has it tea was first discovered in 2737 BC by Chinese Emperor Shen Nung, when some Camellia sinensis leaves blew into the water his servant was boiling. Today, tea sipping is a global phenomenon - and one taken incredibly seriously. Mr George Orwell, author of Nineteen Eighty-Four, went to the trouble of writing an entire newspaper article in 1946 on the eleven rules (four of which he called 'acutely controversial') to making a cup. Like anything worth doing, it's worth doing well - and the perfect cuppa is no exception.
some common mistakes...
FINDING THE BALANCE
Placing too little or too much tea in a pot will give either a 'cup of no taste' or a 'cup too bitter'. One bag per person is generally more than adequate
GETTING A MOUTHFUL
Loose teas require a strainer: not using one for pouring certain teas, such as green teas, will result in a real mouthful. Whilst the leaves are not harmful to your health, they are not exactly pleasant either
SHAKEN NOT STIRRED
Do not stir the leaves inside the pot. Instead shake the pot gently about halfway through brewing to encourage them to move around and release their flavour
NO WHITES REQUIRED
Whilst there is a school of thought that suggests milk should be added to the cup before the tea is poured to stop the milk proteins breaking down too quickly, this is generally not accepted etiquette | <urn:uuid:50c89615-e58f-4934-af40-fb8538a3a91c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mrporter.com/journal/Journal_issue8/8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964399 | 385 | 2.1875 | 2 |
MARTYR, FEAST OF THE, one of the most popular feasts in Coptic and medieval Egypt, especially for its association with the Nile flood, apparently inherited from remote antiquity, when the Egyptians devoted a period of fifteen days to lavish festivities in honor of the river. The Copts celebrated it just before the occurrence of the annual flood of the Nile on 8 Bashans (16 May). The feast was one of the great national occasions on which both Copts and Muslims held festivities on the bank of the Nile, drinking, dancing, and singing. The fourteenth-century Arab historian al-MAQRIZI gave a lively account of the feast in his own day at Shubra al-Khaymah, a suburb of Cairo bordering the Nile. The Copts began the occasion with a procession, bringing with them a reliquary containing the finger bones of one of their martyrs for the blessing of the river. The legend runs that the flood would begin to rise at that moment.
Al-Maqrizi told of the immense quantities of wine consumed during that day and mentioned the example of one merchant who sold wine to the enormous amount of 100,000 silver dirhems or the equivalent of 5,000 gold dinars. Debauchery resulted, and the governor of Cairo suspended its celebration from 1303, though it was reinstituted by order of the Bahrite Mamluk sultan al-Nasir Hasan in the year 1354. It is said that later, al-Malik al-Salih Salah al-Din Hajji (1381-1382) seized the reliquary, burned it, and cast the cinders in the Nile. From that time, the practice stopped, though the commemoration of the flood persisted in a different fashion.
An event known as Jabr al-Khalij (the Opening of the Canal) became the substitute for the older custom by building a dike across the Nile below the Nilometer at Rodah Island. As soon as the flood reached its annual maximum height, the dike was broken in the presence of the chief judge, or mufti, who would testify that the flood had reached its legal limit for purposes of taxation, and an official celebration subsequently took place by sailing a gaily decorated ship on the river surrounded by a multitude of other, smaller boats all gaily painted and lighted. In Ottoman times, the celebration was accompanied by fireworks and the firing of canons.
AZIZ S. ATIYA
Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections. | <urn:uuid:7bc68978-5cc5-4626-986c-8d299f57768f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/cce/id/1289/rec/2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969937 | 529 | 3.453125 | 3 |
The visible satellite imagery below (click for a larger image) shows the cyclone that left millions in the northeast without power last night moving off toward Nova Scotia. Because snow is a highly reflective (high albedo) surface, a visible satellite image makes it easily to see the swath of heavy snow which occurred yesterday and overnight last night across the northeast. The brightest whites on this image are cloud cover, but the grey region stretching from western Maryland through eastern Pennsylvnia, southeastern New York, and into southern New England is actually the snow pack after last night’s historic event.
Although Albany and the immediate Capital District escaped the heaviest snow last night, regions only 30-60 miles away received well over a foot of snow. The Berkshires appear to have been hit the hardest, with Plainfield, Massachusetts reporting an amazing 30.8 inches of snow from last night’s snowstorm. | <urn:uuid:156a4dd8-cb0e-43b6-93ab-94c9ff8989f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.timesunion.com/weather/visible-satellite-image-of-a-historic-noreaster/1905/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919077 | 183 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Aakriti Art Gallery had started the GenNext series of exhibitions to focus on young artists, who, it thought, showed promise. Most of the participants of this particular show were born in the 1980s, with one of them, Nihaal Faizal, born as late as in the 1990s. In its sixth edition (up to October 15), GenNext shows every sign of maturity, manifested in not only more carefully chosen works but also better display as more space is available now owing to the limited number of exhibits.
In earlier editions, often more shiny and essentially crude works used to be shown, but with time the gallerist seems to have become more discerning. Most of the artists have chosen more traditional forms of expression such as painting, and only two participants have used photographs. Of course, one can say that the artists have played safe. While that is a fact, even that is not always a guarantee of quality.
Two of the artists have appropriated well-known Kalighat pata images like many other earlier participants, but this time the technical quality is of a much higher order. There are fresher ideas too, which are all the better for their simplicity. Sudipta Das from Assam has created both her works with strips of paper touched with watercolour. So, in effect, her works are like large hairy wall-hangings or curtains that tickle your imagination as they look familiar enough but, at the same time, elude an easy explanation.
Vidhan Kumar of Bihar has something more obvious to speak of — rising prices and their effect on ordinary lives and the electoral system. Instead of making any grandiose statement, he uses the straightforward device of the stencils used to print symbols of various political parties to create an umbrella-like form. The latter, in turn, could be anything from an unfurled brolly to a dish antenna. What is important is that its shiny surface with the cut-out holes looks exciting enough.
Equally stimulating is Rajesh Kumar Ranjan’s work in which he uses countless, tiny stainless steel balls to conjure up forms that resemble a monstrous biological specimen floating in formaldehyde and a complex solar system comprising tightly packed planets without any breathing space between them. Such a phenomenon would be horrific beyond the wildest imaginings of science fiction.
Small boxes like islands interconnected with electrical wires and lit inside to focus on small drawings or suggestions of forms within them. This is how Dharitri Boro’s works may be described in short. Boro was born in Assam and was trained at MS University in Baroda. The drawings suggest embryonic forms that in turn look like germinating seeds, and insects trapped in amber. Both works are clearly thought out and executed.
Nihaal Faizal uses photographs to construct his images. Assembly Line has a touch of macabre humour. Innumerable clones of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, who are either extreme sports freaks or perhaps have a suicidal streak, jump out of a factory building. Two of them have already made a successful landing and wave out like stars. Francesca Ramello from Italy is the only foreigner participating this time. She uses photographs as well but the result is quite disappointing, particularly the floral modifications.
There is a touch of the macabre and grotesque in the painting of Sumantra Mukherjee as well. A ganja-smoking devotee of Kali screams or perhaps sings, exposing his tonsils in a drawing that severely distorts his facial features. The other painting, however, is more of a surrealist cliché.
Kanika Shah of Vadodara in Gujarat is a neat printmaker. She realizes the importance of leaving out virgin space so that the viewer’s attention is focused entirely on the image itself. Even colours she uses sparingly. In Still it Blossoms in My Garden for You she uses an expanse of red and a touch of pink on a white ground. The result is absolutely cool. Her childlike evocation of a train journey is quirky — even funny. Yet she is tremendously skilled as well, as is evident from her etching and embossing in this diptych.
Rajarshi Sengupta’s painting of new-rich babu, on the other hand, shows how a simple idea that has been in currency since the 19th century can go wrong if the treatment is too overwrought. The works of Prem Kumar Singh, originally from Jharkhand but based in Vadodara, mark the triumph of simplicity. His White Landscape-3 is shrouded in a curtain of grey mist, an enigmatic and elusive work that invites the viewer to unravel its mystery. | <urn:uuid:d5c4719b-5b0d-4335-ab03-47382d4a5d26> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.telegraphindia.com/1121013/jsp/opinion/story_16082607.jsp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973434 | 967 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Navy veterans Dick Blair and Bryan A. Moss may not have the same kinds of memories that slightly older crewmen of the legendary battleship USS Iowa possess. | See photo gallery.
It's hard to imagine many sailors having happier ones, though.
The ship's recent arrival to the Port of Los Angeles, with plans to open as a museum on Saturday, has triggered a flood of recollections from the two 78-year-old San Fernando Valley natives, who served as teenage sailors on the Iowa during its 1952 Korean War tour of duty.
"You have to see it and go inside of it to understand how good it was," said Moss, who grew up in Glendale and now lives in Valencia. "It was a great ship, everything worked. And it was a nice, nice ship to be on, it was a safe ship to be on."
Moss served as a radioman on the ship.
"What we were doing was running up and down the North Korean coast, sealing railroad tunnels and blowing up trains if we could catch `em," Moss recalled.
"We went as far north as about 12 miles from the Chinese border, but we knew we were pretty safe. She had 18 inches of armored steel from the front of Turret One to the back of Turret Three, and at the water line. You'd have to put three to
"Some Chinese junks would come out toward us, but they were incidentals and we'd warn them to stay away," Moss added. "If they came too close, we'd just take care of `em."
Moss and Blair are now the only active Southland members of the Veterans Association of the USS Iowa. | » USS IOWA HONORS VETS
Blair now lives in Lancaster, and grew up in what was then called Roscoe - now Sun Valley - and graduated from Verdugo Hills High.
On the Iowa, he served as a chaplain's yeoman, meaning he helped arrange church services, worked on crew morale, planned parties and other activities.
Of course, the Iowa's Korean service was limited compared to its epic duty the previous decade in World War II.
Laid down in 1940 and launched in August of `42, the Iowa was the lead vessel of a battleship class that included the USS Missouri, New Jersey and Wisconsin -the last battleships the U.S. Navy ever made.
The Iowa's first major mission was transporting President Franklin D. Roosevelt across the Atlantic Ocean to and from North Africa, from where he continued on to a major summit meeting of allied leaders in Iran.
Sent to the Pacific Theater in 1944, the Iowa supported historic operations (Kwajalein, Truk, Saipan and Tinian were just a few) in the Marshall, Caroline and Mariana Islands, and throughout the campaign to recapture the Philippines.
Toward the end of the war, the ship supported the Okinawa invasion and even shelled Japan itself. The Iowa accompanied sister ship USS Missouri into Tokyo Bay for Japan's formal surrender in the summer of 1945.
Decommissioned in 1949, she was brought back into service for Korea in 1951. The ship sailed the Atlantic and Caribbean until 1958, and was recommissioned again - this time with
Though it arced around the Korean peninsula for less than a year, the Iowa fired a good 4,000 rounds from its 16 inch guns.
"My first division was on deck force, chipping paint, cleaning heads," Moss recalled of when the Iowa steamed out of San Diego en route to Korea in March 1952. "After three or four weeks, we were asked if anybody could type in our 8:00 muster. My hand went up so fast I almost jerked my shoulder out! Radioman sounded real good."
Blair had a rougher go of it. Shipping out of boot camp a little later, he was put on a troop transport that ran into a 10-day long typhoon as it crossed the Pacific to meet the Iowa in Japan.
Once on board the battleship, Blair spent three months in one of the powder-handling rooms for Turret One's 16 inchers before he got transferred to the chaplain's office.
In the powder-handling room, there was no outside visibility, which led to a few scary experiences Blair likened to a submarine movie. One time, they were being shelled by North Korean batteries.
"We had not fired our gun for about an hour, but it was loaded. When they fired it, all the pipes up above broke and the water came splashing in, just like in a submarine," he said. "Here were 14 young guys, all with our shirts off trying to wrap up pipes. We thought we were going to drown in there. We got the water stopped, but it was about a foot deep.
"It was just the concussion of the gun and the way that the ship was in the water," Blair said. "We thought we'd been hit; we had no way of knowing, we were five decks down below the waterline."
Eventually, Blair's general quarters assignment got him onto the bridge, where he handled phone communications for the captains. And even though the Iowa saw no more fighting after it steamed back to its new home port in Norfolk, Va. in October 1952, for Blair it was a terrific perch to do what he had joined the Navy to do for the next four years.
"I wanted to see the world, and I was so lucky," Blair explained. "I've been to 55 countries, so it turned out really great for me. In 1955, we spent six months in the Mediterranean. When I turned 21, I was a petty officer so I could do lots of shore patrol in places you couldn't imagine."
While Blair essentially spent his entire Navy career on the Iowa, Moss left the ship after it joined the Atlantic Fleet. He operated radios at a naval air station in Newfoundland and on the destroyer USS Charles R. Ware until his discharge in November 1955.
The cool job he landed on the Iowa served Moss well in civilian life, too; he ran an FBI radio station in San Diego for 10 years. Moss, who has three children and four grandkids, retired from the printing equipment sales business in 1997, but still does part-time work for a small IT company.
He joined the ship's veterans association in 2006, and was instrumental in raising funds and lobbying an assortment of government agencies to get the Iowa out of mothballs in a backwater of San Francisco Bay and set up at its new home: Berth 87 at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro.
"I put about 30,000 miles on my car going back and forth to meetings with the (city) Harbor Department, Port Director and Harbor Commission," Moss said with a satisfied laugh.
Blair went into the banking business after returning to L.A. to raise his five children. But he eventually got to put his experience arranging shore excursions for Iowa personnel to profitable use: he worked the last eight years before he fully retired as a travel agent.
For these and uncountable other reasons, the two Valley Iowa boys share a deep affection for their ship, and could not be more excited that the world will soon be able to discover why.
"I tell everybody I won the lottery and was assigned to the Iowa," Blair said. "The Iowa has been voted by the Military Channel and by a lot of books as the number one battleship - for its longevity, use, gun power - of all navies.
"You become very proud of your ship," Blair added. "Navy guys love their ship. It's a big city, you just get attached. For me, as an 18-year-old kid, it was home. I just wanted to stay." | <urn:uuid:35c9e34e-a340-451a-9225-f343adb9c282> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_21001602/san-fernando-valley-natives-recall-glory-days-uss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984883 | 1,617 | 1.90625 | 2 |
“On the field of the self stand a knight and a dragon.
You are the knight. Resistance is the dragon.”
Art comes in a million forms. It’s the book you want to write, the meaningful words you want to say to your spouse, the healthy diet you want to start. But why are we sitting around wanting these things rather than doing them? What is stopping us?
If you have ever tried to do something creative, or something that would benefit other people, or something that would make your a healthier or better person, you have felt Resistance. Resistance, according to Pressfield, is what tells us that we’re not good enough, that we are going to fail, that we’ll blow it, that we don’t actually want these good things anyway.
Some critics of Pressfield’s books have called them simplistic, trite, cliched, and overly and amorphously spiritual. According to my readings, this is all true. And yet the power of these books remains. If anything it grows.
The simplicity of Pressfield’s diagnosis of the problem, taking all the various fears and forces that keep us from creating and bundling them up in the term Resistance, allows us to see our task as manageable, to see our enemy as singular and defeatable. And his prescription is equally simple: acknowledge the Resistance that you feel, call it what it is, and then sit down and do your work anyway.
‘The War of Art’ introduces us to Resistance, and to the work of becoming a “pro,” someone who pushes through Resistance day in and day out and gets work done. In ‘Do The Work’ Pressfield acknowledges that many people get mired in Resistance even before starting a project. So he lays out a dead simple framework for quickly planning and starting your project, whether it’s a book or a symphony or a workout routine. And it works.
At Ember we support people in pursuing and realizing their Good Dreams. Pressfield’s books are some of the best in the world at helping you overcome the various faces of Resistance and get to work on your best dreams.
If you find yourself stuck or procrastinating or second guessing yourself on your goals (don’t feel alone, we all do it every day), pick up one or both of these books, read them, and then get to work. | <urn:uuid:a8390379-b110-4893-b64a-322c2f3d20ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://emberarts.com/journal/page/5/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958085 | 507 | 1.90625 | 2 |
It's understandable, considering the job insecurity many workers have experienced in recent years. Internal rivalries are apt to arise when employees feel pressure to prove their worth. Competing with colleagues can be healthy and spur stronger individual performance. But it can also lead to problems if gamesmanship goes too far.
Following are some signs that the level of competition within your workplace has become more corrosive than beneficial:
- You are overly protective of your ideas because you're scared they'll be stolen.
- You've caught yourself resorting to unseemly tactics -- gossiping, hogging the spotlight, withholding information -- to gain an advantage over your colleagues.
- Rather than being motivated by the accomplishments of others, you feel threatened by and resentful of their success.
- You hesitate to take time off, because you worry a co-worker may temporarily step into your job and do it better.
- You don't ask for advice or a helping hand out of fear that you'll be perceived as inept.
If those examples sound familiar, here are four ways to maintain your competitive edge in a healthier fashion:
1. Strive for personal bests. It's good to take note of the habits of your office's star employees so you can imitate those behaviors. But it can be dangerous to measure your goals solely against the performance of others. As track and field participants often say, run your own race. Be self-motivated, and continually challenge yourself to improve.
2. Stop shielding your turf. Being passionate about your job and taking ownership of your projects are positive qualities, but there is such a thing as being too protective of your work. Don't be so territorial that you isolate yourself from fellow team members. Be generous and share your knowledge.
Likewise, be willing to ask for feedback and assistance. A co-worker with a fresh pair of eyes or different point of view might help you identify a solution you hadn't considered.
3. Find a mentor. Working one-on-one with a more experienced professional offers many benefits. A mentor can help you stretch your skills while also helping you understand the nuances of organizational politics. Hearing firsthand how others have dealt with difficult teammates or sensitive situations can be invaluable.
4. Monitor your motives. It's all too easy for friendly competition to take a toxic turn. It's one thing if you and a co-worker push each other to raise your respective games. But if you're becoming more interested in outshining a colleague than helping your company or department reach its objectives, it's time to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Rivalries help no one when they turn rancorous. Remember: You're all on the same team.
You can use competition to fuel your fire, but it's tricky. As President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, "Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off."
Robert Half International is the world's first and largest specialized staffing firm with a global network of more than 350 offices worldwide. For more information about our professional services, visit www.roberthalf.com. For additional career advice, view our career bloopers video series at www.roberthalf.com/bloopers or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/roberthalf.
Permission must be obtained from CareerBuilder.com to reprint any of its articles. Please send a request to email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:fb13a881-72be-4c1c-aef2-a0bcfd8f220e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.careerbuilder.com/Article/CB-3217-Workplace-Issues-Healthy-versus-harmful-competition/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953551 | 732 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Water is life, so let's keep our fight for clean water alive
One billion people around the world don't have access to clean, safe water. (Getty)
It’s World Water Day, a day that reminds us of our most valuable resource of all: clean water.
Some of us may not think twice about a glass of clean water, a swimmable lake, or a fishable river, but clean water is not an accident. All the world over, clean water is something that people and governments have to work hard to protect and deliver safely to populations. And it is a resource that much of the world’s population still does not have access to.
Here are some quick facts to put access to safe, clean water into perspective:
- One billion people around the world don’t even have access at all to clean, safe water. Matt Damon joins Water.org for a message on this today.
- One out of every eight people in the world lack safe drinking water—that’s 884 million people—three times the U.S. population.
- Two out of every five people lack adequate sanitation.
- Nearly 2 million people die each year from preventable waterborne disease.
- 6,000 children die every day from waterbourne illness.
- Every $1 invested in water, sanitation and hygiene improvements returns on average $8 in increased economic productivity and averted healthcare costs.
- On average, women walk 3.7 miles a day for water around the globe.
- Women and girls spend 200 million hours a day seeking water. That's time that could be spent going to school and earning money for their families.
- More people on our planet have a mobile phone than a toilet.
This fantastic Atlantic World Water Day photo essay bares the role of water in our lives—"how we use it, abuse it, and depend on it." And this video by the United Nations shows the link between the food we eat and water, highlighting the interconnection between our food security and our water resources.
Here in the United States, clean water is not a given, either. Despite all of the progress we have made as a nation to clean up pollution in our waters, we still have a long way to go. Many of our fellow Americans and many communities here are living with contaminated and dangerously polluted waters. Here is a quick glimpse of the problems we face today in the United States:
- According to the EPA, 218 million Americans live within 10 miles of a dangerously polluted waterway. The New York Times "Toxic Waters" series takes a deep dive into the worsening pollution in America's waters.
- A recent report by Environment America reports that pollution from industrial facilities is responsible for threatening or fouling water quality in more than 14,000 miles of rivers and more than 220,000 acres of lakes, ponds, and estuaries nationwide. Industrial facilities dumped 226 million pounds of toxic chemicals into American waterways in 2010.
- In recent years, 20 million acres of wetlands and over 2 million miles of streams lost their protections under the Clean Water Act, thanks to two confusing Supreme Court opinions and Bush-era policies. These waters provide drinking water for 118 million Americans, and now they are vulnerable to loss and in danger of deadly pollution. Take action now by telling President Obama to restore these clean water protections.
- Fertilizers, inadequate sewage treatment, and agricultural runoff are contaminating millions of mile of streams, rivers, lakes, and beaches across the country. These waters, which Americans rely on for drinking water, fishing, tourism, and recreation, are being covered with a toxic green slime, or algae, caused by the pollution. In addition to posing a heath threat, these pollutants cause “dead zones” in waters across the country. An EPA Water Task Group reports that this green slime problem, caused by nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, has the potential to become one of the costliest and the most challenging environmental problems we face.
- In 2008 in Florida alone, over 1,000 miles of rivers and streams, 350,000 acres of Florida's lakes, and 900 square miles of its estuaries were contaminated by sewage, fertilizer or manure pollution.
- Last summer, the Great Lakes experienced the worst toxic algae outbreaks since the ‘60s. This problem continues to threaten recreation and local economies across the northern waters of our country.
- Across the country, gas companies are “fracking” away clean water resources, and communities across Pennsylvania, as well Colorado, New York, and numerous other states, are having to fight for their right to clean water. Along with our nation's fracking-fueled gas rush have come troubling reports of poisoned drinking water, and a myriad of other harms.
- In Appalachia, Illinois, Wyoming, and Montana communities near coal mining are threatened with dangerous water pollution from mountaintop removal mining, open-pit mining, and other forms of coal mining. Appalachian communities especially are facing the fight of their lives for clean water because of coal mining. Studies show that communities near mountaintop removal mining suffer significantly higher birth defect and cancer rates than elsewhere in the country.
- Coal ash, a byproduct of the burning of coal, is contaminating waters across the nation with dangerous heavy metals like mercury, arsenic, lead, selenium and much more. Living near some unlined coal ash ponds puts nearby communities at a 1 in 50 risk of developing cancer—2,000 times greater than what is deemed acceptable. Every year, 140 million tons of coal ash are generated, but today, our household garbage is better regulated than toxic coal ash.
- In Alaska, Minnesota, Colorado, and Michigan, some of the cleanest and freshest waters in the country are being contaminated and dirtied by hard-rock mineral mining, putting communities in harm’s way and exposing them to carcinogens at unsafe levels.
These are just some of the threats that Americans face as they fight for clean water for their families to drink.
And the challenges we face are not getting any easier. As global citizens we face climate change, an ever-growing global population, increased pollution, industrialized agriculture, and the over-extraction and contamination of ground water supplies. Lester Brown digs into the strains on our water in this changing world.
As world’s population mushrooms—we have 7 billion today, but by 2050, another 2 billion will join us on this planet—demand for clean water increases rapidly. But our clean water supplies aren’t growing, they are shrinking—this great L.A. Times map visualizes the globe's water scarcity problems.
Many organizations and groups are working to offer hope to those who live without clean water, change to those who live with polluted waters, and promise to the world, that together we may overcome these problems and challenges.
New solutions are put forth every day, and more people are joining the efforts to protect our precious water resources. Much should give us hope, Water for People CEO Ned Breslin argues. So by the end of today, World Water Day, we will hopefully be reminded that a sip of clean water is not to be taken for granted. It’s a battle worth fighting, and one that we can win together. | <urn:uuid:f47e16c1-6fa1-46f9-a105-189bbe8c0d4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://earthjustice.org/blog/2012-march/on-world-water-day-take-a-sip-take-a-moment | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939165 | 1,494 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Judge Calls FDA Decision on Antibiotics 'Arbitrary and Capricious,' Urges Reconsideration
| Posted: 5 June 2012
By Alexander Gaffney
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has suffered its second setback in as many months after Magistrate Judge Theodore Katz of the District Court of New York ordered the agency to reconsider two petitions which seek to ban the use of antibiotics in animals.
FDA had rejected both petitions, respectively submitted to the agency in 1999 and 2005, citing “the time and expense required to evaluate individual drug safety and to hold formal withdrawal proceedings,” reports Reuters.
Katz said he disagreed with the actions the agency had taken, and decided it had acted without merit in its respective decisions. "Denying the petitions on the grounds that it would be too time consuming and resource-intensive to evaluate each individual drug's safety, and withdraw approval if a drug was not shown to be safe, is arbitrary and capricious,” explained Katz in his ruling.
Under the new ruling, FDA will be charged with evaluating the safety risks of antibiotics used in animals and deciding whether the drugs are safe for use in animals. Katz also demanded FDA “provide a reasoned explanation as to why the Agency is refusing to make such a finding” if it believes the use of antibiotics is safe in animals.
Katz’s ruling is his second in just over two months against FDA. In a 22 March ruling, Katz said FDA must either make plans to withdraw approval for the use of most antibiotics in animal feed or withdraw approval for non-therapeutic use of those antibiotics. That decision was focused on FDA’s abandonment of a process started in 1977 to phase out the use of antibiotics in animal feed, and Katz said he was troubled by the trend of evidence against the use of antibiotics in animals.
"In the intervening years, the scientific evidence of the risks to human health from the widespread use of antibiotics in livestock has grown, and there is no evidence that the FDA has changed its position that such uses are not shown to be safe," wrote Katz in his ruling.
FDA defended its actions to Katz, saying it had abandoned the project to focus on achieving the same end through different means, but Katz ordered them to complete the original process. FDA issued voluntary guidelines against the use of antibiotics in animals on 11 April 2012, and appealed the 22 March ruling on 21 May 2012.
It is unclear whether FDA will appeal this decision as well or if it will carry out the safety analysis called for by Katz.
Reuters - FDA urged to rethink on antibiotics in animal feed
WSJ - FDA Ordered to Rethink Petitions on Farm Antibiotics | <urn:uuid:56820350-8132-4155-8887-e614b2c8180e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.raps.org/focus-online/news/news-article-view/article/1632/judge%20calls%20fda%20decision%20on%20antibiotics%20%E2%80%98arbitrary%20and%20capricious,%E2%80%99%20urges%20reconsideration.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969404 | 557 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Earlier this week I discussed the results of an interesting paper which suggested that obesity surgery in women could reduce the risk of obesity in their future children. It generated some excellent discussion in the comments, with a few people expressing skepticism over the importance of the physiological mechanisms described in the paper (the discussion is ongoing, so feel free to head-over and share your two cents). As luck would have it, I recently interviewed my friend and colleague Zach Ferraro, who is currently studying a number of these mechanisms as part of his PhD. In our interview Zach explains how being overweight or underweight during pregnancy can impact the health of descendants generations down the road, the role that “fetal programming” may play in the current obesity epidemic, as well as the research currently being done in this area to tease out exactly how important these mechanisms are to childhood weight gain.
On that note, Zach is currently involved with a number of studies examining the impact of healthy lifestyle on prenatal development, so if you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant and live in the Ottawa-Gatineau area, he may be an excellent person for you to get in touch with. Details on his current study can be found here.
I have embedded the podcast of our interview below (email subscribers can listen on the the blog itself, or by subscribing via iTunes), and look forward to more discussion on this fascinating and complex topic!
McMillen, Rattanatray, Duffield, Morrison, MacLaughlin, Gentili, & Muhlhausler (2009). The Early Origins of Later Obesity: Pathways and Mechanisms Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology : 10.1007/978-1-4020-9173-5_8 | <urn:uuid:ac0d42f3-f265-497c-8382-ac83593f34d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.plos.org/obesitypanacea/2010/11/17/new-podcast-the-fetal-origins-of-later-obesity/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950617 | 351 | 2.375 | 2 |
The late 1970s and 1980s witnessed the next wave of commercial development in the form of office development. The first office development was of the Community Federal Building (now the headquarters for Edward Jones) followed by growth in office development along the Manchester Road West corridor.
Substantial office growth has also taken place immediately north of the Des Peres borders in an unincorporated pocket at Interstate 270 and Manchester Road.
Redevelopment of West County Center was the issue of the 1990s. Developed in the 1960s as one of the first regional shopping centers in the metropolitan area, West County had seen it's predominate status overshadowed by redevelopment of Northwest Plaza, Crestwood Plaza, The Galleria, and Chesterfield Mall.
The importance of West County Center to the financial stability of the City of Des Peres cannot be overstated and resulted in proactive efforts by the City to revitalize the mall.
That effort culminated in 1997, with the decision by Nordstrom's to locate it's only St. Louis area store at West County and the City of Des Peres' agreement to provide up to $29.8 million in Tax Increment Financing to assist in the effort to redevelop West County. The development plan was approved in June 1998 with construction delayed until February 2001 by litigation filed by the owners of Chesterfield Mall challenging the use of TIF for the project.
The new regional mall, renamed Westfield Shoppingtown West County, opened in September 2002 and is anchored by Famous Barr, Nordstrom, Lord & Taylor, JC Penney, and Dick’s Sporting Goods. | <urn:uuid:ad730e27-9abc-4bfe-8058-02a954f98ad9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://PandR@desperesmo.org/index.aspx?NID=710 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962933 | 323 | 1.875 | 2 |
The Army recently conducted two successful intercept tests by the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. Based on careful analysis of those successes, the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) has authorized the Army to move into the next phase of the THAAD program, the Engineering Manufacturing and Development (EMD) phase. This will result in the cancellation of THAAD flight test 12, the last test scheduled in the Program Definition/Risk Reduction (PDRR) phase.
The primary objectives of the EMD phase are to translate the most promising design approach into a stable, interoperable, producible, supportable, and cost effective design; to validate the manufacturing or production process; and to demonstrate system capabilities through testing. Low rate initial production (LRIP) occurs while the engineering and manufacturing development phase is still continuing as test results and design fixes or upgrades are incorporated.
BMDO and the Army are confident that the THAAD system has proven itself in the PDRR phase, and is ready to move to the next stage of the program. This decision will save millions of dollars and potentially accelerate the ultimate fielding of the THAAD system, currently scheduled for 2007. BMDO and the Army will meet all statutory and Defense Department acquisition program requirements prior to entering into the EMD phase of the THAAD program.
THAAD consists of four integrated sub-systems including a radar system, a command and control station, a launcher, and the missiles. Working together, operated by Army air defense soldiers, THAAD provides an umbrella of protection for our soldiers.
THAAD will provide theater-wide area defense from enemy launched tactical ballistic missiles operating in the lower reaches of space and within the Earth's atmosphere, directed against deployed military forces. The ability to intercept missiles at high altitudes and/or long distances from the target allows THAAD to provide broad area coverage of deployed military assets. THAAD is an area defense system that provides a protective footprint measured in hundreds of miles. It provides the upper level protection of an integrated missile defense system. | <urn:uuid:09192190-7552-40c5-9291-da7dd90f7079> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=2174 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921008 | 426 | 2 | 2 |
As the Obama administration and Congress continue to rack up trillions of dollars in debt while the Federal Reserve conjures ever-greater sums of fiat currency into existence out of thin air, lawmakers in Texas have officially become the latest policymakers to openly explore the potential consequences. Legislation filed recently in the Lone Star State would, among other points, require a study on the effects of having to become partially or completely independent of the federal government in case Washington, D.C., is unable to function due to financial chaos.
Known as the "Texas Self-Sufficiency Act," House Bill 568 does not call for secession from the United States — a proposal that has been gaining increasing popularity among some segments of the Texan population fed up with an out-of-control central government. However, according to Republican state Rep. James White, who introduced the legislation, Texas would be wise to at least consider and prepare for a potential federal meltdown in light of recent developments in Washington.
“Due to the fiscal dysfunction of Washington, D.C., and the fact that more than a third of our state’s budget revenue comes from the federal government, Texas needs to study what it would mean if the federal government couldn’t meet its obligations,” Rep. White explained in a statement announcing his legislation last month. “In the current economic climate, exacerbated by out of control spending in Washington, Texas needs to study possible responses to federal financial turmoil and our readiness to adjust to such an event.”
If approved, the measure would direct the governor and other top state officials to create a select committee of lawmakers, budget experts, and citizens to consider the effects of a potential reduction or elimination of federal funding for Texas. The commission would also be charged with creating a plan to keep what the legislation dubs “essential state services” running even if the cash stopped flowing from Washington, D.C.
“My district in South East Texas, for example, has a higher proportion of seniors compared to the state overall percentage. What would happen in the event the federal government eliminated the funds normally allocated to them?” wondered the self-styled conservative Republican lawmaker in a press release, praising some work already done on the issue but calling for an expansion. “Texans must govern Texas and Texans need to be concerned about Texas.”
Click here to read the entire article. | <urn:uuid:d429231a-cb8a-4572-8f6a-dc0ba918ef56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jbs.org/agenda-21/texas-bill-would-prepare-for-federal-meltdown | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954218 | 488 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Health Groups Draw Attention to Key Role of Turmeric in Breast Cancer
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Newly published cell research performed by at the Zheijian Provincial People’s Hospital in Zheijiang China indicates that the key compound in turmeric known as curcumin is capable of inducing programmed cell death in triple-negative breast cancer cells, the most feared and prognosis-poor type of breast cancer currently recognized. The information sheds light on how turmeric, a substance even recognized by Cancer.gov as a potential cancer fighter, could play an active role in the inhibition of breast cancer.
The Chinese study is not the first to identify anti-breast cancer activity exhibited by the popular spice. A natural medicine database known as GreenMedInfo has identified over 60 in vitro and animal studies demonstrating either curcumin’s direct anti-cancer activity, or its ability to enhance breast cancer’s sensitivity to conventional treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation. Topics that the third most popular natural health website in the world NaturalSociety has covered in-depth. Also, the open access project has organized over 1,500 turmeric research study citations from the National Library of Medicine on its potential value in over 500 health conditions.
Previous work by UCLA and other institutions have also observed turmeric to be capable of inhibiting cancer cell growth. In the UCLA study, participants with head and neck cancer were given just 1,000 milligrams of curcumin each via chewable tablets. After consuming the tablets routinely, an independent lab in Maryland verified that the growth of cancerous cells had been suppressed.
Promising preclinical research on natural substances like turmeric rarely make it to the far more capital-intensive phase 1,2, and 3 clinical trials required for FDA drug approval due to the fact that natural substances cannot be patented and made to produce a return on investment. However, this most recent study, in conjunction with numerous other peer-reviewed studies referenced at the National Library of Medicine, underscore how much promise natural, relatively safe, food-grade remedies may hold for those suffering from difficult to treat, or conventional treatment-resistant diseases.
Around 15-25% of all breast cancer cases are classified as triple negative. Major organizations focused on triple negative cases, however, focus almost exclusively on raising money to find a pharmaceutical answer to the condition. These organizations should consider the latest Chinese study and the role turmeric may play in helping breast cancer sufferers through the induction of programmed cell death in triple-negative breast cancer cells.
Anthony Gucciardi, +1-267-507-4268, Contact@NaturalSociety.com
SOURCE Natural Society | <urn:uuid:39bf34c1-8d6b-4a37-84da-83735f2cb2fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1112719582/health-groups-draw-attention-to-key-role-of-turmeric-in/ | 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 | 0.937501 | 553 | 2.625 | 3 |
A Kelp forest was an underwater habitat that could be found on Earth.
In 1986, the Cetacean Institute in Sausalito hosted a kelp forest exhibit. It was open between 11:15 a.m. and 4 p.m. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
The exhibit was neither mentioned nor seen, but details about it were on a blackboard above the aquarium lobby.
External link Edit | <urn:uuid:2b1a66e7-8d61-4108-a3eb-28bc454ed088> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Kelp_forest | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977276 | 90 | 2.390625 | 2 |
Kaiser's Yanks, The
Author: Gary C Warne
Publisher: RICHARDSON PUBLISHING (2011)
Binding: Paperback, 288 pages
Grab your parachute and join the pilots of Jasta von Steuben, the American-filled squadron of the German Army Air Service as they contest the skies over the trenches against the British and the French in World War I. Page after page of roaring engines, stuttering machine guns, the howl of artillery and anti-aircraft fire, the quiet of blossoming love amidst the terror and uncertainty of war, and the honor men find even as they attempt to kill the men they face in battle. This is aerial combat at its best!
Gary C. Warne’s book The Kaiser’s Yanks is a well written and researched novel of World War I with an interesting concept: Americans fighting for Germany during the war. The Americans initially went overseas to fight against England, France and Russia; and eventually ended up fighting against their own country when America entered the war.
The book opens with the shooting of the Austrian crown prince in Sarajevo, Bosnia, the event that ultimately started World War I in Europe. The event that triggered the war also ultimately led a few Americans to make the trek to Germany to fight for the German cause. The story develops from the discovery of papers from one of the men by family members in Van Wert, Ohio, in the present day. We discover with the family members how their relative, Theo Ray, and the other men left America, enlisted in Germany and eventually ended up flying the war birds of World War I. They eventually formed the “Jasta von Steuben,” Germany’s answer to the Lafayette Escadrille. The reader may follow the development of the fighting aircraft on both sides of the war, and encounter historical figures like Eddie Rickenbacker, Anthony Fokker, the “Red Baron” Manfred Von Richthofen, and even an appearance by Adolph Hitler. Descriptions of the capabilities of the planes and of aerial combat are well done. The story carries through the end of the war and relates what happens to the survivors, who were considered traitors in their own country.
Those interested in World War I, and particularly in the air war should enjoy this book.
Reviewed by: Weymouth Symmes (2011) | <urn:uuid:70cb81c9-7d84-4c38-adfb-f77437666119> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mwsadispatches.com/node/546 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946888 | 493 | 1.984375 | 2 |
How soon we forget.
We've been spoiled in recent years when it comes to really cold and snowy winters. This week's deep freeze combined with snow alerts have sent the Ohio Valley into a tizzy.
We rush to get those snow tires on that we have been procrastinating about since October. We search for the heavy boots and warmer parkas deep inside the closet. Gloves, some mismatched, are tucked into various coat pockets.
Maybe we had it on our to-do list to turn off the outdoor faucets but never got around to it and will wind up with frozen pipes. Did we get into the crawl space under the house or climb into the attic and add another layer of insulation like we had planned in September? Heck no. It was still hitting the 80-degree mark back then.
If anyone should be prepared for the extreme cold that hit us this week it would be our local municipalities. Back in the late 1980s, several things happened that revealed just how prepared we could be for anything Mother Nature decided to throw its way.
First came the icy winds of January followed by clear frigid temperatures. We're talking the kind of cold that freezes your breath as you exhale and sends ice crystals into your lungs when you inhale. Any exposed skin instantly falls victim to the bone-chilling air and it hurt.
Schools closed along with non-essential services such as libraries and other big old buildings that struggled to keep the heat inside. Authorities warned us to pile on the blankets rather than use unsafe heating methods in our homes. Fires were a real concern, for they are nearly impossible to fight in these elements. Water from hoses can freeze before it hits its target.
To add injury to insult, the wind whipped around, too, sending wind chills into the double-digit minus category.
And then there was no water. Yes, Wheeling lost its clean water supply due to an issue with the river. The idea of residents being stuck inside without water coupled with the fear of fires sent city safety forces into action. The Office of Emergency Services and the Wheeling Fire Department worked hand-in-hand with city officials to devise a plan for Wheeling to get water from its good neighbors across the river in Ohio.
It was one of the most difficult times as the mercury dropped for days and the water supply was at a critical level. Yet all the right people came together to brace for the worst until things improved on the river - which was nearly frozen over - and the temperature warmed.
More than anything it proved that we have survival skills we didn't know we even needed until Old Man Winter reared his cold, ugly head. So this weekend, stay warm, pass the hot chocolate and invite the dogs onto the bed. January is almost over.
Heather Ziegler can be reached via e-mail at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:7fd749a1-e3a3-4fe0-ae1c-dd90a39b33e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/580462.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970945 | 595 | 2.09375 | 2 |
I have decided to tell you about my experience and interest in tutoring through a personal letter. After all, tutoring is about the personal, one-on-one experience that someone can have when they work a tutor who truly strives to understand his or her learning goals or needs.
I have been tutoring on and off since 1997. I have worked in writing centers for both a community college and a university. I’ve done freelance tutoring, and I’ve also tutored ESL students abroad in South Korea and here in the United States as well. In fact, the majority of my students through WyzAnt have been ones seeking help to improve their English through pronunciation and listening and also through grammar and vocabulary.
Despite the environment or a student's level of English proficiency, my approach is always the same for each tutoring session — to identify the primary learning concern that a student has by listening to a student's description of this concern, to thoroughly explain how to handle this concern by offering approaches and specific examples to the student, and to make sure that a student understands how to address this learning concern on their own before we end a tutorial session.
One of my favorite things about tutoring is that it enables me to devote special attention to certain students who might not get such specialized attention in a classroom full of students who learn at different speeds and have various learning styles. Although it is important to me that I establish a comfortable and trusting relationship with my students, it is equally important to me that I challenge them to think for themselves.
In my opinion, as an educator, I find that students learn best when their opinions are nurtured because this encourages them to open up with questions that help to better target where their key learning concerns reside. My goal as a tutor then is to make sure that my students are able to walk away from our sessions feeling confident that they can handle the speaking, vocabulary, or grammar concerns that they originally had trouble with. Therefore, before a tutorial session ends, a student must show me that they understand how to handle their original writing concern rather than just saying that they can.
So, the following are some approaches that I use whenever I work with a student:
- One golden rule I reinforce throughout my sessions with students is that they must do the work. To effectively enforce this, I make sure that they are the ones holding the pen or pencil. In my experience, students become disengaged when they are not the ones holding the writing instrument. They must be poised and ready to show me what they have been learning at any point during our session.
- Another learning tactic that I use with students is something I like to phrase as explanations in the form of questions. I find that by offering my students explanations to their learning concerns in the form of questions gets students talking and thinking about how to handle these concerns on their own, long after our session ends - and that’s really the point of teaching in any form. A good tutor should strive to get their students to think on their own so that this fosters confidence in them to independently tackle future speaking, vocabulary, and grammar issues.
- I firmly believe that students should never become dependent upon their tutors to “fix” their learning concerns. Again, the point of a healthy tutor-student relationship is that a student learns how to identify and then independently address these particular concerns long after each tutorial session ends. I strive to help students target and understand their struggles with learning and then move forward to nurture that recognition with them through learning approaches that are tailored to their individual learning interests and abilities.
- A third tactic that I use with my students is to have them provide me with written or verbalized examples of something that we have covered in our current session. I try to do this with each significant learning concept that is covered before we move on to a new one. This way, any roadblocks with regard to understanding an overall issue will be addressed, and students will be able to see their own language skills developing.
- I also talk about what we will cover for each session before the actual session begins. This way, I will have a basic agenda to follow that will make the most of our time. After each session, I make sure to post a descriptive rundown of each session in WyzAnt's lesson response section. This way, my students can verify what we have covered, remind themselves of what they need to work on until our next session, and they can additionally remind themselves about the materials or homework that they will need to complete and bring for our next session.
Another reason that I love tutoring is for the unique array of learning concerns that I am approached with, which can range from ESL language concerns to creative writing concerns. As my resume indicates, I also have experience working as a composition and creative writing instructor. I love working with students who come from various academic and personal backgrounds. I strive to be sensitive to different learning abilities and delight in helping to hone students’ skills while enabling them to acquire new ones.
In short, I’m a dedicated tutor who loves to empower students to tackle their learning concerns so that they can think and learn more independently.
I’m very much looking forward to working with you!
back to top | <urn:uuid:f450cec5-ba30-4d5d-bb77-de2df23a3081> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wyzant.com/Tutors/CA/San-Francisco/7782461/?g=3MG | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971679 | 1,071 | 1.617188 | 2 |
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air in contact with and extending between a cloud (often a thunderstorm cloud) and the surface of the earth. Winds in most tornadoes blow at 100 mph or less, but in the most violent, and least frequent, wind speeds can exceed 250 mph.
Tornadoes, often nicknamed "twisters," typically track along the ground for a few miles or less and are less than 100 yards wide, though some monsters can remain in contact with the earth for well over fifty miles and exceed one mile in width.
Several conditions are required for the development of tornadoes and the thunderstorm clouds with which most tornadoes are associated. Abundant low level moisture is necessary to contribute to the development of a thunderstorm, and a "trigger" (perhaps a cold front or other low level zone of converging winds) is needed to lift the moist air aloft.
Once the air begins to rise and becomes saturated, it will continue rising to great heights and produce a thunderstorm cloud, if the atmosphere is unstable. An unstable atmosphere is one where the temperature decreases rapidly with height.
Atmospheric instability can also occur when dry air overlays moist air near the earth's surface. Finally, tornadoes usually form in areas where winds at all levels of the atmosphere are not only strong, but also turn with height in a clockwise, or veering, direction.
Tornadoes can appear as a traditional funnel shape, or in a slender rope-like form. Some have a churning, smoky look to them, and others contain "multiple vortices" - small, individual tornadoes rotating around a common center. Even others may be nearly invisible, with only swirling dust or debris at ground level as the only indication of the tornado's presence. | <urn:uuid:d186afb7-da99-4b57-92ab-2d08af0c6061> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fox23.com/content/weather/weatherschool/wx101-tornados.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94016 | 366 | 4.21875 | 4 |
Have you heard of Nikola Tesla? Shoreham, NY? The Wardenclyffe Tower? Stanford White? Wireless power transmission? Alternating current? You’ve heard of some of it anyway. Have you seen the movie, The Prestige? Ah-ha, good movie, yes? Each time you watch it, you’ll take note of more detail and clues. Have you heard of the website The Oatmeal? I promise, this is all connected.
Let’s start with Tesla. While we all know Thomas Edison for inventing electricity and the light bulb, there is actually a greater, more complicated back story (such is history, yes?). Nikola Tesla studied alternating current and worked for Thomas Edison. For an entertaining (language is not G rated, warning!) overview of Tesla’s accomplishments read this comic by the Oatmeal. For a more detailed account read this and this. In short, Nikola Tesla was a brilliant man ahead of his time and wanted to create free electricity for everyone. How awesome would that have been.
Next up, the Wardenclyffe Tower was part of Tesla’s lab in Shoreham, NY. The tower, never fully operational, was demolished in 1917, but a portion of it remains with the lab building. The property has been through many owners and has yet to be nominated to the National Register of Historic Places (because the property owner must approve the nomination) even though you could argue that this property is eligible for a National Historic Landmark nomination. This property was at risk for purchase and subsequent demolition, at a price tag of $1.7 million — not exactly pocket change for us preservationists.
The author of The Oatmeal began a campaign to raise $850,000 (which New York State would match) for the purchase price in order to turn the property into a museum and science center about Tesla and his work. So far the campaign has raised over $1 million. And there are still 10 days remaining to raise even more money, in order to garner funds for the museum development. The $1.7 million is only the property purchase price. Follow the Tesla Science Center on Twitter or find more information on the website. See this album of recent site visit photos.
So you see the success. The Oatmeal helped the fundraising go viral, perhaps to people who never knew about Tesla and to people who aren’t necessarily preservationists. Everyone can appreciate at least a small piece of this story: history, technology, innovation, architecture mixed with historic preservation, our modern information age, community (of all types) efforts, enthusiasm and the idea that you have to start somewhere in order to succeed. To The Oatmeal and all who donated and spread the word: congratulations! Once again, historic preservation is an overarching field that affects all of us in positive ways. Three cheers for everyone.
As for The Prestige. You should watch it and you’ll appreciate Nikola Tesla more than you thought. | <urn:uuid:595f5809-3201-45ef-9ddf-dd517c8d353e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://preservationinpink.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/preservation-success-nikola-tesla-wardenclyffe-tower/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949482 | 607 | 2.296875 | 2 |
Mission Possible: A Healthy Tamale
When the universe closes a door, it opens a window.
And indeed it was so when our attempt to follow a recipe for a (naturally gluten-free) empanada using mashed plantains for the dough failed miserably. The recipe’s chipotle-spiked black bean filling was nothing short of miraculous. But while the plantain-based dough made a delectable fork-mate to the filling, it was too crumbly to respectably envelop it like a proper empanada pocket. As I wallowed in our tasty but decidedly unphotogenic empanada experiment, my resourceful husband Alex had a brilliant idea: why not change the recipe from empanada to tamale?
And just like that, the window had opened.
A healthy tamale? ¿Es posible?
Fact #1: Tamales are quite delicious.
Fact #2: Tamales are typically made with a dough that combines masa harina (cornmeal made from corn that’s been soaked in limewater) and a somewhat obscene amount of fat–usually butter or lard. The lard renders most restaurant tamales off-limits to the vegetarian crowd, and even the butter-based approach makes homemade tamales a tough sell for those of us trying to keep our intake of artery-clogging saturated fat to a minimum.
Given these two facts, the prospect of a tamale dough that’s appropriately textured, 100% fat free, vegetarian and nutritious is a pretty big coup.
A coup, I’m delighted to say, we pulled off, thanks to some cooked mashed plantains and a little bit of creativity.
Plantains (plátanos in Spanish) are a fruit that resemble large, thick-skinned bananas and are commonly featured in Caribbean cuisine. They are used both when unripe (green skin) as well as ripe (yellow to black skin); they are starchier when unripe and sweeter when riper. Although related to the banana, plantains are usually cooked prior to eating; they have a drier, starchier texture and less banana-ey flavor than bananas. Nutritionally, they’re closer to a starchy vegetable (like a potato) than to a fruit. Like potatoes, plantains are a great source of blood-pressure-lowering potassium. And as I recently discovered, when baked, mashed and lightly salted, plantains provide an excellent, fat-free alternative to a traditional tamale dough. Of course, a quick google search after-the-fact revealed that Alex and I were not the first people to come up with the idea of Plantain Tamales (hmmmph!), but I’m still pretty darn proud of us all the same.
Recipe: Tamalex’s Plantain Tamales with Fiery Cilantro-Chipotle Salsa
This recipe was inspired by and adapted from a recipe for Roasted Plantain Empanadas from NYC’s Dos Caminos restaurant’s “Mod Mex” cookbook, by Scott Lundquist and Joanna Pruess. (The more-addictive-than-crack black bean filling is taken exactly–and reverently– from the cookbook. I’d suggest doubling the recipe, in fact, if you’d like to serve extra on top of the tamales… or perhaps to accommodate nibbling while you wait patiently for the tamales to cook.) And if tamales seem like too much work, try making just the filling for omelets or to serve with rice… it’s SO very good.
Makes 6 tamales (serves 2 as an entree or 3 as an appetizer)
6 dried corn husks, soaked in warm water for 10-15 minutes until soft and bendable
2 medium ripe plantains (skins should be yellow speckled with black or mostly black)
1/2 tsp salt
2 TBSP chopped fresh cilantro
TAMALE FILLING (a la Dos Caminos; consider doubling the recipe because it’s unfathomably tasty)
1 TBSP canola oil
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup canned black beans
1/4 cup water
1 canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce, chopped
1/4 cup chopped scallions (including green parts)
1 ounce grated cheese (your choice of cotija, feta, pepper jack or sharp cheddar will all work great)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Soak the corn husks in warm water in a large shallow baking dish (per above instructions) prior to getting started.
- Make the tamale “dough”: Bake the whole plantains (unpeeled) on a cookie sheet until they are black, bubbly, splitting open and soft in the center. Remove from oven, let cool and peel. Place the baked plantains into a food processor with 1/2 tsp salt and
chopped cilantro and mix until mashed. The mixture will be a little dry and crumbly. Add 1 TBSP water and briefly mix again until a uniform, smooth paste texture is achieved (depending on your plantain’s texture, you may need to adjust the amount of water… if 2 TBSP doesn’t yield a smooth texture, add 1 tsp additional water at a time until you get there.)
- Make the tamale filling: Heat a medium, non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add oil, then onion, and saute until onion is lightly browned–about 5-6 minutes. Stir in garlic, cook 1 minute, then add black beans, half of the water (1/4 cup) and the chopped chipotle chile. As the filling cooks, mash the mixture with a potato masher (or back of a wooden spoon) until chunky-smooth. Add remaining 1/4 cup water, season to taste with salt. Add the chopped scallions, the grated cheese and remove from heat.
- Assemble the tamales: Lay a pre-soaked corn husk flat on working surface. Spoon ~1/4 cup tamale dough (mashed plantain mixture) onto center of the husk and, using your fingers, spread it on the husk leaving a 1″ border all around. Spoon 1/6 of the bean mixture across the dough. Fold the tamale shut as follows: start by pulling up the longer edges of the husk until the edges of the plantain mash meet and fold over onto themselves, forming a tube around the bean filling. Then, tuck one edge of the husk between the outside of the dough tube and the other husk. Now you will have a tube-like tamale open on two sides. Then, fold one of the remaining open sides so that the tamale has only one open end.
- Steam the tamales: Drop a penny into a large saucepan and fill with water up until the level of a steamer basket. Bring water to a boil; you will hear the penny rattling around so long as there is sufficient water in the pot. (Over the course of the cooking time, listen for the penny rattling and add more water to the pot if the rattling sound stops.) When water is boiling, pile the folded tamales into steamer basket, seam side down, cover saucepan with a tight-fitting lid, and steam for 45 minutes, replenishing water as needed.
- While tamales are steaming, make the chipotle salsa (recipe below).
- To serve: Remove tamales from steamer basket. Place on a plate, unfold the husk, and garnish with chipotle salsa (and/or any other salsas of your choosing; a salsa verde, pictured in the photo above, is great too), some additional shredded cheese and/or chopped cilantro to your liking.
FAST & FIERY CILANTRO-CHIPOTLE SALSA
Combine the following ingredients in a blender and puree until no large chunks remain. Voila!
- 1 14-oz can of diced tomatoes
- 1 small onion, quartered
- 4 cloves garlic, quartered
- ~20 stalks of cilantro (stems and leaves)
- 2 TBSP lime juice
- 2-4 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (depending on your desired level of fire)
- 2 TBSP adobo sauce (from the canned chipotles)
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- salt & pepper to taste
Approximate nutrition info per tamale (assumes recipe above makes 6 tamales): 125 calories, 20g carbohydrate (of which ~2.5g are fiber), 3g protein, 4g fat.
Drizzling with the chipotle salsa adds a negligible number of calories and no fat. If you sprinkle additional shredded cheese beyond what is called for in the filling, add about 100 calories, 7g protein and 9g fat per ounce (an ounce is the size equivalent of a piece of string cheese).
3 tamales drizzled in salsa and accompanied by a generous portion of steamed veggies makes for a lovely, low-fat dinner that clocks in at less than 500 calories.
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it, RSS feed. | <urn:uuid:d6965a3b-4e1d-4481-8330-2819b6dabfcb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tamaraduker.com/2010/04/mission-possible-a-healthy-tamale/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900151 | 1,972 | 2.328125 | 2 |
WWF integrated legacy marketing campaign
One of the early posters with a selection of later campaign materials. Click on the image to see the rest of the exhibits in greater detail.
WWF legacy marketing materials
This case study appears in these showcases
More case studies from WWF
This is a truly ground-breaking communication for fundraising. Not only did these press advertisements and posters herald a new approach to the promotion of legacies (bequests), but they were also the first ads to use jargon-free language and to talk about legacies in plain, everyday terms that any one could understand. The advertisements featured conversational and quite challenging copy lines that, interestingly, were later modified in places, perhaps showing that that those higher up in the organisation were less adventurous than the fundraisers who conceived the ads. An example of this is the replacement of the word ‘adultery’ with the much milder word ‘divorce’.
To see the YMCA version of this approach click here.
Medium of communication:Posters, press advertising.
Type of charity:Environmental/animals.
WWF developed this campaign in combination with their agency at the time, Chapter One Direct.
Name of exhibitor:Sally Burrowes – WWF-UK
Date of first appearance:November, 1987.
To increase WWF’s legacy income by recruiting legacy pledgers (LPs). WWF’s strategy was to build a large database of people interested in making or changing their will. They did this by offering, free of charge, an easy to understand guide to what’s involved in making a will. Subsequent communication with this file would aim to convert them to legacy pledgers.
Marketing for legacies was in its infancy – most charities relied on ad hoc advertising. WWF decided that an integrated marketing campaign would highlight the necessity for having a valid will as there were many misconceptions surrounding this area of law. A jargon-free booklet was written called ‘Keep it in the Family’, which gave general information on probate matters. It included a brief write up on WWF and asked people to consider leaving a legacy to the charity.
Conversational and quite challenging copy lines
Huge impact with over 45,000 requests for the booklet having estimated 6,000 responses.
Within a very short time, many other charities also copied their ‘indirect’ approach to lecacy marketing. WWF claim to be the first charity to really market legacies effectively, though a similar campaign appeared around the same time from the YMCA and which was first is disputed. As it was seen as a very sensitive area, they benefited from leading the field.
WWF’s legacy income more than doubled in less than two years and the charity is still receiving actual legacies from this early activity.
The integrated marketing activity included:
For innovation and for leading the field in legacy marketing. | <urn:uuid:e218af79-0ff8-4199-bc71-58de58af13c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sofii.org/node/143 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963597 | 601 | 2 | 2 |
Submission Number: 00095
Received: 11/16/2012 7:39:21 PM
Commenter: woo park
Organization: Frontier Cleaners
Agency: Federal Trade Commission
Initiative: 16 CFR Part 423 - Trade Regulation Rule on Care Labeling of Textile Wearing Apparel and Certain Piece Goods (the “Care Labeling Rule”); Project No. R511915
Attachments: No Attachments
My Family has been in the Dry Cleaning Industry for almost 40 years. In my experience, most of my customers don’t know the difference between dry cleaning and wet cleaning.
Most of my customers assume that when a label says to wet clean the item, they can wash it at home. What they don’t understand is that a “Professional Wet Cleaner” adds extra components such as special soap and conditioners to the garment during the cleaning process so that the garment comes out looking the way the manufacturer and customer intended.
After much consideration, I along with many of my fellow “Professional Dry Cleaners” would like to prevent our customers from confusion and dissatisfaction with the garment manufacturer by adding the word “Professional” before the words wet clean on the garment’s label.
Today, many garment manufacturers are using and combining different types of fabrics into one garment that make caring for these garments more difficult. Therefore, the “reasonable basis” needs to be clarified to include a wider range of items that are known to be problematic.
If the terms on the care label are going to be in symbols only, they need to be symbols with very clear definitions so they can be easily understood and recognized by the consumer and the “Professional Dry Cleaner”.
Today, there are different types of dry cleaning solvents available and many do not even use Perchloroethylene (“perc”) anymore. The average consumer does not know how many solvents are available.
I am a GreenEarth Cleaner and I see the need for a GreenEarth symbol on garment labels. GreenEarth is well-known to be a gentle solvent and I believe the label explaining that the garment needed to be cleaned in a gentle solvent like GreenEarth would help not only the consumer, but dry cleaners and manufacturers as well.
Thank you for consideration. | <urn:uuid:36ea262f-b474-44af-99f0-0310ceb90b12> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ftc.gov/os/comments/carelabelingnprm/00095.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939124 | 486 | 1.554688 | 2 |
November 8, 2012
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Wednesday described re-elected US President Barack Obama as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and said he expected his government to continue attacking the anti-secrecy website.
Speaking to AFP by telephone from Ecuador’s London embassy, where he sought asylum in June in a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden over sex crime allegations, Assange said Obama’s victory was no cause for celebration.
“Obama seems to be a nice man, and that is precisely the problem,” the 41-year-old Australian said, after the president defeated Republican Mitt Romney on Tuesday night to sweep back into the White House.
“It’s better to have a sheep in wolf’s clothing than a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
This article was posted: Thursday, November 8, 2012 at 10:24 am | <urn:uuid:649f681b-a88a-4673-86f9-abf5e11fc6a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infowars.com/julian-assange-says-victorious-barack-obama-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967438 | 189 | 1.703125 | 2 |
CHOSING THE RIGHT OIL WHEN THEY ALL TASTE THE SAME
Flavor is largely overlooked by consumers, primarily because of the limited number of olive oil choices usually available.
Olives are a seasonal crop. Olives for making oil are harvested slightly later than table olives for reasons relating to yield and flavor. The olive oil season begins in early November and extends in some areas to late February. Over ninety-five percent of the production takes place in the very broad geographic region known as the Mediterranean basin, a large area that extends from Syria in the east to Spain and Morocco in the far west. Spain is by far the world's largest producer of olives and olive oil. Each producing country has different producing regions, varieties, and preferences as to harvest time and style. No two seasons in any area are identical. Many varieties are alternating in productivity; a year of high productivity is followed by a year of scarcity.
Technically, there are as many different olive oil flavor profiles as there are olive groves. The what, when, where, and how of olive oil making is composed of layers of variables superimposed on layers of sub-variables and can be incredibly complex. Any one of these variables can have a profound effect on the flavor and overall characteristics of the oil. Add to this the fact that olive oil is highly perishable and begins to soften the day it is produced, heading steadily downward in intensity and brightness, and one gets a sense of how difficult it is to produce a uniform, consistent, readily available, high-quality olive oil.
Large multinational corporations like Unilever (Bertolli), Hormel (Carapelli), Borgess (Star), Nestle (Sasso), and Monini have such huge markets to supply that there is no single variety, country, or style capable of supplying the virtual river of olive oil that is required. The desire to provide a uniform and consistent product year in and year out has changed the purpose of the, "Produced in Italy", statement found on many brands from a tired marketing ploy to absolute necessity. Companies requiring such enormous quantities of a single flavor profile have no choice but to mix many different styles and varieties to achieve this end. The battle of quantity versus quality is very much a factor. The inevitable sacrifice of the unique and individual to the modern twin gods of volume and continuity is unavoidable if the goal is to market olive oil on this massive scale.
Each producing country has a dominant variety or cultivar. That variety tends to be representative of the general "style" of the country. These "styles" are often closely contested from region to region inside a country. A reasonably experienced taster can pick out the dominant style or cultivar of each of the large producing countries. The dominant cultivars in Spain are the Picual, Hojiblanca, and Arbequina; for Italy it is the Coratina, for Tunisia the Chemlali, for Greece the Koroneiki, and for Turkey the Ayvalik.
Look for oils by variety as well as region and country. The number of high-quality oils available from small regional mills is increasing daily as more consumers and producers wake up to the fantastic possibilities that exist. Where the olive oil is produced is far less important than when, what, and how it is produced. There is no substitute for individual experience. Try as many olive oils as you can. There are dozens of unique high-quality oils being produced every year in many different places in the world. When purchased from bulk stocks they represent extraordinary examples of unique quality and value impossible to duplicate in the traditional supermarket or gourmet store.
This article has been republished with permission from Delizia. | <urn:uuid:126c78c1-99f5-4846-a866-687bbfdbf958> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theolivebar.com/olive-oil-101/2007/olive-oil-flavor-profiles | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957842 | 756 | 2.703125 | 3 |
An Encouraging Development for Autism . . .
By Brenton Crozier
and for the Somali Community in the Twin Cities where autism is so prevalent among its children.
When researching stories for SOTRU’s Twin Cities episode, there was one story that the entire team couldn’t stop thinking about after hearing it: within the large community of Somali immigrants that live in the Minneapolis area, there is an alarming trend of autism among their children.
We told the story of a mother, Idil Abdul, turned activist, and a father, Abdi Hassan, who has dedicated his life to the special needs of his child. In the spring of 2009 the Minnesota Department of Health conducted a limited study. As Al says in the segment, “In some ways, the study created more questions than it answers.” After all, the big question, the “Why of Autism” is something the world is still trying to figure out. The public health professionals conceded that even the baseline of whether someone has autism or not is hard to determine.
The segment ended with Al lamenting how there has been talk of several in-depth studies researching what might be happening with these Somali children, but, at the time, nothing concrete had evolved.
However, we were all recently elated to hear the news this month that there is now an in-depth study set to happen!
We got an excited email from Idil letting us know that on Tuesday Jan 18th, 2011, the Center for Disease Control (CDC), National Health of Institute (NIH) and Autism Speaks announced a study of Autism and Somali children in Minnesota. As Idil wrote to us, “Any family that has a child or children in our case knows it is no day at the park and no parent should accept autism is an unsolved puzzle. We must find cause, cure and better treatments.” With this study, there is a chance for progress on that front! | <urn:uuid:29016c55-e316-4147-93ec-8293f4368a8d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stateofthereunion.com/an-encouraging-development-for-autism | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969001 | 404 | 2.25 | 2 |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History
Emmanuel Church is situated on the eastern side of Tavistock Road, Mannamead, Plymouth.
The "Tything of Compton Gifford" was an old civil parish which came within the ecclesiastical parish of Charles, Plymouth. This was of little importance when there were few residents living in the area but by 1831 the population of Compton was 291 and there were at least three important properties there: "Priory", the home of Captain J Gordon Bremer, Royal Navy; "-?-", the thatched residence of Mr John Foulston, architect; and "Compton Knoll", built by Mr Bulcock. They all had to attend Charles Church.
It was Captain Bremer who started the move for a church of its own by donating a site for a small chapel and £200 towards the cost of building it. Known as the Chapel of Compton Gifford it was first licensed on January 23rd 1836 and was served by the Reverend G Hall-Parlby as curate-in-charge. Once the Chapel was in use, Captain Bremer then gave a piece of land to the rear of the Chapel for a schoolroom. Mrs Hare was the first school mistress and there were fewer than 20 children.
By the time the Reverend Hall-Parlby handed the Chapel over to the Reverend M Davie in 1855 the railway was passing close to the village and the land on either side of it was being developed for housing, although Mutley Plain was still just a roadway with a hedge. The congregation soon outgrew the Chapel and in 1858 it had to be extended to seat 200 worshippers. Within a decade the area from Thorn Park to Hartley Reservoir had been built on as had some of the land nearer Mutley Plain. So in December 1866 the Reverend Henry Addington Greaves, the vicar of Charles, called a meeting in the Compton School to discuss plans for the erection of a separate church for the district.
These plans were almost thwarted when the Ecclesiastical Commissioners refused to accept the title of the land upon which the Chapel already existed but two other landowners, Mrs Betsy and Miss Elizabeth Ann Revel, gave them a new site at Mannamead. £565 was promised at the meeting and the architect, Mr William Henry Reid FRIBA, offered his services for free. Although there was a problem over the terms of the conveyance, this problem was resolved in mid 1868 and a contract worth £2,003 10s was awarded in April 1869.
Using stone excavated from the foundations of the new Plymouth Guildhall, the Reverend Greaves laid the foundation stone on Thursday June 17th 1869. At the ceremony the Reverend gentleman announced that it was to be known as "Emmanuel" instead of taking a saint's name. This was because on his death bed the Reverend Revel, son of Mrs Betsy Revel, had wished that something could be done for the Church and as a result they had donated the land. As the Reverend Revel had attended Emmanuel Collage at Cambridge, that was the name chosen for the dedication. The day was a sunny one and after the initial service at Compton Chapel the congregation processed to the site of the new church for the laying of the stone. Children from Charles National Infants' School and the Household of Faith sang hymns specially arranged for the occasion.
However, just as everything seems to be going well another problem emerged. It was found that Mrs and Miss Revel had not included in their donation the land between the site of the Church and the main road. This they let to Mr Thomas Marshall, the contractor for the erection of the Church, who immediately set about erecting three villas right in front of it much to the annoyance of the congregation. Luckily Mr Bewes and Mr Luscombe succeeded in purchasing the piece of land, reimbursed Mr Marshall, removed the building works and conveyed the land to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.
Emmanuel Church was consecrated by Bishop Temple on Monday September 19th 1870.
The Reverend G H Fletcher, previously the curate-in-charge, was appointed the first Vicar. The patron of the living, the Reverend H A Greaves, of Charles Church, assigned £50 per year out of the tithes of the parish as an endowment for the new incumbent. [3a]
At that time the Church comprised a high, clerestoried nave, with lean-to aisles; north and south transepts at the west end, which served as porches; and an extension of the nave westwards in the manner of a chancel. It was planned to complete it by extending the Church eastwards by the erection of transepts and chancel and installing a central tower with spire. The current extreme length was 78 feet and the width was 50 feet 6 inches. The nave was 65 feet high and the spire was to be 160 feet tall. [3a]
Designed in the late Decorated Gothic style by Mr Reid and constructed in limestone by Mr Thomas Marshall, of Plymouth, the nave was separated from the aisles by Bath stone arcades of three bays. Bath stone was also used for the exterior dressings and the font, which was supported by one granite pillar and four of polished marble. Polished pitch pine was used for the seating. The Architectural Pottery Works at Poole, Dorset, supplied the red and black floor tiles and the gas standards were installed by Messrs Hart, Peard & Son. [3a]
The ecclesiastical parish was formed out of the Parish of Charles on December 22nd 1871.
An Organ was installed in 1876, when the organist of Saint Andrew's Church, Mr Graham Clark, gave a recital.
In 1880 a portion of the Parish of Saint Andrew's to the east of Mutley Plain was added to the parish and a contract was let for for the completion of the nave and building the transepts, chancel and vestry .
The eastern extensions comprising the north and south transepts, chancel, organ chamber and vestry, were designed by Messrs Hine and Odgers, of Plymouth. It was opened for worship by the Bishop of Exeter on Monday July 18th 1881, during the incumbency of the Reverend George B Berry. This extension meant that the chancel, with the vestry on the side side and the organ chamber on the south side, was 33 feet in length and 23 feet in width. The outer walls were of wrought limestone with dressings of Portland, Doulting and Bath stone. The stone carvings above the choir were by Mr Harry Hems, of Exeter, and his staff.
As the Church was designed in the cruciform fashion, it was planned to have a central tower but by the time of the extension that idea had been abandoned. Instead it was raised at the south-western corner. A Mr T C Rogers designed the tower, the memorial stone of which was laid by the Mayor of Plymouth, Mr W Law, on Wednesday July 17th 1895. The architect was Mr Bone and the contractor was Mr Jonathan Marshall. [There is a discrepancy here, of course: perhaps Mr Rogers made the general design and Mr Bone actually drew up the plans.] A sealed bottle was placed in a cavity within the stone which contained, in addition to copies of the western Morning News, a parchment document bearing the signatures of the vicar, the Reverend George B Berry BA; the curates, the Reverends N N Lewarne MA and J H Haywood; the churchwardens, Mr W M F Hugo and Mr Thomas Harris; the treasurer, Admiral Sir George Watson KCB; the secretary, Mr E Tidboald; along with Captain Henry Rogers RN; Mr Edward Dingle; Mr P K Truscott; Mr A W Alabaster; Captain B Matheson; Captain J R Quinn; Mr T Roberts; Mr F H Goulding; Mr Samuel Hockridge; Mr C H Andrew; and Mr W H Probert.
The Tower was meant to support a spire but the money, and, it would seem, the will, ran out. The Tower itself was to cost £3,500 but only half of that had been raised. The proposed spire was to cost a further £1,600 but only £210 had been promised.
The east window was donated by the Pearn family as a memorial to their mother. It was designed and made by the eminent artist Mr Morris. The window in the west end is dedicated to the men of the parish who fell in the Great War. There is a chapel, dedicated in 1919, to the memory of Captain Henry Harris Jago, DSO, MC, and Second Lieutenant Edward Arthur Jago, killed in France in 1916 and 1918 respectively. There are other windows to the memory of the Hicks, Jackson, Rendle and Jenkins families. A brass lectern was manufactured by Messrs Cox and Company and donated by a Mr Dickerson. The carvings of angels on the stall ends at the chancel entrance were the work of Mr S Trevenen, of Plymouth. The cornice of oak trees and acorns was carved by Mr Moutrie, of Tavistock. All the gas standards were supplied by Messrs Hart, Son, and Peard, of Wych Street.
Linking the old and new parts of Emmanuel Church 'was attended with considerable difficulties and some danger' but this was satisfactorily accomplished by the contractor, Mr Blowey, and his workmen. Messrs Hele and Company re-erected the organ in the new organ chamber.
Emmanuel has a peel of eight bells in the tower, all cast in 1904 by Messrs John Warner & Sons . The tenor bell, weighing 21 cwt 2 qrs 12 lbs, was re-hung in 1929 by Messrs John Taylor & Company of Loughborough, who did the same with the remaining seven bells in 1939 . Mr Norrington, of Abbotsfield, Compton, made a substantial donation towards the cost of the bells .
|© Brian Moseley, Plymouth, UK|
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Why Bank Money Markets Beat Funds for the Average Saver
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Cash is pouring into money market funds run by brokerages and mutual fund companies, much if it siphoned from ordinary bank savings. Should regular folk join in?
Probably not. With the average money market fund yielding only 0.04%, you might well do better in a money market account at a bank. They average 0.12%, according to the BankingMyWay.com survey. And, although money market funds have an excellent safety record, they don't provide the FDIC guarantee against that you'd get at the bank.
To be clear: Money market funds are offered by brokerages and mutual funds, while money market accounts are provided by banks.
The Investment Company Institute, the trade group for the fund industry, says that nearly $76 billion flowed into money market funds in December, while about $30 billion flowed out of stock funds and a mere $7.4 billion flowed into bond funds.There are various reasons. Money market funds are a relatively safe place to park money ultimately destined for other investments, and year-end bonuses and investment sales for tax reasons cause a flood of cash in December. Also, The Wall Street Journal reports that the Dec. 31 expiration of temporary FDIC protection for bank accounts over $250,000 eliminated a reason for big investors to favor banks over money market funds that are slightly more generous. Chasing yield might pay for big investors, but not for small ones. Even if you could find a fund paying more than a money market account at a bank, the difference would hardly be worth thinking about. At 0.04%, you'd earn $4 a year for every $10,000. Even at five times that rate you'd get only $20. For most small investors and savers, it's just fine to leave cash in the bank -- in savings accounts, money market accounts, checking accounts or certificates of deposit. In addition to the FDIC insurance, which you don't get at a brokerage or mutual fund company, bank savings are easy to get at. (Look here for details on FDIC coverage.) That doesn't mean money market funds at brokerages and mutual fund companies have no purpose. They're very convenient if you want to move money in and out of other investments such as mutual funds. But some of these money market funds come with a bit of extra risk aimed at increasing yields, a tradeoff that isn't worth bothering with. The Journal notes that these higher-yielding funds, while still paying well below 1%, are investing in securities such as foreign bonds that carry more risk than the short-term Treasury securities held by the safest money market funds and accounts. Until interest rates rise, it's best to put desires for yield on the back burner and focus on the chief benefits if cash holdings -- safety and liquidity.
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Chestnut uses go well beyond ‘roasting on an open fire'
Published: Wednesday, December 5, 2012 at 7:44 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, December 5, 2012 at 7:44 a.m.
"There is probably a smell of roasted chestnuts and other good comfortable things all the time — for we are telling Winter Stories, Ghost Stories, or more shame for us — round the Christmas fire; and we have never stirred, except to draw a little nearer to it." — Charles Dickens
‘Chestnuts roasting on an open fire?" We've all heard the songs, the quotes, but how many of us have actually had a chestnut?
Chestnuts can be used in a number of both sweet and savory recipes. They can be made into flour for baking, ground into a paste, added to stuffings, or used to make creamy sauces.
When selecting fresh chestnuts, choose large chestnuts that feel heavy for their size and have no visible mold spots. They should not rattle within the hull when shaken.
To roast, place a kitchen towel or cut-resistant glove in your hand. Use a sharp paring knife to score an "x" into the shell of the nut. This will allow steam to escape while roasting. Whether you are opting for an open fire or oven, wrap the chestnuts in foil and place in the fire or in an oven set to 400 degrees. Roasting will take upward of 20-30 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool, steaming in the foil, for 5-10 more minutes. At this point, a towel can be used to help peel and squeeze out the inner flesh. Alternatively, once scored with a knife, chestnuts can be boiled for about 10 minutes.
Chestnuts can be a hassle to cook, but luckily this time of year, there are much easier alternatives than roasting your own. Canned or vacuum-packed chestnuts are available at many grocery and specialty stores, already cooked, peeled and ready to go. In France, "marrons glaces," or candied chestnuts, can be purchased that are already candied in sugar syrup and glazed. Yum.
They also pair well with many other flavors, including apples, caramel, chocolate, coffee, pears and vanilla, as well as earthy flavors such as rosemary, sage and winter squash (butternut, pumpkin, acorn squash).
As if chestnuts need additional promotion, they are good for you. They have fewer calories than many other nuts, are gluten-free and are the only nuts to contain vitamin C. Studies show chestnuts help to lower cholesterol and lower blood pressure, so eat up!
Roasted Chestnut Turnovers
2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed in the fridge
All-purpose flour, as needed
¼ pound chestnuts, cooked and shucked
2 tablespoons toasted almonds
¼ cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons Amaretto liquor
¹?8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¹?8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch of kosher salt
1 egg, beaten
Canola or peanut oil, for frying
Powdered sugar, for dusting
On a lightly floured surface, unfold the puff pastry and roll to about ¹?8-inch thickness. Use a 3-inch round cutter to cut out pieces. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a Silpat liner and refrigerate.
In the bowl of a food processor, chop chestnuts until finely ground. Add almonds and chocolate and process until smooth. Add honey, Amaretto, cinnamon, nutmeg, pure vanilla extract and kosher salt.
Add at least 3 inches of oil to a deep pot and heat to 350 degrees.
Remove pastry from the fridge. Place about 2 teaspoons of chestnut filling in the center each pastry round. Use your fingers to brush a small amount of egg around the edge of half the pastry. Fold the pastry over and press out any air from the filling. Press well to seal the edges.
Carefully lower 3 or 4 pastries into the hot oil. Fry until golden brown, flipping as needed. Remove from oil with a spider, tongs or slotted spoons. Place onto a paper towel-lined plate and dust with powdered sugar. Serve hot.
Season Stepp can be reached at email@example.com.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:12caa588-9edd-4d4f-885e-0a0c3bed624d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20121205/NEWS/121209921/-1/section/placead | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927623 | 961 | 1.914063 | 2 |
The dominant narrative of modern Middle East history emphasizes the depredations visited upon the region by European colonization and accepts as a truism that the former colonial powers prioritized the protection of their material interests—in oil, above all—above the dignity and self-determination of the region’s inhabitants. Thus did botched decolonization result in endless instability. The most intractable of the regional conflicts to which this gave rise, that between the Arabs and Israelis, is attributed in this narrative to Israel’s unwillingness to accede to Palestinian national aspirations. Thus did the region become a breeding ground for radicalism, intensified by Cold War rivalry between the superpowers, who replaced the European colonizers as the region’s meddling overlords. Then came Mikhail Gorbachev—a Westernizing reformer. At last, the Cold War was over. A new world order was at hand.
What if this conventional wisdom is nonsense? Russian exile Pavel Stroilov argues just this in his forthcoming book, Behind the Desert Storm. “Not a word of it is true,” he writes. “It was the Soviet Empire—not the British Empire—that was responsible for the instability in the Middle East.”
Stroilov, a historian now living in London, fled Russia in 2003 after stealing 50,000 top-secret Kremlin documents from the Gorbachev Foundation archives, where he was working as a researcher. He was given access to the archive in 1999, but Gorbachev refused him permission to copy its most significant documents. Having observed the network administrator entering the password into the system, Stroilov reproduced the archive and sent it to secure locations around the world.
Stroilov’s cache includes hundreds of transcripts of discussions between Gorbachev and foreign leaders, politicians, and diplomats. (The originals are still sealed under Kremlin pressure.) There are notes from Politburo and other top decision-making meetings, notes written by Gorbachev’s aides Anatoly Chernyaev and Georgy Shakhnazarov and by Politburo member Vadim Medvedev. None were ever available to independent researchers, although some were published by the Gorbachev Foundation in a heavily censored version. Stroilov also stole the 1972-1986 diary of Anatoly Chernyaev, deputy chief of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union International Department and Gorbachev’s principal aide on international affairs from 1986 to 1991. He stole reports dating from the 1960s by Vadim Zagladin, who was deputy chief of the International Department until 1987 and Gorbachev’s adviser from 1987 to 1991. (Stroilov also draws upon Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky’s vast, stolen collection of documents, as well as the Mitrokhin Archive, a collection of notes taken secretly by the defector Vasili Mitrokhin during his 30 years as a KGB archivist in the foreign intelligence service and the First Chief Directorate.)
Stroilov’s book about these documents, many only now translated into English, challenges the conventional wisdom that Western colonialists are to blame for the chaos in the region. All of its major conflicts, he argues, were caused by Soviet expansionism. Terrorism and the rabid anti-Israeli animus of the Arab world were Soviet inspirations. And the revolutions we are seeing now were inevitable, for the Soviet client states were socialist regimes, and sooner or later socialism exhausts economies and thus the patience of the people who live in them.
One can easily verify that Jewish and Muslim traditional sources are confirming each other: The Temple was built by Solomon and destroyed by a Babylonian king. A Persian king later defeated the Babylonians and ransomed the Jews, permitting them to return to the Land of Israel. The Temple was rebuilt but afterward was destroyed by the Romans. This Temple stood in the area referred to as Beth haMikdash in Hebrew and Bayt al-Maqdis in Arabic. Those political and pseudo-religious Palestinian leaders who claim that “there was never a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem” are surely aware that, in order to support their political claims, they are compelled to lie, hide sources, and contradict the letter of the Quran and the Islamic tradition.
An earlier Quranic exegete and jurist, Imam Muhammad ibn Jarir at-Tabari, who lived from 838 to 923, writes in his Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk, or History of Prophets and Kings, that the same sacred area was the place where Jacob had his vision of the Heavenly Ladder:
When Jacob awoke he felt blissful from what he had seen in his trustful dream and vowed, for God’s sake that, if he returned to his family safely, he would build there a Temple for the Almighty. He also vowed to perpetual charity one tenth of his property for the sake of God. He poured oil on the Stone so as to recognize it and called the place Bayt El, which means ‘the House of God.’ It became the location of Jerusalem later.
In Jerusalem on a huge Rock, Solomon son of David built a beautiful Temple to expand the worship of God. Today on the base of that Temple stands the Dome of the Rock.
Historical negation of Jewish and Islamic sources concerning Jerusalem is recent and does not predate the PLO and its political propaganda. In 1932, during the British Mandate period, the Supreme Muslim Council of Jerusalem published a Brief Guide to Haram as-Sharif for Muslim pilgrims, written in English. “This site is one of the oldest in the world,” it says. “Its sanctity dates from the earliest times. Its identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.”
One thing made Osama bin Laden public enemy #1.
One thing made him a target for America’s hit squad.
One thing – and only one thing – made his assassination justified and praised by world leaders.
He didn’t just kill Jews.
Had he limited his terrorism to Jews only, he would not have been targeted.
The same world leaders who today take great pride in his death would have celebrated his life. He would not have been killed by President Obama; he would have dined with him.
He would have been invited to the United Nations.
He would have had a worldwide speaking tour.
He would have won the Nobel peace prize.
Think I’m crazy? Mahmoud Ahmadinijad is the President of Iran.
His resume’ includes a lot more than just politics. It has been alleged that he participated in the attacks against the Jewish community of Argentina where hundreds of Jews were killed. He has stated – time and again – that he wants to destroy Israel. He wants to kill the 6,000,000 Jews (interesting number) who live here and he is feverishly working to build a bomb that will do just that.
Has he been targeted?
Is this animal on any one’s “hit list”?
Actually, just the opposite is true.
He recently spoke in the UN. He was a guest speaker in Columbia University.
Because he is only interested in killing Jews.
Khaled Mashaal is the leader of Hamas.
Hamas is a sworn enemy of Israel.
It has killed and maimed thousands of Jews since the “peace process” came about.
It has fired over 5,000 missiles into Israel, aiming for Jewish homes and hoping to kill Jewish children.
Has he been targeted?
Is this beast on anyone’s “hit list”?
Actually, just the opposite is true. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently invited Mashaal to Moscow.
Former US President Jimmy Carter has embraced Mashaal and considers him a “partner for peace”.
Because he is only interested in killing Jews.
Yasser Arafat was the leader of the PLO for almost four decades.
He has more innocent blood on his hands than bin Laden.
Yet this murderer was a guest at the Clinton White House more than any other world leader!
He spoke in the UN.
He was accepted around the world as a leader and spoke in over 30 countries.
He won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Because he was only interested in killing Jews.
His successor, Abbas is a Jew murderer, as well.
Although I can go on, I will give just one final example: Adolf Hitler.
The world knew about his plans for the Jews as early as 1933.
The world knew about Kristallnacht back in November of 1938, and of the concentration camps shortly thereafter. Yet the entire world called this monster “Herr” Hitler. They gave him respect. They recognized him as a leader. All that changed when Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. From that point on he became an enemy. Why? Because until that day he was only interested in killing Jews.
Osama bin Laden violated the golden rule: In addition to killing just Jews, he also killed non-Jews. That is why he was targeted and for no other reason!
The message to Jews – and the State of Israel - is very clear.
Learn to defend yourself. Learn to take revenge yourself.
The world will not help you with Iran, Hamas or the PLO/PA.
Ahmadinijad, Abbas & Mashaal will not make the same mistake as Bin Laden. They will continue to be accepted and embraced by the world. Understand this, accept this and deal with this.
“We have no one on whom to rely, other than our Father in Heaven”.
May today’s Jewish leaders – and the brave warriors of the IDF – engrave this on their hearts. And may they – very soon - do to these terrorists exactly what was done to Bin Laden. | <urn:uuid:3f459c8d-2bbe-4292-a0b1-638276c4efb9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://garbanzotoons.tumblr.com/tagged/PLO | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972749 | 2,091 | 2.515625 | 3 |
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) affords students certain rights with respect to their education records. These rights include:
(1) The right to inspect and review the student's education records within 45 days of the day Morgan Community College (MCC) receives a request for access.
A student should submit to the Student Services Office, a written request that identifies the record(s) the student wishes to inspect. The Registrar will make arrangements for access and notify the student of the time and place where the records may be inspected. If the records are not maintained by the Student Services Office, they shall advise the student of the correct official to whom the request should be addressed.
(2) The right to request the amendment of the student's education records that the student believes are inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise in violation of the student's privacy rights under FERPA.
A student who wishes to ask MCC to amend a record should write the MCC official responsible for the record, clearly identify the part of the record the student wants changed, and specify why it should be changed.
If MCC decides not to amend the record as requested, MCC will notify the student in writing of the decision and the student's right to a hearing regarding the request for amendment. Additional information regarding the hearing procedures will be provided to the student when notified of the right to a hearing.
(3) The right to provide written consent before MCC discloses personally identifiable information from the student's education records, except to the extent that FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent.
MCC discloses education records without a student's prior written consent under the FERPA exception for disclosure to school officials with legitimate educational interests. A school official is a person employed by the college in an administrative, supervisory, academic or research, or support staff position (including law enforcement unit personnel and health staff); a person or company with whom the college has contracted as its agent to provide a service instead of using college employees or officials (such as an attorney, auditor, or collection agent); a person serving on the Board of Trustees; or a student serving on an official committee, such as a disciplinary or grievance committee, or assisting another school official in performing his or her tasks.
A school official has a legitimate educational interest if the official needs to review an education record in order to fulfill his or her professional responsibilities for the college.
Upon request, MCC also discloses education records without consent to officials of another school in which a student seeks or intends to enroll.
The Colorado Community College System considers the following to be directory information and MCC staff may disclose this information, without prior consent, to anyone inquiring in person, by phone, or in writing:
- Student name
- Student participation in officially recognized activities and sports
- Student major field of study
- Dates of student attendance
- Degrees / certificates student has earned
- Most recent educational institution attended by the student
Additionally, student names may be released for graduation listings and lists of special awards, honors and events released to the news media.
All other information contained in the student's ecuation records is considered private and not open to the public without the student's written consent.
(4) The right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education concerning alleged failures by the College to comply with the requirements of FERPA. The name and address of the Office that administers FERPA is:
Family Policy Compliance Office
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20202-5901 | <urn:uuid:c7460bf6-a297-46b6-94d4-041dc321600d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.morgancc.edu/parents-and-family/student-privacy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939735 | 739 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Strange videos have emerged in the wake of the Feb. 22 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, showing empty grocery stores shaking and disgorging all their products from shelves onto the floor. It’s like Paranormal Activity without actors.
The mortality toll has grown from 65 to an expected 220 deaths once emergency personnel finish sorting through all the heavy rubble. As of yesterday, the “rescue” operation is now a “recovery” operation, with victims from some 20 countries. The New Zealand Herald has posted a pretty heart-wrenching article detailing the lives of those who are still missing.
Follow the jump for another CCTV video from last September’s quake in Christchurch. | <urn:uuid:88af4e41-9766-464a-b61b-54eaa41a98f7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wjla.com/blogs/weather/2011/03/new-zealand-earthquake-caught-on-store-cameras-video--9135.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923479 | 147 | 1.5 | 2 |
Place the links you want here in the helpbox topic using the admin site. This is the topic Named: helpbox. You edit this in the ADMIN site.
Into The Arms Of The Dragon
As Aircraft 02283 left the deck of the USS Hornet, Captain David Jones and the rest of Crew 5 had no expectation of return. The brave crewmen knew that their B-25 did not have the range to complete the run and make a return trip, and that they would have to try to land on the Chinese mainland. At a small break in the cloud cover over Chu Chow the members of Crew 5 left the plane, trusting their parachutes, the wind and the Chinese people to lead them to safety.
In Chinese folklore the lóng, or dragon, symbolizes all that is good. . .
Click image below for product information and framing options. | <urn:uuid:cafa9217-3b61-4f7e-a3ae-53b304536d53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ldsart.com/p-20258-into-the-arms-of-the-dragon.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928953 | 180 | 1.875 | 2 |
Tuesday, May 20, 2003
Associated Press - May 19, 2003
WASHINGTON - One in three teen boys reports feeling peer pressure to have sex, and the majority of teens say that while waiting to have sex is a nice idea, nobody really does it, a survey of teenagers finds.
Boys were more likely than girls to feel pressure and more likely to think that waiting is a myth, the survey found. It also found a close link between use of drugs and alcohol and sexual activity.
The survey, released Monday by the Kaiser Family Foundation, paints a portrait of youth attitudes about sex and the risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
Teen pregnancy and birth rates have been falling for a decade - a trend that other surveys have attributed to a drop in sexual activity and an increased use of condoms and other forms of birth control.
Still, the Kaiser survey, which does not include trend information over time, spotlights areas of concern: Four in 10 sexually active teenagers have taken a pregnancy test or had a partner who did so. A significant minority of young people - about one in six - say that having sex without a condom occasionally is not a big deal. And one in five say they have had unprotected sex after drinking or using drugs.
Other surveys have found that nearly two in three teens will have had sex by the time they graduate from high school. The Kaiser survey shows that many have intimate relationships before that, with more than half of 15-to-17-year-olds saying they have been with someone in a sexual way. Among teens who have not yet had sex, nearly a third say they have been "intimate" with a partner.
"Changing social norms and cultural expectations as well as delayed marriage means many young people have multiple sexual relationships in their lifetimes and need the information and tools to make healthy decisions and communicate with their partners," the report said.
About one in three teens said they had been in a relationship where they felt things were moving too fast sexually.
Separately, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy was releasing its own study Tuesday examining sex among younger teens. It found that about one in five teens report having sex before they turn 15 years old.
That report, a compilation of data from earlier surveys, also found that younger teen girls who are sexually experienced were more likely than older teens to say they wish they had waited to have sex.
"Parents, program leaders, school officials, community leaders and others need to recognize that sex and dating are important issues for middle school age youth that cannot be ignored," the campaign said.
The Kaiser survey found that boys face particular pressure to have sex, often from male friends - in contrast to the typical portrait of boys pressuring girls.
"There are a lot of expectations for boys to be sexually active," said Julia Davis, senior program officer at the Kaiser Family Foundation, an independent group that studies health issues.
One in three boys ages 15-17 say they feel pressure to have sex, compared with 23 percent of girls. The pressure to drink alcohol was greater for both boys and girls; pressure to use drugs was about even with pressure to have sex.
Overall, 63 percent of all 15-17-year-olds agreed either strongly or somewhat that "waiting to have sex is a nice idea but nobody really does it," with boys 6 percentage points more likely to say so.
The survey also found:
-More than eight in 10 teens say that a lot or some people their age drink or use drugs before having sex. Seven in 10 said their peers don't use condoms when they are drinking or using drugs.
-About a quarter said that alcohol or drugs had influenced their decision to do something sexual at least once.
-More than half of teens believe oral sex is not as big a deal as sexual intercourse, with boys more likely to believe this. Four in 10 consider oral sex "safer sex," although some diseases can be transmitted this way.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed | <urn:uuid:e50cf664-a7e3-40ff-b052-6042f12983d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hscareers.com/news/articles.asp?id=463 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980081 | 830 | 1.9375 | 2 |
Resource Review: CompTIA A+ Complete Review Guide Second Edition by Emmett Dulaney and Troy McMillanSeptember 21, 2012 at 4:27 pm | Posted in Certification Paths, CompTIA | Leave a comment
Tags: a+, resource review, study resources
The latest version of the A+ exams (220-801 and 220-802) are due out in October. Many of us…ok, maybe just me….anxiously await this latest release from CompTIA.
With this latest iteration, CompTIA has dropped the test naming structures we saw in the past (220-701 A+ Essentials and 220-702 A+ Practical Application) and is just going with a number naming convention (A+ 220-801 and A+ 220-802). But that is not all that has changed: CompTIA has announced that the new exams will include performance-based testing (PBT) items. Think of these items as answering a question by DOING instead of answering a question by selecting from options. I imagine these items will involve running commands, configuring dialog boxes, and matching concepts, but I truly don’t know what they are like. Although Transcender is a CompTIA partner, the details I have about these items are few and far between. I’ll see the questions on the same day that you will, when they go live.
Now back to our resource review. The latest A+ release has been choreographed with the content publishers in a much better manner than in the past. I have been very impressed with the way publishers have hustled to meet the training world’s needs when it comes to these exams. In the past, books and study guides were often released weeks or months after an exam was released. This meant that test candidates did not always jump on the bandwagon early in the certification lifecycle. Often candidates were waiting for a book to help them prepare for the exam, which meant that certification popularity was influenced by the publication of study materials.
With the 800-series A+, trainers and early adopters don’t have the same issues. By the time these exams are released to the public, there will be several references available to choose from. Today I’ll share my thoughts on Sybex’s CompTIA A+ Complete Review Guide, Second Edition, by Emmett Dulaney and Troy McMillan.
Review Guide versus Study Guide: What’s the Difference?
I want to point out that Sybex also released the CompTIA A+Complete Study Guide, Exams 220-801 and 220-802, 2nd Edition by Quentin Docter, Emmett Dulaney, and Toby Skandier this month. Where the Review Guide is 496 pages, the Study Guide rings in at 1100 pages and provides much more background knowledge to help bring the beginner up to speed. Review Guides are better suited for experienced techs wanting to catch up on the latest A+ changes, or those who need a refresher course. Where the Study Guide may be better for self-paced instruction, the Complete Review Guide is more test-prep oriented.
CompTIA A+ Complete Review Guide, Second Edition by Wiley / Sybex
First, I have to share the feature I love the most about this book - its structure. Have you ever downloaded an Objective List from CompTIA? While it makes sense on the exam, it usually does not correspond well to an independent book reference. Often you spend time flipping from chapter to chapter just to find all the information on a particular topic that may be applicable to one exam objective. With Sybex’s Complete Review Guide, the flipping is over. This book is arranged according to the exam objecitves. Each chapter corresponds with a unique exam objective from the Objective List, and each section within a chapter corresponds to a subobjective from the Objective List. This translates into easy, targeted studying. It also makes it easy to find information about the latest new topics (Virtualization!! Mobile Devices?!?) So if you know that your knowledge is deficient in a particular area (did I mention mobile devices?), then you can go right to that chapter and section to find what you need. (BTW, mobile devices are covered in Chapter 8, pages 363-377.)
Secondly, I love that they give you just the facts you need. This guide is very exam focused. For example, they don’t spend a lot of time explaining the history of computer hardware. If you are looking for a resource that gets straight to the point, then this guide is your choice. It guides you into a focused mode of study to help you learn the information needed to pass the exam.
Finally, the book has plenty of charts, graphics, and bullet points (charts, graphics, and bullets, oh my!) If you have read any of my resource reviews in the past, you know I am a big fan of these study aids. When you have knowledge that you just need to know for an exam, it is often easier to study if this information is in a chart or listed in bullet points. Pictures always help you to recognize hardware, ports, connectors, and the like, which is VERY important for an A+ technician.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I played a small part in the publication of this book. As you may have noticed, Troy McMillan, a fellow member of Transcender’s Content Development team, is one of the authors of this book. Through my connection with Troy, I was able to participate as a technical editor of this book. I can attest to the effort that these authors put into its development. Because there are so many facts that you must know, covering the A+ content in a concise manner can be quite daunting. But after sharing the process with Emmet and Troy, I can tell you that these guys have done a great job!
Keep this book in mind when you decide to start preparing for the new A+ exam. It’s a great resource for getting up to speed! And watch in the coming days for my post regarding upcoming changes to the Network+ and Security+ exams. | <urn:uuid:3bd3428d-d269-4a57-899c-f46ee8f07651> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://transcender.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/resource-review-comptia-a-complete-review-guide-second-edition-by-emmett-dulaney-and-troy-mcmillan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943048 | 1,278 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Withstanding Disasters: One bridge doesn't fit all
On Aug. 1, 2007, the I-35 bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed, plunging rush-hour traffic into the water below.
In the following essay, reprinted from The New York Times, David Billington ’50 explores the important role that good design plays in the lifetime and safety of bridges. Billington is Princeton’s Gordon Y. S. Wu Professor of Engineering and directs the Program in Architecture and Engineering.
As many have pointed out, the deadly bridge failure in Minneapolis was symptomatic of a system of bridges that will continue to corrode, crack and crumble if not maintained. But maintenance is not the only problem. We also need to design and build better bridges.
The I-35W bridge was of a type called a “truss deck’’ bridge; of the 760 bridges around the country having the same design, the Federal Highway Administration found 264, or 35 percent, to be structurally deficient in 2006. Of the bridges having a similar “truss thru’’ design, 58 percent were labeled deficient. By comparison, only 13.4 percent of the nearly 600,000 bridges of all types were found to be structurally deficient.
While we don’t know yet exactly what caused it, the Minneapolis collapse is hauntingly similar to the collapse in 1983 of another interstate highway bridge over the Mianus River in Connecticut. That disaster led to inspections of similar bridges, which found dangerous cracks from deferred maintenance. What the Mianus and Minneapolis bridges had in common was not just neglect. Both were the products of a design mentality in which engineers simply used a standard form, and often the same detailed features. Public bridges are all too often designed by anonymous teams, and the results can be seen on our highways.
The goal of good bridge design is to integrate efficiency, economy and elegance in a single design. Few bridges built over the last century have achieved this. Most are efficient but strictly functional; a few that aspire to elegance have done so at the expense of efficiency and economy, like the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which is estimated to cost more than four times its original budget.
Having given seminars to many state bridge engineers, I am aware of the political pressures they face to control costs. But there are often opportunities to improve design even in the case of very ordinary bridges. For example, a few years ago, in a discussion with bridge engineers from a Midwestern state, I suggested an alternative to a conventional overpass they had built, only to be told it would have cost too much. Challenged, I redesigned the overpass myself, and sent the plan to a steel fabricator the state worked with. The fabricator did a cost analysis and, to everyone’s surprise, found that my version would have cost slightly less than the standard design. The revision was also, in my view, better looking.
American bridge engineering largely overlooks that efficiency, economy and elegance can be mutually reinforcing ideals. This is largely because engineers are not taught outstanding examples that express these ideals. Elsewhere, however, there is a great history of such integrated education. In the early and mid-20th century, two professors at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich—first Wilhelm Ritter and then Pierre Lardy—used that broader approach and turned out such eminent designers as Robert Maillart and Christian Menn, experts in reinforced concrete, and Othmar Ammann, who worked in structural steel.
Maillart never built in the United States, but Ammann designed several immense spans in the New York City area, including the George Washington, Bayonne, Bronx-Whitestone and Verrazano-Narrows Bridges. Professor Menn is generally considered today’s greatest practicing designer, and his Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge in Boston has become a symbol of that city in the four years since its opening.
The goal of these three designers was always to create long-lasting bridges disciplined by the conservation of structural materials and public money yet with great visual appeal. This is why photographs and models of their bridges are the only works of structural engineering regularly exhibited in art museums.
Good design need not be limited to giant projects. An example was the design competition in 1989 for the United States Naval Academy Bridge in Annapolis, Md., organized with the help of Professor Menn. It was patterned after the Swiss practice of having public juries of experts and citizens evaluate designs, and the result was an efficient and elegant bridge for essentially the same amount of money that a standard design would have cost.
In the end, it is to the credit of state bridge engineers that despite their tight budgets, there have been relatively few fatal collapses caused by structural deficiencies. However, more money, better maintenance and new regulations will not be enough to change things if new bridges are no better than the ones they replace. The public and our elected officials must learn to see bridges—of all sizes and in all locations—as more than just utilitarian objects. Bridges should be cared for in the way we treat works to which we have an emotional attachment as well as a physical need.
A 2000 report by the Federal Highway Administration indicated that an average of about 2,500 new bridges are completed each year; each could be an opportunity for better design. The best will be elegant and safe while being economical to build.
The key is to require that every bridge have one engineer who makes the conceptual design, understands construction and has a strong aesthetic motivation and personal attachment to the work. This will require not only a new ethos in professional practice, but also a new focus in the way engineers are educated, one modeled on the approach of those Swiss professors, Wilhelm Ritter and Pierre Lardy.
The first opportunity to move toward this new outlook will be in choosing the replacement design for the Minneapolis bridge. I would urge the State of Minnesota to organize a jury of public officials, engineers and community leaders to recommend a design after a holding a competition along the lines of the one in Annapolis.
We have a choice: we can replace the standard-form truss with another bland and anonymous work, or we can come up with an efficient and elegant form that helps engineers educate the public in the possibilities of turning our nation’s bridges into safe, economical and beautiful landmarks worth maintaining. | <urn:uuid:16382e67-8719-4881-b8c2-4d9820e1f201> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.princeton.edu/engineering/news/publications/equad-news/w07/articles/feature.xml?id=789 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962775 | 1,306 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Poised, regal and refined, the Turkish Angora is arguably one of the world’s most beautiful breeds, with its fine, silky plumage, long, elegant body, pert, pointed ears and large, lovely eyes. The Angora has a long and slender medium-size body with fine boning and firm musculature. Though muscular and strong, this breed is elegant, refined and graceful. The shoulders are the same width as the hips, and the rump is slightly higher than the shoulders. Overall balance, grace and fineness of bone are more important than size. The legs are long, with the hind legs longer than the front, ending in small, round, dainty paws. Tufts between the toes are preferred. The tail is long and tapers from a wide base to a narrow end, and possesses a full brush. Adult males weigh 7 to 10 pounds; adult females weigh 5 to 8 pounds. No outcrosses are allowed.
The head is a medium long, smooth wedge shape, small to medium in size and in balance with the length of the body and the extremities. The nose has no The head is a medium long, smooth break. The muzzle is a continuation of the smooth lines of the wedge with neither pronounced whisker pads nor a pinch.
The ears are large, vertical, wide at the base, erect, pointed and tufted. They are set close together and high on the head. The eyes are large and almond-shaped, slanting slightly upward with an open expression. Eye color has no relationship to coat color, and the color of the eyes can change, especially as the cats mature. Acceptable colors include blue (sky blue to sapphire), green (gooseberry to emerald), green-gold (any gold or amber eye with a greenish cast or ring), amber (gold to rich copper), and odd-eyed (one blue eye and one green, green-gold or amber eye). While no points are specifically allocated to eye color, deeper, richer tones are preferred. Odd-eyed cats should have similar depth of color in each eye.
The fine, silky coat shimmers with every movement. The length of the single-coated fur varies, but the hair on the tail and the ruff is long, full, finely textured and has a silk-like sheen. The hind legs have full britches. Although solid white is the best known and most popular color, all colors and patterns are accepted with the exception of those showing hybridization, resulting in the colors lavender (lilac), choclate, the pointed pattern, or these combinations with white.
The Turkish Angora, named for the former Turkish capital of Angora (now Ankara), has been around for thousands of years, although no one is sure when the breed originated or how it got its long, lovely locks. Most cat experts agree that it’s likely the recessive gene for long hair came about through spontaneous mutation, rather than hybridization with longhaired wildcats. Some researchers speculate that the gene for long hair arose in three separate areas: Russia, Persia (now Iran) and Turkey. Other researchers believe the mutation developed in Russia and then spread to Turkey, Persia and surrounding countries. Still others think the trait developed in Turkey and was later transported to other areas. Because Turkey forms a land bridge between Europe and Asia, with the Black Sea to the north and the Mediterranean Sea to the south, it was always an important trade route for Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East.
When a mutation occurs in an isolated area, the trait is more likely to be passed around the local cat population through inbreeding. Because of the high elevations and cold winter temperatures in some areas of Turkey, cats with long fur had a better chance of survival and natural selection therefore favored those cats. The long hair was perpetuated and developed in confined, mountainous areas that limited outcrossing. These hardy survivors with flowing, non-matting fur, lithe bodies and the intelligence to survive in an unforgiving environment passed on these traits to their offspring.
Either they already had the dominant white gene that is one of the distinctive characteristics of the breed, or at some point they evolved or inherited it. By the time the breed was transported to Europe, the Turkish Angora looked much as it does today. White was not the only color, however. Early writings say that Angoras came in slate blue and red, and in tabby, spotted and bicolor patterns.
In the 1600s, Turkish, Persian and Russian longhaired cats were imported to Europe and quickly became popular; they were prized because their beautiful coats were so different from the plush, short coats of European cats.
The distinctly different body and coat types of the three longhairs were established by that time. The longhairs of Persia were stocky, short-eared cats with long, double-layered coats. The Russian longhairs were large, powerful cats with thick, all-weather coats. The Turkish Angora was a lithe, long-bodied cat with a long, single-layered coat, beneficial for the temperature extremes in winter and summer in the areas in which it developed. The 36-volume Histoire Naturelle (Natural History, published 1749 to 1804), by French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, includes an illustration that shows the long body, silky coat and tail plume of the Angora, which he noted came from the part of Turkey located in Asia.
In the 1800s, Turkish Angoras were also imported to North America, where they quickly became popular, along with Persians and other “exotic” cat breeds. Unfortunately for the Angora, in 1887 the British cat fancy decided that all longhaired cats would be grouped into the category “longhairs.” Persians, Turkish Angoras and Russian Longhairs were interbred, and the Angora was extensively used in Persian breeding programs to add length and silkiness to the Persian’s coat. For many years, people used the words “Angora” and “Persian” to describe any longhaired cat, creating confusion.
Gradually, the Persian became the preferred type and Angoras stopped appearing in cat show halls. They virtually ceased to exist except in their native land. In 1917, the Turkish government, seeing that their national treasure was in danger of extinction, began a breeding program at the Ankara zoo. At that time, it was decided that only white blue-eyed or odd-eyed Angoras would be included in the breeding program, since they were considered to be the only pure examples of the breed-even though other colors and patterns had existed since the breed’s earliest days.
After World War II, interest in this statuesque breed was rekindled in North America, and Angoras were imported from Turkey to re-establish the blood line. Because the Turkish people valued these cats so highly, obtaining Angoras from the Ankara zoo was very difficult. Liesa Grant, wife of Army Colonel Walter Grant, who was stationed in Turkey at the time, is credited with importing the first two Angoras in 1962: Yildizcek, a white amber-eyed female, and Yildiz, a white odd-eyed male. In 1966 the Grants returned to Turkey and were able to bring home another pair to add to their breeding program. After the Grants opened the door, other breeders managed to import Angoras as well, some from Turkey and some from breeders in Europe who had managed to get cats from the Ankara zoo or from the Turkish people. A careful and cooperative breeding program re-established the Turkish Angora in North America. In 1970, CFA became the first North American registry to accept the Turkish Angora for registration. In 1973, CFA accepted the breed for championship.
At first, the North American cat associations only accepted white Angoras. It took breeders years to convince the associations that the Angora traditionally came in many additional colors and patterns. The dominant white gene masks other colors and patterns, so it’s impossible to tell what colors and patterns a cat may carry under that pure white fur. White-to-white matings can and do produce colorful kittens. Finally, in 1978 CFA accepted other colors and patterns for championship status. Today, all cat associations recognize the breed in other patterns and colors, and colorful Turkish Angoras are becoming increasingly well-known and popular. The CFA breed standard now says that all colors should be considered of equal value-a very different position than the breed originally enjoyed.
In an effort to preserve the small gene pool, in 1996 the Turkish government banned the export of white Turkish Angoras. However, Angoras of other colors are still being born in Turkey, so the North American Angora gene pool is still being supplemented by Turkish Angoras of other colors and patterns.
Turkish Angoras are generally healthy and usually live long lives—be prepared for a long-term relationship. However, some lines have the inherited heart disease feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HMC). HMC is a life threatening disease, the first noticeable symptom of which is sometimes sudden death. However, since HCM is the most common heart disease in cats, many schools of veterinary medicine such as U.C. Davis and organizations such as the Winn Feline Foundation are working to find ways to treat and cure the deadly disease.
In addition, the Angora is affected by a condition known as Turkish Angora Ataxia, since no other cat breed or species is known to possess this problem. It begins at about four weeks with tremors and progresses quite rapidly to a complete lack of voluntary muscular control. No cure and no treatment exists at this time, although the Turkish Angora Ataxia Project, a study under the umbrella of the Winn Feline Foundation, is working to find the cause of the deadly disease. Talk to your breeder about these and any other health concerns and buy from a breeder who offers a written health guarantee.
Deafness is not uncommon in pure white, blue-eyed or odd-eyed Angoras, but the Turkish Angora is no more prone to this than any other pure white cats. White cats of any breed (and of no particular breed) can be born partially or totally deaf due to a genetic defect in the dominant white gene responsible for the white coat and blue eye color. Odd-eyed Angoras with one blue and one amber or green eye can lose hearing, but only in one ear, on the same side of the head as the blue eye.
While hearing-impaired Angoras should always be kept inside for their protection (responsible breeders insist that all Angoras be kept inside anyway), fanciers say they adapt remarkably well and learn to “hear” by interpreting vibrations. And since cats also depend upon body language and olfactory signals, deaf cats don’t lose their ability to communicate with other cats and with their human family. Deaf cats make fine companions and can be shown in many of the North American cat associations. Regulations vary, however, so if you plan to show a deaf Angora check the rules of your chosen association.
Breeders usually have very long waiting lists for hearing blue-eyed white Turkish Angoras, particularly females; you’ll get an Angora much faster and less expensively if you are flexible about color, pattern, and gender. After all, unless you’re a breeder, you’ll be altering your Angora anyway, and personality is far more important than a particular color scheme. Blue-eyed white hearing female Angoras are almost always kept for breeding because if they aren’t, the breeders will not be able to keep producing those prized blue-eyed pure white Turkish Angoras. Angoras of other colors and patterns have the same great Angora personality and your wait will be greatly reduced. Plus, white cats require more bathing and their fur shows on everything you own—you won’t be able to avoid wearing white after Labor Day.
Did you know?
As the story goes, Louis XV, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were all Turkish Angora fans. When Turkish Angoras were first transported to England and France in the 1700s, they became very popular and were prized as status symbols. Only the richest cat lovers could afford them.
According to fanciers, this active breed is purring poetry in motion. When in motion (which is most of their waking hours), Turkish Angoras move with the fluid, coordinated grace of small ballet dancers in furry dancing shoes. Angoras aren’t to be admired for their looks alone, though. It’s the breed’s personality about which fanciers wax poetic. They say once you get one, you’ll never want any other breed.
Extremely affectionate and devoted, Angoras tend to bond with one beloved person rather than the whole family, and for that reason are particularly good companions for people living alone who’d enjoy spending the next 15 or so years in a committed feline relationship. Angoras will show affection to others they know well, but only their favorite people earn their full adoration. Once they bond with their special humans, they are ever-present companions who give unconditional loyalty and love. Until you’ve experienced this kind of bond, say fanciers, you don’t fully appreciate how devoted, loving, and sensitive cats really can be. If you’ve had a terrible day, if you’re down with the flu, your Angora will be there to cheer you up with face kisses or nurse you back to health with purr massages. They are intuitive and know when something’s amiss with their preferred persons.
“Active” is another word commonly used to describe the Turkish Angora. The whole world is a cat toy to Angoras, but their favorite toys are mice—real or fake ones with faux-fur. They love to toss them, pounce on them and hide them in secret stashes. Angoras can be expected to climb curtains, dash around the house knocking over anything in their way, and perch like vultures on the tops of bookcases, shelves, refrigerators and even the tops of open doors. If you’re more fond of your breakable knickknacks than of you are of your cat, this isn’t the breed for you.
Angoras need lots of interactive playtime with you and become bored and lonely if left alone for long periods. If you really must leave your Angora alone, get her a feline companion, preferably an active, playful one, to keep her company. Otherwise, she’ll find mischief to get into while you’re away.
They’re also smart! Fanciers say that Turkish Angoras are so smart it’s scary. They think circles around most other cats, and a good percentage of their human companions, too. Angoras are very good at training their humans to do as they’re told. Angora lovers credit their intelligence to the harsh environment in which the breed developed. Examples of their intellect include figuring out how to open doors, cabinets, drawers and purses—those dainty paws are marvelously flexible and deft. If they don’t want to give up a toy or borrowed household item, they’re not above hiding it from their human companions and then looking up with big, innocent eyes as if to say, “Who me?”
Like their country cousins, Turkish Vans, Turkish Angoras are fascinated by water and sometimes even join their favorite person in the shower or tub. Not every Angora enjoys taking a plunge, but some do. Their interest in swimming depends much upon upbringing; kittens raised by swimming queens are more likely to become swimmers themselves. | <urn:uuid:26587d9e-2b43-4102-bc8a-e78f1bbcf41e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.magmire.net/turkish-angora.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961872 | 3,294 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Are there effective medicines for treating core autism symptoms?
First, it’s important to note that medicines for treating autism are most effective when used in conjunction with behavioral therapies. Ideally, medicines are a complement to other treatment strategies.
Medicines for treating autism’s three core symptoms—communication difficulties, social challenges and repetitive behavior—have long represented a huge area of unmet need. Unfortunately, few drugs on the market today effectively relieve these symptoms and none of the options most often prescribed by practitioners work well for every individual.
In fact, while the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved two drugs for treating irritability associated with the autism (risperidone and aripiprazole), it has yet to approve a medicine for treating autism’s three core characteristics. Nonetheless, medicines such as risperidone and aripiprazole can be beneficial in ways that can ease these core symptoms, because relieving irritability often improves sociability while reducing tantrums, aggressive outbursts and self-injurious behaviors.
The good news is that the range of medication options may soon change, thanks to recent advances in our understanding of the biology that produces autism’s core symptoms. This has made it possible for researchers to begin testing compounds that may help normalize crucial brain functions involved in autism. Early experiments suggest that several compounds with different mechanisms of action have great potential for clinical use, and many are now in clinical trials. [This link takes you to the search engine of the NIH clinical trial network, with results under the search term “autism.”]
Although these developments are exciting and hold real promise for bettering the lives of people with autism, we will have to wait at least a few more years before we know if any of these drug studies produce enough information on safety and effectiveness to merit FDA approval for the treatment of core symptoms.
Today, most medicines prescribed to ease autism’s disabling symptoms are used “off label,” meaning that their FDA approval is for other, sometimes-related conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), sleep disturbances or depression. Such off-label use is common in virtually all areas of medicine and is usually done to relieve significant suffering in the absence of sufficiently large and targeted studies.
An example in autism would be the class of medicines known as selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs), including fluoxetine. Several of these medicines are FDA-approved for the treatment of anxiety disorders and depression, in children as well as adults. Although large clinical trials have yet to demonstrate their effectiveness, parents and clinicians have found that they can ease social difficulties among some people with autism. However, it has proven to be difficult to predict which medicines in this class may produce the greatest benefit for a given patient with autism. Similarly, determining the best dose can be quite challenging.
Another example would be naltrexone, which is FDA-approved for the treatment of alcohol and opioid addictions. It can ease disabling repetitive and self-injurious behaviors in some children and adults with autism.
These medicines do not work for everyone, and all medicines have side effects. And as noted above, each person may respond differently to medicines. In addition, changes in response to a medicine can occur as time goes on, even when the dose is not changed. Over time, some people develop tolerance (when a drug stops being effective) or sensitization (when side effects worsen).
Because using these medications in children and adolescents can be a difficult decision for parents, you may find it helpful to use our Medication Decision Tool Kit, a guide for actively working with a physician to find the approach that fits best with your values and goals. You can download it free here.
These are exciting times in the development of new medicines for relieving autism’s most disabling symptoms, and Autism Speaks is increasing its funding and focus in this promising area, while placing great emphasis on ensuring the safety of promising new medicines. Please stay tuned!
Read more science news and perspective on the Science Page. | <urn:uuid:a683194f-baeb-41d5-a246-612463042e07> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.autismspeaks.org/2011/12/09/are-there-effective-medicines-for-treating-core-autism-symptoms/?like=1&_wpnonce=4955ae37a8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950033 | 838 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Photograph of four different views of interior church architecture in Mexico, [s.d.]. The first scene (upper left) has an arch-like mirror set in the middle of a heavily ornate structure that spans upward into the ceiling. The second image (upper right) has the statue of a saint? set in an arched case between two ornate columns, set into an embellished wall with a mural set against the slope of the ceiling. The third image (lower left) has two picture frames set in a carved wall, with designs of human figures set into the columns. The fourth image (lower right) is of a statue set in an arched casing against a similar wall as seen in the other three pictures. | <urn:uuid:afc9fed0-5086-4c8c-8991-03fd6d3579cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15799coll65/id/15762/rec/9 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966841 | 148 | 1.976563 | 2 |
first time on this site. In my current work, I deal with mainly hydraulic related calculations, and the remainder of my math skills have become pretty lack luster. On looking through a spreadsheet in work, designed to calculate the size of a drainage basin (like an upside down pyramid, with the top chopped off) I spotted a volume error, but my math eludes me how to fix it. I have attached a crude sketch to help illustrate the problem.
We have a rectangular basin of a pyramidal frustum shape. Q represents the water flowing in, D (Depth) is the depth of water in the basin, and A (area) is the surface area of the surface of the water, both which increase over time. I ( Infiltration) is a constant of the water infiltrating (being removed from basin volume), and acts over the area A. so A*I*t= Volume removed, and Q*t = volume added. (Q*t)-(A*I*t) = Volume in basin; t=time.
I need to find a relationship that can compute the surface Area, A, at a step in time, with a varying flowrate. As (A*I*t) increase with depth, I realize some voodoo magic integration is required, but I haven't touched it since uni, and I'm unsure where to start.
I apologize if this is the wrong forum, mods please move if it is.
Anyway any help is very much appreciated. | <urn:uuid:463e2ba8-7ba1-4501-ba04-9356bc852b9e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mathhelpforum.com/advanced-applied-math/211096-integration-basin-liquid-find-relationship-between-q-flow-surface-area.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942845 | 309 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Posted: Oct 14, 2012 8:48 AM by Beth Beechie - MTN News
MONARCH- Hundreds of people showed up in Monarch on Saturday to mark the 50th anniversary of Minuteman ICBM missiles.
Those missiles were put into order by President John Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was later resolved.
But those in charge of the intercontinental ballistic missile force are still grateful for the work of those before them.
Among the participants was Major General Michael Carey, who serves as the commander of the 20th Air Force, part of Air Force Global Strike Command.
"It's humbling and honoring to not only be the commander of this force, but to be surrounded by the men and women who work the pioneers of this force," Maj Gen Carey noted.
And among those men and women is a gentleman by the name of Albert Matzat.
"I was a missile facilities technician on combat crew R-10 in Plasford, New York during the Cuban Crisis," he said with a proud smile.
He spent his nine-year missile career moving all over the country working on those different missiles and completed 22 years of active service before his retirement. It's the work of Matzat and thousands of others over those last 50-plus years that brought hundreds of thankful men and women to the celebration.
"We're here today at a moment of peace to commemorate a great event at a difficult time in our country," Great Falls City Commissioner Bill Bronson said.
"And that peace did come about because of those men and women. And it's still maintained today by those men and women," Mayor Michael Winters added.
It's the men and women serving today that brought tears to Matzat's eyes when they were able to meet face to face.
"Especially when someone comes and taps you on the shoulder and says, 'you are the one, the foundation, for young airmen of today that are standing on your shoulders,'" Matzat said, trying to hold back his emotions amounting from years of hard work. | <urn:uuid:37dc052a-19d1-4bd4-b84c-ae728e8fa6d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://montanasnewsstation.com/news/ace-in-the-hole-celebrates-50-years-of-icbm-defense/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975928 | 423 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Climate change will have economic consequences. The damage it causes plus the measures
people take to adapt to a new climate regime will impose quantifiable market costs as well as
non-quantifiable, non-market costs. The fact that some important types of damages cannot be
easily monetized makes current damage estimates highly uncertain.
Damages will be unevenly distributed and sometimes irreversible. Although developed
countries are responsible for the bulk of historical greenhouse gas emissions, their strong
economies and institutions leave them better positioned than developing countries to cope
with changes in climate. Quantifying the economic costs of climate change involves many
uncertainties and caveats; nevertheless, some analysts estimate that damages resulting from a
moderate climate change (+2.5°C warming) could cut the US’s current GDP by 0.5%,
the EU’s by 2.8%, Africa’s by 3.9%, and India’s by 4.9%. Again, it must be
emphasized that these estimates include only readily monetized damages and thus understate
the likely costs.
Policies for minimizing risks by reducing greenhouse gas emissions will also come with a
price-tag. Estimates of how much such policies will cost vary widely because of differing
assumptions and large uncertainties. For countries with economies in transition, the enormous
opportunities for improving energy efficiency could ensure negligible costs or even net GDP
gains of several percentage points. The highly industrialized countries of the OECD could
rely on the Kyoto Protocol’s emissions trading system to limit costs to a 0.1 –
1.1% reduction in projected GDP for the year 2010; or, expressed another way, the rate of
annual economic growth over the next 10 years could be 0.1% lower than it would be otherwise.
If reduced air pollution costs, the removal of market imperfections, and other factors are
included, the costs are reduced even further.
Many cost-effective policies and technologies for cutting emissions are already available
… Some of the more recent technological breakthroughs include the market
introduction of efficient hybrid engine cars and wind turbines, the demonstration of
underground carbon dioxide storage, and advances in fuel cell technology. Hundreds of
existing technologies and practices for end-use energy efficiency in buildings, transport and
manufacturing industry could also be more fully exploited to reduce emissions – often
with a net financial benefit.
… but governments will need to promote these solutions actively. In many cases
governments will have to address a range of institutional, behavioral and other barriers
before climate-friendly policies and technologies can gain widespread acceptance. These can
include market prices that do not incorporate externalities such as pollution, misplaced
incentives, vested interests, lack of effective regulatory agencies, imperfect information,
and so on.
Energy policies hold the key to the cost and effectiveness of efforts to cut
emissions. The choice of energy mix and associated investments will determine whether
atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases can be stabilized, and at what level and cost.
Currently most such investment is directed towards discovering and developing more fossil
resources, including both conventional and unconventional. But the progress over the last few
years on developing technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions has been faster than
"No regrets" measures for tackling emissions can have multiple benefits.
Many researchers believe it will be possible to reduce emissions while generating economic
benefits, such as more cost-effective energy systems and greater technological innovation.
Some climate change policies can also bring local and regional environmental benefits, such
as reductions in air pollution and increased protection for forests and thus biodiversity.
The scientific, technical, and socio-economic literature shows that such "no
regrets" opportunities are available in most countries. It also suggests that the risk
of net damage, a concern for risk aversion, and the precautionary principle together provide
a rationale for actions that go beyond "no regrets" – that is, for actions
that do indeed have net costs.
Policymakers should not overlook the importance of equity. Choosing policies that are
both cost-efficient and fair is not easy. Traditional economics rigorously explores how to
formulate flexible and cost-effective policies; it has less to say about equity. Because
countries differ considerably in their vulnerability to climate change, the costs of damage
and adaptation will vary widely unless special efforts are made to redistribute them.
Policymakers can pursue equitable solutions by promoting capacity building in poorer
countries and reaching collective decisions in a credible and transparent manner. They could
also develop financial and institutional mechanisms for sharing risks among countries.
To be effective, policies will require support from the public and from key interest
groups. Governments cannot act alone to cut emissions - individuals, communities, and
businesses must also cooperate. Education and public information is vital. For example,
increased energy consciousness would encourage people to adopt any number of minor changes in
their lifestyles, such as riding public transport, using more efficient lighting and
appliances, and re-using materials to reduce the need for exploiting natural resources. Local
authorities could introduce standards that encourage building designs that take maximum
advantage of sunlight and solar heating. Many other changes in the high-consumption
lifestyles of the rich countries are also possible.
The prudent response to climate change is to adopt a portfolio of actions aimed at
mitigation, adaptation, and research. The economic literature suggests that the optimal
policy mix will necessarily differ among countries and over time. The challenge is not for
all countries to agree on what is the single best policy and to maintain it for the next 100
years. Rather, each country should select a prudent strategy and adjust it over time in light
of new information and changing circumstances. By constructing a balanced portfolio of policy
options aimed at reducing emissions, adapting to climate change, and improving the knowledge
base, national policymakers can reduce the risks of rapid climate change while promoting | <urn:uuid:373f63ab-a374-4f9f-b60c-4dbe3e525884> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://unfccc.int/essential_background/background_publications_htmlpdf/climate_change_information_kit/items/291.php?middle=j | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92499 | 1,236 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Dr. Judith A. Aberg, Director of HIV Services at Bellevue, received the State's prestigious 2008 Laubenstein Award for HIV Clinical Excellence. She is co-chair of the HHC HIV Clinical Advisory Group, principal investigator of the NYU/Bellevue AIDS Clinical Trials Unit, and member of several clinical journal editorial boards. Reflecting on the 21st anniversary of World AIDS Day, Dr. Aberg shared some of the wisdom accumulated from her 18 years of treating HIV patients.
How have the major advances in HIV and AIDS treatment affected your work?
Since there was little treatment in the early days, the care we provided was basically palliative in nature. Today, the vast majority of patients with HIV live longer and we are their primary care doctors for illnesses that are the natural consequence of aging, such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension and prostate cancer. However, some of the powerful drugs that suppress the HIV virus can also cause or exacerbate heart disease and cancer. So, we must be very vigilant of the overall health of our HIV patients.
What are specific challenges for women patients, regarding clinical trials and HIV treatment?
Women are more fearful than men of taking investigational drugs, regardless of the disease. However, I think the main problem for women is they see themselves as caretakers, and often put their health second to their families.
What's on the horizon?
Besides trying to determine the best combination of HIV medications to maximize effectiveness and minimize side effects, we are also looking at drug combinations for people who have failed previous combinations. Many new drugs have been approved and are under investigation. We are also evaluating strategies for a therapeutic vaccine to boost the immune system to control HIV replication.
What about advances in prevention?
We still have a long way to go in this area. New York still has the highest number of persons living with HIV/AIDS in the country. Among people under 65, HIV is the third leading cause of death in NYC, yet one in four people living with HIV -- approximately 25,000 New Yorkers -- don't know they're infected and can unknowingly infect others. People still think it can't happen to them - that "nice" people don't get AIDS. That why testing programs like HHC's are such critical components of HIV prevention. By offering HIV testing in the community and making it a routine part of healthcare, HHC has doubled the number of individuals diagnosed with HIV. Earlier entry in care will result in longer and improved quality of lives.
As a long-time educator, do you see a difference in today's medical students who have known HIV/AIDS their whole lives?
In a sense, that makes it easier to work with them. However, we still have to keep addressing some of the myths that are common in the population at large. We have to remind medical students and staff that everyone needs to be tested, not just people who are gay or substance abusers.
What are some of those myths about HIV/AIDS?
There are so many. One is that it is curable. There is no cure, just better treatment. But, we also have the myth that a diagnosis of HIV is a death sentence, which is not only wrong, but a barrier to testing. Another myth is that middle class people or middle aged people don't get HIV/AIDS. It is a disease that can and does affect everyone, regardless of their income or age. | <urn:uuid:78a453ba-f3fe-49f9-9cfc-ec72c62ba88b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nyc.gov/html/hhc/html/newsletter/safety-200812-hiv-expert.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974851 | 695 | 2.15625 | 2 |
If I was to pass a metal object through a magnetic field would there be any friction?
Friction is a force resisting relative movement of objects or fluids caused by the interactions taking place at the contact between the objects or fluids. Hence, by definition there cannot be friction between an object and magnetic field.
This does not mean though that there cannot be a force resisting movement of a metal object relative to magnetic field. You wouldn't call any such forces friction, though.
One kind of breaking force appears when a metal object moves relative to magnetic field and is caused by induction which produces eddy currents which in turn generate opposing magnetic field which resists the movement of the metal object. This is how eddy current brake works. | <urn:uuid:1cf6a13f-5ca8-4fe6-8480-4ab91a50348a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/18058/magnetic-fields-and-friction?answertab=oldest | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95035 | 146 | 2.890625 | 3 |
23 Jul 2011 23:32
The Soda Police are getting noisier lately, but their concern for public health is a subterfuge. When it comes down to brass tacks (and I doubt brass’s slight lead content is going to kill you when used judiciously in plumbing, by the way), the S.P. don’t care most about the public health or about overweight kids at risk for diabetes and heart disease. They’re hell-bent on demonizing soda, especially soda made by Big Food and sold by the Big Chain Store and Restaurant Corporation.
Demon or not, it probably won’t hurt Americans to drink less soda on average than we do now. It will definitely help the environment if we drink less of anything that comes in individual single-use containers — even water — if there’s an environmentally friendly alternative already in place.
Here’s a simple two-part proposal to bring back running water.
BBRW Part 1. Require public water fountains everywhere.
Schools, parks, subway stations, airports, shopping centers, offices, stores, and more. We already require a lot of things, sensible and otherwise, so the means is in place. Require enough of them so no one has to wait in line. These water fountains (bubblers in Wisconsin and parts of New England) should have good water pressure, and they should be designed so they can fill up a bottle, too — or there should be some faucets for that. Simply making it possible to fill a personal water bottle in an airport — and yes, you can carry one through security so long as it’s empty — will reduce heart disease.
No flow restrictors, either; use spring-loaded knobs to conserve. (I’m not going to say a word about those infrared hand-wavy travesties.) Restrictors belong in kitchens and showers, if anywhere. It doesn’t need to take ten minutes to deliver half a cup of water. ADA compliant, but otherwise basic and solid. Call me nostalgic, but I like porcelain-coated cast iron.
Room-temperature, pure water is already available from every municipal water system. Only a little effort makes it ubiquitous. (If you’re afraid it will give you cancer, carry your own personal PET-free container full of home-purified water.)
BBRW Part 2. Require water to be available everywhere soda is available, for less.
If a restaurant offers a meal that includes soda, require it to offer the same meal with the same size tap water for less money. Less by at least half the restaurant’s own à la carte price for the included soda. Except during water emergencies, require restaurants to offer tap water when patrons are seated.
Stop the endless debates over soda vs. fruit juice, sugar versus high-fructose corn syrup, artificially-sweetened beverages vs. sugary ones, and aspartame vs. stevia extract. Bring back running water. | <urn:uuid:cea8f33c-7d7c-4894-a98f-e573782ce648> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stevekass.com/2011/07/23/bring-back-running-water/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918096 | 635 | 1.859375 | 2 |
University of Minnesota Press, $22.95
Scandinavian culture, to use a Swedish slant, is more than hardtack and herring.
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Eric Dregni grew up fourth-generation Scandinavian in Minnesota of mostly Swedish and Norwegian heritage with a dash of Danish.
He assumed that his family was normal "and our culture simply the way people must live, if they had any sense." Then, when he went into the wider world, he was surprised that not everyone ate "Jell-O-like fish" (that would be lutefisk, to the uninitiated) or "gut-wrenching" meatballs at Christmastime.
Dregni makes clear in this wonderfully entertaining book that he has no intention of making any claim to Scandinavian exceptionalism (as these kind of travel memoirs often do).
Rather, he is more interested in learning why so many Scandinavian-American Midwesterners like himself prefer to drop the hyphens and consider themselves Norwegian or Finnish or Swedish, even though many of them have never been to Scandinavia. What does it mean, he asks, to claim to be Scandinavian "so many times removed?"
He discusses bizarre and fascinating aspects of Scandinavian history in the Midwest, insisting that the Scandinavian presence is subtle, yet profound, and ranges from the superficial (a suspicion of flashy styles of clothing) to the significant (a penchant for forming cooperatives).
"Vikings in the Attic" is serious and fun and full of little Scandinavian insights, with chapters on food, Vikings, politics and festivals, as well as brief portraits of "notable Nordics" (the great Norwegian fiddler Ole Bull and the Swedish socialist Joel "Joe Hill" Hagglund to Carl Sandburg and the landscape architect Jens Jensen). His book, Dregni says, is for all those people who think Scandinavian history is boring. He proves them wrong.
"Vintage Views along the West Michigan Pike: From Sand Trails to US-31"
Arbutus Press, $35
The "West Michigan Pike" of the title refers to the west coast of Michigan, which runs along Lake Michigan. The road trip begins in Grand Beach and ends in Mackinac City. Authors M. Christine Byron and Thomas R. Wilson have assembled an impressive number of archival photographs, postcards, advertisements and other examples of ephemera to evoke "a kind of time travel" to an earlier era.
Ernest Hemingway is here as a young man, holding a fishing pole and fishing net as he stares directly into the camera, as is a photograph of the nation's first highway travel information center (in New Buffalo, Mich.).
Also included are old images of Michigan's dunelands; South Haven, once known as the Atlantic City of the Midwest; tulip time in Holland, Mich.; Interlochen State Park, among many others.
A quirky and evocative guide to a lost world. | <urn:uuid:d07c7e5e-a84e-4518-9bfb-d31b157de29c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mcall.com/travel/sc-trav-1129-resourceful-20111129,0,3703340.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948629 | 634 | 1.773438 | 2 |
How are entrepreneurs weathering the financial storm? Panelists in a recent Master Class on Innovation and the Economy discussed some of the ways entrepreneurs can stay competitive in a down market. (view video of the Master Class)
1. Look for money in the right places
While money is scarce (and being used to fund existing portfolios), it’s not impossible to find, the panelists agreed. “You can raise money if you have the right idea, but it has to be very real and very targeted,” said Professor Cliff Schorer. Alumni panelist Leonard Sylk ’65 said cutting costs was essential to raising funds and that firms should look to their suppliers for money. “Ninety days from your supplier is a gift because that can be interest-free money,” he said.
2. Secure your balance sheet
Preserve cash flow, ensure that there is capital on your balance sheet, take the long perspective and be wary of a high burn-rate, said Professor Morten Sorensen.
3. Find the opportunity
“Look at your resources and assets and find the opportunity,” said Schorer. “Ask, ‘Where can I take advantage of pockets of gold?’” Panelists discussed healthcare and energy as two areas with the potential for growth. “Provide services that can help companies run more efficiently and find places where there is revolutionary change,” continued Schorer.
4. Tap hidden resources
Schorer recommended that entrepreneurs wanting to build intellectual or leadership capital enlist the help of retirees. “Look to older people who are not returning to the work force and who are willing to help,” he said.
5. Be prudent to survive the game
“Resist the urge to expand beyond what you can handle, especially with fixed costs, and know how much debt you can take on,” said Sylk. “Have the discipline to say, ‘It’s not the right thing to do.’ Learn how to not be greedy and secure your position. If you can survive, that’s the most important thing, because you won’t have much competition left if you do.”
Photo credit: Jim Wallace | <urn:uuid:e79e9325-28ca-4e1f-bde4-7e61a0536ef5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/publicoffering/post?main.id=581350&main.ctrl=contentmgr.detail&main.view=bloga.detail | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943018 | 467 | 1.945313 | 2 |
August 17, 2009
Zimbabwe 2009 © MSF
In Murwira Clinic, southeastern Zimbabwe, Dennis Taronga is receiving antiretroviral (ARV) therapy with the help of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Taronga, a husband and father of three who used to work as a builder, contracted cholera in January 2009 in the historic cholera outbreak that infected nearly 100,000 people and left thousands dead. This is his story.
Last January, I began feeling really sick. I had general body weakness and could not move. I was so badly ill I thought I would die for sure. I had diarrhea; I felt very cold and was very dehydrated. I wasn’t working at the time—my family had to look after me.
My cousin brought me in a cart to the MSF clinic in Murwira, where I also receive treatment for HIV. For three days I could not eat or drink. I only had an IV drip. But after four days I started to feel good—I was so happy, able to move and go back to my family.
Many others in my village were sick too. My uncle was very sick with cholera and died on the way to the hospital. I was very upset because none of us could go to his burial.
I thought I was going to die. There was nowhere else I could go. I don’t know how others escaped cholera. Now I know the illness is caused by dirty water. Now I know how not to get sick when the rainy season comes back—I will use the aqua tabs from the MSF clinic here and then I won’t get sick again.
I come to the clinic now for my ARVs. Last year we brought my child to the hospital in Murambinda where she died of AIDS at just one year and six months old. I was tested and they said I was positive and so is my wife. Now we both come to the clinic here in Murwira for our ARVs.
If the clinic was not here, definitely people would get AIDS. It’s too expensive and too far away to get treatment anywhere else.
I would really like for MSF to keep on supporting us and keep us on ARVs. I feel better now but I cannot find work and there is not enough food. I hope that I can get work—carpentry, anything that can give us a good life. We are no longer getting a life. The job situation is not improving as the country is a desert. There is no money to pay here. We are just sitting while not having anything. I just want to work for my family to get better.
© 2013 Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) | <urn:uuid:8ecf3c9a-bacc-4bdb-9e55-8ca72dc6fd6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article_print.cfm?id=3882 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989427 | 588 | 1.976563 | 2 |
More than two-thousand weblinks direct users to domains that can inject malicious code by way of a Java downloader applet.
The tactic uses an OpenConnection-type downloader exploit used in website doorways and landing pages, and use of the method has increased dramatically over the last several months.
“The Top 20 malicious programs detected on the Internet in November included a total of nine exploits, three redirects and one script downloader that were used for carrying out drive-by downloads,” notes Vyacheslav Zakorzhevsky, a researcher at Kaspersky Lab.
Java-based exploits are common and extremely successful because of the script's cross-platform utilization.
The infection methodology is commonly referred to as a "drive-by" infection, which exploit vulnerabilities in legitimate websites.
They typically use an IFrame to inject a redirect scrip from another domain, which results in the execution of malicious files to the targeted system.
The Java downloader applet injection differs from the iFrame script exploits in that they rely on the Java OpenConnection to infect the target computer.
Java exploits are proving to be a major vehicle for the delivery of malware, and the problem only seems to be getting worse. | <urn:uuid:4bf26c6d-6bda-4031-a9e5-4e99007182a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://infosecisland.com/blogview/10610-Java-Applet-Distributes-Trojan-via-Downloader-Injection.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924342 | 255 | 2.40625 | 2 |
The shadow of language. That’s how the members of Le Trio Joubran—the Palestinian trio of oud-playing brothers—describe their new album Majâz. The album title means “metaphor,’ a fitting title for an ensemble that plays instrumental music inspired by poetry, especially the poetry of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. The album is accompanied by a North American tour that includes the West Coast, the Midwest, and the Southeast.
“Once a poet was asked, ‘what is the meaning of majâz?’ And the poet said, ‘It is the meaning of the meaning,” says Samir Joubran, the eldest brother in the group. “Poetry is a transparent result of all of our feelings as human beings, our happiness and sadness, as lovers, Palestinians, young people, and so on. This is how our music is metaphoric. It tells about our honest feelings, openly, without precision, like poetry. Our music is without words. We hope that each listener connects each track to a feeling that he or she feels or to a situation in their life.”
Samir and his brothers Wissam and Adnan are the sons of a master luthier, who is the son of a master luthier; a family steeped in the 4,000-year saga of the oud, ancestor of the guitar. Le Trio Joubran was born when elder brother Samir listened to the jazz/rock/Flamenco Guitar Trio of Al Di Meola, Paco de Lucia, and John McLaughlin. The brothers were born in the Galilean city of Nazareth in a family with a strong musical tradition. Their mother sang in a Muashahat (a classical Arabic poetry/music form) ensemble and their father is an oud crafter known throughout the Arab world. The three sons perform on ouds built by Wissam, who was the first Arabic luthier to graduate from the Stradivarius Institute in Cremona, Italy, where he mastered the construction of violins and ouds.
The trio’s first CD together, Randana, was the first meeting of an oud trio. “We wanted to experiment composing for three ouds,” says Samir. “It was a challenge and the music was experimental. Through our touring we gained confidence which makes the music on Majaz different. It’s more accessible to a wider public; it’s more clear, transparent, and joyful but with sadness in the background, and yet proud. We introduce percussion in a very subtle way, sensitive and present. Three ouds are there with three different personalities, but together.” Both albums are on the Joubran’s own label, Randana, Palestine’s first recording label.
The title track, “Majâz,” was improvised around a theme in the studio. Samir repeats the starting motif while his brothers improvise their own theme. Along with a dynamic range of percussion, the song builds to a majestic intensity. “Masar,” which translates as “Process,” was composed during a rehearsal break. The three brothers were taking a break in separate rooms. Wissam picked up his oud in his room, while Samir simultaneously did the same in the living room. They played the same melody, the same rhythms, spontaneously composing, when Adnan joined in as well. The impromptu collaboration reached a state of ecstasy, which is when they knew the piece was finished.
Spread throughout the album is the three-suite “Tanasim.” The word—which sounds like “takasim,” the word for improvisation in Arabic music—refers to a sweet smelling breeze. On each of the three tracks, a brother expresses his own sound. Adnan’s track is untraditional and melancholic; Samir’s is prayer-like, getting closer to tradition; and Wissam’s is the most traditional.
Percussionist Youssef Hbeish joins the Joubran brothers on the new album. His approach, along with his reverence for silence and sensitivity to rhythm, make him a perfect match for the trio.
The trio takes on one song with vocals called “Min Zaman.” This very old folkloric song from the brothers’ birth city of Nazareth talks about wandering in the hills, sadness, and distance from one’s place of origin. “We sang it ourselves, a first for Wissam and Adnan,” explains Samir. “We put one song on each album. This song touches the hearts of the old Arabic public, especially the people from Nazareth. When we played it for our father, he had tears in his eyes. His mother sang it to him when he was a child.”
“Human beings in their nature are sad,” says Samir. “It starts with their first tear at birth, and continues throughout life. The nice moments in life are short, but we are obliged to make them longer. The world is full of sad situations waiting to be changed into happy ones. It’s our duty in life. We personally would like for Palestine to become free, so we as musicians become free from this situation and can be normal musicians. We want to change from being ‘Trio Joubran, the Palestinian musicians’ to being ‘Trio Joubran, the musicians from Palestine.’ For now, we stay in the margin. We use this margin as a window to see the reality, and to see the world.” | <urn:uuid:bcf1152a-13cd-4693-8f80-fdca40682184> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rockpaperscissors.biz/index.cfm/fuseaction/current.press_release/project_id/353.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970334 | 1,200 | 1.75 | 2 |
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Navy Lt. George Loeffler, chief psychiatry resident at Naval Medical Center San Diego, recently said at a drug use conference in San Diego:
“It’s one of the reasons why these substances appear so popular in the military, vice in the civilian community. They actually market it to the fact that that they don’t pop positive on the standard urine drug screen.”
Loeffler said the problem with bath salts use in the military became apparent during a brief window of time in 2010 and 2011. During that period, seven active-duty military were admitted to Naval Medical Center San Diego for horrific side effects associated with bath salt use, like hallucinations, hearing voices, and extreme agitation.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse:
Doctors and clinicians at U.S. poison centers have indicated that ingesting or snorting "bath salts" containing synthetic stimulants can cause chest pains, increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, agitation, hallucinations, extreme paranoia, and delusions.
The NIDA reports bath salts are sold under names like "Ivory Wave," "Red Dove," "Blue Silk," "Zoom," "Cloud Nine," "Scarface," and "Hurricane Charlie." | <urn:uuid:45d28a6d-1ba4-4bbc-8ba1-4f0239224b2b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kpbs.org/news/2012/jun/12/more-marines-using-spice-drug-called-bath-salts/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961496 | 258 | 1.914063 | 2 |
Video mode question
8 months ago
When the D600 is in video mode the resolution is much less than the sensor resolution. How does that work? Does the camera use the whole lens or is it is quasi-DX mode for video?
In particular, if I used a DX lens in FF mode for video, would the corner light falloff be less than in regular still photography? | <urn:uuid:17d64535-26ec-440f-8504-27173c4f43b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/50050335 | 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 | 0.930518 | 79 | 1.710938 | 2 |
A new trailer has landed for the Werner Herzog and Dmitry Vasyukov co-directed "Happy People: A year In The Taiga." The film takes viewers deep into the Siberian wilderness to the 300-person village of Bakhta, on the river Yenisei. Isolated, with no telephone service or running water, and only reachable by helicopter and boat, Bakhta's remoteness has allowed the routines, cultures, values and traditions to carry over unchanged for generations. And centering on a single trapper, Herzog's always soothing tone guides viewers to a world they've likely never seen.
Okay, so it's not exactly like the winter anyone you know experiences, but it looks like a unique journey nonetheless. 'Happy People' opens on January 25th. Watch below. | <urn:uuid:db137bdc-4c2b-484f-bef3-6274fc69978e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-trailer-for-co-directed-werner-herzog-documentary-happy-people-a-year-in-the-taiga-20130111 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927691 | 165 | 1.578125 | 2 |
At last, a grotesque, but highly
ingenious, scheme occurred to him, when he saw a woman pass along selling
gooseberries. By the use of signs he bought her basket full of fruit, and
the measure for the berries. Then, shouldering his stock-in-trade, he
marched down the middle of the street shouting, in broadest Doric:
"Fine grossets! Fine grossets! A
bawbee the chappie!" The crowd laughed; and people came from all sides to
see the strange sight. After a time the familiar cry brought some Scots on
the scene; and the wanderer was able to get to his hotel. That is a type
of a Lowlander, a man of expedients, of reasoning, of resource. He can put
cool argument and an effective plan foremost, and his dignity second. He
always has an eye for humorous situations. And he is born for success.
If the energy of the Highlands is
recurrent and fierce; and if its idealism, though enthusiastic, be
variable and elusive, now rising into gladness, now falling into
gloom,—the energy of the Lowlands, on the other hand, is unflagging and
persistent, and its idealism like a steady light. It does not readily
suffer eclipse. Experience has trained the Saxon to believe in his own
powers. With him the struggle for existence is not directly against
nature, but is industrial, commercial, competitive. Thus, all through the
land of "ta Sassenach" the contrast involved between a man and his office
is a never-failing subject of mirth. And indeed the Lowlands are known as
the nurse of kindly humour. As people do not always come up to their
ideals and as the Lowlander has keen eyes for his own shortcomings and
those of his neighbours, there arise those collisions between what he aims
at and what he actually does, which give him a keen view of the irony of
The most striking instances are
found in the professions, and in the relation of servant and master.
The independence and downrightness of the Lowland servant we have
already noticed. As may be imagined, their plain talk sometimes grows more
than exasperating —then they may be dismissed. But they do not always
accept their dismissal.
"You’ll have to go," said the
"Na, na," was the answer, "if ye
dinna ken when ye have a gude servant, I ken when I have a gude place."
This is more reasonable and less
dramatic than the conduct of a new servant, who was very clumsy, and
smashed many of the things entrusted to her. Getting tired of the work
after a few hours’ struggle in the kitchen, she called up the housekeeper
and shouted to her from a distance: "Your plates are smashed; and I’m awa!"
The criticism of preachers, that we
have adverted to, is of the same quality, and has its root in the
discrimination which people make between the ministerial office and the
minister himself as a man. Thus wit was deemed an admirable offset to a
preacher in almost all positions, Any quickness of retort took the popular
A very loud voiced and active
minister had gone to Switzerland for a holiday. "Well," said someone, "he
looked strong; but I suppose he needed a rest."
"Rest," said an old parishioner, "na,
na, no him; it was his congregation that needed a rest."
In the conflict of realism and
idealism facts were never lost sight of; and the finality of Lowland wit
has that explanation. It is reasonable and calmly decisive.
old Covenanter was asked by his daughter Jean to give his consent to a
young man’s visits at the house with a possible view to matrimony. He
"Jean, it’s a solemn thing to be
"Nae doot, father," she replied,
"but it is a
solemner thing no to be marriet."
This, in its way, is as shrewd as
the famous saying of the convivial farmer whom the boys of the parish
tried to frighten out of his wits. This old gentleman, who in his manner
of life was far from abstemious, used to return home from his visits to
the neighbouring market in a muddled, but hilarious condition.
As he was obliged to pass a
graveyard, the youths imagined that it would be an easy matter to frighten
the reveller. They concealed themselves along the roadside, while their
leader, dressed in a white sheet, took his stand in the middle of the way.
When the old farmer approached, the "ghost" drew near, emitting
bloodcurdling sounds and waving his arms. But the hardy old countryman
took it all quite calmly. He just stopped in an interested way, and put a
leading question to the apparition. "o say, ghost! Tell me, noo, is it a
gineral risin’, or are ye jist takin’ a wee bit of a danner (danner =
stroll, a walk for pleasure) yirsel’?"
This is akin to what was said by an
old divine to a certain English lady who had an estate in Scotland. She
invited him for a fortnight to the castle; and, somehow or other — perhaps
it was from a spirit of mischief — put him in the "haunted room." Next
morning all the other visitors — presumably in the secret — were eager to
see if the clergyman betrayed any signs of having encountered the
traditional ghost. But nothing could be read from his face or demeanour.
When he was leaving at the end of a
pleasant visit, the Countess asked him had he not been uncomfortable in
his room? No, he replied. He had been all right. "But," she asked, "did
you not see anything?"
"Oh," he said, "Now I see what
you’re at. I did see the ghost, the first night I was here. He came to me
making noises. But I just asked him would he give me a subscription to my
new church. He went awa’, frightened like; and I never saw him again."
It may be understood that pride of
country is as marked in the Highlands as in the Lowlands. The flavour of
the latter is, of course, argumentative and abstract; while that of the
former is touchy and authoritative. Once upon a time an Englishman
travelling by rail with a company of Glasgowrnen got rather bored—"fedup"
he would have said — by hearing so very much about Burns and Scott and
He irritably interposed, "Well, are
there no writers but Scotch? I suppose you will hardly tell me that
Shakespeare was a Scotsman."
"Weel," was the reply. "I’m no sure
about Shakespeare being a Scotsman. But one thing I do know; he had
intellect enough for a Scotsman."
This is the Lowland manner to a
nicety; but it is not quite the manner of the mountaineer. By way of
comparison, take a celebrated Highland retort. It occurred at a Court
festival in connection with James the First’s accession.
It seems that Lord Harewood gave a
great dinner, to which a vast number of courtiers and officers were
invited. The feast was ended, and the wine had circulated once or twice,
when General Seely, an English trooper of fame and a reckless duellist,
got up and addressed the company: "Gentlemen," he said, "when I am in my
cups, I have an absurd custom of railing against the Scots. Knowing my
weakness I hope no gentleman will take it amiss."
He sat down; and a Highland chief,
Sir Robert Blake, of Blair Atholl, a huge man with a front like a massive
tower, rose quietly, and, with the utmost simplicity and good nature,
said: "Friends, when I am in my cups, if I hear a man rail against the
Scots, I have an absurd custom of kicking him out of the company. And,
knowing my weakness, no gentleman, I hope, will take it amiss!"
Between the Highland and the Lowland
character there are, of course, innumerable points of correspondence. For
instance, both the Man of the Mist and the Man of the Plains are great
At the siege of Plevna, a gigantic
Russian met a Turkish officer who was negotiating under a flag of truce.
There was an Englishman present who
overheard an amazing conversation between these apparent enemies. The
Russian began: "Aweel, Hamish, are ye no tiret o’ this?"
The Turk replied: "Aye, aye, Sandy
Forbes. Ye did a good bit of fightin’ the morn’ yirsel’. Ye’ll be gettin’
off soon; and we’ll gang thegither till Oban!"
In the matter of ubiquity and
independence and religious sentiment there are strong lines of resemblance
between the two races while yet the broad distinctions remain. For cool
criticism the Saxon has the pre-eminence. It is his philosophic definition
that has been so much admired. "Metapheesics! Aye A ken weel what that is.
When yin man talks tae anither man, an’ that ither doesna know what the
talkin’ aboot, — an’ when the man himsel’ doesna know what he’s talkin’
about, — that’s metapheesics."
When it comes to anything mystic or
occult, the advantage is all on the side of the Gael. People will not
speak much about it — that is unlucky — but second-sight is still believed
in. Dozens of startling instances are widely accepted. Astonishing
pre-visions are well attested; and many a Highland mother is mysteriously
aware when trouble threatens her sons in far off climes.
But different as they are, the
Highlander and the Lowlander have sufficient points in common to make them
good friends. Right jolly and social they can be together, on due
occasion. It was a learned theologian, if we mistake not, that sang the
praise of friendly rivalry in the national dance. Scottish music has a
lilt in it that he thought should be irresistible to both parties. Play
the reel with spirit in a mixed company and you will find all Scotsmen
one. It needs the pipes to do justice to Tullochgorum! Yet the naive lines
Come gie’s (gie’s = give us) a sang,
And lay your disputes aside,
What signifies’t for folk to chide
For what was done before them?
Let Whig and Tory all agree, —
Whig and Tory, Whig and Tory, —
Whig and Tory all agree
To drop their Whig-mig-morum. (Whig-mig-morum (made up word of contempt) =
Let Whig and Tory all agree.
To spend the night wi’ mirth and glee,
And cheerful sing alang wi’ me
The Reel o’ Tullochgorum.
O Tullochgorum’s my delight,
It gars (gars = makes) us a’ in ane unite.
And ony sumph (ony sumph — any foolish fellow) that keeps a spite,
In conscience I abhor him:
For blithe and cheery we’ll be a’ —
Blithe and cheery, blithe and cheery, —
Blithe and cheery we’ll be a’,
And make a happy quorum;
For blithe and cheery we’ll be a’,
As lang as we ha’e breath to draw,
And dance till we be like to fa’, (fa — fall)
The Reel o’ Tullochgorum. | <urn:uuid:f0e240fc-c2c9-4195-890a-86e05d896882> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.electricscotland.com/humour/scots_humour12.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962929 | 2,664 | 2.0625 | 2 |
Beware prize fatigue
by Tom Hill
|Prizes fall into two categories: bold and huge versus mundane.|
The other type of prize, the type mostly discussed at the workshop, is more mundane. An example of one such prize, the subject of a rules-definition meeting, was the micro-return capsule. The idea is to allow easy return of small (on the order of one to ten kilograms, about the size of a coffee can) samples and products from a space station. I agree that this is something worth doing. Currently, the opportunities to return material from the station are more limited than the opportunities to deliver things to the station (Soyuz and Progress vehicles deliver crew and supplies, while only Soyuz capsules can return material and crew to Earth) and an additional capability to send things to Earth would be useful. This type of prize raises some questions, however, that reach into the heart of a prize approach. What kind of press interest will it inspire? What kind of stand-alone business opportunities exist for sample delivery from orbit?
This discussion is where the old-guard aerospace engineering mindset came out to put a damper on the proceedings, with varying correctness and applicability. Questions and statements such as “Who will pay for the launch?” “If you’re going anywhere near the ISS, Johnson Space Center will kill your project with safety reviews!” “How many times does someone have to demonstrate this before it’s considered successful?” “Will NASA award a contract to the winner?” and “What happens to the IP?” (When I first heard this acronym, I was stuck on Internet protocol, but found out that in this context the IP stood for intellectual property).
It’s possible that those types of questions are some last vestiges of the old-guard aerospace industry trying to hold on to their oft-described monopoly, but I don’t think so. Another way to look at it is that the people asking the questions been through projects similar to some of these proposed prizes and been burned, and they’re trying to set the rules so that some can succeed where they failed in the past. One common thread in most of these concerns is how to get to orbit.
No matter what the project, one fact that remains is that a ride into orbit is the biggest hurdle for the sample-return mission and others like it, with the cheapest launch opportunities lying outside The United States, off-limits for the prize competition. NASA’s stated that they’re trying to get prize rules written to allow launches on foreign vehicles, which opens the prospect of relatively cheap flights to LEO but also raises the specter of export control regulations on a prize-competing spacecraft. Is this starting to sound like an old-fashioned NASA project yet?
Perhaps the criteria for the differences between a “spectacular” and a “mundane” prize are the promises of a free-standing business venture after said prize is won. For example, Burt Rutan and Paul Allen have already created a company to take SpaceShipOne’s technology forward in the case they like the answers they get about operations and maintenance costs for their experimental project. Assuming that the technical and regulatory hurdles remaining for the venture are cleared, an optimistic viewpoint is that they could be flying paying customers by the end of this year. In the case of a sample return capsule from low Earth orbit, the only viable source of income right now is a government-run, partially-completed, undermanned international project known as the ISS. It’s possible that another station will fly in the coming years, but can a sample-return capsule production business survive the intervening years between winning a prize and selling their services to a possible commercial station without continuing business from the existing station?
|Perhaps the criteria for the differences between a “spectacular” and a “mundane” prize are the promises of a free-standing business venture after said prize is won.|
Another factor that NASA must contend with is something I call prize fatigue. This will come into play when there are dozens of small prizes available for competition, diluting the number of inventors/entrepreneurs and news agencies interested in each particular prize. It’s true that more than 20 teams showed varying progress vying for the X Prize, but how many are going to turn out for an astronaut glove improvement prize? How will the numbers change when there are simultaneous prizes for aerocapture demonstrations and sample return missions from the Earth going on? We’ll have to see.
Of course, one of the advantages of prizes is that no money is paid unless the prize is won. That sounds great in theory, but how many managers want to run a program where the stated goal is to give out prizes, and only 10% of the prizes are being won or competed for? This is another area where the old-school aerospace/government mindset may detract from the lofty goals of Centennial Challenges.
Let me reiterate that I’m very much in favor of the Centennial Challenge program. If allowed to by contest rules, I’d like to compete. I will watch with interest, though, to see if NASA and Congress are maverick enough to give the Centennial Challenges their due, and whether there are enough maverick inventors in our nation to answer a large number of challenges. | <urn:uuid:4d851d76-0237-46d1-a3e2-95a87917f570> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thespacereview.com/article/172/1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954232 | 1,122 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Seniors Face Foreclosure After Making Mortgage Payment Too Early
A senior couple in Pasco County, Florida is facing the prospect of foreclosure. But the reason doesn't have to do with missed mortgage payments. This time, it's reportedly because they paid too early one month, and used the wrong routing number the next.
Only three months after Sharon Bullington, 70, negotiated a mortgage modification under the Obama administration's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), Bank of America informed her and her husband that they had been ejected from the trial plan for improper payments, St. Petersburg Times reports. (h/t The Daily What.)
The problem was that Sharon has made her January payment in December, instead of the required "month in which it [was] due." She then allegedly incorrectly wrote her routing number on her February payment, leading the bank to cancel the modification. The Bullington's explanations and pleas for help have reportedly been to no avail.
The episode is only the latest in a series of oddball foreclosure stories that have included a homeowner being asked to pay $0.00 in order to avoid foreclosure and JPMorgan repurchasing a soldier's home on the same day he returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. But in many ways, the Bullington's story goes against the typical narrative of a post-recession American homeowner's struggle.
Instead of paying too early, most of those threatened with foreclosure are struggling to make payments on time. Indeed, the number of mortgages which are overdue by a month rose to the highest level in a year in the second quarter of this year, according to Bloomberg. Consequently, the jobs crisis is largely being blamed for the percentage of home loans overdue by 30 days, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association in Washington.
Also a rarity is the Bullington's ability to successfully negotiate a mortgage modification in the first place. Despite the continued existence of the Obama administration's anti-foreclosure initiative HAMP, the number of preliminary mortgage modifications approved in June was the lowest since April 2009, at 15,000, according to government data reported by The Huffington Post. | <urn:uuid:e8a675a6-031e-4fb0-837f-9fb4bd8bc2de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/22/senior-florida-couple-faces-foreclosure-mortgage-early_n_933147.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96942 | 427 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Apply Now for All About Wilson: a Citizens Academy 2012
Friday, August 10, 2012
Free classes offer behind-the-scenes look at local services
WILSON- Applications are being accepted now for this year’s Citizens Academy class. Only 20 slots are available for the free classes, and sessions begin September 18th.
All About Wilson: a Citizens Academy gives participants a chance to see city government in a way that most people can’t; they see how essential services are delivered and who’s making the decisions that touch us every day.
Examples include a tour of Buckhorn Lake, Wilson’s fiber optic network, Fire and Rescue facilities and even our Police station. You get to talk with the people who make Wilson work.
The goal of the annual classes is to promote transparency in local government, create a dialogue with local residents and develop future leaders. Through lectures, hands-on activities and interaction, participants gain insight into their local government’s day-to-day activities.
“The more citizens understand the role of local government and what is does, the more likely they are to become involved in the affairs of the community,” said Mayor Bruce Rose. “This is our city and we want everyone in it to take an interest and volunteer to make it an even better place to live, work and raise a family.”
Classes begin September 18th and run a total of nine consecutive weeks. Participants are required to commit to one Tuesday evening per week. Dinner will be provided free of charge.
Applications are available online at WilsonNC.org or by calling 296-3363. | <urn:uuid:56a6c5ef-05b0-4413-8dba-9c309a03e169> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wilsonnc.org/news/id/894/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939064 | 338 | 1.507813 | 2 |