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PepsiCo Inc., already a corporate leader in sustainability efforts, is taking further steps towards greening their manufacturing process.
The company opened a manufacturing plant in China that is specifically designed to be more environmentally friendly than plants in the past.
The new build is expected to use 22% less water and 23% less energy than others in the country.
With an expected savings of 100,000 tons of water and 3,100 tons of green house gas emissions annually, PepsiCo has truly stepped in as a role model to other major companies.
The new site has over 30 water saving features such as a high-pressured cleaning system and the use of recycled water for landscaping purposes.
PepsiCo is also working to develop innovative systems that will not only benefit the company but the environment as well.
We hope that other companies are aware of the many advantages to greening up their plants!
For more information about PepsiCo's pledge to sustainability, visit their website at: http://www.pepsico.com/Purpose.aspx and check out the sustainability and environment pages! | <urn:uuid:d119fb80-2768-4470-a8fa-a72c896b8928> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://liveearth.org/it/comment/reply/3798 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966373 | 229 | 1.90625 | 2 |
Spring lunchtime colloquia
Wednesdays at 11:30 in the Fairchild Room in Dana
This is a preliminary list showing the dates and speakers for the spring lunchtime series. We will add information as we receive titles and abstract information from the speakers.
Three students will share their experiences from their Jan plan internships. Please join us to hear from Nicole Wong who did a water quality internship with the New England Aquarium, Ena Lupine who worked with International Rivers Network in Berkeley, California, and Tarini Manchanda, who made a documentary on the of the lives of the indigenous people of the villages in the Narmada Valley with Friends of the River Narmada.
Environmental Studies Program Mellon Fellow
“Community Natural Resource Management - The Case of Community Forestry in Nepal”
Nepalese Community forestry is one of the world’s most ambitious and highly regarded examples of community natural resource management (CNRM). CNRM approaches devolve centralized, State management of natural resources to vest considerable management authority to local people. Community forests are constituted by government foresters who enroll local forest resource users into Community Forest User Groups (CFUG). Once formed, Community Forest User Groups have rights of access, use, and exclusion, but no rights of tenure to their forestland. In practice if not intent, the government’s user group formation process, supported in part by foreign financial and technical assistance, reflects and exacerbates existing divisions within communities, leading to or at least maintaining elite domination of user groups. Outcomes are mixed in that forest conservation is generally successful, while the program’s potential for improving local livelihoods is constrained by bureaucratic structures and the wider institutional environment.
Dr. Christopher Thoms completed his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan and its School of Natural Resources and Environment where his dissertation research examined the role of United Kingdom aid to Nepal in shaping community forestry policy. This research was supported by the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Program and the Social Science Research Council’s International Dissertation Research Fellowship. Dr. Thoms first become interested in Nepal and its community forestry program as a Peace Corps Volunteer in 1997.
In his research, Dr. Thoms takes a political ecology perspective to examine global-local linkages in conservation and development of rural areas, particularly in the global South. He is most interested in the relationship between decentralized forest policy, social stratification, and forest access. His more general interests lie in exploring the potential of local natural resource management to conserve resources, reduce poverty and promote inclusive governance.
"Black Faces, White Spaces: African Americans and the Great Outdoors"
Dr. Finney recently completed her Ph.D. in geography at Clark University in Massachusetts and is a Canon National Parks Science Scholarship recipient. Her dissertation research explored cultural and environmental encounters in the U.S, highlighting how they are gendered and racialized. In particular, her research seeks to broaden our understanding of African-Americans and environment interactions by exploring how the attitudes and beliefs of African-Americans are influenced by racialized constructions and representations, informing how African-Americans participate in the use of national forests and parks. As a Fulbright fellow, she has also researched the impacts of tourism and modernization on Nepalese women and the environment. She has had the privilege of presenting her work in numerous forums nationally and internationally. All of her work is informed by a need to interrogate the production, representation and dissemination of knowledge about people, places and ideas.
She is currently a Newhouse/Mellon postdoctoral fellow at Wellesley College in Massachusetts in Environmental Studies and Humanities. She will begin her position as Assistant Professor in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley in July 2007.
"Building sustainable and Just Food Sytems in Maine"
“Vernal Pool Ecology and Conservation: Current Challenges”
Environmental Studies Program
"Why New England Farmers and Environmentalists Should Care About the Farm Bill in 2007"
Professor Bohlen is an ecologist with a lifelong interest in environmental policy and all things aquatic. He comes to the Environmental Studies Program on leave from a position with Trout Unlimited, where he works on stream and wetland restoration, conservation programs under the Farm Bill and Maine environmental policy issues. He previously served on the faculty of Bates College.
Before moving to Maine, he worked on the wetland policy, ecological economics and watershed management with the University of Maryland’s Chesapeake Biological Laboratory and was Maryland Staff Scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. He spent a year on Capitol Hill as the American Institute of Biological Sciences. | <urn:uuid:0113df43-27e9-462f-9a0d-3d0c51d44f70> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.colby.edu/environ/events/Spring07Lunchtime.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928129 | 945 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Jewish World Review March 19, 2001 / 24 Adar, 5761
http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- WHETHER or not the movie "Traffic" wins the Oscar for best picture, it still qualifies as the movie of the year, at least in Washington. Senators and policy wonks are invoking it as the motivation for new hearings - and a new focus on drug treatment.
"That movie just brought it home for me that we've got to do more," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, told The Washington Post. It was "kind of a final tipping point," convincing him to hold Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on how to fund more prevention and treatment programs. Other senators on the committee referenced the movie like co-workers at the water cooler. The Post called this renewed interest an example of "policy imitating art, or at least echoing it."
Let's not get ahead of ourselves. If the movie helps drug-use prevention and treatment efforts, that's great. But before we start basing our drug policies on the message of a single movie, we should be clear about what that message is.
Stephen Gaghan, the Oscar-nominated script writer for "Traffic," told The New York Times last month that "If there is a message to the movie, I guess it's that drugs should be considered a health-care issue, rather than a criminal issue."
He told ABC's George Stephanopoulos: "It's easier to raise your hand and say, 'Hey, I have a health-care problem. I need some help,' than to say, 'Hey, I'm a criminal. I need some jail.'
"You know, we have so polarized the semantics of this debate that to say 'legalization' out loud brands you a revolutionary," says Gaghan. He suggests that, rather than stifle debate, we should, "do a test case somewhere and see what happens. Take a small place, try decriminalizing it, making it legal, giving it to the addicts, see what happens, open a dialogue, tax it, use the money for the treatment programs."
After all, he says: "We've just filled up our prisons. I mean, they're just full. We build more, and we fill them up."
This all sounds perfectly reasonable and humane. But it's actually very misleading and very dangerous. First of all, while it may make Gaghan feel good to say so, you are not a "revolutionary" for saying legalization out loud. William F. Buckley's National Review, the flagship magazine of the conservative movement and my employer, has been in favor of legalization for years.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman is pro-legalization. Kurt Schmoke, the former mayor of Baltimore and current chairman of Yale's board of trustees, has been arguing in favor of decriminalization for more than a decade. In short, this is not a "revolutionary" topic only spoken about in hushed whispers by a few brave souls willing to speak the truth to the powerful.
Second, legalizing drugs in a "small place" has been tried. In Switzerland, for example, they tried it in a park that quickly became known as needle park. They had to shut it down because it became a petri dish of scummy addicts, petty criminals and prostitutes. After that experience, the Swiss voted by 73 percent to reject drug legalization. If they had noted what a sewer Amsterdam turned into because of legalized drugs, they could have saved some hassles.
Lastly, and most importantly, it's simply disingenuous to say that addicts fear getting help because they're afraid of being called "criminals." Nobody ever gets arrested for admitting to past drug use, and most addicted criminals are criminals not for using drugs but for robbing or stealing to pay for them. (Indeed, it's a myth that our prisons are "full" of nonviolent drug offenders.)
Serious addicts are simply afraid of admitting they're serious addicts. It's humiliating to admit to a drug problem, but that's an inevitable byproduct of our society's reasonable effort to stigmatize drug use. Which is really the crux of the issue. It's amazing how many people can say with a straight face that we vitally need "hate crimes" laws to "send a message" about what is and is not acceptable in this country but at the same time reject the notion that our drug laws discourage people from doing drugs.
More importantly, even if our drug laws don't do a great job discouraging drug users, they do have a hampering effect on drug dealers. Gaghan was a heroin and cocaine addict until his three primary dealers were arrested. "My dealer, my backup dealer and my backup-backup dealer. I was left alone, and I just hit that place, that total incomprehensible demoralization," he told The New York Times.
Indeed, it was because his supply of drugs was cut off by our draconian drug laws that he was able to demand treatment.
"Traffic" is a powerful movie, and it deserves much of the praise it's gotten, but let's not confuse a good message about drugs being bad with a bad message full of | <urn:uuid:2c2ee7af-f4d3-47a0-811d-a86df2bc66a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/jonah031901.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970003 | 1,068 | 1.5 | 2 |
Saving for a child's college education can be daunting for parents. With education costs rising steadily, for parents of young children, putting money in a savings plan early, is a stress free way to ensure that your child will have money available for college.
Scholarshare is the state's official 5-2-9 college savings plan. News10 and the Sacramento Public Library and ScholarShare has partnered to help parents and children improve their education opportunities with the 10 Books to Read campaign.
California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer shares more about ScholarShare with host Mellisa Paul. For more information visit scholarshare.com | <urn:uuid:7a907353-a7d6-482d-b5e2-e7650974a774> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sacandco.net/family/reading-connects/article/200739/495/Scholarshare---July-11-2012 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913516 | 127 | 2.015625 | 2 |
An online journal about visual art, the urban landscape and design. Mary Louise Schumacher, the Journal Sentinel's art and architecture critic, leads the discussion and a community of writers contribute to the dialogue.
UWM scuttled lakefront plans, leaves good ideas behind
In May, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee chancellor Carlos Santiago made it clear that only one site was under serious consideration for a new School of Freshwater Sciences. Anything other than the site of the shuttered Pieces of Eight restaurant would be a distant second choice, he said in a meeting with the Journal Sentinel’s editorial board.
There was a tone of insistence — perhaps even entitlement — used by advocates of the project’s lakefront siting.
Now, plans for a $30 million showcase structure on the lake have been scuttled at least in part because the lakefront spot proved too controversial, and UWM is scouting for new locations.
In truth, proponents of the plan were so enamored with the larger goal — to create a symbol of Milwaukee as a 21st-century hub of freshwater research and industry — that they failed to create a coherent vision for the project itself.
Creating something that is good for Milwaukee in the abstract, even if it’s a profoundly noble plan, is not enough to earn you a lakefront perch. By not capturing our imaginations with what we would see and experience, UWM left the door open for unsophisticated, anti-development-of-any-kind arguments to take hold.
As Craig Mastantuono, a member of the Harbor Commission, told me, the water fountain at Bayshore Town Center offers more potential for community engagement than UWM’s plan did, a plan that included access to public restrooms and nebulously defined exhibition spaces.
“If you can’t beat a water fountain in a mall, then you don’t deserve to be there,” said Mastantuono, who was undecided about the project and had been looking forward to hearing more about it.
Still, UWM and the Water Council have done the city a great favor.
To put it in the most positive terms — Milwaukee has woken up to the potential and importance of this very special place on our lakefront.
Let’s face it, that sliver of land was hardly at the top of the public agenda before UWM came along. Perhaps we confused the forgettable nature of the restaurant with the land it sits on.
“There really isn’t another place like it,” said Mastantuono. “It is right in the center of everything.”
Now, some very good ideas have sifted to the surface because of the debate.
For the moment, it seems likely that the site will be used for a restaurant again. Michael Cudahy, the philanthropist and founder of nearby Discovery World, who recently paid $1 million for the lease to the Pieces of Eight site and had planned to donate it to UWM, has expressed a desire to work with restaurateur Joe Bartolotta.
What’s at stake, though, is larger than the tiny footprint of the 1.67-acre Pieces of Eight site and more long-term than the 9-year lease Cudahy controls. What’s at stake is the connective tissue among some of our most important cultural institutions and the spatial connections between the city and its most defining characteristic — the lake.
This became particularly clear when we asked area architects to share some of their informal design ideas with us when UWM’s plans were still moving forward.
The strange little pier, nestled between two cultural icons, the Milwaukee Art Museum and Discovery World, and adjacent to the Summerfest grounds and down the bluff from the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum, is now recognized for what it is — the heart of what could be a cultural corridor on the lakefront.
It is begging for a project that can unify what is now an inongruous area with no singular sense of place and pathways that peel off in happenstance.
“The idea of putting a cultural institute there to amplify and build on the existing institutions is a very powerful idea,” said Dan Beyer, senior associate with Continuum Architects + Planners, who created a sketch that included a visitor’s center for the Freshwater Sciences school on the lake. “Putting some sort of institution that contributes to the education and enjoyment of the greater community should become priority one for that site.”
The trickiness of the spot is also more apparent than ever. By the nature of the siting and its proximity to the art museum, any structures built there would have to match MAM’s level of architectural excellence while also providing an understated scrim to the museum’s exuberant, postmodern building. And whatever is created would have to partner visually and spatially with Discovery World, which sits quite a bit closer, not to mention the lake itself.
Some of the architects who submitted designs responded more to the landscape itself than either of the iconic structures.
Josh Ehr seemed most interested in seeing the city’s natural and built environments wed back together. His comprehensive proposal (see image, above) includes layers of landscape, from reconstructed marsh that would extend and beautifully soften the hard edge of the current pier, a prairie garden, and a grove of trees. He also designed a wooden boardwalk, a lookout tower, a smaller pier, a café and a central promenade between the Pieces of Eight site and Discovery World.
Korb Tredo Architects proposed a gently arched, hill-like green roof and called for the excavation of the existing pier to allow Lake Michigan to infiltrate and shape the space more naturally.
Many of the architects also recognized the need to counteract decades of piecemeal development on the lakefront, which has emphasized buildings rather than spaces and has eroded spatial connections. Even in the early 20th century, despite a mélange of muddy parks and railroad tracks, sloping pathways down to the water provided progressions of spaces and vistas — the mark of artful public space.
Gil Snyder, associate dean, and James Dicker, adjunct associate professor at UWM’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning, taught graduate studios last year that explored the Pieces of Eight site. One of several things that became clear from their research was the need to create a coherent hierarchy of major and minor public spaces.
Inescapable to Snyder, Dicker and their students, was the need to address a larger problem — the shelf-like divide between the city and lake. This led them to consider how other cities have reunited with their waterfronts through unique design solutions, such as those employed at Olympic Park in Seattle.
PARC(S) EMERGENT, a group that included Eric Vogel, Joel Agacki, Ryan O’Connor and Christianna Niemiec, also stressed the need to de-emphasize the severe drop-off from bluff to lake. They created a proposal for a pair of curved, low-profile structures for either side of Lincoln Memorial Drive, each of which would have a green roof, creating public space and new vistas.
The structure on the lakefront would curve up and visually connect with the structure on the bluff, the current site of the Transit Center. The angles of the two proposed structuresquietly respond to the angles of the art museum, while the slopes and heights would counteract the severe drop-off.
James Dallman, of La Dallman Architects, is teaching a graduate studio at UWM’s architecture school this semester that will explore many of these same lakefront design issues.
“The manner in which upper stories might hover above the civic ground plane, and be connected to and grow out of the earth offers some of the most potent possibilities for architectural expression and the making of public park space,” Dallman said.
In the end, the debate over the School of Freshwater Sciences has opened up a larger discussion about the nature of the lakefront and a vision for an urban park, a place of varied experiences that could include architecture, public art and landscape design.
But is it all just pie in the sky now that UWM has pulled out and Cudahy is intent on a restaurant?
Helen Doria, the former executive director of Chicago’s Millennium Park and an expert in the reforms and innovations in America’s urban parks, says not necessarily.
The ingredients for a good design dialogue and actual change, she says, include a strong champion (or champions), a broad discussion that includes diverse constituencies and, eventually, investment on the part of the community.
A catalyst also comes in handy -- and we may get one of those in just a few weeks. If Chicago is selected as a site for the 2016 Olympics on Oct. 2, Wisconsin will be involved in the plans and Milwaukee will be confronted with the possibility of a massive influx of visitors.
What great plans might we make? Who will the champions be?
As for the School of Freshwater Sciences itself, I have faith that locations once dismissed as distant second choices will offer up some good options. While the area around the Great Lakes Institute, at 660 E. Greenfield Ave. has been called an embarrassment, for example, one only has to look at what the Harley-Davidson Museum did with what was a patch of wasteland to envision the transformative possibilities. | <urn:uuid:0e19bcf2-613c-4826-bdb1-560434c56f6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/entertainment/58505697.html?page=1&_escaped_fragment_=page=1%26pageSize=10%26sort=oldestfirst%26comment=29079496 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951218 | 1,972 | 1.59375 | 2 |
BOONE—There is no doubt that college students’ lives revolve around social media. However, are they worried about disclosing too much information about themselves when they post status or profile updates or “like” a product or business? If so, would they take some action to protect their online privacy?
Dr. Hongwei “Chris” Yang, an assistant professor in Appalachian State University’s Department of Communication, has researched how negative experiences of online disclosure has affected young consumers’ online privacy concerns and their intent to protect online privacy, and use of social media.
His research, “Young American Consumers’ Prior Negative Experience of Online Disclosure, Online Privacy Concerns, and Behavioral Intent of Privacy Protection,” has been published in the Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, volume 25, pages 179-202.
After surveying 403 students at a mid-sized Southeastern university, Yang found that the students’ prior negative experiences following online disclosure of personal information led them to significantly increase their online privacy concerns, reduce their use of social media, and spurred them to falsify or refuse to provide personal information.
As a result of his findings, Yang suggests that marketing managers “address consumers’ online privacy concerns and handle personal data provided to them through social media responsibly to ensure the effectiveness of precise and targeted marketing in social media” to avoid poor customer relationship.
The suggestion carries even more weight when you consider that marketers spent just over $2 billion advertising on Facebook in the U.S. and more than $4 billion worldwide in 2011.
“The success of social networking websites depends on subscribers’ voluntary disclosure of enormous amounts of personal information,” Yang said. “Advertisers are very interested in what you discuss on Facebook, especially your personal and lifestyle information.”
Those posts help marketers learn about a person’s product purchases and preferences, and the product recommendations they make to friends. “They want that type of information so that they feed relevant ads to you,” he said.
College students surveyed admitted that if they were concerned about use of their personal information, they might refuse to provide that information to some social media websites, Yang said. They also were more likely to spread their concerns through negative electronic word of mouth (eWOM), ask that their information be removed from a site or complain to the online company.
“That’s kind of a warning to marketers. You have to be careful not to mishandle consumers online personal information,” Yang said. “You have to address their online privacy concerns; otherwise they will refuse to provide you accurate personal information.”
Yang says social media outlets should be good listeners. “If they receive a lot of complaints from young people, they have to be, and do something to address the grievances or they will suffer,” he said.
He suggests that further research of the college-age populations use of and trust in social media be conducted to gain further insight into that demographic.
Yang’s paper is available online at https://sites.google.com/site/chrishongweiyang/research. | <urn:uuid:1b3020b2-584e-4279-9035-b98bf3ee951b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news.appstate.edu/2013/01/11/social-media-research/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947316 | 660 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Updated on December 28, 2012
Hymenoptera, especially bees and wasps, have long been an interest of mine. I began seriously photographing insects in 1980. Oddly enough, I always found wasps and bees to be especially difficult to photograph. That, of course, was during the era of film. The recent transition to digital photography has changed everything and what was difficult is now still challenging but much easier overall. And, now that I am retired I can enjoy photography all the time.
For the past few years I have especially concentrated on photographing bees and insects associated with them. I have been fortunate to work with Dr. Gordon Frankie from UC Berkeley and Dr. Robbin Thorp from UC Davis on Urban bees in California. In Costa Rica I have been working with Dr. Gordon Frankie, Dr. Jerome Rozen from the American Museum of Natural History, and Dr. Brad Vinson from Texas A&M on a variety of projects involving bees. Many of the photographs of identified bees presented here is a result of work with these experts. Identifying bees to genus and species is a difficult task. Dr. Robbin Thorp has provided or verified the names associated with the California bees. Dr. Frankie and Dr. Vinson have been working in Costa Rica for almost 40 years and are familiar with most of the species encountered there. Dr. Terry Griswold at the USDA Bee Lab in Utah has provided names for many voucher specimens from Costa Rica.
I hope you enjoy this growing collection of images.
Below is a list of the families for which I have one or more photographs. You can either click on the family name links listed below or use the expanding tree on the left to explore the photographs.
Gasteruptiidae (Carrot Wasps),
Ichneumonidae (Ichneumon Wasps),
Chrysididae (Cuckoo Wasps),
Mutillidae (Velvet Ants,
Pompilidae Spider Wasps,
Scoliidae Scoliid Wasps,
Vespidae (Yellow Jackets, Hornets, Paper Wasps, etc.),
Ampulicidae (Cockroach Wasps),
Crabronidae (Crabronid Wasps),
Sphecidae (Thread-waisted Wasps),
Andrenidae (Mining Bees),
Apidae (Cuckoo, Carpenter, Digger, Bumble and Honey Bees),
Colletidae (Cellophane, Plasterer and Yellow-faced Bees),
Halictidae (Sweat Bees,
Megachilidae (Leaf Cutter, Mason, and Wool-carder Bees),
Melittidae (Melittid Bees) | <urn:uuid:1d539548-990e-4028-a48e-a226064736dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.covillephotos.net/galleries/treeview_frames/hymenoptera_main.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938538 | 556 | 2.34375 | 2 |
'Reds' in the lead for Oscar laurels
Warren Beatty's film ''Reds'' and ''On Golden Pond,'' starring Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn, led the field of nominations for this year's Academy Awards.Skip to next paragraph
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''Reds,'' which tells of the experiences of radical journalist John Reed in revolutionary Russia, won 12 nominations, while ''On Golden Pond'' won 10.
The British film ''Chariots of Fire,'' which tells of two athletes training for the 1924 Olympic Games, received seven nominations, and ''Ragtime'' and ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' each received eight.
The Oscar winners are decided by members of the movie industry who belong to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. This year's winners will be announced March 29. | <urn:uuid:a948b3c0-a7cc-439e-a8ed-1a14a653e4a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csmonitor.com/1982/0212/021219.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946309 | 171 | 1.648438 | 2 |
- Date: 26 February 2008
- Artform: All, Literature
- Region: National
Patience Agbabi is a poet, performer and lecturer in Creative Writing. She has worked extensively with the British Council and performed her work all over the world. In 2004 she was nominated one of the UK's Next Generation Poets. Her latest collection is Transformatrix (Canongate, 2000); her forthcoming collection is Bloodshot Monochrome (Canongate, 2008).
1. The day the sun spilt red on the sea and fat black clouds shed monsoon rain, she split my head open on sand and wrote her name – Alishka, meaning I am not to blame. Tiny child of my brain. I lifted her body, purple as a bruise, to my breast and she tasted the blues of a mother who wears shame for shoes. Then plump on pain she rode my back, my belly concave with the lack of a moon to pull the tide of fate back. No pumpkin carriage to carry us through, no prince to say I do, only a passport if I wore the shoe with the six-inch heel that winked in the sun, kissed the lips and forked tongue that hissed Miss First World . The deed is done. Alishka is my world. But the world is small and cannot grow if it doesn’t go to school. The day I flew I scattered my soul on the beach and took a photograph of Alishka in my head. Her baby laugh. Her chubby grubby hands. Her hidden birthmark. And for seven years I watched her baby face becoming mine, her father’s: my grimace, his thin-lipped smile. From that place they call the First World. Four walls of lies. For a smile on the lips cannot disguise dead eyes. The day I flew the sun went out. I slept in the bowels of the beast that cut clouds into question marks. Barefoot, I arrived and queued in a snake of many colours. They questioned me so long I forgot who I was. The face on my passport, Alishka’s.
2. So this is your passport? she said as she filed Sinda’s fate. Her nails were red, Sinda’s were red raw. Two pounds an hour, an hour that stretched to seven years hard labour. Sinda is cook, clean, serve, clean. Sinda = microwave, dishwasher, washine machine, tumble drier, hoover. Sleep in the kitchen. From six a.m. to two a.m, plugged in. Sinda make white noise. Sinda on standby. Sinda dial 00, hear a baby cry, see a small girl writing in sand 2+2=six. No magic wand to wave when machine break down. No money, no passport, no snake- skin shoe with heel to stab her mistress’ heart, reboot, kick start, just running barefoot through snow with heels so hard she doesn’t know how freedom feels. 3. They said I had claws for toes. They said if you wear no shoes you’re nobody. It does not matter how I flew back to my brain, that I aged twenty years in shame, or how the village spat my name. All I wished was to see the girl in my head who wrote her name on sand in blood yet never learnt to read. Alishka! I cried. The young girl stared. Her heels winked in the sun, her toenails red. You are not my mummy, she said. | <urn:uuid:86ab1605-b8d7-4155-bb9e-be55d5f94f96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/funded-projects/case-studies/the-shoe-by-patience-agbabi/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958184 | 744 | 1.554688 | 2 |
It’s a public monument that has a location, a design and a name. But what—and who—exactly is it for? Earlier this summer, a committee announced the winner of a competition to create a “Memorial to Victims” of the war between the Mexican government and drug cartels. The violence has claimed an estimated 55,000 lives, including those of more than a thousand children, and drug gangs have supplanted the state almost entirely in parts of Mexico.
There is little debate over the winning design by Ricardo López Martín, which features a series of large stainless-steel reflecting walls combined with untreated ones that will gradually tarnish. But peace activists objected to the memorial site, which adjoins a military training ground on Mexico City’s Reforma Boulevard. And the committee has yet to decide what text will be displayed on the walls; one activist admitted she would not want the name of her martyred son to appear alongside a slain assassin’s. Defining “victims” in an ongoing struggle is inherently difficult—does this recognize the thousands of gangsters, thugs and corrupt cops who have also died?—but the outgoing National Action Party was in a hurry to leave something behind before the Institutional Revolution Party takes over the federal government Dec. 1. | <urn:uuid:709b1494-719c-4869-89a1-265c2c61e34a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/09/04/memorial-woes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957106 | 269 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Monster croc stretches excess baggage rules
Passengers on a flight from Darwin to Brisbane today were blissfully unaware they were sharing the aircraft with a monster crocodile.
Weighing more than 400 kilograms, the saltwater croc named Shrek brought new meaning to the designation of excess baggage.
The 4.5-metre saltie was flown from the Northern Territory capital Darwin to Brisbane, and was then taken by truck to a wildlife park at Port Macquarie in New South Wales.
But Shrek was not a happy traveller.
When handlers tried to catch him, the crocodile chomped on an oar, snapped a rope and death-rolled several times.
Croc handler John Pomeroy says he was not surprised.
"He's a bit grumpier than average," he said.
It took around 10 men to haul the animal out of the water at Crocodylis Park in Darwin.
They then had to restrain him, scrub him down, tie him up and even brush his teeth to prepare for the trip.
Mr Pomeroy says the croc is going to a good home.
"He'll have a luxury life," he said.
"He's in 10-star accommodation over there."
His new owner at Port Macquarie Wildlife Park, Mark Stone, says he cannot wait until Shrek gets over travel shock.
"We need to give him a little bit of time to settle in but lots and lots of people are waiting to come and see him," he said.
Sending Shrek south took about six years of negotiation and cost about $50,000.
The crocodile is about 40 years old and is expected to live for another 20 to 30 years. | <urn:uuid:7f1c7124-b91c-4296-8e11-bceb6581e1c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-07/crocodile-travels-from-darwin-to-new-home/4415688?section=nt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983181 | 358 | 1.523438 | 2 |
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Health, happiness, and good fortune; well-being.
- n. Prosperity.
- n. Welfare work.
- n. Financial or other aid provided, especially by the government, to people in need.
- n. Corporate welfare.
- idiom. on welfare Receiving regular assistance from the government or private agencies because of need.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A state or condition of doing well; prosperous or satisfactory course or relation; exemption from evil; state with respect to well-being: as, to promote the physical or the spiritual welfare of society; to inquire after a friend's welfare; to be anxious about the welfare of a ship at sea.
- n. A source of well-being; a blessing; a good.
- n. uncountable Health, safety, happiness and prosperity; well-being in any respect.
- n. uncountable Various forms of financial aid provided by the government to those who are in need of it (abbreviated form of Welfare assistance).
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Well-doing or well-being in any respect; the enjoyment of health and the common blessings of life; exemption from any evil or calamity; prosperity; happiness.
- n. governmental provision of economic assistance to persons in need
- n. something that aids or promotes well-being
- n. a contented state of being happy and healthy and prosperous
- Old English wel faran "wellness" (cognate with Old Norse velferð, Swedish välfärd and Dutch welvaart.) Equivalent to well + fare. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from wel faren, to fare well, from Old English wel faran : wel, well; see well2 + faran, to get along; see fare. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
“Just like #welfare cures poverty. jeromeflipo Has human adaptability (to natural and social environment) increased over time feesch @nbk1 healthy is beyond physical - can welfare state or planet cope with rising population What are side effects of human lab rats dallaslistings Supervisors needed for our Outdoor Human Directionals!!!”
“In America, the term welfare is almost a dirty word.”
“It would give new meaning to the term "welfare state" if abortion was banned!”
“The research says that when white Americans, for example, hear the term welfare, for the majority of us, it conjures up a negative connotation regarding blacks.”
“Maybe we should start dumping the term welfare," she said.”
“In case you don't realize, the term welfare means a state of well-being for all of us, not just the Limbaughs or the Bushs or even the Obamas.”
“I assume the term welfare will soon be outlawed as we push political correctness off the edge of the American cliff.”
“When money is given to the poor, republicans call it welfare and they b! tch about it.”
“It was the favorite saying of a wealthy girl I dated briefly at school, a marketing major and self-described libertarian with sentimental notions of family and contempt for what she called the welfare state.”
“The reality is it's not just race, Michael Steele's right about that, but when you have folks like Mark Williams one of the key organizers of the T Party (ph) movement calling the President and Indonesian Muslim and welfare thug on his blog, those are racially loaded terms, the research says that when white Americans for example hear the term welfare, for the majority of us it conjures of a negative notation regarding blacks.”
These user-created lists contain the word ‘welfare’.
A combined list of
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absorption capacity, absorption rate, acceding country, accession candidate, accession countries, accession country, accession criteria, accession cycle, accession negotia..., accession partner..., accession priorities, accession treaty and 2650 more...
Use these and get promoted
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
From a book about life and death.
Buzzwords of our time
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...
The 100 most frequent words of Bill Clinton’s Speech to the Democratic National Convention
one word (preferably / not a must). terms that solved, help solve or theoretically will solve the world's problems (past, present, future).
these can be general, umbrella terms or...
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This is a list of academic words for students learning English as a Second or Foreign Language. It includes 570 word families that often appear in academic texts. It does not include words that are...
Very basic words for ESL students.
Words which are highly likely to be found in the work of learned writers.
Looking for tweets for welfare. | <urn:uuid:98fc771e-9e06-4058-9e17-38c04a8399a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wordnik.com/words/welfare | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911212 | 1,182 | 2.6875 | 3 |
The unemployment rate is 8.1 percent, but the underemployment rate — that's people who work part time but want full-time work — is much higher. For many people, making ends meet means cobbling together various part-time jobs. And there are some apps for that.
Shannon Mills has blanketed the floor in a spacious home in Corte Madera, Calif., with protective plastic. Now she's taping off the trim, getting ready to paint over the peach-colored living room walls with the more neutral "bisque" shade waiting in cans at her feet.
Brass bricks known as Stolperstein, or "stumbling stones," in front of a home in Raesfeld, Germany, where five members of a single family were forcibly removed by the Nazis. Across Germany, the stones commemorate the millions of victims of the Nazi regime.
Credit Esme Nicholson / NPR
Guenther Demnig is the artist and sculptor behind the stumbling stones. Here, he installs new bricks in Berlin. He says formal memorials are too abstract. Not so with the stumbling stones. "Suddenly they are there, right outside your front door, at your feet, in front of you," he says.
Brick by brick, Guenther Demnig is working to change how the Holocaust is publicly remembered in Germany.
On a recent afternoon, the 62-year-old Berlin-born artist is on his knees on a sidewalk in a prosperous section of Berlin's Charlottenburg district, working a hammer and small trowel. He is installing dozens of small, square brass bricks, each one inscribed with the name — and details about the death of — people who once lived in apartment houses on Pestalozzi Strasse.
In Pocatello, Idaho, mail screeners at the federal courthouse were suspicious of a device they found in a magazine. The building was evacuated and the bomb squad came in. It wasn't a bomb. It was a magazine insert that played music.
A new cyber-spying program called Flame has been spreading across the Middle East. A Russian security company called Kaspersky Labs discovered the virus. Some experts believe Flame was developed by the makers of the virus Stuxnet. | <urn:uuid:415861f4-5fcf-4c67-be06-6f8f9f112d87> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://krvs.org/programs/morning-edition-krvs?page=567 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972324 | 463 | 1.929688 | 2 |
||5R03CA137825-02 Interpret this number
||Virginia Commonwealth University
||Barriers to Crc in Patients with Mental Illness.
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most frequently diagnosed cancer and third leading cause of cancer death (after lung, prostate or breast cancer) in the United States. Importantly, unlike prostate, lung, and breast cancers, colorectal cancer screening may detect precancerous polyps or abnormal growth and prevent the development of CRC. With less than 40% of colorectal cancers are detected early, increasing CRC screening is important in all populations. In particular, understanding colorectal cancer screening practices is of great significance among individuals with mental illnesses, which at any given time constitutes approximately 20% of those eligible for colorectal cancer screening. There are barriers and interventions which might be specific to the population with mental illnesses, who are already more vulnerable to poor health outcomes and additionally, can be difficult to reach for treatment. Our preliminary secondary analysis of Veterans Health Administration data suggests that patients with mental illnesses have lower rates of annual fecal occult blood testing compared to an age and sex matched cohort of patients without mental illnesses. One size, one approach does not fit all. To be able to understand barriers and design appropriate interventions to improve colorectal cancer screening rates in this population, we need to first indentify screening rates and issues in various sub-groups of mental illnesses. This proposed secondary analysis study will provide us with that data and additionally, other provider and system related predictors for colorectal cancer screening in patients with mental illnesses. Our premise is that there are distinct barriers to CRC screening in sub-groups of mental illness and understanding those barriers will provide the foundation for effective intervention to improve life saving CRC screening rates. To conduct our analysis of colorectal cancer screening rates in individuals with and without the diagnosis of chronic mental illnesses, we will use a large veteran's health administration database which is the only national database with reliable measures of both primary care and psychiatric variables in one dataset. Results will provide a road map of screening disparities among individual sub-groups of mental illness. We will also identify the significance of demographic factors (such as age, sex, race) and system factors (such as having a primary care provider, frequency of visits to the primary care provider, participation in an integrated health care system involving a social worker and care coordinator) to colorectal cancer screening rates among various sub-groups of the mental illness population. We anticipate that this data will establish the array of barriers in this population and lay the groundwork for interventional studies to increase CRC screening rates among the mental illness population. | <urn:uuid:ff0b7011-b2af-4484-85d4-966143c68c1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://maps.cancer.gov/overview/DCCPSGrants/abstract.jsp?applId=7812213&term=CA137825 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918716 | 553 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Boffins list sci-fi words which wormed their way into dictionary
Nine words that came from deep space
The Oxford University Press has come up with a list of nine words that originated in science fiction, but which have now become part of the language of science.
Robotics is probably the most familiar, but Gas Giant, Zero Gravity and Deep Space are also sci-fi terms co-opted into the real world, according to the OUP blog. We can also thank science fiction authors for Pressure Suit, Virus and Worm (in their IT senses) not to mention Genetic Engineering.
Of course there's a much more extensive list of words that should have remained works of fiction: mobification, blogosphere, millennials and blook leap to mind, though works of fiction generally require words that slip into the prose with less of a bump than any of these examples.
Much is made, generally, of the ability of Science Fiction to predict the future, though such predictions are generally assisted by the scattergun approach. There's an awful lot of science fiction, and by picking and choosing it's quite easy to demonstrate its precognitive ability, or lack thereof, as the argument dictates. For every "robotics" there's a host of minisecs, mediatrons and simstims that didn't make it into the dictionary.
Next week's sees the British National Science Fiction gathering in Bradford, where the great and the bearded will be discussing the RepRap project for self-building machines amongst other things, though hopefully they'll refrain from extending the language for a while. ® | <urn:uuid:ffd168b5-48d5-4c4a-adfa-3949a26320b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/07/science_fiction_words/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95823 | 323 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Gail Fisher's Dog Tracks: Dog training can be done with fun activities, not just repetitive drills
Most dog owners think of "basic training" as coming when called, responding to "sit," "lie down" and "stay," and walking on a loose leash. Laying the foundation for these behaviors is simple, but gaining a reliable response - especially for "come" - takes more practice.
Realistically, it takes far more than an eight-week course to teach your dog basic manners. Stopping after just one "foundation" course is equivalent to teaching a child to read "See Spot Run" and ending there. Having a reasonably trained dog generally means attending an intermediate (Level 2), an intermediate-advanced (Level 3) course and "practicing" behaviors (by using them) throughout your dog's life.
I know most dog owners don't want to spend years training the dog, and few people enjoy drilling behaviors repetitively (dogs don't love it either). Fortunately, there are loads of sports and activities for dogs of all ages, sizes, breeds and mixes that provide practice for the responses we want, while offering fun without boring drills. You can enjoy doing a wide variety of things with your dog while at the same time increase your dog's responsiveness and reliability - a win-win for everyone!
Here's a run-down of just a few activities available in many training schools:
. Dog Agility: This is the first widely popular dog sport alongside "obedience." In agility, the dog and handler team negotiate a course with obstacles such as jumps, tunnels, weave poles and an A-frame. The handler directs the dog off leash to run through, around and over the various obstacles in the course. Clearly, dog agility encourages and practices off-leash control - and is great fun for both dog and owner!
. Rally-Obedience: A relatively new dog sport, Rally-O involves the dog and handler team negotiating a course of 12 or more stations. Each station has a sign with a behavior for the team to perform, from simply sitting your dog and walking around him in a circle to sending your dog over a jump and then calling her to you. With more than 60 possible behaviors, Rally-O is always new and different, providing tremendous variety and interest for perfecting the behaviors owners want most.
. Dancing with your dog - also called Canine Musical Freestyle: This is a sport where the handler and dog move together in a choreographed routine to music. Even for the rhythmically challenged, this sport provides a fun, interesting and always varied way to practice fun behaviors such as spin, weave between your legs, move backwards next to your side, stay, come and move together with you-enhancing the partnership and teamwork that we all want with our dogs.
. Using your dog's instincts: There are loads of activities that provide an outlet for our dogs to do the things they love to do. Little is more rewarding than allowing a dog to do what he was born to do - race around a lure course, follow a scent trail, participate in water rescue or other water sports, herd, hunt, and the list goes on. These instinctive activities truly are a gift to our dogs. An Internet search will provide information if you're interested in finding an activity both you and your dog will enjoy.
These are just some of the many things you can do with your dog. For the rest of Train Your Dog Month, and all year-round, train your dog - you'll both love both the activities, the companionship and the results!
Gail Fisher, author of "The Thinking Dog," runs All Dogs Gym & Inn in Manchester. If you would like a topic addressed in this column, email firstname.lastname@example.org or write c/o All Dogs Gym & Inn, 505 Sheffield Road, Manchester, NH 03103. You'll find past columns on her website.
Dodgeball returns to Windham schools
Congo war's legacy follows survivor to NH | <urn:uuid:bf48787b-d048-42dc-be6a-6d001373d4d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130113/NEWHAMPSHIRE02/130119707/0/news11 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955795 | 825 | 2.203125 | 2 |
No one should expect historical accuracy out of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. After all, the movie, based on a 2010 book of the same title, decides that for Lincoln saving the union wasn't good enough. Arguably the greatest president in American history needs to defeat a nation of vampires to really draw in the box office crowds.
But is this movie just another harmless dose of over-the-top, history-on-steroids, gore fest that comes with the summer movie season, or does it pose some serious harm to Lincoln's legacy?
"Some of the underlying themes were rather disturbing," explains Vernon Burton, a Clemson professor and author of The Age of Lincoln. The movie depicts the president sending Americans into a "'leaders know best' war against vampires," as Burton describes it.
According to Burton, who saw the film in its opening week, one of Lincoln's greatest strengths was his ability to articulate what Americans were fighting for, especially as the Civil War evolved from a conflict to preserve the union to a war to end slavery. He says Lincoln would not want people to fight a war they didn't understand.
"Lincoln's philosophy is rule of law," said Burton. So to portray him as an ax-wielding vigilante who slaughters vampires by night is "ironic," at the very least. "It's something Lincoln would not like," he added.
In the film, a young Abraham Lincoln learns to hunt vampires to avenge his mother's death before deciding to climb the political ladder. Once he makes it to the Oval Office, Lincoln must reunite with his trusty battle ax, as the Confederate Army has made a deal with the vampires. For, you see, in addition to being blood-sucking, ravenous, and generally creepy (the movie isn't very creative in its interpretation of the vampire myth), the monsters are also propagating the existence of slavery, as slaves make for the perfect victims to feed their demonic bloodlust. Thus the Civil War becomes a battle not just to defeat the rebel forces and to end slavery, but to save the nation from being overrun by befanged ghouls.
The movie tries to use vampires as a symbol for the stranglehold slavery had on the young democracy. "Slavery was our national sin," said Burton, who said the connection works in that "the nation sucked the blood out of Africans for its wealth." However, in posing vampires as the villains behind the crime of slavery, the film risks "letting the South and the United States off," freeing it from blame for the practice.
"The book did some clever things," said Burton. "I was excited to see the movie. The book had potential." He said the film version was oversimplified, and he worried viewers would make too much of what he and other historians often call the "Oliver Stone school of history."
Burton saw one small redeeming aspect in the film in its positive portrayal of Mary Todd Lincoln.
"She has had a bad rap," Burton explains. "Her and her husband were a partnership. He really liked her and enjoyed her intellectually."
"The historical story of Lincoln is more interesting, intriguing, and bigger than the mythical creation of a vampire hunter, and more important," said Burton. "Let's hope people go to find the true history."
- Washington Whispers: National Archives Recovers Stolen Lincoln Documents
- Jamie Stiehm: Happy Birthday to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln
- See a collection of political cartoons on the 2012 campaign. | <urn:uuid:9d39dba3-4895-47e8-9cbb-d48ac033da4b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2012/06/26/an-historians-take-on-abraham-lincoln-as-vampire-hunter?s_cid=rss:washington-whispers:an-historians-take-on-abraham-lincoln-as-vampire-hunter | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979144 | 722 | 2.375 | 2 |
Enforcement in New England
Water Enforcement Program
The Region's Water Enforcement Program is responsible for conducting compliance monitoring and enforcement activities under the authorities of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Clean Water Act enforcement programs include: National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Program (NPDES) which regulates direct discharges to waters of the United States; Pretreatment Program which regulates discharges to publicly owned treatment works; Wetlands Program; Sludge Program; and Spill Prevention and Countermeasures and Control Program (SPCC). The six New England states also have their own authorities to enforce state wastewater and drinking water laws and regulations. | <urn:uuid:721b9045-4417-4323-924e-c426b8c51ff1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://epa.gov/region1/enforcement/water/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923593 | 136 | 2.875 | 3 |
Resolutions With Food & Beverage, Chemical Sector Call For Tighter Controls On GMOs
New Crop of Shareholder Proposals Request Labeling of GMO Ingredients and Reporting on Potential Adverse Health Impacts
NEW YORK, Jan. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility releases its 2013 Proxy Resolutions and Voting Guide today, 7 resolutions related to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) indicate a renewed investor focus on the risks they pose to the world's food supply.
More than 60 percent of all processed foods available today, including many snack foods, contain genetically engineered (GE) ingredients such as corn, soy, or canola. While GMO seeds are widely used by industrial food producers due to their enhanced resilience, ICCR members are concerned about potential health and environmental risks contending that GMOs lack the long-term testing necessary to ensure their safety. Until they are deemed safe, members believe they should be clearly labeled on ingredient lists. GMO labeling is mandatory in Europe, Australia and China but not in the U.S.
Said Sr. Judy Byron of the Northwest Coalition for Responsible Investment, who leads the engagement with Kraft Foods Group Inc., "Concerns about GMO safety in the U.S. are mounting, as evidenced by Prop37 and calls for tougher regulations from food safety and consumer advocacy groups on GE salmon."
Proposition 37, a ballot proposal in California which would have mandated labeling of GMO ingredients, was narrowly defeated after an aggressive media campaign was mounted by its opponents, including food and chemical companies.
Continued Byron, "Public skepticism will remain high until the FDA develops meaningful regulations mandating transparency around their use in our food supply. Consumers' 'right to know' speaks directly to their trust/mistrust of food products and polls show that, in the case of GMOs, the public overwhelmingly supports labeling."
"These are reasonable proposals asking for due diligence on GMOs as a risk management measure," said Sr. Barbara Aires of the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth who leads the engagement with Dupont. "As our resolution states, 'SEC reporting requirements include disclosure of environmental liabilities and of trends and uncertainties the company reasonably expects will have a material impact on revenues'. These concerns create an uncertain business climate and substantial operational risks that must be carefully evaluated by management before GMO technology advances further into our food supply."
ICCR members have been engaging companies on GMO safety since 2000 with gradual but consistent success. The investors seek broader support from shareholders on these proposals to convince companies of the need to be proactive on GMOs in advance of regulations. "In the absence of clear food safety policy on GMOs, it's the role of responsible investors to make the business case to management," said Margaret Weber of the Basilian Fathers of Toronto, who leads the engagement with ConAgra. "The jury is still out on both the benefits and harmful impacts of GMOs to our food supply which implies risk; both to the companies that make the food, and the millions of consumers who eat them."
ICCR's 2013 Proxy Resolutions and Voting Guide and its Statement of Principles and Recommended Practices for Sustainable and Equitable Food Production are available online at www.iccr.org.
About the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR):
Currently celebrating its 41st year, ICCR is the pioneer coalition of active shareholders who view the management of their investments as a catalyst for change. Its 300 member organizations with over $100 billion in AUM have an enduring record of corporate engagement that has demonstrated influence on policies promoting justice and sustainability in the world.
SOURCE Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
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Request more information about PR Newswire products and services or call us at (888) 776-0942. | <urn:uuid:b47918d8-a39e-4181-9eec-e7733a61b694> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/resolutions-with-food--beverage-chemical-sector-call-for-tighter-controls-on-gmos-187914511.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950938 | 817 | 2 | 2 |
His Last Trip : Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered the mind-altering drug LSD, has died at the age of 102. Associated with the hippy counter-culture, the hallucinogenic drug's medicinal properties as a treatment for mental illness were advocated by Hofmann, even after it was widely banned.
His research into crop fungus in the 1930s is behind LSD's emergence. Several years into the study, he inadvertently became a human guinea pig, accidentally experiencing the effects of the drug.
"I had marvellous visions," he recalled. "I was thinking in colours and pictures and then it disappeared and I said to myself that I must have mixed something up in the laboratory."
Former Harvard lecturer Timothy Leary popularised LSD with his "turn on, tune in, drop out" message in the 1960s. But its reputation took a turn for the worse amid fears it could cause long-term psychological problems.
|Liveleak on Facebook| | <urn:uuid:414a2671-765b-4920-9468-797a32fbc16d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=208_1209565920 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976204 | 200 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
YOUNG people in Saffron Walden and Newport will learn about the benefits of becoming an apprentice thanks to a road show currently touring the county.
Essex County Council launched the ‘Discover your Future’ apprenticeship road on Monday. It will be visiting 23 schools across the county throughout February and March highlighting the opportunities available in the energy, social care, creative & digital, science, technology, engineering and maths sectors.
It will showcase some of the current apprentice’s opinions on the scheme through case study videos. There will be council officers on hand to answer any questions that a young person might have, and encourage them to think about an apprenticeship as a viable career route.
The road show will be visiting Saffron Walden County High School on February 26 and Newport Free Grammar School on March 6.
Cllr Stephen Castle, ECC’s cabinet member for Education and Lifelong Learning, said: “I would encourage any young people that are unsure what to do when they leave school to consider an apprenticeship. It’s a chance to learn skills which will enable you to progress in a career and gain employment.
“An apprentice has the chance to earn money whilst learning. They will spend some time with a training provider and the rest working in an Essex based business.”
The road show has been developed following the success of the first phase of the apprenticeship scheme. Since 2009, over 2,000 young people have signed up to be an Essex apprentice. Throughout the first phase (July 2009 – March 2012) there was an 82 per cent increase in the number of young people in Essex that chose an apprenticeship. Of these, 70pc of them have secured employment and a further 19pc went onto further education.
The new road show aims to attract even more young people to applying for an apprenticeship.
For more information about the scheme and to hear about the latest vacancies, visit facebook.com/essexapprentice and like the page. | <urn:uuid:7d772d22-2805-4453-9ca5-74cda0816ea8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dunmowbroadcast.co.uk/news/apprenticeship_road_show_to_visit_saffron_walden_and_newport_schools_1_1928182?ot=archant.PrintFriendlyPageLayout.ot | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956812 | 418 | 1.9375 | 2 |
“The American Dream: Phase II
By Alison Arieff
“Sprawl … It’s the American dream unfolding before your eyes.”
That’s L. Brooks Patterson’s irresistible description of sprawl, proving yet again how masterful the stalwarts of the status quo are at messaging that which they hope to preserve in amber.
In a speech to his constituents earlier this year, Patterson, the county executive of Oakland County, Mich., continued to wax poetic on the topic: “I love sprawl. I need it. I promote it. Oakland County can’t get enough of it. Are you getting the picture? Sprawl is not evil. In fact, it is good … [it] is new jobs, new hope and the fulfillment of lifelong dreams.”
Patterson’s rousing stump speech for sprawl is emblematic of how we as a culture are far too invested in a vision of the American dream that doesn’t make sense in the 21st century. Over the past 30 years we’ve stripped away the supporting mechanisms of sprawl but have continued to create it.
We’ve built more houses than we’ve needed — and built them farther away from jobs. This has led to longer commutes, which has created more traffic. In response, we built more highways, increasing fuel consumption and, as transportation planners acknowledge, doing little if anything to reduce traffic. It’s a vicious, seemingly endless cycle, and at its core is the notion that the American dream can exist only within the framework of the single-family home on a large lot.
Indeed, we’ve become so fixated on this as the sole delivery mechanism of that American dream that we’ve spent a disproportionate amount of our collective energies (home-) improving it without considering meaningful alternative visions — or devoting at least a smidgen of attention to what’s outside the front door or down the block. Everything in our culture today reinforces this idea of home as castle (or fortress) rather than home as part of a larger whole (i.e., neighborhood). We need to find our way to the latter view, and part of that means finding a better way to talk about it.
The good news is that more and more people are.
It’s true that for years, homebuilders and home-sellers were touting Patterson’s sprawl-friendly sales pitch. If you were to walk into the sales center of any subdivision or master-planned community, from Modesto, Calif., to Tampa, Fla., the first question you’d be asked was, “How much square footage are you looking for?” Not “What kind of community would you like to be a part of?”
But increasingly, many of those looking for places to live found that the market had nothing for them. Houses were too big, too isolated, too generic, too hard to maintain. Or they were designed for the quintessential nuclear family that exists more in our cultural imagination than in reality. Few homes offered options for aging in place, for returning college kids or elderly parents, or even decent home office space. Would-be residents lamented the lack of amenities like a café or a playground within walking distance in master-planned communities of 5,000, 10,000 or even 40,000 homes (!), an absence often explained away with “a community of this size couldn’t support it.” For years, I heard from builders and developers who said they knew there was a market for smaller, more sustainable properties — they just couldn’t get such projects to pencil out.
Now, it seems those pencils have been sharpened.
“The giants of the building industry, the creators for decades of massive communities of cookie-cutter homes, cul-de-sacs and McMansions in far-flung suburbs” are doing an about-face, suddenly building smaller neighborhoods in and close to cities, noted an article in USA Today last month.
The market slowdown, the article went on to explain, “has given builders time to assess sweeping demographic changes that are transforming the way Americans want to live.”
In short, builders are recognizing that buyers (and renters, too!) value the neighborhood as much as — if not more than — the house. And what they want from that neighborhood might not be McMansions and four-car garages after all. Resale value may not in fact trump all else. Young and old, whether they’re in the city or the suburbs, want to walk to places like restaurants and shops. (And let’s stop talking about the integration of things like cafes, public transit and bike racks as “urbanizing” an area, which only reinforces the divide between two entities that are divided enough already.)
People have begun to wake up to the fact that the more time spent in the car means poorer health and less time with their families — and they’re seeking shorter commutes. They’re interested in smaller homes that are easier to maintain (and less expensive to heat and cool). Young millennials and older baby boomers are also showing less and less interest in car ownership and a corresponding greater interest in public transit, walking and biking. And again, it’s likely that we’re all less interested in continuing to discuss “urban” and “suburban” as dueling polar opposites — and more interested in recognizing there’s mutual benefit to some overlap.
The aforementioned changes point to the fact that a paradigmatic shift in our concept of the American dream is underway. And this shift is not just because of the recession, says Gregory Vilkin, managing principal and president of MacFarlane Partners, quoted in that USA Today piece, “It’s no longer the American dream to own a plot of land with a house on it and two cars in the driveway.”
Photo: Lago Vista, Tex., March 2006 by Stacy Arezou Mehrfar | <urn:uuid:b9eb4f4a-896f-4a3e-935b-7d50b7de4a0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://massurban.tumblr.com/tagged/Sprawl%5C | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956055 | 1,263 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Mick Balter looks at 50 years of air service in the German Federal Border Police (Bundesgrenzschutz or BGS)
On 22 May at Sankt Augustin the Federal Border Police held a small airshow to mark fifty years of the existence of the BGS air service. On a sunny day, in front of approximately 20,000 visitors, scenes such as 'fast roping' by the GSG 9 (Border Police group 9, the specialists for combating terrorism) from a Bell 212 were played out. For the flight demonstrations and exhibitions nearly two hundred officials from all five BGS Squadrons (Fliegerstaffeln) came to St Augustin,to enable visitors to look behind the scenes, something normally not possible. In addition to the demonstrations of the well-known GSG 9, other highlights were parachute jumps in the morning and afternoon under command of Friedrich Eichele 'Chief 1', the commander of GSG 9, who opened the programme with a freefall jump from a SA-330J Puma helicopter.
In one of the maintenance hangars the five BGS Fliegerstaffeln (Squadrons) presented themselves with their special areas of expertise: for example, North (Nord) who fly for the north; East (Ost) who undertake flights for the Chancellor and other VIPs; Middle (Mitte) who monitor some 5,300 km of railway; South (Süd) who work particularly with the air rescue service in the high mountains and the Police Aviation Squadron; and lastly West who work with border control, the air emergency service and is support for the specialists of GSG 9, also based at St Augustin.
A static display with every helicopter of the BGS (Border Police Aviation Group) represented was situated on the sports field where the following types could be found: SA-318C Alouette, Bo-105 CBS 5, EC-135 T2, EC-155 B1, Bell 212, AS 332 L1 Super Puma and SA-330 J Puma.
The cloud base was, according to the speaker, between 4,000 and 3,300 feet (about 1,000 m) when the first group of five 'jumpers' out of fifteen from GSG 9 jumped out of the helicopter to start the programme. All landed exactly on the spot before the astonished public on the apron. Experienced jumpers had flags with them, sporting the national colours of the Federal Republic of Germany and the European Union, together with one sporting a GSG 9 banner.
Helicopter demonstrations included the extinguishing of a fire with a SA-330J Puma, which is particularly used with wild land fires. About 1,000 litres of water were dropped over the fire source, in this case a smoke cartridge, which was swiftly extinguished. The 'Bambi bucket', as it's called, can be filled if necessary within twenty seconds for a quick turnaround. Another flying display participant was a rescue helicopter, Bo-105CBS 5 - on the apron a simulated 'wounded' person, in this case a dummy, was taken from the helicopter to a waiting ambulance. This rescue demo by 'Christoph 3', which is normally based at the clinical centre Cologne - Merheim, gained good applause from the spectators.
In addition, an SA-318 C Alouette (training helicopter) crew demonstrated a landing on the loading area of a truck, which then around before the Alouette took off again.
After the flying display was finished, the specialists from GSG 9 showed further procedures like 'driving during special danger situations' with their own vehicle at a 'mad' speed - 360° and 180° turns were shown and a hot pursuit of 'offenders' (represented by their own colleagues) followed with a shooting of a fictitious terrorist - something that is more topical these days.
Now though the BGS is changing colour from the typical police green to blue colours, to standardise with other European countries. A BGS pilot said the colour change may take several years - "It must happen as cost-neutrally as possible", he said.
Acknowledgments: My special thanks go to the following people for their great support and help, without which this report would not have been possible: The BGS press team, Mr Sommerer and Mr Schnurr, as well as the crew of 'Pirol 19' for the flight and all other officials of the BGS. | <urn:uuid:07507391-183c-4007-81a0-3e608ab8eec3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.airsceneuk.org.uk/airshow05/bgs/bgs.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952994 | 919 | 1.757813 | 2 |
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The first 200 words of this essay...
Setting the marketing budget
Producing a sales forecast
Why might forecasts be wrong?
The reliability of forecasts
A marketing budget is a quantifiable target which is set by a firm and which relates to its marketing activities. It may involve a target level of sales for a particular product (a sales budget) or set out the amount a firm intends to spend to achieve its marketing objectives (an expenditure budget). The sales budgets may include targets for the absolute level of sales a firm would like to achieve, or for a desired level of market share; they may also include targets for particular regions or for particular types of customers or distribution channels. Marketing expenditure budgets, by comparison, set out the desired amount of spending on activities such as advertising, sales promotions, paying the sales force, direct mailings and market research.
The size of the sales budgets is likely to depend on:
* The level of sales a product has achieved in the past; a firm may extrapolate a future sales target based on past trends
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""John Plowright. Teacher. Repton School. Derbyshire.
""M Singh. English. A Level Student. | <urn:uuid:af919274-5966-4c48-a382-ffebe634a8ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.markedbyteachers.com/gcse/business-studies/marketing-budget.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913021 | 438 | 2.46875 | 2 |
Are an invaluable source of information for anyone who is doing family history or research on Western Australia during the period 1893-1949. The post office directories provide information by locality, individual surname, government service, and by trade or profession.
The Police Gazette of Western Australia is a valuable resource for researching police and criminals in Western Australia.
Provides a fascinating look at the social, political and environmental history of Perth water.
Your handbook to family history research in Western Australia, whether you are a novice family historian just starting out tracing your family tree or a experience genealogy researcher looking for whatever happen to the elusive great uncle.
The diaries of Frances Louisa (Fanny) and Joseph Vernon Bussell as well as two diaries written by John and Georgiana Molloy in the 1830s and 40s.
Looking past the pioneer myths to find the real stories of the settlers of the Swan River Colony.
Page last updated: Tuesday 25 January 2011 | <urn:uuid:4fb3f50e-f86d-4590-a4c6-8ea8be7c531d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.slwa.wa.gov.au/find/wa_resources | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927002 | 196 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Early Sound Recordings From Alexander Graham Bell Recovered, Played Again
Sound recordings that hadn't been heard since they were first made by Alexander Graham Bell and others in the 1880s were played publicly Tuesday at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
The sounds captured in the collection include recited verse, human sounds and basic factual information such as the date.
The recordings — long stored at the Smithsonian Institution — were made on cylinders and discs of varying design. The Library of Congress teamed up with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to decode the recordings. The AP describes the process:
"Many recordings are fragile, and until recently it had not been possible to listen to them without damaging the discs or cylinders, the news release said. So far, six discs have been successfully submitted to the sound recovery process, which creates a high-resolution digital map of the disc or cylinder. The map is processed to remove scratches and skips, and software reproduces the audio content and produces a standard digital sound file."
More detailed information on how the maps are made can be found on the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's website. You can actually listen to some of the recovered sound on another page at the same site. | <urn:uuid:40f8cc61-59e1-4786-b0f7-6f69f1198b48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nepr.net/news/early-sound-recordings-alexander-graham-bell-recovered-played-again | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953347 | 245 | 3.34375 | 3 |
Nicolas Maduro, the Vice-President and heir apparent to President Chavez, told supporters at a rally on Saturday not to believe the "false rumours" being circulated on social networking sites that claimed the 58-year-old leader was close to death or had already died.
"We must be in constant battle to fight the lies," he said, blaming opposition for spreading rumours on Twitter and Facebook. Officials have given only vague medical updates on the health of the Venezuelan leader.
President Chavez has been absent from public life since December 10 when he flew to Cuba to undergo a fourth operation on an unspecified cancer in the pelvic area.
Having reportedly suffered various complications it seemed increasingly unlikely that he would recover in time to be sworn in for a fourth term on January 10.
But Mr Maduro shrugged off the likely absence arguing that such a ceremony was only a formality and could therefore be delayed.
"Get this into your heads: Hugo Chavez was elected president and he will continue to be president beyond January 10. No one should have any doubt – this is the constitutional route," he said in an address to parliament.
Opposition figures argue that if he fails to attend the swearing in then new elections should be called within 30 days. | <urn:uuid:13bbce23-98bb-4c1f-88e2-3713d84aeb28> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/9783996/Venezuelans-urged-by-government-to-ignore-lies-over-Hugo-Chavez.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979734 | 248 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Robert Sargent Shriver
Shriver, Robert Sargent, 1915–2011, U.S. public official, b. Westminster, Md., husband of Eunice Shriver. A lawyer, he served in World War II and was (1945–46) an assistant editor of Newsweek magazine before joining the business enterprises of his future father-in-law, Joseph P. Kennedy. He participated in John F. Kennedy's successful presidential campaign, and in 1961 he was appointed the first director of the U.S. Peace Corps. President Lyndon B. Johnson also named him (1964) director of the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), an antipoverty agency that developed Head Start, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), and other programs, and he held both posts until 1966, when he resigned from the Peace Corps to devote himself to OEO. In 1968 he was appointed ambassador to France; he held that post until 1970. He became George McGovern's vice presidential running mate in 1972, after Thomas Eagleton withdrew from the Democratic ticket. McGovern and Shriver lost to Nixon and Agnew. He made an unsuccessful run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976.
See his Point of the Lance (1964); biographies by R. A. Liston (1964) and S. Stossel (2004).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. History: Biographies | <urn:uuid:97892fe5-0e68-4f2a-a288-376745f982da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.factmonster.com/encyclopedia/people/shriver-robert-sargent.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958798 | 309 | 1.84375 | 2 |
I have long argued that social networks aren’t really social and we shouldn’t let a few platforms define what social means online. Now, others are coming around. Econsultancy argues:
Social technologies have seen great advances and widespread adoption. But the way we behave socially online is still unnatural and stilted. The technology doesn’t yet fully reflect the way we socially interact in real-life.
Amen! The article goes on to reveal the results of an interesting psycholgy study carried out amongst UCLA students:
Interestingly, In contrast to similar studies conducted previously, it found that:
…the overwhelming quantity of [social network site] use among college students is more consistent with the global use paradigm, which sees internet use as universal, as opposed to a realm inhabited by people who are somehow different than non-users.
The Internet isn’t just for the lonesome any longer, which will hopefully mean some increased innovations into mirroring technology to our human interactions.
Is your brand doing anything interesting to mirror offline behavior online? | <urn:uuid:8f665edf-2541-43f6-ac62-d8ac87a208e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://digitalcpg.com/2011/08/mirror-mirror-online-and-offline-social-behavior/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935262 | 220 | 1.726563 | 2 |
At a recent TED event, school technology leader Scott McLeod admonishes the current educational establishment for sticking its head in the sand and failing to adjust to the digitally and globally connected world.
In this video, McLeod describes 21st century classrooms that look nearly identical to the classrooms of 1890. He calls for a rethinking of curriculum, instruction, and assessment, and states that every kid needs access to a computer.
"It's a digital world. We're going to have to stop pretending that it's a paper and pencil world in schools," McLeod says.
As currently constructed, school environments are set up to prepare kids for the last 50 years, not the next 50 years, McLeod observes. He says schools are failing in their three essential functions, which are to develop students who are socially functional, economically productive, and able to master the dominate information landscape of their time.
"We can see quite clearly that we have some disconnects that cannot continue to be maintained."
I happen to agree with a lot of what McLeod talks about. It is for some of these reasons that I chose to go back to school for a master's degree in educational technology.
As I wrote about recently, it's made for a full year. In the end, though, the effort will pay off, as it will help me provide my students with a 21st century education that's relevant to their lives, needs, and the world they will inhabit. | <urn:uuid:b900ac8b-a308-4e4c-92d4-051859337d40> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bgenglish.blogspot.com/2010/03/blog-post.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978455 | 296 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Toxins in Everyday Life - Fluoride
water dental fluoridation drinking
Fluoride was first added to drinking water in 1945 to control dental caries and prevent tooth decay. Dental caries is an infectious, communicable disease in which bacteria dissolve the enamel surface of a tooth. Left unchecked, the bacteria may then penetrate the underlying dentin and soft tissue, resulting in tooth loss, discomfort, and even acute infection throughout the body. At the beginning of the twentieth century, dental caries was common in the United States and most developed countries. Failure to meet the minimum standard of having six opposing teeth was a leading cause of rejection from military service in both world wars.
Dental caries declined greatly during the second half of the twentieth century, and many people attribute the decline to fluoridation of the public drinking water supply and the addition of fluoride to toothpastes and mouth washes. By 2000 approximately 57 percent of the U.S. population received drinking water that was fluoridated. (See Figure 8.5.) This is in addition to a small percentage of the population that has access to naturally fluoridated water. Groundwater and surface waters naturally contain about 0.1 to 0.2 parts per million (ppm) of fluoride. The recommended level of fluoride in water to prevent tooth decay is 0.7 to 1.2 ppm.
The widespread use of fluoridated water and dental aids has ensured that virtually everyone in the United States has been exposed to fluoride. The CDC estimates that fluoride has reduced tooth decay in children by as much as 40 to 70 percent and in adults by 40 to 60 percent. Water fluoridation is believed to be especially beneficial in low-income areas where residents often have less access to dental-care services and other sources of fluoride. Consequently, the CDC rates the fluoridation of drinking water as among the top ten greatest public health achievements of the twentieth century.
Critics say that the benefits of fluoride have been grossly overestimated and the hazards largely ignored. They point out that fluoridation of drinking water is not done in much of western Europe, yet those regions have experienced the same declines in dental caries seen in the United States. There have been long-standing concerns about the negative effects of fluoridation. Many communities have rejected fluoridation of their drinking water when the issue was presented for a vote. Worries continue about the possible links between fluoridation and dental fluorosis (mottling of the teeth), skeletal fluorosis (accumulation of excessive fluoride in the bones), kidney disease, birth defects, and cancer. Research as of 2004 has not been conclusive. | <urn:uuid:b91d3228-b131-48d5-a311-ca16f1391aac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/1148/Toxins-in-Everyday-Life-FLUORIDE.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968749 | 531 | 3.25 | 3 |
Direct electrical heating of flowlines (DEH)
Hydrate and wax formation in subsea transport flowlines will cause undesired fluid properties and even blocking of the wellstream, which implies shutdown and comprehensive reparations.
Direct electrical heating (DEH) is developed as a method for removing hydrates and wax, and is also applicable for solving plug situations.
DEH was qualified in 1996/97 as a method to ensure that the temperature in subsea flowlines is above critical limits concerning formation of hydrates or wax.
The development studies have comprised material studies as well as a specific qualification of the heating method.
Feasibility of the system is proven both by scaled tests and on full-scale test installations. These tests are made to develop a proper design of termination of cables to pipe, to study the current transfer zones with a modified anode system and to verify the designated simulation software applied for the electromagnetic and thermal rating of the system. The different material data and design parameters in the heating system are verified in the laboratory tests.
The DEH method is now applied on several flowlines, and installation solutions are being modified according to the technology development for subsea installations and equipment. | <urn:uuid:97cfb5b7-5358-4396-b035-7b9cd45b606b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sintef.no/home/SINTEF-Energy-Research/Electric-Power-Technology/Direct-electrical-heating-of-flowlines/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943241 | 248 | 1.953125 | 2 |
M18 Afghan Steel Helmet
Afghanistan used German surplus helmets following the First World War. These helmets were typically repainted and featured a new liner system, as well as a badge with the Afghan Coat of Arms on the right side.
This helmet was brought back by an American GI from Afghanistan in 2004. It was found with a cache of other German surplus helmets. | <urn:uuid:9a313180-eef0-466b-9629-0dbec571c94e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nyc-techwriters.com/militaria/afghan_helmets.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977891 | 75 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Our view: Confront the bully with us
Standing up to the local bully is not easy. It can be especially difficult for children who aren’t the most athletic, the most popular, or the most socially adept among their classmates.
Being subjected to bullying over periods of time can have traumatic effects on our children.
Bullying can hurt children mentally, emotionally, even physically.
The Northwest Herald today begins a four-day investigative report on bullying in McHenry County.
In “Confronting the Bully,” we hope to start a communitywide conversation about bullying and its ramifications, with the ultimate goal of reducing the amount of bullying that occurs in our schools, neighborhoods and online.
To accomplish that, we first have to recognize that bullying is happening and understand the consequences. The sad fact is, bullying is happening in McHenry County, sometimes with deadly consequences.
During the next four days, we will tell some tragic stories, where bullying led local students to kill themselves. We also will tell some hopeful stories about former bullying victims who overcame their traumatic experiences to lead happy, successful lives.
We’ve talked to educators, parents, and national experts in the field of bullying. With the help of the McHenry County Regional Office of Education, we commissioned a survey of county educators on bullying in our schools.
We’ll explore cyberbullying. We’ll offer suggestions for parents, students and educators.
A week from today, we’ll co-sponsor a screening of the documentary film “Finding Kind,” about girl-on-girl bullying and boys’ role in it. The screening will be held at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 3 at McHenry West High School’s gymnasium, and will feature a discussion and question-and-answer session with the filmmakers, Lauren Parsekian and Molly Thompson. The public is encouraged to attend this free event.
Between now and then, we ask that you spend some time with our series.
If you’re parents of school-aged children, we encourage you to talk to them about bullying.
No one wants their child to be a bully, or a victim of a bully.
Help us confront the bully. | <urn:uuid:69abd448-99ab-42fd-9dda-1dcd8058e095> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nwherald.com/2012/09/24/our-view-confront-the-bully-with-us/ajyyf85/?__xsl=/print.xsl | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956914 | 468 | 2.703125 | 3 |
STRATEGIES FOR FISH DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION
Location: Harry K. Dupree Stuttgart National Aquaculture Research Center
Title: Feeding Aquaflor® medicated feed to sunshine bass at up to 5 times the recommended dose
Submitted to: Annual Drug Approval Coodination Workshop
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: June 30, 2010
Publication Date: August 3, 2010
Citation: Straus, D.L., Bowker, J., Bowman, M., Carty, D., Mitchell, A.J., Farmer, B.D. 2010. Feeding Aquaflor® medicated feed to sunshine bass at up to 5 times the recommended dose [abstract]. Annual Drug Approval Coodination Workshop. 16:89-94.
Aquaflor® (florfenicol) is approved for use in catfish for Enteric Septicemia of Catfish (ESC) and conditionally for columnaris, and in Salmonids for furunculosis and coldwater disease. It has reached wide acceptance as a safe and effective therapeutant for its approved indications, but there is an interest to increase the recommended dose rate. This presentation demonstrates its histological safety to sunshine bass when fed at the therapeutic rate of 15 mg florfenicol/kg body weight/day, and at 3 and 5 times this rate, for 20 days (2 times the normal treatment period).
Sunshine bass (average = 13.7 g) were randomly stocked into 15 tanks (20 fish/tank). There were four replications of each treatment including the control, with three surrogate tanks. The surrogate tanks were used to calculate the proper feeding rate. Tanks contained 100 L of flow-through well water. Water temperature and dissolved oxygen were measured daily and pH, alkalinity and hardness levels were recorded at the beginning and end of the study.
The medicated feed was top-coated with Aquaflor® and fed at 2% body weight/day; feed was offered in the morning and afternoon. After the acclimation period, fish were fed their respective diets for 20 consecutive days. Fish were monitored for feeding activity, mortality, and morbidity. There were no mortalities and fish ate all feed offered (usually within 10 seconds). At the end of the study, fish (except surrogate fish) were euthanized, necropsied and examined by histopathology. There were no dose-related effects on behavior, feeding, growth or lesions in histological samples. Therefore, the Safety of Aquaflor® to sunshine bass is at least 75 mg florfenicol/kg body weight/day when administered for 20 consecutive days. | <urn:uuid:982f2bd5-df82-4d2c-93f2-cb6d2096bdd9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/Publications.htm?seq_no_115=255381 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946089 | 562 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Activities to support your baby's motor skill development
Your baby's movements in the first few months of life transition from quick, jerky actions to smoother, more intentional movements as the nervous system and muscle control start getting in sync. You can help strengthen your baby's muscle development and motor skills with simple activities and practice.
What are your baby's motor skills?
Improving gross motor skills involves the large groups of muscles your baby uses to sit, stand, walk, run, keep balance, or change positions. Fine motor skills include using hands to eat, draw, play, or pick up small items. | <urn:uuid:6a8acebe-a280-469b-b253-73fd38052021> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://similac.com/baby-development/bonding-and-development/baby-activities/motor-skills | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924257 | 124 | 3.234375 | 3 |
The Windspire is a home 'energy appliance,' being touted by Mariah Energy as low-impact, quiet, attractive and inexpensive. The turbine has an extremely low footrpint and generates power in only 8 mph winds. However, we're not so sure our neighbors would be OK with us putting one of these things up.
It might be quiet, but it's also thirty feet tall, taller than almost anything man made in most residential neighborhoods. But it does produce a good amount of energy (rated at 1 kilowatt) with a tiny footprint. And, when it comes out in a few months, it will be one of the cheapest wind power solutions on the market at only $4,000.
And they'll give you your choice of color too: milky white, crystal clear, stop sign red or sky blue.
Continue reading for more pictures and a video of the turbine in action.
written by Janis Mara, April 24, 2007
Windcpire comes to market!
written by Aaron Dalton, August 06, 2008
|< Prev||Next >| | <urn:uuid:e6784a81-2a54-4dd0-b90a-0a0290626749> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/569/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94523 | 224 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Genre seems to be on its way to a future grave, so it is appropriate to begin this discussion with the genre that has always looked ahead: science fiction. Once upon a time, science fiction works were fairly easily defined as "hard" (science-based) or "soft" (character-driven or "sociological sci-fi") – although even that had its difficulties (Anne McCaffrey, for example, has long protested the general categorization of her Pern novels as "soft").
Now, science fiction has now grown so many subgenres as to be nearly impossible to navigate without a guide, especially given the prolieration of similar monikers: if you like steampunk, odds are you won't care for biopunk. Science fiction has also grown a number of time-based categories to compound the confusion. For example, a given story written in the 1980s might be considered cyberpunk, whereas a similar tale published today would be considered near-future fiction. Meanwhile, older classics may or may not be sorted into the new categories in fairly arbitrary style, and popular genre-busters like Diana Gabaldon's historical time-travel romance novels often end up outside the science fiction and fantasy shelves altogether.
Other literary trends involve abolishing certain genres altogether. In 2005, author David Leavitt suggested that "gay fiction" should end as the Oscar Wilde bookstore in New York, widely heralded as the world's first gay and lesbian bookstore, shut its doors forever. "Once it was revolutionary to publish a gay novel, or open a gay bookshop, but now the time may be upon us when the revolutionary thing to do is to retire the category altogether," says Leavitt. "[E]very time I go into a Borders, I move a few books from the gay fiction shelf to the general fiction section, restoring them to their rightful place in the alphabetical and promiscuous flow of literature."
Johnny Temple of The Book Standard offers another reason to do away with the gay and lesbian sections: "Though the idea behind the segmentation is to connect book-buyers with titles likely to interest them, few authors want to limit their audience by being housed in a separate section—one that’s often hidden in a back corner of a store." In addition, that ability of segmentation to connect readers to new books is far from perfect: Leavitt found "gay fiction" by straight authors usually shelved in the mainstream fiction section, whereas "mainstream" fiction by gay authors remained in the gay section despite the lack of relevance.
Some retail outlets have gone so far as to internalize the splintering and restructuring of genre. In Portland, Oregon, the bookstore Countermedia shelves its stock based on its own category system; one might find half a shelf dedicated to "Freaky Stuff." The legendary independent video rental store Movie Madness follows similar unique conventions, including for example, shelves dedicated to horror films centering upon "bad seeds." Considering the current spate of high-profile genre-bending films such as David Cronenberg's Oscar-contender "Eastern Promises," described by the director as a homoerotic Russian mob thriller, Movie Madness may indeed have better luck categorizing modern film than your local Blockbuster – but finding something specific in either one can be surprisingly difficult.
So why not do away with the splintering of genre and return to "simpler" shelving practices? In some cases, genre is synonymous with a cultural identification that many are loathe to simply abandon. Cyberpunk, steampunk, and biopunk all carry with them audiences firmly entrenched in the statements of the genres – politics, fashion, and ideology, respectively. In an increasingly varied world, one could expect this fragmentation. It's visible in pop music as well: we are far from the days when a single artist could dominate pop culture as thoroughly as the Beatles or Elvis Presley. Our tastes as a culture are so varied now that no one act could garner such a large percentage of the population's interest.
"I wasn't aware that your sexuality was something that you could (or would want to) 'move past,'" says AfterElton.com blogger Brian Jurgens of the "post-gay" movement. Though it's a fair point, sexuality itself is changing its stripes. Last year, podcaster Cunning Minx coined the whimsical term "boobiesexual" to describe the growing number of straight women she knew who were "into" breasts. Rachel Kramer Bussel expanded the term to include gay men who were similarly enamored: "Boobiesexuals mess with our strictly defined norms. What does it mean to be aroused by a woman, or at least her tits, but not want to have sex with her? They counter our very simplistic ideas about lust – if you're into me, you must want to fuck me – when true desire is more complex." Thus the busting of the gay genre could conceivably have nothing to do with "moving past" one's sexuality but simply no longer defining it quite so sharply.
Whether we deal with broad, splintered, or merged genres, there is no easy answer – on shelves or in life. The question of how (or whether to) segregate works of art seems to mainly serve as a comfortable once-removed method of asking the question of how (or whether to) segregate human beings. Existing in small groups is comfortable but limiting; it's easy to get lost in larger groups, but it's easier to find diversity, too; when there is no grouping whatsoever, it's often idealistically satisfying but chaotic in reality. How we manage our art will speak volumes about how we manage ourselves.
Photo by One Good Bumblebee under Creative Commons license.Tweet | <urn:uuid:ef1c95c5-c53a-4535-b250-3678cef1c03b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.realitysandwich.com/goodbye_genre | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957221 | 1,184 | 1.71875 | 2 |
This paper examines the changing role of government and foreign firms in Malaysia’s industrialization process. Economists have held different views on the role of government in industrialization. Some believed that the developing world was full of market failures and the only way in which poor countries could escape from their poverty traps was through the forceful intervention. Others opposed to this view argued that government failure was by far the bigger evil and that it should allow the market to steer the economy. Reality has been different from expectation for either side. From a country dependent on agriculture and primary commodities in the sixties, Malaysia has today become an export-driven economy spurred by high technology, knowledge based and capital intensive industries. The market oriented economy and the government’s strategic industrial policy that maintain a business environment with opportunities for growth and profits have made the country a highly competitive manufacturing and export base. Multinationals have been at the forefront in this process and working hand in hand with the government through a process known as “hand holding”. As firms move up the value chain their requirements change, and, to remain competitive in a global environment, the government has had to change its policies and approach to ensure that this objective is not compromised. In 2006 the government identified the service sector as the new driver for growth, which suggests a new era in industrialization. Based on this evidence we conclude that, for successful industrialization, developing countries will require flexible governments that facilitate the development of the private sector. This approach will generate greater benefits than would otherwise occur if developing countries were to adopt either government or market based development trajectories. | <urn:uuid:bdc849ef-b770-473f-9bf3-26b9ad4646b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://econpapers.repec.org/article/emcecomex/v_3a20_3ay_3a2011_3ai_3a2_3ap_3a409-443.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969038 | 322 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Several weeks after making history with the world's first live-tweeted open heart surgery, Houston's Memorial Hermann hospital is dusting off its social media chops again.
The plan this time? To live tweet a brain operation performed by one of the world's foremost neurosurgeons.
Live social media coverage from the hospital's in-house team will begin Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. EST. The hospital's Twitter page, @houstonhospital, will relay the operation's preparation, play-by-play and wrap up over the next four hours while using the hashtag #MHbrain. The first actual incision is scheduled for 10 a.m. EST.
The operation is called a brain tumor resection. It's designed to remove a tumor to prevent seizures. It will be performed by Dr. Dong Kim, a neurosurgeon who helped lead the team that treated former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords after she was shot in the head in 2011.
A two-inch by two-inch window will be cut in the skull of the patient, who is a young woman, Dr. Kim told Mashable in an interview. The window will leave her brain exposed for between one and one-and-a-half hours. That will give Dr. Kim access to find and remove the tumor, which he says is probably located between two and three centimeters beneath the brain's surface.
"What will come out of this is a detailed, real-time sequence of what happens in a brain surgery through all the stages from preparation, to shaving the hair, to making the incision, to draping," Dr. Kim says. "People are very anxious and want to know what goes on in a brain surgery like this."
While Dr. Kim (left) works in the operating room, a team outside the room will work the social platforms. A brain tumor specialist will be present to help answer questions from the digital audience via Twitter. But the operation will expand to other social networks too.
Natalie Camarata, Memorial Hermann's digital marketing manager, told Mashable the plan to live tweet the operation was hatched following the open-heart surgery, which was viewed an estimated 125 million times through Twitter, Storify and media coverage.
"We had a lot of success with the open-heart surgery and saw there was a lot of interest in seeing what goes into something that's an everyday thing for some people," Camarata says.
Memorial Hermann's open-heart surgery live tweet was a world first, although other hospitals have used Twitter to cover different operations before, including a few brain surgeries. But Camarata and Dr. Kim say Memorial Hermann's social broadcast will break new ground in brain surgery live tweets by sharing the feed from Dr. Kim's fiber optic microscope to give viewers a new level of access and understanding.
"One neat thing about this is we should be able to get actual images of the brain surface itself," Dr. Kim says. "Hopefully you'll see video of the brain actually pulsating with heartbeats."
Do you think this is a good use of social media? Will you follow along Wednesday morning? Let us know in the comments.
Image courtesy Memorial Hermann Healthcare System | <urn:uuid:73306a41-8af5-4bf4-958f-43f4693b593a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mashable.com/2012/05/07/live-tweet-brain-surgery/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956266 | 666 | 1.632813 | 2 |
There are two possible explanations I would hazard (and likely there are more, which I ask that you'll inform me of, lumen, when you soon outstrip me in knowledge of Latin!). First a general point about grammar that I hope will lubricate your thinking about language. Skip to the bottom for easy answers.<br /><br />The subjunctive is probably the hardest part of Latin to learn -- and I should warn you that people generally say Latin becomes harder the more you know -- because it fits so awkwardly into grammatical rules. There is no way one can sum up the subjunctive and give it a root meaning, a "Grundbedeutung", like "doubt, imagination, possibility". I don't mean to discourage that as a rough-and-ready rule -- yes that will "explain" the subjunctive in about 80% of the cases; there will still remain 20% that falls weakly, if at all, beneath the rubric. We can make our method more sophisticated by adding more rules that account for our observations: perhaps we see a certain set of verbs always causing a subjunctive or other constructions supplying that mood. Perhaps we can account for 99%; we will never account for 100% because the problem is like trying to solve for pi by calculating the areas of polygons with successively more sides (Antiphon's method, I think?). That was probably a poor metaphor, I admit. In essence language is a phenomenon that, from the outside, we can at best approximate by rules.<br /><br />Yes but what does this all mean for me? The coverage of the best Latin grammar book about the subjunctive will always be inadequate compared to a native speaker's command of the language, and perhaps even compared to a sensitive reader's who has spent years with Latin. There will be instances where the subjunctive is obviously right, then some where it's obviously wrong, and gray areas where exposure to lots of usage is the only way to catch the appropriateness of the subjunctive, and its particular meaning in that context. <br /><br />This ambiguity and resistance to strict pigeon-holing applies very well to conditional sentences. We know fully the regular divisions into more vivid or less vivid, etc. But there are fairly common sentences by respectable Latin stylists which break these rules:<br /><br />Si reviviscant et tecum loquantur, quid talibus viris responderes? Cicero, Fin., IV. 22, 61<br /><br />I don't think this sentence is all that hard to hear, even though the tenses don't make strict sense. One could think of it as switching the tone of the sentence halfway through, a possibility becoming more contrary to fact. This is truly illogical, but perfectly expressive. In this case the rules about conditionals are exposed for what they are: guidelines.<br /><br />
<br /><br />So, after that extensive and I'm not sure strictly necessary preamble, my first possible answer is that Quintilian is beginning a simple or Logical condition (terminology differs; I mean a conditional that takes the indicative across protasis to apodosis) and subsequently shifts conditions to dramatically emphasize the generality of the condition. This has basically been the direction of some good explanations so far attempted. <br /><br />Another, and I think slightly closer, take on the sentence is that the sentence is entirely a Logical condition. That is, the sentence expresses a factual condition in no uncertain terms: if this, then definitely that. Only, what must be converted into the apodosis is a jussive/hortatory subjunctive (a command, almost a wish "let him know...!"). In these instances one does not level off the subjunctive into an indicative, but keeps it subjunctive for the sake of vividness.<br /><br />Since the subjunctive is so hard to "get", it often comes down to hearing it as Latin and then deciding based on context what tone the sentence is getting at. This takes exposure. When someone says that subjunctive often expresses doubt, imagination, or possibility he is suggesting good ways that often describe the tone of the subjunctive (which is not the same as giving sufficient, grammatical cause!). One fact which may help us catch the tone of Quintilian's sentence. Quintilian was rabidly pro-Cicero, so there's very little chance that this is spoken ironically, sarcastically, or with doubt in mind. Hope is close but insufficient (as it's been observed the hope is slightly misplaced, since the hope is probably that the student enjoy cicero, not that he know he has advanced); something like vividness or a tinge of more intense emotion perhaps. The sense of future is also slightly involved. In my opinion it would be rendered best into English if one used the future and added an exclamation point:<br /><br />If anyone likes Cicero's books, he'll know that he's advanced!<br /><br />My suggestions are convoluted, I know, and are phrased in terms of the grammatical rules that I just criticized. But it's all worth it if by using these cudgel-like grammatical categories we can get closer to the meaning of Quintilian. | <urn:uuid:ec7ae04c-fa93-424f-8b93-1cbda7f18fe6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.textkit.com/greek-latin-forum/viewtopic.php?p=4972 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95896 | 1,111 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Verses with the word ancient in the Apocrypha (10 verses):
Wisdom of Solomon 2:10
Let us oppress the poor righteous man, let us not spare the widow, nor reverence the ancient gray hairs of the aged.
Wisdom of Solomon 13:10
But miserable are they, and in dead things is their hope, who call them gods, which are the works of men's hands, gold and silver, to shew art in, and resemblances of beasts, or a stone good for nothing, the work of an ancient hand.
O how comely a thing is judgment for gray hairs, and for ancient men to know counsel!
If thou be among great men, make not thyself equal with them; and when ancient men are in place, use not many words.
But he that giveth his mind to the law of the most High, and is occupied in the meditation thereof, will seek out the wisdom of all the ancient, and be occupied in prophecies.
Additions to Esther 16:7
Now ye may see this, as we have declared, not so much by ancient histories, as ye may, if ye search what hath been wickedly done of late through the pestilent behaviour of them that are unworthily placed in authority.
The same year were appointed two of the ancients of the people to be judges, such as the Lord spake of, that wickedness came from Babylon from ancient judges, who seemed to govern the people.
1 Maccabees 14:9
The ancient men sat all in the streets, communing together of good things, and the young men put on glorious and warlike apparel.
2 Maccabees 6:6
Neither was it lawful for a man to keep sabbath days or ancient fasts, or to profess himself at all to be a Jew.
2 Maccabees 6:23
But he began to consider discreetly, and as became his age, and the excellency of his ancient years, and the honour of his gray head, whereon was come, and his most honest education from a child, or rather the holy law made and given by God: therefore he answered accordingly, and willed them straightways to send him to the grave. | <urn:uuid:3dceb4ac-9c9a-4839-bf3a-a75be87ab468> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artbible.info/concordance/a/8202-3.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971966 | 471 | 2.265625 | 2 |
Both crispy and caramelized onions are cooked for a long time, and will be very brown. However, they are cooked slightly differently.
Caramelized onions are usually cross-cut on the onion to release its moisture, and then cooked over very low heat in a crowded pan, stirring infrequently, so that they gradually release their sugars and liquid and it turns to caramel. Depending on the onions and desired result, you may even cover them, an add a little liquid and/or sugar. The end result is very soft and very sweet.
Arabic-style crispy onions are cut pole-to-pole in order to avoid rupturing cells in the onions. They are then fried over medium heat in an uncrowded pan, stirring regularly. This lets them dry out and become brown and crispy, even burning on thin ends. These onions should be a mix of crispy and chewy, and more savory than sweet. | <urn:uuid:80f09119-9edc-44b0-aca8-cf62e37281c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/20844/what-is-the-difference-between-caramelized-onions-and-crispy-onions?answertab=votes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964951 | 188 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Well, since I downloaded yesterday the official soundtrack from the ‘Frida’ movie, I just can’s stop looking and dreaming of her art, and studying all the influences she has exerted upon style and the perception of the strong woman today. She was feminine and masculine, classic and revolutionary, bold and vulnerable at the same time. But most of all she was a very, very talented and strong, enduring character. She is pure inspiration for women of all ages and somehow makes me wanna say: “I wanna be just myself and no one else.”
What I personally like about fashion is the designs, all the different kinds of fantasies and dreams it embodies – the freedom of mind it gives you.
What I don’t like about fashion is that non-stop following and changing, In and Out the whole time, which basically doesn’t make any sense, because many genius designers and women with taste have proven continously that it’s the uniqueness of design and style that matters.
And have a look at Frida Kahlo – she is timeless! That’s what I love about fashion – it is our history, values and perceptions in clothes and photography. Constantly repeating trends and motives shows us that nothing is old fashioned or out – it just circulates and gets better (or worse;). I recently bought In Vogue’s History by Alberto Oliva, Norberto Angeletti, Anna Wintour, Steven Klein, and Grace Coddington. And it is great! It is so ineteresting to follow the development of creativity and people’s perception of beauty; to see how one thing follows the other, how much illustration influenced fashion photography, how something that was exclusively available to the rich, is nowadays so strongly influenced by the street, by art – by the poor?
When observing the history of fashion with all its extremes, it becomes obvious that it is the Good and Original what becomes a trend and eventually stays and leaves its mark upon time, not the other way around – thousands of meaningless ‘trends’, rules, dos and don’ts, which are in my opinion – the worst and least creative substitute for style.
So, this is by now my favorite Frida editorial – much more natural than others. It has captured a certain kind of sensuality that has been often missed by others and thus truly kept Frida’s style in my eyes.
Brazilian model Maria Carla Boscono poses for US Harpers Bazaar magazine in November 2001. Inspiration: Frida Kahlo. Photographed by Nathaniel Goldberg. | <urn:uuid:8d5f809c-215a-47ca-a60f-ba96073232d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lovelyartitude.com/2010/02/16/be-sensual/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957921 | 541 | 1.734375 | 2 |
This February, American Heart Month, Discovery Familia joins this important cause by launching the "Escucha tu Corazon" (Listen To Your Heart) initiative to raise awareness and educate Hispanic women about heart disease, including their risk factors. The national initiative includes special on air programming, Public Service Announcements (PSAs), a microsite specifically created to provide information on the subject, and a special collaboration with the The Heart Truth, a national campaign for women about heart disease sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI).
As part of the collaboration with The Heart Truth campaign, Discovery Familia created PSAs that will feature Jeannette Torres-Alvarez, the official ambassador for Discovery Familia. The PSAs include information on risk factors such as being overweight and diabetes, and ways to prevent heart disease. They will be broadcast during the network's nighttime programming, beginning Feb. 6.
"Heart disease is the primary cause of death among Latinas in the United States. Any one of us could have a predisposition to heart disease. That is why we need to become informed, get our medical check-ups, be willing to change our lifestyles and always listen to our hearts," stated Jeannette Torres-Alvarez, Discovery Familia's ambassador.
As the network's ambassador and representing Hispanic women, Jeannette has also been invited to participate in the The Heart Truth's Red Dress Collection 2012 Fashion Show scheduled for Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. ET in New York City. This annual event during New York Fashion Week brings together more than 20 celebrities walking the runway in fashions created by some of America's top designers. The main aim is to raise awareness of the No. 1 killer of women and prompt women to take action to lower their risk for heart disease. The event can be watched live on the Discovery Familia website, www.discoveryfamilia.com.
Following through on its promise to provide Hispanic women in the United States with information and shows expressly created to address her needs, Discovery Familia will also broadcast special programming during its "Sabados medicos" (Medical Saturdays) at 10 p.m. ET/PT every Saturday during the month of February. Some of the medical specials to be featured include cardiovascular disease programs, (2/11); the documentary "The First Heart Transplant" (2/18), hosted by surgeon Mehmet Oz, which describes the first heart transplant done in 1967; and new episodes of the series "Surgery Saved My Life" (2/25).
The network has also created a microsite at www.discoveryfamilia.com that which will provide women with helpful tools and specific information on cardiovascular disease, prevention tips, facts, videos, as well as a direct link to The Heart Truth campaign at www.hearttruth.gov.
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- Why So Many Top 'Car Guys' Are Actually Women | <urn:uuid:062ec3c2-2d3e-4df9-b24f-2692130c05b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/2012/2/6/discovery_familia_dresses_in_red_for.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918686 | 726 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Heat Wave! Should You Shave Your Pet?
Nearly everywhere in America, this summer is a scorcher, and we know that as a responsible pet parent, you want to do everything you can to keep your best four-legged friends cool. So when you look at your Pomeranian, Golden Retriever or long-haired cat wearing a thick, fluffy coat, you might feel tempted to break out your grooming tools and give him a serious hair cut.
But hold those clippers! While you or I would hate to sport a fur coat in 100-degree weather, your pets’ fur coats are actually providing them with heat relief.
“A dog’s coat is kind of like insulation for your house,” explains Dr. Louise Murray, Vice President of ASPCA Bergh Memorial Hospital. “Insulation stops your home from getting too cold in winter, but it also keeps it from overheating in summer—and your dog’s coat does the same thing.”
Dogs’ coats have several layers, and these layers are essential to your dog’s comfort in the heat. Robbing your dog of this natural cooling system can lead to discomfort and overheating. And keeping your dog cool isn’t the only reason to leave his coat intact, Dr. Murray warns. Your dog’s coat prevents your pup from getting sunburn and helps protect her from skin cancer.
So what can you do? “It’s OK to trim your long-haired dog’s long hair, such as any hair that hangs down on his legs,” Dr. Murray says. Just never attempt to clip mats off your pet’s coat with scissors, Dr. Murray adds. And if you’ve got a long-haired kitty, leave her coat intact. Instead, brush her a little more frequently during the hot summer months.
To protect your pet from sunburn and skin cancer, save longer walks for evenings, and consider applying pet-specific sun block to thinly covered areas like the bridge of your dog’s nose, the tips of his ears and his belly, Dr. Murray suggests, noting that pets with thin coats, as well as those with white or light-colored coats, are especially at risk for sun damage.
Of course, pet parents should remember to keep pets inside with plenty of water during hot days—hydration is key! For more important information on summer pet care, visit our Hot-Weather Tips. | <urn:uuid:05147475-9035-4185-92c1-05b52d76bec6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.aspca.org/comment/11011 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957197 | 516 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Kavango & Caprivi Strip
The north of Namibia is generally very lush, watered by a generous annual rainfall. East of Owamboland – which means northeast of Grootfontein – lie the regions of Kavango and Caprivi.
These support a large population, and a surprising amount of wildlife. The wildlife has visibly increased in the national parks here in the last few years, helped enormously by various successful community-based game-guard and conservation/development programmes.
The main B8 road across the strip, or Golden Highway as it is sometimes called, is now completely tarred. It is destined to become an increasingly important artery for trade with Zimbabwe and Zambia, and hence a busier road. It has come a long way since the dusty gravel road that I first crossed in 1989, when many viewed it as terra incognita
Unlike much of the rest of Namibia, the Kavango and Caprivi regions feel like most Westerners' image of Africa. You'll see lots of circular huts, small kraals, animals and people carrying water on their heads. These areas are probably what you imagined Africa to be like before you first arrived. By the roadside you'll find stalls selling vegetables, fruit, or woodcarvings, and in the parks you'll find buffalo hiding in the thick vegetation. This area is much more like Botswana, Zimbabwe, or Zambia than it is like the rest of Namibia. This is only what you'd expect if you look at a map of the subcontinent, or read the history of the area: it really is very different from the rest of Namibia.Note
Unrest in the last few years has meant that, at times, vehicles travelling across the Caprivi strip have been proceeding in convoy. Since the situation tends to change, check the Foreign Office website, www.fco.gov.uk/travel/namibia, for up-to-date advice. Note that it is the area to the north of the Golden Highway where disturbances tend to occur. | <urn:uuid:d426b734-609c-4224-bfca-79e5de1d45a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.namibia-travel-guide.com/bradt_guide.asp?bradt=416 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964166 | 425 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Customized Training Initiative: Designed to create and retain a well trained and highly skilled workforce. This program can help employers tailor training programs to improve their workers' production capabilities and, in turn, their bottom line. Examples include training on specialized machinery, literacy, and basic skills or learning to use a personal computer.
Basic Skills Program: Designed to teach basic reading comprehension, math, English proficiency, computer, language and work readiness skills.
Occupational Safety and Health Training Program: Funds are used to provide occupationally related safety and health training to workers and students participating in occupational or school careers training. Trainers will visit the farm site, review existing safety measures and suggest alternative for OSHA compliance. Because the Department of Labor and Workforce Development proactively works with the farmer, OSHA audits may be exempted for that period for the farmer.
Youth Transition to Work (YTTW): YTTW is a well-established partnership of the Department of Labor, Department of Education, U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training, and the state AFL0-CIO. The programs provides funding to employers, organized labor and schools to implement school to registered apprenticeship tranisition programs. Apprenticeship consists of structured on the job training and classroom instruction.
New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program (NJMEP): MEP is a nationwide network of resources transforming manufacturers to compete globally, supporting greater supply chain integration and providing access to technology for improved productivity. MEP has 350 centers nationwide that work directly with area manufacturers to provide expertise and services tailored to their most critical needs, which range from process improvements and worker training to business practices and applications of information technology. Solutions are offered through a combination of direct assistance from center staff and outside consultation. | <urn:uuid:a32a4054-eed2-4177-96db-d5efd7674362> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nj.gov/agriculture/grants/training.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927682 | 355 | 2.421875 | 2 |
In Lake City, Seattle, homeless veterans and others now have a place to call home
McDermott Place, an apartment building where 38 of the 75 units are reserved for previously homeless veterans, has opened in Lake City.
Seattle Times staff reporter
When George Bunting got out of jail, he had a disabling knee injury and mental illness — and nowhere to live.
But with the help of government programs and nonprofit groups, the Marine veteran now has a studio apartment and receives ongoing help for bipolar disorder, anger management and alcoholism.
Bunting, 41, last month moved into McDermott Place, a new Lake City apartment building where 38 of the 75 units are reserved for previously homeless veterans.
Open since December, the building also gives preference to others who have been living on the streets of Lake City and to those with serious mental problems.
The six-story, $16 million building a block south of Fred Meyer is named after U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott and operated by the Low Income Housing Institute. Funding came from city, county, state and federal sources, Key Bank and other banks, tax credits, Seattle Housing Authority and United Way of King County.
North Helpline last month moved the Lake City Food Bank and its emergency-services office to the building from cramped quarters in a nearby fire station.
In addition, two Sound Mental Health case managers work full-time at McDermott Place and a weekly RotaCare clinic is being set up with volunteer doctors and nurses.
Sharon Lee, executive director of the Low Income Housing Institute, said it is "tragic" that many vets are living — and sometimes dying — on our streets.
"A lot of veterans fought our wars and they come back here and fight a different type of enemy. That could be drugs, alcohol, depression, mental illness," Lee said. "We want to make sure homeless veterans are not sleeping on the streets and are not sleeping under bridges, in their cars."
So many veterans and others live in cars or camp out in Lake City that the Seattle community has its own task force on homelessness.
John, a Vietnam veteran who lived on the streets of Lake City for 15 years, six of them sleeping on a bench behind a tavern, also now calls McDermott Place home. A North Seattle native, he spoke on condition that his last name not be used. His glasses are held together by tape, and the tips of several fingers are missing. His legs are disfigured by a scleroderma he attributes to Agent Orange, and he walks with difficulty.
It's scary, he said, to move into his own apartment, and he hopes he will find the same camaraderie he had with other street people. "The thing is to have people become a family here and not 75 individuals," John said. "It's important that people watch out for each other."
Before moving into McDermott Place, John and two street buddies lived for 17 months in a tiny house provided by Seattle Mennonite Church. One of his housemates died last August when he jumped from the 12th Avenue South Bridge.
For many of the 55 homeless people who visit the church's drop-in center each day, McDermott Place "is just huge — housing in the neighborhood they love and in the neighborhood they call home," said Jonathan Neufeld at Seattle Mennonite.
Bunting, whose four years of military service are memorialized by a Marine Corps tattoo on one arm, burned through two marriages and jobs as a long-haul truck driver and a warehouse worker as his drinking and depression worsened.
After being arrested for driving under the influence and other offenses, he went to jail for domestic violence. The day he was released, the King County Veterans' Program arranged emergency housing for him. He receives medical and mental-health care from the VA.
When he moved into McDermott Place, his apartment was fully furnished with a bed, table, chairs, refrigerator, kitchen range, bathroom and — thanks to the Lake City Task Force on Homelessness — a basket with toiletries, cooking utensils, cleaning supplies and food.
With the help of counseling and medications for bipolar disorder, Bunting said, "I'm not getting into a depressive state where I want to kill myself."
"I'm still getting used to the fact of me being in my own spot, not under everybody's eyes. So far, I'm loving it."
Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or email@example.com
Sam and Sara Lucchese create handmade pasta out of their kitchen-garage adjacent to their Ballard home. Here, they illustrate the final steps in making pappardelle pasta.
Furniture & home furnishings
POST A FREE LISTING | <urn:uuid:1ab04f2a-89f4-4378-adc1-21260abeff04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2010963641_veteranshome03m.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967554 | 985 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Issue Date: Service Advisor Sept 1, 2009, Posted On: 9/1/2009
Advisor Skills Shop loading, shop scheduling, and shop capacity One of the toughest balancing acts of a service advisor's job involves scheduling and dispatching work. Schedule too little and you'll be sending the techs home early and your paycheck suffers. Therefore, the natural tendency is to overload the shop. That leads to other problems as you try to get every vehicle finished.
When a shop is overbooked you spend less time with customers at write-up, the technician spends less time on the repair, leading to comebacks and missed diagnosis. As a consequence CSI scores always suffer.
To reach a proper balance, advisors must become experts at analyzing shop capacity (what is available) to decide scheduling.
In order to determine capacity, you need to know the skill set of the techs working with you (this can be your team or for the whole shop). Next, determine the daily capacity in hours for each. In the summer months, for example, you should be aware of upcoming vacations, training or other items that will diminish shop capacity.
When scheduling, you are actually just subtracting from available time. Maintenance items scheduled should reflect the actual time required to complete the repair. Repair and diagnosis should be scheduled relative to what your manufacturer would pay (not the time estimates found in your service pricing guides).
Conventional wisdom is to schedule for 80 percent capacity to account for emergencies, walk-ins, and unexpected carry-overs. DealersEdge would be a little more aggressive than that, you would need to monitor your own shop's trends to know what percentage works best for you. For instance, in a shop that has a lot of "no-shows" you might want to schedule to 100 percent of capacity. | <urn:uuid:3963c048-5162-4a8d-a545-634cc7b9f6ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dealersedge.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?nm=%3CBR%3EAdvanced+Search&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=B502EFAB5C2C4AB5BDB4C5E749BA3B2A&tier=4&id=1F74AFB93B5648FB8955CDB3FE555A4B | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941533 | 368 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Knowledge Generation in Developing Countries: A Theoretical Framework for Exploring Dynamic Learning in High‑technology Firms pp87-96
In the case of events such as fundamental regulatory reforms or radical technological advances, firms have to undertake discontinuous or dynamic learning. Such learning involves the generation of new capacity through the acquisition of new knowledge and the combination of it with the firm's existing accumulated knowledge. In developing countries the challenge for firms to develop new competencies through dynamic learning is more complex due to political and economic complexities. This paper discusses the limitations of existing frameworks for analysing the process aspect of transformation and proposes a theoretical framework with which to explore dynamic learning in firms from developing countries. The proposed theoretical framework is based on a constructivist approach to organisational knowledge and uses the concept of absorptive capacity. The responses of large pharmaceutical firms to biotechnological change are used to illustrate the areas under investigation. The theoretical framework is used to explore the responses of Indian pharmaceutical firms to changes in patent law required by that country's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The cases show that the theoretical framework is comprehensive and useful for exploring firm level knowledge processes within firms from developing countries. However a broader analysis of firm‑level learning in developing countries should include an analysis of the institutional environment as this plays an important role in creating environment for firm based learning. | <urn:uuid:6d3c97d0-5a20-4dc0-add0-6e2ab4c9f9fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ejkm.com/search/index.html?name=authorOrEditor&value=Dinar%20Kale | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922769 | 275 | 1.65625 | 2 |
It’s important to remember that the purpose of exercise is to get fitter and feel better. Exercising will usually cause some muscle soreness, but it should never hurt. Pain is often an indicator of injury. While exercising will always entail some risk of injury, some exercises may present a higher risk than you’re prepared to deal with. When planning your fitness regimen, you should choose exercises that you know you can execute successfully. Here are some exercises that can do more harm than good if you’re not careful.
Lateral pull downs are performed seated on a bench with a bar tied to a weighted pulley. Many people perform lateral pull downs by pulling the bar down behind their head. This is a risky maneuver, however, as it leaves the back of your head and neck vulnerable to a lot of weight. Furthermore, if your shoulders aren’t strong enough, you face a high risk of shoulder impingement. Instead of doing a lateral pull down behind the head, consider pulling the bar down to your breastbone. Using a narrower grip also decreases the risk of impingement. In general, if you have weak shoulders, isolated shoulder exercises can do more harm than good. Instead, you should do exercises that work the shoulders in tandem with other muscles.
Upright rows also carry the risk of shoulder impingement, and can compress the nerves in this region. Bent over rows are safer because they don’t isolate the shoulder, but also work your back muscles and biceps. Bent over rows are performed by bending forward at the waist and holding weights straight downward. You then raise your arms parallel to your torso, slowly lower them again, and repeat.
The lying leg press is another example of an exercise that can do more harm than good. Lying leg presses can injure your spine if your knees buckle. Additionally, this exercise is often performed with heavy weights because it works your large thigh muscles. As such, it can place a harmful amount of strain on your back, spine, and knees. Squats or lunges are safer and can be performed without weights. Even cardio machines can do more harm than good if used improperly and with consideration for your abilities. You should avoid using a treadmill at a steeper incline than you can manage. You should also remember to use proper form. For example, you should not grip the handrails of the treadmill the entire time when running at a relatively fast pace. | <urn:uuid:61bf0151-c088-4c59-8c56-72ca3556cdb6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.webhealthclinic.com/exercises-that-can-do-more-harm-than-good.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951241 | 501 | 3.046875 | 3 |
This is one of several articles by Jay Lehr on the Environment and Climate News for Heartland.org
Published In: Environment & Climate News > August 2010Publication date: 07/13/2010Publisher: The Heartland InstituteThe United States is clearly falling behind many countries in our nuclear world, but all is not lost. We still know how to operate reactors better than anyone else. Our fleet of 104 plants is operational 90 percent of the time. No other nation even comes close. France, for all its experience, is still at 80 percent. Other countries are even lower.
Reasons for ConcernWe still understand the technology better than anyone else in the world, but our national and state governments have placed so many obstacles in the development path we aren’t allowed to build reactors anymore. That is a serious problem.There are several reasons for concern. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), one of the Senate’s most ardent supporters of nuclear energy, reports there are three significant areas we must address:
Nuclear Power for VehiclesFirst, there’s energy importation. The United States already spends $300 billion per year importing two-thirds of our oil from other countries. If we continue to refrain from building new nuclear power plants, or start depending on other countries to build our reactors and supply us with fuel, we’re going to be importing even more of our energy than we do now.The best way to reduce oil imports, aside from ramping up domestic production, will be to use electricity to power cars and trucks. At first we can plug our electric vehicles in at night, when there is much unused electricity. After that, we should ramp up our nuclear production to meet the increased demand. “We can’t have Americans going to bed every night hoping the wind will blow so they can start their cars in the morning,” Alexander notes.
Innovation, Weapons ProliferationSecond, there’s technological leadership. The United States produces 25 percent of all the wealth in the world. Most of that has been driven by new technologies. We were the birthplace of the telephone, the electric light, the automobile, the assembly line, radio, television, and the computer. But nuclear energy—perhaps the greatest scientific advance of the 20th century—is passing us by.The 21st century is going to run on clean, cheap, greenhouse-gas-free nuclear power. How can we criticize India and China for not reducing their carbon emissions when we refuse to adopt the best technology ourselves?Third, there’s weapons proliferation. In the 1970s we gave up on nuclear reprocessing in the hope that by not dealing with plutonium we would prevent nuclear weapons from spreading around the world. That has turned out to be an unwise decision. France, Britain, Russia, Canada, and Japan went right on reprocessing, and no one has stolen plutonium from them.Instead, rogue nations such as North Korea and Pakistan have found their own ways to develop nuclear weapons. The technology of bomb-making is no big secret anymore.By reneging on world leadership in nuclear technology we have left the field to others. Right now the Russians are building a commercial reactor for U.S.-hating Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. In addition, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau recently wrote in The Wall Street Journal that his office has uncovered evidence Iran may be providing Venezuela with missile technology.
Relying on Foreign EnergyThe U.S. penchant for government impeding nuclear power risks making the nation unnecessarily dependent on foreign energy.If we move toward a nuclear-based economy and have to import 70 percent of the technology and equipment, how are any better off than when we’re importing two-thirds of our oil? We’ll just be creating jobs for steelworkers in Japan and China instead of in the United States.Also, if we don’t move toward a nuclear-powered economy but instead try to reduce power plant emissions through hopeless alternatives such as wind power, solar power, and conservation, we’ll be sending American jobs overseas as companies emigrate in search of cheaper energy.
Nuclear Renaissance PossibleTo ensure we have enough cheap, clean, reliable electricity in this country to create high-quality, high-tech jobs, Alexander favors having the United States double its production of nuclear power by building 100 nuclear reactors in 20 years. This nuclear strategy makes far better sense than the aforementioned hopeless alternatives, for several reasons.First, nuclear power currently provides 70 percent of our carbon-free electricity, while wind and solar provide 4 percent.Second, nuclear plants operate 90 percent of the time, while wind and solar operate about one third of the time.Third, even the Obama administration’s Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, says nuclear plants are safe and that used nuclear fuel can be safely stored on site for 40-60 years while we figure out the best way to recycle it.Fourth, millions of windmills and hundreds of thousands of square miles of land would be required to make a serious dent in our energy requirements with wind power. Producing 20 percent of our electricity from wind, as the Obama administration proposes, is a joke. As an alternative, 100 new nuclear plants could be built mostly on existing sites, preserving open spaces for nature and wildlife.
Activists Preying on FearsOpponents of nuclear power continue to prey on mythical fears of disaster. But if we want safe, reliable, cost-effective, no-carbon electricity, we can no longer ignore the wisdom of the rest of the world.The real cause for fear is this: We could wake up one cloudy, windless day when the light switch doesn’t work and discover we’ve forfeited our capacity to lead the world because we avoided using nuclear power, a problem-solving technology we invented.Jay Lehr, Ph.D. | <urn:uuid:7a0b5631-feac-473e-8974-645490c0c40f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thoriummsr.com/tag/oil/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928549 | 1,201 | 2.484375 | 2 |
Italian high court allows partial referendum on fertility law Jeannie Shawl at 1:25 PM ET
[JURIST] Italy's Constitutional Court [official website] will allow a referendum to overturn parts of a controversial new Italian law on fertility treatments to proceed, but rejected a call for a referendum to completely overturn the law. Last year, Italian lawmakers passed a measure which allows only cohabitating heterosexual couples access to fertility treatments, bans egg or sperm donation or the freezing of embryos, and restricts the number of eggs that can be fertilized. In a ruling handed down Thursday, the court refused to allow a referendum that would completely overturn the law, but will allow the public to vote on certain elements of the law, including parts that restrict access to fertility treatment to heterosexual couples and rules on embryo research. In light of the court's decision, some lawmakers are calling for Parliament to amend the law, rather than put the law before voters. Reuters has more.
Paper Chase is JURIST's real-time legal news service, powered by a team of 30 law student reporters and editors led by law professor Bernard Hibbitts at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. As an educational service, Paper Chase is dedicated to presenting important legal news and materials rapidly, objectively and intelligibly in an accessible, ad-free format. | <urn:uuid:48957641-f802-4235-a81c-ae8c9ad40b51> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jurist.org/paperchase/2005/01/italian-high-court-allows-partial.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932558 | 267 | 1.5625 | 2 |
As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men,23and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day." And they were greatly distressed.
When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, "Does your teacher not pay the tax?"
He said, "Yes." And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, "What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?"26
And when he said, "From others," Jesus said to him, "Then the sons are free.
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them
and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.4Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.5"Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,6but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
7"Woe to the world for temptations to sin!For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!8And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.9And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.
10"See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.12What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?13And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.14So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
15"If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.16But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.17If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.18Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.19Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.20For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."
Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?"
Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.23"Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.24When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.25And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.26So the servantfell on his knees, imploring him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.'27And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.28But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, 'Pay what you owe.'29So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you.'30He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.31When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place.32Then his master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.33And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?'34And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers,until he should pay all his debt. | <urn:uuid:b57fb33d-0cc8-43e2-a8e4-a88df59bbc07> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.biblestudytools.com/esv/matthew/passage.aspx?q=matthew+17:22-26;matthew+18:1-34 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985929 | 1,113 | 1.898438 | 2 |
Hello, and welcome to the forum.
I've been reading through this thread and see you just got 4 new keets. I also see that you are very anxious to start breeding them.
May I ask WHY that is so important at this time?
Considering you are new to keets, and don't know the ins and outs of breeding, say nothing about everything there is to know about them, wouldn't it be best to take the time to get to know your new bird friends and all there is to know about keeping them happy and healthy before adding more to the mix?
Have you looked in to proper diet/nutrition? Cage size needed for that many? Different types of perches for healthy feet and beaks? Safe and toxic foods and plants? How many food and water dishes are you providing?
These are all very important matters you should be aware of. Your birds really need to be of optimal health before breeding.
IMHO you should slow down, get to know the birds you have now..let them get to know you and your family and get used to their new home before even THINKING about breeding. Bond with them and let them just BE for a while. Take the time to do thorough research on breeding and bird keeping in general before putting their lives and any possible babies lives at risk.
That would mean separating your males and females at the very least until you have a good solid understanding of things.
How big is their cage? I think you said 80cm tall, which is 30 inches if I'm not mistaken. But how long and wide is it?
Wishing you and your birds a long happy life together. These little guys/gals are so smart and funny if you take the time to learn about their needs, get to know them and bond with them | <urn:uuid:11c09240-db92-49c4-8c65-90fd217149f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wineintro.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/423432/Re_ALL_ABOUT_BREEDING_PARAKEET | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975001 | 369 | 1.515625 | 2 |
NLRB Sues Boeing; Seeks End to Commercial Jet Production in South Carolina
The National Labor Relations Board must have a broad definition of "coercion" when it comes to employers. With unions, the standard seems a lot narrower. On April 20, the board filed a 10-page complaint (see pdf) against Boeing alleging the company's decision in 2009 to locate its second assembly plant in South Carolina represented illegal retaliation against employees belonging to the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (IAM). As a remedy, the NLRB is seeking a judicial order for the company to shift all production of its 787 Dreamliner commercial jet back to its original planned facility in Washington State. The IAM, predictably, is delighted. Boeing and South Carolina officials are furious. That South Carolina, unlike Washington, is a Right to Work state has more than a little to do with the unfolding drama.
Back on March 26, 2010, the Machinists filed a complaint against Boeing with the National Labor Relations Board. The union claimed the Chicago-based company, in selecting as its final assembly plant for the 787 Dreamliner wide-body, twin-engine jet aircraft a facility near Charleston, South Carolina, illegally had "retaliated" against the IAM for four separate strikes the union conducted over the course of 1989-2008. Instead of expanding its existing production facility in Everett, Washington, located about 25 miles north of Seattle, Boeing instead chose a site adjacent to Charleston Airport near Charleston, S.C. After conducting an investigation, NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon found "reasonable cause" to believe that the company violated two sections of the National Labor Relations Act. First, the move allegedly was motivated by a desire "to retaliate for past strikes and chill future strike activity." Second, Boeing officials had made "coercive statements" to union employees relating to the move.
On what basis did the NLRB arrive at this conclusion? The board cited internal documents and news interviews. But the interviews, at least, hardly make for scandal. In one supposedly damning instance, Jim Albaugh, CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, told the Seattle Times (March 2, 2010) that while Washington State remained his "preferred location" for building commercial aircraft, he would view South Carolina as a better alternative unless the union "moderates its future wage demands and avoids strikes." Boeing had especially good reason to fear strikes. The last one, in 2008, lasted almost two months and cost the company nearly $2 billion in lost revenue. To compensate, management wanted workers to contribute more toward health insurance, forgo defined-benefit pension plans and agree to more outsourcing. Albaugh stated: "The overriding factor was not the business climate. And it was not the wages we are paying today. It was that we can't afford to have a work stoppage every three years. And we can't afford to continue the rate of escalation of wages." Boeing Chairman and CEO Jim McNerney also engaged in "retaliation" in a statement referring to a quarterly earnings conference that appeared on the Boeing website to "diversifying [Respondent's] labor pool and labor relationship" and moving 787 Dreamliner production to South Carolina due to "strikes happening every three to four years in Puget Sound." It's hard to see such statements as coercive.
Meanwhile, South Carolina already had beckoned. As a Right to Work state, workers there don't have to worry about losing their jobs if they don't pay union dues or agency fees. The company had its eyes set on a site in North Charleston previously occupied by Vought Aircraft Industries Inc. In 2009, Boeing paid $750 million for the complex, which it planned to retrofit for 787 Dreamliner production at the rate of three planes a month, in addition to the seven per month set to roll off the assembly line in Everett. With orders coming in since 2004, the State of South Carolina sweetened the deal, adding nearly $900 million in tax relief and other incentives. Test flights began in December 2009; commercial production is expected to be in full swing within months - the company hopes.
Reluctant to leave its Everett work force high and dry, Boeing made a final contract offer that included a "no-strike" clause. The move, management emphasized, would not replace Washington State operations. Indeed, it would lead to more hiring in Washington as well as South Carolina. The Machinists, unimpressed, responded with a proposed 11-year agreement that would require the company to place all future commercial aircraft production in the Puget Sound area; remain neutral in all union organizing campaigns; and reserve a seat on the its executive board for a union representative. After lengthy secret talks, Boeing said "no." Soon after, in October 2009, it signed an agreement with South Carolina.
The International Association of Machinists, which represents some 35,000 Boeing workers around the U.S., 25,000 in Washington State, felt double-crossed. Several months later, the Seattle-based IAM District Lodge 751 filed an Unfair Labor Practices charge against the company, claiming senior Boeing executives had used coercion against lawful union activity. "Boeing's decision to build a 787 assembly line in South Carolina sent a message that Boeing workers would suffer financial harm for exercising their collective bargaining rights," said IAM Vice President Rich Michalski upon hearing the news of the NLRB action. "Federal labor law is clear: It's illegal to threaten or penalize workers who engage in concerted activity." District 751 President Tom Wroblewski likewise stated: "Had we allowed Boeing to break the law and go unchecked in their actions, it would have given the green light for corporate America to discriminate against union members and would have become management's new strategic template to attack employees."
What union officials conveniently overlook, however, is that after the purchase of the North Charleston facility, union workers there voted 199-68 to decertify the IAM as their bargaining representative shortly after the announcement of the move. Apparently, that sort of "concerted activity" isn't acceptable to Machinist chieftains. Following the vote, the union filed a lawsuit against new South Carolina Republican Governor Nikki Haley, claiming she had "violated U.S. labor laws and the Constitution." IAM Southern Territory Vice President Bob Martinez explained the union's position: "Gov. Haley placed her hand on a Bible and swore to defend the Constitution of the United States. [B]ut her stated intention is to actively oppose workers in South Carolina who wish to exercise their legal right to join a union." Martinez can't seem to get over the fact that workers in South Carolina already have spoken.
The National Labor Relations Board, and not for the first time, appears eager to become a union mouthpiece. "A worker's right to strike is a fundamental right guaranteed by the National Labor Relations Act," noted Solomon in a statement released in conjunction with the filing of the April 20 complaint. "We also recognize the rights of employers to make business decisions based on their economic interests, but they must do so within the law." But how has Boeing, by trying to avoid strikes, broken the law? If unions have the right to organize or pressure an employer into making concessions, the employer has the right to take this into account when making decisions that affect long-term company health. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this principle in a trio of 1965 rulings: Textile Workers Union v. Darlington Manufacturing Co.; NLRB v. Brown; and American Ship Building v. NLRB. Only in the former did the High Court rule in favor of the union - and that qualified decision involved the closing of an existing plant, not the opening of a new one.
If the NLRB, currently with four members - three Democrats and one Republican (the nominee for the fifth slot, Republican Terence Flynn, awaits Senate approval) - is so exercised by Boeing's alleged union-busting tactics, why did it wait a year and a half to file its complaint against Boeing? It could be that until March 2010, the board for 27 months had operated with only two members, Wilma Liebman and Peter Schaumber, respectively, a Democrat and a Republican. Victory for the IAM under these conditions, in other words, was unlikely. With a pro-union majority in place, Acting General Counsel Solomon saw an opportunity to take action.
Boeing is anything but happy about the NLRB lawsuit. "This claim is legally frivolous and represents a radical departure from both NLRB and Supreme Court precedent," said the company's general counsel, J. Michael Luttig. South Carolina elected officials are especially incensed. Attorney General Alan Wilson recently noted that the complaint against Boeing will hurt the ability of his and other states to create jobs. Eight other state attorneys general concurred with Wilson in a prepared statement on April 28. "This is nothing more than a political favor for the unions who are supporting President Obama's re-election campaign," remarked Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. "Unfortunately, it comes at the expense of hundreds of jobs in South Carolina and thousands of jobs nationwide." Fellow South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham stated: "If successful, the NLRB complaint would allow unions to hold a virtual ‘veto' over business decisions. Left to their own devices, the NLRB would routinely punish Right to Work states that value and promote their pro-business climates."
Governor Haley may be the most outspoken of all. Laying out her position in a guest editorial, "Obama's Silence on Boeing Is Unacceptable," appearing in the April 29 Wall Street Journal, she wrote:
South Carolina is a right-to-work state, and we're proud that within our borders workers cannot be required to join a labor union as a condition of employment. We don't need unions playing middleman between our companies and our employees. We don't want them forcefully inserted into our promising business climate. And we will not stand for them intimidating South Carolinians.
That is apparently too much for President Obama and his union-beholden appointees at the National Labor Relations Board, who have asked the courts to intervene and force Boeing to stop production in South Carolina. The NLRB wants Boeing to produce the planes only in Washington State, where its workers must belong to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
Haley went on to call the actions by the NLRB "nothing less than a direct assault on the 22 right-to-work states across America."
Advocates for each side will get to square off starting this June 14 in the James C. Sand Hearing Room in the Jackson Federal Building in Seattle before an Administrative Law Judge. Boeing no doubt will give its all; pulling out of South Carolina would incur serious losses. By March of this year, fully 835 orders on its 787 Dreamliner from a combined 56 customers had poured in, despite various project delays. The 787 is the aircraft builder's marquee commercial product, a logical successor to its less fuel-efficient 747-400 and 767 models. The Japanese are deeply enmeshed in the project as well, providing a 35-percent work share and a first-time-ever participation in wing production. A union victory, even without the wage and benefit package, might raise costs dramatically.
There is a certain measure of rough justice in all this. Boeing unwittingly has become an IAM target due to its capitulation to union power in the past. A strike against Boeing by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace back in early 2000, for example, resulted in management giving in on key issues in order to settle after 40 days; the walkout caused Boeing to miss at least 15 aircraft deliveries and some government contracts. And the company succumbed on major issues during a four-week strike by the Machinists in 2005, which resulted in overwhelming union approval of a three-year contract - and another IAM strike in 2008. Boeing is a company that has virtually enshrined racial, ethnic and gender diversity as an operating principle. And CEO Jim McNerney is tight with President Obama. The company is paying a high price for its appearance of fecklessness. The case should stand as a lesson to all companies: Unions and their political allies don't become "nicer" after they cause a corporate target to buckle. To the contrary, they get nastier. | <urn:uuid:416e0ab9-2cfd-4bdc-88e0-7fae26704ff9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nlpc.org/stories/2011/05/04/nlrb-sues-boeing-seeks-end-commercial-jet-production-south-carolina | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964074 | 2,544 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Shanghai, July 10: Commuters in China’s commercial capital will soon be able to enjoy free Wi-Fi service inside its city buses.
Shanghai Bashi Group, the bus operator, said it intends to provide Wi-Fi in response to passengers’ increasing demands, and was working with telecom companies, Shanghai Daily reported Tuesday.
A spokeswoman with the Shanghai Telecom Co. said they were still preparing and testing the technology for buses.
Smartphone users currently have little access to free Wi-Fi on public transportation such as on the metro and buses. Such service is available in other cities like Guangzhou in southern China.
In Shanghai’s Lujiazui financial area, office workers can enjoy free Wi-Fi at bus stations but not onboard. | <urn:uuid:121a93c2-f4ef-41d1-92e6-6df9916ab7c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.indiatalkies.com/2012/07/shanghai-buses-wifi.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959262 | 160 | 1.703125 | 2 |
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- A tumblr site dedicated to the people and places that make up Oregon and Southwest Washington.
Who owns the water that I collect in my gutters? I collect water in barrels for watering my lawn but in some areas water rights make it technically illegal to restrict the flow of water in a watershed. How do water rights laws impinge conservation efforts? Anyone know? Thanks.
posted 3 years, 2 months ago
view in context | <urn:uuid:f4890b85-8433-43c7-879a-f1c932f4824a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kmhd.fm/thinkoutloud/users/dogbarlow/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934558 | 96 | 1.632813 | 2 |
It has always been good common sense to research the background of anyone who will be interviewing you for a job. Now there is also a scientific reason to pay close attention to your interviewer's academic background, volunteer experiences and leisure pursuits.
People like people who are similar to themselves, but personality or comfort is not the key driver, says Lauren Rivera, an assistant professor of management and organizations and sociology at Northwestern University.
It's having similar experiences, said Rivera, whose study was recently published in the American Sociological Review. Think of it as "cultural matching."
When a company doesn't have specific measurement tools - and a surprising number don't - hiring managers tend to define success by looking in the mirror, Rivera said. If they think, "I understand what it's like to be editor in chief of the school newspaper," they may look more favorably at applicants with that kind of experience.
If that same hiring manager hasn't had a similar experience as the applicant - for example, having never done volunteer church work - that cultural match is missing. And the applicant is less likely to get the job.
When Rivera set out to study the hiring practices of three elite, well-paying industries - law, investment banking and management consulting firms - she assumed she'd end up studying gender issues to explain why some top graduates get the top-tier jobs and others don't.
But it didn't turn out that way, according to Rivera, who interviewed 120 hiring managers and set up shop at one of the human resource departments to get a front-row seat.
Once it was clear the applicant passed the chief hurdles - generally smart, intellectual prestige (where they got their degree) and good grades - it often came down to a matter of shared leisure pursuits and common experiences, Rivera said.
Companies with a more structured interview process, however, don't tend to rely as much on cultural similarities, she said. Nor do employers in which technical skills are critical. Bridge-building engineers are not hired for their golf game. Neither are neurosurgeons.
Sharon Birkman Fink isn't surprised by the research findings. Shared experiences are important to people, said Fink, president and CEO of Birkman International in Houston, which designs psychological workplace assessment tools.
But Fink advises hiring managers to make the vetting process as structured and systematic as possible. For example, you have to be able to gauge a candidate's interests in the job at hand.
Fink was asked recently to assess the performance of a corporate management team. Things weren't clicking, and it turned out that everyone was suited for their roles with one exception, the director of finance.
"I could see that in two seconds," Fink said.
The role demands strong interest in numbers, administration and clerical work, but the finance director had none of that. Nor was the director detail- or task-oriented.
In hindsight, that wasn't a surprise to company officials, who understood at that moment why their finance director couldn't come up with a financial plan, Fink said. Without a passion for detail and data, the fit would never be a good one.
Keep it real
So what can a job seeker do to improve the chances of getting hired? If you want to work on Wall Street or at a big law firm, you need to cultivate your extracurricular life, Rivera said. And be prepared to answer the question, "What do you do in your spare time?"
When you go for an interview, look for cues. If you see a hiking photo on the desk and you like hiking, you can start the discussion there.
Some companies give candidates background information on everyone they'll meet in the interview, Rivera said.
"Those are gold mines" because of the details on leisure activities and other seemingly random nuggets,she said.
Of course, the cultural connections have to be genuine. Don't claim you run marathons or go hiking if you don't. | <urn:uuid:dc0224ec-8f73-4c02-9a89-5f54a09c6134> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Job-applicants-know-your-interviewer-4283736.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970876 | 811 | 1.726563 | 2 |
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Jane Abbott Lighty and Pete-e Petersen are First Same Sex Couple to Get Marriage License in Washington State
Shortly after midnight on Wednesday night, grandparents Jane Abbott Lighty, 77, and Pete-e Petersen, 85, became the first same sex couple in Washington State to get a marriage license, reports KomoNews.com.
The two women, both nurses, are now allowed to marry under Washington State law because Referendum 47 was approved by voters in November by 54 percent.
Lighty said: “To have our 35-year loving relationship publicly honored and celebrated and have this be a legal marriage means everything to both of us."
Petersen added: "In our marriage ceremony Sunday evening, both of us will be honored and privileged to represent not only ourselves but the greater community."
Same sex couples can get their marriage licenses on December 6, but because of the mandatory 3-day waiting period, the weddings won’t take place until Sunday.
Jane and Pete-e also starred in an ad (video below) supporting Referendum 47.
Sign up for the OV Daily Newsletter | <urn:uuid:9759a8c7-21c0-4dcb-85a8-edec18f124f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/gay-issues/jane-abbott-lighty-and-pete-e-petersen-are-first-same-sex-couple-get-marriage | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900514 | 293 | 1.59375 | 2 |
We selected the location in Clay Terrace three years ago, because we felt we were a “Lifestyle brand”. We are happy with our choice today! Hope other non traditional companies join us to round out the mix.
From the IndyStar:
But when those other businesses land at the center, owners are finding out that being in the middle of a shopping mall has its benefits.
At RevolutionEyes in Clay Terrace, the client base has grown 15 percent since it arrived.
‘And that’s in a very down economy,” Dr. Jeremy Ciano said. “It’s great advertising just being here. You’ve got drive-bys. You’ve got walk-bys.’
To read the full article, please click here.
Buying glasses can be a costly matter. Shortcuts, such as diagnosing yourself and buying prescription glasses at a drug store may cause more harm than benefit in the future. Despite what the costs may be, glasses that are purchased in a doctor’s office typically are more problem-free, better quality and more accurate because they are fitted specifically for your vision impairments. (Consumer Reports, “The Specs on Specs,” July 1997)
These tips will ensure that you know what to look for when choosing the right glasses and lens:
- Make sure you know what each type of lens includes. Research the different types to decide which one would be best for you. By asking yourself what you need in your lens you can then benefit the most from them.
- Don’t let high prices scare you. By buying a better, more expensive quality frame, you can save money because you won’t have to worry about them breaking and having to replace them.
- Buy glasses that fit your personality. If you are sporty, you’re most likely not going to feel comfortable in high-class fashion frames. It is important to feel comfortable in frames because if not you may be buying something you won’t end up wearing.
Following these tips before going in to pick out glasses will help make the selection a lot easier and not as overwhelming leaving you with better vision and a great looking new accessory!
In order to keep your eyes healthy, it is important to know what exactly can help you. These five tips are basic and can be done by anyone!
1. Eat fruits and vegetables rich in Beta Carotene, i.e. carrots, spinach, mangoes, etc. The Beta Carotene is said to help prevent Macular Degeneration (an eye disease causing blindness) as well as some forms of cancer.
2. Getting plenty of rest helps to give your eyes a break and time to refresh.
3. Exercising helps to improve your blood circulation which ensures that your eyes are getting enough oxygen.
4. Drinking 12 glasses of water a day will eliminate the puffiness that may appear around your eyes.
5. Always protect your eyes from the sun at the peak time of day. Excessive sun-rays can cause serious damage to your eyes.
Be sure to follow these for results you’ll really be able to see!
Recently, Dr. Jeremy Ciano was recognized by My Business Magazine in an article highlighting his dedication to customer care. My Business Magazine is the official publication of the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), the largest and most influential small-business association in the United States.
The publication has won numerous awards and accolades, including the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for “Best Department” in the large-circulation category. The Neals are the industry’s most prestigious and sought-after editorial honors.
Dr. Ciano was recognized for his outstanding commitment to customer care, as well as the innovative ways in which he is putting his customers first. Check out the article here.
Ever feel like something’s not quite right with your contact lenses? You’re not alone. Half of former wearers say they dropped out of contact lenses because of discomfort.
But there’s no reason to stop wearing contacts, or to suffer in silence. There are many remedies for contact lens discomfort, including a host of new contact lenses and other products designed to make your wearing experience more comfortable. Read More
Astigmatism is a common eye condition that’s easily corrected by eyeglasses, contact lenses or surgery.
Astigmatism is characterized by an irregular curvature of the cornea. This type of disorder is also known as a refractive error. Astigmatism occurs in nearly everybody to some degree. For significant curvature, treatment is required. Read More
We have HDTV and Blue-Ray DVD’s, so why not High-Definition Glasses? The answer is, we DO have that equivalent technology. Free Form technology is here from a few special lens manufactures around the world and we are very proud to offer them to our patients.
What is the difference? The enhanced vision is found for two different reasons.
#1: The lenses are digitally fabricated by a computer instead of being ground by a technician. The precision and accuracy is greatly enhanced by the computer’s ability to create exact specifications.
#2: The prescription is now etched onto the INSIDE surface of the glasses instead of the outside surface.
This small difference in prescription placement is HUGE. Based on the keyhole principle; the closer the prescription is to your eyes, the wider your field of view is. Most people have experienced the ‘swim and sway’ distortion associated with no-line bifocals. This has been greatly minimized with the advent of putting the Rx on the inside surface of the glasses. In fact, some of these new digital no-line bifocals can give up to a 30% wider field of view.
We hope this will encourage the few who have not been able to ‘adjust’ into their no-line bifocals in the past, and will give others the confidence of high definition vision when it comes time to update your prescription at your annual eye exam.
As many of you will be heading somewhere warm for spring break, you not only need to protect your skin from the sun, but you need to protect your eyes as well. This recent article that was published in Medical News Today and it focuses on how to protect your eyes from the sun and also what can happen if you don’t protect your eyes from the sun.
A recent article in Vision and Eye News features a story on the fact that 76% of children younger than 5 do no receive eye exams. Children are very susceptible to eye damage and having eye exams at an early age can help prevent eye disease in the future.
Revolution Eyes has a new program out to help Moms get a free exam when they bring in their child for a check-up. You can read more about the program here.
RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif., September 2008 — Most children under 5 years old need but do not receive comprehensive eye exams that could be crucial for detecting vision-threatening conditions such as lazy eye (amblyopia), according to a major survey conducted by VSP Vision Care. Read more
Another serious issue, faced by a growing number of members of our community is the loss of employment and corresponding loss of medical benefits. As part of this community, we want to help make good eye care accessible.
HELP-A-NEIGHBOR – We are looking to help out those in NEED. We will donate one free exam EACH DAY this year to families who are feeling the economic pinch. Do you know of a family in need? You can anonymously nominate your friends, neighbors, and relatives who NEED assistance right now. Please
email us the name of someone you know needs eye care but, because of their current their job situation they are delaying proper eye care. Again, thank you for your continued trust and confidence in our ability to serve you now and in the future. | <urn:uuid:8c5e8be1-260e-4216-b352-18eef91234e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.revolution-eyes.com/tag/dr-ciano/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957134 | 1,663 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Schools in Northern Ireland will have access to unspent money from the past and in future, the Education Minister guaranteed last night.
There had been uncertainty in schools across the province |because the Treasury has removed millions of pounds of underspend which some head teachers roll over to fill posts like classroom assistants the following year.
The money had been in jeopardy due to changes made by the Government to the End Year Flexibility scheme.
But Education Minister Caitriona Ruane met Finance Minister Sammy Wilson yesterday.
The Education Minister said the money which was being safeguarded — £56m — would come from the Northern Ireland block grant.
“These were previous commitments made to schools and it's only fair that the Executive honoured those.
“What we're saying is we're going to honour the agreement that was made in 2008,” she said.
“This is money that is actually schools' by right, they built up this money.
“The Executive agreed the amount and in meetings with Sammy (Wilson) today we agreed the money would be found, put forward and commitments honoured to schools.”
Mr Wilson added: “This should end the concern across the school system — ensuring that both past and future savings will be honoured will provide the certainty schools require.”
The chairman of the Stormont education committee Mervyn Storey said the move would allow schools to continue saving and protect any savings already made by them.
“Many schools have made |savings and have budgeted to use those savings for specific |projects,” he said.
“The Finance Minister has assured me that the Education Department will have the ability to honour these commitments.”
A Department of Education statement said: “Both ministers agreed that schools must continue to have access in the future to surpluses which they accumulated through sound financial management.
“The ministers guaranteed to put in place arrangements to ensure that this was the case and that both past and future savings would be honoured.”
Earlier this week Ms Ruane wrote to schools warning them to avoid unnecessary expenditure until the matter was resolved.
The DUP warned that axing the end year funding will cause redundancies this year. But Ms Ruane intends to shift £41m from the building budget to pay instead for services and staffing. | <urn:uuid:18544679-e064-4b7a-ae24-46aeba93a6f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/education/caitriona-ruane-vows-school-cash-pledge-will-be-honoured-28583341.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978693 | 479 | 1.515625 | 2 |
At age 16, I thought that aspiring to holiness was out of the question. If you really wanted to be holy, I thought, you had to be a priest, nun, or brother. And you had to spend your days doing “religious stuff” like praying, preaching, teaching catechism, or serving the poor. But I had developed an interest in the opposite sex and was headed toward a career in music. So I was disqualified. The best I could hope for was to avoid breaking the 10 commandments, get to confession when I failed, not miss Mass on Sunday and toss a few bucks in the collection each week. That way, I could at least make it to heaven after a stay in Purgatory. But true sanctity, that was out of my reach.
If holiness were about marital status or what you do for a living, I would have been right But the Second Vatican Council made very clear that my assumptions were wrong. Holiness is not about what you do but with how much love you do it. Holiness is really the perfection of faith, hope, and sharing in God’s very nature, which is love (I Jn 4:8). We are talking about a special kind of love here, the love that gives freely of itself to another, that even lays down its own priorities, interests, and very life, for another.
So is holiness difficult to attain? No. It is impossible. At least on our own steam. But that’s the thrill of it all. God invites us into an intimate relationship with Him through Jesus. He takes up residence within us and makes it possible to love with His love. Grace is the love of God that comes into our hearts as a free, undeserved gift and enables us to be like God.
So that means spending all our time in chapel? No it means doing daily, ordinary things with extraordinary love. The Virgin Mary, our greatest example of holiness, was a housewife and a mother. Jesus and his foster father, St. Joseph, apparently spend most of their lives doing manual labor. But when Mary did the wash, she did it for love When Joseph made a table, he did it for love. When hardship and danger threatened, they met it with faith, hope, and love.
So holiness is for every baptized person, regardless of personality type, career, age, race, or marital status. In baptism, we are all reborn with the spiritual muscles necessary to get us across the finish line. Yet these muscles must be nourished and exercised if they are ever to develop and carry us the full distance. God provides the necessary nourishment in the Word of God and the Eucharist. And he sends us ample opportunities to exercise.
But there’s the rub–many of us don’t want to exert ourselves. It can be uncomfortable. We stretch a bit to finish school, to excel at sports, to win the heart of the love of our lives. But when it comes to the things of the Spirit, we often settle with being couch potatoes.
Leon Bloy, a French Catholic writer, once said “the only tragedy in life is not to become a saint.” Holiness is about realizing our deepest, greatest potential, becoming who we were truly destined to be. What a shame it would be to miss it.
Copyright 2012 Marcellino D’Ambrosio, Ph.D. | <urn:uuid:62f39090-ea64-4c8b-a743-aaf21bbeaa07> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://catholicmom.com/2012/11/01/all-saints-day-means-holiness-is-for-all/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974744 | 709 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Two states, too little, too late
In attempting to take it all by force, successive Israeli governments killed the two-state solution, leaving only the principled, just, democratic and counter-Zionist one-state solution left, writes Haim Bresheeth*
Recently, famous peace activist and renowned linguist Naom Chomsky, one of the great moral figures of North America, wrote about the Israeli Wall and its invidious agenda ("The Wall as a Weapon," New York Times, 23 February 2004). In his meticulously written deconstruction of Israel's false and disingenuous arguments, he calls for the almost forgotten "two states for two people" solution to be revived, and for the wall, if one was felt to be necessary, to be built on Israeli land. While it is difficult to disagree with Chomsky that this vile construction of the largest ghetto wall in creation is one that should never have been built on Palestinian land, his whole argument is problematic.
The two-state solution, in the form of Israeli withdrawal to the Green Line of the pre-1967 war, would, if implemented, leave the Palestinians with 22 per cent of their own country. For the Palestinian population, which is roughly the size of the Israeli Jewish population, after a century of suffering to accept the loss of four fifths of their country to foreign settlers, "returning" after two millennia, is not an easy solution to accept.
It is made even more difficult by the facts on the ground. Israel would have territorial contiguity, while Palestine would be divided into two parts, with connecting roads under Israeli control. All the valuable assets of the small country -- water resources, coastline, arable land -- would be in Israeli hands. Israel has the fourth most powerful army in the world, a First World technological economy and the unwavering support of the most powerful empire on earth, in whatever it decides to do; this after almost four decades of brutal and illegal occupation in which it did all it could to break the spirit and destroy the daily life of most Palestinians.
It may be just that imbalance of power that drove the Palestinian leadership to accept this most unequal of peace formulas in Oslo, moving towards a resolution of the conflict by negotiated solution. For a while, this looked feasible -- Mr Rabin indicated that settlements in the occupied territories would have to be removed as part of an overall peace settlement that included Syria and Lebanon.
The settlers were not about to accept that. Mr Sharon, the founding father of the settlement enterprise -- a giant project of diverting funds, priorities and effort so as to make any political solution impossible -- was there right behind them while Mr Rabin was assassinated for trying to say the obvious; that Israel must vacate all territories taken by force to allow the Palestinians a fifth of their own country. That was the price of peace. Most of us would argue that it was the Palestinian people who were asked to pay the bill for the peace process: giving up most of their country in order to be allowed to govern themselves in a small corner of it.
Even this was not to be. Mr Rabin never got to the point of getting any settlers off their militarised, illegal outposts. He was shot in the midst of one of Israel's peace rallies. Following that vile murder, of a man, an idea and a vast array of hopes, all Israeli leaders who followed him were reluctant to go as far.
None accept what was the rationale of the Oslo accord: that Israel must vacate all its settlements -- every single one of them -- including those areas of Jerusalem which were unilaterally and illegally annexed. This was the very evenhanded bottom line for most Palestinians. Most people elsewhere could easily see the reasoning and justice behind such a solution. To a man, Peres, Netanyahu, Barak and now Sharon have refused to come to terms with reality. Whole years of waiting have passed in which Palestinians hoped that promises would be honoured -- these puny, humiliating and minimalist promises.
But Israeli society was not ready, and still is not ready, to face the simple realities that it had created by its military occupation, refusing to make even those minimal adjustments which would create the necessary conditions for peace. It may be argued that Oslo could never have worked, offering Palestinians so little in return for their giving up on the struggle to liberate Palestine. That may well be true, but for a while Israel was offered a genuine possibility for peaceful coexistence. It failed to live up to this historical opportunity. It refused consistently to make the adjustments. Instead, it chose to hang on to military spoils; to a continuing, dehumanising occupation and its regime of terror and intimidation.
If Israel was ready to accept Oslo, and what it entailed, the need to build this enormous wall would have never arisen. Many lives on both sides would have been saved, as well as lives of others elsewhere, probably.
This is not something I find easy to say, as an Israeli and son of Holocaust survivors. I would like to be able to argue for an Israeli-Hebrew entity -- not a Zionist militarist enterprise, of course, but a democratic, autonomous political and cultural entity twinned with a similar Palestinian entity. But after four decades of military rule and all the desecration of political, human, civil, property and other forms of rights by the occupation regime, most reasonable people will agree that no support can be given to this outdated, violent, immoral and inefficient mode of domination of one people over another. If it at least worked for the oppressors some people may well have justified the means vis-a-vis the end.
Alas, it does not, cannot and will not work for the benefit of either side. The West was quick to see this in the case of South Africa, Cyprus, Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Kuwait and a number of other zones of conflict. Military occupation cannot be condoned. Domination through power and might will never get the vanquished to accept the occupiers. Political solutions enforced by the powerful on the powerless are wrong -- not just morally but because they undermine the rule of law elsewhere.
This reality, simple enough in itself, was not just avoided by Israel but the powerful forces in the new world order. This denial has finally come home to roost. The removal of hope for a solution by reason and negotiation leaves the ground open for extremists and those who feel, having lost all other avenues and not being in control of any real power to change reality, that suicide is the only means of affecting history. This in itself is a most serious indictment of the international political order. To drive a nation into this corner could be described as nothing short of criminal shortsightedness. That is exactly what has happened as the Palestinian claim for natural justice has been totally ignored for over half a century.
So, after all that has taken place since October 2000 when Mr Sharon, architect and author of the most hideous examples of Israeli aggression -- from the Kibya massacre, through Sabra and Shatila to the horror of the Al-Aqsa Intifada -- has made it impossible, by careful and detailed work over many decades, to affect the two-state solution. The wall, a structure that will create 16 ghettoes of a kind the world has never seen, even during the atrocities of WWII, making life for Palestinians just about impossible, is the last straw. It will achieve exactly what it was designed to do: no possibility of going back to the 1967 borders.
So, what should Palestinians do? What should the international community do? Are we to suffer the menace, illegality and atrocities of the Sharon regime as if they were natural disasters? Should the international community, the UN, the EU (even the US) just accept whatever Sharon does when they would never have done so if those atrocities were to be committed by Milosevic, Saddam or Idi Amin? If it was possible, and necessary, for international society to intervene in Cyprus, why not in Palestine?
The mistake Chomsky makes is to assume that there is still a two-state solution. There is none possible. Sharon has made sure that cannot happen. Many Palestinians are now returning to an earlier, more principled stage of their political development and argument -- the PLO solution of a secular, democratic single state in the whole of Palestine; one state that allows equal rights to Jews and Arabs alike. It is ironic that through failing to grasp the nettle which would have enabled them to keep a separate Israeli state in the pre- 1967 borders, Israeli leaders have forced a change in Palestinian thinking: "if we are not allowed to live as a free people in 22 per cent of our country, or come to that, even 10 per cent of it, maybe we should go back to fighting to liberate the whole country, for both people to live in peace, as equals."
What Chomsky is suggesting is too little, too late. Not because Palestine rejected this solution, but because Israel did. The Palestinians are not turkeys, and will not vote for Christmas, and the idea that they can be forced into the 16 ghettoes is ludicrous. But so also is the idea that Israel will go back to the 1967 borders willingly. The international community bears full responsibility for failing to act when it could.
While it is not clear when such an advanced solution of Jews and Arabs living together may materialise, it seems that it is the only one left, as Israel has made damned sure no other solution is allowed even half a chance. The question seems to be: Must we have a bloody showdown, massacres and ethnic cleansing before it emerges?
That is a question international society can ill-afford to ignore.
* The writer is an Israeli academic working at the University of East London. He is the co-editor of The Gulf War and the New World Order and co-author of Introduction to the Holocaust . | <urn:uuid:68bf7e16-038b-4621-b614-e99d8c39e5c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/681/op61.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972523 | 2,008 | 2.3125 | 2 |
FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine;Â May 5, 2010
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced today a plan to address concerns regarding the supply of Intervet/Schering Plough Animal Health’s (Intervet) Vetsulin (porcine insulin zinc suspension), a product used to treat diabetes in dogs and cats. FDA is allowing Intervet to offer a limited supply of Vetsulin through their Vetsulin Critical-Need Program. The supply is only to be used for a critical-need dog or cat that, in the medical judgment of the pet’s veterinarian, cannot be effectively managed on another insulin product.In November 2009, FDA announced its concerns about the stability of Vetsulin and recommended that diabetic dogs and cats currently receiving Vetsulin be switched to other insulin products. After publicizing this recommendation, FDA and Intervet heard from many veterinarians and pet owners who expressed significant concerns about specific diabetic dogs and cats which could only be controlled with Vetsulin.
As a result of these concerns, FDA is recommending veterinarians with qualified patients contact Intervet’s Technical Services Department at 800-224-5318, to request enrollment of the patient in the Vetsulin Critical-Need Program. The veterinarian will need to provide the medical rationale for why the patient cannot be effectively controlled using another insulin product.
Intervet continues to work with FDA to address concerns associated with the manufacture of Vetsulin. Because Vetsulin may have varying amounts of crystalline zinc insulin in the formulation, it could cause a delay in insulin action and an overall longer duration of insulin activity.  Insulin products that do not remain within specification throughout the entire shelf life could potentially result in unpredictable fluctuations in the glucose levels of diabetic patients.
Use of this product under the Critical-Need Program will require close monitoring of the patient, all of which is described in an owner consent form.< | <urn:uuid:7670c739-58a4-46b2-8c52-c43840802aad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://webcanine.com/2010/vetsulin-for-critical-needs-dogs-cats/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903256 | 399 | 1.757813 | 2 |
At Francis Lewis High School on Utopia Parkway in Flushing, Queens, the hallways ring with calls of “L’Chaims” and “Mazel Tov” from the jean-clad, largely non-Jewish teenagers watching as Rabbi Steven Burg, dressed in a suit and a yarmulke, ambles along with his rabbinic colleagues carrying pizza, donuts and Coke. Together the rabbis enter a classroom, bearing food and Jewish lessons for a meeting of the Jewish Student Union, a national project that hopes to bring a measure of Judaism to unaffiliated students in public schools.
The students give a respectful and enthusiastic greeting to Rabbi Burg and the other rabbis, standing up and cheering.
Rabbi Burg is a stout man in his mid-30s with a boyish face and a perpetual smile who interacts easily with teens. After his colleagues give some Jewish instruction, and much pizza is consumed, he speaks with some of the students, mainly Bukharian Jews, recent immigrants or their children who’ve had little exposure to Jewish life before this club. He is impressed that the club’s president wants to be a plastic surgeon, the co-president an orthodontist.
“You see these kids mensch out,” Rabbi Burg says later in the hallway, in his typical laid-back manner. “Is the Jewish community there to make our case as these kids are becoming adults?”
Rabbi Burg started with NCSY, which runs the JSU, as a teenager himself, and is now the international director. He did stints directing programs and doing outreach in California and Detroit before returning to his hometown of New York three and a half years ago with his wife and five children, the traces of a Midwestern accent still lingering.
He is quick-witted and open to change, modernizing the way the Orthodox Union, the umbrella organization of NCSY, shapes the next wave of Jewish kids.
“Our generation looks at things differently, we’re not afraid of throwing out something just because we’ve always done it,” he says.
The JSU got started in 2001 and represents a shift in NCSY’s mission. It was known as the National Conference of Synagogue Youth, but at a time when synagogues are the last places to find young people, the group has rebranded, calling itself simply NCSY: Inspiring the Jewish Future. Long known for its educational work with yeshiva students, NCSY now cultivates programs like the JSU, which brings unaffiliated kids in public schools closer to Judaism. The unions, which number 218 across the country including more than 40 in the New York metro area, traffic in pizza (spending $30,000 a year — “the best money we spend!”) and socializing, meeting kids where they are, whether in public schools or Starbucks, where Rabbi Burg and others hold “Latte and Learning” meetings to instill Jewish values and identity.
“If they’re in Starbucks, let’s go to Starbucks, if they’re in school, let’s go to school,” he says.
From his office in the Orthodox Union headquarters in downtown Manhattan, Rabbi Burg often ponders the interplay between secular and religious Jews, searching for ways to bring them closer together. Still, he recognizes that the relationship can be difficult, or even antagonistic.
“The big question in the ‘80s was, ‘who is a Jew?’” he explains. “But while we were fighting, in the ‘90s a bunch of Jews walked out the door.” Now that major outreach efforts are focused on reaching unaffiliated Jews, Rabbi Burg questions whether the Jewish community is braced for an influx of unaffiliated Jews, should that happen. But he doesn’t let that worry him.
“My goal is a simple goal,” he says — “to create passionate Jews.”
The JSU has garnered criticism from across the Jewish spectrum for flouting the separation of church and state, but the law allows for such clubs to meet in public schools. The Equal Access Act, passed in 1984, assures that schools receiving federal aid and hosting any student-led non-curriculum club must allow additional clubs to meet, including those with religious content. The 2001 Supreme Court ruling, Good News Club v. Milford Central School, located in upstate New York, reinforced the EAA, ruling that barring the Good News Club, which wanted to use the school’s facilities to teach morals and values from a Christian perspective, would violate the club’s First Amendment rights to free speech.
The JSU is open to curious Jewish and non-Jewish kids, regardless of their backgrounds, seeking to instill a kind of Jewish identity. And its leader embodies the openness necessary to meet kids where they are on their journey.
Rabbi Burg is the kind of guy who will be sitting in a room of 100 people when the speaker’s microphone goes out and, as the tech staff scrambles to fix the problem, will coolly walk up to the podium with a replacement microphone. He’s the kind of person who makes everyone who meets him feel as though they have a close, personal relationship, according to those who know him, like David Bardo.
Bardo first met Rabbi Burg at a regional NCSY convention when he was an 11th grader at North Hollywood High School. He made a point to go up to the rabbi to speak one-on-one with him, and when he did, “I remember being very taken aback by how charismatic and magnetic he was, I remember thinking, ‘I want to be like this guy.’”
Bardo says that in addition to his charm, his teaching is serious but never comes off as such.
“It never seems textual or stodgy,” says Bardo, who went on to college at UCLA and is now studying to be a rabbi at Yeshiva University, a task Rabbi Burg warned him would be the hardest thing he would ever endure, as well as the most worthwhile. He is finding it to be just that.
Another former student, Rhonda Spector Bergman, met Rabbi Burg in 1995 when he was working in Detroit and she was attending a public high school in Michigan.
“He was really just there for me, sort of like an older brother or a family member, but also as a mentor,” she says. “Because of him I was able to explore my Judaism more and really flourish in many ways,” says Bergman, who adds that she wouldn’t have been able to marry the person she did and have the religious lifestyle they share, which she refers to as being “super-duper Jewish,” without Rabbi Burg’s guidance.
“I think a lot of things have traced back to him, he helped me out and helped me find what I wanted in life.”
Inspiration seems central to Burg’s life, both what he gives to others and what he finds in others as well. In addition to being moved by rabbinic sources, Rabbi Burg has recently found unlikely inspiration in the message and election of Barack Obama, whose poster he keeps on the bookshelf in his office.
“Obama hit on something that we need to hit on as well – people want to be inspired. There’s too much cynicism, we have to show that people can be passionate,” he says, speaking not just of an America poised at the brink of change, but also a changing Judaism as well. “A person who lives their life without passion, it’s not a life.”
The Jewish Week feels comments create a valuable conversation and wants to feature your thoughts on our website. To make everyone feel welcome, we won't publish comments that are profane, irrelevant, promotional or make personal attacks.
Recent Special Sections | <urn:uuid:b7ddc242-bcea-4e39-8da4-1f5a2783152e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thejewishweek.com/special_sections/education_careers/starbucks_rebbe&favtitle=The%20Starbucks%20Rebbe | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974896 | 1,690 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Bill Moyers: Well, if populism is thriving today, it seems to be thriving on the right. I mean Sarah Palin, for example. And the tea parties. Some– one conservative writer recently in The Weekly Standard even said that Sarah Palin could be the William Jennings Bryan of this new conservative era because she is giving voice to millions of people who feel angry at what the government is doing, who feel that they’re being cheated out of a prosperous way of life by forces beyond their control. What do you think about that idea?
Howard Zinn: Well, I guess William Jennings Bryan would turn over in his grave if he heard. William Jennings Bryan was antiwar, and she is not antiwar, she is very militaristic, and so on. But it’s true that she represents a certain angry part of the population. And I think it’s true that when people are — feel beleaguered and people feel they are being overlooked, they will turn to whoever seems to represent them. Some of them will turn to her. And some of them will turn to the right-wingers, and you might say that’s how fascism develops in countries, because they play upon the anger and the frustration of people. But on the other hand, that anger, that frustration can also lead to people’s movements that are progressive. You can go the way traditionally of the Populists, and of the labor movement of the 30′s, of the Civil Rights movement, of the women’s movement to bring about change in this country.
So what are we to make of this screed other than to agree that Zinn really likes the word people?
To make it easier for those of us in the proletariat to follow along, I have highlighted a few select words:
That would be us, the “right-wingers”.
That’s what happens when conservatives ascend to power.
That of course is pedagogue Zinn and company.
So really the professor only means the following when it applies to a Republican President and strident Leftist demonstrators:
“We didn’t want to hear the words of the people in the White House, we wanted to hear the words of the people who were picketing the White House.”
Tea Party Nazis need not apply. | <urn:uuid:e35361f1-4039-4e96-9865-3d0db437fa96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newsrealblog.com/2009/12/15/the-people-speak-try-howard-zinn-the-hypocrite-speaks-on-bill-moyers-journal/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969992 | 482 | 1.898438 | 2 |
The announced plans by Entergy, the owner of the decrepit Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, to reload the reactor this fall with $60 million worth of fresh nuclear fuel is sure to set off a showdown with local activists determined that the plant’s life should end when its license expires next March.
The company has already received a 20-year license extension from federal regulators, but the state of Vermont insists continued operation cannot go forward without state authority. And given the radiation and lies that have spewed from the reactor for years, the state is determined to see the plant shut down.
The New Orleans-based company’s announcement comes a week after a federal judge turned down its bid for an injunction to push aside the state’s objections, meaning a trial will go forward in mid-September to test the company’s claim that federal law pre-empts any state authority. The case is likely to end up in the US Supreme Court.
Given a history of court and regulatory deference to nuclear plant operators going back decades, activists are not putting their faith in federal judges. That’s why the annual Clamshell Alliance Reunion last weekend spent most of its time discussing education and action to make sure the will of the people is respected and the plant shuts down on schedule.
The Clamshell Alliance is known for leadership of small and massive nonviolent demonstrations against construction of the Seabrook nuclear plant and for creative grassroots public education throughout New England. In its heyday in the late ‘70s, dozens of Clamshell affiliated groups were active throughout the northeast. With the 35th anniversary of the first Clamshell civil disobedience coming up Aug. 1, the Alliance continues its life through lifetime friendships and social networking that crosses over from No Nukes activism into feminist, labor, peace, anti-death penalty, and other movements.
With background from leaders of groups such as Beyond Nuclear, Safe & Green, and the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League, and more than a thousand person-years of anti-nuclear experience among them, the Clams didn’t waste time arguing about the dangers of radioactive poisons or the extent to which “corporate subversion of democracy” has poisoned our political system as well. Nor did they need to argue about the power of active nonviolence, especially given the uprisings taking place around the world.
Instead, time was spent discussing how to use “Into Eternity,” a film about nuclear waste, to arouse public opinion; plans for a tour of German environmentalists to spread the word about how that country plans to shut down its nukes and generate enough electricity from safe alternative sources; and how to make sure old and new activist networks are taking advantage of social media to communicate with each other.
Discussion turned of course to plans for nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience, though no specific scenarios have yet been developed. But it’s reasonable to assume that if Entergy insists of flouting the will of the people of Vermont, nonviolence training programs and formation of affinity groups will start up soon.
Here are some photos from Clamshell Reunion | <urn:uuid:d23bbccc-11ac-4547-9c00-4024c207e018> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inzanetimes.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/clams-getting-ready-for-action-to-shut-down-vernon-nuke/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954185 | 644 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Yes, all boaters should carry certain basics. But a fair-weather bay angler has different needs than one who fishes more extreme offshore waters. Your personal fishing style also figures into determining what safety gear you need. For example, do you usually fish alone or with a buddy? Some other things to take into account when you outfit for safety include: the size of your boat, how far from shore you travel, what water temperatures you'll encounter, what time of year you fish and more. These factors determine what equipment you need to ensure your safety should, well, something bad happen.
Federal, state and local laws dictate most basic safety equipment requirements such as flares, whistles, personal flotation devices and horns. As far as the United States Coast Guard is concerned, all boats exceeding 16 feet must have these basics (and make sure your flares are not out of date).
Whistles and horns are self-explanatory, but I'd make sure to have a Storm Whistle. It works above and - believe it or not - below water and will virtually blow out your eardrums; it can be heard over hovering helicopter blades!
Your Ditch Bag
A bailout or ditch bag is a waterproof container strategically placed aboard (and that doesn't mean under a seat in a locker) that has all the essentials needed to keep you alive long enough - theoretically - for rescue. Since I spend much of my time on other people's boats, I have one that I carry when I'm going to be out of sight of land.
Here's what mine contains:
- A handheld Standard Horizon HX260X waterproof VHF
- An old handheld Magellan GPS310
- A mini-EPIRB (Electronic Position Indicating Radio Beacon), which negates having to carry the handheld GPS
- A Mustang AirForce Type V auto-inflating PFD
- A 4-inch Kershaw Amphibian dive knife
- A Storm Whistle
- A Princeton Tec TEC 40 waterproof flashlight
Any season but summer, I also carry a trilaminate drysuit (OS Systems), which, while somewhat difficult to get into quickly, is less bulky than a survival suit.
I remove all batteries from anything electronic when not in use and reload them when I take the bag out of the closet at home. | <urn:uuid:0a56f19f-1b14-44ed-a541-876b01615e4f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sportfishingmag.com/boats/boat-maintenance/what-s-your-ditch-bag?quicktabs_community_side_bar=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934684 | 478 | 1.789063 | 2 |
“Only a God can Save us”
This phrase does not come from a pope, but from Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), one of the most profound German philosophers of the XX century, in an interview with the weekly Der Spiegel, of September 23, 1966, but only published on May 31, 1976, a week after he died. Heidegger was always an attentive observer of the threatening destinies of our technological civilization. To him, technology, as an intervention in the natural dynamics of the world for human benefit, had penetrated our way of being in such a way that it had become second nature.
We cannot imagine ourselves today without the vast scientific-technological apparatus on which our civilization is based, but which is dominated by an opportunistic compulsion that translates into the formula: if we can do it, we must do it, without any ethical considerations. Weapons of mass destruction came from this attitude. They exist, so why not use them?
For the philosopher, such a technique, without conscience, is the clearest expression of our paradigm and mentality, both born at the dawn of modernity, in the XVI century, but whose roots already existed in classical Greek metaphysics. This mentality is guided by exploitation, by calculation, by mechanization and by efficiency, applied in all fields, but mainly in relation to nature. This understanding has so overtaken us that we consider technology to be a panacea for all our problems. Unconsciously we define ourselves in opposition to nature, which must be dominated and exploited. We, ourselves, become objects of science, as our organs and even our genes are manipulated.
The divorce of human beings from nature is shown by the ever increasing environmental and social degradation. The maintenance and acceleration of the technological process, according to the philosopher, can lead us to eventual self-destruction. The death machine was already built decades ago.
Ethical and religious calls, and, least of all, simple good will, are not enough for us to escape this situation. It is a metaphysical problem, that is, of a way of seeing and thinking about reality. We are on a fast moving train; headed towards an encounter with the abyss ahead, and we do not know how to stop it. What can we do? That is the question.
If we wanted, we could find a different mentality in our cultural tradition, in the pre-Socratic philosophers such as Heraclitus, among others, who still recognized the organic connection between human beings and nature, between the divine and the earthly, and nourished a sense of belonging to a main Whole. Knowledge was not placed at the service of power, but of life, and of the contemplation of the mystery of being. Or, it could be found in all the contemporary reflections about the new cosmological-ecological paradigm, that see the unity and complexity of the sole and great process of evolution, from which all beings emerge and are interdependent. But this path is forbidden to us by the excess of techno-science, of calculating rationality, and by the immense economic interests of the great consortiums that live off the present status quo.
Where are we headed? It was in this context that Heidegger pronounced this famous and prophetic sentence: «Philosophy cannot directly provoke a change of the present situation of the world. And this is not true only for philosophy but also for all activity of human thought. Only a God can still save us (Nur noch ein Gott kann uns retten). The sole possibility we have, in thought and poetry, is to prepare our availability for the appearance of that God or for the absence of God in sunset times (Untergrund); given that we, if God is absent, will disappear.»
What Heidegger affirmed is also being forcefully expressed by notable thinkers, scientists and ecologists. Either we change our ways, or our civilization endangers its own future. Our attitude is one of openness to an advent of God, that powerful and loving energy that sustains every being and the whole universe. That God can save us. This attitude is well represented by the openness of poetry and free thinkers. And since God, according to Scriptures, is «the supreme lover of life» (Sabiduría 11,24), we hope that God will not allow a tragic end for the human being. Humans exist to shine, to live in harmony and to be happy. | <urn:uuid:75429977-789b-47b5-a714-8f3af2e09e00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eruptionofhope.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/only-a-god-can-save-us-leonardo-boff/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950972 | 904 | 2.75 | 3 |
Housing Petition to No 10 Downing Street
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Housing Petition to No 10 Downing Street
A Community Housing Policy Fit for Purpose Housing is the third most fundamental of human needs after water and food and it is therefore a matter of grave concern in a supposedly civilised democracy that there has been nothing resembling a responsible policy on this front for more than 30 years. Such policy as there is, in combination with the self evident and profound failure of ongoing economic ideology, is central to substantial under-provision and un-affordability of housing. Of much greater importance in the broader context has been the permissive complicity of UK and other governments in the manipulation by the banks and financial sector in such way as to position property speculation at the epicentre of the near, and still threatened, collapse of the world economy. Wilful complicity of successive governments in such regressive policies is undeniable, and fundamental reappraisal is necessary. The need for the development of policies fit for civilised society in the 21st century is inescapable, and any ideological reservations should be tempered by the social and fiscal benefits. Background In immediate terms, it has been stated that the current under provision equates with an approximate outstanding need for 2 million homes for 5 million people. The profound social message of this is compounded by the fact that the cost of rental or purchase has spiralled out of control. The combination with long term economic downturn or depression and ‘regressive’ policies in respect of welfare legislation (2011) and security of tenure is resulting in intolerable strains upon the rental market in particular (reflected, for example, in recent housing policy issues in the Borough of Newham). Prices verge upon, and are breaking through, the barrier of un-affordability of both private and ‘social housing’ rentals, with mounting alarm in all relevant and concerned quarters and consequent upsurge of local activism. Current ineffectual short term initiatives will do nothing of significance to address the a crisis born of the fundamental failure of extant economic ideology, and the ‘more of the same’ policy will simply fuel the unsustainable distortion of the housing market in the longer term. Further emphasis of the projected escalation of these problems is provided by a study from the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research. In this is the prediction that, on the assumption that un-affordability driven by the current market model is unchanged, dependency upon rented accommodation may increase to affect something approaching of 40% of all households by 2025. Such rental housing will, on the basis of the current escalation of distorted market forces, be even more unaffordable than at present. Aims There is an absolute need for a plan to rectify the lack of social and economic viability of the current situation. A plan should be developed and administered in the spirit of localism that the current government has purported to espouse with recent legislation. It is proposed that the government should embark upon a major project of new-build Community Housing, with particular emphasis upon ‘starter homes’. Such housing will be of highest quality, environmentally sound and socially integrated. The model should be independent of the inflationary potential of private sector finance, and have the aim of providing accommodation with rents which fall within income related affordability; tenure should be secure, within realistic constraints. We suggest apportionment of something of the order of £20-30 billion a year as funding for new-build of approximately 200,000 new Community homes a year. This would provide one million new homes over five years and go some way to redress the current under provision of housing. This will begin to address the increasing demand for rental accommodation as an inevitable counterpoint to the un-affordability of owner occupancy. Such a Community housing policy will be a first step, reflecting a tradition of truly affordable housing which is well established in other highly developed social economies, such as seen, with long term sustainability, in Germany. The policy in no way discourages owner occupation, but would be hoped to counter the speculative aspects and potential profiteering of the rental housing market. We note that there are important additional issues such as long term vacant properties, estimated at 80,000 in London alone, and in excess of 700,000 for the country as a whole. There is a widely recognised and urgent need for an aggressive policy and adequate funding to ensure that all such housing and that in need of refurbishment is brought back into occupancy. Another important concern is in respect of the regulation of the private rental sector. The matter which we would particularly emphasise is the socially unacceptable lack of security of tenure. We find the current legislation on this to be flawed and would urge the development of more socially compliant legislation to be informed by a constructive review under the auspices of a wide ranging public enquiry. This is also a matter of urgency. Funding It has been suggested that infrastructure projects could be funded through QE, although, when challenged about this in respect of Community housing, Sir Mervyn King dodged the question with the inappropriate response that it is a political question, whereas the question in fact concerns economic feasibility. Whatever the case, it is patently clear that despite £325 billion of QE the economy is in double dip recession, and QE has been little more than a bonus for the bailed out banking system, and something that should not, in principle, be supported. We note the new variation upon this ‘more of the same’ policy, with the recent more adventurous initiative of approx. £100 billion underwritten ‘Loans for banks’ from the Bank of England at lower than market rates, with the absolute requirement that this money is directed to MSEs. While such policies show complicity with a system that is in manifest failure, if they are to be used, it would seem most appropriate that this should in part be for the initiative outlined here. The short and medium term benefits for the economy will have the particular advantage of being largely predictable, in contrast to the nail hanging uncertainty intrinsic to the hope of a re-birth of the ‘confidence’ factor. The initiative will be in keeping with the increasing call for fiscal stimulation (post austerity measures), and may, with good fortune, act as a ‘kick start’. This will also bring major and sorely needed benefits for the severely depressed construction industry. Alternatively, funding could be raised through 10, 20 or 30 year government bond issues, with inducements such as security against inflation. Yet another somewhat elusive source of funding might be found in outstanding tax revenues. In the longer term, the introduction of a well crafted scheme for land value taxation would not only levy revenue to support such ‘infrastructure’ initiatives, but would also contribute to the development of much needed policies of progressive taxation. Funding would either be channelled directly to local authorities or via a designated organ of State. Implementation The policy would be delivered through localism planning, and would involve the exploration of community land trusts and a variety of co-operative models, to develop the most effective ways of minimising the land price component of build cost. This could be most readily achieved in respect of public land, but it would also be important to develop a deleveraged model for private land (?controlled inflation linked ground rent). Rentals would service the debt. It will be appropriate to encourage imaginative exploration of other models with the help of NGOs and other contributors in the field. Such models will embody the principle of true affordability and financial viability. In the longer term, while the exploratory development logistics will be challenging, the introduction of a formula to embrace the progressive fiscal benefits of a scheme of land value taxation would have the additional merit of a constructive socio-economic adjustment of land valuation. We believe the general detail of policy expressed in this advisedly brief document to be suitably informed through sound principles of both economic and social pragmatism. The depth and breadth of associated practicalities should be informed through imaginative exploratory development. Occupy London and the Economics Working Group will hope to engage with this challenge and act as a conduit for additional progressive ideas to enhance the development of such a programme. Benefits The social benefits and economic merits of such a programme are highly persuasive and would resonate with the needs of our social economy for a generation. SUMMARY We are calling for the building of 200,000 Community homes a year at truly affordable rents, achieved with a fully imaginative programme fit for an advanced society in the 21st Century. These should be of high quality in the comprehensive spirit of social, environmental and sustainable design. This will result in the creation of 1 million new ‘units’ over five years. Faced with an evolving crisis in housing, it is difficult to find any persuasive argument against such a programme. This not only gives the opportunity to begin to redress the profound failure of housing policies, but also guarantees predictable generation of internal economy activity when all else has failed. The funding and land value issues of this project are not a matter of feasibility but of will, driven by social and fiscal responsibility. This overall plan has natural echoes with many who have been greatly concerned with these issues, and some of the narrative inevitably reflects certain policy suggestions of others. We are grateful for the comments and advice we have received. This initiative from Occupy stems from the major concerns that we have encountered in the wider community, along with the undeniable need for a programme to reverse long term serial neglect and mismanagement and address both the social and profound economic implications of housing policy. | <urn:uuid:1c3085a4-218c-4188-acc7-5f7f4de28623> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://occupylondon.org.uk/docs/housing-petition-to-no-10-downing-street/history?revision=17954 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951109 | 1,949 | 1.867188 | 2 |
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Maine unemployment rate drops in October
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine Labor Commissioner Jeanne Paquette says Maine's unemployment rate dropped by 0.2 percentage points to 7.4 percent in October.
October's preliminary rate, down slightly from 7.6 percent in September, compares to New England's overall jobless rate for the month, 7.4 percent.
The share of Maine's population that's employed remained well above the national average in October. It was the 61st consecutive month Maine had a higher employment to population ratio than the nation.
October's figures are adjusted to reflect seasonal fluctuations in the labor market. | <urn:uuid:1dca1f9b-255c-49de-a2c1-7d04d9b5f9ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121120/AP01/311209974/-1/FOSNews0413&CSProduct=fosters | 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 | 0.939897 | 154 | 2.0625 | 2 |
There are parallels in the life stories of many courageous people. This page is dedicated in honour of survivors - to record their stories of fighting back against their tough life challenges. We've started with the stories of Christopher Reeve, Lance Armstrong and W. Mitchell. If you know someone you'd like to honour by telling their story of courage and survival, then please summarise their story in 300 words or less, email it to us, and we'll add it to this site beside the names of these other celebrities - to help inspire the rest of us.
Both Jim and Christopher were highly independent, passionate men; super star entertainers in their fields in their day, who had achieved more success than most of us could only ever dream of. With young families to provide for (both had 3 kids) they had their career, their fame and their livelihood torn away through disability so severe they were paralysed, and required respirators for life support - leaving them highly dependent on others. Both had determination in buckets full and a tremendously high work ethic towards their rehab – they were use to working hard and pushed their careers to the limits. And both fought back to escape the prison of the respirator, and went on to lead highly productive lives in the service of others - through charitable fund raising, disability awareness, and using their celebrity status as a springboard to mount political and social campaigns (both were anti-war protesters).
For both men, their personal tragedy seemed only to spur them to greater achievement and tremendous personal growth and insight – turning personal tragedy into public riches. Christopher reflected on his future after his accident saying “well, here is the hand you have been dealt – now, what do you want to do with it”. Well he did plenty, including creating a fund to provide “Quality of Life” grants to help care for people with spinal cord injury. Jim on the other hand created the “Quality of Life” Association, to help care for his community by changing antediluvian social policy thinking on such issues as sexuality, nudity, tobacco use, to name a few.
Christopher and Jim have both left behind a legacy of hope and inspiration for millions – a footprint for others to follow. They have been successful advocates for social improvement and as a result, catalysts for social change. They have been great symbols of courage to us all. And they have both proven that we humans are only limited by our thinking - nothing is impossible.
commented that "When the first Superman movie came out I was frequently
asked 'What is a hero?' I remember the glib response I repeated so many
times. My answer was that a hero is someone who commits a courageous
action without considering the consequences--a soldier who crawls out
of a foxhole to drag an injured buddy to safety. And I also meant individuals
who are slightly larger than life: Houdini and Lindbergh, John Wayne,
JFK, and Joe DiMaggio. Now my definition is completely different. I
think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere
and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.
Parallels also exist to the life story of 7 time 'Tour de France' champion, Lance Armstrong.
In 1996, Lance Armstrong was one of the world's best cyclists. Aged 25 he was however diagnosed with testicular cancer despite being fit and healthy, and also at the top of his game. Doctors gave him a less than 20% chance of survival and his professional riding career was (in their assessment) certainly over. But Lance never thought of giving up, and decided he'd do whatever was needed to fight back - thus he became a survivor with a positive attitude, not a victim. In remission, Lance went on to win one of the worlds most grueling cycling races, the 'Tour de France" - not once but on 7 consecutive occasions. He also decided to serve the community by courageously sharing his story publicly. He also used his celebrity status to raise community awareness which led to the creation of The Lance Armstrong Foundation and the "Tour of Hope".
More information (including a neat summary of Lance's story) is included on the Lance Armstrong Foundation LiveStrong website.
In his autobiography, Jim Stynes, a famous Australian football brownlow medallist, tells how the life story of Mitchell has been 'utterly inspiring' to him.
Mitchell was in a road accident and suffered burns to 65% of his body. He fought back from a normally fatal situation, although his fingers were amputated, and friends passed out, at the sight of his disfigured face. As Stynes recalls "Many victims of burns this severe do not survive, partly through losing the will to live". But Mitchell pulled his life back together, becoming a successful businessman of a multimillion dollar company, only to face the nightmare of a light aircraft crash which left him a paraplegic. Again he fought back, to continue as a successful businessman,and to become mayor of a town in Colorado, and a candidate for the US Senate. Stynes shares with us that "Mitchell's slogan for life is summed up in one sentence: 'It's not what happens to you - It's what you do about it.' ", which became the title of his latest book.
On his web site, W. Mitchell (now an author and an inspirational speaker) comments that "Before I was paralyzed there were 10,000 things I could do, now there are 9,000. I can either dwell on the 1,000 I've lost or focus on the 9,000 I have left." Mitchell implores people who are facing their life's challenges to "climb out of mental wheelchairs', to 'break out of the prisons of the mind", and 'to comeback - even against overwhelming odds' by putting yourself back in charge by taking responsibility for change to find your life's possibilities.
The Polio Network provides some amazing life stories of individual heros who, like Jim, survived polio - many having contracted polio as infants. Click here to view these stories.
In 1956, Noel Spurr contracted polio in the last polio epidemic in Victoria, Australia - he was just 8 years of age. He became totally paralysed and was put into an "iron lung" full time at Fairfield Hospital for over 12 months. Eventually, he was able to go home, although still needing to use an "iron lung" respirator at home every night, until he was able once again not to need a respirator. However, following pneumonia in 1972, Noel again needed to use an iron lung every night. In 1989, he was able to move to a portable positive pressure ventilator.
Despite these post-polio life challenges, Noel, like Jim, has gone on to lead a very busy, productive and valuable life which saw him honoured with the "Advance Australia Award" and the "Order of Australia Medal" for his distinguished work both as a leader of the disabled rights movement and his participation in local and state-wide community groups over 30+years. This work has seen him appointed by both sides of Australian politics (Liberal & ALP Governments) to Ministerial Advisory Committee's for over 25 years at both State & Federal levels.
After contracting polio, Noel went to a special school for disabled kids in Melbourne - called Yooralla. He went on to attend a local high school (Nunawading High) for three years. In 1964, he volunteered for risky experimental spinal surgery – operations that provided him with some additional physical movement. Whilst recuperating from surgery, Noel resumed schooling at Yooralla - this started a long time association between Noel and Yooralla, leading to him taking on the role as Chairman of Yooralla’s 2000 & 2006 Reunions.
Noel has worked in private enterprise, the public service, and as a private consultant. This work included, serving 9 years as a local Councillor at Nunawading and Whitehorse City Councils, including terms as Deputy Mayor and Mayor. Noel was in fact the last Mayor of the City of Nunawading, prior to local council amalgamations. Following completion of the Boardstep Company Directors Course, Noel has also served on Company Boards. Amongst other activities, Noel is also an inSPURRational speaker and MC at conferences and seminars.
Noel has two children and is now also the proud grandfather of 2 young children.
More information about this amazing survivor can be found on his web site at www.noelspurr.com.
Elizabeth Hastings contracted polio as a child and attended Yooralla Hospital School for several years. She appeared in the film "A chance for a lifetime" for the first GTV9 Yooralla telethon in 1959.
She later graduated as a Psychologist, and in 1981 served on the State Committee for International Year for Disabled Persons.
Elizabeth was the Disability Discrimination Commissioner of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) from 1993 to 1997 and was the first specialist Commissioner appointed under the Disability Discrimination Act. Ms Hastings was also a Commissioner of the original Human Rights Commission.
Ms Hastings made a significant contribution to protecting people with disabilities from discrimination. Ms Hastings developed in the community, greater understanding and acceptance of people with disabilities.
The many gains made by Ms Hastings included the development of guidelines and standards ensuring protection from discrimination for people with disabilities. In particular, Ms Hastings was very active in working with the disability community and employer groups to develop guidelines and standards in relation to employment for people with a disability.
Ms Hastings was active in raising awareness of the conditions facing children with disabilities in institutions and of the unacceptably high level of sterilisation of young women with disabilities.
Elizabeth Hastings died from cancer in 1998, but her achievements are being built on, to ensure that people with disabilities are accepted as equal participants and contributors to Australian society.
Greg contracted polio as a child in Geelong. He appeared in the 1959 Yooralla telethon film "A Chance for a Lifetime", as one of those that badly needed Yooralla but where there were not enough rooms to accommodate him.
After the huge success of the telethon, Yooralla expanded at Balwyn. Greg then attended Yooralla Hospital School and lived in the hostel.
Greg was a quadriplegic from polio, and his breathing became progressively worse, and as an adult he eventually needed to live full time in the famous “Iron Lung Ward 12” at Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital in Melbourne.
Greg was determined to overcome his severe disability and live a full life. He was active in disabled rights, including as a founding member of A.L.P.H.A. and the “Ward 12” Residents committee.
In the Ward, Greg also set up a business selling cosmetics. He had a ready market with all the female staff, in particular those who lived in the Nurses Home just behind Ward 12, plus also with visitors to the ward for the other patients.
One of those nurses, Dianne, fell in love with Greg and they married. They moved into their own home, where Dianne cared for him full time. They have a teenage son named Zac.
Greg died in recent years from a chest infection.
In 1949, whilst preparing for what should have been one of the happiest occasions in her life - her wedding - June contracted polio, which left her completely paralysed. Jim and June were fellow ‘inmates’ together at Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital. Whilst Jim escaped, June has spent the rest of her life living in the iron-lung life-support system – recognised on 2nd February, 2007 by Guinness World Records as a world record for the longest time spent in an iron-lung . In June 2006, her 80th birthday was celebrated in interview with Kerry O’Brien & Mick Bunworth of the 7.30 Report on ABC television. Her character shone through in this story, illuminating the attitudes and humour that has enabled her to adjust and cope with her life challenge. Listen to her – 57 years in an iron lung and her summary, “that’s one of those things that happen and you have to make the best of it”. Kerry sums up the interview with a sharp word for the rest of us when he says, “Gives a whole new meaning to doing it tough, doesn't it?” As an admittedly one-eyed parochial Melbourne Demons supporter, all I can say is ‘Go Blues!’
Anne Brunell is a skateboarder with a difference.
When pregnancy made it impossible for this paralympian and mother of two to wear her artificial legs, she relied on her trusty skateboard to get around. Despite being born without lower legs, Ms. Brunell has made the most of every opportunity with vigour, passion and ma laugh.
Today, she will be one of 30 women inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women by Women's Affairs Minister Jacinta Allan to commemorate International Women's Day.
Ms. Brunell was a ward of the state until she was four after being given up for adoption by her birth parents. Overcoming such challenges, she was the youngest competitor at the 1984 International Disabled Games in New York, where she won a bronze medal. She went on to win silver at the Seoul Paralympic Games and three gold and one bronze at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
But her other credits include public speaking, volunteering and being a mother to Declan, 7, and Flynn, 4.
:I've worn artificial legs strapped to my waist since I was two years old - I've never known any different," Ms. Brunell said. "So it was pretty interesting when I was pregnant and had to get around using my skateboard. Being told I couldn't succeed just spurred me on - life is there to grasp and do something with....."
During World War 2, H. M. S. Vyner Brooke sailed from Singapore with 64 Australian nursing sisters amongst its 192 evacuees. On entering In the Banka Straits the ship was attacked by Japanese planes - the ship was was hit repeatedly. The Bridge was totally destroyed, and the steering stopped operating. On fire, the Captain gave orders for the ship to be abandoned. Twenty minutes later the ship sank. Most of the survivors who had spent all afternoon and night in the water, landed on a beach near Muntok where they set up a camp and commenced tending the wounded. A couple of days later they were discovered by a Japanese patrol. Those that could walk were marched round a small headland, lined up and shot - those lying wounded were bayoneted to death. Just one survived the bayoneting. The nurses were then ordered to walk into the sea, on reaching waist height the Japanese commenced to machine gun them and all were killed save one......Sister Vivien Bullwinkle, who was shot through the throat. Vivien said in a later interview that she lay floating for what seemed hours before raising her head to find the beach deserted - save for her dead comrades floating around her and those that had already died on the beach. She was taken to a prisoner of war camp - barely alive and suffering from sun and sea exposure - her chances of survival were very slim. Sun blisters, meant her mouth was completely closed and doctors fed her through a small opening at the corner of her mouth by means of a small glass dropper. After recovering Vivien was able to relate to others what had actually happened on the beach but was ordered to stay silent for her own safety - the Japanese certainly wouldn't have allowed the only surviving eye witness of this massacre to go on living. Vivien survived the War, and was able to tell her story to the War crimes tribunal.
Vivien Bullwinkle became a Matron, supporting the long term polio residents laying in their respirators in Fairfield Hospital's Ward 12. As a WW2 POW, Vivien knew what long term captivity meant and how important hope and motivation were to the inmates - lessons she put to good use in Ward 12, which was quite unique in supporting their residents aspirations to lead productive lives by allowing them to run businesses and many fund raising efforts.
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All materials on this site are Copyright©Vickers-Willis Corporation, 2010 | <urn:uuid:51f1ad0a-ace2-4beb-abb8-42d884262376> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vickers-willis.com/html/homeparallels.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982086 | 3,366 | 1.976563 | 2 |
Is Flying Safe?
Friday, April 08, 2011By Steven H. VanderLeest
On a recent trip I flew on a number of aircraft: an Airbus A320 narrow-body jetliner and an Embraer ERJ135 regional jet. This was right after the news of Southwest Airlines flight 812 making an emergency landing in Yuma, Arizona after a 5 foot tear ripped opened in the fuselage of the Boeing 737 flying at 30,000 feet. No one was seriously injured, but this event was obviously a cause for serious concern. Southwest grounded most of its 737s while they performed inspections of the lap joints for evidence of cracking (several planes had some cracking). Following this incident, Boeing issued new guidelines recommending more frequent inspection of 737s to look for fatigue cracks in lap joints of these aircraft.
We’ve all heard that flying is safer than driving, but it doesn’t feel safer to most of us. Perhaps it is because we are not in control of the aircraft like we are of the automobile. Perhaps it is because most of us drive much more frequently than we fly, so that we are more habituated to the risk of car travel. Perhaps it is because the spectacular nature of the rare failure so that airline crashes almost always make headlines while car crashes rarely does. Furthermore, perhaps that adage is not actually true. In a paper in the 2006 Christian Engineering Education Conference, Professor Gayle Ermer notes that a “risk level per mile for driving that is in the same range as for flying. In other words, contrary to the popular wisdom used to reassure fearful airplane passengers, it is not safer to fly than to drive on a per mile traveled basis.” (Ermer, Gayle, “Understanding Technological Failure: Finitude, Fallen-ness, and Sinfulness in Engineering Disasters,” Proceedings of the Christian Engineering Education Conference, 2006). Her paper looks at some of the causes of technology failures, many of which connect intimately with our human nature.
One possible cause of aircraft failure is a flaw in the design of the avionics hardware or software. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) oversees and certifies aircraft for flight worthiness. For electronics hardware the FAA imposes a guideline for a rigorous process of testing for robustness against a variety of environmental conditions in the DO-160 standard, a rigorous process of development and testing of digital logic in the DO-254 standard, and a rigorous process of development and testing of software in the DO-178 standard. Newly engineered technology is subjected to careful peer-review of the design and then substantial testing of the implementation. The DO-254 and DO-178 standards apply stricter standards for technology that, should it fail, would have a more dire impact. Design assurance level A is the strictest standard for avionics that would cause catastrophic failure (and likely multiple deaths) if it failed. Level E is the lowest level, for technology whose failure would not impact safety in any foreseeable event. Flight control systems are an example of level A; passenger entertainment systems are level E. Technology at the highest levels of safety criticality must be designed with redundancy so that no single point of failure in the hardware results in system failure.
I think back-up systems and redundancy for fault tolerance nicely reflects the virtue of humility because it recognizes that we cannot design perfect systems and must account for potential failures (which hopefully are handled gracefully by redundancy so that no injuries occur). This works relatively well for hardware, but we have not yet found a similarly strong approach for software. At one time, multi-version software was in vogue as a supposed redundant approach. In this method, the requirements for the software were given to several independent development teams. Each software version was run simultaneously (either on multiple processors or as independent parallel processes in a multitasking system), with a “golden” voter taking the result from each version to determine the actual action taken for the system. The thought was that it was unlikely that independent teams would make the same mistake in the same place. Thus as long as the majority of the versions got it right, any mistakes would be outvoted. The flaw in this approach was that it turns out that even very diverse teams often make similar mistakes for similar inputs and system situations. There are other ways to try to account for design flaws in software (which often show up for unusual boundary conditions that were not anticipated), such as checkpoints, built-in tests that check for sanity or test that the system still is operating within the expected bounds, and so forth. Down the road, software designers for safety critical markets anticipate that proofs (sometimes called “formal methods”) will be used to verify software is correct with mathematical certainty. For now, these methods tend to be too difficult to apply to anything more than small sections of software code.
Whether we are estimating the risk for flying or for other technology, such as the danger of nuclear power plant failures, the impact of energy technologies on climate change, or the risk of eating genetically modified food, I think we must be careful to avoid the trap of believing we can calculate the risk in a completely unbiased, objective way. In the end, risk assessment is not simply a mathematical formula (though quantitative analysis certainly is part of the process), but is a human decision that requires wisdom and insight. In a recent article, David Caudill notes various viewpoints on scientific knowledge, particularly with regard to weighing risk. He describes a perspectives which “views all risk assessments as judgment calls. Even a scientist’s degree of confidence is not a scientific matter, and our assessment of whether a scientific analysis is relatively certain is grounded in pragmatic decisions about what to study, which variables to consider, how accurate our measurements need to be, and how much potential error we’re willing to accept. When we say something is ‘safe’ or ‘injurious’ or we say that the evidence is ‘ample’ or ‘convincing’ or ‘reasonably certain,’ those words sound scientific but are actually non-scientific judgments.” (David S. Caudill, “Science in Law: Reliance, Idealization & Some Calvinist Insights,” Pro Rege, March 2010, pp. 1-9) Caudill then argues for a still more perspectival position that sees culture and worldview not only affecting our assessment of risk and uncertainty (where our values are applied to unbiased facts), but also affecting the way we interpret the facts themselves. He notes “multiple interpretive frames, which reflect values but which see facts differently… Our selection of facts and values is not so much conscious and voluntary as it is grounded in our cultural assumptions” (p. 7)
A machine cannot do science nor engineering – only a human can perform these tasks because they involve more than mindlessly following a recipe or rote formula. These are creative activities that require sophisticated thinking, insight, and wisdom. There is truth as well as beauty to be found in these activities, but perhaps like beauty, truth is also partly in the eye of the beholder. I’m not arguing for relativism here nor strong postmodernism. I do believe in an absolute truth, but I also believe that no mere mortal has a lock on that truth. We are all affected by sin. Even without sin, we are finite created beings and our limitations may prevent us from coming to a common understanding. Even beyond our finite and fallen nature, we each come with a socio-cultural interpretive framework that gives us slightly different lenses through which we view the world. I also believe in common grace—that all truth is God’s truth, and thus we each may hold a piece of the grand puzzle. When it comes to risk assessment, it is important to discuss risk together and not solely depend on the “experts” advice. Those conversations can help tease out our own particular values and worldviews so that we understand one another better and also understand our technology better. | <urn:uuid:1ee62a28-69b9-4b0f-ab2b-bb05208a8dbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.calvin.edu/weblogs/deusexmachina/2011/04/08/ | 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 | 0.953546 | 1,642 | 2.453125 | 2 |
Elephant Butte Inn Blog
Posted February 9, 2013
The last commercial stage and rail stop in the area, Lake Valley grew to 4,000 residents with 12 saloons, 3 churches, 2 newspapers, a school, stores, hotels, stamp mills and smelters. The town was devastated by the 1893 silver panic and the 1895 fire which destroyed main street. The post office closed in 1954 and the last resident left in 1994. Final, part 3, tomorrow.
This photo is of The Pioneer Store in 1890.
Posted February 8, 2013
Lake Valley was founded in August 1878 with the discovery of silver in the area by George Lufkin who later sold out to George Daly. Originally called Daly, the town was later named for the nearby ancient lake beds. The settlement moved twice, and was finally established at its present site in 1882 when the Bridal Chamber Mine (in Lufkin's original claim) was discovered by blacksmith John Leavitt. The walls of this subterranean mine were lined with silver so pure it was shipped unsmelted to the mint. The strike produced 2.5 million ounces of pure horn silver. One chunk, featured at the 1882 Denver Exposition, was valued at $7,000. (Silver sold for $1.11/ounce then). The mine manager was killed by Apaches a few days after the discovery.
Route to Lake Valley: I-25 south 15 miles to exit 63. West on NM Hwy 152 for 26 miles to Hillsboro. South 17 miles on NM Hwy 27 to Lake Valley.
Posted January 27, 2013
Posted January 25, 2013
Kingston was founded along Percha Creek beneath the Black Range mountains in 1882, when prospector Jack Sheddon made a rich silver strike. Word spread, and almost overnight Kingston became a mining boom town. Despite pioneer hardships, smallpox and Apache raids, it continued to grow. The census of 1890 officially counted more than 7000 residents, making it the largest city in New Mexico Territory.
One of the west's wildest mining camps, Kingston boasted 22 saloons, 14 stores, 3 newspapers, numerous hotels and boarding houses, and an Opera House. A stage line connected Kingston to Hillsboro, Lake Valley, and the railroad at Nutt. Lillian Russell, Mark Twain, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid all visited this colorful community, known as the "gem of the Black Range." But when the Silver Panic of 1893 caused silver prices to plummet, the town rapidly folded.
Posted January 11, 2013
We are doing an NFL Playoffs special for the weekends of January 12 and 13/ Saturday and Sunday; and January 20/ Sunday only.
Beers—order a small beer, and upgrade to a giant size at no extra cost!
Appetizers:Chicken Wings (12 pcs)—50% off (normally $6.95)Super Nachos—50% off (normally $8.95)
Please note that we are only doing/serving these NFL Playoffs specials during the length of the games! (So if games go into overtime, the specials will still count.)
Posted January 5, 2013
Hillsboro had its ups and downs. Fires, floods, influenza epidemics and economic downturns took their toll. An unsuccessful attempt in 1920 to move the county seat to Hot springs (T or C) was followed in 1938 by the permanent loss of the designation to Hot Springs. Through all this, Hillsboro has continued to survive and now has become a small active community of artists, ranchers and retirees. Main Street now has a variety of colorful shops, art galleries and restaurants. Photo: the present day post office is in the original building which was built before 1893.
Posted January 4, 2013
From December 1877 to 1880, the town was home to 300 residents. By 1880, there were 4 saloons, 4 grocery stores and a post office. Because Hillsboro was in the heart of Apache territory, a garrison was established on the North Percha to protect the miners from outlaws and the Apache. The town continued to grow and became the county seat in 1884. Gold and silver mines continued to produce even through the 1893 silver panic and depressions. Hillsboro's economy diversified as ranchers settled in the surrounding area. The town's Hispanic district developed east of Percha Creek, a small gardening area called Happy Flats. The commercial district, primarily Anglo, developed west of Percha Creek with hotels, boarding houses, stores and a post office.
A brick courthouse was built in 1892 on the hill just south of town near the 1892 Union Church, an Episcopal church still in use today. The ruins of these buildings can be seen on Elenora Street. Several more buildings from this era can be seen on Main Street.
The photo below: this is inside the Union Church. These chairs are still used every Sunday for two services.
Posted December 29, 2012
Hillsboro has a rich history dating back to April 1877 with the discovery of gold in nearby mountains along Percha Creek. Two prospectors, Dan Dugan and Dave Stizel staked out the Opportunity and the Ready Pay mines. Anothe...r prospector, Joe Yankie, gave the town its name in December 1877. Each miner put his idea for a name of the town into a hat. Joe's suggestion was drawn: Hillsborough, after his home town in Ohio. Later, the name was shortened to Hillsboro. Here is a photo of Joe's headstone:
Posted December 26, 2012
Dairy farms are a thriving segment of the agricultural economy of Sierra County. Much of the output of the county's 3,000 acres of alfalfa and 1,200 acres of corn production goes to supporting these farms. Alfalfa is harvested several times each year and made into large bales of alfalfa hay. Corn is harvested and chopped into silage. This dried feed for the dairy cows can be stored for many months.
Posted December 23, 2012
Ballet Folklorico dances are part of the culture of Mexico and Spain. The children of the Arrey Elementary School have brought back to life these traditional dances. They perform them at fiestas and school celebrations. | <urn:uuid:3e19e65a-2c80-44ed-9b7d-290dacf21003> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.elephantbutteinn.com/es/blog?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971118 | 1,290 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Woodworking for the Family
This book features woodworking projects designed and built by the author for family and friends. There is a range of difficulty for any level of woodworker but most importantly these projects are fun for the whole family; to build and to use.
Each chapter features a brief introduction, detailed drawings, cutting lists and step by step instructions with high quality photographs. Various techniques are also featured and there are numerous tips and tricks to help you along the way.
Click the links page above for previous articles, videos, photos and more information.
Mums this is the perfect Father's day gift!
The book will be available in 2014 but please pre-order a copy and we'll be in touch as soon as it's available.
A book of step-by-step woodworking projects for the whole family with colour photos and 3D illustrations | <urn:uuid:973df541-b685-4df0-92cf-de9638cdfd7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.familywoodworking.co.za/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95391 | 175 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Why Should I Read Medicine Labels?
Consumers have become very savvy about reading food labels,
especially when it comes to calories. Surprisingly, however, most consumers
are not taking the time to read the labels or package inserts for their prescription
or over-the-counter medicines. Why is this important? Medicine labels include
important information that is mandated-and reviewed-by the FDA.
Medicine product labels include information about active
ingredients as well as inactive ingredients. This helps you identify anything
you might be allergic to, or whether the medicine contains ingredients that
are also in other medicines you are taking at the same time for different purposes.
The "Uses" section tells you what the drug is for and can help you find the
best product for your symptoms. The "Warnings" section is particularly important:
here's where you can find out who should NOT take this product, when to stop
taking the drug, medical conditions that may make the drug less effective or
unsafe, and when to talk to a doctor or pharmacist before use.
The "Directions" section of the label tells you precisely
how to take the medicine and how much, as well as how long you may safely take
that medication. This section may also tell you how the medicine should be stored
or other specific instructions. Most importantly, the "Questions?" section
of the label provides a telephone number to call if you have any product related
For related information, click here.
Created: 3/7/2001 - Donnica Moore, M.D. | <urn:uuid:94a52f12-4599-4d68-a80d-76e97409e913> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://drdonnica.com/radio/00002463.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923792 | 327 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Abstract: This paper examines how the presence of uncertainty alters allocations and prices when the nominal interest rate is constrained by the zero lower bound. I conduct the analysis using a standard New Keynesian model in which the nominal interest rate is determined according to a truncated Taylor rule. I find that an increase in the variance of shocks to the discount factor process reduces consumption, inflation, and output by a substantially larger amount when the zero lower bound is binding than when it is not. Due to the zero lower bound constraint, policy functions for the real interest rates and the marginal costs of production are highly convex and concave, respectively. As a result, a mean-preserving spread in the shock distribution increases the expectation of future real interest rates and decreases the expectation of future real marginal costs, which lead forward-looking households and firms to reduce consumption and set lower prices today. The more flexible prices are, the larger the effects of uncertainty are at the zero lower bound.
Keywords: Occasionally binding constraints, liquidity trap, zero lower bound, uncertaintyFull paper (810 KB PDF) | Full paper (Screen Reader Version) | <urn:uuid:6fd5f447-1b9a-40a5-a956-051be495f415> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/2013/201309/201309abs.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909377 | 224 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Evolutionary Selection of Microtubule-Interacting Filamentous Phage with Thousands of Interaction Sites on the Side Walls
B. Cao, C. Mao
University of Oklahoma, US
Keywords: phage display, microtubule, tubulin
Abstract:Microtubule is an important structural and functional component in cells. The assembly and disassembly of microtubules are important for cell division. Thus microtubule-binding agents that can interfere with these processes are potential drugs that can inhibit mitotic progression. We hypothesize that microtubule-binding phage, which can be engineered to target cancer cells, can be a potential anti-cancer drug that can disrupt microtubule dynamics of cancer cells. We used landscape phage display technique to identify microtubule-binding phage by using purified alpha and beta tubulins as targets in biopanning. Because microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) are a class of proteins that can bind to microtubules and stabilize them to maintain their functions, we compared affinity-selected tubulin-binding peptides with the MAPs by using the REceptor Ligand Contacts (RELIC) suite of programs, which is a bioinformatics tool for combinatorial peptide analysis and identification of protein-ligand interaction sites. The affinity-selected peptides were shown to have similarity with the sequences of two MAP families (MAP1 and MAP2/tau), thereby identifying putative microtubule-binding domains on these MAPs. The tubulin-binding affinity was also confirmed by using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to characterize the interaction between affinity-selected tubulin-binding phage and tubulins. | <urn:uuid:1e993f93-5c91-4eff-9b2b-0903c12873c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nsti.org/Nanotech2009/abs.html?i=1212 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903934 | 351 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Recipe4life works by us linking local schools with our projects in the developing world.
By doing this we are able to provide long term partners able to support these initiatives whilst also helping teachers to make the nitrogen cycle more interesting.
A warm welcome to St Anne's Academy
They have just joined us and have their first aquaponics propagation unit up and running. One of their goals is to work alongside the school chef to propagate plants for the kitchen garden.
Get Involved Growing Aquaponic fish and lettuce at your school
Aquaponics the combination of aquaculture (growing fish) and hydroponic (growing soilless plants) that mutually benefits both environments. Aquaponics uses no chemicals, requires 10% of the water needed for field plant production.
In aquaponics the waste from fish tanks is treated with natural bacteria that converts the waste, largely ammonia, first to nitrite and then to nitrate.
Share the Knowledge! Feed the world.
We now work with many schools local schools who have been so enthusiastic about the project we are hoping to make aquaponics tanks and lesson plans available nationally.
Hydroponics in Schools
The pilot project to link up primary and secondary schools was a great success.
Many thanks to the teachers and pupils of Brimrod primary school and special thanks to Mr Down at Mathew Moss for making the project possible.
All were in agreement visiting Mathew Moss was an excellent way in introduce and inspire year six pupils, allowing them to look forwards to the transition to high school.
We would also like to welcome St Edwards to the project The children there showed tremendous interest in the aquaponics lesson and are shortly due to install a second tank
Ecowall in action
There are plenty of places where space is at a premium and people do not think they could grow any fruit or veg there but an Ecowall is proof that you can
Plants grow vertically out of the wall and up, meaning that you can turn any container, prefab or school fence into an ecowall
Food in the City
Thank you for coming.
We had a superb day at Manchester Museum. Thank you eveyone for coming along and everybody for helping out.
Welcome to Holy Family & Oulder Hill
We would like to welcome to Holy Family & Oulder Hill schools to the hydroponics4life project.
We are hoping to recreate the success of the pilot project to link up primary and secondary schools, in which the pupils were successfully able to take cuttings from various types of mint and transplant them into the aquaponic propagator, allowing them see which rooted the fastest and which were more able to cope with stress.
Manchester Botanical Gardens
The Matthew Moss Team went to the Botanical Gardens with Hydroponics4Life, here a few of the pictures
Well done Matthew Moss
The pilot project with Matthew Moss High has been a great success. They now have three tanks and are passing on all they have learned to Brimrod Primary School
Ecology the study of "All togetherness of everything" or "the interdependence of plants, animals and their environment". Ecological accountability and sustainable living are a vital part of living in the 21st Century, and therefore it is important to include these ideas into education of the adults of the future.
Exploring Hydroponics from an ecological starting point enables us to encompass many areas of the National Curriculum. It helps children and young people to form an integrated understanding of how hydroponics can contribute to the stabilisation of the world ecosystems. In particular it can show how the developing world can be taught to use hydroponics to enable them to become self-sufficient.
Hydroponics4life aspires to integrate knowledge of the methods and usage of hydroponics and aquaponics into the curriculum of UK schools. By doing this we hope to raise awareness of the need for third world countries to become self sufficient in their own food production. To do this hydroponics4life has produced the Recipe4life with an aim to 'share the knowledge and feed the world'.
By integrating aquaponics into education we can make a combined effort to share the knowledge and feed the world. If we can achieve this we will be able to support projects all over the world and help them gain the know how to sustain and feed themselves.
Other Curriculum links and Recommended topics (full lesson plans coming soon)
- Importance of light and photosynthesis
- Plant growth variance due to differing temperatures
- Propagating peppermint and spearmint from cuttings
- Plant growth variance due to differing temperatures
- Setting up the Aquaponic propagation unit and how it works.
- The nitrogen cycle Nitrates nitrites and biological filters
- Basic monitoring and logging Temperature and humidity readings
- Advanced data logging and water testing Ph and EC readings
- Refractometer How to tell if the plant is eating healthy
- Eutrophication over fertilisation in nature and out tanks
- Roots and shoots Measuring root growth and plant heights.
- Comparisons between Aquaponic tanks
- Comparisons between hydroponics and soil culture.
- Advanced Etrophication How many fish balancing the system and biofilters
- Growing beans from seed
- E commerce growing ivy for profit
- Alge and Spirulina
- Benificital bacteria
- Biofilters and balancing a cycle
Please contact us if you require information on how any of the above can be linked into your regular lesson plans.
If you are involved in teaching and you encounter other areas where the aquaponics propagation tank is useful or have ideas for lesson plans based on any of the above we would love to hear from you.
If you would like more information or to get involved in any of our projects, please contact us email@example.com | <urn:uuid:c6020b71-b96b-4462-83f2-d4c2090950e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.grotec.co.uk/Education | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94027 | 1,212 | 2.484375 | 2 |
This photo, such as it is, reveals a little of what I uncovered this weekend after many hours of bushwhacking.
Our neighbor was once asked: How do you get the blackberries to grow so well where you are?
Her answer: you hack at them mercilessly to keep them from growing all the way into your bedroom.
When this anecdote was first disclosed to me, I thought it was charming. ”What a quaint truism,” I thought, “of all the things, blackberries grow so well.”
And so, two years later, on our first sunny day after three weeks of apocalyptic rain, I creep out into the garden, where it takes a machete, a trowel, a mattock, and my own bloodied hands to rip the blackberries out of my garden. Because it might be quaint, and might be true, but if your bedroom is your kitchen is your den is your office, it should not be a place for blackberries. And after three weeks of ceaseless rain that makes you think you really OUGHT to be building an ark, the blackberries are everywhere. And they may be tasty, but they’re blackberries, good ones, which means they’ll RIP YOUR FACE OFF. And you need your face. To eat blackberries.
In other news, the horse is recovering well. Her owner has been rubbing fly ointment on her healing ladybits every day, and during yesterday’s appointment of that nature, the horse’s ladybits expressed themselves in the way that’s most healthy and natural. The people were ecstatic at this: “She came on my hand!” as she waved that hand around to show us just how well the healing was going.
(Hello, x-rated web searchers! That’s disgusting! Go read Equus!) | <urn:uuid:df240dfd-aeff-4548-9cf3-268d99cb039a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cooterhollow.com/2011/06/blackberry-whine/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963692 | 394 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Dau. of Ann Taylor
& James Findlater
Born 6.4.1845 at Monquhitter, Aberdeen, Scotland
Bap. 4th May 1845 at Forgue, Aberdeen
Marr. John Milne 16.7.1864 at Monquhitter, Aberdeen
Died in 1892 at Cuminestown, Monquhitter, Aberdeen (Influenza & Haemorrhage of Lungs)
John, a Meal Miller (Journeyman), was born c 1835 at New Deer, Aberdeen & died in 1918. His parents were Alexander Milne & Janet Mitchell.
The family were living at 36 Village St., Monquhitter, Aberdeen in the 1871 census. Mary's mother was also present. Later, the family are recorded at 36 Main St., Monquhitter, Aberdeen in 1881. Her mother was again present.
The 1891 census records Mary & John living at Village St., Monquhitter, Aberdeen with children, Ann, James, John & Christina. Also present are two Grandchildren, Mary B. & Thomas R. Milne.
"Mary [Findlater] Milne died at the young age of 44 in 1892 of influenza - 4 days and haemorage of lungs - 1 day, witnessed by her husband John Milne and certified by Physician Surgeon James Polson. At Cuminestown Monquhitter. On certificate it says just -- Father James Findlater Meal Miller and Mother Ann Taylor Domestic Servant." (Alison Busby)
Home Surnames Links | <urn:uuid:b3796587-c307-479c-a261-69ee8eab8b07> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.glennperry.co.uk/Mary_Findlater_1845.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913647 | 328 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Times are tough right now. If you cannot afford your rent and are in danger of getting evicted, find out what you can do.
What is an eviction?
An eviction is a legal action taken by a landlord to remove a renter from a house, apartment or room. State laws have specific requirements that landlords have to follow. Landlords must write an eviction notice and deliver it to the tenant.
If you’re being evicted, you’ll first receive a termination notice
. If you receive this notice, make sure you’ve done all that you can to pay your rent. You can try talking to your landlord or contacting local housing organizations that may be able to help. Get more information on what to do if you can’t pay you rent.
What happens next?
If you don’t move out, agree to pay the rent, or stop violating a condition of the rental agreement (for example, no pets, excessive noise, illegal activities, etc.), you will receive a summons and complaint for eviction.
If you receive an eviction notice, you should contact a lawyer immediately. Follow instructions to file paperwork with the Clerk of Court so you don’t lose the case.
Do you have to move out if your landlord says he is going to evict you?
Even if you haven’t paid your rent, the only way a landlord can force you to leave your apartment is by evicting you. The landlord has to win the eviction in court before you need to move out. Even if the landlord wins the case, you may be able to ask to stay longer if you pay the rent that you owe. If the landlord hasn’t started the eviction process, you can try to negotiate with him or her. Make sure you pay your rent by check or money order and get a receipt.
What are your rights if you are getting evicted?
Your rights depend on the type of lease you have and the reason for the eviction. You may be able to defend yourself if:
- You offered to pay the rent before the eviction began
- The landlord accepted payment after the eviction began
- The apartment was in an unsafe or unhealthy condition
- You complained to the landlord or to an agency before the eviction began
- The landlord didn’t give you a notice of the eviction, or
- You or someone in your family is elderly, disabled and lives in a building with five or more units
Your landlord may not evict you:
- Based on your age, sex, race, ethnicity, religion or other causes related to discrimination
- By shutting off utilities, taking your belongings or changing the locks
- Because you complained against the landlord
- Because the landlord disapproves of certain legal activities that you are involved in | <urn:uuid:f564320a-d7d2-41f9-8dac-14937a693395> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sacramento.thebeehive.org/housing/rental-housing/how-deal-eviction-if-i-am-renting | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952116 | 572 | 2.25 | 2 |
According to Hans Hess, founder and CEO of Elevation Burger, the franchised chain donates approximately five, 5-gallon barrels of olive oil per store, per month to individuals or groups that make biodiesel fuel, typically for personal vehicle use. “This recycling program has been in place since our inception in 2005, and it is a part of each and every store through our franchisee training program.” Hess notes that a significant benefit is that biofuels derived from recycled cooking oil typically burn clean, have a low carbon content and don’t produce carbon monoxide.
Echoes Daniel Magnus, who owns two Elevation Burger locales in Westchester County, NY: “This mandate is indicative of the discipline and focus of the company, making a restaurant that is both better for the body and better for the environment. It’s a huge part of the Elevation Burger DNA and we are proud to participate.”
Elevation Burger offers many healthier alternatives to standard fast food choices, including gluten-free fresh fries cooked in heart-healthy olive oil, two variations of a veggie burger, non-processed 6-month aged cheddar cheese, cookies made with organic butter and eggs, and critically acclaimed hand-scooped milk shakes. Elevation Burger’s warm and welcoming restaurants are also environmentally friendly, utilizing renewable, non-polluting materials and surfaces including bamboo flooring, compressed sorghum tabletops and low - or no- VOC paints and sealants.
The franchise prides itself on an “elevated” experience and a fresh organic approach that puts people and product ahead of profit. Elevation Burger has been recognized as the nation's first organic hamburger chain since opening its original location in Falls Church, Va. in 2005. It has been recognized as one of the most innovative burger chains in the country, with AOL Small Business calling Elevation Burger the “Next Big Chain,” and The Food Channel dubbing it one of the “up and comers” in the emerging “better burger” category.
About Elevation Burger
Elevation Burger has been recognized as the nation's first organic hamburger chain since opening its original location in Falls Church, Va. in 2005. There are currently 25 Elevation Burger locations in the US and 4 international locations. They are located in the following areas: CA – Carlsbad; FL – Coral Springs, Downtown Dadeland, Pembroke Pines, Miami Lakes, Fort Myers; ME – S. Portland; MD – Hyattsville, National Harbor, Potomac, Bowie, Wheaton; NJ – Montclair, Moorestown; NY – Rye Brook, Ridge Hill; PN – Collegeville, Willow Grove, Wynnewood; TX – Austin Great Hills, Austin, Dallas; VA – Arlington, Falls Church, Tysons Corner; INTERNATIONAL – Kuwait (2), Bahrain, Saudi Arabia.
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Advertising Information | HND Press Release | Submit Information | Disclaimer | <urn:uuid:57f448c0-6a4f-4cb3-a4c2-31d881bf28ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/news/Environment_380/Olive_Oil_Recycling_Program.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916567 | 716 | 1.601563 | 2 |
By Mark Easton
BBC home editor
The agency is also targeting importers of cutting agents
The international cocaine market is "in retreat" after a year of successful operations around the world, the Serious Organised Crime Agency claims.
It says its undercover work has helped send wholesale prices soaring.
Prices per kilo have risen from £39,000 in 2008 to over £45,000 (50,000 euros), but street prices have remained stable.
However, new figures obtained by the BBC suggest almost a third of police seizures are now less than 9% pure, the lowest recorded purity level.
The data, collected by the Forensic Science Service, reveals how drug gangs are using increasing amounts of chemicals - so-called cutting agents - to dilute cocaine powder sold on the streets of Britain.
They include the cancer-causing drug phenacetin, cockroach insecticide and pet worming powder.
Soca head of enforcement Trevor Pearce told the BBC: "There is a discernible effect that we are now seeing in relation to the availability of cocaine both in Europe and also across the UK.
"We are now seeing high-quality cocaine at about £45,000 (50,000 euros) per kilo wholesale in the UK. That's significantly higher than it has been and has to be indicative of the pressure which the importers are under."
Soca has released its internal estimates of wholesale cocaine prices. Two years ago, the highest quality blocks typically cost £35,000 (38,946 euros). By the end of last year, the price had risen to £39,000 (43,393 euros).
But in the first few months of this year the price, according to Soca, has hit a record level; more than £45,000 per kilo.
Soca accepts that the rise in the price of wholesale cocaine measured in Sterling may in part be a consequence of the weakness of the pound.
But it argues that a similar price rise "across Europe" suggest the increases can be attributed to more than fluctuations in the money markets.
"We are seeing wholesale prices of cocaine rising across Europe, in Spain and Belgium. We think that is due to a large degree to the strategy of working in South America, the Caribbean, across the Atlantic and with European partners - tackling it in a different way," Mr Pearce said.
Soca - which has been under pressure to prove its effectiveness - claims its activities in the run-up to Christmas stopped 10 tonnes of street-quality cocaine powder being sold in Britain.
But analysts at Drugscope say the shortage of supply has not seen a fall in street prices although purity levels have dropped.
"At the moment price is relatively stable for cocaine," says Drugscope director Martin Barnes.
"What is happening is that dealers are maximising their profits by selling a product that is potentially more harmful and much less pure and a lot of people buying it probably don't realise that's what's going on."
The latest figures from the Forensic Science Service reveal how average purity of police seizures of cocaine has fallen to its lowest ever recorded level - less than 20% pure on average. Almost a third (31%) of seizures are below 9% pure.
Joy Newman, a scientist with the FSS, says there has been a significant decrease in the quality of the wraps of cocaine powder examined at the laboratory.
"Purities now are quite low - between 5% and 40% in police seizures and we have seen them as low as 4% or 5% in the last few weeks."
Since last October, every seizure of cocaine is tested for impurities as part of a new Soca initiative codenamed Project Endorse.
A searchable database has been constructed which has identified links between more than 170 seizures that would otherwise not have been connected.
The agency is also targeting importers of chemicals used as cutting agents, and has sent warning letters to some suppliers who they suspect may be selling the products to drug gangs.
Soca may have decided that, whatever you do on the war on drugs, you cannot win the vital public relations battle by operating from the shadows
In the last year there have been 72 "law enforcement operations" involving cutting agents, even though the chemicals themselves are legal.
Critics of Soca suggest trying to limit the supplies of illegal drugs is an unsustainable tactic.
Martin Barnes from Drugscope argues that while something very significant is happening to the cocaine market, "enforcement methods have a limited impact in terms of the availability of drugs and the key is to tackle the demand side".
Trevor Pearce from Soca accepts that the drug gangs are likely to change their tactics.
"One of the things we have to do is to try to anticipate where the organised criminals are going to next, so we can stay a step ahead of them," he said. | <urn:uuid:4e2a9a36-ed49-4e8e-8f8e-06c52a64ee20> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8044275.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965666 | 994 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Castle Romeo mushroom cloud.
|Test series||Operation Castle|
|Test site||Bikini Atoll|
|Date||March 27, 1954|
Castle Romeo was the code name given to one of the tests in the Operation Castle series of American nuclear tests. It was the first test of the TX-17 thermonuclear weapon (initially the "emergency capability" EC-17), the first deployed U.S. thermonuclear bomb.
The so-called "runt" device was a weaponized "dry" fusion bomb, using lithium deuteride fuel for the fusion stage of a "staged" fusion bomb, unlike the cryogenic liquid deuterium of the first-generation Ivy Mike fusion device.
Similar to the "Shrimp" device tested shortly before, in the Castle Bravo test, it differed from that device in using lithium deuteride derived from natural lithium (a mixture of Lithium-6 and Lithium-7 isotopes, with 7.5% of the former) as the source of the tritium and deuterium fusion fuels, as opposed to the relative high enrichment level of lithium (approximately 40% Lithium-6) deuteride used in Bravo.
It was detonated on March 27, 1954, after several delays (which played havoc with the planned experimental measurements program) at Bikini atoll of the Marshall Islands, on a barge moored in the middle of the crater from the Castle Bravo test. It was the first such barge-based test, a necessity that had come about because the powerful thermonuclear devices completely obliterated the small islands on which they were set off.
Like the Bravo test, it "ran away" and produced far more than its predicted yield, and for the same reason—an unexpected participation of the common Lithium-7 isotope in fusion reactions. Although it had been predicted to produce a yield of 4 megatons with a range of 1.5 to 7 megatons (before the results of the Bravo test caused an upgrade in the estimates, it had originally been estimated to produce 3–5 megatons), it actually produced a yield of 11 megatons, the third largest test ever conducted by the U.S.
This became the first air-droppable thermonuclear device, the EC-17, of which only 5 were made and the first deployable staged radiation implosion Teller-Ulam thermonuclear weapon. This evolved into the Mk 17 of which 200 were made. Both of these were huge devices, weighing 39,000 and 42,000 pounds respectively. As a result they were only capable of being carried by the B-36. They were also some of the largest yield devices deployed by Strategic Air Command—the EC-17 giving around 10 MT and the Mk17 between 11 and 15 MT. They were all out of service by August 1957.
Fireball in popular culture
One particular image of the Castle Romeo fireball (above, at right) has been one of the most highly reprinted images of a nuclear explosion, often serving as a stand-in for nuclear weapons in general for news stories, book covers, magazine articles, and even congressional reports (such as the Cox Report), likely because of its threatening appearance and extreme red, orange, and yellow hues. In many cases the fact that the explosion is of a US megaton-range weapon has not prevented it to be used to represent the arsenals of other states or weapons of far lower yields, which would have a very different appearance.
One prominent usage is as the backdrop for heavy metal band Megadeth's greatest hits compilation Greatest Hits: Back to the Start. The image of Castle Romeo was also used on the cover of the New York hardcore music pioneers Cro-Mags debut album The Age of Quarrel. It is also featured on the title screen of Team17's turn-based artillery game Worms Armageddon.
The Castle Romeo photos are sometimes confused with that of Castle Bravo; the two nuclear blasts looked very similar, and they were both conducted in the same location.
- List of all tested US weapons at The Nuclear Weapon Archive
- The short film Operation Castle Commanders Report (1954) is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
- The short film Military Effects Studies Operation Castle (1954) is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
- The short film Nuclear Test Film - Operation Castle (1954) is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
- Operation Castle
- Chuck Hansen, U. S. Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History (Arlington: AeroFax, 1988) | <urn:uuid:af2dffb8-1ca0-46e9-8995-9b9001be1796> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Romeo | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949729 | 959 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Early indications point to the lowest voter turnout for an amendment election since 2001, when a paltry 4.2 percent of Bexar County voters turned out for 19 state constitutional amendments.
In that election, political scientists blamed complex issues, a candidate-less ballot and the national focus on the war on terrorism and the economy for voter apathy.
Those complex issues for San Antonio voters — the 4.4 percent who bothered voting — were three charter amendments creating an independent internal auditor, removing specific job classifications from civil service protection and giving the City Council the authority to confirm the manager’s choice for city attorney.
Also in 2001, some of the 19 state amendments included: bond money for access roads to colonias along the border, to fund veterans’ housing loans and cemeteries and to fund water projects; allowing cities to donate used firefighting equipment to underdeveloped countries; and allowing schools to donate historic school buildings.
Heavy — and not all that different from the issues voters weighed this time.
What’s the excuse in 2007? Throughout the day Express-News reporters encountered parents — parents, I tell you — of school-age children who either didn’t know about the rollback elections or who knew there was an election but nothing more than that.
Some potential voters and bored pollsters pointed to the cold, oops, cool front that blew in this morning as the culprit. Really?
According to the Census Bureau, Minnesota had the highest citizen-voting rate in the 2004 presidential election…which is in November for those of you apathetic could-be voters who aren’t paying attention.
Granted, it was a heated, high profile race — but isn’t it cold in Minnesota in November? | <urn:uuid:3782c39d-ccf8-491a-af78-e1894c8c34e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.mysanantonio.com/politics/2007/11/laura-e-jesse-lowest-turnout-ever/?gta=commentlistpos | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945627 | 362 | 2.015625 | 2 |
A good board can be rocket fuel or it can be rocks in an organization's pockets. Much of success and failure in the boardroom comes down to the way the individuals around the table — be it on a public company board, a small private board, or a non-profit board — do their jobs. So what should an independent director do to contribute to making the boardroom a dynamic, productive place?
Here are five things to start with:
1. Know the boardroom
It is vital to know the issues with which the board is grappling, to know the people around the table, and to come to the room ready to engage. Addressing the first issue is pretty straightforward: read the board papers that are sent in advance of board meetings. All of them.
Get to know the people around the table. Why are they there? What are their skills? What do they bring to the table?
Be engaged & constructive. Boards work best when the people in the room are on both "receive" and "transmit." Listening to one another and sharing their own thoughts, asking questions and genuinely integrating the answers into their own deliberations.
2. Know the people
This focus on people does not stop at the boardroom door. Today's board directors must engage much more broadly and deeply — both inside and outside the organization. Hearing the voices from the organization directly means non-execs can form their own ideas and perspectives on the information they are receiving in board papers and reports, and not simply depend upon secondhand knowledge.
By being approachable and reaching out to people, board members are able to talk with, and to listen to, the organization's senior managers, staff, and investors. They need to genuinely understand and respect their views, and help harness their passion and commitment to the organization. Only then can they help ensure its endurance and robustness.
3. Know the business
People focus, while important, is not all that distinguishes engaged directors. Understanding the nuts and bolts of the business also means, and indeed requires, asking the hard questions in the boardroom. It means not being satisfied with simply asking the questions, but to follow through and do something with the answers. An independent perspective means being sensitive to internal factors that shape the organization's capacity to survive and thrive as it confronts current and future challenges.
4. Know the landscape
The nuts and bolts of the organization are internal, but they don't exist in a vacuum. Non-executive board directors need to keep an eye on the global factors that shape the broader landscape in which their organization operates — from government regulation to customer expectations, and a constantly shifting competitive environment. This outside independent perspective is indeed one of the greatest values non-exec board members can bring to the table.
Keeping on top of these developments in an increasingly networked world is more possible than ever. To proactively seek knowledge I use social media like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google alerts, and a variety of other sources.
Equally important is doing something with this information — seeking and recognizing opportunities for the organization to shape the environment in which it operates. This has meant great gains and enormous strides in boardrooms around the world, from a better understanding of new forms of communication like social media, to helping the organizations keep up, innovate, and move into issues around corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and other areas that will help future-proof the organization.
5. Know when to go
There is a debate about how long is too long when serving as an independent director on a board. Under the UK's Combined Code, non-executive directors lose their independence after nine years on a company's board. No matter what you think that time limit should be, there is no question that one's usefulness as a truly independent member has a shelf life. Better that you ask the question of yourself than to force someone else to ask it. | <urn:uuid:606a5320-9ef5-4417-bbb6-43955a1301db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/07/board_members_rocket_fuel_or_r.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962858 | 793 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Henry Craik, ed. English Prose. 1916. Vol. IV. Eighteenth Century
Magdalen College, Oxford
By Edward Gibbon (17371794)
From the Autobiography
THE COLLEGE of St. Mary Magdalen was founded in the fifteenth century by Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester; and now consists of a president, forty fellows, and a number of inferior students. It is esteemed one of the largest and most wealthy of our academical corporations, which may be compared to the Benedictine abbeys of Catholic countries, and I have loosely heard that the estates belonging to Magdalen College, which are leased by those indulgent landlords at small quit-rents and occasional fines, might be raised, in the hands of private avarice, to an annual revenue of nearly £30,000. Our colleges are supposed to be schools of science as well as of education; nor is it unreasonable to expect that a body of literary men, devoted to a life of celibacy, exempt from the care of their own subsistence, and amply provided with books, should devote their leisure to the prosecution of study, and that some effects of their studies should be manifested to the world. The shelves of their library groan under the weight of the benedictine folios, of the editions of the fathers, and the collections of the Middle Ages, which have issued from the single Abbey of St. Germaine de Prez at Paris. A composition of genius must be the offspring of one mind; but such works of industry as may be divided among many heads, and must be continued during many years, are the peculiar province of a laborious community. If I inquire into the manufactures of the monks of Magdalen, if I extend the inquiry to the other colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, a silent blush, or a scornful frown, will be the only reply. The fellows or monks of my time were decent easy men, who supinely enjoyed the gifts of the founder; their days were filled by a series of uniform employments; the chapel and the hall, the coffee-house and the common room, till they retired, weary and well satisfied, to a long slumber. From the toil of reading, or thinking, or writing, they had absolved their conscience; and the first shoots of learning and ingenuity withered on the ground, without yielding any fruits to the owners or the public. As a gentleman commoner, I was admitted to the society of the fellows, and fondly expected that some questions of literature would be the amusing and instructive topics of their discourse. Their conversation stagnated in a round of college business, Tory politics, personal anecdotes, and private scandal: their dull and deep potations excused the brisk intemperance of youth; and their constitutional toasts were not expressive of the most lively loyalty for the house of Hanover. A general election was now approaching; the great Oxfordshire contest already blazed with all the malevolence of party zeal. Magdalen College was devoutly attached to the old interest; and the names of Wenman and Dashwood were more frequently pronounced than those of Cicero and Chrysostom. The example of the senior fellows could not inspire the undergraduates with a liberal spirit or studious emulation; and I cannot describe, as I never knew, the discipline of college. Some duties may possibly have been imposed on the poor scholars whose ambition aspired to the peaceful honours of a fellowship (ascribi quietis ordinibus Deorum); but no independent members were admitted below the rank of a gentleman commoner, and our velvet cap was the cap of liberty. A tradition prevailed that some of our predecessors had spoken Latin declamations in the hall; but of this ancient custom no vestige remained: the obvious methods of public exercises and examinations were totally unknown; and I have never heard that either the president or the society interfered in the private economy of the tutors and their pupils. | <urn:uuid:9f8786e9-ec2f-469e-8773-1fe3fb4d0fad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bartleby.com/209/889.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970247 | 820 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Every night we all participate in a small biological miracle—the transition from wakefulness to sleep. Last September researchers at Washington State University made a notable advance in understanding the chemical trigger that allows that shift to happen.
The key to sleep turns out to be one of the body’s most important molecules: ATP, the compound that stores energy for use in metabolism. Neurobiologist James Krueger and his colleagues discovered that repeated firing of neurons in the brain while we are awake causes them to release ATP into the spaces between the cells. As the molecule accumulates, it bonds to neighboring neurons and glial (support) cells; this allows the cells to absorb other chemicals—such as tumor necrosis factor and interleukin 1—that most likely put those cells into a sleep state.
This finding implies that sleep “is not a whole brain phenomenon,” Krueger says. It occurs only in neural circuits that have been most active during the day and so have released the most ATP. Translation: Some parts of the brain can remain relatively alert even after we fall asleep. “This is an extremely important finding,” says Mark Mahowald, a sleep expert at the University of Minnesota who was not involved in the research. “The notion that only part of the brain sleeps fits very well with our understanding of sleepwalking, when individuals have their eyes open and easily navigate around objects yet have no conscious awareness of doing this.” A clearer picture of ATP’s role in the process could point the way to new drugs for treating insomnia and other sleep disorders. | <urn:uuid:04c4c737-d35b-43c6-b0e7-39ad58ff86bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/32 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954334 | 325 | 3.875 | 4 |
Nobel Prize Winners
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is one of three Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) parent organizations. It has the largest transplant program in the world. Patients who are here for a transplant are treated at SCCA facilities. The Hutchinson Center is also home to three Nobel Prize winners in the field of medicine. Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, MD, won the Nobel in 1990 for his pioneering work in bone marrow transplantation. In 2001, Dr. Lee Hartwell, PhD, president and director of the Hutchinson Center, won the Nobel for his pioneering work in yeast genetics, which helps explain the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells. In 2004, Dr. Linda Buck, PhD, won the Nobel for research that unlocks the mystery of how humans smell.
Loading time may take up to one minute. Once the image has loaded, place your cursor on the image for instant control, or click and drag for more control. The ‘A’ key zooms in, and the ‘Z’ key zooms out. | <urn:uuid:4fa2cdfb-6528-44ee-8f72-e559e599153f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.seattlecca.org/tour/nobel-prize-winners.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940014 | 214 | 1.875 | 2 |
I have a question. Some of you newer readers don't know that when I started writing this blog I was intensely wrestling with Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, and that is reflected in my early writing. I think many of the Catholics and Orthodox who used to read this are long-gone, having given up on me coming to a conclusion that will satisfy them.
But - for those of you that are still here, I have a question.
Many of you know that Isaac and I volunteer as mentors for newly arrived refugee families - we've been through two families. The second family is just absolutely precious - Tee Reh and Soh Meh and their little girl are a darling couple. Tee Reh is intelligent and hard-working and they are kind and motivated and flexible. I just love them.
So there's the thing. They are Catholic. We are great with that. When they first told us they are Catholic they put it like this, "We are Catholic, not Christian."
So, there is a basic misunderstanding in what "Christian" means and how it relates to "Catholic". They think that "Christian" mean "Protestant" and that Catholicism and Protestantism are at odds with each other. They are right historically, of course.
But really, we are Protestants but we don't care if they are or aren't. As long as they are under the broad "Christian" umbrella, I believe they can know Christ and salvation, and I have no reason to persuade them to join us in our particular camp.
Here is the dilemma. How do we encourage them in their faith without seeming to push them away from their Church? See, I'm nervous that they may not actually understand the Gospel or the faith they verbally adhere to. This is not because they are Catholic, I think it could be just as true if they said they were "Baptist" (as did the first refugee couple - and indeed I think when they got to the US they were merely Christian because that's what their tribe is and had no understanding of scripture or the Gospel). Cultural Christianity is a problem in all areas of the Church. The thing is, if they were Protestants I would feel free to talk to them about their church, their faith, scripture, etc. I would feel free to pray for them, I could go to their church and talk to to the leaders, etc.
Because they are Catholic, though, they think I do not share their faith and so any encouragement I may have about faith would be viewed as suspect. How can a Protestant encourage a Catholic to take their own church and faith seriously? They have told us that they go to a Catholic church and they participate in the rituals but they don't understand what anyone is saying.
So, if you are Catholic - how would you want a Protestant to talk to someone who is culturally Catholic but hasn't yet engaged with the church or their faith very seriously? I do not wish to pull them away - I wish to encourage them to know Christ more and more in the context of the Catholic church. | <urn:uuid:1090f6b7-1681-482d-90b7-43dbbbb34a84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wellthoughtoutlife.blogspot.com/2011/09/catholics-how-do-you-want-protestant-to.html?showComment=1315408624857 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98979 | 623 | 1.515625 | 2 |
EU Roadmap 2050: policy briefing and analysis
- 31 March 2011
On March 9 2011 we published an article on Roadmap 2050, supporting the Roadmap's direction in reaching a low carbon economy in line with EU goals, but emphasizing that action must be taken now.
Sandra Roling, Stakeholder Engagement Manager Europe and Luc Bas, Director of European Programs, both of The Climate Group, Brussels, offer a more extensive briefing and analysis of the Roadmap 2050, which can be downloaded here.
The analysis includes:
- Overview of the Roadmap 2050: key messages and pathways for the different sectors
- The Climate Group's response and necessary actions
The Climate Group welcomes the long term trajectory of the Roadmap, but reinforces the need for investments to take place now to pave the way for large-scale deployment of low carbon solutions and maintain technology leadership. A 30% emissions reduction target for 2020 is a crucial signal to guide business innovation in the right direction. The Climate Group will continue to advocate for an ambitious target in its "Joint EU business call for 30% emissions reductions by 2020" already supported by more than 30 major companies. | <urn:uuid:ce9d08f0-a4cd-40f7-a72b-93cb940dbabd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theclimategroup.org/what-we-do/news-and-blogs/eu-roadmap-2050-policy-briefing-and-analysis/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908514 | 235 | 1.625 | 2 |
Call for Papers
International Peacekeeping in Africa
Actors and Missions
23-24 November 2012
Convened by the Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich
The Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich in Switzerland will hold a conference in November 2012 on International Peacekeeping in Africa, with a particular focus on current actors and missions. Over the last decades, the African continent has witnessed a proliferation of peacekeeping missions. Simultaneously, an increasing number of actors have become involved in the effort to bring peace to Africa, and this in turn has led to new and diverse types of operations. This conference seeks to analyze these developments in their entirety and comparatively in order to identify the most significant challenges and trends in international peacekeeping in Africa. The results will be published as an edited volume that assesses the evolution of peacekeeping in Africa through generic and contextual articles that present comparative analyses of the actors, missions, challenges, and impacts, as well as case studies that focus on crisis regions or countries where various actors are currently involved.
The African continent has been the scene of a great many armed conflicts since the end of the Cold War. Recent events in Congo, Sudan, Somalia, or Côte d’Ivoire remind us that violence remains endemic and continues to hamper the institutional, social, and economic development of Africa. Over the years, the international community has addressed this problem to varying degrees and tried to bring peace to Africa through a variety of means. The peacekeeping efforts were the most visible of these. With the end of the Cold War, peacekeeping was increasingly touted as a means of conflict resolution, only to be questioned after serious setbacks in the former Yugoslavia, Somalia, and Rwanda. Despite a temporary disengagement, the international community has tried to address the shortcomings of peacekeeping, which today is again considered an efficient tool for the promotion of peace. In Africa, where peace often remains a distant ideal, peacekeeping missions have proliferated as a consequence.
Simultaneously, an increasing number of actors have become involved in the effort to bring peace to Africa, and this in turn has led to new and various types of operations. The UN has been joined by regional organizations, most prominently the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU), and by sub-regional organizations like the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Meanwhile, in light of what has been identified as the ‘new scramble for Africa’, great and regional powers have regained an interest in Africa and, as a consequence, in peacekeeping. The multiplication of actors as well as their varying interests and motivations have given rise to missions that are quite diverse with regard to their typology and composition. But despite the multitude of missions, actors, and approaches, international peacekeeping efforts in Africa continue to face many challenges and have disputable impacts.
In view of the continuous manifestations of violence in Africa, there has been much scholarly writing on war and conflict in this region over the last decades. This includes significant work on peacekeeping in Africa. This literature is, however, either already outdated or focuses predominantly on the UN, individual regional and sub-regional organizations, certain regions or countries, or specific themes such as the ‘Africanization of African security’. Thus, the recent expansion of actors and missions has not sufficiently been taken into account in its entirety or comparatively, and it is therefore difficult to distil the general trends of international peacekeeping in Africa. However, the missions as well as the challenges they face and their outcomes result largely from the combined interests and actions of the various actors.
This conference therefore seeks first to identify these actors, their particular interests and strategies, and their interactions. The focus is not only on the actors on the ground, i.e., the peacekeepers, but also on those powers and organizations that influence peacekeeping missions during their establishment and once they are deployed. The permanent UN Security Council members, the other BRICS countries – Brazil, India, and South Africa – and Nigeria as a regional power would be of particular interest. Furthermore, the project aims to take a closer look at the composition and the types of recent or current peacekeeping missions. Whereas the majority of operations are carried out by the UN, there are also missions under the flag of individual countries or regional and sub-regional organizations. Meanwhile, there may be pivotal states within an international or regional mission, and the multinational composition can vary according to the willingness of countries to contribute troops. Organizations and countries can also enter into partnerships, ranging from a division of labor to hybrid operations. There are different types of missions, which, according to their mandate and context, include a great variety of types ranging from traditional peacekeeping to peace enforcement.
With a focus on the actors and the missions they create, the aim of this conference is to identify the most significant challenges and trends in international peacekeeping in Africa and to publish selected papers in an edited volume with an academic publisher. The papers should not be theory-driven, but provide an informative analysis for scholars and policy-makers alike. Therefore, the CSS is seeking two types of papers:
- Generic and contextual papers. Comparative analyses of the following themes are particularly welcome:
- Case studies that are not based on individual organizations or actors, but on ‘theaters of operation’ or ‘conflict zones’ in order to allow for the inclusion of all actors and missions that have an influence on or are part of the peacekeeping effort.
o Of particular interest are papers focusing on crisis regions or countries where various actors are currently involved, such as Western Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, or Somalia.
o Each case study should present and analyze the actors and missions and should identify the challenges and impacts.
Proposals of between 300 and 500 words should be sent to Marco Wyss (firstname.lastname@example.org) by 31 May 2012.
The CSS will support travel costs (reasonable) and accommodation expenses for the conference.
Dr. Marco Wyss
Center for Security Studies (CSS)
Haldeneggsteig 4, IFW
phone +41 (0)44 632 75 33
fax +41 (0)44 632 19 41
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announcements appearing in this service. (Administration) | <urn:uuid:6f2ec2b5-0a42-41b0-80be-387f0203ce90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=192955 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950021 | 1,370 | 1.59375 | 2 |
united ateshist yi n dsta tory answ werkey y:solusi.9a 9f
issues dividing a nation sol usi 9a issues that divided the nation slavery while there were several differences between the north and the south the issues related to slavery increasingly divided the nation and led to the civil war cultural the north was mainly an urban society in which people held jobs the south was primarily an agricultural society in which people lived in small villages and on farms and plantations because of their cultural differences people in the north and south found it difficult to agree on social and political issues economic the north was a manufacturing region and its people favored tariffs that protected factory owners and workers from foreign competition the south was largely agricultural southerners opposed tariffs that would cause prices of manufactured goods to increase planters were also concerned that england might stop buying cotton from the south if tariffs were added constitutional a major conflict was states rights versus strong central government essential understanding cultural economic and constitutional differences between the north and the south eventually resulted in the civil war
compromises and war sol usi 9b issues that divided the nation an important issue separating the country related to the power of the federal government southerners believed that they had the power to declare any national law illegal northerners believed that the national government s power was supreme over that of the states southerners felt that the abolition of slavery would destroy their region s economy northerners believed slavery should be abolished for moral reasons compromises attempting to resolve differences missouri compromise 1820 missouri entered the union as a slave state main entered the union as a free state compromise of 1850 california entered the union as a free state southwest territories would decide about slavery kansas-nebraska act people in each state would decide the slavery issue popular sovereignty essential understanding the south feared that the north would take control of congress and southerners began to proclaim states rights as a means of selfprotection the north believed that the nation was a union and could not be divided while the civil war did not begin as a war to abolish slavery issues surrounding slavery deeply divided the nation between the north and the south eventually resulted in the civil war
southern secession following lincoln s election the southern states seceded from the union confederate forces attacked fort sumter in south carolina marking the beginning of the civil war lincoln and many northerners believed that the united states was one nation that could not be separated or divided most southerners believed that states had freely created and joined the union and could freely leave it essential understanding the south feared that the north would take control of congress and southerners began to proclaim states rights as a means of selfprotection the north believed that the nation was a union and could not be divided while the civil war did not begin as a war to abolish slavery issues surrounding slavery deeply divided the nation between the north and the south eventually resulted in the civil war
the union and the confederacy sol usi 9c union border states slave states 1 kentucky 2 maryland 3 delaware 4 missouri union free states 5 california 6 connecticut 7 illinois 8 indiana 9 iowa 10 kansas 11 maine 12 massachusetts 13 michigan 14 minnesota 15 new hampshire 16 new jersey 17 new york 18 ohio 19 oregon 20 pennsylvania 21 rhode island 22 vermont 23 west virginia 24 wisconsin confederate states seceded 1 alabama 2 arkansas 3 florida 4 georgia 5 louisiana 6 mississippi 7 north carolina 8 south carolina 9 tennessee 10 texas 11 virginia essential understanding southern states that were dependent upon labor-intensive cash crops seceded from the union northernmost slave states border states stayed in the union.
key individuals of the civil war sol usi 9d roles of civil war leaders abraham lincoln was president of the united states opposed the spread of slavery issued the emancipation proclamation determined to preserve the union by force if necessary believed the united states was one nation not a collection of independent states wrote the gettysburg address that said the civil war was to preserve a government of the people by the people and for the people jefferson davis was president of the confederate states of america ulysses s grant was general of the union army that defeated lee robert e lee was leader of the army of northern virginia was offered command of the union forces at the beginning of the war but chose not to fight against virginia opposed secession but did not believe the union should be held together by force urge southerners to accept defeat at the end of the war and reunite as americans when some wanted to fight on
thomas stonewall jackson was a skilled confederate general from virginia frederick douglass was a former enslaved african american who escaped to the north and became an abolitionist
key events of the civil war sol usi 9e major battles and events the firing on fort sumter s.c began the war the first battle of manassas bull run was the first major battle the signing of the emancipation proclamation made freeing the slaves the new focus of the war many freed slaves joined the union army the battle of vicksburg divided the south the north controlled the mississippi river the battle of gettysburg was the turning point of the war the north repelled lee s invasion lee s surrender to grant at appomattox courthouse in 1865 ended the war influences of location and topography the union blockade of southern ports e.g savannah charleston new orleans control of the mississippi river e.g vicksburg battle locations influenced by the struggle to capture capital cities e.g richmond washington d.c control of the high ground e.g gettysburg essential understanding location and topography were critical elements influencing important developments in the civil war including major battles.
effects of the civil war sol usi 9f general effects of the war families and friends were often pitted against one another southern troops became increasingly younger and more poorly equipped much of the south was devastated at the end of the war disease was a major killer clara barton a civil war nurse created the american red cross combat was brutal and often man -to man women were left to run businesses in the north and farms and plantations in the south the collapse of the confederacy made confederate money worthless effects of the war on african americans african americans fought in both the confederate and union armies the confederacy often used enslaved african americans as naval crew members and soldiers the union moved to enlist african american sailors early in the war african american soldiers were paid less than white soldiers african american soldiers were discriminated against and served in segregated units under the command of white officers robert smalls a sailor and later a union naval captain was highly honored for his feats of bravery and heroism he became a congressman after the civil war essential understanding life on the battlefield and on the homefront was extremely harsh many died from disease and exposure. | <urn:uuid:6b2a8d11-241f-4557-b86b-498645922988> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.youblisher.com/p/219032-Unit-VI-Guided-Notes-Answers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96489 | 1,441 | 3.71875 | 4 |
|The City of Palo Alto|
Public Information Office
250 Hamilton Ave
Palo Alto, CA 94301
|FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE||PRESS RELEASE #09/08/2009|
|Subject :||City of Palo Alto And Peninsula Cities Consortium Convince High Speed Rail Authority To Use Enhanced Public Involvement|
Specifically In Decision Making For The High Speed Rail (HSR) Project
|Contact :||Steve Emslie, Deputy City Manager 650-329-2354|
|Palo Alto, CA – The City of Palo Alto is working with the Peninsula Cities Consortium (PCC), made up of Burlingame, Belmont, Atherton, Menlo Park and Palo Alto, to advocate for greater public involvement in the High Speed Rail (HSR) Project. As a result, the California High Speed Rail Authority (Authority) has just confirmed, with the release of its August/September Project Activities Update for the San Francisco to San Jose High Speed Rail Segment, that it has listened and is committed to ensuring that citizens can actively participate in the discussions and decisions concerning HSR.|
The Authority made the following six commitments to encourage public engagement:
The City of Palo Alto and the PCC welcome these new commitments by the Authority to help ensure the public is involved in a meaningful and impactful way. From its inception, the PCC has urged the Authority to use the principles of Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) with respect to this transformational megaproject. CSS principles have been recognized nationwide since 1998. The Federal Highway Administration and the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) currently use CSS principles when dealing with road projects and the PCC felt that it fits well with the HSR project.
- Create and facilitate an advisory Policymaker Working Group, composed of elected officials from each of the cities, to provide policy-level input. This enhances the existing Technical Working Group allowing optimum coordination between City and agency staff and policy makers;
- Provide regular public updates regarding project details through use of Cable TV, e-newsletters, websites and other communication vehicles;
- Coordinate and participate as a sponsor in a high-speed train system, public Design Workshops, including Alternatives Development Workshops this fall;
- Incorporate Context Sensitive Design Principles into project planning and outreach;
- Provide outreach to community groups such as homeowner associations, business, labor, environmental and civic organizations; and,
- Include opportunities for the community to provide input and get their questions answered through staffing community events such as farmer's markets and other venues.
"CSS is an obvious choice for the HSR project to ensure that it is built in a way that meets transportation, safety and community goals," said Palo Alto City Council Member Pat Burt. "The Authority’s commitment to use Context Sensitive Solutions is especially important because CSS is already a proven process used by other agencies and it relies on reaching consensus with all stakeholders on all aspects of the project.”
In general, CSS involves each stakeholder group in the project: residents, community organizations, neighborhood associations, civic groups, schools, businesses, chambers of commerce, business districts, local government, municipal officials, state and federal environmental and economic development agencies, transportation organizations, and advocacy and environmental groups.
In a guidebook co-authored by Parsons Brinkerhoff (the engineering firm responsible for the San Jose to San Francisco segment) titled Performance Measures for Context Sensitive Solutions - A Guidebook for State DOTs, the authors explain that “Consensus does not mean that everyone agrees, but that all groups and individuals can live with the proposal.”
“The City recognizes that a properly and thoughtfully implemented High Speed Rail system has the potential to be beneficial to the Palo Alto community and wants to explore creative urban design solutions that consider community values within the context of the high speed rail project,” said Palo Alto City Council Member Yoriko Kishimoto.
The City of Palo Alto and the PCC have expressed their commitment to being actively involved in each phase of project review and look forward to partnering with the Authority on this monumental project and coming to a consensus about how the project can be designed, built, operated and maintained. | <urn:uuid:aeff75bd-d8a6-439d-8c5e-353f2f8f1db8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civica/press/display.asp?layout=1&Entry=466 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918251 | 867 | 1.601563 | 2 |
As GHG management and climate change issues continue to evolve, it is increasingly important for industry to remain informed of the rapid developments taking place in their sector. Change is occurring on all fronts: UN members are negotiating new international treaties; legislative bodies are actively debating national domestic policy and regional and local governments are busy implementing climate change laws. In addition, business trading partners and consumer groups along with various stakeholder advocates are also compelling management to take steps to reduce their carbon footprint and implement sustainable, “green practices”.
Valmar is committed to keeping you informed and in a position to anticipate how these issues will affect your business — and more importantly — to be prepared to take action. We have organized the following tools, program summaries and relevant updates (along with links to greater levels of detail) to keep you abreast of the climate change and carbon trading industry: | <urn:uuid:12b53fa0-d4f2-49b2-94e9-aeee8a8cf674> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://valmarassociates.com/index.php/resources/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953068 | 176 | 1.578125 | 2 |
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Soil and natural physical region
Soil and natural physical region based on 1 voters.
We can see how the end results they generate poor soil daily increasing. The man leading actor, does his logging for crops in the richest areas in humus, but once put to use the land, its fertility is weakened by the destruction of organic matter due to factors such as burns, radiation solar, along with rising temperature and changes to the microclimate, as well as factors such as erosion and washing of the topsoil, causing ecological imbalance perhaps irreversible results. | <urn:uuid:d933e7fd-543b-47ef-96af-608bf3af117e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://amazonas.travel/en/information/flora | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975727 | 117 | 2.3125 | 2 |
There is a little chart (Table 3, P. 20) in the GAO Report I mentioned in my previous post worth talking about.
You will note that at the top of the list of Benefits it says “refugees add diversity” to a town or city. Would someone please tell me why adding diversity to a community is a good thing? Who said so? Why do so many fall for this myth? Why did the GAO simply parrot that old canard promoted by the resettlement contractors?
Check out our “Diversity” link at the top of this page (LOL! We have a lot of stuff here at RRW that even I forget we have!). I’ll remind readers that Robert Putnam, a Harvard researcher and author, found just the opposite.
Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, is very nervous about releasing his new research, and understandably so. His five-year study shows that immigration and ethnic diversity have a devastating short- and medium-term influence on the social capital, fabric of associations, trust, and neighborliness that create and sustain communities. He fears that his work on the surprisingly negative effects of diversity will become part of the immigration debate, even though he finds that in the long run, people do forge new communities and new ties. [In other words, they get used to it over time, but it doesn't mean that diversity has brought some over all good---ed]
Putnam’s study reveals that immigration and diversity not only reduce social capital between ethnic groups, but also within the groups themselves. Trust, even for members of one’s own race, is lower, altruism and community cooperation rarer, friendships fewer. The problem isn’t ethnic conflict or troubled racial relations, but withdrawal and isolation. Putnam writes: “In colloquial language, people living in ethnically diverse settings appear to ‘hunker down’—that is, to pull in like a turtle.”
So here are the wizards of smart at the GAO with their list of “benefits” and “challenges” (couldn’t they come up with a better word than challenges?):
*Refugees add diversity to their communities [who says that is a good thing?---ed]
*The presence of refugees in a community teaches tolerance for others [in fact, I have noted the opposite--ed]
*Refugees take jobs that are difficult to fill [you mean when they can find a job---ed]
*Refugees are reliable, dedicated employees [as long as they can pray on the job---ed]
*Refugee-owned businesses create jobs [subsidized by the federal taxpayer---ed]
*Public services developed to assist refugees, such as transit programs, also benefit other vulnerable populations [what! we are putting in new transportation systems for refugees---ed]
*Communication can be difficult due to language and cultural barriers
*Mental health resources are limited for refugees who have experienced trauma
*The cost of interpreter services can strain service providers’ budgets, and some health care providers have chosen to stop serving refugees
*Refugee students with limited English proficiency can affect school districts’ performance outcomes
*Some refugees live in poverty due to unemployment
*Some refugees are unfamiliar with social norms and laws in the United States
So, in conclusion, we have a few weak benefits and some very significant “challenges” in the cost side when analyzing the refugee resettlement program.
An afterthought: This is a little thought experiment. Let’s pretend that a bunch of white or black Minnesotans wanted to add diversity to the little Mogadishu section of Minneapolis. Let’s say those Americans want to bring a little American culture to the neighborhood—maybe open a lingerie store with mannequins in the window, and let’s say a bar and a liquor store. The bar might be blaring hard rock music through its open door. Are they bringing diversity to the Somali neighborhood? Yes! Would they be welcome? NO! Why don’t we say (anywhere in the world) that Muslims need to be taught tolerance (the GAO says we need to be taught tolerance)? So, why does that diversity c*** only go one way? | <urn:uuid:7ad20a87-00c8-44ba-804e-766dafb58740> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953255 | 905 | 2.09375 | 2 |