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Google wowed onlookers last January when Google Translate for Android added a Conversation Mode, allowing English and Spanish speakers to speak into the app and hear instant voice translations. Amid some other big news today, Google has taken the Conversation mode out of Alpha and now works between fourteen languages. Unfortunately, both Klingon and Vulcan have been snubbed in the first round.
Conversation Mode now supports Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese (that should come in handy real soon), Polish, Russian and Turkish, and of course, Spanish and English. New improvements to the app allow you to correct any mistakes in your native translation before having it spoken aloud. You can even zoom in on translated text to easily share it with other around you. Other small improvements, like an adapted Honeycomb interface, are welcome.
Check out the official video below:
The Google Translate app is available for Android phones running Froyo or above (which is almost everyone at this point) and is a free download in the Android Market. In addition to the new Conversation languages, it now does standard text translation in over sixty languages from Urdu to Latvian. Oh, and in case you were wondering, Siri can translate in as many languages as you want, so long as you only want English. | <urn:uuid:d5686e18-575a-4f9a-a9b7-73ea8a7707e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://androidcommunity.com/google-translate-now-supports-14-languages-gene-roddenberry-approves-20111013/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952223 | 272 | 1.75 | 2 |
First LinuxCon ever in EMEA this year !! I’m more than happy to see it at least on our continent, and was glad to be selected to give there a talk (after the one I had made in Brasil last year).
As every conference, this one is starting with keynotes.
Keynote on a world without Linux – Jim Zemlin (Linux Foundation)
Jim was celebrating here the 20 years of Linux. He looked at how would be the world without Linux and the answer as you can guess it is nowhere ! He underlined the high number of Android devices, bind on Linux naming the Internet, and he also looked at so;e quotes and predictions from Bill Gates/Steve Ballmer to show the evolution – from the caner up to Miscrosoft contributing to the Linux kernel this year ! He also used lots of video presented on the Linux Foundation Web site. Jim is absolutely partial, and that’s good to hear
Kernel Hackers Round table (Linus Torvalds, Paul McKenney, Alan Cox, Thomas Gleixner moderated by Lennart Poettering)
Some notes of that open discussion. Linus put emphasis on not breaking user space. He gave the example of the introduction of a 2.6.40 version instead of 3.0 to help some programs to remain compatible ! He underlined that breaking things on purpose should be avoided, and counter-examples were given of security issues that forced the kernel community to break the kernel ABI. Linus used to run an old a.out binary from years ago (COFF format) to ensure the compatibility level, even if it has not done so for some time now. Linus said that the Open Source approach makes modifications much more easy and allow to deal with kernel complexity better (contrary to common belief that would imply that managing such a large community without stritc rules and methods would be impossible.
The average age of the kernel summit participants is increasing of one year every year said Linus Which is linked to the maturity of the community, and the fact that it takes time to take over subsystems. There are lots of new contributors, including young ones, making very few changes. There is not really an age problem in their opinion. Thomas also added that you need a balanced aproach that only older people can bring in a project of that size and complexity.
Linus said that ARM made some stupid decisions and had a lack of standards until very recently, especially with regards to x86 where Intel is playing the game fairly. Kernel support for ARM is 10 times the size of Intel’s because of the need to support multiple variant. Which Linus is sad about as he thinks this is the most important platform outside x86. But they are getting better, Linus is much happier today than 6 months ago even if there is still work to do.
Linus mentioned that he runs 3 (three) FireWall to protect his environment ! And I thought I was paranoid zith my 2 . About SMP he first said who cares ? Now zith the high number of cores everywhere, even in phones, it’s seen just as normal. So who cares about cgroups, VMM, … Well, some need it and are ready to pay for the penalty. And who knows how it will evolve.
At the end Linus said that he is trusting people sending patches not companies.
It’s always interesting to hear what these guys have to say, and anyway Linus is my hero
Tizen – Dawn Foster (Intel)
I was interested to hear what was behind Tizen just announced recently. I was a bit disappointed as no architecture has been validated yet, so nothing concrete to announce here
Tizen is HTML5 based for application development and offers WAC API (favour code reuse across platforms/devices) and it provides a FLOSS ecosystem.
The first release is expected to be in Q1CY12.
The transition from Meego is possible, but Tizen is not a derivative from Meego, it’s a new project and some Meego maintenance activity for 1.2 is still planned. Compliance will also be reviewed compared to Meego and they want to have it less rigid.
Dawn said that they would rather publish what exists and is in place, rather than what was done with Meego (announces made too early).
She insisted on the various communities, and means of communication (IRC, ML, Wiki, …)
She gave the mic to a representative of the Mer project which goal is to take Meego code into a new direction (Core optimized for HTML5/QML/JS) (Cf: http://merproject.org).
The question around Qt availability is not clear now. Anyway once open sourced, the community could make it happen
As said earlier, the architecture is still not out, and should be really soon now. The devices targeted are Handset, TV, smart phones, tablets…
They want to align more the Governance model and the reality of the governance with regards to Meego.
So promising, but not yet concrete. Also remains to see the position of this new OS compared to Android and …WebOS
File and Storage Systems – Ric Wheeler (Red Hat)
Ric started by mentioning that Linux has a world class storage, supporting a wide variety of device types, and scales well (GB/s of IO, IOP increase for PCI-e, 100′s of TB).
So what’s wrong ? Well, e.g. keeping up with competition’s management platforms (VMWare in particular) especially around storage management. He underlined that standards around array offload functions are not driven by Linux companies. And that ease of use on Linux is still hard. Linux has several level of layers (MD, DM, LVM, FS, mount options)
Linux has powerful and sophisticated CLI tools, but no good library today to manage storage (no abstraction layer, typically around snapshoting e.g.).
Making things easier implies identifying common operations per use case, a common API, reducing the options of mount and mkfs, and avoid jargon (LUN, ALUA, barrier, …).
He then mentioned some ongoing projects:
- Btrfs: single interface to LVM, RAID, ease of use.
- Fsadm: keep the stack but provide a simple interface. (controls FS and LVM)
- Standardized options between FS and kill dead options. Default options are critical
- Oracle storage connect (Joel Becker) in python recently open sourced. GPL/Proprietary license for plugins from EMC/HP/…
- Libstoragemanagement (Tony Asleson – Red Hat) under the LGPL and look for interesting contributors. similar to the Oracle project: a vendor neutral API to allow for storage array management (cloning, mirroring, snapshots, …).
There are vendor APIs: VAAI (vSphere API for Array Integration) and also work on automatic offload operations.
Ric took the snapshot example: btrfs do it at FS level, LVM at block dev, storage arrays at HW). Users should be able to choose.He also cited the copy example: for SCSI (SCSI token based copy offload) and NFS (in NFS4.2 as server side copy)
Ric has the art of making these complex topics very easy to understand by his abilty to syntheticly present them, and give a good overview of where we are and where we go.
I skipped the Mission impossible session, which I found not that interesting, after attending a couple of minutes, in contrast to a very promising title.
Freedom out of the Box! – Bdale Garbee (HP)
Impossible however to miss that one ! Bdale is another one of my FLOSS heros
Bdale started by explaining what the FreedomBox was: A personal server running FLOSS designed to create and preserve personal privacy, running on cheap power-efficient plug computer server that individuals can install in their own homes.
Political aspects as well as privacy aspects (who shares what with whom) were clearly explained and this was obvious that this new device is thus contributing to building a privacy-respecting federated alternatives to contemporary social networks.
As its cousin the OLPC, It favours mesh networking.
The software is based on the Debian project (focussing on freedom as well, being international, multi-architecture, and benefiting from a strong infrastructure). Bdale indicated that the future Debian stable should have everything to create a FreedomBox out of the box.
Bdale then described the FreedomBox Foundation (FBF) relying on 4 pilars (technology, user experience, publicity and fund raising with industry relations). Ease of use is central, as some pieces of software are complex to configure.
The FBF has now various Working groups, so contributors have plenty of areas to contribute to !
DreamPlug was first selected for the implementation platform (made by GlobalScale Technologies) using a Marvell Kirkwood (ARM on chip) processor with 512 MB of RAM + 2 GB of Flash + a 2 GB microSD card for the kernel and root FS + 2 x Gb Ethernet ports + Wifi + USB + e-SATA + SD socket + audio. Quite amazing in such a form factor !
The Marvell uAP chosen has some technical challenges (FW and driver outside of kernel tree – which probably won’t change in the future – user space tools were binary only, now GPL). They gave their modifications back for GPL u-boot (better late than never
How to trust first a Freedom Box ? A study is ongoing with Smartphones to facilitate initial key exchange (Stefano Maffuli). Debcamp before Debconf 2011 was useful to create a great community to work on various topics.
First application to appear could be a secure XMPP chat one
This topic, is a very sensible one currently, after the population move in arabic countries. Privacy should remain a concern of every day, as our freedom, not only in software, is precious, and technology should be here to help us reinforce it rather than alienate us. Bdale is supporting a great initiative, first of this type, and that should allow us in the future to have a real P2P Social Network, not control by a central entity.
The it was time for me to jump on stage:
FOSSology a GPL compliance tool – Bruno Cornec (HP)
FOSSology is still a unique tool, developped by a great team lead by Bob Gobeille (HP), and deserve that we pass time to advertise it. I made a status of the current versions and their features, calling for more contributions to enhance the platform. I was happy to meet with the dutch translator of the tool, and to have some interesting questions about SPDX support, leading to some animated talks !
The lack of web/ftp availability for the project, due to the Linux Foundation infrastructure is still hurting the project, as well as SPDX. Hopefully this shold be solved soon now.
12 years of FLOSS license Compliance: A historical perspective – Bradley M. Kuhn (SFC)
Bradley started by explaining the GPL quickly. He compared it to the US constitution.
He also explained how it works in theory and in reality, especially when people don’t respect it.
If social presure doesn’t work, you need to go to court for copyright enforcement (same as the MPAA !) but for good reasons. (at least we hope !)
GNU Emacs was the first GPL’d program and its copyright was never infringed.
GCC was the second. More interesting for proprietary SW companies. Next (the company) was the first GNU GPL violator (so Steve Jobs !!) with the Objective C front-end. Violation was resolved quickly with code publication.
GNU tar was used by lots of backup companies, which were also violating the GNU GPL. Sysadmin found them, and all but one violator came into compliance. Last GNU tar enforcement was mid-2002. The company decided to remove tar and rewrite it.
Nothing concrete for SFC to get from a court (money or injunction – already done – but no code, which is the ultimate goal)
Bradley then reminded the Linksys (Cisco) history with busybox (Erik Andersen) and Linux (Harald Welte). Compliance takes soooo long. In that case, Broadcom was the upstream. Source was finally released, but the driver remained proprietary (due to FCC policy prohibiting it). OpenWRT FLOSS project spawned from that release. Harald was frustrated by the time it took in the FSF to launch that action and he created gpl-violations.org in order to go to court earlier than what FSF was doing. He organised 8 lawsuits in Germany (2005-2008) getting mostly injunctions.
How to fund enforcements ? The violators should be paying. (The SFC had a compliance program costing 10kUSD per Software which is too expensive so doesn’t work).
He acknowledged that dual licensing (a la MySQL) is a corruption of the GPL.
SF Conservancy is helping Erik Andersen since mid-2006 with copyright enforcement (request queue is > 300 right now). Lawsuits become necessary. Goal is to settle with full compliance (get the source code). Money and injunction is a consolation price only.
He then explained how bad some OEMs are by not providing code to their customers and letting them be accused of violations.
He then talked about the build environment underlining that normaly the GPLv2 forces people to also release script to compile and also to install. The GPLv3 phrases it even better.
He advertized a lot FOSSology vs BlackDuck, mentioning anyway that it doesn’t solve the redistribution issue (which is a human task to do, where tool are just helping). He mentioned that there is a free software to scan binaries (didn’t give the name however).
He also mentioned that HP was a fair participant to the ecosystem, Scott Peterson (now at Google) being very responsive to his queries around compliance questions.
Another view, more centered around trials and legal actions, that have become a necessity to have our licences respected. I just hope I’ll never have to be involved in this myself, as it sounds like a lot of headaches in perspective !!
Some pictures of this event are available on Picasa, and I was so happy with my new Nikon D7000 which makes so great pictures in such difficult conditions. I’ll have a problem going back to the D70 now | <urn:uuid:85802c8d-2504-4926-be5f-988fd69cf476> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://brunocornec.wordpress.com/tag/fossology/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957208 | 3,075 | 1.648438 | 2 |
- Taxes on some wealthy French top 100 pct of income: paper
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FEATURE-Forest carbon market already shows cracks
* Papua New Guinea revises policy on forest carbon projects
* All projects suspended in meantime
* Carbon brokers made lucrative offer to assist govt agency
* Development groups warn forest deals could spark conflict
By Gerard Wynn and Sunanda Creagh
LONDON/NUSA DUA, Indonesia, June 4 (Reuters) - It could save the rainforests of Borneo, slow climate change and the international community backs it. But a plan to pay tropical countries not to chop down trees risks being discredited by opportunists even before it starts.
A forest carbon market is emerging in anticipation of a global, U.N. climate deal in December in Copenhagen, expected to allow rich countries to pay to protect rainforests as a cheap alternative to cutting their own greenhouse gases.
Officials in Papua New Guinea (PNG) have underlined how things may go awry.
Reuters has uncovered evidence of a multi-million-dollar offer of assistance from carbon brokers to a government agency, and confusion over whether offset sales were from valid projects.
There is growing interest from countries and companies in the developed world to buy the rights to the carbon stored in trees as they grow, to offset their own emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
But development and environment groups have long warned that suddenly placing a big value on rainforests could spur friction and even conflict in some developing nations, because of uncertain tenure rights, corruption and inadequate policing.
At a conference on the Indonesian island of Bali last week, Interpol environmental crime official Peter Younger told Reuters he expected fraudulent trading of carbon credits, as organised crime infiltrates the system of companies and countries in the developed world buying rights to the stored carbon.
Indonesia last month became the first country to set out some form of regulation for how its scheme will work, but stressed it has not yet developed a model for the most sensitive issue of revenue collection.
Papua New Guinea, which has some of the world's fastest-disappearing rainforest and has championed the forest carbon market, established its Office of Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability (OCCES) in 2008 to develop forest protection projects.
The agency suspended in January all plans to sell rights to the carbon stored in its rainforests after deals sparked land ownership disputes, a senior official told Reuters.
"All projects are suspended while we get some experience," said Theo Yasause, executive director of OCCES.
One such project included the department's own proposal to give exclusive rights to a large area of rainforest to two brokers which would in return donate A$10 million ($8 million) to fund the agency's creation.
Brokers develop projects for landowners to sell the carbon stored in their forests in return for a share of those rights.
In government papers dated June 12 2008, seen by Reuters that Yasause signed and has authenticated, two brokers offered to help fund the OCCES agency. They were named in the memo as Earth Sky and Climate Assist PNG but could not be located for comment.
"That memo was in June, by January everything was stopped," said Yasause. "I said 'no, let's set a policy first.'"
In the memo Yasause asked PNG Prime Minister Michael Somare to counter-sign a certificate allowing the brokers to sell forest carbon offsets valued at $500 million.
"The (two brokers are) prepared to put in 10 million Australian Dollars to assist the establishment of the Office of Climate Change," Yasause wrote in the June 2008 memo. The OCCES would also earn 20 percent of any proceeds from carbon sales.
When the OCCES was created, Prime Minister Somare said it should be self-sufficient through funds generated from forest projects.
When asked why he thought his agency should receive such a large sum, Yasause said: "Initially we thought we should get some of that. It wasn't meant to set it as a policy. When I started I thought (it) could come as a tax to government.
"It was only a proposal. Nothing came through," he added.
PNG is now crafting an "open tendering" policy to sell rights to the carbon stored in its rainforests, Yasause said. That would apply to one project initially, called April Salome, when the policy was up and running.
"We suspended all communications and dealings with the brokers at this stage. I put a notice up saying 'there's no dealings as of January.'"
However, another broker and project consultant, Swiss-based South Pole Carbon Asset Management, said it had rights to sell carbon credits from a certain portion of the April Salome project and would continue to do so.
"We have all kinds of letters of (government) support, approval and so on, including letters after January," said Christian Dannecker, principal at South Pole, who also referred to written authorisation for the project from 160 landowner groups in the region.
South Pole is already selling the carbon rights before the project is approved by a third party, called validation, a common practice in carbon markets. The timing of approval was unsure given it was "in an early phase", said Dannecker.
The company estimates April Salome will generate 1 million tonnes of avoided carbon dioxide emissions per year, but that was not formally audited. "We're still putting together data," said Dannecker. "It's not done, just estimates."
One buyer of the credits from South Pole was a Spanish environment group promoting ecological projects, CeroCO2, which in turn has sold the offsets to individuals, small companies and an event in Zaragoza, for example to offset travel.
The company has sold 660 tonnes at about 10 euros each. The buyers paid up-front but the group would replace the credits if the project was never approved, a group spokeswoman said.
CeroCO2 had told their clients that the project was at an early stage and that the carbon offsets were still hypothetical, she added.
CeroCO2's Web site said the offsets met a standard devised by U.S.-based auditors called the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA), but they did not.
"We have not received any documents about this project," said Joanna Durbin, a director at the CCBA.
"It was a mistake in our Web site," the CeroCO2 spokeswoman said. "We are human." CeroCO2 removed the project from its Web site after speaking to Reuters.
"It all goes to show what a horrible mess will ensue when there is neither a basic level of governance in the countries where the forestry credits are supposedly being generated, nor any regulation in the international markets where they are being traded," said Simon Counsell, director of the Rainforest Foundation UK.
Counsell urged much slower adoption of forest carbon rules, rather than rushing these in time for a December climate deal.
Industrialised countries already pay developing nations to avoid greenhouse gas emissions, for example to build dams, wind farms or improve the efficiency of their factories, in a $6.5 billion trade in carbon offsets.
They view such offsets as a cut-price way to meet their carbon caps under the Kyoto Protocol, instead of taking more costly action at home, for example imposing carbon taxes on industry or households.
Payments to conserve trees are not eligible under Kyoto, but there is enormous pressure to widen the scheme to include rainforests under the successor climate pact to be thrashed out in Copenhagen.
Papua New Guinea helped found the 40-nation Coalition for Rainforest Nations which wants support for the system, Reduced Emissions from Degradation and Deforestation (REDD), under a new treaty.
Most PNG rainforest is owned by communities and indigenous groups, but the government still hands out concessions, said Andy White at Washington-based Rights and Resources Initiative.
The head of the Office of Climate Change, Yasause, produced papers in a PNG court on Monday confirming that he had suspended a deal -- which he had originally approved -- involving another carbon fund, after complaints from landowners that they had not been consulted over sales of carbon rights in a forested area called Kamula Doso.
"I am not working with them until I get clarity in this landowner dispute, we cannot do REDD in those places if there is fighting between landowners, it will kill it," Yasause told Reuters. (Additional reporting by Daniel Fineren; Editing by Sara Ledwith)
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BRIDGEVIEW, IL – Governor Pat Quinn today joined the Muslim community to observe the completion of the Holy Month of Ramadan at the Eid-ul-Fitr prayer service in Bridgeview. During the occasion, the governor renounced recent incidences of violence against Muslim places of worship and signed a new law to foster religious tolerance.
“To the more than 400,000 Muslims across our state, ‘Eid Mubarak!’” Governor Quinn said. “Ramadan is a time of fasting, sacrifice and self-reflection. We honor your commitment to your faith and will vigorously protect your right to practice it without fear of intimidation.”
Ramadan is observed during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and is considered the holiest month of the year in the Islamic faith. During Ramadan, Muslims fast each day from sunrise to sunset. Ramadan ends with the Muslim festival known as “Eid Al-Fitr”, which means “the festival of breaking the fast”.
Following the recent massacre at the Sikh temple near Milwaukee, gunfire at a Morton Grove mosque, a bomb thrown at a Lombard Islamic school and the desecration of a Muslim gravesite at Evergreen Cemetery, Governor Quinn issued a call for respect, tolerance and harmony. In addition, he signed Senate Bill 2949, to protect college students who miss a class or exam due to their observance of a religious holiday.
“No student should be disciplined, penalized or fined for observing a sacred day,” Governor Quinn said. “This new law celebrates our nation’s basic principle of ‘freedom of religion, as well as the notion that diversity makes us stronger.”
The new law, sponsored by Sen. Ira Silverstein (D-Chicago) and Rep. Sidney Mathias (R-Arlington Heights), passed both chambers unanimously with the support of the Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities (FIICU). The law is effective Jan 1, 2013. | <urn:uuid:5dabc083-3d4e-45ed-9e34-3278a377d43f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www3.illinois.gov/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?SubjectID=1&RecNum=10496 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941441 | 411 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Today the UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change said the well kill operation involving pumping heavy mud into the wellbore has succeeded in halting the flow of gas from the G4 well on the Elgin wellhead platform which was first detected back on 25 March prompting an emergency evacuation of the facility.
“This is the first stage in the process to permanently seal the well,” DECC said in a statement today. “Monitoring will now take place over the next few days to assess the complete success of the operation. After that, work can begin to permanently plug and abandon the well.”
Michael Moore, Secretary of State for Scotland said: “This is welcome news from the Elgin platform and good progress. It is important that the work continues to manage and monitor the well over the coming days to ensure the operation to stop the gas leak has been a complete success.”
Operator Total said it took just 12 hours for the operation to stop the leak: “The intervention operation began on May 15 and the leak was stopped 12 hours later.
“During the coming days, the G4 well will continue to be monitored in order to confirm the complete success of the intervention,” the French oil major added.
But Total says a relief well which spudded back on 18 April, will continue to be drilled as a back up option.
After the start of the incident on 25 March, which resulted in a total of 238 people being evacuated from the Elgin facilities, and from the nearby Rowan Viking rig, Total said the flow rate from the leaking wellhead gradually diminished from an estimated two kilogrammes a second down 0.5 kg/sec. | <urn:uuid:df9147f2-b2bc-4658-baff-eb8671cd7fee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.turkishmaritime.com.tr/news_detail.php?id=14031 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963401 | 349 | 2.015625 | 2 |
To my knowledge, when delete statement is issued the data is actually deleted from the blocks and the space in the blocks will be realeased. But this space can be utilized when the pctused level has been reached.
Also, Delete operations are slow(As it acts on blocks directly)
Could any one tell me how the Truncate command actually work.. Because, truncating at table as big as 25Million records take very few milliseconds while actual delete takes hours.
The delete operation would delete the records and the free space would not be released for the other schema objects to use. (i.e. only the table whose records had been deleted would be able to use the freespace, for its futrure inserts) The operation of Truncate would preserce the schema, but would drop the recrds and release the freespace. This inturn would allow the other database objects to use this free space. It also would lower the high water mark accordingly.
Nope ! You have to recreate, if you did drop indexes before TRUNCATE. As you know if you don't drop your load takes lot time, usually better loading data after dropping indexes and recreate 'em if you are dealing with millions of rows.
If you don't drop, the indexes stay, but takes lot time to load.
When you do delete, system has to scan the whole table and for each record it deletes it has to create an redo as well as undo entry (redo logs and rollbacks). On top of this, it has to maintain/change each block header, maintain all the indexes defined on the table, possibly fire some triggers etc etc. On top of this it has to maintain freelists, each block must be read into buffer pool, etc etc. All this operations are preatty expencive, most of them is heavily I/O bound (the slowest operations on the system). As a result, the rows are actually deleted (erased) from the blocks.
On the other hand, when using TRUNCATE system has to perform one thing only: reset the high watter mark (HWM) to the first block of the first extent. This is a simple and extremely fast operation (if compared to all the operations described above), performed only on a couple of dictionary tables. Nothing more. So as a result, the rows actually remain written in the blocks, but anything above the HWM is "nonexistant"/"unreadable" for the system, so the database can't read those rows any more.
Jurij Modic ASCII a stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
24 hours in a day .... 24 beer in a case .... coincidence? | <urn:uuid:091d081c-b404-4013-a289-ecba49d771ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dbasupport.com/forums/showthread.php?8054-Named-Pipes-and-TCPIP&goto=nextnewest | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953445 | 560 | 2.484375 | 2 |
Sustainability is not just about the environment. It's also about fair economies and social justice.
Educating for Eco-Justice in an Era of Ecological Uncertainty
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- Catskill Watershed Corporation funds a student project to prevent erosion and preserve water quality
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- Teens in a conservative agricultural town discover dangers that others had tried to ignore
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- Right Livelihood by Matthew Fox. Is the work we are doing good for the Earth and its inhabitants now and for seven generations into the future?
by Chloe Frommerposted Oct 29, 1999
- changing the climate, green schools By Chloe Frommer | <urn:uuid:236693c4-7b4a-47db-ae1c-8c31d65d44d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yesmagazine.org/for-teachers/sustainability/atct_topic_view?ica=sustain_topic_hdr&b_start:int=60&icl=yesemail_ednews_summer11ed | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905403 | 182 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Tracing Your First World War Ancestors
A Guide for Family Historians
Date of publication: February 2013
Publisher: Pen and Sword
As the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War approaches there is a huge surge of interest in the men and women who took part in it. This book is a timely guide if you are researching the soldiers, sailors or airmen. It is an accessible, up-to-date and expert introduction to get you on your way and to answer those questions that might crop up during your researches. In a straightforward, easy-to-follow style it introduces readers to the multitude of sources they can use to explore the history of the war for themselves.
Anyone who is eager to piece together the wartime career and likely experiences of an ancestor who was involved in any aspect the conflict, at home or overseas, will find his book to be an indispensable source of information and advice. In a series of short, instructive chapters Simon Fowler takes the reader through the process of researching ancestors who served in the armed forces, providing short cuts and background information as required. | <urn:uuid:fc02efb1-68ff-41dd-9d1d-9e97cc61ba0b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/BOOKSHOP/details.aspx?titleId=2996 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945676 | 223 | 2.40625 | 2 |
As many of you know, we’re big fans of Detlev Schlichter’s here at Bogpaper Towers. A German Austrian economist, his book ‘Paper Money Collapse’ is an excellent alternative viewpoint to the current jargon which we are currently fed by politicians and the mainstream media.
Below, Detlev explains why we should not believe the hype about Germany’s safe haven status. Nor should we support calls for Germany to support the rest of the crumbling Eurozone.
The original article was published here.
IN THE present debate on the euro crisis, Germany is frequently portrayed as a model of economic strength, a beacon of fiscal prudence and a proponent of structural reform. Her resources seem endless and her government debt an indisputable safe-haven. If only Germany shared her strength and resources more generously, the euro debt crisis could be solved. But this is an optical illusion. Sooner or later, markets will wake up to the reality of the country’s fundamental weaknesses and grave challenges.
Over the 13 full calendar years of the life of the euro, Germany accumulated an additional €900bn (£722bn) in public debt. The overall debt load rose from €1,200bn in early 1999 to €2,100bn at the end of 2011, or from 61 per cent to 81 per cent of GDP. Remember that it was Germany that pushed through the Maastricht criteria, among them a debt-to-GDP ratio of no more than 60 per cent. Germany met this benchmark – barely – in only three of 13 years, and presently has little chance to get there ever again. Only for four of those 13 years did Germany’s deficit stay within the Maastricht Treaty’s recommended limit of 1 per cent, and on seven occasions it exceeded the “maximum” of 3 per cent.
True, last year’s deficit of 1 per cent looks respectable when compared to most of the Eurozone, or Britain (8.4 per cent) or the US (8.7 per cent). But this was achieved after two years of three per cent growth, record-low borrowing costs and the lowest unemployment rate in 20 years. Even then, the German state could not balance its books. And these rosy conditions will certainly not last. As elsewhere, artificially low interest rates are, for the time being, sustaining a mirage of profitability and prosperity in large parts of the German economy, in particular the financial sector.
More important is the fact that Germany sits on a ticking fiscal time bomb and nothing has been done in years to diffuse it. Over the past four decades, Germany extended considerable, unfunded promises to the populace, mainly in the areas of public health insurance, state pensions and the public care insurance. An expensive inheritance of the last “conservative” government under Helmut Kohl, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mentor. These commitments constitute, at minimum, implicit government debt in excess of 200 per cent of present GDP.
The Germans like their welfare state and their appetite for reform is strictly limited. The modest, but not unimportant, measures to liberalise the labour market that Germany now feels give her the right to lecture others on the topic of structural reform, all date back to the second Gerhard Schroeder government ten years ago. Nothing has happened under Merkel. No wonder, these reforms cost Schroeder the chancellorship.
Germany is not an exception. Like most other mature social democracies, it is slowly but surely going broke. Differences with Greece and Spain are of speed and degree only, not of direction. It is utter recklessness that the country has now taken it upon itself to be the backstop for the entire continent. Once Spain has officially joined the casualty list, 80 per cent of European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) funds will have to come from just 3 countries: Germany, France and Italy. That would mean a bill in excess of €200bn for Germany right away, more than 8 per cent GDP. But as Italy – or various national banking sectors – could be next in line, demands on German funds are practically limitless.
Banks in the periphery are haemorrhaging deposits, which are flowing to a considerable degree to Germany. At the level of the national central banks, these transfers are not being settled. This allows banking sectors in the periphery to replace vanishing client deposits with ECB funds, and thus limit asset sales and balance sheet contraction at local banks in Spain and Greece. This puts the Bundesbank in the uncomfortable position of being a de-facto creditor to other central banks. At the end of May, Target2 balances at the Bundesbank stood at €700bn, about 27 per cent of German GDP.
Germany may well be last man standing in the Euro drama but that only means that there will be no one left to bail her out. Bunds as safe-haven investments are another bubble ready to burst. | <urn:uuid:215e5804-a375-4bcc-bf0b-0db7bdaedf35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bogpaper.com/2012/07/03/germay-blind-king/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940252 | 1,012 | 1.78125 | 2 |
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Chris Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the answer of 21 June 2010, Official Report, column 37W, on the European Parliament, what further steps he plans to take to raise the question of the European Parliament's seat in Strasbourg.
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent assessment his Department has made of the security situation in the Kyrgyz Republic, with particular reference to ethnic violence; and if he will make a statement.
Mr Jeremy Browne: We are deeply concerned by the recent events in Kyrgyzstan. The situation on the ground remains extremely fragile. The UK co-sponsored a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council on 18 June that called for a transparent investigation into the events of April and the recent inter-ethnic violence, and urged the Kyrgyz authorities to promote inter-ethnic reconciliation.
We and our EU partners have underlined the importance of pursuing the political process to build democratic institutions in Kyrgyzstan, notably through the referendum on a new constitution that took place on 27 June and through parliamentary elections later this year. This process represents the best chance to ensure peace,
institutional stability, open dialogue, rule of law and democracy for the people of Kyrgyzstan. We are pleased that the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights issued a positive initial assessment of the referendum. This represents an important step in the long path towards normalisation in Kyrgyzstan.
Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the answer of 15 February 2010, Official Report, column 355W, on EU institutions, if he will discuss with the Secretary of State for Education proposals to increase the number of secondary school pupils studying for a modern European language GCSE.
Mr Jeremy Browne: Both my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and I recognise the importance of school pupils learning foreign languages, including modern European languages. The Government have announced that there will be a review of the National Curriculum, including language learning. There will be an announcement concerning the detail of the review in due course.
Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the answer of 15 February 2010, Official Report, column 355W, on EU institutions, if he will discuss with the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills proposals to increase the modern European language skills of students in British universities.
Mr Jeremy Browne: Both my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and I recognise the importance of students pursuing modern European language studies. It is important that higher education institutions offer the widest variety of good quality courses to students, including a range of modern European languages. The Government-funded "Routes into Languages" programme works to stimulate demand for language learning in every region of England.
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has made to his Israeli counterpart on the cases of three British citizens on the Gaza aid flotilla who were taken into custody and whose UK passports have not been returned; and whether he has taken steps to seek to secure the return from the Israeli authorities of the possessions of other British citizens on that flotilla.
Alistair Burt: I have raised these specific issues with Israel's ambassador to the UK. Our ambassador to Israel and other members of the British embassy in Tel Aviv have also raised the matter on a number of occasions with the Israeli authorities. It has also been raised by the EU presidency, on behalf of EU Heads of Mission, with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
I can confirm we have received all three missing passports which will be returned to the holders. We, and the EU, have also been informed by the Israelis that all the personal belongings have now been sent to Turkey, to the organisers of the Flotilla Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief or Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH). We understand that the Turkish authorities agree this to be correct. I explained this to the British nationals who I met on 17 June. We have also been informed by the Israeli authorities that the return of magnetic and media equipment is under consideration by the Israeli defence forces. We will continue to press for its return and availability for use in the inquiry, as required by those conducting it.
We have also asked exceptionally asked our consular staff in Istanbul to follow up with IHH who still hold over 300 pieces of unclaimed luggage, including watches, phones and cameras. Our consular staff have taken photos of everything that was seen in IHH's storage, which we will shortly be distributing to the British nationals involved so they can attempt to identify any property that is theirs.
David Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the implications of the election of the new president of Colombia for UK policy on combating drug trafficking and organised crime in South America.
Mr Jeremy Browne: We have an excellent and successful working relationship with Colombia on tackling the cocaine trade and organised crime. We are confident that this will continue under president-elect, Juan Manuel Santos, who is committed to working with the UK and other international partners to combat this global threat.
Mr Bellingham: We need a strong UN to resolve and manage international challenges such as conflict prevention and resolution, proliferation of nuclear weapons, international terrorism and climate change. We shall work with other member states to modernise UN practices, to make the UN more effective and to strengthen its capacity to deliver where most needed. It also remains vital that the UN balances member states' demands for activity with sustainable budget levels.
The UN Security Council is the only global body that has the legitimacy and moral authority to respond to global threats to peace and security. It needs to become more representative of the modern world, but at the same time no less effective in taking necessary decisions to maintain international peace and security. We support permanent seats on a reformed Council for Japan, India, Germany, Brazil and African representation.
18. Mr Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to increase the level of participation in local public health programmes for young children funded by his Department.
Mr Lansley: The Government intend to devolve day-to-day national health service commissioning to practice-led commissioners. We do not therefore plan to merge primary care trust commissioning structures with local authorities. We do intend to secure greater co-ordination of public health commissioning and health and social care joint working; this will engage the NHS with local authorities.
Mr Simon Burns: The revised NHS Operating Framework for 2010-11, published last week, made clear we have a zero-tolerance approach to avoidable infections. National health service organisations should deliver continuous improvement. We have already introduced weekly reporting for MRSA and C. difficile and are considering a widening of the mandatory surveillance system to cover other infections.
Anne Milton: In the coalition agreement, we state our aim to promote public health and prevent ill health. We believe that this needs to start in pregnancy and continue throughout childhood and adolescence.
22. Duncan Hames: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his most recent assessment is of his Department's progress in the implementation of the national health service framework for long-term neurological conditions.
23. Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on the methods for assessing patients with multiple sclerosis, myalgic encephalopathy, fibromyalgia and other fluctuating conditions for the purpose of work capability assessments.
Our policies will ensure that disability or illness is not a barrier to work for those that can work, as well as providing appropriate support for those unable to do so as a result of their health condition.
24. Mr Mudie: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations he has received on the maximum target period of 18 weeks between GP referral and treatment; and if he will make a statement.
Mr Simon Burns: We have received a number of representations on the 18 weeks target. We believe the national health service must focus on securing improved health outcomes for patients rather than on process targets that do not lead to improvements in patient health, so, on 18 weeks, we have removed central performance management to empower clinicians and patients.
£2 million funding was recently confirmed by the Secretary of State to work with our strategic partners to identify how to invest funding into NHS services to ensure the best treatment possible for veterans with mental health problems.
Jim Dowd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he plans to bring forward proposals for a (a) minimum unit pricing on alcohol products and (b) requirement for such products to carry health warning labels.
Anne Milton: The Government have no plans to introduce a minimum unit price for alcohol. The Coalition programme for government includes commitments to ban the sale of alcohol below cost and to review alcohol taxation and pricing, to ensure it tackles binge drinking without unfairly penalising responsible drinkers, pubs, and important local industries. A public consultation on options for improving information on the labels of alcoholic drinks to support consumers to make healthier choices closed on 31 May. The responses will be analysed and we will make an announcement on our decision for a way forward in due course.
Diana R. Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will equalise the level of payments made by the Skipton Fund and the MacFarlane Trust for people infected by contaminated blood and blood products.
Mr Simon Burns: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) develops guidance based on a robust assessment of the available evidence and in wide consultation with stakeholders. NICE is an independent body and it would not be appropriate for Ministers to interfere in an ongoing NICE appraisal.
Anne Milton: We are considering our response to a recent High Court judgment on the level of payments made to those affected by contaminated blood and blood products and will announce a decision in due course. In the meantime, ex-gratia payments will continue to be paid at current levels to those affected.
Anne Milton: Health Ministers have recently received representations in the form of parliamentary questions and correspondence on behalf of industry and consumers from Members of Parliament, and correspondence from industry, about the setting of maximum levels for vitamins and minerals in recommended daily doses of food supplements under the EU Food Supplements Directive.
Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what assessment he has made of the (a) effectiveness and (b) value for money of total abstinence-based drugs treatment programmes compared with other forms of treatment; and what account he has taken of this assessment in determining the future funding of drugs treatment programmes by his Department;
(2) what assessment he has made of the (a) effectiveness and (b) value for money of total abstinence-based drugs treatment programmes compared with other forms of treatment; and what account he has taken of this assessment in determining the future funding of drugs treatment programmes by his Department.
|Next Section||Index||Home Page| | <urn:uuid:34a54095-3d86-4d82-899e-4037ccfbdcbf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm100629/text/100629w0011.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947937 | 2,312 | 1.773438 | 2 |
(CNN) -- Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist and a customer-service guru, was riding on a public train in San Francisco, California, recently when something common but annoying occurred: The railcar filled with people and became uncomfortably hot.
If the inconvenience had happened a few years ago, Newmark said he would have just gone on with his day -- maybe complaining about the temperature to a friend.
But this was 2009, the age of mobile technology, so Newmark pulled out his iPhone, snapped a photo of the train car and, using an app called "SeeClickFix," zapped an on-the-go complaint, complete with GPS coordinates, straight to City Hall.
"A week or so later I got an e-mail back saying, 'Hey, we know about the problem and we're going to be taking some measures to address it,' " he said.
Welcome to a movement the tech crowd is calling "Gov 2.0" -- where mobile technology and GPS apps are helping give citizens like Newmark more of a say in how their local tax money is spent. It's public service for the digital age.
A host of larger U.S. cities from San Francisco to New York quietly have been releasing treasure troves of public data to Web and mobile application developers.
That may sound dull. But tech geeks transform banal local government spreadsheets about train schedules, complaint systems, potholes, street lamp repairs and city garbage into useful applications for mobile phones and the Web.
The aim is to let citizens report problems to their governments more easily and accurately; and to put public information, which otherwise may be buried in file cabinets and Excel files, at the fingertips of taxpayers.
By some accounts, the trend is turning the government-voter relationship on its head and could usher in a new era of grassroots democracy.
"I see [these applications] as the death of a passive relationship with government," said Clay Johnson, director of Sunlight Labs, a group promoting Gov 2.0 apps.
"Instead of people saying, 'Well, it's the government's job to fix that' ... people are taking ownership and saying, 'Hey, wait a minute. Government is us. We are government. So let's take a responsibility and start changing things ourselves.' "
Residents of Washington, for example, can use the DC 311 iPhone app to take photos of graffiti, potholes and other trouble spots.
The photos are paired with GPS locations and then uploaded straight from the street into a database that local officials can see.
The mobile phone app tells officials where the graffiti is. It also tells citizens which spray-paint murals, potholes, dying trees, broken parking meters and tipped-over street signs the city is aware of, which it plans to fix and which it may be ignoring.
Brian Purchia, spokesman for the San Francisco mayor's office, said reports like those from "SeeClickFix" and a city Twitter account make it easier for the city to prioritize spending by addressing problems its citizens care most about.
He cited an example in which a Twitter user named @bolinasgirl reported a broken streetlight on the micro-blogging site. The city responded to her on Twitter and sent a note within 24 hours saying the light had been fixed.
The complaints don't always results in fixes, of course, because cities have limited resources. But Purchia said some problems that the city wouldn't otherwise know about are being addressed because of mobile applications and its Twitter program.
Some of the apps are simply handy. Newmark, for example, checks an iPhone app called "Routesy" before going outside to look for city buses. The app tells him where the nearest bus is and what time it will arrive at his stop.
An app called "Stumble Safely" tells bar-goers in Washington the safest walking routes home from local pubs. "Are You Safe" uses a person's GPS location and municipal crime data to tell residents of Atlanta, Georgia, about the crime history in their immediate vicinity.
These sorts of apps tend to pop up only in places where the municipal government has released its data sets in a format that can be easily crunched. That public data is the fuel that makes these applications work.
So far, local government making the push for public data sets are usually large and fairly tech savvy: San Francisco, Washington, New York and the like.
San Francisco, for example, posted 100 data sets on the Web site DataSF.org in August. Within weeks, Purchia said, dozens of apps were being developed.
Once the data is out, cities wait for someone else to use it. Both Washington and San Francisco have held contests for local Web developers to turn their data into applications.
The idea is that tech communities are better able to make government data useful than the governments themselves, said Peter Corbett, CEO for iStrategyLabs and organizer of a contest called "Apps for Democracy" in Washington.
"I think the government realizes that they don't have all of the money to do things people want them to do," he said. "Government forgot that the biggest asset that they have are actual citizens."
The second "Apps for Democracy" contest in Washington awarded $20,000 in prizes for mobile phone developers. But many developers work free.
Alan Wells is the co-founder of Haku Wale, a San Francisco company that developed an a app called "EcoFinder," which helps residents find places to dispose of e-waste and other hazardous materials.
He said his company spent $20,000 developing the application, but hasn't charged the city or app users a dime. He was just happy the city's trash data was available.
"For us, as a company, we're really interested in the convergence of technology and sustainability and social impact," he said. "So it's just something we wanted to provide for the city of San Francisco."
Other cities may resist the transition, however.
Some people worry that these tech applications wouldn't take off in smaller municipalities, even if governments can afford to make the data available.
"For small governments ... it's really challenging to get data sources that are deep enough, that are robust enough to do something that's interesting," said Corbett.
Purchia said San Francisco incurred few costs when it put its first 100 data sets online. "A lot of this is just man hours," he said. "It's getting different departments to realize this is an important aspect of governing."
He said the city is working with others to develop a national standard for municipal government data sets and the programs that make them useful. That way, an app that tracks trash in San Francisco could be used by people in Bismarck, North Dakota, as long as the city's public data is posted online in the right format.
That could enable cities without big tech communities to benefit from the trend.
"For some cities and for some governments I could understand that transition can be a scary thing," Purchia said. "But we feel like it makes governments more accountable, and it makes them function better."
He added: "What I really see is a monumental change for how government works. This is just really the starting point." | <urn:uuid:50e0b930-9110-4f0a-bfee-e732642c9d56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/28/government.web.apps/index.html?eref=rss_politics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965938 | 1,500 | 1.648438 | 2 |
The New York Times reported today on new cycling counts in New York City that estimate the number of daily New York City cyclists at 236,000. As it happens, this comes the same day an advance copy of a new case study on bicycling in New York City landed in my inbox. Cycling in New York (PDF), by bicycling researchers John Pucher, Lewis Thorwaldson, Ralph Buehler, and Nicholas Klein, will be published in World Transport Policy and Practice this summer.
The report tracks trends in demographics (age and gender), safety, the bicycle facility network (including the new cycle tracks and green lanes), bike parking, bikes on transit and the city’s education and promotion efforts.
The report supports the growth reported by today’s Times article:
“Both the US Census data and NYC DOT indicator show a gradual increase in cycling levels from 1990 to 2000 but show accelerated growth after 2000, especially after 2005. As noted later, that spur in cycling was encouraged by a massive expansion in cycling infrastructure throughout the city, but especially in the core areas with the highest cycling levels.”
There are a number of good visuals to check out. Here’s a sample. The first shows the neighborhoods with the highest share of bike commuting residents.
The second shows that in all boroughs, women more often ride on multi-use paths over on-street facilities.
UPDATE: Added some additional images. The first below describes the growth in bicycle facilities in New York City by type. Order from top: route (green) , on-street (red) , path (blue).
This next graph shows bike commuter levels by borough (order from the top: Staten Island, Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan).
All images from Cycling in New York, Pucher, Thorwaldson, Buehler, & Klein.
League Policy Director
Flusche joined the League in April 2009 and has a B.A. in history from Syracuse University and a Masters of Public Administration with a concentration in public policy analysis from New York University. | <urn:uuid:46fbe089-0363-4725-a56b-d3937f47e093> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.bikeleague.org/blog/2010/04/bicycling-in-new-york-city/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917118 | 426 | 1.664063 | 2 |
John Allen’s reporting on the Catholic Church is of the highest order.
The Future Church: How Ten Trends Are
Revolutionizing the Catholic Church
By John L. Allen, Jr.
(Doubleday, 480 pages, $28)
John Allen, Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Register and a Vatican analyst for CNN and National Public Radio, has written an indispensable book for anyone interested in the Catholic Church or religion itself in its worldwide dimension. The Future Church: How Ten Trends Are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church is a “thick” book, not to be read in one sitting, augmented by a fine section at the end recommending further reading on the 10 trends Allen examines.
What makes this book of particular interest is the extreme relevance of the Catholic Church to secular world events in our time. Certainly many factors played into the fall of Communism in Europe only two decades ago. Nonetheless many experts point to the election of John Paul II, his first papal visit to his native Poland, and the formation of Solidarity as primary catalysts. During his fateful pontificate, John Paul II had not only a religious impact but often a political one as well, owing to his denunciation of corrupt, dictatorial, and totalitarian regimes.
The long-simmering eruption of radical jihadist Islam during the 1970s, which led to the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran, was a major factor in the election of Ronald Reagan, who in turn helped bring about the final collapse of Communism. In short, the two dominant forms of creedal religion in the world are Catholicism and Islam and both are growing vertiginously, as Allen points out.
In September, Pope Benedict will make an unprecedented state visit to the United Kingdom, where he will address Parliament and meet with the Queen at her palace in Scotland. Most importantly, he will personally carry out the first beatification of his pontificate — that of John Henry Newman, perhaps the greatest religious writer, preacher, and theologian of both the English-speaking Anglican and Catholic Communions in the last two centuries. All of this takes place in the context of near-anarchy in the worldwide Anglican Communion over moral teachings on sex and marriage. This situation has led Rome to take the extraordinary measure of receiving not only individual conversions but also conversions of whole congregations and even dioceses.
In addition, Pope Benedict has had warmly friendly dealings with various patriarchs of the autocephalous orthodox national churches. If one or several of them unites with Rome under the primacy of the pope, we could see the beginning of the end of a thousand-year schism that is the scandal of Christianity.
With the 500th anniversary of the Reformation approaching in 2017, many serious evangelical Christians who belong to thousands of denominations throughout the world may want to bring their zeal to the church that gave them the Bible, and receive the grace-giving gifts of the sacraments that complete their baptism, including the liturgical life and historical culture that so many desire.
Christ’s prayer “That all may be one” could possibly be seen answered by the grandchildren of children being born today.
As Allen’s professional associations listed above suggest, he is not a paleocon Catholic with Lefrevrist leanings. However, his personal views seem to have evolved toward an essential assent to the basic teachings of the Church, and he does a fine job of maintaining his objectivity in a book that not only offers a contemporary snapshot of the Catholic Church but also attempts to prognosticate about the position it will hold at the end of our still-new 21st century. As he puts it, “I am a journalist, not a priest theologian, or academic. My role is to describe what is happening in Catholicism and to provide context for it. This book therefore is an exercise in description, not a prescription. I entrust the prescriptive debate to better minds than mine.”
Allen’s choices for the 10 future trends that the Church will encounter are: A World Church, Evangelical Catholicism, Islam, the New Demography, Expanding Lay Roles, the Biotech Revolution, Globalization, Ecology, Multipolarism, and Pentecostalism. Let’s look at a few of them.
In his chapter on the World Church, Allen calls the shifting of “the center of gravity from North to South” the most important change the Church underwent in the 20th century. He predicts this trend will accelerate in our century as the populations of Africa and South America continue to grow while the ranks of old, formerly Catholic Europe dwindle still further. The United States is an outlier here, largely because of massive (mostly Catholic) immigration from Latin America.
In Africa, much of the Church’s growth is due to a relatively high birthrate and more local control from native-born bishops (a sign their countries are no longer operating as missionary outposts). These bishops are on average younger and more vigorous in facing the struggles of enculturation, with polygamy and witchcraft being the most serious issues to be resolved. Allen does not draw the analogy, but this is reminiscent of the (700-year long) evangelization of the barbarian tribes flowing out of the Asian steppes, which was followed by the triple strains of dealing with the Black Death, the Avignon papacy, and the Protestant revolt. It is certainly helpful if the reader knows a good deal of Church history to understand Allen’s approach to the future.
In his chapter on evangelical Catholicism, Allen waves the white flag of surrender to 50 years of liturgical, doctrinal, and sacramental confusion dating from the proliferation of poorly applied teachings from the misunderstood Second Vatican Council. As Allen puts it, “The defining features of evangelical Catholicism are a clear embrace of traditional Catholic thought, speech, and practice, the usual word for which is ‘orthodoxy’; eagerness to proclaim one’s Catholic identity to the world, emphasizing its implication for culture, society, and politics; faith seen as a matter of personal choice rather than cultural inheritance.”
In short, what we are seeing is a dropping out of the lukewarm and “dissenters” from the visible Church in the face of resurgent, vital, orthodox Catholicism. One in 10 Americans is an ex-Catholic, one of the greatest mass apostasies in the history of the Church. The Church of the future will be evangelizing and self-confident — considerably smaller but much more powerful in its effect on American culture and society as mainline Protestantism continues its almost 500-year-long death march to oblivion, giving way before the mainly non-denominational freestanding mega-churches that rely on enthusiasm and private interpretation of the Bible.
The chapter on expanding lay roles allows Allen a different way to approach the reality that 98.5 percent of the Church’s faithful are not bishops, priests, or deacons but rather the laity. Allen writes: “What makes lay roles a major trend in the twenty-first-century is that the laity is emerging as protagonists both inside and outside the Church. Internally lay people are occupying ministerial and administrative positions once held almost exclusively by priests. Externally, lay people are taking it upon themselves to evangelize culture and to act on Catholic social teaching. It is this one-two punch, lay ministers inside the Church and lay activists on the outside, that constitutes the trend.”
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy? | <urn:uuid:c52dfd3d-8d14-4d88-8e03-69160615176f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://spectator.org/archives/2010/08/17/the-future-is-now | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955663 | 1,648 | 1.757813 | 2 |
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12 as a comparison group for nighttime crashes, based on the traffic volume changes in both the treatment and comparison assumption that only nighttime crashes would be affected by groups since such volumes may be relatively easy to acquire PRPMs. As discussed in Section 2.3, there is evidence that and influential in the evaluation results. PRPMs affect driver behavior during daytime as well, man- ifested by changes in positioning in the lane and significant reductions in lane encroachments, which would be expected 18.104.22.168 Time Trends to impact both head-on and run-off-road crashes. Conse- quently, the use of daytime crashes as a comparison group is Areawide safety changes over time because of many fac- inappropriate. Table 2-5 shows both significant reductions and tors, such as weather conditions, driver demographics, and increases in crash frequency. Indeed, the two largest studies vehicle technology. Reporting levels also directly affect crash show opposing effects--one with 662 treatment locations (13) data. Often either the minimum damage dollar value changes showing a 22-percent reduction in nighttime crashes, and for PDO crashes or the reporting level by police changes. the other with 452 treatment locations (11) showing a 15- to PDO crash data from jurisdictions that have switched from 31-percent increase in nighttime crashes. Re-analysis (15, 14) 100-percent police reporting to self-reporting crash data must of the second study, with its troubling result, continued to be used carefully when accounting for the safety effect of show a statistically significant increase in nighttime crashes PRPMs. Again, most of the previous studies attempted to at some locations. As will be seen in Section 2.3, there are account for the safety effect of PRPMs by using daytime mixed findings with respect to speed and an indication that crashes at the same sites as a comparison group. However, if the installations of PRPMs have a safety effect on daytime speed effects may be site specific. Changes in speed, along crashes and/or the time trends between daytime and night- with the effects of PRPMs on daytime encroachments, may time crashes differ, using daytime crashes at the same sites be factors in the mixed safety effects. as a comparison group will result in errors in the estimate of safety effectiveness. 2.2.2 Methodological Problems in Past Research 22.214.171.124 Regression-to-the-Mean The relative safety at any location is a function of all road- way, environmental, and driver characteristics. A change in If PRPMs were installed at a location experiencing a ran- any of these factors from the before to after period affects domly high number of crashes in the before period, then the safety. In order to derive an accurate estimate of the safety number of crashes in the after period would be expected to effect of PRPM installations, it is important to separate the decrease with or without the installation of PRPMs. This effect of other changes, including the changes described in phenomenon (known as regression-to-the-mean, or RTM) is the following sections. often a factor when study sites are selected based on crash history. Not only could RTM exist for the crash type or loca- tions of interest, but it could also exist in the comparison 126.96.36.199 Changes in Traffic Volumes group, and this existence could exaggerate the positive effects of a measure. For example, Orth-Rogers and Associates (18) Safety directly relates to traffic volumes. As a result, the dif- cite a study by Khan (20) in which 184 sites were selected ference in traffic volumes between the before and after peri- from high-hazard locations having four or more crashes in ods affects the expected difference in the number of crashes 1 year before the installation of PRPMs. At a group of con- between the before and after periods. In most of the previ- trol locations where PRPMs were not installed, it was found ous studies reviewed, traffic volumes were not accounted for that the total number of crashes increased. However, at the explicitly. Daytime crashes have most often been used to treated sites, both nighttime and daytime crashes were reduced. control for changes in safety, on the assumption that these It is clear that, given the site selection criterion, RTM will are unaffected by the PRPM installation. In the treatment- exaggerate the positive effects noted in the Khan study (20) comparison experimental design used by several researchers, and may even explain in entirety the reduction in daytime it was assumed that traffic volume changes are controlled for crashes. However, the increases in the control group may because the percentages of AADT during day and night should also be due to RTM because these locations may have been not change significantly in the before and after time periods untreated because they fell into a group that had fewer than (18). This may be a reasonable way of accounting for traffic the average number of crashes in 1 year. This RTM would volume changes if this assumption is met, providing that the exaggerate the effects of PRPMs even more. changes are small and that the relationship between crashes Only one of the previous studies, Pendleton (16), directly and traffic volume is approximately linear. In the studies accounted for RTM effects. The treatment-comparison exper- reviewed, it was unclear if these provisions were in fact met. imental design can, in principle, use comparison sites to con- It seems reasonable that one should not rely on such assump- trol for RTM, but the treatment and comparison sites need to tions and that one should seek explicit ways of accounting for be matched on the number of crashes. In practice, controlling | <urn:uuid:07180999-074d-4670-9e64-15f33fe91633> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=13724&page=12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958471 | 1,299 | 1.898438 | 2 |
Mindfulness Meditation And Your Inner Squirrel
Welcome to this week’s Edition of CardioLogix Magazine! This week we are looking at “Mindfulness Meditation,” knowing that mindfulness is one of those habits that can reduce stress, and help to keep us healthier by being more deliberate about where we put our attention. This can help change our stress response from being like a runaway train to a purring kitten. Or maybe even a contented squirrel…
This article by contributing author Richard M. Frost focuses on the subcortical region of the brain that is concerned with being fed. Satisfaction, contentment and accomplishment are states to strive toward, as they help to reduce stress, increase resiliency and enhance immunity.
By being mindful that our needs are being met, and feeling appreciation for the many ways that abundance is a part of our lives, the gratitude can shift your feelings from stress to inner peace.
Mindfulness Meditation – Give Your Inner Squirrel Some Nuts!
The recent fusion of evolutionary neuroscience with psychology has shed a great deal of light on the workings of our brains and the reasons for our emotions. In an earlier article on this website, Mindfulness Meditation – How to Slay Your Inner Dragon, we looked at the fears that are often generated by the primitive “lizard brain” always on the look-out for threats, both real and imagined. In this article, we look at the emotional dimension of a later evolutionary structure – the subcortical region inherited from early mammals – and suggest practical ways to keep that little critter inside us happy.
Getting to Know Your Inner Menagerie
This recognition of emotional legacies from previous evolutionary states, and the cute animal analogy that accompanies it, was most effectively popularized by Dr. Rick Hanson and Richard Mendius in their 2009 book, Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom, though the basic concept did not originate with them.
The brain can be seen as three layers. The deepest layer – the brainstem – corresponds to the earliest brains in reptiles, and is concerned primarily with the avoidance of harm. (Remember how the dinosaurs had notoriously small “pea brains”?) Subsequent evolution of the first mammals added the layer we now call the subcortical region, an area concerned with approaching rewards; i.e. getting food. The final layer – the cortex – came with the development of the later mammals and primates, and added a concern for attachment to a group. Thus, in the analogy that can easily be taken too far if we’re not careful, there is a little menagerie in our heads consisting of a frightened lizard, a hungry squirrel, and a clingy monkey. We must be attentive to each of their needs to have a nice day at the zoo!
Why Should We Be Nice to That Squirrel?
A squirrel with a nice cache of nuts is a happy squirrel. Feelings of contentment, accomplishment, and satisfaction reduce our stress levels, boost our immune systems, increase our resilience, and make us more generous toward, and considerate of, the needs of others. One of Dr. Hanson’s repeated themes is that thought patterns literally rewire the brain over time, and we should therefore attempt to program ourselves for greater happiness. I would go further and add, admittedly in a metaphysical vein, that positive emotions tend to beget experiences that reinforce them. If you’re looking to experience more abundance in life, feeding that inner squirrel is exactly what you need to do to ward off the poverty-consciousness that can trap you in a death spiral of diminishing opportunities and poorer outcomes.
Mindfulness Meditation on Abundance
To make that inner squirrel feel “fed,” we must be mindful of situations during the day when our basic needs are being met. Readers of Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret will notice the emphasis on cultivating an “attitude of gratitude” in these suggestions:
- Mealtime is, of course, one of the most obvious: be grateful for the food that nourishes your body, and recognize that literally millions of other people – but not you – will be going to sleep hungry tonight.
- Breathing exercises are a classic form of mindfulness meditation. With each breath, be thankful that all the cells in your body are receiving the oxygen they need.
- An appreciation for oxygen may remind you of other basic substances that we generally take for granted. When you have a drink (no soda, please – that’s poison), be thankful for the water without which you would quickly die. I like to contemplate the fact that earth is the most remarkable planet in the solar system because of its abundance of water, the prerequisite for life. (And if you really want to go to town, you can think about the unique properties of the water molecule that make ice float on top of water, preventing rivers, lakes, and seas from freezing solid and becoming inaccessible to us.)
- Once you start thinking about the earth as a uniquely hospitable environment that meets our needs amazingly well, you can derive feelings of comfort and security from the presence of plants and animals, the clouds in the sky, the warm sun on your skin, the ground beneath your feet.
- You can also be more aware of man-made benefits that are all around you, fulfilling your needs. If you live in a hot climate, like I do, appreciate your air conditioning and the refrigerator that protects your food from spoilage. If you have a car, think about how it saves you from having to walk ten miles to the grocery store.
Hopefully, reading this short list of suggested mindfulness exercises will get you thinking about your own. It’s quite remarkable how quickly these exercises can change the way you feel. Even if you’re going through tough times – as so many people are right now – there is still plenty to be thankful for if we simply shift our focus. Some people need a near-death experience to learn this lesson; all we needed was a little squirrel.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_M._Frost
Tags: gratitude, inner squirrel, later evolutionary structure, meditation, mindfulness meditation, mindfulness meditation and your inner squirrel, previous evolutionary states, stress, stress management, subcortical region | <urn:uuid:b134cfce-3dff-4980-8447-6b8926ea1d59> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cardiologix.com/mindfulness-meditation-and-your-inner-squirrel/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942014 | 1,304 | 2.40625 | 2 |
In the case of the systemic oppression of women in other countries and cultures, we, the public, have only ourselves to blame.
Today, December 10, marks International Human Rights Day, first declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 in the aftermath of a war that took millions of lives, and perpetrated a system of racism and genocide whose legacy still hangs thick around us. Four days earlier was Canada’s National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, December 6, which marked the 20th anniversary of the École Polytechnique massacre, when Marc Lépine murdered 14 women in Montreal in 1989. That day was the horrific manifestation of a broader misogyny that, while much resisted in Canada by the late ‘80s, was still an undercurrent flowing through our society.
These official days of recognition and remembrance should serve too as opportunities to stimulate action. Yet, the pace of real change has been lethargic and the reality remains that violence against women and the international movement for women’s human rights are found nowhere near front and centre of our everyday concerns, our everyday conversations, or in what we demand from our leaders.
From 1996 to 2001, when the Taliban imposed their bizarre and cruel collection of edicts designed to stifle the life out of Afghan women and girls, the western world barely noticed. The destruction of the age-old Buddha statues of Bamiyan, in central Afghanistan in 2001, merited louder outcry than when women, dragged by their hair and buried to their waists, were stoned to death in Kabul’s sports stadium, accused of adultery or prostitution. Canadians were mildly intrigued by photos of burqa-clad women who looked like blue ghosts haunting the destroyed streets of Kabul during those years, but there were no protests of thousands in the streets demanding that girls’ schools be reopened, that women be allowed to work, to leave their homes without a male guardian, or to speak aloud again.
The small feminist community of the western world, joined by an equally small number of ordinary people who were outraged, at both the Taliban’s cruelty and at the world’s silence, were witnessing a horror so extreme they dubbed it “gender-cide” or “gender apartheid.” But a much larger number of people said: Well, that’s their culture and we musn’t interfere. Cultural relativism had gone mainstream. As Nick Cohen recently wrote,
For all the qualifications, the stubborn fact remains that mainstream opinion does not consider the oppression of women a pressing concern when it is done in the name of culture or religion.… The misogyny they generate does not move hearts or stir passions.
In matters of social justice – climate change, health-care reform, child protection – we usually, rightfully, start by accusing our governments of a lack of will, of inaction, of breaking promises. We can also place blame on the media, on the stories and causes it values and doesn’t value. But in this case, in the case of the systemic oppression of women in other countries and cultures, we, the public, have only ourselves to blame.
It was ordinary people, in Canada and around the world, who stood up to South Africa’s apartheid and demanded boycotts, and the loudness of their collective voices contributed to the regime’s unpopularity and its eventual downfall. We have not yet stood up for women outside our borders. We have not yet universally condemned the governments that make the denial of women’s human rights official policy.
Unlike apartheid, systemic gender oppression is not a crime against humanity under international law. We are still living inside the tragedy of women’s inequality, losing out on all we might have gained as a planet had we spoken out against the twisted and nonsensical practice of allowing cultures and religions to treat women as inferior beings, preventing half the population from being contributing, active, agents of their societies. Instead, we have allowed men to act out their perversions by keeping women in sexual submission under the guise of faith, and helped excuse the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and other countries out of the inconvenience of reforming laws and practices that facilitate the torture, rape, captivity, mental illness, and deaths of women and girls.
The backwardness and inhumanity of oppressing women has not been acknowledged for what it is, because we, in our privileged and free society, have yet to call it for what it is. In fact, we have not only failed to speak out loud enough or en masse, some have even defended the gender inequities that still characterize the world in the 21st century. During the discussion period of a dialogue event on Canada’s role in Afghanistan post-2011 recently held in Vancouver, I listened to a seemingly educated, mentally fit man say, in his support for the Taliban’s involvement in a new government in Afghanistan, “Look, we can’t tell them how to treat their women, okay?” The only person (other than myself) in the room who seemed at all perplexed by this statement was the sole Afghan woman in attendance.
The comment is, sadly, not uncommon. Ophelia Benson, author of *Why Truth Matters*, fighter of fashionable nonsense, and diehard proponent of critical thinking, captures the irony of who it is that often propagates culturally relativist stances when it comes to women:
I am so sick of smug prosperous safe comfortable pale men urinating all over progress, liberalism, and enlightenment while desperate threatened terrified women would weep scalding tears of joy and deliverance to get just a taste of some. I am so sick of safe prosperous men who are never, ever going to be grabbed on the street and whipped, or shot in the back, or locked up in their houses, or married off to some abusive bully, going on and on and on and on about how much they hate progress, liberalism, and enlightenment.
As Jimmy Carter writes, “it is simply self-defeating for any community to discriminate against half its population.” Carter was prompted to leave the Southern Baptist Church, after 60 years, when the church’s convention continued to insist on women’s subservience to their husbands, and their prohibition from serving as deacons, pastors, or chaplains in the military.
We, the ordinary people of the world, need to likewise reject ideologies and practices that are an affront to the basic elements of what it means to be a human, anywhere in the world, in any culture – and we need to do it loudly and with vigor. When the bodies, lives, and dignity of women and girls are under fire, for the simple fact they are female, we need to take offense, and to do it with the same fury we have shown in the face of other global injustices. We have made change happen before; we can do it again. | <urn:uuid:1e91e65d-b0eb-41bc-9cff-5642e0457f3e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.themarknews.com/articles/745-wheres-the-outcry/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964044 | 1,420 | 3.03125 | 3 |
- Community Empowerment
Monday, October 7, 2002
Early Childhood Development
Queen Rania opens a 3-day conference that aims to highlight the importance of early childhood development
(The Jordan Times, By Dina Al Wakeel, Monday, October 7, 2002 - Amman) Early childhood development in the sights of local conference
A three-day meeting began on to highlight the importance of early childhood on overall human development.
The physical, psychological and mental makeup of an individual has been shown to largely be based upon the first eight years of life. Policies and strategies based on the Integrated Early Childhood Development (IECD) approach are being debated by service providers throughout the Kingdom.
The meeting, patronised by Her Majesty Queen Rania and held through the joint efforts of UNICEF and John's Hopkins University, was attended by Prince Raad, and brought together representatives from ministries of awqaf and Islamic affairs, education, health and social development, as well as UNRWA and various NGOs.
Experts are expected to develop an action plan integrating the many services extended to families and children, UNICEF's Children's Rights Project officer Maha Humsi told The Jordan Times.
Care for children's growth and development was particularly emphasised by UNICEF's Better Parenting Project — one of the essential components of IECD launched in the Kingdom in 1994.
The project aims to ensure children's rights within the family, seen as the primary determiner of a child's well-being.
The project has been implemented in over 100 centres, reaching more than 16,000 participants. "IECD policies seek to strengthen a family's ability to care for children," explained UNICEF representative Misrak Elias, adding that the approach must respond to critical issues such as gender equality, the rights and status of women, and the safety of a young child's physical environment.
She continued, saying the challenges currently faced need to be tackled to ensure the best care for children. One challenge is sustaining the cross-sectoral partnership between the IECD and the 13 governmental and non-governmental agencies.
Another obstacle of primary concern to the Better Parenting Project is the need for more participation from fathers who often believe their role is less than of mothers.'
To meet the challenge, UNICEF recently signed an agreement with the Ministry of Awqaf to address men during Friday prayers as an effort to convince them that both parents are responsible for a child's upbringing, said Elias.
The Ministry of Education is another party playing a significant role in the development of children. Minister Khalid Touqan briefed participants on some of the ministry's achievements. In 1994, kindergarten education was made part of primary schooling, but was not made compulsory.
By 2005, the ministry intends to increase the number of children enrolled in kindergarten from 28.5 per cent to 35 per cent by an expansion of public KG's in remote areas.
Thus far, 160 new KG classes have been added to public schools, said Touqan. Investments in early childhood bear fruit in the future, said UNICEF, adding, that for every dollar spent there is seven-fold return, improving the country's position in the global economy.
"Investing in young children will bring long-term social change and the sustained realisation of children's rights," said Elias. | <urn:uuid:3693b12e-0a24-4f05-bb3c-81395a4d8edb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.queenrania.jo/media/articles/early-childhood-development | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958671 | 681 | 2.484375 | 2 |
The Triangle Seagals, a unit of the WAVES National organization, is a group of women who answered the call to serve their nation in military service. Any former or present member of the Navy, Naval Reserve, Navy Nurse Corps, Marine Corps or Coast Guard is eligible for membership in the Triangle Seagals.
The Triangle Seagals, which was chartered in the Triangle area in January 1997, has 22 members. Of those members, three served during World War II, while others served during the Korean War, the first Gulf War.
The WAVES became a division of the United States Navy during World War II and consisted entirely of women. WAVES stands for “Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service” and when World War II ended, the women were not expected to end their naval careers.
However, the members of the Triangle Seagals did not just serve in World War II combat.
“We are all ex-Navy, plus one ex-Marine and live all over the tri-county area as well as the State of North Carolina (even one member who lives in SC!),” Triangle Seagals President Norma Schrader said. “Most of us were enlisted personnel but we do have a few who were officers.”
Schrader said many people in today’s society do not understand what the WAVES organization stands for and how many women paved the way for others serving in the Navy.
“The acronym, WAVES-Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Services, was discontinued in the early 1970s. Today, when those of us have an opportunity to chat with our young counter-parts mention that we were WAVES, we are rewarded with a “duh?” look on their faces,” Schrader said. “They never heard of us. Women in the Navy today are ‘sailors’, just like their male counterparts. But when they realize what paths we opened for them, they are astounded.”
Schrader said she would encourage all women to serve in the military.
“There are so many more opportunities today for women in all the services that are the result of what we did “way back when”! I certainly would urge young people today to enlist in any one of the services for at least one tour of duty before going on to college.” According to Schrader, the Triangle Seagals meet six times a year, usually at 11 a.m. on a Saturday morning, in various locations within the Triangle area.
“It gives us an opportunity to get together, exchange experiences, and keep up with events that could affect us. We try to have speakers at our meetings to help us do just that.”
To find out more about the Triangle Seagals go to http://sites.google.com/site/triangleseagals/Home or call Schrader at 919-303-8205. | <urn:uuid:e508e313-d95c-4655-923e-d0dfb1892672> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fuquay-varinaindependent.com/pages/home/push?class=&x_page=112&rel=next&per_page=5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979956 | 625 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Flu vaccinations reminder
9:51am Wednesday 17th October 2012 in News
PEOPLE who could be at risk from the complications of flu are being encouraged to get the vaccine at their GP surgery.
Those at greatest risk from flu and their carers are eligible to have the free annual vaccine.
Flu is highly contagious. While for most people it is a mild illness treatable with over-the-counter medicines, for some it can be really serious, possibly fatal.
Those at greater risk from flu include people aged 65 or over, pregnant women and younger people with underlying medical conditions such as chest or heart complaints, kidney or liver disease, people with weakened immune systems and diabetes. In extreme cases, flu can lead to complications such as pneumonia that can result in a hospital admission.
Felicity Owen, Director of Public Health for Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, said: “It is only a matter of time before we see flu levels escalating once again as the winter arrives. “This is the start of the window of opportunity we have to vaccinate the vulnerable and give time for immunity to build up, which takes a few weeks.
“I would encourage anyone offered the flu vaccine to take it up - flu can be a really serious illness for some people and the vaccine will protect you from it.”
The flu vaccine changes every year to fight the latest strains of flu. This makes it even more important that people have the new vaccine every year.
Felicity added: “Even if you had a jab last winter you need another one this year to remain protected. The jab doesn't contain the 'live' virus so it cannot give you the flu.
“We hope that GP practices will identify and vaccinate everyone at risk who should be having the vaccine but if you feel you should be offered it then discuss it with your surgery. Carers are also entitled to have the vaccine to protect the person they are looking after and they may not be known to GP surgeries.
“Flu doesn't just affect older people - children with severe asthma for example are just as vulnerable as are pregnant women and their unborn babies.”
Frontline health and social care staff across the county are also being encouraged to protect themselves and those around them.
Nearly two thirds of all flu-related deaths occur among the vulnerable groups, which is why they are offered the vaccine. | <urn:uuid:a3b138a3-65e1-4698-ac9a-fc0ba6d1413d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/9989302.Flu_vaccinations_reminder/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976095 | 491 | 2.484375 | 2 |
This month's Accretionary Wedge is all about "Geologeeeeee in Spaaaaaaaace," as Chris over at goodSchist pronounces it!
I got to thinking about mining in spaaaace, and found some interesting links that have to do with mining meteorites on earth, and some results of meteor impacts.
But first off, mining in space - in the asteroid belt or anywhere else - is not likely to happen anytime soon, IMO. Numerous people, however, have been looking into it, perhaps at least as long as we have been actively exploring space, beginning with our 1960's race to the moon.
Asteroids are small metallic to rocky bodies in our solar system that are too small to be considered planets. That definition is a little fuzzy, as we have found out recently with the de-classification of Pluto from a planet to, well, a dwarf planet, which is something between an asteroid and a planet in size.
The main grouping of asteroids occurs in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. These asteroids are thought to be what's left of primordial or proto-planetary matter that did not form a planet because of interference by the large gravitational field of nearby Jupiter. Asteroids also occur in Jupiter's Lagrange points; these asteroids are known as Trojans. Finally, there are asteroids that approach relatively close to Earth, and they are called Near Earth Asteroids (NEA's).
Asteroids can also be classified by composition. The classification of asteroids into C-type, S-type, and M-type, along with several other minor types, is based on the study of meteors that enter earth's orbit and then survive as on-the-ground meteorites. Chris at goodSchist describes in detail one of the C-type asteroids, Ivuna, and Geology Happens has some info about asteroid impacts and the craters they form.
Asteroid mining, as I mentioned, was the first type of mining that came to my mind when I thought of mining in space. The several different kinds of asteroids have potentially many different kinds of minerals or elements that a reasonable miner might want to go after in space. These elements include gold and platinum, aluminum, magnesium, nickel, cobalt, platinum, and titanium, aluminium, gold, silver, zinc and other base and precious metals, and a whole host of resources depending on asteroid type:
C, D, P: H2O, CO2, CH4
B, G, F: nickel and iron
Q, S, M: nickel, iron, silicates, and platinum group elements
Apparently - and probably not surprisingly - the Near Earth Asteroids have been voted "most likely to be mined" by those doing initial feasibility studies. C-type asteroids are favored by some, not only for their iron, aluminum, magnesium, nickel, cobalt, and platinum, but also for other commodities and mineral sources such as ice, hydrocarbons, graphite, silicates, sulfides and sulfates, nitrates, and carbonates. The current feasibility and accuracy of these plans and ideas is beyond the scope of this little blog article!
Meteorite impacts on earth have led to some interesting mining speculation, the foremost of which started after G. K. Gilbert, in the 1890's, decided that the Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona was caused by an underground steam explosion - because he could find no meteor-impact evidence, such as an intact meteorite. In 1902, Daniel Moreau Barringer, an American mining engineer, decided that the crater, which he recognized as a meteorite impact crater, had great iron and nickel mining potential, if only the meteorite that had created the crater could be found. He drilled the area for twenty years without finding what he was looking for, at the same time finding geologic evidence that eventually led to the acceptance of the site as an impact crater.
Others have occasionally proposed exploring for impact sites as a way to find certain metals and commodities, such as gold, platinum, and diamonds. It's not clear to me whether these are viable exploration models, or whether they are, in large part, based on the fact that the Sudbury mining district in Canada, a large source of nickel, copper, cobalt, and platinum group elements, is the site of a huge meteorite impact that occurred 1.8 billion years ago. The metals in the 30 x 60 km Sudbury basin are not currently thought to have come from the meteorite, but from the earth itself. The story of the Sudbury impact and resulting melting of the earth's crust can be read about here, here, and here. From Naldrett, 2003:
...there is a growing body of isotopic evidence that the complex is an impact melt that incorporated Ni-, Cu-, and PGE–bearing mafic and/or ultramafic rocks that were already present in the target area (Keays and Lightfoot, 1999; Cohen et al., 2000).
In other space-mining news, mining on the moon may succeed sooner than asteroid mining, if NASA builds its moon base, and if mining Helium-3 for fusion-generated energy proves worthwhile. The most recent moon-base proposal, however, doesn't seem to require any off-world mining.
A Few References:
Cohen, A.S., Burnham, O.M., Hawkesworth, C.J., Lightfoot, P.C., 2000, Pre-emplacement Re-Os ages from ultramafic inclusions in the Sublayer of the Sudbury Igneous Complex, Ontario: Chemical Geology, v. 165, p. 37–46.
Keays, R.R., Lightfoot, P.C., 1999, The role of meteorite impact, source rocks, protores and mafic magmas in the genesis of the Sudbury Ni-Cu-PGE sulfide ore deposits, in Keays, R.R., et al., eds., Dynamic processes in magmatic ore deposits and their application in mineral exploration: Geological Association of Canada, Short Course Notes, v. 13, p. 329–366.
Naldrett, A. J., 2003, From Impact to Riches: Evolution of Geological Understanding as Seen at Sudbury, Canada: Geological Society of America, GSA Today, vol. 13, issue 2, p. 4-9.
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|Introduction | Questions and Activities | Lesson Focus | Resources | Program Index||Teacher's Guide Contents|
2: Autobiographical WritingsWe think about slavery as this complete package that just came to evil landowners. It didn't happen that way. It happened one law at a time, one person at a time.
Frances Latimer, local historian
How did race-based slavery develop? This lesson uses a program segment and primary sources to focus on the shift from bond labor to slave labor in the British American colonies. Students trace the development of laws that enforced the slave status of Africans and their descendants.
Program Segment (approximately 25 minutes)
In 1619 Africans arrive in Virginia as indentured servants; over the next century, laws develop that define slavery by race.
Begin: A hand works the soil with a gardening tool.
End: The sky appears with clouds obscuring the sun.
Slavery evolved in the British American colonies as a social, economic, and legal institution. Ask students, What are the characteristics of an institution?How do institutions get started? What are their impact on society? Discuss some historical and contemporary examples (e.g., public schools). Develop a class definition of institution.
As students watch the program segment, have them note the laws and legal decisions that are mentioned, and who was affected by them.
Revisit the class definition of institution. How was slavery an institution? How was it like or unlike other American institutions?
Discuss the laws and legal decisions that students noted while watching the program segment. What were these laws and why were they enacted? Who was affected by them? How did they serve to institutionalize slavery? What racial attitudes allowed acceptance of these laws? Could slavery have developed without them?
Exploring Primary Sources
Several colonial laws were among the many that established race-based slavery as a legal system in the British American colonies. As a class, read and summarize these doucments:
Organize the class into two groups to study one or more of the laws. For background, have students research colonial life, using the Questions in Questions and Activities, books such as A Multicultural Portrait of Colonial Life by Carolyn Kott Washburne (New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1993), and General Resources.
The first group will portray members of a legislative body that is discussing the laws. (Remind students that only white male property owners were allowed to vote or hold office.) The group should include planters, merchants, and religious officials. Their discussion should address these questions:
The second group will portray indentured, enslaved, and free laborers, and should include African, Indian, and European men and women. This group will discuss the impact each law will have on them, individually and as a group. Their discussion should address these questions:
- Why is this law necessary?
- What will it accomplish if enacted?
- What will happen if it is not enacted?
Have both groups describe their respective characters (by race, class, gender, legal status, etc.) before they present their responses. Afterward, have the class discuss the following questions: How did the interests of the two groups conflict? Who benefited the most from these laws? Who benefited the least? Were the consequences of these laws the same for all individuals within each group?
- Will this law affect me or my family? If so, how?
- How might it change my life?
- How can we resist these laws?
As a class, discuss the various forms of writing that might be considered autobiographical -- for example, logs, journals, diaries, memoirs, reminiscences, and letters. Discuss the purpose of these forms: are they generally meant to be utilitarian or literary? public or private? specific or general? What issues related to class, gender, occupation, literacy, access to resources, etc. make it more likely that an individual would choose one form over another?
Working individually or in pairs, have students choose two forms of autobiographical writing (for example, diaries and slave narratives). Using the documents of the writers listed below, or others in the Africans in America Resource Bank and other sources (such as the Documents of the American South), they should find at least three examples of each form. Refer back to the questions above: What characteristics within each form do the writers have in common? What characteristics are shared across different forms? In what ways do the two sets differ?
- Olaudah Equiano
- William Byrd
- Alexander Falconbridge
- Venture Smith
- Boston King
- Richard Allen
- Jarena Lee
- Rebecca Cox Jackson
- Fanny Kemble
- Charles Ball
- Harriet Jacobs
- Frances Fearn
Ask students to think about how they would compose their own biographies, applying the same critical questions from above. What options are available now that were not available prior to the Civil War? You may wish to ask students to create an autobiography in one of the following forms:
- an essay
- a visual display that combines text and images
- a multimedia document that includes text, sound, and images
- a performance of a dialogue or skit
Part 1: Narrative | Resource Bank Contents | Teacher's Guide
Africans in America: Home | Resource Bank Index | Search | Shop
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CRESCENT COTTON OIL CO. v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI.
257 U.S. 129 (42 S.Ct. 42, 66 L.Ed. 166)
CRESCENT COTTON OIL CO. v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI.
Argued: Oct. 17, 1921.
Decided: Nov. 14, 1921.
- opinion, CLARKE [HTML]
Messrs. J. B. Harris, of Jackson, Miss., and Thomas A. Evans, of Memphis, Tenn., for plaintiff in error.
Argument of Counsel from pages 130-132 intentionally omitted
Frank Roberson, of Jackson, Miss., for the State of Mississippi.
Mr. Justice CLARKE delivered the opinion of the Court.
An act of the Legislature of Mississippi, approved March 28, 1914 (designated in the record the 'Anti-Gin Act'), prohibits corporations, whether organized under the laws of that state or authorized under the laws thereof to do any local business therein, among other things, from owning or operating any cotton gin, when such corporation is interested in the manufacture of cotton seed oil or cotton seed meal. A penalty is provided for violation of the act, but corporations are permitted to operate their gins for a reasonable time until they may be sold. A proviso permits cotton seed oil companies to operate gins of a prescribed capacity, but only in the city or town where their oil plants are located. Laws Miss. 1914, c. 162, section 4752 et seq., Hemingway's Code 1917.
The plaintiff in error, a corporation organized under Tennessee laws, prior to 1914 owned and operated a cotton seed oil mill at Memphis in that state, and two cotton gins in Mississippi. Disregarding the Anti-Gin Act, it continued to operate its two gins in Mississippi until October, 1915, when, for the purpose of enforcing the law, the state, on the relation of its Attorney General, instituted a suit in equity against the company in a county court of chancery, which, after various vicissitudes, resulted in a decree that the act was constitutional, and that the plaintiff in error was guilty of violating it. A penalty was imposed upon the company, its right to do intrastate or local business in Mississippi was declared forfeited, it was perpetually enjoined from operating cotton gins in the state, and it was ordered that, within 90 days, the company should dispose of the two cotton gins which it owned and operated in Mississippi. The company was also found guilty of violating the anti-trust law of the state and a penalty therefor was imposed.
This is a proceeding in error to review the decree of the Supreme Court of Mississippi affirming that decree of the county court as to the Anti-Gin Act. The holding that the anti-trust laws were violated was reversed by the Supreme Court.
Without proof of it in the record, the case is argued upon the assumption that the statute assailed was enacted in aid of the antitrust laws of the state, under the conviction on the part of the Legislature that it was the practice of corporations operating oil mills and cotton gins to depress the price of ginning, regardless of cost, until local competition was suppressed, or brought to terms, and then to charge excessive prices for ginning and to pay unfairly low prices for seed. There is evidence in the record tending to show resort to such methods by the plaintiff in error.
It clearly appears that in practice it is an advantage to the purchaser of cotton seed to operate gins, not only for the profit that may be made from them directly, but because the grower of cotton often prefers to sell his seed to the company ginning it rather than carry it to another purchaser. It is also in evidence that individuals, as well as corporations owned and operated gins and that other oil companies than the plaintiff in error obtained their supplies of seed from growers, from gin owners, and from brokers.
The plaintiff in error has heretofore relied, and here relies, for its defense, upon the unconstitutionality of the Anti-Gin Act, which it asserts upon two grounds, viz. first, that, as applied to the plaintiff in error, it imposes a direct and substantial, and therefore an unconstitutional, burden upon an instrumentality of interstate commerce; and, second, mildly, that, the act being applicable to corporations, and not to individuals, owning and operating cotton gins, it denies to the plaintiff in error the equal protection of the laws, and therefore offends against the Constitution of the United States.
The basis of the first contention is the claim that it had become impracticable for the oil company to carry on its oil manufacturing business successfully when purchasing its cotton seed supply from other ginners or from brokers, that for this reason the company acquired its two cotton gins in Mississippi, and nine in other states, to obtain the advantage of purchasing seed direct from the growers of cotton, and that all of the cotton seed which it had purchased in connection with its gins was shipped in interstate commerce to its oil mill at Memphis, the gins being, in effect, 'feeders' to its oil mill.
These facts, not disputed in the record, it is argued, constitute the gins an essential means and instrumentality of interstate commerce and that therefore the act imposes a direct and unconstitutional burden on commerce between the states, in violation of section 8 of article 1, of the Constitution of the United States.
Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Kansas, 216 U. S. 1, 30 Sup. Ct. 190, 54 L. Ed. 355, Pullman Co. v. Kansas, 216 U. S. 56, 30 Sup. Ct. 232, 54 L. Ed. 378, Ludwig v. Western Union Telegraph Co., 216 U. S. 146, 30 Sup. Ct. 280, 54 L. Ed. 423, and Harrison v. St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad Co., 232 U. S. 318, 34 Sup. Ct. 333, 58 L. Ed. 621, L. R. A. 1915F, 1187, are relied upon to sustain this contention of the plaintiff in error. In the first two of the cases cited an attempt was made by the state of Kansas to tax interstate carriers on the basis of all of their property, wherever situated, as measured by the capital stock of the companies. In the third case a similar attempt was made by the state of Arkansas.
There was no question in any of these cases but that the principal business of the companies challenging the taxing law was interstate in character and that their chief investment was in property used in and necessary to the conduct of their interstate commerce. The controversy in the cases was as to the incidence of the taxwhether it was so imposed upon the property of the companies or the stock representing it, as to constitute a direct and substantial burden upon the interstate commerce in which they were engaged.
It is clear that these decisions cannot be of aid in determining the question we are now considering, which is whether a cotton gin operated by an oil company in Mississippi is rendered an instrumentality of interstate commerce by the fact that the owner of it ships out of the state, for its use in another state, all of the cotton seed which may be purchased in connection with its ginning operations.
The fourth case relied upon, Harrison v. St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad Co., 232 U. S. 318, 34 Sup. Ct. 333, 58 L. Ed. 621, L. R. A. 1915F, 1187, was an attempt on the part of a state to prevent removal of causes from state to United States courts, and is, if possible, yet more inapposite. The separation of the seed from the fiber of the cotton, which is accomplished by the use of the cotton gin, is a short, but important, step in the manufacture of both the seed and the fiber into useful articles of commerce; but that manufacture is not commerce was held in Kidd v. Pearson, 128 U. S. 1, 20, 21, 9 Sup. Ct. 6, 32 L. Ed. 346; United States v. E. C. Knight Co., 156 U. S. 1, 12, 13, 15 Sup. Ct. 249, 39 L. Ed. 325; Capital City Dairy Co. v. Ohio, ex rel. Attorney General, 183 U. S. 238, 245, 22 Sup. Ct. 120, 46 L. Ed. 171; McCluskey v. Marysville & Northern Railway Co., 243 U. S. 36, 38, 37 Sup. Ct. 374, 61 L. Ed. 578, and in Hammer v. Dagenhart, 247 U. S. 251, 252, 38 Sup. Ct. 529, 62 L. Ed. 1101, 3 A. L. R. 649, Ann. Cas. 1918E, 724; Arkadelphia Milling Co. v. St. Louis & South Western Railway Co., 249 U. S. 134, 151, 152, 39 Sup. Ct. 237, 63 L. Ed. 517. And the fact, of itself, that an article when in the process of manufacture is intended for export to another state does not render it an article of interstate commerce. Coe v. Errol, 116 U. S. 517, 6 Sup. Ct. 475, 29 L. Ed. 715; New York Central, etc., Co. v. Mohney, 252 U. S. 152, 155, 40 Sup. Ct. 287, 64 L. Ed. 502, 9 A. L. R. 496. When the ginning is completed, the operator of the gin is free to purchase the seed or not, and, if it is purchased, to store it in Mississippi indefinitely, or to sell or use it in that state, or to ship it out of the state for use in another, and, under the cases cited, it is only in this last case, and after the seed has been committed to a carrier for interstate transport, that it passes from the regulatory power of the state into interstate commerce and under the national power.
The application of these conclusions of law to the manufacturing operations of the cotton gins, which we have seen precede, but are not a part of, interstate commerce, renders it quite impossible to consider them an instrumentality of such commerce, which is burdened by the Anti-Gin Act, and the first contention of the plaintiff in error must be denied.
There remains the second contention, that the Anti-Gin Act denies to plaintiff in error the equal protection of the laws, because it applies to corporations and not to individuals.
Where, as we have found in this case, a foreign corporation has no federal right to continue to do business in a state, and where, as here, no contract right is involved, and there is no employment by the federal government, it is the settled law that a state may impose conditions, in its discretion, upon the right of such a corporation to do business within the state, even to the extent of excluding it altogether. Horn Silver Mining Co. v. New York, 143 U. S. 305, 12 Sup. Ct. 403, 36 L. Ed. 164; Baltic Mining Co. v. Massachusetts, 231 U. S. 68, 83, 34 Sup. Ct. 15, 58 L. Ed. 127, and cases cited. And in such case the inherent difference between corporations and natural persons is sufficient to sustain a classification making restrictions applicable to corporations only. Hammond Packing Co. v. Arkansas, 212 U. S. 322, 343, 344, 29 Sup. Ct. 370, 53 L. Ed. 530, 15 Ann. Cas. 645; Baltic Mining Co. v. Massachusetts, 231 U. S. 68, 83, 34 Sup. Ct. 15, 58 L. Ed. 127. And see Ft. Smith Lumber Co. v. Arkansas, 251 U. S. 532, 533, 40 Sup. Ct. 304, 64 L. Ed. 396; American Sugar Refining Co. v. Louisiana, 179 U. S. 89, 21 Sup. Ct. 43, 45 L. Ed. 102; Williams v. Fears, 179 U. S. 270, 276, 21 Sup. Ct. 128, 45 L. Ed. 186; W. W. Cargill Co. v. Minnesota, 180 U. S. 452, 21 Sup. Ct. 423, 45 L. Ed. 619.
This would be sufficient to dispose of this second contention, but we may add that the law assailed was enacted by the state in the exercise of its police power, to prevent a practice conceived to be promotive of monopoly with its attendant evils. It is clearly settled that any classification adopted by a state in the exercise of this power which has a reasonable basis, and is therefore not arbitrary, will be sustained against an attack based upon the equal protection of the laws clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and also that every state of facts sufficient to sustain such classification which can be reasonably conceived of as having existed when the law was enacted will be assumed. Lindsley v. Natural Carbonic Gas Co., 220 U. S. 61, 31 Sup. Ct. 337, 55 L. Ed. 369, Ann. Cas. 1912C, 160, and cases cited; Rast v. Van Deman & Lewis Co., 240 U. S. 342, 36 Sup. Ct. 370, 60 L. Ed. 679, L. R. A. 1917A, 421, Ann. Cas. 1917B, 455.
The record before us shows that, before the law assailed was enacted, cotton gins had been operated in Mississippi by individuals as well as by corporations; but there is no showing that oil mills and cotton gins were both operated by an individual or by groups of individuals, and we think it may well be assumed, under the rule stated, that because of the larger capital required, and perhaps for other reasons, oil mills and cotton gins may have been operated in that state only by corporations, and that for this reason the restraint of the evil aimed at by the act of the Legislature could be accomplished by controlling corporations only. Assuming this to be the fact when the law was enacted, obviously the classification objected to cannot be pronounced so without reasonable basis as to be arbitrary.
A number of minor contentions are discussed in the briefs. These have all been considered, but are found to be not of sufficient substance to deserve special discussion.
It results that the judgment of the Supreme Court of Mississippi will be
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At a time when being drafted to serve in Vietnam was still a real possibility, David Dreifus dropped out of school. In 1970, he left academic life at Antioch College in Ohio because he wanted a real job.
He returned home to Memphis, Tenn. – in his own words, "18, brainless and looking around for work." A tip from his grandma led him to Leo Barthol, known then as one of the best woodworkers around. "I pulled my shoulder-length hair into a ponytail and started sweeping floors and stripping furniture," he says. Apprenticing himself to a woodworker was ironic. Dreifus’ previous experience in high school shop class left him feeling he showed no abilities whatsoever. But the apprenticeship was not just ironic, it was lucky. Dreifus always knew he would go to college and use his intellectual abilities. This introduction to shaping wood gave him room to be creative as well – if he could just find a way to balance these two aspects of himself.
Mr. Barthol, as Dreifus still refers to him, became his "third grandfather" and lifelong friend. Bald, with glasses and a tiny pointed goatee framed by a handlebar mustache, Barthol was brilliantly talented and down-to-earth. A few years into their relationship and well before distressed furniture became the vogue, Barthol gave Dreifus a solid white pine board as lid for a blanket box, saying "Top’s all buggered up, but that’s all right – it’ll make it more antiquey-looking."
After the better part of a year under Barthol’s instruction, Dreifus returned to school. He wanted to do both intellectual and creative, hands-on work, but could only manage the next best thing: spending summers, breaks and every minute he could spare away from school in the workshop.
With his schooling at Tufts finished in 1974, Dreifus turned full time to the world of fine tools and raw wood. He rented space in Barthol’s shop under a Dickensian arrangement of $100 per month plus half the cost of coal after the first ton. His rent gave him access to the heavy, cast iron shop tools – table saw, joiner, planer and band saw – used for giving furniture pieces their rough shape before the finer work is done with hand tools. These tools, fashioned in the ‘20s were "solid as a rock" and driven by a series of belts and pulleys. To engage the main pulley, Dreifus threw a big switch set in the floor. He would then start each tool by flipping its belt onto a pulley with a hefty metal bar. The huskiness of the shop tools contrasted with the spare walls of corrugated tin and bare wooden studs. Dreifus says the building was "hotter’n hell" in summer and "colder’n hell" in winter outside the range of the coal stove.
During this period, Dreifus worked on his own, not so much to be a business owner as to allow him to do all the woodworking himself and to see how far he could develop his skills. Foreshadowing his future career, one of Dreifus’ favorite pieces from that time was a round conference table made for a lawyer's office. He also designed and made built-in bookcases and restaurant signs, as well as an assortment of tables, sideboards and chairs.
Although he felt creative challenges remained and that he had not reached his peak as a woodworker, Dreifus found very little intellectual stimulation in his work. After two and a half years as a self-employed furniture maker, he felt "mentally unchallenged." Trying to find the right balance in life again, he traded corrugated tin walls and cast iron tools for a campus and classrooms. He earned a law degree from Duke in 1980 and now works for the Raleigh firm of Poyner and Spruill, handling complex lawsuits between corporations.
Furniture-making didn’t end when Dreifus’ law career began. He made furniture in his basement until 1993, when he built a backyard workshop. His woodworking hasn’t been so much an escape from his legal work as a complement to it. "Whichever half of my brain I use for being a lawyer, I use the other half for making furniture," he says.
Almost every room of the house he shares with his wife and daughter holds furniture that he has made or an older piece he has repaired. A favorite piece, the white pine blanket box with the beat-up lid, has solid sides 12 inches wide. Pointing to the hand-cut, dovetailed joints, Dreifus says, "With wood this pretty you feel a responsibility to do something special." The blanket box shares bedroom space with two other white pine pieces. Hanging over a dressing table is a 2-by-3 mirror frame. At each corner is a block carved with concentric circles like the plinth blocks you might see on the interior window trim of a fin de siècle house. Running between the corner blocks, Dreifus hand-carved a string of pearl-sized beads. The mirror frame is patterned on a bookcase built by Barthol many years ago. Across the room an armoire-sized free-standing cabinet features hand-carved side panels cut by Dreifus with block planes and chisels and rustic v-grooved doors with simple wrought-iron hinges. This cabinet and another like it in his wife Karen Starks’ office were built in the early days of their marriage, when they lived in an old house without closet space.
Another piece inspired by necessity was the cradle for his daughter Sally, now in high school. The cherry wood features a four-petaled flower hand-carved into the footboard and dovetailed corners. Thinking back, Dreifus says that "seeing the kid I made in the cradle I made gave me quite a strong feeling. The kid more so than the cradle, of course."
Several pieces that arose from intrinsic creative and technical challenges are his Shaker-style ladder-back chairs of birdseye maple and a Shaker-style pedestal table of cherry, oak and walnut. Dreifus favors the Shaker style because it lets him emphasize the grain without the distraction of fancy ornamentation.
While Dreifus acknowledges that his furniture-making has taken a back seat to his legal career, he comes closer these days to balancing what he calls his two disciplines – cerebral law and tactile woodworking – than he has in the past. On a good weekend, he gets in four to five hours a day in the backyard workshop. This isn’t too far from his fancifully stated "ideal week" of four days practicing law, three days being with family, two days woodworking and one day reading.
Currently, Dreifus’ weekends find him producing pieces that contrast greatly with his earlier work in their reliance on ornamentation and detail. About three years ago, he woke up one morning telling himself that he had wanted for 20 years to build a guitar – and that "at age 44, if I’m ever going to build a guitar, it’s time to start." He’s now on his third steel-string acoustic guitar, which he is making for Karen. The first he’s keeping for himself, the second he may sell to a friend. He hopes he will be able to sell more, because, he says, "I want to keep making them, and I don’t want to have a dozen guitars in the house."
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Many Americans Believe Recession Is Permanent
CREDIT: Burning money image via Shutterstock
Despite signs of an economic recovery, the Great Recession's scope and impact was so widespread and corrosive that it has left millions of Americans permanently damaged financially, a new study finds.
The research from the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University found that five years after the country's economic downturn started, 60 percent of U.S. residents think the nation's economy has undergone a permanent change.
More than half of those surveyed think it will take at least six years for the economy to fully recover from the Great Recession, with 29 percent believing it will never hit the levels it reached before the recession.
"After suffering through the worst economic disaster American workers have ever experienced, they are deeply pessimistic," said Rutgers professor Carl Van Horn. "Five years of economic misery have profoundly diminished Americans’ confidence in the economy and their outlook for the next generation."
The study revealed just how impactful the economic recession was on American families. Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed either lost a job themselves, or had a member of their household, close relative or friend lose a job at some point in the past four years.
Among those who did find themselves out of work, more than half cut back on medical treatments or doctor visits, while 40 percent were forced to borrow money from family or friends, the research found. In addition, more than 20 percent have been treated professionally for stress or depression.
Overall, more than half of those surveyed said they have less money in savings today than before the recession began, including 38 percent who say they have a lot less in savings.
One of the study's co-authors, professor Cliff Zukin, said it is younger Americans, having come out of high school and college into an overcrowded job market, who may be affected the greatest.
"There is some evidence we may be seeing the beginning of a new generation in American society — no longer millennials, but 'recessionals,'" Zukin said. "Whereas older workers hit by the recession might recover their past consumer habits, this period of the recession might leave a lasting imprint on young people in their buying habits and need for security as they make their way through life."
Despite the study finding that 40 percent of Americans have little faith in the government to turn the economy around, they are counting on Congress and the president to take actions that would lower unemployment. More than 80 percent of those surveyed want the government to give tax credits to employers that hire new workers, while 60 percent think the government should fund direct job creation programs.
The study, also co-authored by graduate research assistant Mark Szeltner, was based on surveys of 1,090 employed and unemployed Americans.
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Gripping the club is the most basic act in golf, yet there are many variations in grip styles. The two most common are the interlocking grip and the overlapping (or Vardon) grip. Let’s examine the pros and cons of each.
The interlocking golf grip style finds the right pinky finger locked between the index and middle fingers of the left hand (for a right-handed golfer). Proponents point to its use by Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods – arguably the two greatest players in history – as evidence of the interlocking grip’s superiority.
The interlocking grip is widely recommended for players with small hands and/or short fingers (like Nicklaus), as well as beginners and those who lack forearm strength. It’s especially popular among LPGA tour professionals.
The Vardon grip, named for its originator, English legend Harry Vardon, is formed by placing the right pinky finger on top of the seam between the left index and middle fingers. Ben Hogan was among the advocates of overlapping, and it remains the grip of choice for a majority of amateurs and pros.
Overlapping golf grippers believe this style promotes better wrist action and allows a freer, more powerful release of the club through impact.
The bottom line: Test both techniques and go with the one that feels most comfortable. | <urn:uuid:c027ac8d-741a-49df-99f0-2314218b7a48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://golf-info-guide.com/golf-tips/playing-conditions/overlapping-vs-interlocking-whats-the-best-golf-grip/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938677 | 279 | 1.617188 | 2 |
The 2011 growing season got off to a slow start as wet weather and cold soil delayed corn planting across the Midwest. This has left many growers wondering if a foliar fungicide is still necessary for late-planted corn.
In most cases, the answer is yes. The chances of foliar diseases and stress developing in corn can increase with later planting, resulting in an even greater benefit from using strobilurin fungicides
When a foliar disease infects a corn plant in its early reproductive growth stages, it increases the chance there will be a negative impact on yield. Disease infections are more likely to occur in the warm and humid summer days, so when corn is planted later, corn will hit its immature growth stage during this high-risk time. Some diseases, including gray leaf spot, northern corn leaf blight and rusts, are most destructive when established in plants at or before tasseling, which is likely to happen when corn is planted late.
Northern corn leaf blight tends to enter fields later in the season, often only causing minimal yield loss when corn is planted on time or early, as in the 2010 season. However, this disease can be extremely harmful if it strikes when plants are still in the immature stages of development. According to the Compendium of Corn Diseases published by the American Phytopathological Society, if northern corn leaf blight “is established before silking, losses in grain yield of up to 50% may occur. If infection is moderate or delayed until six weeks after silking, yield losses are minimal.”
The risk of gray leaf spot infections also increases when corn is planted later in the season, according to studies by the University of Illinois Extension.
Other diseases, such as common and southern rusts, may also infect corn during earlier stages of development before resistance to these diseases has been established.
Even in the absence of disease, using a strobilurin fungicide
in the early vegetative stages or at the R1 growth stage
improves plant growth processes and reduces the impact of environmental stress, resulting in physiological plant benefits
. The high price of corn and the odds of disease risk increasing with late planted corn means a more profitable return on investment with the use of a fungicide. So protect your crop and your wallet with a well-timed fungicide application.
Eric Tedford, Fungicide Technical Brand Manager for Syngenta, provides technical leadership for the development of fungicides. His experience includes fungicide research and development for field crops, development of postharvest fungicides, and global technical development of fungicides. He holds bachelors, masters, and doctorate degrees in plant pathology from the University of Massachusetts, Clemson University, and the University of California (Davis), respectively. | <urn:uuid:da93d21c-d872-446f-b07a-99ac3ff5308c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.agweb.com/livestock/dairy/blog/Syngenta_Field_Report_240/?Year=2011&Month=5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94497 | 562 | 2.6875 | 3 |
A museum here, a museum there, and pretty soon ...
In Britain about 25 new museums are ``springing up'' each year: That's one every two weeks. ``The great growth area,'' says Caroline Dudley, Museums Officer for this country's Museums and Galleries Commission, ``is in very small museums put together by groups of local enthusiasts. The small village local history society is probably the source of most of the new museums these days.''Skip to next paragraph
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There are some 2,000 to 2,250 museums in Britain today. Only about a hundred of these count as large national institutions. And now, Ms. Dudley claims, ``there is a serious worry'' that many of these new museums ``have not got the resources - and are not doing things in the right way - to actually protect the items that they are collecting.''
There seem to be few limits to what people will collect and display in museums: They even hoard computers and objects made of early kinds of plastic. But most local museums are collecting ``domestic by-gones,'' says Ms. Dudley, ``and small archive material: anything from World War II ration books to ... you know. And then there are people who can't resist collecting old typewriters! It's endless.''
So the Museums and Galleries Commission is proposing a ``museum registration scheme.'' (The commission is a ``qango'' - a quasi non-governmental organization - and is responsible for distributing some 5.4 million worth of central-government grants to non-national museums.) The aim of the registration scheme is ``to draw up a set of criteria,'' says Ms. Dudley.
Asked what she felt about a BBC World Service report that the commission was determined to ``clamp down'' on ``fly-by-night'' museums, Dudley said: ``I don't like that description at all, and that's not the purpose of the scheme.... It is an attempt to raise standards.''
The ``main plank'' of the proposed scheme - which must undergo six months' consultation before it comes into force - is to ``ensure that any museum, even if it doesn't employ a professionally trained curator, at least has a formal written link with one.'' Such a curator should have a guaranteed access to the museum's governing body. The scheme also suggests ``guidelines ... as to what a museum can do with its collections'' if it folds up.
A pilot project based on the scheme in the northeast of England has caused local museums to consider such things as the need to have a collecting policy. ``It's amazing how some museums have just been tootling on and have never bothered to give much thought to ... writing down what sort of things it wants, and doesn't want, to collect,'' observes Dudley. Some museums have discovered that, for instance, ``their trustees weren't quite up to scratch.''
In some local publicly funded museums, she says, curators are ``too low down in the pecking order.'' This means that the individual who pleads with the governing committee for more funds is not necessarily the curator, or an expert, who knows what he or she is talking about. ``If,'' says Ms. Dudley, choosing her words, ``that person is someone who is happier running a park or a playground, then it is not entirely satisfactory.'' | <urn:uuid:063c14bf-ca7e-45f1-a103-618c867b1acd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csmonitor.com/1987/0126/imuse.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962056 | 684 | 1.765625 | 2 |
By David Berman
Is the U.S. dollar about to get a boost? Some observers are growing more confident that the U.S. government is going to give companies a tax holiday in an effort to repatriate big profits that are now parked overseas and help stimulate the economy.
It's done this before, in the 2005 Homeland Investment Act, and the results were mixed: A total of $360 billion came back to U.S. shores over the course of the 12-month tax holiday, but most of the money flowed into the pockets of investors in the form of dividends and share buybacks, rather than into job-creating schemes.
Another tax holiday could yield similar results – and expectations are rising that President Barack Obama could introduce such a measure in his much-anticipated speech to Congress on Thursday. However, the amount of money repatriated this time around could be nearly double the previous amount, and the impact on the U.S. dollar CAD/USD-I could be profound, even if the job gains are slim.
Adam Cole, global head of foreign exchange strategy at RBC Dominion Securities, believes that the total amount of U.S. profits overseas is at a record-breaking level between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion. An estimated $700 billion of this amount could make its way home if the U.S. government cuts the tax rate to 5.25 percent from the current punitive 35 percent.
“Having learned from the 2005 experience when many, wrongly, were skeptical that the [Homeland Investment Act] impact in foreign-exchange markets would be material, markets would presumably react much more significantly to ‘news’ that momentum toward HIA II was increasing, anticipating a repatriation-fuelled U.S.-dollar rally,” Cole said in a note originally released in July.
Cole found that the euro, the Swiss franc and the British pound were among the biggest losers in 2005, meaning that they fell the most against the U.S. dollar as technology companies and pharmaceutical firms brought their money home. The Canadian dollar was a big exception. It gained against the U.S. dollar during this tax holiday, most likely because profits parked here were already held in U.S.-dollars.
For investors who aren’t currency traders, there are still potentially big implications from a tax holiday. Commodities, which tend to be priced in U.S. dollars, could decline if the U.S. dollar rises, which wouldn’t be good news for the commodity-heavy S&P/TSX composite index. U.S. companies that derive the majority of their sales from overseas markets could also be hurt by a rising dollar.
Whatever happens though, the impact is likely to be brief. While the U.S. dollar index rose more than 10 percent in 2005 during the tax holiday, the end of the holiday put the dollar back on its previous path: Down. | <urn:uuid:0019008e-8f42-4f20-b7ff-8649be28ed71> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seekingalpha.com/article/292216-will-tax-break-lift-the-u-s-dollar | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973113 | 607 | 1.625 | 2 |
Daytripper has to be one of the more wholly representative works of the graphic novel genre. All components imagined, written and sketched by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba are so effortlessly, subtly synthesized into a breezy evocation not just of Brasilian life, but life itself. It’s the work of a pair of brothers with nothing to prove beyond simple but effective storytelling. Though by no means slow, it is a story in which everything takes its time to unfold, perhaps one integral trait of South American or Brasilian culture.
It is the story, or perhaps stories, of nothing more than Bras de Oliva Domingos, obituary writer and aspiring novelist. Looking to parallel the literary success of his father, Bras is an ordinary individual striving for some balance apart from Brasil’s numerous sensory distractions, constantly reminded to grasp the importance of living and dying in the moment. To be sure, there are plenty of distractions in Brasil, such as his friendships, family, loves and dreams, but none contemplated without quiet deliberation and perhaps a strong cup of coffee. Such deliberations are shown through a series of vignettes of various time periods in his life, each detailing the circumstances of these spontaneous moments when living and dying get in the way of his daily routine. These momentous accumulations, with a Tarantino-esque flair for anachronism, are caressingly startling. It is here where Ba and Moon confound the reader as to the intersection of reality and our dreams, and the wonder of life and death.
Like fellow Brasilian Rubem Fonseca, Daytripper provides a peek into the culture of passion in Brasilian South America. Despite the instances of death and violence in the work, there is an equal amount of warmth between the characters in their mutual goal of embracing the present. Additionally, the undertones of social and ethnic equality perceived in Brasil, exhibited through Bras and comrade Jorge, is also refreshing. Violence, inevitable as it is everywhere, is simply accepted as a sporadic part of life, a tolerated cost of a naturally unhurried and carefree lifestyle.
The lush coloring from Dave Stewart and sharp sketches from Ba and Moon make Daytripper an achingly quick read. For as much as the story emphasizes a deliberate and dreamlike pondering about life, it’s so engaging one can’t help but devour the atmosphere. | <urn:uuid:4f11e4d9-8982-4304-93c8-c83a094619f0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gonzobrarian.wordpress.com/tag/daytripper/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954044 | 494 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Otoy and Super Micro plus AMD are announcing what really seems like magic for 3D immersive online. If I got it right it means a cheap PC without a fancy graphics card will be able to stream 3D immersive content dramatically faster, better.
According to the Otoy press release the service will improve user experience "through server-side rendering – which involves storing visually rich content in a compute cloud, compressing it, and streaming it in real-time" . This could increase capability on mobiles as well. I can see how that might work for the visuals, but how will that impact concurrent physics activity? Is this a real uplift or another fancy/expensive way to burn up bandwidth?
And if Google's big as a gig internet mega-speed service really can rollout what would that combination look like?
And what about the new 3D Televisions? Samsung has them and Dreamworks is already making blu-rays to play on them. Guess we will need to make and 2nd trailing camera for avatars soon to capture 3D online in real 3D.
So buckle-in for a lot of expensive equipment coming down the line and a lot of opportunities to make them do something cool enough. | <urn:uuid:cc3dbf2d-cce3-40cd-b51b-bcd1800ac099> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rezzable.com/blogs/jon-himoff/magical-3d-cloud-rendering-coming-cheap-pc-near-you-soon?page=3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942857 | 248 | 1.578125 | 2 |
|Reviews for Adaptation|
| Oath 3/17/05 . chapter 1
I don't know who Betsy is butt i felt the poem deserved a review either way. Again, the format is more of one of a story but it seems the structure helps it more than it would hurt it. I LOVED the imagery of a heart waiting to wait out one's tears and somehow i imagine it with its arms crossed, impatiant like. I liked the words you used 'sometimes' 'plonked' and 'amused' gives the poem a while different emotion each line. It gets me thinking on the concept of adaption. | <urn:uuid:8e9aa1fa-2dad-471b-8404-116964f516ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fictionpress.com/r/1861300/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937342 | 133 | 1.5 | 2 |
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Producing financial information in business
The first 200 words of this essay...
One of the key reasons for producing financial information in terms of the balance sheet, profit and loss account and cash flow statement, is to provide more information and details that can be used by the different stakeholders for making decisions in an organization. In order to do this effectively, accurate interpretation and assessment of account needs to be carried out. A technique for doing this is ratio analysis, providing a more meaningful picture of the performance of a business. The following is going to explain what the financial ratio is, how to use it and critically evaluate it as an accurate assessment.
"Ratio analysis is an examination of accounting data by relating one figure to another, this allow more meaningful interpretation of the data and the identification of trends and performance."(Marcouse, I Gillespie, A Martin, B Surridge M & Wall, N, 1999, P160) For instance, accountants express net profit as a percentage of net assets. Net profit, in this case, is a measure of performance, and net assets a measure of size. Thus, net profits as a percentage of net assets, is business performance in relation to the size. Generally, a large organization is likely to obtain more
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""Sabreena, England. A Level Student. Biology and Chemistry.
""John Plowright. Teacher. Repton School. Derbyshire. | <urn:uuid:3a30e0a9-fddd-4974-8232-ba01fa43e0b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.markedbyteachers.com/university-degree/business-and-administrative-studies/producing-financial-information-in-business.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918263 | 436 | 2.8125 | 3 |
The Gush Shalom movement filed a petition with the High Court of Justice on
Wednesday, asking the court to prevent a West Bank radio station from
broadcasting in the center of Israel.
According to Gush Shalom, the Galei
Israel (Israel Waves) radio station only has a license to broadcast to “Jewish
residents in Judea and Samaria.”
However, in the petition, attorneys Gabi
Lasky and Limor Goldstein for Gush Shalom claim that Galei Israel, whose studios
are based in the Givat Ze’ev settlement northwest of Jerusalem, is also
broadcasting on two additional transmission frequencies, in the Dan region of
central Israel and in the south of the country.
The petitioners argue
that the the Second Authority for Television and Radio in the West Bank, which
granted Galei Israel its broadcasting franchise, has no authority to permit the
station to broadcast outside the West Bank.
The IDF Central Command in
the West Bank established the regional branch of the Second Authority for
Television and Radio in 2008, in the wake of a previous High Court petition by
Gush Shalom. The body is responsible for radio broadcast licenses in Judea and
Samaria, and Gush Shalom contends that the military command has no authority to
grant broadcasting rights in Israel.
In the petition, Gush Shalom also
argues that granting Galei Israel FM frequencies outside the West Bank “blurs
the boundaries between the sovereign State of Israel and the occupied
territories where military rule applies.”
The petitioners ask the court
to “stop this attempt to create a nationwide ideological radio station without
public debate and without an explicit decision by the legislature, via technical
means and by a blatant disregard of the law.”
The petitioners also
contend that because Israel has a shortage of FM frequencies, “allowing [Galei
Israel] to broadcast into Israeli territory violates the principles of equality
and free competition.”
They claim that the broadcasts violate the rights
of other radio franchisees and broadcasters, arguing that Galei Israel has set
itself up as a competitor without paying a separate franchise fee for
broadcasting in Gush Dan.
Gush Shalom claim they have made several
requests to the Communications Ministry and the commercial broadcasting
regulatory body the Second Authority for Television and Radio, who are both also
named as respondents in the petition, but so far nothing has been done to stop
the broadcasts in Gush Dan.
After filing the petition on Wednesday, Gush
Shalom spokesman Adam Keller compared the pro-settler radio station with the
“Just like the ‘Migron affair’ put facts on the ground,
this time facts are being put on the air,” he said.
Keller said that the
settler movement and their supporters were “getting a nationwide ideological
radio station to create propaganda for their extremist viewpoints, irrespective
of considerations of free competition and without proving an equal opportunity
for the peace camp.”
Galei Israel could not be reached for comment by | <urn:uuid:02a1996f-073b-485e-9564-33f9bf65604e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Gush-Shalom-petitions-court-over-West-Bank-radio | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921063 | 665 | 1.75 | 2 |
lruggier, on 13 December 2012 - 02:00, said:
So this is my first smartphone. I was told that with my laptop since its a lithium ion battery to keep it charged as much as possible, if its at 100% to keep it plugged in as long as you can until you dont have the option of keeping it plugged in and have no outlet. You are supposed to do this because with lithium ion batteries the more often they get below 30% they use one cycle of the battery and the battery only has so many cycles until it is dead, so by keeping it plugged in as often as possible it will prevent the battery form dying. And i was told that keeping it in while it is at 100% is ok, and actually good for the phone so its not using battery if you have an outlet where you can charge it.
Is it the same with smartphones since they also have lithium ion batteries? Someone just told me its bad to keep your phone charging all the time and it can just overheat it. is this true?? Ive had this phone for a couple weeks and i charge it whenever i can if i have an outlet around me because i dont want the battery to get too low and use a cycle.
I don't think any of that is correct but only because I've heard different stuff. I'm certainly no battery expert, but, my understanding is that it isn't a discreet number of charges and then your battery self-destructs. Instead they just do laboratory tests where they drain and fill probably a sample of batteries coming off the line and give some statistics on how many cycles until they found the battery unusable.
I would think that what you are doing would actually be worse for the battery than letting it drain down. I always try to drain my battery down really low periodically so that it gets a "full charge". But...like I said, I'm not an expert. Most lithium ion makers and self-proclaimed "experts" will say that it really doesn't matter when you charge your battery and a lot of things that people think about NiMH batteries doesn't apply to Lithium ion batteries. The most important things are:
(1) Never let the battery drain fully. Once it has drained completely it may never come back.
(2) Do not charge if the device is hot or in a warm to hot environment. Leaving your phone charging in your vehicle on a hot summer day would do bad things.
(3) If you are going to store it I think it is something like 60-80% full is ideal for longer life. Just don't let it drop to 0 and realize that it will slowly drain to 0 so you actually have to periodically recharge batteries that are in storage (think, old phones) or else they will die out completely. I haven't been so good with my iPhone 3GS but it is still working fine. | <urn:uuid:b6f45fa2-c373-4fb5-91ba-a8e936bfebf1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1125450-samsung-galaxy-s3-battery-help/page__pid__595390320?forceDownload=1&_k=880ea6a14ea49e853634fbdc5015a024 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98259 | 591 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Case for a rate cut was glaring
The manufacturing sector is shrinking.
THE Reserve Bank's half a percentage point cash rate cut is an overdue but nevertheless welcome admission that the high interest rates were undermining the non-resources economy, and yesterday's second Baillieu government budget showed why it was needed.
The Reserve Bank board is walking a tightrope with the decision. It needs to produce a surprise that stimulates lending and spending and pulls the Australian dollar lower without generating a shock, and seems so far to have succeeded.
The half a percentage point cut is a confession that it underestimated how weak the non-resources economy was between December when it cut the cash rate by quarter of a percentage point to 4.25 per cent, and early April when it signalled definitively that cut was coming if inflation remained subdued.
The risk was that a cut of half a percentage point would shock households, businesses and the markets into a spending freeze in the belief that it confirmed that the Reserve was seriously off course, and moving too late to avoid a major economic downturn in the non-mining economy.
The reward, on offer now after a very positive response to the move yesterday, is that the larger-than-expected cut will boost confidence and kick-start activity, even if a portion of the rate reduction is held back by the banks, as the Reserve expects: bank lending rates have risen by about 10 basis points this year even as the Reserve has sat on its hands, and the banks will probably hold back another 10 points now as they try to shore up their own lending margins.
The case for a cut was glaring by the time the Reserve's board convened yesterday morning.
December quarter national growth numbers released in early March and the March quarter consumer price index numbers that came out last week confirmed that Victoria and New South Wales were struggling.
More evidence flowed today, with a 5.6 point slide in the Australian Industry group-PricewaterhouseCoopers performance of manufacturing index to a seven-month low of 43.9 points (a number below 50 indicates that the manufacturing sector is shrinking) and news from the Australian Bureau of Statistics that the price of established houses fell by 11.1 per cent in the March quarter to be down 4.5 per cent in a year.
The budget Victorian Treasurer Kim Wells handed down yesterday also showed the pressure. One year ago in its first budget the government estimated that it would generate an operating cash flow of $2.78 billion in 2012-13. It now says that its operating cash flow this year will be $2 billion.
It has stayed on course for a budget surplus of $155 million with spending cuts and higher dividends, but the budget numbers show that high rates, a high Australian dollar and soft consumer demand have bitten.
Taxation revenue for the current year is expected to be $15.73 billion, down from a prediction of almost $16 billion a year earlier. Property taxes that were expected a year ago to contribute $5.77 billion a year to state revenue are now expected to contribute $5.37 billion. Payroll tax, a litmus test for employment, is expected to generate $4.8 billion, $230 million less than expected when last year's budget was drawn up.
The numbers don't show a state on the verge of a catastrophic collapse in activity. Growth has slowed significantly, however, and like the Reserve Bank, the Baillieu government has recalibrated.
A year ago, it put its budget numbers together on the assumption that Victoria's gross state product (GSP, the equivalent of the national gross domestic product), would expand by 2.75 per cent in 2012-13. The new budget assumes that GSP will grow by only 1.75 per cent over the year, and climb to 2.75 per cent in 2013-14.
The Baillieu government is working hard to contain costs and pull the government accounts more heavily into surplus to enable it to tap excess cash for infrastructure spending that would otherwise be more heavily financed by debt. The bounce in economic activity that it predicts for 2013-14 is a crucial part of the strategy, and yesterday's rate cut makes it more likely. The sense of relief inside the Victorian and NSW governments, for that matter, will be palpable.
The Reserve has, however, delivered its rate cut surprise at some cost to visibility about its intentions later this year. If it had only cut its cash rate by a quarter of a percentage point yesterday, it would also have clearly signalled that it was monitoring the economy, and had room to cut more, if necessary. After its outsized cut, it has opted to give no guidance.
It may believe that the half a percentage point cut is sufficient. It might have another cut planned in a few months' time, as many in the markets believe. Or it may have been concerned that cutting the cash rate by a half a percentage point and signalling that it was prepared to go lower could have smacked of desperation, and risked turning its pleasant rate surprise into a worrying shock.
If inflation stays quiet, as it probably will, another cut is on the cards, however. August is the market's tip, but south-east Australia is not far away from stall-speed: if this cut doesn't buoy activity quickly, the Reserve won't wait until August to cut again. | <urn:uuid:a7828cde-0be3-4340-b1c5-4f053ad5b5bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theage.com.au/business/case-for-a-rate-cut-was-glaring-20120501-1xx0k.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971517 | 1,089 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Foreign Friends: African Friends
The appearance of colored peoples, and blacks in particular, in Chinese propaganda posters always has been problematic. Before the CCP grasped power, the only attention devoted to colored peoples in Chinese art was of a negative tone. Once the PRC was established, however, this attitude changed. Now that racial problems were seen as class problems, China increasingly discovered similarities between its own traumatic experiences with 'white imperialism' and those of other victimized 'colored' people in the world. It was time to downplay the traditional and deeply ingrained feelings of superiority. One of the first official steps to gain credibility as a supporter of the oppressed was taken in September 1950, when the Chinese lodged an official protest against the policy of apartheid in South Africa. Africans soon became regular guests in Beijing, where they were entertained at parties and met with the highest state leaders. By the late 1950s, many delegations had passed through Beijing and Zhongnanhai. But the Chinese did not actively spread the gospel of revolution and national liberation yet. They merely positioned themselves as a model that needed to be followed to gain independence.
In the early 1960s, during the opening moves of the Sino-Soviet split, the Chinese very much played the color card in order to trump up their own status of oppressed colored people. They stated that yellow and black might not be the same, but at least it was not the white of the Soviets. At the time, Mao had become convinced that Africa would become the battlefield on which the power of the West could be destroyed and the world revolution could be started, and that China, instead of the Soviet Union, would be the leader of this historical struggle. To support this bid for the leading position in the world revolution, China began to give military support, ranging from weapons, funds, food, medicine and lorries to actual training courses at the Nanjing Military Academy. The African students were very much schooled politically and trained in the CCP guerrilla experience. In late 1963, Zhou Enlai, accompanied by Chen Yi, visited a number of African countries, spreading the revolution. Around the same period, colored peoples appear in propaganda posters for the first time.
In the first few years of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1967), African independence struggles were supported actively. This support partly resulted from the ideological viewpoint that Africans (and other peoples from under- and undeveloped nations) represented the countryside that was in the process of surrounding the cities (the developed world). The Chinese insisted that this strategy had been tested successfully by the CCP itself in the War of Liberation, and had resulted in the founding of the PRC, which had imbued the Chinese people with enormous pride and self-confidence. Lin Biao had asserted as much in his Long Live the Victory of People's War in 1965. On the other hand, China's interest in Africa was grounded equally in a desire to steal away as many former African allies of the Soviet Union as possible. This was to give support to the Chinese view that they were the true leaders of the international revolutionary movement, having eclipsed the Soviets who now were considered revisionists.
The friendly relations with dignitaries from the newly-independent African nations, or with leaders of African liberation movements that were supported by Beijing, resulted in a flood of photographs and newsreels devoted to the highest Chinese leaders, including Mao himself, receiving these African leaders. Despite the endless paeans in the Chinese media testifying to the revolutionary fervor sweeping the continent, an extremely small number of posters has been devoted exclusively to Sino-African friendship and the Chinese support that resulted from it. If Africans appear at all, they usually participate in revolutionary mass scenes. An interesting contrast exists between the photographs and such posters devoted to struggle. Many of the African visitors photographed by Xinhua while being received in Zhongnanhai, in particular the leaders of the independence movements, were kitted out in battle dress, or camouflage. The postered Africans, however, most frequently are dressed in their distinctive national garb of flowing robes. Although it most certainly looks more dramatically than army fatigues, it smacks of a clichéd way of rendering Africans as 'noble savages'. Moreover, it must have been a cumbersome way of dressing for the battlefield.
Other types of posters, however, very much supported the official position that China was in a position superior enough to be able to help Africans. As far as I know only very few posters were made that were devoted to, for example, the much vaunted TanZam or Tazara Railway, built between 1968 and 1976 and linking Tanzania and Zambia. But the quality and type of support the Chinese rendered to Africa in this case very much provided the template for the images concerning Africa and Africans: the Chinese are giving, the Africans are on the receiving end.
Thus, we see a Chinese barefoot doctor in action in Africa, tending to black patients. Basic medical care, often based on Traditional Chinese Medicine was provided to the poorest parts of the poorest countries by Chinese doctors and medical workers. We see delegations of African representatives, including women in colorful national garb, visiting a model town, enjoying themselves at the Great World Entertainment Center in Shanghai, and walking in awe on the Yangzi Bridge at Nanjing. We see African delegates posing for a photograph, to be made by a Chinese, in front of a tractor at a Chinese tractor plant.
Africa and China drifted apart with Deng Xiaoping's accession to power in 1979. Many Africans were not able to accept the sudden and surprising changes of political line, and the way Mao's memory, and his surviving supporters were treated. Many considered the way Mao's widow Jiang Qing was treated uncivilized. Many others found it hard to swallow that the Chinese ideological somersault of the 'Four Modernizations' was preached with the same fervor as the message of revolution that was spread before. In short, China lost so much of its credibility that it could be seen no longer as an example.
In the 00s, African attitudes towards China have shifted again. Thanks to China's "Peaceful Rise" or - less threatening - "Peaceful Development", economic instead of political relations have started to dominate Chinese-African ties. Whereas Western nations and institutions try to attach various strings to their economic assistance and loans to African nations, China doesn't. Holding true to its policy of non-interference in internal affairs, Beijing does business with any African nation that offers energy resources or raw materials that can feed China's economic machine, regardless of its record in the fields of human rights, good governance or other pet concerns of Western nations and NGOs. This leads to bitter accusations of China's behavior.
Richard Hall & Hugh Peyman, The Great Uhuru Railway - China's Showpiece in Africa (London: Victor Gollancz, 1976)
Lin Piao, Long Live the Victory of People's War! (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1965)
Peter van Ness, "China and the Third World: Patterns of Engagement and Indifference", Samuel S. Kim (ed), China and the World - Chinese Foreign Policy Faces the New Millennium (Boulder: Westview Press, 1998)
Secretariat of the Afro-Asian Journalists' Association (ed), Selections of Afro-Asian People's Anti-Imperialist Caricatures (Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 1967)
Philip Snow, The Star Raft - China's Encounter with Africa (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1988) | <urn:uuid:689cd598-63d0-47e3-a177-9c9f13f92c39> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chineseposters.net/themes/african-friends.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971268 | 1,540 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Lipe, C. C.
The following data is extracted from The Indian Territory, Its Chiefs, Legislators and Leading Men.
The subject of this sketch was born March 10, 1847, near Tahlequah, Cherokee Nation, third son of O. W. Lipe, of Fort Gibson. His mother was a Miss Gunter, daughter of John Gunter, a citizen by marriage, and once owner of the town of Guntersville, on the Tennessee River, in Alabama. Clark Lipe attended the public schools until he was fifteen years of age. After the outbreak of the war, he joined the Confederate army (in 1864), and continued in the service until its close. After much difficulty he at last succeeded in bringing together his father's family, the members of which had become scattered during the war, and they settled down in 1866 at Fort Gibson. In 1868 Clark went to school in Herkimer County, N.Y., and from thence to a commercial college at Syracuse, N.Y., after which he returned to Fort Gibson and opened a mercantile business, which he carried on until 1874. Mr. Lipe then moved to his present home on the Verdigris River, and began farming and stock rising. Mr. Lipe is also in charge of the mercantile business of J. E. Campbell, of Nowata, Cherokee Nation. On November 21, 1870 he married Miss Lizzie Farmore, a New Yorker, who died in childbirth. On August 29, 1873, he married Miss Emma Thompson, daughter of Richard Thompson and Elizabeth Thornton, a daughter of Judge Thornton, of Illinois district. By this marriage they have six living children, Herman, Caspar, Clinton, Beulah, Clark C., and the youngest, less than one year old; Herman, the oldest being sixteen. Mrs. Lipe is a lady of education and refinement, and has taught school for several years in the nation. Mr. Lipe is five feet seven and a half inches in height, weighs 180 pounds, and is a man of fine intellectual appearance. He is well educated and is a superior businessman. He has held the office of district clerk in the Coowescoowee district for four years, and was defeated for the Senate by a small majority in 1881. He was also clerk of the Council for two years and of the Commissioner's Court for two years. Mr. Lipe owns 160 acres of cultivated land, about 150 head of cattle, 10 head of horses and mules, and a good stock of hogs. He has a good residence on his place, with superior outdoor buildings.
Source: The Indian Territory, Its Chiefs, Legislators and Leading Men | <urn:uuid:428d58e7-fcfd-4cae-b312-ede070a394d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.accessgenealogy.com/scripts/data/database.cgi?file=Data&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=0013979 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98301 | 558 | 2.28125 | 2 |
The nation’s leading residential system installer SunRun teams with PV Solar Report, an industry data analyst organization, to provide stats on California’s solar industry. For their latest installment, PV Solar Report gleaned data from the state’s database of home solar rebate applications to determine the fastest-growing California solar cities.
For example, PV Solar Report founder Stephen Torres noted that “while Apple Valley may not have the most solar in the state, its solar installation numbers grew by almost 70 percent in 2011.”
California’s Top 10 Solar Cities 2012
Here are the cities that made the list:
The report not only counts the number of home solar installations and the rate of growth from one year the next, but looks at the number of solar leases as well. The increase in the number of solar leases is perhaps the most surprising data of all.
In Fresno, for example, out of 459 home PV system installations, 256 were installed as leased systems. It’s a trend that seems likely to continue. Beginning in June of 2001, solar leases began to outpace home solar system purchases. In December of 2011, leasing accounted for over 70 percent of California’s home PV market.
Equally surprising was SunRun’s account of their accomplishments. In 2007, SunRun virtually invented the solar lease model. They have remained the industry leader in solar leasing in California, with twice the market share of any other solar provider.
Their success has led to some pretty astounding statistics. The company boasts 18,000 home solar system installations. As Zach from CleanTechnica wrote in his article about the new data, “Wow, $1.5 million/day, one rooftop every 11 minutes! Impressive.”
SunRun describes their leasing program as a “solar power service,” allowing homeowners to use solar electricity in their homes for as little as zero down and letting them simply pay for the solar electricity that the home generates each month. SunRun President Lynn Jurich says it’s because of this option that solar is expanding to more median-income communities, adding that solar service enables homeowners to “lock in a low rate for clean electricity.”
Other fast-growing solar cities that didn’t make the top 10 list include Antioch, Norco and Whittier. Each grew by almost 70 percent last year. The PV Solar Report’s complete list of top-performing cities accounted for almost 7,500 residential systems installed in California last year. | <urn:uuid:3fca45a4-002c-4b50-aa6d-d3ac7a758e1f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://solar.calfinder.com/blog/news/californias-top-10-up-and-coming-solar-cities/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951226 | 520 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Prof. David J. Hanson, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Sociology of the State University of New York at Potsdam.
Dr. Hanson is the author of "Preventing Alcohol Abuse," and "Alcohol Education," and has also researched the subject of alcohol and drinking for over 40 years, beginning with his Ph.D. dissertation investigation. Shortly thereafter, he began a continuing series of nationwide studies of collegiate drinking over time. He has received alcohol research grants from federal and state agencies His publications and scholarly papers number over 300 and textbooks in over a dozen fields of study report his research. Dr. Hanson has served as alcohol consultant to the Canadian government and testified on Capitol Hill; his research has repeatedly been reported in the New York Times and other major newspapers, where he is frequently quoted; and he has appeared as an alcohol expert on the "NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw," the BBC's "The World Tonight," the "Dr. Laura" television program, MSNBC's "Live," CBC's "Daybreak," the Fox News Channel, "CNN Saturday," etc...
"It's understandable why people struggling with alcohol and drug problems often feel helpless and hopeless. The message usually given to them is not only incorrect but often counterproductive- it's frequently worse than doing nothing. The vast majority of alcohol and drug treatment programs are unsuccessful with most people because they are based on false assumptions and use questionable techniques. However, the Saint Jude Program, which is based on scientific evidence, smashes that rigid mold. Instead of teaching people that they are powerless, it helps them to harness their internal drive and power, to apply that power in an effective way, and to build the life they want."
Prof. David R. Rudy Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology and Dean of the Institute for Regional Analysis and Public Policy at Morehead State University
Dr. David Rudy, Professor of Sociology and Dean of the Institute for Regional Analysis and Public Policy at Morehead State University and author of "Becoming Alcoholic, Alcoholics Anonymous and the Reality of Alcoholism."
"During much of the past century, there has been a consistent trend to increasingly medicalize behavioral issues. Viewing behaviors, for example heavy drinking and alcoholism, as diseases is a flawed model. Drinking, heavy drinking, and alcoholism are behaviors and their causes are many and diverse. It stands to reason that alcoholism and substance abuse treatment approaches that are based on facts are more likely to provide an environment for success than those that are based on beliefs. The St. Jude Program series does just that. Through a fact-based approach, the programs educate, motivate, and empower substance users to make choices and decisions that will lead to self and life control."
Prof. Laurel Sharmer, PhD, MPH, CHES (ret)
Profesor Sharmer has spent her career working in the field of public health. She has conducted and published research on drug and alcohol use among college students, beginning with her doctoral dissertation. In addition, she has been invited to numerous national conferences to present her research about substance abuse among young people.
Her research has focused primarily on evaluating current methods of reducing harm from alcohol consumption among young people and determining if any methods are successful in changing knowledge, attitudes or behavior.
"For more than a century, American society has treated excess alcohol and drug use as an illness in need of treatment, and this attitude has brought about a multi-billion dollar treatment and "rehab" industry. But after decades of providing treatment, the public health figures remain unchanged: cirrhosis of the liver continues to be one of the top ten causes of death among Americans, with alcoholism being the primary contributing factor; nearly one-third of traffic fatalities are caused by drunken driving; fetal alcohol syndrome remains the number one cause of preventable birth defects in the US; and families continue to be torn apart by alcohol and drug addiction. Clearly, the treatment model doesn't work.
The St. Jude Retreats offer not treatment but a path to long-term personal strength and confidence. Independent professional evaluations of the program have shown it is remarkably effective in helping individuals break out of the revolving door of helpless dependence on the treatment system and an external "power." The large majority of those who complete the program find they can indeed overcome physical addictions and achieve their long-term goals of life happiness and self efficacy."
Kenneth Anderson, MA
Founder and CEO of - Harm Reduction for Alcohol - (HAMS)
Kenneth Anderson is the founder and CEO of HAMS, a lay-led, free-of-charge support group for people who want to make any positive change in their drinking habits, from safer drinking to reduced drinking to quitting altogether. He is also the author of " How to Change Your Drinking: a Harm Reduction Guide to Alcohol." Mr. Anderson has been working in the field of harm reduction since 2002.
"St. Jude's is the only addiction program that I know of in the US which hires an independent research corporation to track their success rates and publishes all the data for everyone to see on the World Wide Web. This is amazing in an industry where fudged data is the standard. St. Jude's can do this because the success rate is high and the dropout rate is low.
Research demonstrates that increasing self-efficacy is the best way to help a person overcome an addiction and move on with building a life. Twelve step programs destroy self-efficacy by telling people that they will die unless they admit they are powerless. Twelve step programs trap people into an endless cycle of rehabs and AA meetings. The St. Jude Program, by way of contrast, enables people to resolve their problems permanently and move on with their lives. I am happy to recommend the St. Jude Program to anyone who is seeking a residential program to overcome their addictions "
Dr Joy Browne
Nationally Syndicated Radio Talk Show Host and Clinical Psychologist
Dr. Joy has won numerous awards for her work including the American Psychological Associations President's Award, the Talkers Magazine award for Best Female Talk Show Host, #10 on the list of the 25 Greatest Radio Talk Show Hosts of All Time, and has been named one of the 100 Most Influential Talk Show Hosts. She has been singled out for News/Talk National Personality of the Year as well as Syndicated Talk Show of the Year by Radio & Records Magazine every year since the list was formed.
Additionally, Dr. Joy has been a guest on numerous popular television shows such as Lou Dobbs Tonight, The Early Show, Oprah Winfrey and Larry King Live.
"At last, a program for addiction that acknowledges choice and responsibility and can really work. I liked it so much, I agreed to voice the Audio Book for the Saint Jude Home Program."
Joseph G. Vacca, Ph.D.
National Institute of Health Post Doctoral Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School and Boston University Medical School
"Finally someone has built a program to help people struggling with addictions, utilizing the latest research and technology available. As scientists have uncovered more and more about how the brain works, Baldwin Research has incorporated that information into a comprehensive program for self improvement. People literally learn how to reinvent themselves and plan for a better future, regardless of their past struggles."
Dr. Joseph G. Vacca III
January 22, 1944 - October 1, 2010
Dr. Joseph G. Vacca III was a graduate of Bishop Gibbons High School where he was a member of the varsity cross-country team and the varsity basketball team. Dr. Vacca received his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from St. Michael's College, and he received his Master's Degree and Ph.D. from The State University of New York at Albany. He conducted postdoctoral studies at Boston University School of Medicine on a NIH Research Fellowship and at Beth Israel Hospital - Harvard University Medical School. He was a member of the Electron Microscopy Society of America. He began his career as a manager in the Material Science and Engineering sector at General Electric Company's Research and Development Center located in Niskayuna, NY and then at GE's Medical Systems Division in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Subsequent to his GE career Dr. Vacca served as Director of Marketing, Survivor Support for The AYCO Company, L.P. of Albany, a Goldman Sachs company. Dr. Vacca was a NYS certified addiction counselor and was a Sr. Research Fellow at Baldwin Research Institute, Inc. until his death, October 1, 2010. In addition to Dr. Vacca's lifelong research career, he was a lifelong athlete. Dr. Vacca was a member of the local Schenectady Road Runners running club (Schenectady, New York,) a volunteer coach and mentor for a locally based Kenyon Marathon Running team and a 10 time New York City Marathon runner himself, achieving a personal best of 2:59:02 in November of 1981. He was active as a coach in local youth baseball for both Northside Little League of Schenectady and Niskayuna Babe Ruth and he was a Harley Davidson Motorcycle Enthusiast. He was a member of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church.
Joe is remembered most for his enduring courage, his brilliant mind, his engaging persona and warm smile and his grand enthusiasm for life.
Excerpts from The Daily Gazette Co. October 5 to October 6, 2010
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For a person like me, who had accomplished everything in life, I struggled with addiction late in my career. Your program offered me a new perspective. Now I appreciate life as it was meant to be, a pleasant experience." | <urn:uuid:beaaffbe-447a-4e8a-858e-7f697e587f29> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.soberforever.net/testimonials-professional.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969124 | 2,015 | 1.890625 | 2 |
All About China
Well, today’s updates are primarily about China. The country gave an interesting announcement about the likelihood of national support for a binding accord – including one with obligations on the developing nations. While I discuss the US here also, China is a big player, and not much has been heard from them lately. What have they got to say now?
Are There Any Circumstances in Which China Will Consider a Binding Deal?
Xie Zhenhua, speaking for China! Alright… it’s always interesting hearing from the main obstructionists; hearing their rationales for action. Here’s the kicker: in response to the above question, the Chinese delegate actually supported a binding regime, even if it applied to LDCs, saying “We accept a legally binding regime. With conditions.”
The conditions are: “Firstly, we need to speak to the UNFCCC and the KP. A second commitment period is a must. Secondly, developed countries must honor their commitment of $30 billion fast start fund, and $100 billion a year long term fund. And the GCF must be accelerated. And there shall be supervision and monitoring system for technology transfer and financing. Fourthly, we must have some consensus, some institutional arrangement for issues like funds, technology transfer, and forests, etc. And we need to have a review by the end of 2015. Fifthly, we need to speak to common but differentiated responsibility principles and equity. Every country shall undertake obligations and responsibilities, according to their national capabilities. China would love to take part in that. These aspects are not new, and they have been negotiated over the past 20 years. The important thing is to implement them.”
Moreover, by pointing out that China has unilaterally adopted domestically binding rules to raise their energy efficiency (measured as CO2 emissions per unit of GDP) by 45% by 2020 (notably, while this may lower China’s overall emissions, it does not have to – particularly if economic growth increases faster than efficiency gains), Xie is positioning China as a swing state on a binding regime (note – despite this positive movement, there will not be an Amendment or new Protocol at the end of this COP). Though not clear, this seems like a signal that China would be open to an arrangement that paralleled that of the Montreal Protocol – accept binding obligations, in exchange for clearly institutionalized financial and technical assistance. While this may not be enough to generate the international political will needed to get a binding agreement by 2013 or 2014, this may undercut some of the arguments by the Umbrella Group.
So, what does the Umbrella Group have to say about it?
New US Special Envoy
Todd Stern in the house. He equivocates some about China’s pronouncement, stating that he will discuss what this means directly with Xie Zhenhua later. Right now, he says the US is primarily interested in two main elements: 1) Carry out the Cancún Agreements on new takings by all the major economies, and a GCF; 2) Figure out what to do about the KP. While the US hasn’t done much to establish a clear legislative path (in comparison to, say, China) to meet its stated objective under the Cancún Agreements – namely, cut 17% below 2005 by 2020 – Stern points out that the US has, for example, raised the Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency standards for cars sold in the US to 54.4 mpg by 2025. For Stern, this plus the recent investments in green energy by the Obama administration, point to a continued engagement of the US executive branch with climate change.
Still, one has to wonder about the US’ commitment to the Cancún Agremeents – not because the US may or may not fulfill its stated goals (in large part, this depends on the commitment of the government post-2012 to domestic environmental regulation – sobering, if any of the GOP front-runners win) but because so many of the goals are conditional on the adoption of binding obligations by other Parties. | <urn:uuid:58a39cc0-aafa-4899-b7d0-592a68b23887> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sites.middlebury.edu/fuentesgeorge/2011/12/05/blogging-durban-week-2-day-1-dec-5/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950954 | 842 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Many countries will not be ready by January to enforce new banking rules that form the world's regulatory response to the financial crisis, a global supervisory body said on Monday.
World leaders from the G20 economies approved the Basel III rules in November 2010 after their taxpayers had to shore up undercapitalized lenders in the 2007/09 credit crunch.
"It is clear that not all jurisdictions will be ready in time," said Stefan Ingves, chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which wrote the new rules.
It is the first official recognition that a unified global start to a regime that forces banks to hold three times the previous minimum level of core capital is now off the cards.
The Basel rules are being phased in over six years from January and will require banks to have a core Tier 1 capital ratio equivalent to 7 percent of their riskier assets.
With 12 weeks to go, the committee - comprising central bankers and supervisors from the G20 countries and elsewhere - said that only seven of its 28 member countries have made the Basel III rules legally binding: Japan, Australia, China, India, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Switzerland.
Turkey and Argentina have yet to draft proposals, while the United States and the European Union, which contain most of the world's banking assets, are still at the drafting stage.
The European Union is bogged down in internal disagreements and last week the committee slammed the bloc for trying to water down its rules.
Compounding the sense of unease, the Bank of England's financial stability director, Andrew Haldane, has said that Basel III is too complicated. Thomas Hoenig, a director at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, an agency that oversees some U.S. banks, wants his country to reject the new rules unless they are simplified.
Another key G20 deadline will also slip.
A pledge by the world leaders to require derivatives contracts to be cleared and recorded centrally from Dec. 31 will be phased in over time because capital rules are not ready. U.S. and EU supervisors are also trying to iron out differences in their approaches.
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click For Restrictions | <urn:uuid:e6098f2a-efda-4fe6-af68-23e2c0556315> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.banktech.com/regulation-compliance/basel-iii-rules-set-for-patchy-global-st/240008628 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957937 | 441 | 1.796875 | 2 |
PURPOSE: To manufacture the branch pipe in uniform thickness with a high branch pipe part by pulling a burring punch out of a prepared hole by heating the whole pipe blank and passing the mandrel for straightening to the inner part by reheating the pipe blank on the deformation of the pipe blank.
CONSTITUTION: In the case of forming the branch pipe part of H/d≥0.5 by taking the height of the branch pipe part as H and the outer diameter as (d), the oblong hole becoming a prepared hole is pierced at the specified position of a pipe blank 2 to insert a burring punch 3 into the inner part of the pipe blank 2. The part shown by an alternate long and two short dashes line is then heated to a work temp. and the branch pipe part 1 is formed by performing burring by loading a specific work force on the burring punch 3 by an actuator, etc. In order to straighten the deformed pipe blank 2 the mandrel 4 for straightening in complete roundness is inserted into the pipe blank 2. The part shown by an alternate long and two short dashes line is then heated to a work temp., a specific work force is loaded on the mandrel 4 by the actuator, etc., and said part is straightened in a round shape by pulling out or extruding the mandrel 4. | <urn:uuid:a168d14c-3db8-44b2-ac17-dcd6dca3b891> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sumobrain.com/patents/jp/Burring-method/JP63188423.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908564 | 283 | 3.046875 | 3 |
In the March 18, 2013 issue of The Presbyterian Outlook, retired PCUSA pastor and adjunct professor of religious studies Earl Johnson, Jr. wrote an article directed at church leaders entitled, “Are we teaching children violence?”
“Are we teaching children the Bible?” is the better question.
Problems with the pedagogy proposed
Phrases like “avoid teaching Bible stories,” “violence is always wrong,” “Parts … can simply be left out,” and “how a text should be read,” are indications of a view of Scripture that falls beneath the threshold of respecting the Bible and all its parts as the inspired Word of God. The elevation of “educational theory and psychological development” suggests a bias toward the Enlightenment exaltation of reason over revelation. The stated goal of teaching – “enabling children to become open-minded peacemakers” – suggests that we will read the Bible through the lens of our own experience instead of reading our experiences through the lens of the Bible. This is a perverted pedagogy on so many levels.
Add to that the recommendation that “if we think we must approach these texts with children,” we just lie to them by telling “them in modified ways” what the Bible does NOT in fact say. It is expressly contrary to the Bible itself for an individual to edit out parts – advocated here as just leaving them out. We are charged to teach the entire Word of God, not just the parts we like. Now, I understand that we must do so in age appropriate ways and that there are parts of the Bible that we do not include in preschool or early elementary courses of study. But to suggest that you might teach one of those stories but edit what the Bible says to fit your perception of how peace is made offends the most basic of honest hermeneutics.
Children don’t yet know what they don’t yet know
I am also concerned by the suggestion that teachers ask very young children what they think or how they imagine God feels. In order to answer a question about God’s character, we must first have minds that are Reformed according to the Word of God. Only with an understanding of who God is, revealed in the Bible, can children then learn how to think righteous thought. Without that instruction their thinking will become futile. Bible study is unto spiritual formation and part of that is bringing the thoughts and imaginations of God’s people into alignment with God’s revealed character and will. We do not conform the Word to what we think or what we imagine, but instead submit ourselves to the active and present power of God’s Holy Spirit to conform us to it.
When the author suggests that children be asked, “What would Jesus teach us to do in situations like that?” he is suggesting that Jesus is not Himself the eternal Word of God, through whom the Word recorded in the Bible was written. Jesus, as the co-eternal second member of the Trinity, is teaching us through these texts. The Word in flesh cannot be bifurcated from the Word written. It is a false teaching to suggest that the God who speaks in the Old Testament is in any way different or distinct from the God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus did not spring onto the scene when He was born of human flesh. He has always been present and active and speaking and teaching.
Children must be taught the truth, including the violence done in sin
Finally, avoiding all reference to violence as the article suggests, how is one to teach the truths of Holy Week? From the cleansing of the Temple, to the arrest and brutal treatment of Jesus by the Romans and Jews, to the blood-thirsty mob, to the scourging and the crown of thorns that appears on the cover of The Outlook where this article appears … all is violence. And then there’s the ultimate violence of the crucifixion. Surely you are not suggesting that there are not age appropriate ways to teach our children about the reality of salvation that comes through a God who was crucified for the violence we do to Him through the reality of sin every day.
Children need to understand the violence done to God through sin and the solution He offers to them through Himself. In order to teach that, we have to teach the Bible.
The author asks if we’re teaching children violence. The better question might be are we teaching children the Bible? | <urn:uuid:3dd0e77c-48f2-471f-90f1-519565a334da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.layman.org/are-we-teaching-children-the-bible-is-a-better-question/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971528 | 933 | 2 | 2 |
WALNUT CREEK (CBS/AP) – Regulators on Friday shuttered a pair of small banks, including one that operated in Walnut Creek, bringing to 11 the number of U.S. bank failures this year.
By this time last year, regulators had closed more than twice as many banks — 23.
All told, 92 banks were closed in 2011, representing a sharp decline from the two previous years, when banks were working their way through the bad debt accumulated in the recession.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. closed Home Savings of America, based in Little Falls, Minn., with $434.1 million in assets and $432.2 million in deposits. The bank operated seven California branches.
The FDIC did not find another lender to take over the bank’s operations, so it will mail out checks to depositors in the amount of their insured funds.
The agency said it needs to obtain information from Home Savings customers to determine the number of uninsured deposits at the bank, which also had three branches in California. The FDIC insures up to $250,000 per depositor.
Regulators also closed Central Bank of Georgia, based in Ellaville, which had five branches, $278.9 million in assets and $266.6 million in deposits.
Ameris Bank, based in Moultrie, Ga., agreed to assume Central Bank’s deposits and essentially all of its assets.
The two bank failures are expected to cost the deposit insurance fund $106.3 million.
(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.) | <urn:uuid:dbf5dbd5-b351-443a-a787-113de24766d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/02/27/fdic-closes-home-savings-of-america/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969108 | 345 | 1.5 | 2 |
July 30, 2009 A new computer game prototype combines work and play to help solve a fundamental problem underlying many computer hardware design tasks.
The online logic puzzle is called FunSAT, and it could help integrated circuit designers select and arrange transistors and their connections on silicon microchips, among other applications.
Designing chip architecture for the best performance and smallest size is an exceedingly difficult task that's outsourced to computers these days. But computers simply flip through possible arrangements in their search. They lack the human capacities for intuition and visual pattern recognition that could yield a better or even optimal design. That's where FunSAT comes in.
Developed by University of Michigan computer science researchers Valeria Bertacco and Andrew DeOrio, FunSAT is designed to harness humans' abilities to strategize, visualize and understand complex systems.
"Computer games can be more than a fun diversion," said Bertacco, an associate professor in computer science and engineering. "Humans are good at playing games and they enjoy dedicating time to it. We hope that we can use their strengths to improve chip designs, databases and even robotics."
DeOrio, a doctoral student in Computer Science and Engineering, will present a paper on the research on July 30 at the Design Automation Conference in San Francisco.
A single-player prototype exists at http://funsat.eecs.umich.edu, implemented in Java by U-M undergraduate Erica Christensen. Bertacco and DeOrio are working on growing it to a multi-player game, which would allow more complicated problems to be solved.
By solving challenging problems on the FunSAT board, players can contribute to the design of complex computer systems, but you don't have to be a computer scientist to play. The game is a sort of puzzle that might appeal to Sudoku fans.
The board consists of rows and columns of green, red and gray bubbles in various sizes. Around the perimeter are buttons that players can turn yellow or blue with the click of a mouse. The buttons' color determines the color of bubbles on the board. The goal of the game is to use the perimeter buttons to toggle all the bubbles green.
Right-clicking on a bubble tells you which buttons control its color, giving the player a hint of what to do next. The larger a bubble is, the more buttons control it. The game may be challenging because each button affects many bubbles at the same time and in different ways. A button that turns several bubbles green will also turn others from green to red or gray.
The game actually unravels so-called satisfiability problems—classic and highly complicated mathematical questions that involve selecting the best arrangement of options. In such quandaries, the solver must assign a set of variables to the right true or false categories so to fulfill all the constraints of the problem.
In the game, the bubbles represent constraints. They become green when they are satisfied. The perimeter buttons represent the variables. They are assigned to true or false when players click the mouse to make them yellow (true) or blue (false).
Once the puzzle is solved and all the bubbles are green, a computer scientist could simply look at the color of each button to gather the solution of that particular problem.
Satisfiability problems arise not only in complex chip design, but in many other areas such as packing a backpack with as many items as possible, or searching for the shortest postal route to deliver mail in a neighborhood.
"When solving these problems, humans can use their intuition and visualization skills. For instance, by just glancing at the neighborhood map they can gain an intuition of where to begin in the case of the postal route," Bertacco said. "FunSAT can leverage these human skills that computer-based solvers do not have."
The paper is called "Human Computing for EDA."
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Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead. | <urn:uuid:980a68d2-3627-4523-bab9-80fba602ebf7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090728104320.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941462 | 811 | 3.453125 | 3 |
November 7th, 2012
NVIDIA Working On Kepler GK208 GPU
It appears that NVIDIA is currently working on the next generation of Kepler GPUs. A social-web profile of the NVIDIA’s GPU Architecture Intern has revealed that the company is working on a new Kepler GK208 processor.
Well, this could possibly just be a mistake, but it gets more interesting if we bring up two facts: there is no GK108 GPU (so it’s not a typo) and the note clearly says that he was employed between June and September 2012 for this project. Company like NVIDIA usually has the whole architecture prepared months before any release, so we are obviously not talking about any current Kepler processor.
Long story short, this information causes a lot of confusion. We were all convinced that the next flagship GPU of GeForce 700 Series would be GK110 or GK114. If the GK208 really exists then the whole line-up should consist of GK2xx silicones. This however doesn’t stop us from speculating. We can assume that NVIDIA might somehow modify the GK110 for consumer and rename it to GK114, GK204, GK210 or GK214.
Our sources told us that the upcoming flagship of GeForce 700 series — GeForce GTX 780 — would feature between 1728 and 2112 CUDA cores. If we assume that the GK208 would be an entry-level GPU then it could likely power the GeForce GT 740 or GTX 750. If the 192 CUDA cores SMX architecture would not be changed, then GeForce GT 740/750 might be packed with 576 cores (3*192).
Upcoming GeForce 700 Series graphics processors naming speculation
We assume that NVIDIA will continue releasing at least three GPUs for each series. This doesn’t mean that there might be four, or even more, processors coming with the upcoming ‘Kepler refresh’.
|Segment||GeForce 600 Series (Kepler)||GeForce 700 Series (Kepler Refresh)|
|Current GPUs||Variant 1||Variant 2||Variant 3|
I was asked not to provide a link to the profile of the Intern, because we (and our source) do not want to cause any more trouble for the guy, but well… you will probably find his profile anyway. | <urn:uuid:ac8e82bb-6731-42ec-8062-b721e89cbde7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://videocardz.com/35578/nvidia-working-on-kepler-gk208-gpu | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916339 | 483 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Revista médica de Chile
versión impresa ISSN 0034-9887
OYONARTE G, Miguel et al. Mortality and complications of infective endocarditis in Chile: Results of the National Cooperative Study of Infective Endocarditis (1998-2002). Rev. méd. Chile [online]. 2003, vol.131, n.3, pp. 237-250. ISSN 0034-9887. doi: 10.4067/S0034-98872003000300001.
Background: Infective endocarditis is a severe condition, with a mortality that fluctuates between 16 and 25% in the Metropolitan area of Chile. Aim: To perform a prospective assessment of clinical and microbiological features of patients with infective endocarditis in Chile. Material and methods: Collaborative study of regional hospitals in the whole country and teaching hospitals in Santiago. Patients with a possible or definitive infective endocarditis, according to Duke's criteria, were included in the protocol and a structured data entry form was completed. Results: Three hundred twenty one patients (65% male, mean age 49±16.5 years) were studied. According Duke's criteria, 89% had a definitive and 11% a possible endocarditis. The subacute form occurred in 64% of patients. The most frequent predisposing cardiopathies were rheumatic in 25%, prosthetic valves in 15% and congenital in 13%. There was no evidence of cardiopathy in 20%. Twenty percent of patients were on hemodialysis, 11% were diabetic and only one patient abused intravenous drugs. The most frequent complication was cardiac failure in 59% of cases, followed by renal failure in 32% and embolism in 28%. The most frequent causing organism was coagulase positive Staphylococcus in 35%. Blood cultures were negative in 28% of cases from the metropolitan region, in 56% of cases from the north and 38% of cases from the south. Echocardiographic diagnosis was done in 92% of cases. Aortic valve was involved in 42% and mitral valve in 29%. Successful antimicrobial treatment was achieved in 59% of patients. Thirty five percent of patients were subjected to surgical procedures with a 78% survival. Overall mortality was 29%. Univariate analysis identified sepsis, an age over 60 years and the presence of cardiac or renal failure as prognostic indicators of mortality. On multivariate analysis, the identified prognostic indicators were the presence of sepsis, renal failure, mitroaortic involvement associated to combined surgery and failure of antimicrobial treatment not associated to surgery. Conclusions: Subacute form is the most common presentation of infective endocarditis and rheumatic valve disease is the most common underlying cardiac lesion. Intravenous drugs users infective endocarditis is exceptional in Chile. The most frequent causing agent is coagulase positive Staphylococcus and the most frequent complication is cardiac failure. Surgical and overall mortality were 22 and 29% respectively. Sepsis, renal failure, combined surgical procedures, failure of medical treatment were identified as prognostic indicators of mortality (Rev Méd Chile 2003; 131: 237-50).
Palabras clave : Endocarditis subacute bacterial. | <urn:uuid:9b426a98-a32d-4db3-af08-46105d21f1ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0034-98872003000300001&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=en | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939642 | 687 | 2.015625 | 2 |
In February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced its employment projections for the next eight years. They predicted that four industries will see the fastest job growth by 2020, and one of those industries is healthcare. In fact, seven of the top twenty industries for job growth are within the healthcare sector. The total number of healthcare jobs is expected to increase by 5.6 million, as projected by the BLS.
Posts Tagged ‘onTargetjobs’
With more than 12 million Americans still unemployed and many overworked professionals contemplating the pursuit of greener pastures, it’s easy to see why competition for jobs is fierce in most industries.
Hiring managers and human resource professionals are looking for the best of the best within the resumes they receive and the interviews they conduct. Unfortunately, there are many opportunities for job seekers to go awry. If you’d like to avoid an extended unpaid vacation from the workforce, steer clear of these five ways to run your chances of getting the job.
Higher stress levels may cause you to react to situations emotionally, or to behave in an otherwise less than professional manner. You may say things you later regret, even at the office. Unfortunately, there are certain statements which, when made to your boss, are almost always guaranteed to damage your career. Avoid saying the following things at all costs.
“Proper” interview attire has traditionally meant formal business wear – think suit and tie for men, skirt suit and hosiery for women (even if it’s 100 degrees in the shade). Ask your mom, dad or grandparents what they wore to their last interview and you’ll get the picture. Fortunately, in many industries, extremely rigid dress codes have gone the way of typewriters, pagers and paper memos. Rather than forcing your fabulous sense of fashion or wildly appealing personality into the “standard” boring garb expected by interviewers in the olden days, consider the industry as well as your audience when choosing your interview attire.
A recent survey by Doodle, an online scheduling company, found that professionals spend nearly five hours each week scheduling meetings. That figure doesn’t include the time actually spent in meetings. An estimated more than 25 million meetings take place in businesses across the U.S. every workday, so we can assume the total time spent in meetings represents a significant productivity loss to the businesses in question. How do you put an end to meetings? The only certain way is to quit your job. All kidding aside, you can minimize the effects of meetings on your productivity without resorting to that extreme.
Every interview requires a sales pitch – and you’re the hot commodity up for grabs. If you want to land the sale, you must stand out from all the other products on the market. Sure, you could take the Billy Mays approach and proclaim your problem-solving prowess in a loud, impassioned manner. You could also drape yourself in bling like one of hip-hop’s brashest rappers. Neither approach is likely to garner the result you desire. Instead, consider the following ways in which successful candidates set themselves apart.
What is a behavioral interview question? It’s a doorway leading to opportunity; the chance to illustrate for a potential employer – in great detail – how awesome you already are at doing the job. Unlike those questions that ask you to hypothesize about the future (e.g. “Where do you see yourself in five years?”), behavioral interview questions allow you to explain how you’ve acted in very specific situations. These questions are popular with experienced interviewers, as past behavior is often indicative of future performance.
It has happened to all of us. Everyone has experienced a bad job interview sometime in the past. Anything from being late, botching answers to key questions or not being able to show knowledge about the company. Although the proverb is true, you never get a second chance to make a first impression, you do have an opportunity to make up some of what you lost in your bad job interview.
While December 2011 employment data (released in January 2012), showed the U.S. unemployment rate was continuing to trend down, the number of long-term unemployed held almost steady at 5.6 million. This group is comprised of individuals who have been jobless for 27 weeks or more, and makes up 42.5 percent of the total unemployed. The commonly flawed hiring process—lack of an acknowledgement of resume receipt, hiring managers who do not know what they want, inept interviewers, and little follow up by companies—is particularly frustrating for this group of individuals and the reasons are understandable. | <urn:uuid:88b0545c-2ef9-48cb-a88d-c722444ae368> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/tag/ontargetjobs/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951977 | 960 | 1.53125 | 2 |
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Obama administration publicly justified its use of unmanned drones to target suspected terrorists overseas for the first time Monday, with a top official saying the strikes are conducted "in full accordance with the law."
John Brennan, President Barack Obama's top counterrorism adviser said strikes are used when the option of capture is not feasible. Brennan discussed the strikes during a Monday address at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a Washington think-tank.
"President Obama said here five years ago, if another nation cannot or will not take action, we will," Brennan said. "And it is an unfortunate fact that to save many innocent lives we are sometimes obliged to take lives -- the lives of terrorists who seek to murder our fellow citizens."
The program utilizes unmanned aerial vehicles, often equipped with Hellfire missiles, to target al Qaeda operatives in remote locations overseas -- often on the territory of U.S. allies such as Pakistan and Yemen. Brennan said the United States "respects national sovereignty and international law" and is guided by the laws of war in ordering those attacks.
But the attacks have drawn repeated condemnations from Pakistan, which says the strikes have killed numerous civilians. A drone strike hit a high school in the country's northwestern tribal region where intelligence officials said Islamic militants were hiding Sunday, bringing a fresh denunciation from Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
And domestic critics insist that the program isn't legal, and they remain concerned about the targeted killing of Americans like accused al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki, who died in a drone strike in Yemen in September.
"Mr. Brennan supplies legal conclusions, not legal analysis," said Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union. "We continue to believe that the administration should release the Justice Department memos underlying the program -- particularly the memo that authorizes the extrajudicial killing of American terrorism suspects. And the administration should release the evidence it relied on to conclude that an American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, could be killed without charge, trial, or judicial process of any kind."
And a woman stood up in the middle of Brennan's speech to protest the use of the drone strikes. She was carried out by security.
Brennan's remarks are the Obama administration's most candid and open confirmation of the program to date. Attorney General Eric Holder defended the killing of al-Awlaki in March, saying the United States had the right to use "technologically advanced weapons" against terrorists, and Brennan said the top lawyers for the Pentagon, State Department and CIA have laid out the legal basis for the attacks.
"When considering lethal force, we are of course mindful that there are important checks on our ability to act unilaterally in foreign territories," he said. "We do not use force whenever we want, wherever we want. International legal principles, including respect for a state's sovereignty and the laws of war, impose constraints. The United States of America respects national sovereignty and international law."
Brennan said people are targeted if they are believed to pose a significant threat to the United States or its overseas interests. The targets are usually people holding high-ranking positions within al Qaeda, or who possess critical skills that help enable the terrorist organization to carry out attacks, and there is no feasible chance to capture them.
Arguments in favor of the method include the fact that no U.S. troops are put at risk, and that the precision targeting capabilities enable for the careful avoidance of civilian deaths. Brennan acknowledged that innocent civilians are killed sometimes, and the administration conducts a full review of the operation when that happens.
But he did not address the issue of backlash from al Qaeda or other organizations. In 2009, a CIA base in Afghanistan was targeted by a suicide bomber who posed as a double agent and killed seven CIA Officers along with a Jordanian intelligence official. A Taliban commander claimed that the attack was in retaliation for a drone strike.
And he said the program is now spreading beyond the United States, saying that other countries have the technology -- casting light for the first time on the administration's concerns about the possibility that other countries using this technology against the United States.
"President Obama and those of us on his national security team are very mindful that as our nation uses this technology, we are establishing precedents that other nations may follow," he said. "And not all of them will be nations that share our interests or the premium we put on protecting human life, including innocent civilians."
Brennan also revealed that there are disagreements over use of the program within the administration -- but he added that the nation is at war.
"If anyone in government who works in this area tells you they haven't struggled with this, then they haven't spent much time thinking about it. I know I have, and I will continue to struggle with it as long as I remain involved in counterterrorism." | <urn:uuid:0be2cdff-e72d-4590-b0dc-b7aa8f2fb899> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wibw.com/home/nationalnews/headlines/Obama_Adviser_Defends_Drone_Strikes__149565815.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953304 | 994 | 1.6875 | 2 |
The US Environmental Protection Agency proposed new air pollution standards for oil and gas exploration and production operations on July 29 in response to a court order. The standards would require operators to capture natural gas which currently escapes into the atmosphere, the agency indicated.
EPA said the proposal would cut volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted during several processes, including a 95% reduction during completion of new and modified hydraulically fractured wells. Capturing gas that currently escapes into the air would make it available for sale through technology and processes several producers already use and some states require, EPA said.
US gas production is increasing with more than 25,000 new and existing wells fraced or refraced each year, it noted. EPA said it anticipates the proposed VOC reductions would reduce ozone nonattainment problems in many oil and gas production areas. They also would yield a significant environmental benefit by reducing emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent that carbon dioxide, from new and modified wells, according to the agency. The proposed changes also would lower cancer risks from emissions of benzene and several other air toxics, it added.
EPA said its analysis of the proposed changes, which also include requirements for storage tanks and other equipment, show that they are highly cost-effective, with a net savings to the industry of tens of millions of dollars annually from the value of gas that would no longer escape into the atmosphere.
It said the proposal included reviews of four air regulations for the oil and gas industry as required by the Clean Air Act: a new source performance standard for VOCs from equipment leaks at gas processing plants; a new source performance standard for sulfur dioxide emissions from gas processing plants; an air toxics standard for oil and gas production; and an air toxics standard for natural gas transmission and storage.
Final rule by February 2012
The agency said that it was under a consent decree requiring it to sign a proposal by July 28 and take final action by Feb. 28, 2012. It said as part of the public comment period, EPA would hold three public hearings, in Dallas, Denver, and Pittsburgh, Pa. Details on the hearings will be announced soon, it said.
Industry groups initially reacted cautiously to the proposals. “EPA has already imposed stringent emissions limitations on engines used in oil and gas operations,” Howard Feldman, the American Petroleum Institute’s scientific and regulatory policy director, said on July 28. “API will review these proposed rules to ensure that they don’t inadvertently create unsafe operating conditions, are cost effective and truly provide additional public health benefits, and don’t stifle the development of our abundant natural resources.
He said API also would like EPA to extend the final rule deadline beyond February 2012 by a minimum of 6 months to allow adequate time to collect and analyze comments on the proposed rules.
A spokeswoman for the Independent Petroleum Association of America said it would take a closer look at EPA’s proposal once it was published in the Federal Register before commenting. “The information that we have seen from the EPA is very vague,” she told OGJ in a July 29 e-mail. “Many oil and gas producers already use green completion technologies; however, we do not know whether they are the same as those proposed by EPA.”
Environmental organizations applauded the proposed rules. “Natural gas drilling has been spewing vast amounts of toxins into our air every day without limits, sickening families and communities,” Deb Nardone, who directs the Sierra Club’s natural gas reform campaign, said on July 28. “This proposed protection would help reign in life-threatening pollution from gas drilling for the first time and is a significant step forward in cleaning up a dirty industry.”
Contact at firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:11920a1f-147b-42f8-895d-bc6514ab202b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ogj.com/articles/2011/07/epa-proposes-gas-capturing-requirements-for-e-p-operations.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965797 | 781 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Error Has No Rights
Alexis de Tocqueville, in Democracy in America, predicted that Americans “will tend increasingly to fall into one or the other of two categories: those who abandon Christianity entirely, and those who join the Roman Church.” In the rapidly democratizing United States of the 1830s that historians refer to as Jacksonian America, individualistic Americans, Tocqueville noted, seemed “inclined to shun all religious authority” in their search for equality and “a single social power that is both simple and the same for all.” Yet he rested his prediction on the conviction that there existed “a hidden instinct that propels them unwittingly toward Catholicism.” Even if practical and restless Americans at first glance might find themselves astonished by Catholic doctrines, they could not but admire the Church’s “great unity” and the efficiency with which it was governed. This was Catholicism’s strength, and the basis for Tocqueville’s assertion that the “Roman Church” was more suited to the American mind of what he called the “democratic age” than to a European mind still wedded to the union of throne and altar that belonged to the fast-fading “aristocratic age.”
No American living in the mid-nineteenth century better personified Tocqueville’s prediction than Orestes Augustus Brownson (1803-1876). Born in Vermont, Brownson grew up on a farm in a Congregationalist community, where he received a partial classical education. In the 1820s and 1840s, Brownson passed through the Presbyterian, Universalist, and Unitarian churches, becoming ordained in the latter two; argued in favor of Transcendentalism and workers’ rights; befriended Margaret Fuller, Robert Dale Owen, and Fanny Wright; and lived for a time at the communistic Brook Farm. All the while, he wrote profusely, publishing books and contributing to at least 17 journals and editing several of his own. The lecture circuit was a big draw in Jacksonian America, and Brownson was one of its star attractions. In 1844, Brownson shocked friend and foe alike when he entered the Roman Catholic Church, which he never left.
Brownson’s contemporaries found his religious path inexplicable, leading one to label him a “Religious Weathervane,” a sobriquet which serves as the subtitle of a new biography of Brownson by Patrick W. Carey. Carey is professor of theology at Marquette University and editor of The Early Works of Orestes A. Brownson (currently at six volumes). He also has written several monographs and articles on the core of much of Brownson’s writings, namely, the interplay between Roman Catholicism and American republican principles.
Orestes Brownson had the unenviable circumstance to work out in public what most people engage in privately: his journey in and toward faith. Carey traces the principles that consistently formed the outer boundaries of Brownson’s journey throughout his life. He sets this tale in the cultural milieu of the 19th century Atlantic world. Carey, however, argues that despite his religious and philosophical transformations, Brownson’s life’s work nevertheless forms a coherent search to harmonize freedom and communion in a way that equally applies to one’s relationship to God, to nature, and to society. “His passion,” argues Carey, “was for logical consistency.”
Carey’s Brownson is a man of the world, not simply of New England or of the United States. This is the book’s great strength, for in a larger sense Orestes A. Brownson also is a survey of 19th century philosophy. Indeed, anyone seeking to understand the interplay among mid-19th century intellectual trends, philosophy, and Catholic theology will find in Carey’s book a series of succinct explications of topics ranging from neo-Thomism and the Syllabus of Errors to the mid-19th century debate over papal infallibility and the American tendency toward Pelagianism.
Brownson’s philosophy evolved significantly not only just after his ineffable moment in 1842 just prior to his Catholic conversion, but also when he encountered for the first time thinkers such as Pierre Leroux, Victor Cousin, and Immanuel Kant. The tone of Brownson’s writings also varied according to what he perceived to be the present needs of society, and each time he made new enemies. For example, Brownson was criticized as ultramontane, anti-liberal, and slavish because of his approval of Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors (1864). Brownson argued that the Syllabus condemned only the secular “spirit” behind modern liberalism, not its forms. True, he admitted, Pius IX’s language sounded harsh to American ears, but Rome based its stance toward liberalism and the disestablishment of state churches on its experience with the bloody French Revolution and the upheavals of 1848, not on American republican practice. In the wake of the Syllabus, Brownson took unto himself the task of explaining how Catholic dogma and republican principles complemented, rather than contradicted, each other.
“Error has no rights,” Brownson once said, “but the man who errs has equal rights with him who errs not.” This summation of how Catholics ought to view religious freedom this time led some of Brownson’s co-religionists to accuse him of liberality and modernism. But like Isaac Hecker, his friend and contemporary, Brownson “saw Catholicism as the happy medium between the two American extremes” of Calvinism and Transcendentalism. Calvinists sought to use the state for religious or humanitarian ends, making truth, in effect, the result of crass majority rule. Transcendentalists rejected tradition and authority in the name of the individual. Thus, each ignored critical truths about human nature and the proper relationship of man to the state. Brownson was convinced that Americans would find the Catholic Church the highest expression of community only if Catholic dogma could be presented clearly to them in a society free of demagoguery and coercion.
Brownson’s search for logical consistency and balance ultimately led him to challenge “popular notions about the relationship between religion and the state.” Brownson condemned those who divorced “the spiritual and political orders” in their attempt to prevent the formation of a centralized, ecclesiastical state. The First Amendment, admitted Brownson, forbids the union of “religious and political institutions.” But this does not mean that politics ought to be or even can be “a completely autonomous sphere of existence untouched by moral or religious considerations,” for the Church possesses a unique voice in all matters affecting “moral and religious issues and ends.” This opinion placed Brownson at odds with many Catholic politicians, who, in the face of widespread anti-Catholic sentiment, defended their loyalty to the United States by supporting a complete separation of a religiously-grounded ethics from policy questions. Brownson thus labeled his Catholic critics demagogic “political atheists,” who, he said, eventually would find themselves acting contrary to truth and their professed faith just to win elective office.
Carey’s Orestes Brownson is an excellent and much-needed addition to the literature on Brownson. It is a comprehensive study of Brownson’s intellectual growth explained in light of his philosophical mentors and set against the background of American and European politics during the 19th century. Once Catholic, Brownson spent the rest of his life exploring, polemically at times, the relationship Catholicism has or ought to have to republican government and, more specifically, to the American experiment. Because of his views on the interplay between religion and the state, Brownson may well be more important in the 21st century than he was in the 19th, since the fight over this relationship continues unabated and even grows. Orestes Brownson, then, is also a timely rumination on today’s culture wars, accomplished through the biography of a man whom Russell Kirk declared “one of the most interesting of all Americans” who “defended the permanent things.”
John C. Pinheiro is assistant professor of history and Director of Catholic Studies at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Co-editor of Volume 12 of the Presidential Series of the Papers of George Washington, he is the author of Manifest Ambition: James K. Polk and Civil-Military Relations during the Mexican War (Praeger, 2007).
Posted: April 19, 2008 | <urn:uuid:a59fe9c9-a15d-4f9a-8343-629561494160> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/bookman/article/error-has-no-rights/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960457 | 1,824 | 3.09375 | 3 |
The price of wireless plans are going up as carriers reshuffle their offerings.
Millions of wireless customers are going to have to change some habits soon or otherwise be willing to pay more.
The price of chatting and sharing is going up.
Last week Verizon unveiled its plan where all services are bunched together for all your devices.
The "Share Everything Plan" includes unlimited voice and texting along with a single data allowance for up to ten Verizon Wireless devices.
"If you're a family and have a smart phone, you have a basic phone, you have a tablet, you can combine all that in and share the same bucket of minutes," explains Verizon's Karen Smith.
Sharing that bucket of minutes in one household, though, could get complicated, and pricey, if someone dips into your bucket for streaming videos or movies, or for time on Facebook and Twitter.
"All this stuff adds up and people don't know how much it actually uses, and that's where I think it gets some folks into trouble," warns CNET's Maggie Reardon.
Reardon says it's why people should watch their wireless usage like they watch their thermostats.
"It's the same kind of thing that people are going to have to learn with cellphone usage and data usage," she says.
She suggests customers install an app that not only monitors data usage, but shows how much other apps are using as well.
Reardon says you can also reconfigure your device to minimize data usage. | <urn:uuid:60b24e1d-4317-4a60-ad13-fbe548a942d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kveo.com/print/node/22714 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97271 | 306 | 1.609375 | 2 |
CHAPTER FIVE - DETERMINING THE SENTENCE
PART E - RESTITUTION, FINES, ASSESSMENTS, FORFEITURES
§5E1.2. Fines for Individual Defendants
(a)The court shall impose a fine in all cases, except where the defendant establishes that he is unable to pay and is not likely to become able to pay any fine.
(b)The applicable fine guideline range is that specified in subsection (c) below. If, however, the guideline for the offense in Chapter Two provides a specific rule for imposing a fine, that rule takes precedence over subsection (c) of this section.
(c) (1)The minimum of the fine guideline range is the amount shown in column A of the table below.
(2)Except as specified in (4) below, the maximum of the fine guideline range is the amount shown in column B of the table below.
|3 and below||$100||$5,000|
|38 and above||$25,000||$250,000.|
(4)Subsection (c)(2), limiting the maximum fine, does not apply if the defendant is convicted under a statute authorizing (A) a maximum fine greater than $250,000, or (B) a fine for each day of violation. In such cases, the court may impose a fine up to the maximum authorized by the statute.
(d)In determining the amount of the fine, the court shall consider:
(1)the need for the combined sentence to reflect the seriousness of the offense (including the harm or loss to the victim and the gain to the defendant), to promote respect for the law, to provide just punishment and to afford adequate deterrence;
(2)any evidence presented as to the defendant's ability to pay the fine (including the ability to pay over a period of time) in light of his earning capacity and financial resources;
(3)the burden that the fine places on the defendant and his dependents relative to alternative punishments;
(4)any restitution or reparation that the defendant has made or is obligated to make;
(5)any collateral consequences of conviction, including civil obligations arising from the defendant's conduct;
(6)whether the defendant previously has been fined for a similar offense;
(7)the expected costs to the government of any term of probation, or term of imprisonment and term of supervised release imposed; and
(8)any other pertinent equitable considerations.
The amount of the fine should always be sufficient to ensure that the fine, taken together with other sanctions imposed, is punitive.
(e)If the defendant establishes that (1) he is not able and, even with the use of a reasonable installment schedule, is not likely to become able to pay all or part of the fine required by the preceding provisions, or (2) imposition of a fine would unduly burden the defendant's dependents, the court may impose a lesser fine or waive the fine. In these circumstances, the court shall consider alternative sanctions in lieu of all or a portion of the fine, and must still impose a total combined sanction that is punitive. Although any additional sanction not proscribed by the guidelines is permissible, community service is the generally preferable alternative in such instances.
(f)If the defendant establishes that payment of the fine in a lump sum would have an unduly severe impact on him or his dependents, the court should establish an installment schedule for payment of the fine. The length of the installment schedule generally should not exceed twelve months, and shall not exceed the maximum term of probation authorized for the offense. The defendant should be required to pay a substantial installment at the time of sentencing. If the court authorizes a defendant sentenced to probation or supervised release to pay a fine on an installment schedule, the court shall require as a condition of probation or supervised release that the defendant pay the fine according to the schedule. The court also may impose a condition prohibiting the defendant from incurring new credit charges or opening additional lines of credit unless he is in compliance with the payment schedule.
(g)If the defendant knowingly fails to pay a delinquent fine, the court shall resentence him in accordance with 18 U.S.C. § 3614.
1.A fine may be the sole sanction if the guidelines do not require a term of imprisonment. If, however, the fine is not paid in full at the time of sentencing, it is recommended that the court sentence the defendant to a term of probation, with payment of the fine as a condition of probation. If a fine is imposed in addition to a term of imprisonment, it is recommended that the court impose a term of supervised release following imprisonment as a means of enforcing payment of the fine.
2.In general, the maximum fine permitted by law as to each count of conviction is $250,000 for a felony or for any misdemeanor resulting in death; $100,000 for a Class A misdemeanor; and $5,000 for any other offense. 18 U.S.C. § 3571(b)(3)-(7). However, higher or lower limits may apply when specified by statute. 18 U.S.C. § 3571(b)(1), (e). As an alternative maximum, the court may fine the defendant up to the greater of twice the gross gain or twice the gross loss. 18 U.S.C. § 3571(b)(2), (d).
3.The determination of the fine guideline range may be dispensed with entirely upon a court determination of present and future inability to pay any fine. The inability of a defendant to post bail bond (having otherwise been determined eligible for release) and the fact that a defendant is represented by (or was determined eligible for) assigned counsel are significant indicators of present inability to pay any fine. In conjunction with other factors, they may also indicate that the defendant is not likely to become able to pay any fine.
4.The Commission envisions that for most defendants, the maximum of the guideline fine range from subsection (c) will be at least twice the amount of gain or loss resulting from the offense. Where, however, two times either the amount of gain to the defendant or the amount of loss caused by the offense exceeds the maximum of the fine guideline, an upward departure from the fine guideline may be warranted.
Moreover, where a sentence within the applicable fine guideline range would not be sufficient to ensure both the disgorgement of any gain from the offense that otherwise would not be disgorged (<u>e.g.</u>, by restitution or forfeiture) and an adequate punitive fine, an upward departure from the fine guideline range may be warranted.
5.Subsection (c)(4) applies to statutes that contain special provisions permitting larger fines; the guidelines do not limit maximum fines in such cases. These statutes include, among others: 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(b) and 960(b), which authorize fines up to $8 million in offenses involving the manufacture, distribution, or importation of certain controlled substances; 21 U.S.C. § 848(a), which authorizes fines up to $4 million in offenses involving the manufacture or distribution of controlled substances by a continuing criminal enterprise; 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a), which authorizes a fine equal to the greater of $500,000 or two times the value of the monetary instruments or funds involved in offenses involving money laundering of financial instruments; 18 U.S.C. § 1957(b)(2), which authorizes a fine equal to two times the amount of any criminally derived property involved in a money laundering transaction; 33 U.S.C. § 1319(c), which authorizes a fine of up to $50,000 per day for violations of the Water Pollution Control Act; 42 U.S.C. § 6928(d), which authorizes a fine of up to $50,000 per day for violations of the Resource Conservation Act; and 2 U.S.C. § 437g(d)(1)(D), which authorizes, for violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act under 2 U.S.C. § 441f, a fine up to the greater of $50,000 or 1,000 percent of the amount of the violation, and which requires, in the case of such a violation, a minimum fine of not less than 300 percent of the amount of the violation.
There may be cases in which the defendant has entered into a conciliation agreement with the Federal Election Commission under section 309 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 in order to correct or prevent a violation of such Act by the defendant. The existence of a conciliation agreement between the defendant and Federal Election Commission, and the extent of compliance with that conciliation agreement, may be appropriate factors in determining at what point within the applicable fine guideline range to sentence the defendant, unless the defendant began negotiations toward a conciliation agreement after becoming aware of a criminal investigation.
6.The existence of income or assets that the defendant failed to disclose may justify a larger fine than that which otherwise would be warranted under this section. The court may base its conclusion as to this factor on information revealing significant unexplained expenditures by the defendant or unexplained possession of assets that do not comport with the defendant's reported income. If the court concludes that the defendant willfully misrepresented all or part of his income or assets, it may increase the offense level and resulting sentence in accordance with Chapter Three, Part C (Obstruction).
7.In considering subsection (d)(7), the court may be guided by reports published by the Bureau of Prisons and the Administrative Office of the United States Courts concerning average costs.
Historical Note: Effective November 1, 1987. Amended effective January 15, 1988 (see Appendix C, amendment 54); November 1, 1989 (see Appendix C, amendments 280, 281, and 302); November 1, 1990 (see Appendix C, amendment 356); November 1, 1991 (see Appendix C, amendment 384); November 1, 1997 (see Appendix C, amendment 572); November 1, 2002 (see Appendix C, amendment 646); January 25, 2003 (see Appendix C, amendment 648); November 1, 2003 (see Appendix C, amendment 656). | <urn:uuid:3caf76ac-5747-4910-87b4-b90f50b71823> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ussc.gov/Guidelines/2010_guidelines/Manual_HTML/5e1_2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927341 | 2,122 | 2 | 2 |
(Times) Where do old computers go to retire? The ones that retire in Israel go to the Personal Computer Museum, which has over 70 models of the “pioneers” of personal computing, from the ’70s onward. Among the machines on display at the museum, located in Haifa, are computers that were popular at the dawn of the computer era alongside machines rarely seen then, let alone today.The museum, established earlier this year, was the idea of Yariv Anbar, director of Mediatech High-Tech, a division of the computer training and development group Matrix. Anbar had been collecting old computers for 18 years when he got the idea of putting them on display. Unfortunately, nobody wanted the “junk” Anbar was peddling — so he decided to open up his own museum, presenting the models he collected. Many of the computers work and have been set up to perform for the public.
“I got my first computer in 1983,” Anbar said. “It was a Mag 2000, which was a clone of the Apple IIe — of course no one could afford an original in those days. The computer connected to a cassette player and a television. A few years later I got a PC, and of course I was very excited.” The PC, made first by IBM and later by a wide variety of clone makers, took the lion’s share of sales, but many other companies tried to come up with competitors. (MORE) | <urn:uuid:23b5a350-a575-44dd-ac1a-1c24616add79> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://noah.simonstudio.com/2012_05_03_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984563 | 311 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Syrian forces in Damascus loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have fired at least four Scud missiles inside Syria, presumably at rebel groups, a U.S. official said Wednesday.
U.S. military satellites picked up and confirmed the infrared signature of the four short-range Scud missiles, which were launched from the Damascus area into northern Syria, according to an official who declined to be named, citing the sensitivity of the matter.
The missiles did not land on the Turkish side of the border but "came close," the official said.
And as Syrian forces dabble with longer-range weapons with increased lethality, authorities say NATO is also preparing to send a Patriot missile defense system to neighboring Turkey after it made the request at a meeting in Brussels last week.
Within days, the Obama administration is expected to issue orders determining the number of Patriot missile batteries and personnel to be sent, according to a Pentagon spokesman.
Earlier this month, a U.S. official said the Syrian government was "ratcheting things up," noting that Syrian forces had already fired some 20 rockets with the relatively long range of 60 miles.
Analysts say the Assad government maintains up to 400 of the short- and medium-range Russian-developed Scud missiles, while State Department officials point to so-called barrel bombs -- incendiary explosives with flammable material similar to napalm -- that are now apparently being deployed by the Syrian government.
NATO issued a statement Wednesday saying that the alliance had "detected the launch of a number of unguided, short-range ballistic missiles inside Syria this week," and that the "trajectory and distance traveled indicate they were Scud-type missiles."
The move represents an escalation in the 20-month civil war, which has threatened to destabilize the broader region and draw neighboring countries and militant groups into the conflict.
"As the regime becomes more and more desperate, we see it resorting to increased lethality and more vicious weapons moving forward," said U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. "And we have in recent days seen missiles deployed."
Amid the growing concern about missiles, Syria's newly formed opposition coalition won recognition from international supporters on Wednesday in Morocco.
The Friends of Syria group, representing more than 100 countries and organizations, agreed Wednesday to recognize the National Coalition of the Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
The designation immediately broadens international recognition for the coalition and should pave the way for additional support for the rebel cause, said Brookings Institution analyst Salman Shaikh, who attended the session in Marrakech, Morocco.
"What this recognition does, I think, is give the coalition more confidence in its workings," Shaikh said.
Previously, several Arab and European states, including France and the United Kingdom, had recognized the group.
The Friends of Syria recognition, however, did little to soothe opposition leaders stung by U.S. President Barack Obama's decision Tuesday to list one rebel group as a terrorist organization.
Opposition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib urged the United States to rescind its decision to list the al-Nusra organization as a terrorist group and impose sanctions on its leaders, saying the coalition rejects radical violence.
Al-Nusra is not part of the coalition but has fought against Syria's government and, consequently, has support among Syrians sympathetic to the rebellion, Shaikh said.
The United States sent Deputy Secretary of State William Burns to the Friends of Syria meeting, which came a day after Obama said his administration had decided to grant recognition to the coalition.
"We've made a decision that the Syrian opposition coalition is now inclusive enough, is reflective and representative enough of the Syrian population that we consider them the legitimate representative of the Syrian people in opposition to the Assad regime," Obama told ABC's Barbara Walters.
At the Morocco meeting, Burns told Syrian rebel leaders that their newfound recognition is freighted with the weight of international expectations.
"This leadership comes with real responsibilities," he said, according to a transcript posted on the State Department's website.
On top of previous commitments, Burns said the United States will provide $14 million for emergency medical care and for supplies to help Syrians live through the coming winter, including plastic insulation, boots and nutritional supplies.
Saudi Arabia also pledged $100 million in aid, Shaikh said.
Obama's statement Tuesday came as a surprise to Russia, said Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
He said an agreement he had worked out in Geneva, Switzerland, with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton laid out a path for a negotiated transfer of power, but he said the new coalition's goals call for it to "overturn the regime, dismantle government institutions and refuse dialogue with the Syrian government."
"We inquired with our American partners as to how that conforms with the logic of the Geneva communique, and they told us that the most important thing is to unite the opposition, and its platform can, quote, 'be corrected,'" Lavrov said.
As the diplomatic talks were going on in Morocco, violence continued in Syria.
State TV showed images of an explosion outside the Interior Ministry in Damascus, saying it was one of three bombings that killed five people and injured 23. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the explosion killed eight Syrian soldiers and wounded 40.
The state-run SANA news agency said two bombs exploded behind the Justice Palace, injuring one person.
The opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said 113 people had died in fighting Wednesday, including 15 children. The group said government warplanes struck at targets in the suburbs of Damascus as rebels and government forces clashed nationwide. | <urn:uuid:76a57924-07a2-4f44-8bbf-152e402d426f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.krcrtv.com/news/national/Officials-Assad-forces-fire-Scud-missiles/-/14285942/17748620/-/uexo7p/-/index.html | 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 | 0.965116 | 1,157 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Obviously the COG should be centre for lateral placement and "as recommended" for longitudinal placement, but what happens if I move a component higher than usual - ie shifting the COG up ? Does this make the plane inherently more unstable?
The reason I ask is that I am modifying my squadron (I have 3!!) of T28s and am thinking that I could do something clever with the canopy hatch - potentially by mounting the ardupilot (and possibly the RX) within in so I can swap in and out either different ardupilots quickly, or even swap in a "blanking template" into planes so I can just fly them manually (ie have a direct RX -> servo link in there).
Feel free to redirect me to any appropriate web resources. I've read a lot about COG being too near the front or back but nothing about the height. | <urn:uuid:8f5ed57e-76f8-4459-b721-4f8170efa59d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/cog-question-what-effect-does-height-have-on-performance?xg_source=activity | 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 | 0.936931 | 178 | 1.648438 | 2 |
“This is true democracy and good old-fashioned organizing at work,” declared Leah Daughty, black liberation theologist and organizer of the One Nation Working Together march held Saturday, October 1st. The Washington D.C. rally was steeped in similar messaging: a progressive upswell is on the rise. Yet, with even a cursory look at the factors that made One Nation possible, Daughtry’s characterization is not just inaccurate — it’s laughable. Billed as a progressive counterpart to the populist Tea Party movement, the event in fact clears up any doubt over the well-funded, well-orchestrated, well-connected nature of the consortium of far-left organizations and activists in the country today. Grassroots on the fly isn’t that difficult of a feat.
Determining what exactly One Nation Working Together (ONWT) is, is a revealing process in its own right. Is it a rally? An organization? ONWT is noticeably evasive on this issue. The provenance of ONWT derives from the likeliest of left-wing wellsprings; the multimillion-dollar Tides Center. Not exactly an organization, ONWT is a “project” of the Tides Center, an organization closely affiliated with the equally well-provisioned Tides Foundation. Both are the brainchildren of radical activist and ACORN bailout-man Drummond Pike, and both have received millions of dollars over the years from George Soros’ Open Society Institute.
An enabler of left-wing astroturf, the Tides Center’s “core” service is providing “fiscal sponsorship” to progressive nonprofit startups. Although the center does not fund projects directly, Tides takes care of their management and administrative burdens. Projects are not independent entities in themselves, but rather “are” the Tides Center — as they put it — through which the projects/quasi-organizations receive the benefits of tax-exempt non-profit status.
As stated by the Tides Center itself, the ONWT project is clearly aimed at energizing and organizing far-left voters and the Left’s political infrastructure. The signature event, the ONWT march in Washington D.C., was designed to “lead into an intensive voter mobilization program for Election Day 2010.” Secondarily, ONWT is concerned with “push[ing] back” against the forces of “divisiveness and hatred” — i.e. the Tea Party — and offering a “healing alternative” to “summon people to a higher moral plane” — in other words, to present the facade of a grassroots counter-insurgence to rival right-wing populism. Not coincidentally, the project description makes special mention of the need to encourage voter participation from racial minorities, or as ONWT calls them “historically underrepresented groups and communities.” This demographic threw huge support to Barack Obama in 2008, but is not expected to make remotely as strong a turn out in the mid-term elections.
Pages: 1 2 | <urn:uuid:93bf280a-269f-40db-bef8-909d20ca16cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://frontpagemag.com/2010/n-m-hungerford/a-rally-but-no-rival/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940161 | 649 | 1.507813 | 2 |
A report out Wednesday shows it's getting harder for minimum-wage earners to find affordable housing.
The report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition says there's no place in the country where a minimum-wage employee can afford to pay rent on a two-bedroom home.
And in three-quarters of the country, even two full-time minimum-wage jobs couldn't pay for such housing.
The annual "Out of Reach" report finds the average American worker must make almost $15 an hour to afford a modest two-bedroom rental and still pay for basic needs.
That's nearly three times the federal minimum wage.
The study found that wages needed for two-bedroom housing ranged from about $37 an hour in Marin County, California to about $7 an hour in Alabama, and a little less than $6 an hour in parts of Puerto Rico. | <urn:uuid:0c9f1f3d-4af3-42d2-8346-d1b9b4be311b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wilx.com/home/headlines/108342.html?site=mobile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950298 | 176 | 1.664063 | 2 |
World needs economic ethics: Pope
Pope Benedict XVI is welcomed during an audience with the diplomatic corps at the Vatican Jan. 9, 2012. REUTERS/Pier Paolo Cito/Pool
VATICAN CITY - The global crisis shows that the world needs economic ethics and new rules so the financial system benefits all humanity, Pope Benedict said on Monday in his keynote speech for the New Year.
In a wide-ranging address, the pontiff also called for the end of violence across North Africa and the Middle East, and denounced attacks against religious freedom.
“The present moment is sadly marked by a profound disquiet and the various crises - economic, political and social - are a dramatic expression of this,” he told diplomats in what has come to be known as his yearly “state of the world” speech.
He said the “grave and disturbing developments of the global economic and financial crisis” that had started in industrialised countries were now infecting the world and leaving many, particularly the young, disoriented and frustrated.
Adding a personal touch to appeals that have been made in recent Vatican documents, Benedict called for an injection of ethics in the way the world economy is run.
“The crisis can and must be an incentive to reflect on human existence and on the importance of its ethical dimension,” he said, addressing diplomats from nearly 180 countries in French.
Changes in the economy should not only be “an effort to stem private losses or to shore up national economies, but to give ourselves new rules that ensure that all can lead a dignified life and develop their abilities for the benefit of the community as a whole”.
Since the downturn began, Benedict has often said the lack of sufficient ethics in the world of finance could not be overlooked, and that economic decisions should be based on what advances the common good rather than individual gain.
A major document issued in October by the Vatican’s justice and peace department called for sweeping reforms of the world economy and the creation of an ethical global authority to regulate financial markets.
In other parts of his speech to the diplomats accredited to the Holy See, Benedict spoke of the “Arab Spring” uprisings and threw his weight behind calls for democratic and peaceful change in the region.
He called for “the recognition of the inalienable dignity of each human person and of his or her fundamental rights” in countries in that region. He said respect for the person “must lead to the end of all violence.”
Benedict said he hoped that the presence of Arab League observers in Syria would help to end the bloodshed there, and urged the international community to do more to bring about peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
He said religious freedom was under threat in various places in Africa and Asia and again denounced attacks against Christians such as those in Nigeria, where Christmas Day bombings against churches killed at least 27 people.
The pope, who visited Africa last year, called such attacks “religiously motivated terrorism”, and said they were “the antithesis of religion” and contributed to its destruction.
(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Alessandra Rizzo) | <urn:uuid:3683e8ab-b345-4048-bf40-763d7166f9d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.canoe.ca/Canoe/Money/News/2012/01/09/19218636.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970521 | 657 | 2.109375 | 2 |
The World’s Most Popular Christmas Song
by Victor Parachin
What do Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, Martina McBride, Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Beach Boys, Patty Loveless, The Osmonds, Perry Como, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir have in common?
The answer: they have all sung and recorded the song “White Christmas.”
“White Christmas” is, in fact, the world’s most popular Christmas song having sold more than 125 million copies. It has been recorded in Dutch, Yiddish, Japanese, and even Swahili. “White Christmas’” status as the biggest-selling single has been challenged only once. Interestingly, the challenge came not from the Beatles or Elvis Presley, but by Elton John’s 1997 tribute to Princess Diana, “Candle in the Wind.”
“White Christmas” was written by Irving Berlin. It is a fascinating footnote in American cultural history that a Jewish songwriter wrote a universal best-selling song about a day celebrating the birth of Christianity’s founder. That time of year brought back memories of the tragic death of his infant son, Irving Berlin Jr., in December 1928.
Berlin’s inspiration may have come from a lonely and nostalgic northeastern transplant caught in Los Angeles during the holiday season. There, the palm trees and summerlike temperatures in December made him yearn for his more familiar winter cold weather and snow. Berlin’s song originally began with this introductory verse:
The sun is shining
The grass is green,
The orange and palm trees sway
There’s never been such a day
In Beverly Hills, L.A.
But it’s December the
And I’m longing to be up north . . .
And then follows the line known and sung all around the planet every December: “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas . . . ”
Berlin’s labors over this song took place throughout the night on January in 1940. When completed, Berlin was excited about his creation, describing it as a “round” song, his term for those rare tunes which seem to flow from him effortlessly and seamlessly. “We working composers all too often, in the interest of expediency, sharpen our pencils, get out that square sheet of paper and become too slick,” he later explained. “Those forced efforts are ‘square’ songs. But sometimes as song is natural. We may start it to order for a specific scene or show, but our subconscious beings go to work and the song is just there.”
On the Monday morning when he completed “White Christmas,” Berlin rushed to his office proclaiming to Helmy Kresa, his transcriber. “I want you to take down a song I wrote over the weekend,” Berlin said. “Not only is it the best song I ever wrote, it’s the best song anybody ever wrote.” Initially skeptical, Helmy wrote down the notes as Berlin, sitting at a piano, began to play the song. While Helmy listened and transcribed, his skepticism evaporated. “As he started to sing, I knew right away that the way he juxtaposed the warmth of Southern California with the cold snow would make it a hit,” Helmy recalled, “and when he sang the chorus, I knew it really was the greatest song ever written. I was as thrilled as he was.”
The duo continued working, developing, and refining “White Christmas” over several weeks and then put it away. More than a year later, in April 1941, Berlin and film director Mark Sandrich were working on a new movie, Holiday Inn, when Berlin realized it would be the perfect forum for his Christmas song. On the Paramount Studios set was Walter Scharf, a staff music arranger assigned to Berlin. His task was to turn Berlin’s tunes into full-fledged orchestral numbers.
Scharf remembers Berlin tapping out “White Christmas” on a piano. Berlin only had two years of formal schooling and never learned to read or write music. Scharf recalls Berlin’s first performance as a “very rough” rendition. Bing Crosby, who overheard Berlin playing the piece, was not impressed. Later Scharf tried to ease Crosby’s concern, telling the singer he thought “White Christmas” would turn out well. Reportedly, Crosby rolled his eyes saying, “I hope so!”
Holiday Inn opened in New York on August 4, 1942. It featured Bing Crosby as a singer and Fred Astaire as a dancer. While Berlin was ecstatic and enthusiastic, the reviewers barely noticed or mentioned the production. Before long, however, the song “White Christmas” was becoming a hit. The movie won an Oscar for Best Song in 1943 and was also nominated for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture and Best Original Story. In fact, it became the song of the decade and continues to be the top selling Christmas song of all time. Crosby’s recording of it sold more than 30 million records. As a member of the USO’s traveling ensemble, Bing Crosby was asked by troops serving in World War II to sing “White Christmas” no matter what time of year it was.
In 1954, another movie was developed to further promote the song. The musical comedy was called White Christmas, featuring ex-army friends (Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) doing a program to save their general’s resort hotel in Vermont. Supporting cast included Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen.
Some explain the popularity of “White Christmas” as a symbol of the values and aspirations of the World War II generation. Others describe it as a song that illustrates the deep assimilation and accommodation of Judaism into American culture. More than 150 different performers – who run the entire musical gamut – have recorded this piece. Crosby’s version alone was listed as the all-time top single by Guinness Book of World Records. When Elvis Presley recorded his version of “White Christmas,” Berlin was appalled. Unable to prevent the recording, he told his staff to begin calling radio stations across the country pleading with the stations not to play Presley’s version.
The mass popularity of “White Christmas” created a cultural paradigm shift in America. The Christmas season became an American holiday and not only a Christian one. White Christmas ushered in a golden era of other popular and secular American Christmas music such as “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Silver Bells,” and “Frosty the Snowman.”
According to the American Society of Composers and Publishers, “White Christmas” remains the number one performed secular holiday song and is the most recorded song, with more than 500 versions in scores of languages.
In addition to “White Christmas,” Berlin produced more than 900 songs, 19 musicals, and scores for 18 movies. This Jewish immigrant from Siberia wrote music that defined both Broadway and Hollywood. However, it is “White Christmas” that continues to be recorded by new artists every year and continues to captivate new fans all around the world.
Victor Parachin lives in Oklahoma | <urn:uuid:ded4b098-5fb1-4961-a7ca-8a5efcbc64b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lutherandigest.com/2010/12/20/the-worlds-most-popular-christmas-song/comment-page-1/ | 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 | 0.96727 | 1,562 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Today, the Uniting Church in Australia, together with 19 other major civil society organisations released a statement calling on the next Government of Australia to take serious, urgent and credible action to put a price on carbon.
I spoke at a press conference this morning. This was my statement.
The Uniting Church in Australia has long argued that to ensure the future of our planet, we need to take fast and serious action to reduce pollution.
We have witnessed first-hand, the devastation that climate change is already having on our neighbours in the Pacific and throughout the low-lying regions of South-east Asia. Our partner churches and the peoples of the Pacific are calling on Australia, as a wealthy neighbour and as the major polluter in the region, to take responsibility and act to reduce the effects of climate change.
While we all need to do everything we can as individuals, families and groups in community to reduce our own carbon footprint, this action alone is not enough. The key to making a difference lies with the development of credible government policies designed to shift us to a cleaner, more energy efficient, more sustainable economy.
A price on carbon is not all we need to do, but it is one of the most critical tools.
First and foremost, the Uniting Church believes a price on carbon is necessary because within the context of a market economy, a price will act as a signal of the value we put on the environment for its own sake. The environment is not merely a resource for us to plunder. It is a sacred gift from God and if we don’t treat it as such, we risk the planet and our very own future.
Without a carbon price, there is no signal to industry to clean-up its act and no impetus for shifting to a low-carbon economy. Without a price on carbon our renewable energy industry will fail to grow and thrive, and energy efficiency measures will fail to deliver the big outcomes necessary. Without a price on carbon, we will find ourselves stuck in the dark ages of a carbon-based economy while the rest of the world has moved on.
It is time for us to take control of the market and make it work for us for a change. If we do it properly, the we can use the market as a tool to help us to ensure a healthy and stable planet for our children and our grandchildren.
A price on carbon will generate the funds necessary to drive us away from our reliance on fossil fuels and support the growth of clean and renewable energies.
We also believe that a credible plan would incorporate measures that support low income and other vulnerable households in Australia to ensure affordable access to the energy people need and to cope with other cost of living pressures related to the transition to cleaner energies. It would incorporate additional development aid to help developing countries adapt to the effects of climate change and ensure their future prosperity in a low-carbon world.
This is not a matter of party politics. It has been extremely disappointing to see the issues of climate change, one of the greatest moral, social, environmental and economic challenges of our time reduced to such small-target, lowest common denominator politics.
It is also extremely disappointing to see our political leaders retreat to a position of waiting to see what others will do.
Climate change is a moral issue for all of us and as such our response should be driven by what we know is the right thing to do. The right thing to do is to act to protect the planet.
Addressing the challenge of climate change is the greatest challenge our politicians have faced.
We have come together today to call them to rise to the challenge.
It is time for Australian governments at all levels to commit to working with business, industry, environment, community and faith groups for the sake of our planet and all its people. Our future depends on it. | <urn:uuid:ced3a9f4-58ed-4f0a-8d08-b323474bcfde> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thelittlerev.wordpress.com/tag/climate-change/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952906 | 777 | 1.859375 | 2 |
ODS Mission and Values
The Office of Developmental Services (ODS) is dedicated to joining in partnership with all available state and local resources toward the development of communities (community providers and training centers) that support and affirm all persons with intellectual disabilities and their families as participating and contributing members.
The development of services for persons with intellectual disabilities is shifting away from the concept of specific service models to one in which services are structured around individualized, flexible supports that respond to the needs of individuals with intellectual disabilities and their families. This approach requires that adaptations and accommodations be made to ensure the effective use of natural and community resources in places such as: schools; work places; health services; and the home. This person centered focus is emphasized rather than simply trying to fit individuals with intellectual disabilities into professionally driven services.
ODS is in a unique position to work across the state with individuals, families, providers, and agencies toward the collaborative development of state and local service system infrastructures which support and empower persons with intellectual disabilities and their families.
The ODS believes that supports and services for individuals with intellectual disabilities and their families should:
- Empower individuals and provide the support to select and choose those services needed to reach their desired goals
- Be responsive and flexible to prevent family crises and other lifestyle limitations due to living with a family member with disabilities
- Maximize disability-specific and generic funding sources to the fullest and contain costs through reinvestment in supports which provide the strongest and most individualized outcomes for people.
- have dignity and worth as human beings
- deserve the opportunity and equal access to public support services
- need families and friends who can serve as their strongest advocates and social supports
- are entitled to health, safety, and well-being, free from abuse, neglect, or exploitation
- need person centered supports rather than professionally driven services
- have the right to live and work in supportive communities which empower individuals with intellectual disabilities and their families toward personally satisfying lifestyles
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Matching 2 Tags
Navigating the Crises
In this video, Brian McLaren discusses the idea of surrogate arguments, in which a debate over one thing is really a means for arguing something completely different. According to McClaren, the argument over the age of the earth is one such argument.
Matching 1 Tags
Series: Ephesians 4:1-6: A Call of Christian Unity
This series discusses the importance of unity among Christ’s believers. Ross Hastings, an expert in the areas of both chemistry and pastoral theology, is eager to see the church seek out unity rather than divisions in this science/faith interface. Unpacking Ephesians 4:1-6, he explains that unity in Christ through the Holy Spirit is the primary concern of both Jesus as seen in John 17 and Paul in Ephesians 4, making this matter pressing. He urges all believers to be in agreement that God indeed created, yet to be in dialogue over how that creative process occurred.
A Plea to My Shepherds
... I would exhort these, my fellow conservative evangelical shepherds and thinkers, to set aside all reticence and fear, emerge from anonymity, and storm the forum of discourse, engaging this most pressing matter with vigor, equanimity, and humility. In doing so, know upfront that there will be few handrails to guide; you will not be building upon an extensive precedence of published conservative thought.
Evangelicalism and Adaptation
I look my students dead straight in the eye and tell them that no matter what, debate within the intellectual sphere cannot and should not take away or diminish the importance of the personal nature of their faith. The intellect, to use a scientific phrase, while necessary for the faith, is not sufficient
Series: Harmonizing Science, Ethics, and Praxis
In this three-part series, Cal DeWitt offers insights and examples of why science and ethics must work together to help us make informed, practical decisions within our society. DeWitt’s science-ethics-praxis model provides a framework by which we can live more effectively as God’s stewards.
Series: To Serve and Preserve—Genesis 2 and the Human Calling
In this series, David Buller pays careful attention to the original language and cultural context of Genesis 2, revealing that our responsibility to care for creation is a sacred task given to us by God, not merely a modern secular activity. By taking Scripture seriously, we learn that we have a God-given mandate to be diligent stewards of His creation.
Katharine Hayhoe: Evangelical Christian, Climate Scientist
As an Evangelical and a scientist, Katharine Hayhoe is already a member of a rare breed. As a climate change researcher who is also married to an evangelical Christian pastor, she is nearly one of a kind.
Our desire to engage in gracious dialogue with fellow believers who reject biological evolution has been receiving increased attention in both the Christian and secular press. More importantly, we are being joined in this reconciling project by our brothers and sisters in Christ who have often been defined primarily as our “opponents”.
How Do We Know the Earth is Old? (Infographic)
The BioLogos Forum is pleased to present this infographic about the tools scientists use to determine the age of the Earth. The graphic, titled "How Do We Know the Earth is Old?", uses data compiled and summarized by geology professor Dr. Gregg Davidson.
Many people use the words "dominion" and "subdue" as "unconditional permission to use the world as they please." I came to realize, like many, that such an interpretation is contradicted by the rest of the Bible.
Series: Thinking Aloud Together
This series by Scot McKnight relates a lecture given at the 2012 BioLogos workshop for Evangelical theologians, scientists, authors and pastors. He explains that evolution is taught in public schools, and therefore must be addressed by Evangelical pastors in the churches as well. This will educate a whole generation of upcoming scientists on the issues of science and faith. Overall, he encourages scientists and pastors to collaborate on the issue as they rethink the long held interpretations of Genesis 1-3.
Series: Science as an Instrument of Worship
In this brief series (taken from a 2009 paper), Jennifer Wiseman uses an excerpt from the famous hymn “How Great Thou Art,” to explain why the study of God’s creation can lead Christ’s followers into meaningful worship and overcome the obstacles which impede true praise. Creation as encountered through our senses is pondered by our minds, which flows into wonder-filled songs from the soul. She further explains how knowledge of creation will help Christians to address the moral dilemmas of science, and she encourages all to see the process of scientific inquiry as a means to discover God’s truth.
Why should Christians consider evolutionary creation?
Because evolution is a challenging subject, many Christians are tempted to simply ignore or reject it. Yet considering evolutionary creation has important benefits for Christians both in our relationship with the Creator, and with our relationships with other people—believers and non-Christians alike. First, Christians should study evolution because (like all the natural sciences) it is the study of God’s creation. Creation itself is a complementary revelation to what is communicated in the Scriptures, and through it God shows how and when he brought about life, to his honor and glory. Studying the creation is also an invitation into a deeper understanding of the attributes and character of Father, Son and Spirit. Second, considering evolutionary creation aids the Church in its gospel mission, supporting young Christians in their faith, helping answer critics, and equipping us to engage effectively in the wider culture. An anti-evolution attitude can harm Christian young people by presenting them with a false choice between pursuing science OR holding to faith. Similarly, a hostile attitude towards evolution can hinder evangelism when seekers hear that they must reject science to follow Christ. On the other hand, studying evolution as a God-ordained process helps Christians refute arguments that science encourages an atheistic worldview. Furthermore, as the church engages front-page issues raised by the rapid growth in science, medicine, and technology, a Christ-centered voice in such areas as bioethics will be stronger if based on a thorough understanding of the natural sciences, including evolution. (Updated on September 9, 2012)
Six Reasons Young Christians Leave Church
A five-year project headed by the Barna Group explores the opportunities and challenges of faith development among teens and young adults within a rapidly shifting culture.
God's Use of Time
I find that when many Christians think about the way God created our universe, they often bring a static expectation similar to what we bring to an ordinary statue. It’s as if we assume the physical realm were merely a rigid three-dimensional sculpture, immovable with time.
Series: Francis Collins and Karl Giberson Interview
In this six part series, Karl Giberson discusses evolution with BioLogos founder Francis Collins as it relates to the scientific community and the church. Their conversation addresses Collins’ scientific perspectives, his Christian faith, and the abundant evidence for evolution. Throughout, the two critique various unscientific approaches to evolution such as Young Earth Creationism and Intelligent Design. Overall, they both express the deep need for the Church in America to accept evolution as a valuable, true theory as well as to cultivate a richer understanding of the Bible among the people.
When Appearances Are Deceiving
“That just doesn’t sound right.” Ever since I was a kid, that was my gut reaction to those well-meaning people in my church and school who told me that despite what many in the sciences were saying, the earth and the entire universe were actually of relatively recent manufacture.
The Weapon of Science, the Sword of the Spirit, and a Call to Prayer, Part 2
As a pastor, I find it particularly troubling when Christians use science as a weapon against other brothers and sisters in Faith that believe differently than they do.
Series: The Biblical Premise of Uniformitarianism
In this three part series, geologist Stephen Moshier critiques John MacArthur’s articles on uniformitarianism, while offering an alternative perspective on the principle. He exposes faulty conceptions about and misleading definitions of uniformitarianism. Gregory Bennett further defends the idea of an old earth as Biblical and focuses on the unchanging nature of God. He also discusses the Scriptural doctrines of creation and God’s providence.
Evidences for Evolution, Part 1: An Ancient Earth
The only conclusions in science which are widely accepted are those which are supported by multiple, reinforcing lines of evidence – “all roads must lead to Rome”. If there is even one scientific trajectory that seems to clearly lead off to Peoria instead of Rome, the scientific process demands that the scientist find out why. | <urn:uuid:f4ef54b6-5ebb-413d-93bf-94c41d17bfdc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://biologos.org/resources/find/any/Christian+Unity,Creation+Care,Age+of+the+Earth | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940755 | 1,840 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Long-term success depends on one’s attitude.
Creating a strategy is like building a sand castle on the shore. Unfortunately, the tide will always come in and destroy your work. Just ask every business leader before 705 AD and almost all of them since. Successful leaders must plan for it.
Since nothing lasts forever (especially now), the way to be successful in the long run is to honestly consider a future without your current star product or business model. No matter how hard it is, you need to start tearing down emotional connections to your successful past endeavors so you can plan ahead.
Don’t make your success a liability.
Just ask Circuit City about Best Buy, Montgomery Ward about Walmart, or Dell about Apple. They all dominated the other before ultimately losing the lead. Circuit City had big box electronics retail figured out and Montgomery Ward was famous for their catalogs. Now my daughter doesn’t even know what a catalog is. Catalogs didn’t last.
Also look at Michael Dell. He built an amazing company that took “on demand” manufacturing to a whole new level and was the poster child of the best cost marketing strategy. I remember reading in 2000 how analysts thought Dell would be hard to beat due to their strategy and economies of scale. The “moat around them is too wide” they said. 10 years later Dell’s value is down almost 80% even though computer sales are up.
Their strategy didn’t last.
The winners will be companies like Apple, who plan for change because they see that products, companies, and even whole industries don’t last. Apple didn’t think stand alone music players (iPod) would last, so they developed the iPhone. They don’t think laptops will last, so they developed the iPad. They’re building something that doesn’t last…and they know it.
It’s time we all did.
Today it’s time to start thinking about the future, the time when what you’re working on today is obsolete. Plan for it. Change before you need to. Build something that truly lasts.
Have a great night,
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(1850 - 1900)
Fibich short biography
One of the distinguished Czech composers of the 19th Century, Zdenek Fibich was a student of Smetana in Prague. Fibich’s future studies took him to Leipzig and Paris. Fibich was inspired by Dvorak and Wagner. Fibich’s most often performed compositions are his opera- trilogy Hippoamie, and a series of piano pieces that fully displayed his gift as an extraordinary melodist, Moods, Impressions, and Reminiscences. In 1897, Fibich composed Sarka, most popular opera.
More Fibich sheet music download on EveryNote.com
Fibich Cello sheet music download on EveryNote.com
Fibich Clarinet sheet music download on EveryNote.com
Fibich Chamber sheet music download on EveryNote.com | <urn:uuid:ddb1bbc7-da93-48ed-9bb2-b522e900398d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://everynote.com/cello.choose/0/490/37/4.note | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921333 | 184 | 2.375 | 2 |
AIDS 2012 Plenary Speaker: Linda Scruggs
July 24, 2012
Within two hours of her AIDS diagnosis Linda Scruggs was on a bridge ready to jump off but then she heard God, found faith and began helping others. Here, the programs director for AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth & Families, talks about breaking stigma, what it will take to end the epidemic among women and the power of telling your own story.
Q: Given the fact that at one point you felt hopeless, what does it mean to you personally and professionally to have been invited to speak at the International AIDS Conference?
A: I never would have imagined 22 years ago that I would receive the invitation on April 11th to speak at the International AIDS Conference. It wasn't a goal. It wasn't a plan. I had no clue, no inkling that my voice would have traveled so far that internationally people would say, "Yes, she's a person who can come and speak on behalf of women."
I read in an interview that you believe it's important that people have vision. What vision do you have for the HIV/AIDS epidemic among U.S. women and what needs to happen for it to come about?
It's reflected in the speech I will be giving on making women count. Twenty-four percent of the epidemic consists of women. We need better messaging across the board and scholars to come up with educational programs, training and innovative ways to connect women to their own health care. We need to get to a place where we have enough aggregate data available and reported to get stakeholders to provide funding and support. Getting to that vision is not just about the funding but about funding programs that work and are innovative and changing because AIDS is changing.
What must we do to raise women's voices, increase awareness of the epidemic among women -- particularly Black American women -- and support women's leadership in ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S. and around the world?
We won't end AIDS for Black women or any women until we break the stigma associated with AIDS, change the human response to individuals with HIV/AIDS and make AIDS a normal part of conversations.
I'll give you an example. I went to my HIV doctor and I got on the elevator and this gentleman said, "Oh, we're going to the same floor." I said, "Yes." He said, "We might be going to the same doctor." I responded, "I don't know; I'm going to see my HIV doctor." He totally froze into the corner, but what had been was a real flirty moment until I said I was going to an HIV doctor. So we still have those responses in 2012.
You have been very public about your status. Why is it important for HIV-positive women to tell their stories?
I think as a woman it was important for me to tell my story so that the media didn't tell my story to my family. I didn't ever want my children, my family to think that HIV was yucky and ugly -- those were the visuals we saw. I only want to imagine that I got HIV during a time when I was having an incredible sexual moment. I made a decision that I must have been having a serious sexual experience, and therefore it wasn't yucky; it wasn't ugly.
What have you gained as a result of telling your story?
I think more than anything I've gained a sense of peace. When I started doing this I was 25 or 26 years old and pregnant. I needed to leave my son a legacy. The life that I had lived before hadn't given anything to this world. Now their aunts and their uncles will be able to say, "Your mother gave of herself, she helped this world."
What is your greatest hope for the conference as it relates to women?
Important things are happening. I really hope that the people, programs, providers and policy makers will make sure that women are a first thought in their programming and research. For the past three decades we have talked about HIV in these rooms. And there is so much power, information and education in these rooms. But it has stayed in that space. As a consequence we have been negligent to the larger community.
April Eugene is a Philadelphia-based writer.
This article was provided by Black AIDS Institute. Visit Black AIDS Institute's website to find out more about their activities and publications.
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It is the mission of the Technology Transfer & Commercialization office to assist the UNT Health Science Center, its researchers, and its community with the development, promotion, and commercialization of technologies.
The Laboratory Notebook: Critical for Filing a Successful Patent
A well-kept laboratory notebook is a vital part of productive research, both in academia and industry. In the academic setting, notebooks are owned by the University. This property right is created by the fact that one is employed and paid by the University. Tenure, external funding, and student status do not vitiate this rule.
The importance of maintaining a detailed record of research may be obvious from a good scientific process point of view. There is, however, another reason to record and date your scientific work and ideas. The United States is the only country that has a “first to invent” rule for awarding patents. This means that if two people working separately file a patent for the same invention, documentation of exact dates in laboratory notebooks may affect to whom the patent is granted.
According to Edwin Flores, Ph.D., J.D.. (Patent Attorney, Chalker Flores, LLC), the elements of a good notebook include: date for each entry, signed and documented by the writer and a witness, written legibly in ink, and in English.
He also recommends that any electronic data or procedures be printed, dated and signed. Such information, which includes autorads, photos, and custom reagent orders, should be securely affixed to the lab notebook.
About inventions, Dr. Flores suggests that, “There are three great places to look for patents: surprising and unexpected results, synergy, and for solutions to an existing problem.” He also counsels researchers to expand their thinking to include alternative applications for their inventions. While an invention may be a “failure for the original intended purpose”, it may have great potential for a secondary, unanticipated function.
Dr. Flores urges researchers to work closely with the university technology transfer office and the attorney assigned to file and prosecute their patent application. He also recommends that researchers provide timely answers to any questions that arise. “Procrastination,” says Dr. Flores, “increases the cost and decreases the quality of a patent application.”
Meanwhile, it is critical that researchers avoid the premature public disclosure of an invention via any medium - printed, oral, or virtual. A lab meeting is not a public forum, but a dissertation defense or a national scientific meeting is. Another consideration is whether or not the public disclosure is enabling i.e., enough details are provided, in any medium, for a competitor to reproduce the work. Public disclosure precludes foreign patent rights. In the United States, a patent may be filed with the US Patent & Trademark Office up to a year after initial public disclosure. | <urn:uuid:fb3664dd-fad2-4786-8bb5-540c339b0bc9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hsc.unt.edu/research/ttc/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941157 | 589 | 2.109375 | 2 |
by Joyce Marcel
American Reporter Correspondent
August 5, 2010
THAT LONG LAST MILE
DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- It's a simple fact of life that fast and reliable Internet service is indispensable in a country that wants to continue enjoying a high standard of living.
And the United States has fallen far behind other industrial countries in providing it.
It is especially shameful that many Vermonters do not have access to high-speed Internet, and are instead trapped with inefficient and expensive satellite systems.
When the state allowed FairPoint to buy Verizon's landline business in Vermont, the company promised it would have the state wired by 2010. Then it went bankrupt.
Now it is again doing some wiring, but it won't ever reach "the last mile" - those who live in very rural areas. It's just too darned expensive for them.
There's a striking similarity between wiring the state of Vermont for fiber optics and what happened in 1935, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order that created the Rural Electrification Administration (REA).
It was part of an economic package designed to stimulate an economy deep in the grips of the Great Depression. The Rural Electrification Act followed in 1936; funding for rural electricity became a reality.
Remember, by the 1920s, electricity was nothing new in cities. But only 10 percent of rural America had access before Roosevelt signed that executive order.
Why? Because privately-owned electric companies couldn't see any profit in stringing power lines deep into the hills and valleys. Too darn expensive. That's when the federal government stepped in and made sure that America got wired.
No more kerosene lanterns. No more reading by candlelight. No more pumping water by hand. No more washing clothes in cold water, running them through a ringer and then hanging them on a line. No more ice blocks to keep food reasonably fresh - until the blocks melted. No more throwing wood on the fire to try and keep warm in winter.
Feudal living ended. The modern world burst through the farmhouse door.
And by 1950, 90 percent of American farms had electricity.
In extremely rural Vermont, eight local companies merged in 1929 to form Central Vermont Public Service (CVPS).
Eventually, more than 100 companies and cooperatives merged into CVPS, which started with fewer than 20,000 customers scattered across the state and worked hard to string over 500 miles of lines between 1929 and 1939.
Even so, much of Vermont was without power until after World War II. Believe it or not, two towns, Victory and Granby, in the state's Northeast Kingdom, didn't receive electrical service until 1963.
But because we didn't want to leave anyone behind, everyone eventually benefitted.
Once again we are blessed with a life-changing technology. Once again the for-profit companies say it's too darned expensive to wire the woods.
Recently, the government woke up and stepped in.
Two federal stimulus grants, totaling about $46 million, have just been awarded to the Vermont Telecommunications Authority and the Vermont Telephone Co. The money will be used to expand broadband connections to more than 500 schools, hospitals and other large institutions around Vermont. Once these places are wired, residents will be able to tap into the new infrastructure.
At the same time, the state is planning to place a fiber optic cable along the length of Vermont's Interstate highways, beginning with 14 miles from Sharon on I-89 to Hartford on I-91. It's part of the state Agency of Transportation's communications plan, not a piece of the state's overall broadband expansion project. But it will still provide future infrastructure.
When all these plans are completed, about 95 percent of Vermonters will have high-speed Internet access.
So what about the last 5 percent? The last mile? (In the interest of full disclosure, this includes me.) The state is predicted to have a budget shortfall of $153 million in fiscal year 2012. Why spend money getting me a faster Internet connection?
Some would argue that the state should not. Some would argue that government has no place in building infrastructure. (These are the same people who use the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System to travel to Montpelier to protest big government.) Some would say, "Let her eat cake."
But Tom Evslin, the state's chief technology officer, says wiring the last 5 percent is crucial for three reasons:
First, the quiet and beauty of the woods are enticing to people who work from home. "Who's going to open a new business in a place where they can't go online?" he says.
Second, schools must teach up-to-date technology, and if the kids can't do their homework at home, why would any parent move here?
And third, to save money, the government must start providing many of its services online. Legally, everyone must have access to these services.
But the real reason is true democracy. Why should some people live a technologically feudal life while their neighbors thrive?
We're a small state and we can't afford to leave anybody behind. "All for one and one for all," as the Three Musketeers said.
"You know the old saying about how it's better to teach a man to fish than to buy him fish sticks?" Evslin said. "Well, especially when times are tough, we need to make sure Vermonters can fish for opportunity online - all of us."
Joyce Marcel (joycemarcel.com) is a journalist and columnist who works from home. You can reach her at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:3c0063c9-0a5b-4942-80fd-25ce6c28c1d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.american-reporter.com/4,633/475.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959202 | 1,163 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Charles Evenson was Esme Cullen's first husband. They married when she was still human. He was born in the late 1800's.
Charles was a violently unpredictable man and a very abusive husband, but his gentle exterior covered this personality from the public. He was drafted as a soldier in World War I, only to return in 1918, much to his wife's dismay. She left him in 1920 after discovering she was pregnant, not wanting her child to be raised by him. Presumably, Charles never knew of his son's existence, nor of his death shortly after birth. Also then, he most likely never knew about his wife's suicide attempt, nor her subsequent change into a vampire by the one who would later become her second husband, Carlisle Cullen.
When Edward Cullen went astray to lead a nomadic lifestyle, he dedicated himself to only killing evil doers, thinking that it wouldn't matter as long as justice was served. Charles was his first victim.
- Charles's existence was only mentioned in The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide. | <urn:uuid:6b212ae9-b6f5-4a50-99af-edffbace906a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://twilightsaga.wikia.com/wiki/Charles_Evenson?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.995327 | 214 | 2.140625 | 2 |
1997 Academic Award
Professor Joseph M. DeSimone
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC)
and North Carolina State University (NCSU)
Design and Application of Surfactants for Carbon Dioxide
Innovation and Benefits: Professor DeSimone developed new detergents that allow carbon dioxide (CO2), a nontoxic gas, to be used as a solvent in many industrial applications. Using CO2 as a solvent allows manufacturers to replace traditional, often hazardous chemical solvents and processes, conserve energy, and reduce worker exposure to hazardous substances.
It has been a dilemma of modern industrial technology that the solvents required to dissolve the environment’s worst contaminants themselves have a contaminating effect. Now, new technologies for the design and application of surfactants for carbon dioxide (CO2), developed at UNC, promise to resolve this dilemma.
Over 30 billion pounds of organic and halogenated solvents are used worldwide each year as solvents, processing aids, cleaning agents, and dispersants. Solvent-intensive industries are considering alternatives that can reduce or eliminate the negative impact that solvent emissions can have in the workplace and in the environment. CO2 in a solution state has long been recognized as an ideal solvent, extractant, and separation aid. CO2 solutions are nontoxic, nonflammable, energy-efficient, cost-effective, waste-minimizing, reusable, and safe to work with. Historically, the prime factor inhibiting the use of this solvent replacement has been the low solubility of most materials in CO2, in both its liquid and supercritical states. With the discovery of CO2 surfactant systems, Professor Joseph M. DeSimone and his students have dramatically advanced the solubility performance characteristics of CO2 systems for several industries.
The design of broadly applicable surfactants for CO2 relies on the identification of “CO2-philic” materials from which to build amphiphiles. Although CO2 in both its liquid and supercritical states dissolves many small molecules readily, it is a very poor solvent for many substances at easily accessible conditions (T< 212 °F and P< 4,350 psi). As an offshoot of Professor DeSimone’s research program on polymer synthesis in CO2, he and his researchers exploited the high solubility of a select few CO2-philic polymeric segments to develop nonionic surfactants capable of dispersing high-solids polymer latexes in both liquid and supercritical CO2 phases. The design criteria they developed for surfactants, which were capable of stabilizing heterogeneous polymerizations in CO2, have been expanded to include CO2-insoluble compounds in general.
This development lays the foundation by which surfactant-modified CO2 can be used to replace conventional (halogenated) organic solvent systems currently used in manufacturing and service industries such as precision cleaning, medical device fabrication, and garment care, as well as in the chemical manufacturing and coating industries.
Return to Past Awards page. | <urn:uuid:cb9e6cbc-51fa-43e8-b9ee-041efa27e8ff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/pubs/pgcc/winners/aa97.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925304 | 629 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Picasso Ticked Off Churchill, Fired Up Bacon, Tate Shows: Review
If he happened to meet Picasso walking down the road, Winston Churchill once disclosed, he planned to give him a kick in the rear.
This encounter never occurred. Churchill’s attitude, though, was representative of one British response to the great Spanish artist. He was the modernist conservatives loved to hate: The novelist Evelyn Waugh was in the habit of ending letters with the declaration, “Death to Picasso!”
On the other hand, as a new exhibition, “Picasso and Modern British Art,” at Tate Britain in London, makes clear, the fury of reactionaries was only one part of the story. The other was the idolization of Picasso by the local British avant- garde. Consequently, a good deal of the exhibition is devoted to documenting attempts, more or less successful, to imitate some aspect of Picasso’s mighty oeuvre.
The result is nicely executed, and contains plenty of fine Picassos. It isn’t kind to his U.K. followers. As you walk around, it becomes clear that Picasso’s work was a banquet of diverse idioms and moods, from which most of his local admirers each selected a portion that suited their own sensibility.
Some made better use of this inspiration than others. Francis Bacon got close to the sheer ferocity of his chosen type of Picasso from the late 1920s and 1930s. Picasso, Bacon said, was “nearer to what I feel about the psyche of our time” than any other artist. On the other hand, Ben Nicholson took Picasso’s late Cubist still lifes, and turned them into something tranquil, charming and not at all ferocious.
Henry Moore’s point of departure was the monumental classicism of Picasso’s women from the early 1920s and the strange nudes, like primitive sea creatures, that he produced a little later. Moore, however, characteristically transformed these into something calmer and duller.
Poor Duncan Grant, the favored painter of the Bloomsbury Group, was hopeless in his efforts to follow the Picasso of the pre-1914 era, except when it came to interior decoration. His Cubist-inspired “Design for a Firescreen” (c.1912) would do quite well for that purpose. Grant’s contemporary the Vorticist Wyndham Lewis looks far better in this selection.
The relationship between Britain and Picasso was asymmetrical. Picasso was important to British modernists, though Britain can’t have been all that important to him. He came to the country just twice.
Picasso spent the summer of 1919 in London, working on Diaghilev’s production of a ballet, “The Three-Cornered Hat.” Drawings, designs and some (recreated) costumes make up a nice section in the exhibition. Picasso didn’t return until 1950, when he arrived as a delegate to a Soviet-inspired World Peace Congress in Sheffield.
The main fruit of this brief visit was a drawing, included in the exhibition, which Picasso made directly on the living- room wall of a scientist and communist, J.D. Bernal, during a party. Though not a great work, it supports a claim once made by a friend of mine that Picasso could get further in an afternoon than Moore did in his entire career.
There were loyal friends of Picasso in Britain, such as Roland Penrose, thanks to whom the Tate owns “The Three Dancers” (1925), which the artist considered one of his two greatest works (the other being “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”).
When Penrose collected the picture from his studio in 1965, Picasso expressed admiration for Churchill who had recently died. “He saved England … and more than that he saved us all.” Presumably, he had never heard of Churchill’s little plan.
“Picasso and Modern British Art” is at Tate Britain, London, through July 15. Information: http://www.tate.org.uk.
(Martin Gayford is chief art critic for Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the writer on the story: Martin Gayford in London at email@example.com or http://twitter.com/martingayford.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff at firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:7cfaffcd-6989-405e-b8ed-bc8d9592b5cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2012-02-16/picasso-ticked-off-churchill-fired-up-bacon-tate-shows-martin-gayford.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967399 | 980 | 2.03125 | 2 |
|LEGO → System → Star Wars → Episode I: The Phantom Menace|
The AAT is mainly built out of Brick-Yellow pieces, with some in Medium Stone Grey and Sand Yellow.
The AAT has a large half-circular base, onto which is set a large upward-slanted section, with two guns mounted on either side of it's peak. At it's very top is placed a large gun, primarily made out of a single long light grey stick piece.
AATs were used in the Battle of Naboo, to deploy Droids against the Gungans. | <urn:uuid:721cd434-cf9f-4c4a-8ccf-4de033eef206> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/30052_AAT | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934559 | 124 | 2.4375 | 2 |
They are a cornerstone of Chrysler’s unlikely comeback: 900 employees turning out a Jeep Grand Cherokee sport utility vehicle every 48 seconds of the working day at an assembly plant here.
Nothing distinguishes them from other workers at the Jefferson North plant, except their paychecks. The newest workers earn about $14 an hour; longtime employees earn double that.
…the advent of a two-tier wage system in Detroit is spiking employment for one of the country’s most important manufacturing industries.
Here is much more, interesting throughout, and I thank Miles Robinson for the pointer. By the way:
Workers at Jefferson North said that the pay gap had not created visible tension.
See the article for some qualifiers on this front, but there is nothing unusual or shameful in using the prospect of promotion to induce discipline.
A simple question: is this a) macroeconomic good news, or b) macroeconomic bad news? That it “has to happen” may be bad news, I mean “that it is happening,” given initial conditions. I vote for a), good news, what do you vote for? What are liquidity trap proponents supposed to answer? | <urn:uuid:09e93657-2bcd-435f-bb1a-8a543e7b0f26> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/09/detroit-moves-to-a-two-tier-wage-structure.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929347 | 241 | 1.617188 | 2 |
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Israel: The National Question Moral for U.S.
Western politicians were thinking wishfully when they decided to resurrect an Israeli state on land held for centuries by Arabs. Passed from watch to watch, the Israeli-Palestinian problem continues to elude the skills of politicians.
Our fractured era has proved unequal to the challenge. Desperate Israelis borrowed a page from America's Afghanistan book and decided to hunt down and kill Palestinian terrorists with the exception of Arafat.
This action, sensible on one level, has had unintended consequences. The stability of what are called moderate Arab states and the U.S.'s anti-terrorist coalition in the Middle East are threatened.
The Israeli-Palestinian relationship was never promising. Throughout the Cold War, the Soviets stirred the pot. Diplomacy tries to contain rabid Palestinians raised to hate Israel. The U.S. will continue pushing peace, but the problem will have an ending only when the Arabs give up or the Israelis are decimated.
The U.S. is caught in a problem about which it can do nothing and from which it cannot disentangle.
That being the case, the U.S. should draw the lessons from the cultural conflict and cease replicating a similar if not worse situation in its own country.
Israel is a Jewish--not a multicultural--state. Imagine Israel's fate if it had to contend with a Palestinian vote.
Imagine Israel's predicament if the country permitted massive non-Jewish immigration and, in addition, was undergoing a silent invasion by illegal Palestinian immigrants. Imagine, also, that Israeli schools taught that Jewish males were hegemonic racists and sexists who oppressed Jewish women and Arabs. Imagine, further, that Israel had civil rights laws that made Jews second class citizens and bestowed "minority preferences" on Palestinians and other Arabs. Combine this package with guilt-ridden political leadership. What chance would Israel have?
As dangerous as its situation is, Israel has none of these disadvantages. The U.S., however, has every one of them.
Thirty-five years of an insane U.S. immigration policy has shattered the "melting pot." Fellow feelings and common purpose have given way to the racial spoils system, where everyone except white males qualifies for preferential government treatment.
Alien cultures and languages have taken root in U.S. soil. The Southwest and California are rapidly becoming Mexican provinces. In U.S. colleges, African-American and Latino studies teach hatred of white people. Women's studies teach hatred of men. American white males are as demonized in their own country as Jews are in Palestine.
The U.S. has far more serious problems than Israel. Preoccupied with Israel's problems, the U.S. cannot recognize its own.
This despite the fact that we are drowning in evidence that our Tower of Babel is falling apart.
For example, in Newsweek (April 8) Joseph C. Phillips expresses his shock at the vehemence at which young blacks vilify America and voice "sentiments that are anti-American at their core." "My racial pride was called into question," he writes, "when I took exception to the characterization of the destruction of the Twin Towers as the 'chickens coming home to roost.'"
On April 6 the Washington Times reported that black and Hispanic activists have agreed to band together to fight against white America's "dominant culture," which preferred minorities perceive as "deviant" and hostile.
Christine Stolba recently examined the textbooks used in women's studies courses in American universities. She found that women are taught that they, too, are victims, controlled by male dominance of their belief formation just as black slaves were dominated by their white masters. Young women are taught to view their fathers as a "foreign male element" that comes between them and their mothers. [Read the entire report in PDF.]
What future does a country have that destroys its homogeneity, constructs doctrines that guarantee both discord and the destruction of comity among the genders and diverse races, and then sanctifies the corroding myths with "civil rights" laws that make white males second class citizens?
The U.S. is in greater peril than Israel. Little wonder our politicians prefer to distract themselves and the public with inconsistency by chasing after terrorists in distant Afghanistan, while sending peace missions to stop Israel from doing likewise along its own borders.
Paul Craig Roberts is the author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions : How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice.
COPYRIGHT CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC. | <urn:uuid:da2fef0f-4a29-4674-a636-7a8444a152ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vdare.com/articles/israel-the-national-question-moral-for-us | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963866 | 967 | 1.84375 | 2 |
OXFORD -- Students and staff at Oxford College have expanded their focus on sustainability this month.
Oxford College already has implemented environmental features like high-efficient lighting, solar panels, rain barrels and other "green" features with the help of the college's Office of Sustainability Initiatives that was formed in the fall of 2006.
"Any sense of moral urgency in a world of 6.9 billion people demands that we think and act in the context of sustainability," Oxford College Dean Stephen Bowen said. "Awareness of sustainability influences everything we do in Oxford College, from the curriculum to building maintenance to the food service."
This month, events are being held on campus to focus on water and fish sustainability, or the depletion of these resources from overuse.
"We want our students to become conscious consumers and know that their food choices do have an impact on the environment," said Julie Shaffer, sustainable food service education coordinator at Oxford College. "A lot of times they don't have any idea and take food for granted."
On Tuesday, students were served sushi made with sustainable seafood supplied courtesy of the Alaska Seafood Company, which was on hand to provide information about its food. Student chefs also demonstrated sushi making techniques for students.
"All fish from Alaska are sustainable," said Jann Dickerson of the company.
In Alaska, the state constitution has built into it limitations on fishing that allow for this -- there are limitations on boat sizes, when fishing is allowed and how much fishermen can take, she said.
The company often visits college campuses all over the nation to increase awareness of sustainable seafood, like certain species of salmon and crab, halibut, wild Alaskan cod and pollock and some scallops and shrimp, she said.
"It's important to reach out to students at this time in their lives," Dickerson said. "We are aiming to raise more awareness and an understanding so they will be more conscious of their decisions."
Earlier this month, the college showed a Sundance Film Festival documentary, "The End of the Line," that exposes overfishing. Bowen, a biologist whose expertise is ichthyology and fisheries management, answered student questions after the event.
On Feb. 21, the college will show the film "Trapped," a documentary that focuses on environmental and human costs of bottled water. It is sponsored by CORE, or Conservation of Oxford's Resources and Environment, a student group concentrating on environmental and sustainability issues. | <urn:uuid:d56f9f36-34f4-4b5a-8ed8-bfdaac006dbd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newtoncitizen.com/news/2011/feb/15/conscious-consumers-oxford-college-focuses-on/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966235 | 507 | 2.375 | 2 |
I’ve been a bit remiss about reporting an update on the Tripoli Six, six foreign health care workers who were falsely accused of intentionally infecting children at a hospital in Libya with HIV, leading to their being convicted and sentenced to death. The evidence against them was crap, and scientific analyses showed that the strain of HIV in question had been in the hospital before the arrival of the Tripoli Six. After a lot of international wrangling between Bulgaria, the EU, and Libya involving diplomacy and more than a bit of money, the Tripoli Six are free. The arrangement involved the six being extradited to Bulgaria, supposedly to serve out their commuted sentence there. It was widely expected that Bulgaria would free them, but apparently, now that Bulgaria has freed them, Libya is none too pleased:
SOFIA, Bulgaria, July 28 — Calling the action a betrayal, Libya on Saturday denounced a decision by Bulgaria’s president to pardon six medical workers who had been given life sentences in Libya before they were released from the country this week.
Libya’s foreign minister, Abdelrahman Shalgham, said at a news conference in Tripoli that the workers should have been detained upon their arrival in Bulgaria on Tuesday and not freed in a “celebratory and illegal manner,” Agence France-Presse reported.
The medics, five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, had been sentenced to death twice in Libya after being convicted of intentionally infecting more than 400 Libyan children with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS — a charge that AIDS experts have dismissed as baseless. They were held for eight and a half years before their sentence was commuted this month to life in prison after the families of the children each received $1 million.
The commutation paved the way for their transfer to Bulgaria because, under the terms of a 1984 agreement between Libya and Bulgaria, citizens of one country convicted of crimes in the other can serve sentences in their own nation. The Palestinian doctor was granted Bulgarian citizenship this year.
It was widely expected that Bulgaria would free the medical workers on their return, but Libyan leaders suggested Saturday that they had expected them to serve their time.
How disingenuous. The whole thing was done with a lot of nudge, nudge, wink, wink–the Libyans would be idiotic not to know what the Bulgarians would do. That was an implicit part of the deal. Either the Libyans are really dumb or they’re just acting for domestic consumption to mollify the parents who had been demanding blood.
At least the healthcare workers are now home in Bulgaria and free. Personally, I like seeing it rubbed in Libya’s face. I’m hoping that, now that the Tripoli Six are free, they will speak out about their ordeal. I want to know what happened to them during their eight year ordeal.
The whole story would make a good movie, now that we know there’s a happy ending. | <urn:uuid:d436a7ce-b489-4dc2-a1a1-53d256488faf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2007/07/30/update-on-the-tripoli-six/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986398 | 613 | 1.578125 | 2 |
City of Water Day 163.JPG
In the foreground, the Swivel, a 40-something tugboat used by GIPEC (the group that runs Governors Island) as a ferry for personnel & the like. Way off in the distance, one of the escort boats sees the Long Island City Boathouse gang safely to the Brooklyn shore. They did a nice job, those escorts.
City of Boats Boats And More Boats! Actually it was the City of Water, but that, of course, meant a whole lotta boats! For more City of Water day pictures, visit http://frogma.blogspot.com/search?q=City+of+Water | <urn:uuid:68eb76d9-b8e8-45a9-af48-d0b676499c3e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/BHjGrXUXMO712GeQ-y276Q?feat=embedwebsite | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934144 | 142 | 1.585938 | 2 |
THE AMERICAN WATERWAYS OPERATORS
SENATE ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE
THE CLEAN WATER ACT AND
CRIMINAL LIABILITY FOR OIL POLLUTION
September 16, 2003
The American Waterways Operators (AWO) appreciates the opportunity to submit this statement for the hearing record. AWO is the national trade association representing America’s inland and coastal tugboat, towboat, and barge industry, the largest segment of the U.S.-flag domestic maritime industry. AWO’s 375 member companies include the owners and operators of tugboats, towboats, and barges that move more than 800 million tons of America’s cargo every year, including dry, liquid, containerized and specialty cargoes on the inland river system, the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts, and the Great Lakes. The transportation of petroleum and petroleum products is a key segment of our industry’s business: tank barges move 20 percent of the oil that fuels our economy and keeps our cars running and our homes warm. Powerful, state-of-the-art tugboats also provide tanker escort services to facilitate the safe movement of petroleum cargoes in busy ports and harbor approaches.
Chairman Inhofe and Senator Baucus, AWO would first like to thank you for convening this hearing to examine issues related to the Clean Water Act. AWO and its member companies are deeply committed to marine safety and environmental protection. We understand that one of the issues addressed at today’s hearing will be criminal liability for oil spill incidents. We believe that criminal liability, when imposed under OPA 90, should be employed only where a discharge is caused by conduct that is truly “criminal” in nature, i.e., where a discharge is caused by reckless, intentional or other conduct deemed criminal. We agree that the current “negligence” standard in OPA 90 is a lower threshold than traditionally seen for criminal liability. Criminal culpability in the United States typically requires intentional actions or omissions by individuals.
In addition, we are very concerned that responsible operators are exposed to criminal fines and potential imprisonment for maritime transportation-related oil spills due to the application and use of antiquated and unrelated strict criminal liability statutes. Strict criminal liability imposes criminal sanctions without requiring a showing of criminal knowledge, intent or even negligence. AWO and its members are very troubled, as are other responsible, law-abiding maritime interests, by both the Justice Department’s increasing willingness in the post-OPA 90 environment to use strict criminal liability statutes and the increasing attention to criminal enforcement in oil spill incidents. These federal actions imposing strict criminal liability have created an atmosphere of extreme uncertainty for AWO members about how to respond and cooperate with the Coast Guard and other federal agencies in cleaning up an oil spill. Strict criminal liability statutes such as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (16 U.S.C. 703 et.seq.) and the Refuse Act (33 U.S.C. 407, 411) -- statutes that were enacted at the turn of the century to serve other purposes -- have been used to harass and intimidate the maritime industry, and in effect, have turned every oil spill into a potential crime scene without regard to the fault or intent of companies, corporate officers and employees, and mariners.
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) provides that “it shall be unlawful at any time, by any means or in any manner, to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, attempt to take, capture, or kill…any migratory bird…”, a violation of which is punishable by imprisonment and/or fines. Prior to the EXXON VALDEZ oil spill in 1989, the MBTA was primarily used to prosecute the illegal activities of hunters and capturers of migratory birds, as the Congress originally intended when it enacted the legislation in 1918. In the EXXON VALDEZ case itself, prior to the enactment of OPA 90, the MBTA was first used to support a criminal prosecution against a vessel owner in relation to a maritime oil spill, and this “hunting statute” has been used since against the maritime industry. The Refuse Act was enacted over 100 years ago at a time well before subsequent federal legislation essentially replaced it with comprehensive requirements and regulations specifically directed to the maritime transportation of oil and other petroleum products.
· Negligent Vessel Operations. 46 U.S.C. 2302
· Vessel Inspections. 46 U.S.C. 3318
· Carriage of Liquid Bulk Dangerous Cargoes. 46 U.S.C. 3718
· Vessel Load Lines. 46 U.S.C. 5116
· Foreign Commerce Pilotage. 46 U.S.C. 8503(e)
· Ports and Waterways Safety Act. 33 U.S.C. 1232(b)
· Intervention on the High Seas Act. 33 U.S.C. 1481(a)
· Deepwater Port Act of 1974. 33 U. S.C. 1514(a)
· Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. 33 U.S.C. 1908(a)
Congress, by omitting the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Refuse Act from this list of existing statutes modified by OPA 90, apparently did not anticipate or intend their use in the case of maritime oil spills.
In the event of an oil spill, a responsible party not only must manage the cleanup of the oil and the civil liability resulting from the spill, but also must protect itself from the criminal liability that now exists due to the available and willing use of strict criminal liability laws by the federal government. Managing the pervasive threat of strict criminal liability, by its very nature, prevents a responsible party from cooperating fully and completely in response to an oil spill situation. The OPA 90 “blueprint” of prevention and response is no longer clear. The use of the strict criminal liability statutes has undermined the spill prevention and response objectives of OPA 90, the very goals that were established by Congress to preserve the environment, safeguard the public welfare, and promote the safe transportation of oil.
Archaic statutes such as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Refuse Act are unrelated to the regulation and enforcement of oil transport activities and were not included within OPA 90 as one of the many applicable statutes where criminal liability could be found. Without the elimination of the use of such strict liability statutes, the maritime industry cannot avoid exposure to criminal liability, regardless of how diligently it adheres to prudent practice and safe environmental standards. As stated the U.S. Coast Guard’s own environmental enforcement directive, a company, its officers, employees and mariners, in the event of an oil spill “could be convicted and sentenced to a criminal fine even where [they] took all reasonable precautions to avoid the discharge.” (Criminal Enforcement of Environmental Laws, U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Instruction M16201.1 of 30 July, 1997.)
The exposure of mariners and management to criminal liability regardless of fault has had a negative impact on the recruitment and retention of qualified and committed personnel for the maritime transportation of oil and petroleum products. At a 1998 hearing of the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, several working mariners noted this development. One Captain with long experience in the industry indicated that he could not recommend a similar career path to his children because of the uncertainty created by the existence of strict liability. A witness from the management of a company that transports petroleum testified that his company had modified its response protocol and had retained criminal counsel to assist in the event of a spill because of the potential impact of criminal liability on the company and its employees. At conferences held in 2001 and 2002, jointly sponsored by the Coast Guard, industry and labor organizations, criminal liability was identified as one of six factors affecting the recruitment and retention of mariners. The conclusion of the group considering criminal liability was that “(t)he unjustifiably low threshold for prosecution inhibits the recruitment and the retention of mariners.” The group recommended changes in the laws governing criminal liability in the event of oil spills.
Criminal sanctions under OPA 90 should follow the traditional notion of what constitutes criminal acts in this country -- namely, that a crime occurs when a knowing, intentional act is committed. AWO respectfully requests that the Environment and Public Works Committee take the lead on this critical issue by: 1) reaffirming the traditional definition of criminal conduct for prosecutions in oil spill incidents; and, 2) reasserting the preeminent role of OPA 90 as the statute providing the exclusive criminal penalties for oil spills. Such legislation would ensure increased cooperation and responsiveness, while not diluting the deterrent effect of stringent criminal penalties imposed under OPA 90 itself.
Thank you again for the opportunity to present this statement for the hearing record. | <urn:uuid:44b004bf-fc3a-40d2-bee3-03d540d6829b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.epw.senate.gov/108th/AWO_091603.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951224 | 1,851 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Charity workers who reached Duekoue said it appeared the killings had taken place in a single day, shortly after the town fell to troops loyal to Alassane Ouattara, the man internationally-recognised as having won last year’s presidential election.
The apparent massacre came despite the presence of United Nations troops and - if confirmed - will cast a shadow over Mr Outtara’s assumption of the Ivory Coast’s presidency after a four-month battle to oust Lawrence Gbagbo, the former president who lost the November election but refused to step down.
William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said he was “gravely concerned” by the violence and loss of life in Ivory Coast and added: “I am determined that all alleged human rights abuses... must be investigated and those responsible held to account.
The International Committee for the Red Cross said its staff discovered more than 800 bodies of people who were clearly local civilians. They were mainly men who had been shot and left where they fell, the organisation said, either alone or in small groups dotted around the town, which lies at the heart of Ivory Coast’s economically crucial cocoa producing region.
Patrick Nicholson, a spokesman for the Catholic charity Caritas, said his team had counted 1,000 bodies, adding that some had been hacked with machetes. The UN said that it already logged 430 killed in Duekoue and was still investigating reports of more dead in the town.
Fighting in the country’s economic capital, Abidjan, appeared to be reaching a bloody climax and there were predictions that the compound occupied by Mr Gbagbo and what remains of his entourage would be overrun within the next 24 hours.
Even though most of Mr Gbagbo’s military chiefs have abandoned him in the past week, allowing Mr Ouattara’s forces to take control of most of the country and lay siege to his powerbase in Abidjan, the 65 year-old strongman remained defiant, with friends saying he would rather die than admit defeat.
Mr Ouattara has instructed that Mr Gbabgo be taken alive if possible, to ensure that is made to answer publicly for his refusal to step down from power, leading to the deaths of 492 people on both sides even before the Duekoue killings.
Kelnor Panglungtshang, a spokesman for ICRC, said its workers were struggling to keep the newly-discovered bodies in a condition to be identified by their families - a task made harder because the town’s mortuary has been looted in the lawlessness left in the wake of the conquering forces.
“Our colleagues on the ground are doing their best but it’s a horrific situation,” he said. “One very experienced colleague says he’s never seen anything like it.”
The charity said it had been told by locals that intercommunal violence erupted soon after Mr Ouattara’s forces took control of the town on Monday. Thousands of people left their homes to escape the fighting and an estimated 40,000 sought refuge in a nearby Roman Catholic mission’s compound. The priests who operate it are running short of food, clean water and medical equipment to treat those they say arrived with gunshot wounds.
The bodies are thought to be of those who did not reach sanctuary in time. They were killed despite 200 United Nations troops operating what it said were “robust” patrols from its base on the outskirts to protect civilians in and around the church.
Hamadoun Toure, the UN spokesman in Ivory Coast, said it had warned both sides fighting in the town that they would be held responsible for any atrocities committed, but said UN troops “were not aware” that civilians were being attacked and killed.
Ivory Coast is the world’s largest cocoa producer and as the gateway to the crop’s heartlands, Duekoue was a strategically vital prize. But there are historic tensions between nationalistic Ivory Coast natives and those descended from people seen as “foreign” settlers, mostly from neighbouring African countries, who originated in the north.
Mr Gbagbo’s support came from the more nationalistic south; but Mr Ouattara, himself the son of immigrants, won 54 per cent of votes cast in an election which was internationally judged to be broadly fair.
Some victims in Duekoue appear to have been killed by mercenaries from nearby Liberia, reported to have been fighting for both Mr Gbagbo and Mr Ouattara.
The Ouattara camp has urgently tried to distance itself from involvement in any of the new deaths. A spokesman said the government “firmly rejects accusations and denies any involvement” in possible abuses. It said it had found mass graves in towns near to Duekoue “whose authors are none other than the loyal forces, mercenaries and militias of Laurent Gbagbo”.
Apollinaire Yapi, an advisor in Mr Ouattara’s camp, said his troops had been warned not to engage in revenge attacks. But he conceded that he could not rule out the possibility of some excesses.
“We have a duty to protect civilians and it is because of that duty that we have taken military action to remove Mr Gbagbo,” he said. “If there are some people among us who are responsible for any breach of the law, they will be punished. We have to investigate exactly what happened.”
Mr Ouattara’s forces continued to attack Mr Gbagbo’s residence and the presidential palace in Abidjan after entering the city on Thursday.
Despite losing the support of military chiefs in recent days, he retains the backing of the Republican Guard and students recruited to the army in recent weekends by his militant youth leader, Charles Ble Goude.
On Friday they seized back the state broadcaster from Mr Ouattara’s forces and today broadcast an appeal for more soldiers to join them for what may prove their final stand.
Heavy gun battles between the two sides has resulted in most of Abidjan’s five million residents being too terrified to leave their homes to replenish their now dwindling supplies of food and fuel. Those who did so last week found themselves threatened and shot at by violent looters.
Henry Gray, a field coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontiers in Abidjan, said one hospital in the city treated 50 people suffering with gunshot wounds on Friday.
He and his colleagues have been trapped in their office. “We had been moving around visiting clinics until a few days ago, but the situation on the streets has deteriorated to such an extent that it’s just become too dangerous to go outside.”
Mr Yapi predicted that Mr Gbagbo would be captured shortly and put the delay down to Mr Ouattara’s insistence that he be taken alive, and for civilian casualties to be kept to a minimum.
“We don’t want to kill the man, he must be tried for all he has done,” he said. “If he dies, he becomes a martyr. Our goal is to capture him alive.”
Guy Labertit, one of Mr Gbagbo’s closest friends and a member of France’s Socialist Party, said he had spoken to him on Thursday and he had made clear he would not leave.
“He will not resign and he will not come out alive,” he said. | <urn:uuid:bd797e7a-e46f-4632-879c-0e6e2645ff24> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8423651/Ivory-Coast-aid-workers-find-1000-bodies-in-Duekoue.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983542 | 1,567 | 1.507813 | 2 |
It will boost productive potential of regional community
Australia: Victoria awards $2.5 million in grants to support LNG fueling network
The Victorian Coalition Government has invested a total of $8.3 million that will benefit local freight operators. Speaking at EVOL, LNG's launch of a new dual-fuel system, Minister for Regional Cities Denis Napthine announced that $2.5 million will be allocated for a project to equip five public stations with LNG refueling infrastructure for heavy vehicles across the state.
This initiative, starting with Wodonga as the first location, will complement the Coalition Government's Energy for the Regions program, which aims to provide natural gas to regional and rural communities across Victoria.
"LNG provides a number of advantages for trucking operators including lower carbon and nitrogen emissions with LNG vehicles also noticeably quieter than their diesel equivalents," noted Napthine. "This funding will also lower the cost to transport goods to our regions and give our regional producers access to lower cost options for delivering their products to our ports or to market."
In addition, Minister for Regional and Rural Development Peter Ryan said: "The Coalition Government is constantly investing in infrastructure and services, while building networks, creating employment and improving necessary facilities. We are determined to encourage greater investment in the regions through new industry and business opportunities."
Source: Victoria Government | <urn:uuid:2e82db7a-da41-4157-ae5f-b37f091d7818> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ngvjournal.com/en/home/item/9765 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943219 | 274 | 1.71875 | 2 |
When I ran across this article about stupid things that people do on Facebook I expected failblog worthy tales. Instead, it’s an article that reminders us that even smart people can unknowingly do stupid things on Facebook, maybe you are that person.
Don’t make these stupid mistakes:
1 – Sharing your entire birthday on Facebook.
Giving away your date of birth is a good first step to get your identity stolen. If you like being bombarded with happy birthday messages on your special day, then don’t share the year you were born. Safety first people!
2 – Posting when you will be away from home.
I know it’s hard to contain your excitement when you have a vacation coming up, but don’t announce when you will be gone on Facebook. It’s safer to wait and share pictures and stories for when you come home. I’m not saying that your friends would break into your house while you are away, but you never know what creeps will take advantage of the situation.
3- Make sure to check out the privacy controls.
Unless you really do want the whole world to see your page, who your friends and family are and pictures of your kids, then do yourself a favor and check out Facebook’s privacy options. Play around with the settings to see how people will see your page, including people who you don’t know.
4 – Don’t post dumb things.
I have 2 stories for you:
My friend got a resume and promptly Google’d that person’s name. The first result that came up was this person’s Facebook page which listed her name and the town she lives in, so he knew that it was the right person. The only other information it showed was her quote that said “witches best not be stepping to my man unless they want to be taken down!” (but she didn’t say witches.) That resume promptly got thrown into the trash.
My next story is about a lawsuit that I don’t know all of the details on, but I do know that it has come down to someone’s Facebook wall, IM history and photos being printed out and presented as evidence. That doesn’t sound like fun. (Here’s a fun way to conceal drinking pictures.)
The lesson is don’t post anything that could get you fired, prevent you from getting a job, arrested, and other horrible things.
Think twice about posting something that would offend your friends (parents, I know that you baby is magical, but no one needs to know about its diaper happenings.) Go by Thumper’s rule: if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.
5 –Don’t mention the names of your small kids.
Ruth Manuel-Logan, the author of the post that inspired this post explains this stupid move best:
Is it really necessary to mention your children by name to a network of perhaps 12 real friends and 443 extended ”I don’t really know those folks but I friended them anyway” on your Facebook page?
Parents need to know that on the social web, safety is a shared responsibility Facebook between users and the site.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of undesirables like predators and kidnappers, who may have, or can gain access to your information and a user’s safety depends on the user as much as on the site.
Do you really want these creeps to know your children Howie and Prudence’s names, or to know, where they go to school?
Giving your children privacy is an unwritten commonsense Facebook parental rule! Follow it!
Have you seen stupid Facebook happenings? | <urn:uuid:82c7a545-57cd-4cce-bdf3-58ba0d0b8ebc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newsletter.blizzardinternet.com/dont-be-facebook-stupid/2011/08/18/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947962 | 792 | 1.609375 | 2 |
SCIENCE IN REVIEW; Some, at Least, of the Cosmic Rays which Beat Upon the Earth Originate in the Sun Advance Notice Given Recovery of Oil Extra Yield of Petroleum Is Forced From Spent Fields Alcoholism and Diet Nutritional Treatment Is Found Useful in Individual Cases Behavior of Mobs Why Groups of People Act as They Do Explained Mathematically
By WALDEMAR KAEMPFFERT ();
January 07, 1951,
, Section The Week In Review, Page 131, Column , words
Whence come the cosmic rays that are incessantly bombarding the earth? Until Dr. Martin A. Pomerantz of the Bartol Research Foundation, Swarthmore, Pa., went in 1950 th Fort Churchill, Hudson's Bay, Canada, and sent up thirty-two unmanned balloons freighted with recording instruments to altitudes of 90,000 to 110,000 feet, there were only speculations. | <urn:uuid:e526b383-b391-43ee-85f5-3416f0163a46> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A0DE3DD1F39E13BBC4F53DFB766838A649EDE&n=Top%2FNews%2FHealth%2FDiseases%2C%20Conditions%2C%20and%20Health%20Topics%2FPsychology%20and%20Psychologists | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907797 | 187 | 2.453125 | 2 |
Rocket Science is A very fun and cool physics puzzle game. Use your rockets to hit planets, while enjoying the awesome quotes from great scientists! Use the mouse to drag and drop the rockets, press 'Fire" button to launch the rockets.
You play the role of Final Ninja. Your goal is to sneak behind the enemy guard, avoid the traps, fight the enemies and their boss. Use arrow keys or 'W' 'A' 'S' 'D' to move. Use the mouse to aim and fire. Press and hold the left mouse to shoot out a rope.
You will have to plan your way through the tough terrain battling your enemies. This is purely a point and click game. Good Luck out there!
Take your Ninja and sneek up on unsuspecting enemies and take them out. Becareful of different color smaurai, they will sometimes be more deadly then others. Use your Arrow Keys to attack and the W,A,S,D Keys to move, Good Luck!
You will need to be very sneeky in this one and use all the ninja skills that you have! You will move with your arrow keys and attack with S! the D key will make you jump backwards from approaching enemies. Good Luck!
Become a great ninja!
You will need to take on all the ninjas that come your way with a variety of weapons. You will need to read the instructions before hand to ensure success in this game, but it is worth it! Good Luck out there.
Get through each level succesfully and try to beat all 21 levels, good luck! | <urn:uuid:4b703c02-00eb-4164-873b-05c72ab73e03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jokeroo.com/games/action/ray-ardent-science-ninja.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906119 | 328 | 1.953125 | 2 |
I like to share inspiring blogs from other people. This one especially caught my eye.
Eating Wild Foods in the City
Perhaps due to being raised in the country I have a propensity for eating random wild plants. Only when I moved into a urban setting did I begin realizing how fortunate I was to grow up in an environment where I wasn’t taught to be afraid of the living things around me. It was also then that I realized that people were often completely unaware of the amazing resources for free food surrounding them.
One common example I can think of is the dandelion. In the city, Dandelions are usually regarded as annoying weeds that must be exterminated at all costs. However, dandelions have multiple other uses, such as winemaking with the heads and/or roots, tea, and salad greens (the young leaves are extremely tasty, but once they get older they turn very bitter). Along with dandelions, violets, roses, clover and vetch all have edible flowers and can be used fresh in salads or whatever else you like.
Of course it’s important to consider the pollution factor with this. Picking plants to eat from next to a highway, for example, might not be all that advisable. And planting a garden in the city is a bit more complicated what with the need for soil tests etc. But my general feeling is that the amount of chemicals, hormones and radiation that most grocery store food is subjected makes eating it not a lot better than eating wild foods from the city, or food grown in city soils. There was a lot of debate over this in the Permaculture group I’m part of…people seem to feel much less comfortable with toxins they are immediately aware of. So it’s up to you where your comfort zone is.
Something else you might want to take notice of is if your city is actually planting edibles. In a city in Illinois where I was living the local University had hundreds of Aronia bushes growing around their buildings- Aronia happens to make lovely wine! In Montreal where I now live the city has started using chard and dill, among other leafy greens and herbs, in their planters city wide! Keep your eyes open.
A great project could be taking on the creation of a fruit/bush map for your city. This would involve going around and finding all the hidden apple trees and raspberry bushes which have been built around and squashed into alleyways and bike paths that could be a source of free food for you and other animals. You will undoubtedly find a plethora of resources at your fingertips! For some helpful tips and examples of fallen fruit maps, go to Fallen Fruit.org. | <urn:uuid:b3b578bc-7e25-47e4-8001-243f42d9b2db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://naturallygreen.wordpress.com/tag/plants/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977176 | 554 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The Network File System (NFS) is the grand matron of contemporary network-based file serving. NFS pre-dates Novell NetWare, Microsoft/3Com LAN Manager, IBM LAN Server, and all the other PC-oriented file-serving methods. Until recently, however, NFS has been a UNIX-only solution for workgroup-oriented file serving. The introduction of NFS products to the PC market and, more importantly, the Windows NT market has breathed new life into NFS.
NFS was developed by Sun Microsystems as the file-serving component in its Open Network Computing (ONC) architecture. ONC provides a broad range of Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)-based networking services, but it is best known for its Remote Procedure Call (RPC) and NFS components. The "open" nature of Sun's ONC architecture allowed other UNIX vendors to port ONC components to their own unique environments, and NFS soon became a de facto standard for file sharing on UNIX networks.
NFS in Action
In a seashell, NFS allows a system to access designated directories (including all files and subdirectory entries) on other systems over a TCP/IP network. Like Windows for Workgroups (WFW), Windows 95, and Windows NT Workstation, NFS is a peer-oriented solution that allows multiple systems to mount common directories and doesn't demand a dedicated server (although you can implement one).
As you probably suspect, NFS follows the client/server model. NFS clients and servers communicate using Sun's RPC architecture, which operates over the TCP/IP User Datagram Protocol (UDP) transport. With this architecture, NFS clients contact a "port mapper" program on the server, and the port mapper translates the RPC service requests into specific TCP/IP sockets serviced by the local NFS server. Also remember that under the peer-orientation of NFS, a given UNIX system is typically both an NFS client and an NFS server.
To access a directory over the network, the NFS server program must be informed which directories are available for network access, which client systems can access those directories, and what access rights are associated with the various client/directory combinations. The exact method of configuring this information varies from one UNIX implementation to another. For example, Sun systems use the share command to make directories available for network access, while most other UNIX implementations usually configure the directory information in a file called "exports."
On the client side, an NFS client requests access to an NFS server directory during the boot process or through an interactive mount command. When the NFS server receives the request (via the port mapper program), it compares the requested directory to its list of available directories and authorized client systems. Based on the results of that comparison, the NFS server will either make that directory available to the client (under the control of the associated access rights) or reject the request.
Once the client request is satisfied, the client system can access the NFS directory as if it were a local directory entry. For example, an NFS client system named kirk could initiate the following command: mount spock:/users /susers
If the NFS server system named spock were configured to allow kirk to mount its /users directory, the request would be satisfied. A user working on system kirk could then change to the /susers local directory and access the files and subdirectories that are stored in the users directory on system spock.
In reality, admittance to specific files and subdirectories in a mounted directory is further controlled by the access rights assigned to the individual users on the client system. Even though system kirk can mount the /users directory on system spock, that doesn't necessarily mean that all the users assigned to kirk can access the information in the mounted directory.
This brief look at NFS brings two important items to light. First, you should be able to see a strong similarity between NFS and the file-sharing approach supported by WFW, NT, and Windows 95. This makes it easy for the same individual to manage or work with both Microsoft and NFS file sharing. Second, NFS servers assume that the requesting NFS client enforces user authentication and access rights. In other words, the NFS server trusts that the client won't allow dangerous users--by innocence or intent--to access important or sensitive files.
Enter the PC
For years, NFS remained a UNIX-only offering. Then, in the late 1980s, Sun Microsystems brought PCs into the NFS fold with the introduction of PC-NFS. The intent of this product was to allow PCs to participate in NFS networks as NFS clients. Using PC-NFS, PCs can access UNIX directories as if they were network drives. For example, the /users directory on NFS server system spock could be mounted on the PC as network drive S.
Integrating PCs into NFS posed some problems for PC-NFS developers. First, the PC environment at that time didn't support long filenames: The eight-character filename and three-character extension was the law of the land. Second, PCs didn't provide any means of user authentication or access control: Anybody who sat down at a PC keyboard was, in essence, a "superuser."
Fortunately, the developers of PC-NFS were able to solve both problems. An algorithm was developed to translate between UNIX names and legal DOS filenames. Thus, DOS-based NFS clients could see and access UNIX files with long filenames, even though the filename might seem peculiar (e.g., testin~1.tes instead of testingfile.test). This translation occurs on the PC side of the NFS connection, allowing PC-NFS to be compatible with existing NFS server software.
Addressing the potential security problem of PC-based users did, however, require introducing new software into the NFS server system. Specifically, Sun created a new server program called the PC-NFS daemon. The PCNFSD program performs two important functions for PC-NFS:
For years, Sun's PC-NFS was the only significant NFS integration product for the PC market. As the popularity of UNIX increased, however, more and more TCP/IP software vendors introduced NFS products for the PC market. For example, FTP Software, NetManage, and Walker Richer & Quinn (WRQ), now offer NFS products for the PC market. Although these products can't legally be called PC-NFS, they all support the basic architecture established by the Sun product.
NFS and NT
Given the importance of NFS in the world of UNIX networking, the introduction of NFS products into the NT market is significant for two reasons. First, it allows Windows NT Workstations and Servers to be fully integrated into existing UNIX networks. NT users and applications can mount UNIX-based directories and access the associated information. Similarly, UNIX systems can mount NT directories using standard NFS services and treat them just like any other UNIX directory.
Second, and more importantly, NFS products for NT are a strategic tool used to introduce NT Servers into large or complex multivendor environments. For example, in a mixed PC and UNIX environment, an NT Server with NFS services can be placed on the network and provide file, print, and application services for both PC and UNIX systems. PCs can access the NT Server using traditional PC LAN services (e.g., LAN Manager, WFW, Windows 95), and UNIX systems can access the same NT Server using NFS. In fact, they can even access the same directories.
In multivendor environments, this is just the tip of the iceberg. When you add other NT integration services to the mix, NT Server can become a core component in large, multivendor enterprise networks. PCs, UNIX systems, IBM systems, and even NetWare clients and servers can all be integrated through the NT Server. In this respect, NFS services are just one component of a larger solution. But, if you are sitting at a UNIX system, NFS is a very important component. | <urn:uuid:b65eed44-8a20-4fe2-8e26-d408ccafbec0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://windowsitpro.com/print/systems-management/file-and-print-sharing-between-unix-and-nt-no-myth | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926946 | 1,718 | 3.375 | 3 |
One of the families that we haven’t researched for some time is the Brathwaite family of New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.
The outline of the family history was given to us 20 years ago by Errol Lister Brathwaite of New Zealand.
Caroline Agnes Wilson was the eldest daughter of Margaret Ann Agnes Green (known as Agnes) and her first husband William Wilson.
Caroline was born in Sydney, NSW in 1854, and her father died when she was two, after the family had moved to Moruya, NSW. Her stepfather also died, and her mother farmed out several of her children to be fostered by others, and Caroline was sent to her uncle in New Zealand, Edward Lister Green.
There she met and married Roy Ashley Warre Brathwaite, and they had 8 children. According to Errol Brathwaite the children were: Arthur Holberton Miles (b. 27 May 1875, d. 24 Feb 1954); Harold Ashley (b. 17-Oct 1876, d. 25 May 1933); Lionel Eric (b. 17 Apr 1878, d. 29 Dec 1948); Norman Esdaile (b. 30 Oct 1870, d. 7 Feb 1917); Frank (b. 6 Mar 1870, d. 1 Nov 1963), George Arnold (b. 29 Nov 1883, d. 19 Jul 1951), Kathleen Agnes (. 10 Apr 1888, 10 Sep 1959); Jack Lister – Errol’s father (b. 22 Dec 1890,
d. 16 Mar 1980).
Frank Brathwaite came to South Africa with New Zealand troops to fight in the Anglo-Boer War, and stayed on after the war. He became a bookie (turf accountant), and in the 1950s was well known for “Frank Brathwaite’s racing report” on Lourenco Marques Radio.He married twive, and had two sons, Guy and Kem by his first marriage, and a daughter Pamela by his second.
Errol Brathwaite himself wrote several books.
There’s more about the Brathwaites on the Brathwaite Family page on our family wiki. | <urn:uuid:f248385a-9216-4c23-9904-2ee5e80ff88f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hayesgreene.wordpress.com/2009/03/03/brathwaite-family/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=9233933e84 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98482 | 462 | 1.5 | 2 |
2.2 The different types of plagiarism
Given the dramatic increase in its incidence, most universities around the world have made a point of including definitive statements on plagiarism in student handbooks and on university websites in the hope that no student standing accused of plagiarism can mount a defence on the grounds of their ignorance. The fact remains, however, that even proceeding on the basis that all students are diligent enough to read the 'fine print' in university policy documents, the scope of plagiarism is such that it incorporates a range of offences not easily defined in the space of a few sentences. In short, there will be instances where the extent of plagiarism is very serious, others when it will be relatively minor, and times when it falls somewhere in between. As a consequence, a range of policy responses is required to match the gravity of the offence. It is certainly important to send out a clear signal to the student body that plagiarism will not be tolerated, but it is also important to acknowledge the possibility of genuine cases of unintentional plagiarism, and to be wary, therefore, of over-zealous policing of plagiarism. In any case, it is essential that the institution be capable of distinguishing between intentional and unintentional plagiarism.
Without wanting to over-generalise, plagiarists may be identified as one of the following three types:
- the lazy plagiarist;
- the cunning plagiarist;
- the accidental plagiarist.
The 'lazy' plagiarist is generally an academically weak and otherwise under-motivated student, the type who would happily take the work of someone else in its entirety, do little more than to change the name on the paper and claim it for their own. This type of student may use the 'cheat sites' or simply steal the work of others maybe that belonging to a student who studied the subject in a previous year. For this type of plagiarist, if a ready-made answer to a question cannot be found electronically, it simply cannot be worth having. The development of an educated opinion, a lively inquiring mind, a creative impulse: these things are not worthy of consideration. As this author once read in a student's e-mail signature: 'Clay's Conclusion: Creativity is great, but plagiarism is faster'.
For those student plagiarists who elect not to procure work from their colleagues or consume the services of the online paper mills, there is still an abundance of other point-and-click plagiarism opportunities. Plain, old-fashioned laziness is certainly a factor, but internet-inspired indolence has given rise to a more refined form of sloth. The 'cunning' plagiarist is more sophisticated than the lazy plagiarist and takes full advantage of these abundant opportunities: they are quite clear about what plagiarism is, but work hard to avoid detection. Content is cutand- paste from a variety of sources on the Web (and possibly from other students' papers), with a view to manufacturing an answer. They may also attempt to cover their tracks through the provision of incomplete or inaccurate bibliographic details in their list of references, which make it more difficult to track their misdemeanours (Renard, 1999).
The 'accidental' plagiarist, by contrast, is not in the least bit devious. Their transgressions arise typically as a consequence of inexperience, poor study skills, local academic norms or some combination thereof. Such students typically insert slabs of unattributed text in their essays and, when challenged, will be either embarrassed by their sloppy referencing or genuinely surprised that they have been challenged at all, claiming ignorance of the system.
In many instances, it is international students who fall into this latter category, particularly those from East Asian countries. Apart from a lack of exposure to western academic norms when it comes to academic work, these students can sometimes experience difficulty in constructing a critically analytical essay out of cultural respect for those in authority. This is sometimes mistaken for poor writing ability and/or a lack of ethics when the reality might be somewhat different. In Confucian cultures, for example, conventional wisdom is that the best ideas are those of the ancients, and their philosophy and insights are so wide-ranging that to challenge those ideas would be interpreted as quite an audacious act. Instead, memorisation and recitation are valued. It follows that to challenge 'the truths' handed down by 'the sages' who author textbooks and write lecture notes would be counter-cultural for students of this tradition (Smith, 1999).
Not everyone accepts this view, of course, and a standard response is that it should be a case of 'when in Rome do as the Romans do', with students observing the cultural norms of the country in which they are studying rather than those of their home country. Without going into an in-depth discussion of the validity of this argument, it is probably fair to say that firstyear students, in particular, might be extended some latitude, at least until they have had an opportunity to commence with the cultural transition and adjust to the different cultural norms.
In any event, some allowances will have to be made where assignments must be written in a second or third language. This is not to condone wholesale plagiarism; simply to recognise that writing in a foreign language engenders a strong temptation to get linguistic assistance. | <urn:uuid:33cc36cb-aa86-45cd-a69e-7f0bf843af09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/handbook/plagiarism/22 | 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 | 0.953611 | 1,082 | 2.734375 | 3 |
A Somali refugee mother (right) whose 4-year-old son was killed by militants. Her sister-in-law sits next to her. She and her remaining children now live in a refugee camp near Dadaab, northeast Kenya. Following a severe drought, many families faced starvation and left Somalia on foot, risking attacks by armed bandits and wild animals. Thousands of refugees are flooding into Dadaab every week. Photo by Laura Sheahen for Catholic Relief Services
By Laura Sheahen
“Aden, my oldest son, was four years old. He was watching our goats,” says Ahada, a Somali woman in her early twenties. “Men with guns came and wanted the animals. Aden shouted, ‘Don’t take our goats!’”
Ahada’s small son was caught in the midst of the chaotic, seemingly never-ending war in Somalia. Armed bandits, militias and other violent groups terrorize the country’s rural population, who are mostly nomadic herdsmen. Children are not spared. Aden wasn’t.
Aden was shot and killed in the midst of a drought that was leading to famine. Ahada’s husband was also killed by militants. After that she knew she had to flee. She’d heard of a country called Kenya, so she took her two children there, crossing the border.
Thousands of other mothers were making the journey as well. Thirty-year-old Hawa, a mother of seven, was eight months pregnant as she walked for ten days, carrying her toddler on her back.
Children were dying where she lived, but more slowly, not from bullets. “Animals, people died due to drought,” she says. “They died of hunger. Many children died, too many for me to count.”
In June 2011, Ahada and Hawa reached the sprawling refugee camps of Dadaab in northeast Kenya. There they joined fellow Somalis who made the same journey decades ago.
“I was 10 years old when we came here,” says a man named Somai. His story is similar to Aden’s, but he lived. “One day when we were living in Somalia, people attacked us, took our goats, and killed my father,” he says. “They hit me in the chest with the butt of a gun, and I fell unconscious.”
He recovered enough to flee on foot with his family. “I will never forget that trip. We had no food. We were eating leaves,” he says. “My brother was almost five. He died of hunger on the way.”
Today, the camp hospitals are full of weak, listless children who survived the journey but are on the edge of starvation. Brought to the hospital in wheelbarrows or on donkey carts, or their mother’s arms, the ones who can swallow are given a high-nutrient paste. Others are hooked to IVs.
And then there are refugee children who are saved, and whose families are alive–but who have lost, forever, the security of having two parents. Mahamud was separated from his wife and children 8 years ago; he was in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, when war flared up badly. By the time he got to where his family was staying, “everyone was gone,” he says. They had fled from Somalia to Ethiopia, which closed the border. So Mahamud went to Kenya, surviving on grass and leaves as he walked hundreds of miles. Now he’s able to talk to his children every few months, but doesn’t know how he will see them again. He worries they don’t have enough food; Ethiopia has bit hit badly by the recent drought as well.
Though the newly-arrived refugees in the Kenyan camps are putting a strain on water and aid for older residents, Mahamud isn’t upset. “When I see the new arrivals, I always remember what happened to me in Somalia,” he says. “It reminds me that my children are suffering the same way that these people are suffering.”
Laura Sheahen is CRS’ regional information officer for Asia. She is reporting from Kenya. | <urn:uuid:d3e3fd2c-34c1-4642-92b1-5ffb69ccb616> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.caritas.org/tag/emergencies/page/4/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990272 | 899 | 2.59375 | 3 |
We've seen color on the ceiling before here at Apartment Therapy, but it's something we rarely see in the actual homes we visit. Why is that?...
Is it about white reflecting a light canopy overhead? Is the difficulty of painting the ceiling tempered with neutral and white colors so repainting doesn't have to be done as often as the rest of the room? Or is the ceiling simply forgotten in our perception of spaces?
Are your ceilings white? Was it a conscious decision or a no-brainer?
Our ceilings are all white. Our reason is that a ceiling color reads, to us, as a heavy object looming overhead. White simply floats. Some colored ceilings we like are pictured here: we think we like these because, in some instances, the ceilings are either the same color as the walls or, in other instances, the color is light enough to act like white. We can also handle color on ceilings when paired with exposed beams. This is probably because the beams are visible and obviously carrying the perceived weight of the colored ceiling. | <urn:uuid:a2487c7b-fa63-4d7f-b761-8b0576ee3e70> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/inspiration-ceiling-color-we-l-97924 | 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 | 0.965237 | 213 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Welcome back!!! We are so glad to have you and your child here at
This year, I will be leading your child on an educational journey that will be full of exciting activities and learning experiences. My goal is to have your child actively engaged and exploring each and every day. Reaching this goal will be a team effort and your support will be greatly appreciated. Make sure that your child is prepared, well-rested and ready for the journey each day. Preparation includes: notebook paper, 2 red pens, 2 number 2 pencils, signed homework folders daily.
Please review the student supply list, student handbook, and complete the student information form, parent questionnaire, and student inventory forms that are in this Welcome Packet. The information will help me to find out what your child’s interests are and ways in which you’re able to help throughout the year. Parent involvement is very important!
Grades are determined based on the following numerical value:
100-90 = A
89-80 = B
Anything below C is considered failing.
If there are any questions or concerns, I can be reached via e-mail at email@example.com or telephone at 404-802-7850 before 6:30 PM. I am also available for Parent-Teacher conferences on Thursday afternoons between the hours of 3:00 and 4:00. Special arrangements can be made upon request. Once again, I am looking forward to a wonderful year with you and your child. We’re ready for take off!
Week At A Glance
Social Studies: Martin Luther King Jr.
Language Arts: Plural Pronouns
Math: Adding Money
Science: Pushes and Pulls | <urn:uuid:f65dd06c-0dd8-40ed-b2cf-15930dd45820> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://srt3.atlantapublicschools.us/domain/5181 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932427 | 363 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Each SCAN Tumour-Specific Group is required to prepare an Annual Comparative Report so as to review results and propose action for improvement if necessary. There are reports for the Breast, Colorectal, Gynaecology, Haematology, Head and Neck, Lung, Skin, Upper GI and Urology groups.
SCAN Audit: Prospective Cancer Audit
Complete and accurate data is essential to be able to measure standards of care and outcome of treatment. SCAN Audit coordinates preparation of SCAN Comparative Audit Reports. These contain -
- Analysis of information about the numbers of patients diagnosed annually and their diagnosis, staging, treatment, and outcome of treatment.
- Results measured against nationally agreed or other quality standards for cancers, where these are in place.
- Reports identify action points for improvement arising from the results.
There is an agreed process for the preparation of reports: SCAN Comparative Audit Report Process (PDF, 34k)
Collection of high-quality data is by the SCAN Audit team (mainly for patients diagnosed in NHS Lothian) and by health board cancer audit staff in NHS Borders, Dumfries & Galloway, and Fife. Patients’ pathways of care may cross boundaries within the network and information about exchange of data is available in the document: Exchange of Data: Levels and Confidentiality Requirements.
Results reported are based on nationally-agreed datasets and definitions published by the Information Services Division (ISD) of National Services Scotland. Datasets and definitions can be viewed on the ISD website. Datasets are common across the SCAN region, and Scotland as a whole, meaning that results can be compared between services.
Annual Comparative Reports contain results measured against national quality standards, if these are in place. From 2013 onwards these will be reporting against national cancer Quality Performance Indicators (QPIs). Work is on-going, through the National Cancer Quality Steering Group of the Scottish Cancer Taskforce, to prepare nationally-agreed Quality Performance Indicators for all main adult cancer types.
Audit staff work with clinicians to check and validate the quality of the data and results reported. Data may also be subject to external validation by ISD Scotland. Each report is subject to review by the lead clinicians to agree sign-off, and to comment and report on any variances.
Subject to obtaining appropriate permissions, SCAN Audit data also provides a rich source of data for a variety of other purposes, including service planning and redesign, capacity planning, improvement of clinical practice, protocol development, research, and outcome analysis.
More recently, data are being submitted for measurement against UK-wide national cancer audit reporting to BASO -The Association For Cancer Surgery (for Breast Cancer); the British Association of Urological Surgeons; the National Lung Cancer Audit and the National Bowel Cancer Audit - reports for these can be viewed on the NHS Information Centre website.
Please complete this request form (Microsoft Word) if you wish to access the SCAN Audit Datasets or Databases for data. | <urn:uuid:a79b9dfe-eb73-4e9e-82f3-d5e091fc9911> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scan.scot.nhs.uk/HealthProfessionals/Audit/Pages/default.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922193 | 627 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Tools growers should be using
Reflective materials used all season can improve grower returns.
To stay in business for the long haul, orchardists must produce exceptional quantities of exceptional fruit. Fortunately, there are many tools available to help growers reach target fruit goals, and increase profitability while decreasing costs, says Tory Schmidt, horticultural associate for the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission. Schmidt highlighted the following areas for growers to focus on:
Crop load management—Growers should strategically prune to specific bud counts and prune to manage light penetration and interception. Pruning to a bud count is easier to do when orchards have uniform fruiting walls.
Bloom thinning—Effective products are available for chemical thinning, including lime sulfur and oil, a combination identified by the Research Commission as the best chemical thinner for Pacific Northwest orchards.
Postbloom thinning—Benzyladenine products like MaxCel are effective cleanup thinners, especially when applied to coincide with two to three days of warm weather (60° to 70°F). Schmidt believes BA is a must for Bartlett pears and smaller-sized fruit varieties like Gala, Jazz, and Pink Lady.
Smart hand thinning—Research by Pennsylvania State University has shown that the Equilifruit, a small plastic, notched disk developed by the National Institute for Agriculture Research in France, can help determine the optimum crop load of a given branch and guide workers in determining the number of fruit that should be left on the branch by workers. Using “rule of thumb” hand thinning guides often results in overthinning.
Reflective fabrics—Both Mylar and Extenday can improve grower returns. However, field trials conducted by the Research Commission have shown that Extenday, when used throughout the season, also increases yields and fruit weight as well as color and can increase fruit set, resulting in a higher proportion of target fruit (WA Extra Fancy grade). The research also showed that yield effects of season-long applications of Extenday were cumulative over time, with yields increasing by 12 percent in the first year, 26 percent in the second, and 23 percent in the third.
Two-dimensional fruiting walls—Two-dimension or planar fruiting walls, either vertical or V angled, have several advantages beyond their adaptability to mechanization. These systems have shown higher yields, better fruit color, improved production in the lower parts of the tree, better spray coverage, and more efficient and happier workers.
Orchard renovation tools
Schmidt said that growers have many tools available for renovating orchards and converting them to more efficient orchard systems. Soil fumigation has proven to be effective in controlling replant diseases. Improved genetics have led to development of rootstocks and varieties with pest and disease tolerance, such as the Geneva rootstock series developed at Cornell University.
Growers should also be installing drip irrigation systems in their renovated orchards to use water more efficiently and apply nutrients and crop chemicals through fertigation. Drip or buried drip irrigation can be an effective way for growers to implement deficit irrigation strategies to manage canopies and fruit maturity, Schmidt added.
Through strategic pruning and use of plant growth regulators, growers can achieve planar tree structures that are adapted to platforms, mechanized thinning, mechanized pruning and hedging, and harvesting and harvest-assist machines. | <urn:uuid:7f660436-7c11-4a4d-8bb9-f2a6d3df4b7d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goodfruit.com/Good-Fruit-Grower/March-15th-2012/Tools-growers-should-be-using/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931561 | 696 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Count how many times the word “statist” appears in this weird op-ed in the Washington Post: America’s new culture war: Free enterprise vs. government control.
“Statism” has become a cult-word, used most frequently by people who are in the Ayn Rand cult. “Collectivist” is another. The Rand cult has been around quite a while now. Alan Greenspan actually lived with the Rand cult for a while. Randians are more and more becoming the core of the conservative movement, as this op-ed reflects. Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, members of Congress and others are more and more frequently using strange-sounding Randian cult-words like these.
I don’t know if the author of the op-ed is a Randian, but he uses the word “statist” over and over and places free enterprise and government as an either-or. He thinks regulation of business is wrong. (Aside — He writes that “government housing policy,” not Wall Street, caused the economic crisis. (??) He’s the head of the American Enterprise Institute.)
So now I am thinking about the Rand cult… Randians believe government is inherently bad — evil actually — and that helping others is wrong and immoral. “Collectivism” means democracy and this is also bad. They say it is the group imposing its will on individuals. From the Ayn Rand Lexicon,
“Democratic” in its original meaning [refers to] unlimited majority rule . . . a social system in which one’s work, one’s property, one’s mind, and one’s life are at the mercy of any gang that may muster the vote of a majority at any moment for any purpose.
[. . .] Democracy, in short, is a form of collectivism, which denies individual rights: the majority can do whatever it wants with no restrictions. In principle, the democratic government is all-powerful. Democracy is a totalitarian manifestation; it is not a form of freedom . . .
As for government,
The only proper functions of a government are: the police, to protect you from criminals; the army, to protect you from foreign invaders; and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breach or fraud by others, to settle disputes by rational rules, according to objective law.
I don’t understand how it is consistent for them to claim that protecting from criminals is legitimate. Doesn’t society define what a criminal is?
Oh, and by the way, for any Christians who think they are conservatives, here is where they stand on religion:
Faith, as such, is extremely detrimental to human life: it is the negation of reason. … They may have a good influence or proper principles to inculcate, but in a very contradictory context and, on a very—how should I say it?—dangerous or malevolent base: on the ground of faith.
[. . .] Christ … according to the Christian mythology, he died on the cross not for his own sins but for the sins of the nonideal people. In other words, a man of perfect virtue was sacrificed for men who are vicious and who are expected or supposed to accept that sacrifice. If I were a Christian, nothing could make me more indignant than that: the notion of sacrificing the ideal to the nonideal, or virtue to vice. And it is in the name of that symbol that men are asked to sacrifice themselves for their inferiors. That is precisely how the symbolism is used.
And here you also find the roots of Glenn Beck’s warning to run from any church that asks you to help others,
It’s either-or. If capitalism’s befuddled, guilt-ridden apologists do not know it, two fully consistent representatives of altruism do know it: Catholicism and communism.
Their rapprochement, therefore, is not astonishing. Their differences pertain only to the supernatural, but here, in reality, on earth, they have three cardinal elements in common: the same morality, altruism—the same goal, global rule by force—the same enemy, man’s mind.
There is a precedent for their strategy. In the German election of 1933, the communists supported the Nazis, on the premise that they could fight each other for power later, but must first destroy their common enemy, capitalism. Today, Catholicism and communism may well cooperate, on the premise that they will fight each other for power later, but must first destroy their common enemy, the individual, by forcing mankind to unite to form one neck ready for one leash.
Go see what they think of charity, altruism, the environment, morality, society…
If you are starting to feel that you have entered into the mind of the sociopath, there is a reason you feel that way. As she was developing her philosophy she was enthralled by a serial killer named William Edward Hickman. Ayn Rand wrote that the serial killer was an “ideal man,” a superior form of human because he didn’t let society impose their morals on him. He didn’t worry about what others thought and just did as he pleased.
“Other people do not exist for him, and he does not see why they should,” Rand wrote. Hickman had “no regard whatsoever for all that society holds sacred, and with a consciousness all his own. He has the true, innate psychology of a Superman. He can never realize and feel ‘other people.’”
She saw these as positive traits and the philosophy she developed certainly reflects this view. And this is the foundation of the modern conservative thinking. | <urn:uuid:ccf97c2d-121c-4b6b-938e-4e3316cb488b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seeingtheforest.com/statism-and-the-ayn-rand-cult/ | 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 | 0.961912 | 1,205 | 1.601563 | 2 |
It might surprise you to learn that some of the most cutting edge graphics, sound and programming created on computers doesnt appear in off-the-shelf videogames, but rather in the form of computer demos non-interactive programs coded by gifted artists, who do so for no other reason than to show the world what they (and the machines they love) are capable of.
Computer demos actually got their start in the form of cracking/intro loader screens. In the early days of computing, when programs were cracked (had their copy protection removed), crackers would often add an intro (a multimedia page of credits) that displayed each time the program was run. Many early intros were simply comprised of plain text and no graphics; later, intros became more technically advanced, adding graphical logos, music, and scrolling text in which cracking groups boasted about their skills and greeted (and/or taunted) their friends and fellow groups.
Over time these multimedia loaders began to grow in complexity and size, and eventually groups began releasing their works as stand alone demos. While demos have been created for virtually every platform you can imagine, from the vintage Atari 2600 to the computers and consoles of today, the two largest demo scenes belong to the IBM PC and Commodore Amiga platforms. Not coincidently, these are the two platforms covered in Fusecons Mindcandy DVD series.
Mindcandy Volume 1: PC Demos (2003)
The first Mindcandy volume contains 42 demos written for and presented on the IBM PC. The DVD is two-sided, with old school demos on one side of the disc and more recent demos on the other. The division between the two eras is a logical one. Earlier demos are triumphs in programming prowess. Each one shows a new technique, or improves upon an old one. In general, the older demos show coders pushing machines to their limits. As computers evolved over time, so did computer demos. As computers became more powerful, demos became less about feats of coding and more about design, atmosphere, and aesthetics.
Knowing that all the demos presented on this DVD are public domain and free to download and watch on your own computer, the immediate question becomes, why would a person spend fifteen dollars to view them on their television? Here are three compelling reasons that came to mind the minute I began watching Mindcandy.
From someone who has followed the demo scene for many years, I can assure you that getting many of the older demos included on this DVD to run on your computer is not as simple as you might think. Most DOS-based demos used very specific hardware and software tricks, many of which simply do not work correctly on computers running Windows. Yes, it is possible to view some of them using DOSBox or other DOS-emulators, but not all of them will run accurately, and youre also talking about some serious technical tweaking and configuration to get many of them to run properly. The guys at Fusecon have gone to great lengths to ensure that the video and audio presented on the DVD appears accurately on both the old and new demos.
Another advantage to watching them on a DVD is just that; you can watch them in your living room on your large television and surround sound stereo system (the DVD includes 5.1 remixes of the demos as well). You can also pause, rewind, and (God forbid) fast forward as necessary.
Probably the biggest selling point of this DVD is the commentary tracks that accompany each demo. Each commentary track explains why that particular demo was chosen for the video and what makes it unique. Many of the demos contain commentary from the original programmers and groups; where the original creators were unavailable, the Mindcandy staff fills in and does a terrific job. Personally I found all the demos more enjoyable with the commentary tracks. Hearing about some of the hardware limitations that had to be overcome and the tricks used to create some of these effects made the demos even more enjoyable and interesting to watch.
One final feature I feel compelled to mention is the included sixteen-minute featurette Demographics, which explains, in laymans terms, the computer demo scene. I would consider it mandatory viewing for anyone not intimately familiar with computer demos. Even though I have been watching demos for many years, I found the featurette both entertaining and informative.
Mindcandy Volume 2: Amiga Demos (2007)
The second Mindcandy compilation introduces viewers to the world of Amiga demos. The Commodore Amiga, originally released in 1985, was a multimedia powerhouse. Its graphical processing power and four-channel stereo sound chip were years ahead of anything else on the market. Many early 8-bit demo groups upgraded to the Amiga platform when it was first introduced twenty years ago, and new demos are still being produced for the platform today.
Considering the fact that the Amiga hardware platform has not substantially changed in over twenty years, the improvements seen throughout the thirty chronologically-presented videos on Mindcandy: Volume 2 are astounding. Some improvements involve refining a technique; others introduce completely new techniques and ideas. It is interesting to watch as new ideas introduced in demos, and quickly improved upon by others. Even though the majority of the demos use the same general palette of effects (vectors, bitmaps, scrollers, music, raytraced animations, rotating zooms, starfields, layers, and so forth), it is fascinating to see how different groups used those ideas and came up with such wildly different results.
Again, additional commentary tracks (provided by either the demo groups themselves, the Mindcandy staff, or multiple guest commentators) give viewers insight as to why particular demos were chosen for the video, specific techniques and tricks that were used in the creation of the demos, and some behind the scenes information. Occasionally, one of the programmers will explain why the Amiga could not possibly do what you are watching it do on screen, only to then explain to you how they got around a particular hardware limitation. In one commentary track, a coder discusses some of the custom applications that his group wrote in order to assist with the demo-creating process. In another, an artist reveals that the animation presented within a particular demo was drawn by hand at a rate of one frame per hour; at 30 frames per second, you can begin to understand the amount of work that goes into these digital works of art.
Mindcandy: Volume 2 includes a featurette that documents Breakpoint 2003, a demoparty that takes place each year in Germany. While the mini-documentary was interesting to watch, I found the Demographics featurette (from Mindcandy: Volume 1) to be more informative. While the Breakpoint footage was interesting to watch (never having been to a demoparty myself), I cant imagine watching it a second time.
A second featurette (inconspicuously titled Production Notes) gives viewers a look into exactly how the demos were captured and the processes used to get them from an Amiga monitor to your DVD player. No emulators were used throughout the process (the reasoning is explained) , and the results are plain to see. If nowhere else, this featurette truly conveys the amount of care that went into this obvious labor of love.
Both volumes of Mindcandy are incredibly artistic and professional looking packages that include twelve-page color booklets, multiple animated menus and original menu music from the demo scene that is in addition to the featurettes, the commentary tracks, and of course the demos themselves. With a running time of approximately four hours for Volume One and three hours for Volume Two, there is literally no reason why any fan of computer demos, graphics, music, or animation should not literally go to Amazon.com this very second and purchase both volumes of Mindcandy. Mmm, mindcandy. It tastes so good.
Note: Breakpoint, the demoparty featured in Mindcandy: Volume 2, will take place again in Germany the first weekend in April, 2007. Those of you in the US might be more interested in Blockparty, a large demoparty being throw in Cleveland, Ohio the last weekend of April later this year. | <urn:uuid:7a7dcfe9-3acf-44a6-9b1c-5188d9b83069> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.review-o-matic.com/?p=702 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961623 | 1,673 | 2.25 | 2 |
New Thompson Book Looks at Tejano
|Dr. Jerry Thompson's new book looks at period letters for the Tejano Civil War experience.|
Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) professor and author Dr. Jerry Thompson’s book, Tejanos in Gray: Civil War Letters of Captains Joseph Rafael de la Garza and Manuel Yturri traces the Tejano Civil War experience through period letters.
“The Civil War is often conceived in simplistic, black and white terms: whites from the North and South fighting over states’ rights, usually centered on the issue of black slavery -- but the motivations for allegiance to the South were often more complex than traditional interpretations have indicated,” Dr. Thompson explained.
Released by The Texas A&M University Press in 2011, the 160-page cloth-bound book includes black and white photos. It gathers for the first time 41 letters and letter fragments written by two Mexican Texans, Captains Manuel Yturri and Joseph Rafael de la Garza. Retired TAMIU history professor Dr. Jacinto Juarez assisted with translation. Thompson said the letters reveal the intricate and intertwined relationships that characterized the lives of Texan citizens of Mexican descent in the years leading up to and including the Civil War.
The experiences and impressions reflected in the letters of two young members of the Tejano elite from San Antonio, related by marriage, provide fascinating glimpses of a Texas that displaced many Mexican-descent families after the Revolution, yet could still inspire their loyalty to the Confederate flag. De la Garza, in fact, would go on to give his life for the Southern cause.
“The letters deepen and provide nuance to our understanding of the Civil War and its combatants, especially with regard to the Tejano experience,” Thompson concluded
Thompson is a Regent’s Professor of History at TAMIU and considered one of the nation’s top authorities on the Civil War. The author of over 20 books, he is a past president of the Texas State Historical Association. Thompson holds a doctorate from Carnegie-Mellon University and has received numerous awards from the Texas Historical Commission, Western Writers of America, Texas State Historical Association, Historical Society of New Mexico, and Arizona Historical Society.
He was a recipient of a 2009 Texas A&M University System’s Teaching Excellence Awards, a voluntary, student-selected honors program and was named a recipient of The Texas A&M University System’s 2010 Chancellor’s Teaching Award. The Texas Institute of Letters awarded him the Best Scholarly Book Published in 2006 award for his “Civil War to the Bloody End: The Life and Times of Major General Samuel P. Heintzelman.” His biography, Cortina: Defending the Mexican Name in Texas, is thought to be the definitive study of Juan Nepomuceno Cortina and has won numerous awards.
Tejanos in Gray: Civil War Letters of Captains Joseph Rafael de la Garza and Manuel Yturri will be available at the TAMIU Bookstore. Additional information is available at tamupress.com
You may also contact the TAMIU Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at 956.326.2180, e-mail email@example.com , visit offices in the Sue and Radcliffe Killam Library, room 268 or click on tamiu.edu.
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Journalists who need additional information or help with media requests and interviews should contact the Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:e2809fcc-f1a3-43ee-9520-78fb6b02eb39> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tamiu.edu/newsinfo/newsarticles/TejanoCivilWarExperience.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909413 | 763 | 2.046875 | 2 |
|New Century Version (NCV)
||New International Version (NIV)
2 Burn one-third with fire in the middle of the city when the days of the attack on Jerusalem are over. Then take one-third and cut it up with the knife all around the city. And scatter one-third to the wind. This is how I will chase them with a sword.
2 When the days of your siege come to an end, burn a third of the hair with fire inside the city. Take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city. And scatter a third to the wind. For I will pursue them with drawn sword.
|Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. (New Century Version Online Bible)
||Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide. (New International Version Bible Online) | <urn:uuid:7e0ef565-0c17-4bc6-893e-21338e8d669b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.biblestudytools.com/parallel-bible/passage.aspx?q=ezekiel+5:2&t=ncv&t2=niv | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922205 | 234 | 1.953125 | 2 |
I know this is very late to the party, but time changes and answers stay around. C++11 has pretty sweeping changes, many of which are to increase the performance of C++ and the standard library. It seems those who do not use the STL or Boost, tend not to keep up with new standards either, leaving the home spun solutions lacking important improvements, of course this is not always the case.
I've used STL on every project from the mid 90s to today, with the exception of a short time at EA. I think the anti STL side had some marginally rational reasons to not use it. Those are largely gone. Custom allocators are one solution, using reserve is another, and not passing things by value is a third, but these are pretty simple and any programmer should know these. More importantly though is the use of algorithms. Compiler writers know exactly what a for_each() does and can optimize the code. That cannot occur with a home rolled loop. for_each() on a const object is even better. Microsoft optimizes for_each in many ways including serializing. They also have the AMP library which has parallel_for_each(). If you get a chance, talk to compiler engineers about this. Console compilers are going to optimize what gets used, so it's a bit of a chicken and egg problem. Microsoft is going very heavy with C++11 and the next XBox will be no different. I have no idea about PS4, we haven't gotten one yet.
Custom allocators is one way to handle the memory issue, but another (often overlooked) option is to use class based new and delete. Huge performance increases can be had this way.
The notion that Boost and STL have a narrow view of solving problems is pure insanity. I'm stunned at how many things in the STL and Boost are customize-able through traits and policies. Look for case independent string compare as an example.
Regarding long link times and code bloat, the new extern template should help with this. Generally I find long compile times come from excess coupling and misuse of pch.
The most compelling reason to use STL over homespun is there are millions of people who can help you with the STL. As always, don't optimize prematurely and test, test, test. | <urn:uuid:a5a69f57-6e2e-4d87-a498-222b065c89a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/268/stl-for-games-yea-or-nay | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963845 | 471 | 1.921875 | 2 |
(Richard Rinehart will lead the presentation and Prof. Brixey will participate remotely from Seattle as advised by his doctors).
Commissioned for the traveling exhibition, "Gene(sis), Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics", "Chimera Obscura" is a net based-telerobotic work inspired by the historical anxieties, eungenic fantasies, and emerging realities evolving from the frontier of contemporary genetics research. The collaborative project between Shawn Brixey and Richard Reinhart is a meta-level discourse on the nature of human discovery and evolution as exemplified by the Human Genome Project. Crossing the boundary between gallery installation and Internet art, the work is constructed around a telerobotic agent that Internet visitors use to navigate, and decode a highly complex maze designed from a human thumbprint. The project employs a mutative game style structure allowing visitors to leave a virtual trail of media memes behind them for others to read, duplicate, or delete in the search for a unique sequence that will decode the maze. The ghost of the Minotaur roams the maze in the form of random mutative forces (a mathematical algorithm), frustrating attempts at easy, linear resolution. Visitors break through by assuming a newer hybrid form - that of telematic cyborgs, simultaneously operating in real space and virtual space, while existing physically in a third removed place. Elastic physicality and collaborative agency integrates technology with basic human functions to extend our discourse about what is organic and evolutionary. Chimera Obscura is on view at the Berkeley Art Museum through Dec. 7, and online at http://chimera.berkeley.edu
Brixey and Rinehart will highlight the performative aspects of creating and presenting interactive, networked artwork. Digital media art provides increased opportunities and demands for collaborative practice. The Chimera Obscura asks visitors to collaborate (or compete) by tracing their own and each others' paths in a complex virtual maze. In this way, the strategy of the work is reflective of the conditions of practice that created it. This work, like many collaborative works, is not only a conscious integration of the collaborator's ideas, but is also an un-self-conscious crossroad of individual paths that stretch back far and long. This joint presentation will trace the paths of each artist leading up to and intersecting at the Chimera Obscura, reflecting on the carefully planned as well as the inherent conditions that formed the work. Like the Minotaur that roams the maze; what forces are at work that upset and enliven our notions about collaborative practice?
Shawn Brixey is Associate Professor and Associate Director of the University of Washington's newly established Ph.D. program in Digital Arts and Experimental Arts (DXARTS). A former UC Berkeley faculty member he has exhibited widely including Documenta, Cranbrook Art Museum, The Chicago Art Institute, The Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, NY, the MIT Museum, and The Winter Olympics, Nagano, Japan. He received a 2003 Rockefeller New Media Fellowship for his pioneering work in the field.
-- As of 9/15/03 | <urn:uuid:e69178d8-6be2-4514-be4e-38b7817a9eda> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ghostriderrobot.com/bio/Shawn_Brixey/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93789 | 626 | 1.851563 | 2 |
KCTS 9 Connects/Green Prison Reform - January 21, 2011
- KCTS 9 Connects
About the Episode
It started as a project to have inmates at Cedar Creek prison (Littlerock, Washington) grow moss, but now the Sustainable Prisons Project has expanded to four Washington state prisons – teaching inmates about sustainability, and helping prisons implement sustainable practices that save money. In this follow-up to a story we first brought you in 2010, Producer Lesley McClurg goes inside the women’s prison in Purdy, where the program is helping local inmates turn their lives around behind bars. | <urn:uuid:11ec26bd-6ae2-4d0c-9c8a-d5a65ba9edcf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kcts9.org/es/kcts-9-connects/green-prison-reform-january-21-2011 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932836 | 127 | 1.953125 | 2 |
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U.K., Canada Extend Support in Bhullar Case
Sikhe.com, Leicester, U.K., Feb. 13, 2003
"Khalsa Human Rights, a Leicester-based Sikh human rights group, has invited religious representatives from the major faiths for special prayers and remembrance of victims of human rights abuse. The special prayers and remembrance will take place at Guru Nanak Gurdwara, 9 Holy Bones, Leicester on Sunday Feb. 16, 2003. . . . The primary objective of the event is to highlight the use of the death penalty and the case of Devinderpal Singh [Bhullar], an innocent Sikh who faces execution in India. Following the Supreme Court of India decision in Dec. 2002, intense political and diplomatic lobbying has been a part of the international campaign for justice for Devinderpal Singh. A series of protests, commencing in the U.K. on Jan. 14 outside the German Embassy and Foreign and Commonwealth Office, have resonated with similar protests across Europe, North America, Australia and in India itself."
"On the day of the UK protest, Health Minister Alan Milburn M.P. forwarded a letter from representatives of the British Sikh community to the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw. The Foreign Secretary has now responded by confirming the U.K. Government's opposition to the use of the death penalty and support for plans of the European Union (E.U.) to approach the Government of India to express concern about Devinderpal Singh's case and his treatment while in custody. Last week, Devinderpal Singh's wife, a Canadian citizen, secured the support of the Canadian prime minister and well over 100 Canadian M.P.s who agreed to petition the Indian Government. This week, Mrs. Singh has been on a tour of Europe to gain political support for the international campaign for justice for her husband and plans to be present for the special prayers and remembrance that will be taking place in Leicester on Sunday." | <urn:uuid:fa2125fc-cdcf-48c2-8224-c17adf1d98f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sikhtimes.com/news_021403b.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906158 | 479 | 1.742188 | 2 |