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No suprise I'm new to Linux
I'm primarily a windows user. For a while now I've been intrigued by the Linux based OS for it's stand out features and differences compared to windows.
I have been booting Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora) on flash drives for years and to be honest never been totally convinced, as something always seemed to go wrong. I expect because using flash drives is not the most reliable way to run any OS. Also, there has always been a certain amount of work involved getting something as basic as You Tube videos to work on Linux. As a Windows user (and most Linux newbies will be) I have found the initial process of manually configuring Linux to do things you take for granted on Windows quite off putting. For some Windows users (and potential converts) this learning curve will be too much. Whilst I am not suggesting Linux should be dumbed down I would like to see Linux even more accessible for the average user. I think Mint has gone a long way in doing this. It's all about confidence isn't it. Once you're using it, it's like the first time you started you used Windows all those years ago. Although may be not as painful
I have Windows 8 installed on my internal hard drive, and I recently purchased a SATA docking station for an external drive. I installed Linux Mint 'Nadia' on it (disconnecting my internal drive first to avoid any mishaps) and for the first time I've been able to start using Linux properly. It has been a revelation.
It seems to me there really is a solid, stable and feature rich (and let's not forget free) alternative to Windows. Again, I'm thinking about the average user (which I consider myself to be). I have shown my friends how 'cool' Linux Mint is and that it plays media and windows games with playonlinux (in most instances, and certainly since I installed the latest Nvidia graphics drivers) on par or close to Windows. Of course when I need to get serious it has all the producivity software I need too.
I am still trying to get to grips with the whole terminal input and how to install programs. I struggle to install the most basic things so I am constantly googling help. However I am a litle more confident now and hope to learn some more using this forum.
Thanks everyone, and who knows maybe I will be able to answer some of your questions some time soon.. | <urn:uuid:5542858d-b565-4235-a78b-0c6febb3e74d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?p=668057 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962561 | 505 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Latino State News
Cinco de Mayo in Little Village
For the second year in a row, Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood will host a 3-day festival in remembrance of the Battle of Pueblo, which occurred on May 5, 1862.
The annual celebration on 26th Street and Kostner Avenue are some of the biggest in the Midwest.
The festivities will begin Friday night at 6pm. Admission to the festival is free and family friendly. Musical acts will perform on Saturday and Sunday, and will include Ansiedad de Tierra Caliente and Compas del Terre.
Chicago’s Cinco de Mayo Festival Details
When: Friday, May 6 – Sunday, May 8
Hours: Fri (6pm-11pm), Sat & Sun (2pm-11pm)
Where: 26th Street and South Kostner Avenue | <urn:uuid:a3eb2c1f-1d49-49b9-99c0-ab8daee0bd2b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/latino-state-news/details/cinco-de-mayo-in-little-village/7405/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913419 | 182 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Some Awesome Things Apple Should Put in the Next iPhone
Apple should look towards significant innovations in AI, energy storage, and cloud computing.
Will Knight 09/13/2012
Be honest, the latest phone is a little underwhelming, no?
I mean, a slightly thinner, longer, design? A new connector? A new mapping app? Come on, Apple, even dorky old Nokia had wireless charging and mitten-friendly screens.
I’m not knocking the iPhone5, honest. It’s probably still the best smartphone out there (especially if you’ve already downloaded a bunch of non-free iOS apps), but with so many other big hardware and software companies greedily eyeing a slice of the smartphone market—and trying to conjure up mobile devices that’ll dazzle and amaze users—I think Apple needs to go after some bigger innovations and ideas.
Here are a few that things the Cupertino wizards could consider when they start drawing up plans for the iPhone 6, or 7.
A Predictive Personal Assistant
Sure, Siri is far from perfect, and she gets easily befuddled. But Apple should keep pushing the idea of a voice-activated intelligent personal assistant—towards software that not only responds to your needs but tries to predict them.
Say you’re running late for an appointment. Such an assistant, with access to all of the information collected and stored on your smartphone, might email the person you’re scheduled to meet to send apologies in advance. Or say you just made dinner plans with a friend. Having listened in to the call, it might show you a few restaurant reservation slots as soon as you finished the call.
It’s a concept that both academics and industry experts see as having huge potential (see “Where Speech Recognition is Going” and “Three Questions for Patti Maes”) and it could transform the computer interface as we know it. And you can see that it’s starting to gain some traction among software makers (see “Getting Your Phone to Give you a Hand”).
Battery innovation has been painfully slow and, meanwhile, devices are getting more powerful and power-hungry all the time. We’re still subjected to regular and lengthy plug-ins just to keep our devices running and, while undoubtedly convenient, wireless charging hardly seems like a real game-charger (see “Wireless Charging—Has it’s Time Finally Arrived”).
Completely new battery chemistry could be the answer. Apple might take a close look at the solid state batteries developed by Ann Marie Sastry’s startup Sakti3 (see “Solid State Batteries”). Although still some way from commercialization, the technology promises to significantly boost battery density and prolong the amount of time power-guzzling mobile devices last between charges.
Cloud-powered Software Streaming
Faster wireless networks make it possible to artificially boost the power of a mobile device by offloading processing power to the cloud.
The approach has been pioneered by OnLive (see “Cloud Streaming”), which offers ways to play advanced games and run other computationally-intensive software on a tablet computer by having all the hard stuff take place on a remote cloud server.
Amazon also uses this technique, to a small degree, with the Web browser on its Fire tablet (see “Amazon Fire: A Cloud-Powered Contender”). It could enable Apple to change the rules of the game and make its devices more powerful without having to pack ever faster, and more power-hungry, processors into them.
The trusty television is ripe for a revolution and Apple quite obviously has a plan in that area. But perhaps this could include bringing live and on-demand TV to the iPhone as well as the living room. As well as being able to program and control your television with your smartphone, it’d be cool to be able to watch your favorite shows on the go.
As wireless networks get faster, Apple might even exploit its wireless reach to cut out those pesky cable guys. Heck, with its cash reserves, it could even afford to buy a wireless carrier if it needed to deliver in order to focus on delivering content over the air.
What do you think? Do these make sense, or should Apple do something else? Let me know what I missed in the comments below. | <urn:uuid:27dd21cd-b82d-451c-9e5c-bce8fe8b2056> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.technologyreview.in/blog/editors/28193/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950679 | 916 | 1.671875 | 2 |
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Each year since 1927, Time has bestowed this title on the person they consider had the most impact on the world that year
May 21, 2013
1936: Wallis Simpson (King Edward abdicated the throne to marry her)
Photo By Associated Press
© 2013 Hearst Communications Inc. | <urn:uuid:6167a806-994c-414c-bad0-e6c61a3222c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.timesunion.com/news/slideshow/Time-Magazine-s-Person-of-the-Year-since-1927-53738/photo-3875901.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93019 | 74 | 2.15625 | 2 |
The export ban on one of the most important Impressionist works in the UK, Manet's Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus, which has been sold to a foreign bidder for £28.35 m., expires and the Ashmolean Museum it belongs to has to make final calculations whether the painting has to go or can stay in the country.
The Culture Minister Ed Vaizey who imposed the ban in an attempt to stop the sale also offered to give it to the museum without tax for £7.83m and thus keep it available to the public.
In order to raise the money, the locals organised a trail with 10 replica images around the city.
The precious 111x70 cm oil canvas has been exhibited only once since it was created in 1868.
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|The Open Door Web Site|
In January 1990 I accompanied an expedition to Antarctica led by Commander Jacques Cousteau. The 1961 Antarctic Treaty was due to be renewed in 1991. The treaty had ensured that Antarctica had been left 'in peace' for thirty years. In 1990 it was feared that the continent's mineral wealth and both oil and coal reserves would be too much of a lure for nations to ignore.
Fortunately, due to the work of Commander Cousteau, other dedicated individuals and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the Antarctic Treaty was signed and the continent has been given another fifty years without fear of exploitation.
The following pages are based on an article I wrote just after the expedition. If I include them now it is because my students will need to be informed so that they can make the right decisions in 2041.
Shirley Burchill 2013
Antarctica is the world's last continent. It covers 14 million km2, which is twice the surface area of Australia and one and a half times the surface area of the United States of America. In winter, when the sea-water surrounding the continent freezes, the area of Antarctica effectively doubles. In the summer months only 2% of this icy continent is uncovered by ice. Most of this exposed 2% of land is found on the Antarctic peninsula which lies about 900km due south of Chile in South America.
Many millions of years ago Antarctica formed part of a massive land mass called Gondwanaland. At that time Antarctica, while it was still joined to South America, Australia and South Africa, had a temperate climate. The continent was covered with forests, and plant and animal life was abundant.
These four great continents broke away from each other and drifted to different parts of the globe. Antarctica finally settled at the South Pole and became covered by a thick ice cap. Fossils of animals and plants which have been found in Antarctica provide the evidence that the continent once had a much warmer climate.
The sea-water which surrounds Antarctica is called the Antarctic Convergence. These waters are formed by the mixing of the southern waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans.
The sea-water of the Antarctic Convergence is cold and much of it freezes over during the Antarctic winter. In the summer months, however, the continual sunlight penetrates below the surface of the sea and the numbers of phytoplankton greatly increase. The phytoplankton is the producer in most of the Antarctic food chains. The phytoplankton is fed upon by krill, which are small shrimp-like animals.
As the numbers of krill increase, so the secondary consumers are able to feast on them. The great baleen whales, squid and some species of penguins feed entirely on krill.
The continent of Antarctica was practically untouched by human activities until the end of the nineteenth century. Sadly, during the twentieth century, humans have left their mark on the continent. Whalers killed so many whales that many species were almost hunted to extinction. Recently laws have been passed to protect the whales in certain parts of the Antarctic Convergence.
Other ships come to Antarctic waters to fish for krill. The Japanese are particularly fond of krill and large "factory" ships remove vast quantities from the ocean. As the amount of krill decreases so all of the animals linked in the food web suffer. | <urn:uuid:b62f3588-e7b6-40e0-8c11-aac32c34e894> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.saburchill.com/facts/facts0001.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962015 | 696 | 3.5 | 4 |
Photos and Text © by David Hartung
Six-month backpacking trip becomes life-long journey
For nearly 20 years I’ve been living and working in Asia. During this time my constant companion and magic ticket to enter into the lives of so many people has been my camera.
I was first introduced to Asia in 1985 when I set out to do what was planned to be a six-month backpacking trip. Those six months then got stretched out to what became four years. The trip took me to Japan, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and South Korea. It was in South Korea where I decided to live for the next three and a half years.
The 80s were a turbulent time for South Korea in which the country was experiencing dramatic changes in their social and political system. At that time the country was governed by a military dictatorship, which, like most dictatorships, didn’t much appreciate dissent. However in the late ’80s activists and students took to the streets and held massive protests on an almost daily basis demanding an end to military rule and for the political system to be opened up to everyone.
Fearing the protests could disrupt the 1988 Summer Olympics or even cause the Olympics to be moved to a new host city, the military lead government gave in and opened up the 1987 presidential election to everyone.
‘Ruins of St. Paul’s,’ a popular symbol of “old” Macau
Modern day Macau
It was an extremely interesting and exciting time in South Korea. I could see the country changing right before my eyes and I did all I could to document visually these events. My days were spent photographing riots, election activities, candidates and later the Olympic games.
While in Korea, I met and married, and, and at the end of 1988 my wife and I returned to Southern California where I got a job with the Ventura County Star Free Press, and then later moved over to the Thousand Oaks News Chronicle. Working on daily paper was a great experience and taught me how to work and think quickly while on deadline.
A Tibetan Buddhist monk walks through one of the fields surrounding the Songzanlin Monastery near the city of Shangrila, China. The three hundred year old monastery was built by the fifth Dalia Lama and houses several hundred monks.
However, after about five years I felt a strong desire to return to Asia. An opportunity presented itself when my wife, now working as a flight attendant for United Airlines, was offered a position at a new base they were opening in Taiwan. With little hesitation we packed our bags and set out to begin a new life in a new country.
Taiwan, as it turned out, was not a popular place for foreign journalists or photographers to be based. This fact actually ended up working in my favor. Prior to going to Taiwan I made a trip to New York City to meet with photo editors to show them my portfolio.
With no introduction I would cold call these photo editors who worked for the biggest names in the business. The initial response to my introduction garnered no interest until I mentioned that I was based in Taipei, Taiwan. As soon as I mentioned this fact I was asked how long I was in town and when I could stop by the office for a chat.
It seems that finding competent photographers they could trust to carry out their assignments were difficult to find in Taiwan. Typically they would have to fly someone in from Hong Kong or elsewhere to do this work. With budgets shrinking they were relying on locally based photographers to do the work whenever possible.
That said, it was still difficult to get assignments from these editors. Being an unknown photographer made it risky for them to trust me with a big assignment. However after doing a few jobs for some international magazines my name was starting to get seen.
Performance of ancient Naxi ethnic music at a theater in LiJiang, China. Many of the orchestra’s members are over 80 years old. They perform daily for visitors keeping this ancient form of music alive.
Portrait of a village elder in the courtyard of his home in a village called Bai Sha located near the city of Lijiang in China’s Yunnan Province.
My big break came when Newsweek asked me to shoot a cover and exclusive interview with the newly elected President of Taiwan named Lee Teng-hui. This was the first, of what was has now become many, extremely stressful shoots in which I had only a few minutes to make a photo. His handlers told me that I would have three minutes to do the cover shoot. I, of course, responded with confidence that it would be no problem. While my outward appearance was that of a calm, confident photographer my inner self was battling a huge case of anxiety.
The plan was to first shoot the interview and then at the end shoot the portrait. I was nervous to say the least, and then to add to my stress level, my camera died as soon as President Lee walked into the room. Fortunately I had a second body with me and the rest of the shoot went smoothly. The portrait ended up on the cover with a huge headline saying, “Mr. Democracy”. This issue received a lot of attention around the region, which in turn, helped me to get more jobs.
We ended up living in Taiwan for nearly 10 years, and during that time I photographed a variety of topics. Tension between Taiwan and China meant there was constant flow of stories covering this topic. Taiwan was also a big industrial base for many high-tech companies so I was doing quite a lot of business and industrial photography as well. Additionally, I kept busy shooting feature and travel stories all over Asia for a variety of publications around the world.
In 2005 I decided to relocate my base to Shanghai, China. Much of the work that had been keeping me busy in Taiwan was eroding away with all the attention going to China. So, like any other migrant worker, I followed the work. Fortunately many of the clients that I established in Taiwan continued to hire me for their mainland assignments. I kept busy doing much of the same sort of work I had been doing in Taiwan. Shanghai is a major business center in China so much of my work was for international business magazines such as Forbes and Businessweek.
The city of Macau, gaming capital of Asia, sprawls below a steel worker raising a new skyscraper.
While in Shanghai I was contacted by a friend who was starting his own magazine and he asked me to help him get it going. The idea for the magazine was to cover an area of the Guangdong Province called the Pearl River Delta which is located on the southeastern side of China.
We did five issues of the magazine which was called Destination PRD. During this time we came to Macau, which is also in the Pearl River Delta, and quickly realized that the small city was growing and changing at a phenomenal rate.
We then decided to create a publication focused solely on Macau and called this publication Destination Macau. The new publication achieved some early success and proved to be a more viable publication than Destination PRD. We poured all our attention into Destination Macau until it drew the interest of a venture capital company that decided to buy into the publication. With this injection of cash I was asked to move to Macau and work fulltime for the publication.
Poker Stars’ APPT Tournament held at the Grand Lisboa, one of the many casinos in Macau.
Working for one publication was a lot of fun. In many ways it was a dream job. We covered a whole array of topics which included entertainment, dining, fashion, culture, cultural events and business. We had nice clean design where the photos were used big and I had a lot of freedom to do what I liked.
During this period of time Macau was growing quickly with the arrival of new mass-market gaming resorts. Several Las Vegas casinos, such as the MGM, Las Vegas Sands Corp., and Wynn, as well as other foreign and local operators, received licenses to open casinos in Macau, so they were all busy building their properties. All of these new resorts are large and impressive. Macau was becoming the adult playground for the Chinese.
There was so much happening and I was shooting so many images documenting this activity that I soon began thinking that a book could be created from this material. With that idea in my head I began to organize my work and even do some sample layouts. And then when I thought I had enough material I laid out an entire book and sent it off to Blurb, a publishing company that will print a single book. With this, I was able to begin showing the book around to gauge interest.
Fortunately the company that owns Destination Macau liked the project and agreed to print the book. The book, called Macau-Work in Progress, was released on Dec. 6, 2011 and is currently available in bookshops around Macau and Hong Kong, as well as on Amazon in the US.
The Macau government welcomes the art community by hosting the Fringe Festival. Here participants parade from the St. Paul’s Ruins to Senado Square.
I’m still based in Macau and have no immediate plans to relocate any time soon. My work with Destination Macau is not as involved as before, as I’m now pursuing other projects and freelance work. One of those projects is documenting life along what is known as the Ancient Tea Horse Trail located in China’s Yunnan Province. This trail was once an important trading route between Tibet and Southwestern China and on to neighboring countries such as Laos and Burma.
In addition to my photography work I’ve also been teaching photojournalism classes on a part-time basis to students at the United International College located in Zhuhai, China.
Life in Asia continues to be interesting to me, so as long as I can hold a camera I hope to keep working in this part of the world.
Macau, Work in Progress
David Hartung recently published his first book of photographs, Macau: Work in Progress, with story by Anita Duffin, and commentary by José Luís De Sales Marques. Macau: Work in Progress is available through PearlRiverGallery.com.
While David captured Macau’s transformation with his lens and very talented eye, Anita documented the city’s rise in travel, gaming, lifestyle publications, and newspapers, reporting locally and internationally as a freelance journalist for more than seven years. | <urn:uuid:698e95a4-7bc0-4487-bacc-7755ba4f8a2d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oakcreekprintworks.com/blog/category/artists/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985509 | 2,162 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Re: How to do this without updating a variable?
> Yeah this is much more elegant. A useful way to thing > about this problem (for me atleast) is to think that > the datastructure is already there, to create the > output I just have to traverse it based on what > information I need. Slowly, I'm getting used to this > new way of thinking ... That's a reasonable view of how XSLT works. That's why it's very handy to define one's output format first and then think about plucking the data from the source XML to fill in the output. > Thanks to Jay and Mukul for additional help. My pleasure. Jay Bryant Bryant Communication Services (presently consulting at Synergistic Solution Technologies)
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May 13, 2013
On May 2, 2013, the Third Department of the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, upheld a municipal zoning ordinance banning “all activities related to the exploration for, and the production or storage of, natural gas and petroleum,” in the case of Norse Energy Corporation USA v. Town of Dryden.
The Town of Dryden passed the ordinance in 2011 amid concerns about the environmental impact of high volume hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” in the Marcellus Shale. The ordinance was challenged by Anschutz Exploration Corporation, an oil and gas exploration company that owned leases covering approximately 22,200 acres of land in the Town of Dryden. Anschutz – which later assigned its interest in the leases to Norse, the appellant in the case – argued that Dryden’s ordinance was preempted by a provision of New York’s Oil, Gas, and Solution Mining Law (the “OGSML”), which states that the OGSML supersedes “all local laws or ordinances relating to the regulation of the oil, gas and solution mining industries . . . .” New York Environmental Conservation Law 23-0303(2). Anschutz (and later Norse) argued that this preemption clause prevents municipalities from using their zoning powers to ban fracking within their borders, while Dryden argued that the zoning provision was not the type of regulation targeted for preemption by the OGSML.
Since the OGSML does not define what it means by “regulation of the oil, gas and solution mining industries”, the court in Norse Energy Corporation examined the legislative history of the law in order to determine whether the Town’s zoning ordinance fell within the ambit of the preemption clause. The court ultimately concluded that the OGSML was aimed at “insur[ing] uniform statewide standards and procedures with respect to the technical operational activities of the oil, gas and mining industries”, and not to regulate where those activities could take place. Hence the OGSML would preempt a local law that attempted to regulate the actual operation of a natural gas well, but, the court held, it did not “usurp the authority traditionally delegated to municipalities to establish permissible and prohibited uses of land within their jurisdictions.”
This decision has important implications for fracking in New York State. According to Earthjustice, an environmental group involved in the litigation, over 150 municipalities in New York have passed zoning ordinances banning or restricting fracking within their borders; in fact, a similar ordinance passed by the town of Middlefield was upheld by the same court on the same day. Another group, FracTracker, has compiled a table of municipal zoning actions on fracking in New York state, showing 55 bans and 105 moratoria on fracking, as well as several municipalities that have passed resolutions in favor of fracking. The Norse Energy Corporation decision could encourage other municipalities to pass their own zoning resolutions restricting or banning fracking within their borders.
For more information about hydraulic fracturing and zoning matters, please contact Steve Barshov.
April 12, 2013
On April 9, 2013, the New York City Council unanimously approved a proposal to redevelop the historic Pier 57 within Hudson River Park, at the foot of West 15th Street in Manhattan. This followed approval by the City Planning Commission in March, and the environmental review of the project by the Hudson River Park Trust (“HRPT”) and other agencies, through the preparation of an environmental impact statement (“EIS”). SPR is serving as HRPT’s environmental counsel for the Pier 57 redevelopment, continuing the Firm’s representation of Hudson River Park since its establishment in the 1990s.
Pier 57, which was constructed in the early 1950s and comprises three underwater caissons, a head house and a pier shed, is listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places. It has been vacant since the 1990s. Developer Youngwoo & Associates proposes to lease the Pier from HRPT in order to redevelop it with an urban marketplace (using repurposed shipping containers for small food- and design-oriented retail businesses), restaurants, a large rooftop open space, and public circulation space around the perimeter of the pier. The project may also include cultural space, an educational facility, and a marina.
SPR principals David Paget and Elizabeth Knauer have been advising HRPT regarding all environmental aspects of the project, including preparation of the EIS, consultation with the State Historic Preservation Office, and obtaining environmental permits for work that will be needed within the Hudson River. This representation is the latest example of the firm’s longstanding work on major New York City waterfront developments, dating back to the South Street Seaport and Battery Park City projects and continuing with more recent projects such as Queens West, Brooklyn Bridge Park, the redevelopment of the Battery Maritime Building and Pier A in lower Manhattan, the Whole Foods store and Domino Sugar Refinery redevelopment in Brooklyn, and the proposed expansion of the New York Container Terminal in Staten Island.
April 11, 2013
Last week, at a conference co-sponsored by SPR, government officials, academics, attorneys, and scientists convened at Hofstra University to discuss the legal and practical consequences of Superstorm Sandy. Expert panels addressed the following questions:
- How can local governments physically modify their transportation, power, and sanitary infrastructure to adapt to the impacts of climate change, and by what legal mechanisms?
- Are massive floodgates feasible and desirable for the protection of the New York metropolitan area? Or do “soft” barriers such as man-made wetlands represent a better alternative?
- What planning and land use concepts can be used to encourage smart real estate development that responds to climate change risks?
- Will claims of “scientific uncertainty” hinder climate change adaptation efforts to the same extent that similar claims have hindered climate change mitigation efforts?
- Where and how should coastal communities be rebuilt? What is the legal framework for government-led “strategic retreat” from the coast?
- How may relief be obtained from FEMA? How may relief be obtained from insurance companies?
- What federal, state, and local government programs are available to homeowners and businesses to aid recovery?
- What resources are available to help individual homeowners who have lost everything in the storm? What has been the experience in New York’s underprivileged communities, and can that be improved?
The conference was chaired by SPR principal Michael Bogin and Hofstra Law Professor Carol Casazza Herman, with critical support from SPR principal Pamela Esterman. SPR principal Steven Barshov participated as a lecturer, focusing on the integration of infrastructure resilience into planning and development.
Sponsors of the conference were the American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources, the New York State Bar Association, and SPR.
For more information on Sandy recovery or climate change adaptation in the context of development, please contact Michael Bogin, Steven Barshov, or David Yudelson.
Conference speakers: (L-R) Professor Katrina Kuh, Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University; Associate Dean Jennifer Gundlach, Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University; Dean Eric Lane, Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University; Nassau County Supervisor Ed Mangano; SPR Principal Michael Bogin; Professor Carol Casazza Herman, Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University.
March 15, 2013
On April 4, 2013, experts in environmental law, environmental policy, local government, planning, engineering, and environmental science will convene at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY to discuss lessons learned in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. This conference will examine the significant flaws that Sandy revealed in New York’s housing, transit and electric power systems and infrastructure, and the legal implications of addressing those vulnerabilities and climate-change-related impacts. The panelists will discuss how making communities more resilient will require a rethinking of physical changes to the environment and also a reconsideration of local, federal and state land use and environmental laws and regulations. Insurance and risk management have played, and will continue to play, a central role in response and recovery; those topics, as well as sources of funding for rebuilding and mitigation, will also be addressed.
The conference is co-sponsored by Sive, Paget & Riesel, P.C., the American Bar Association Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources, and the New York State Bar Association. SPR principals Steven Barshov, Michael Bogin, and Pamela Esterman will participate in the conference as co-chairs, moderators, and speakers.
For more information about the conference and to register, please visit the conference website.
March 3, 2013
On February 4, 2013, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (“DEC”) issued a draft Commissioner’s Policy setting forth incentives for businesses to police themselves for potential environmental violations. The draft Environmental Audit Incentive Policy, the first formal proposed change in DEC penalty and compliance policies in at least ten years, signals a willingness on the agency’s part to work with regulated entities to reduce the costs of enforcement for both government and business. The policy would expand upon, and supersede, an earlier policy which was limited to small businesses, CP-19: Small Business Self-Disclosure Policy.
Highlights of the proposed policy are set forth below:
- Regulated entities that voluntarily disclose a violation or suspected violation within 30 days from discovery and correct the violation within the 60 days from disclosure will receive a waiver of the gravity component of their penalties if they are otherwise eligible for penalty mitigation, subject to variations in the above time frames as required by law or specified in an agreement with DEC.
- New owners of regulated entities are given a longer disclosure period of 60 days from discovery.
- An entity that enters into a comprehensive environmental audit agreement with DEC becomes eligible to apply for a number of state-sponsored financial incentives, including assistance for the cost of compliance.
- An entity that enters into a comprehensive environmental audit agreement with DEC and implements an environmental management system also receives a reduction in the economic benefit component of any penalty arising out of a disclosure, commensurate with the amount the entity commits to investing in pollution prevention at the facility.
The policy explicitly announces that it does not apply to criminal violations, does not create rights enforceable by any party, and does not restrict the authority or enforcement discretion of the Commissioner. The proposed policy sets forth ways in which the agency may exercise its discretion not to bestow the policy’s benefits on a given entity:
- The policy excludes regulated entities deemed to have a “history of non-compliance.”
- The policy excludes violations evidencing past noncompliance, violations reported by members of the public, violations discovered through DEC inspections, and violations legally required to be self-reported.
- The policy excludes violations “resulting in a natural resources damage claim, serious actual harm, or one that may have presented an imminent and substantial endangerment to human health or the environment.”
The draft Environmental Audit Incentive Policy is available for public review and comment until April 22, 2013. Written comments may be addressed to
Office of General Counsel
Albany, NY 12233-1500
For more information about DEC’s draft Environmental Audit Incentive Policy, please contact Michael Lesser.
February 8, 2013
In an order dated January 16, 2013, Judge Eileen Rakower of the New York State Supreme Court dismissed an Article 78 petition challenging the Hudson River Park Trust’s lease of an easement for a portion of a natural gas pipeline entering Manhattan through Hudson River Park. The lease – along with the pipeline’s route into Manhattan – was challenged by several environmental groups and individuals, who argued that the Trust was required to conduct an environmental review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (“SEQRA”) of the pipeline and its connection to Con Edison’s pipeline network. The petitioners also argued that leasing an easement beneath the Park violated the public trust doctrine and provisions of the Hudson River Park Act that restrict the uses to which certain areas of the Park may be put.
Judge Rakower first noted that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) had analyzed the environmental impacts of the proposed pipeline under the National Environmental Policy Act and issued an Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”). That EIS concluded that the local pipeline connection to Con Edison’s network was outside of FERC’s jurisdiction, but nevertheless gave some consideration to the cumulative impacts of connection to Con Edison’s network. After issuing the EIS, FERC approved the route of the pipeline through Hudson River Park. The Trust then negotiated the challenged lease with the pipeline developer.
Judge Rakower concluded that, under the federal Natural Gas Act, FERC had exclusive jurisdiction over the siting of the pipeline, and that any challenges to the siting decision – or the Trust’s lease of the right-of-way through Hudson River Park in accord with that decision – must be brought in federal court. Judge Rakower also ruled that state-law environmental review of the pipeline under SEQRA was preempted by the Natural Gas Act. The court therefore dismissed the petition.
For more information on the Court’s decision, contact Elizabeth Knauer.
February 1, 2013
On January 9, Governor Andrew Cuomo delivered his 2013 State of the State Address and outlined several key policy initiatives to facilitate the increased deployment of solar power in New York. The address announced the governor’s intent to (1) extend the state’s NY-Sun solar program at $150 million annually for the next 10 years, (2) appoint a cabinet-level “energy czar” to coordinate the administration’s energy policy, and (3) create a $1 billion “NY Green Bank” to leverage public monies with private sector funds in order to increase investment in renewable energy projects in New York.
“The economy of tomorrow is the clean tech economy,” the governor observed in his address. “We all know it, it’s a foot race – whatever state, whatever region gets there first wins the prize, and we want it to be New York.”
The 2013 State of the State Report that accompanied the address provides further details. To start, the NY-Sun program, originally announced in Cuomo’s 2012 State of the State Address, is designed to increase the state’s solar generation capacity. To that end, NY-Sun has thus far taken the form of a variety of legislative and administrative policy measures, including tax credits, grants, and permitting reforms. NY-Sun presently is authorized through 2015; Cuomo proposes to extend the program’s present funding levels through 2023.
The governor has recruited Richard Kauffman to join his cabinet as the state’s new “energy czar.” Kauffman, whose formal title will be Chairman for Energy Policy and Finance for New York State, previously worked as senior advisor to U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, and is a leading expert on private sector investment in renewable energy.
Cuomo’s proposed NY Green Bank would “serve a coordinating role to enhance the collective strength of all State clean energy programs,” which together spend $1.4 billion annually. According to the report, the Green Bank would seek to move beyond these programs’ present reliance on “one-time subsidies” by using tools like “bonding, loans and various credit enhancements (e.g, loan loss reserves and guarantees)” to “leverag[e] private capital” and “catalyz[e] market activity.” As the report notes, Connecticut passed legislation creating a similar entity, the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority, in 2011.
Individuals and small businesses in New York can take advantage of the NY-Sun Initiative in several ways. For example, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) administers the NY-Sun Competitive Photovoltaic Program, which provides grants supporting the development of qualifying photovoltaic projects. In 2013, NYSERDA will accept grant applications in two rounds, with deadlines of March 14th and August 29th. Additionally, the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) recently initiated New York’s first feed-in tariff program, the Clean Solar Initiative Feed-In Tariff. Under this program, LIPA will pay a fixed rate to owners of qualifying photovoltaic generation systems for every solar kilowatt-hour generated over a fixed term.
Older Posts » | <urn:uuid:d338dab8-000f-4c65-981d-19aae52889d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.sprlaw.com/category/nyenvilaw/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935037 | 3,479 | 1.640625 | 2 |
This question already has an answer here:
- Learn algebra and interpretation of QM 2 answers
I had self-studied Griffiths(~ 4 chapters), and Sakurai (~2.5 chapters) for quantum mechanics some months ago. Now, I have to take a course in QM this sem, and I want to further my understanding of basic QM. I am looking for a textbook that is more advanced than the one mentioned above, possibly more mathematically inclined, and that will give me a different perspective. In particular I am looking for a book that is more modern and discusses QM, through examples in modern theoretical physics. Also, I have been trying to study QFT, but I think I lack in my understanding of QM, and don't have enough intuition (I don't know if it is possible to develop physical intuition in QM. But I at least want to develop some kind of mathematical intuition).
One book that comes to mind is Ballentine - Modern QM. But I went through it, and I didn't find it that detailed. So, it would be great if you could recommend some other book.
I also know about Cohen-tannoudji et al, and I don't quite like it.
Some online concise notes, that give a different perspective would also do. | <urn:uuid:b07206fd-f5da-4124-af17-199dbcd7bd97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/51295/different-perspective-in-quantum-mechanics/51303 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974912 | 271 | 1.90625 | 2 |
Carl Frankel begins his book with a deeply personal tragedy: the brutal murder of his parents during a robbery. He then takes us on a journey of illumination that shines a light not just on our own personal suffering and striving, but on that of the entire planet.
Out of the Labyrinth is both personal quest for understanding and general commentary on the state of humanity in the current culture of chaos and confusion. The subtitle sums up both the direction and intention of this profound book – “Who We Are, How We Go Wrong and What We Can Do About It.” How did we, as a species, become so lost and out of touch with the deepest part of who we are? And how do we get back that lost connection?
Describing in detail both a materialistic and spiritual system out of balance, Frankel, a journalist and nationally-known speaker and consultant specializing in sustainable living, offers up some paradigm-shifting concepts about how that imbalance is occurring. Using a system he calls Triad Dynamics, he describes how we as humans basically live in three worlds, and how we tend to favor and ignore one or more of the three. These three worlds - the objective domain, the social domain, and the least understood and most ignored depth dimension - make up the foundation of our humanity.
The author shows through various examples how we live in a culture that tends to favor either the objective, the social, or both, while mostly ignoring, denying or vilifying the depth dimension, where Frankel sees the most potential for true healing and empowerment. Because of our focus on the material world and our social interactions, we often forget we have a deeper life, one filled with light and shadows, that tends to be set aside entirely as we race to keep our conscious (and materialistic) outer-focused mind filled and satisfied (or at least numbed and dumbed into thinking it is satisfied).
Until we break out of, as Frankel puts it, our “dark enchantment” and confront the depth dimension individually and collectively, we will see the world around us continue to thrive on violence, destruction of the planet, hatred, division and turmoil. This book is a powerful wake-up call to pay closer attention to the imbalances within as well as without.
But all is not hopeless, for we are given plenty of useful information on how to live with more integrity and how to demand that our government and corporate leaders become equally responsible to this integral way of life, so that balance can be restored and we can find our way out of the labyrinth and into the clear light of day. My favorite chapter discusses the personal and political aspects of living with a deep integrity, and how many companies are striving to do just that.
Both social commentary and inspiring visionary guide for those who give a damn, Out of the Labyrinth is a thoughtful and moving book that will stay in your mind long after you finish, mainly because you begin to see evidence of your own dark enchantment, and your own longing for a more intergral life. This new perception, this paradigm shift, is proof that the author has done his job well. I highly recommend this enlightening book. | <urn:uuid:b6cac40d-72b4-4081-94b8-6f58b8aafa66> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.curledup.com/outoflab.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947294 | 643 | 1.921875 | 2 |
See also: Excursions in Ingeniero Jacobacci
This small town has 5000 inhabitants and it is located in the center of the Patagonian Plateau.
The railway line arrived in 1917 when there was only a small group of houses called Huahuel Niyeu, later baptized as Ingeniero Jacobacci so as to pay homage to the person in charge of building the railway line from San Antonio Oeste to San Carlos de Bariloche.
This is the most important locality of the area. The Línea sur of the Province of Río Negro is made up by several towns that are not far from Jacobacci: Los Menucos, Maquinchao, Onelli, Sierra Colorada, Ramos Mexía, Aguada Cecilio and Comallo, among others. All of them have emerged and developed due to the train and to the extensive sheep breeding. Most of the inhabitants of this town descend from Mapuche aborigines and there is a large number of Syrian and Lebanese.
They also exploit diatomite rock, a white, soft, siliceous sedimentary rock that is used for whitening, filtering and as insulation material for many industries.
Jacobacci used to be where the Old Patagonian Express 'La Trochita¨ ended its route. Unfortunately, nowadays the service is reduced to the Esquel-El Maitén track. However, there are projects to restore the original rail track.
Visit the “Jorge Gerhold” Natural, anthropology and historical Museum where you will be able to see different mammal fossils, giant arrowheads, a ceremonial axe, skulls of different Patagonian species and regional documents. The Fossil Trunk Square (Plaza de Troncos Fósiles) is a green space with petrified trunks. In the intersection of the Roldán and Curtizu streets, there is the Ñumican Crafts Center where there are wonderful knitting works following the Mapuche traditions.
The Michay Festival (Fiesta del Michay), the bush with yellow flowers and blue fruits, takes place in February. | <urn:uuid:c287630d-831b-4895-bf5b-578e108e06ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.patagonia-argentina.com/i/central/jacobacci/jacobacci.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927934 | 435 | 2.640625 | 3 |
OECD Home › Science and technology › By Country › Germany
The OECD STI Outlook provides profiles of the science and innovation performance of each OECD country and certain non-members in relation to their national context and policy issues. The graphs enable countries to see some of their relative strengths and weaknesses compared to other countries.&l
For many of today’s new biomedical innovations, the distinctions between different forms of medical products such as drugs, diagnostics and devices no longer apply. Biomedicine also tends to realize its potential today through process innovation, even more than product innovation.
What impact has the crisis had on innovation and spending on research and development? How can innovation help to solve environmental and social threats? The OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2009 provides the data and analysis to answer these questions.
Summarises proceedings of a conference looking at examples of human genetic research databases, how they are established, how they are managed and governed, how they might be commercialised, and what the policy considerations might be.
This publication examines the innovation system in pharmaceutical biotechnology in eight OECD countries. Based on rich evidence, it draws policy recommendations to foster innovation in biopharmaceuticals advocating an integrated policy approach.
English, , 17kb
This note summarises recent developments in science, technology and innovation in Germany.
Investment in information technologies has by no means been confined to the United States and yet, average European or Japanese growth experience has been quite different.
Regulatory Developments in Xenotransplantation in Germany. | <urn:uuid:47b66fb2-b0a9-425a-bb98-fe24f744f58e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oecd.org/science/bycountry/germany/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921531 | 315 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Our recent big data benchmark research confirmed that big data storage technologies continue to follow many approaches, including appliances, Hadoop, and in-memory and specialized DBMSes. With the variety, velocity and volume of big data being part of today’s information architecture, and the potential for big data to be a source to feed other systems, integration should be a top priority.
Many organizations that have already deployed big data technology now struggle to access, transform, transport and load information using conventional technology. Even replication or migration of data from existing sources can be troublesome, requiring custom programming and manual processing, which are always a tax on resources and time. Barriers such as having data spread across too many applications and systems, which our benchmark research found in 67 percent of organizations, do not go away just because an organization is using big data technology; in fact, they get more complicated.
However, big data also creates opportunities to use information to innovate and to improve business processes. To avoid the risks and take advantage of the opportunities, organizations need efficient processes and effective technology that makes information drawn from big data available to all people who need it.
Organizations need integration technology flexible enough to handle big data regardless of whether it originates in the enterprise or across the Internet. For this reason, tools for big data integration must be able to work with a range of underlying architectures and data technologies, including appliances, flat files, Hadoop, in-memory computing and conventional databases, and move data seamlessly between relational and non-relational structures. They must be able to adapt to events or streams of data, and they must harvest data from transactional systems and business applications in enterprise data warehouses. Supporting data quality and master data management needs is also part of supporting big data with data integration.
Selecting the right approach to big data integration is difficult when organizations lack knowledge of the functional requirements and best practices relevant to their industries, lines of business and IT. Deficiencies in existing software and data environments can further complicate the ability to choose wisely and so should be factored into the deployment decision-making process. Organizations must identify the types of integration being used or under consideration to handle data other than that formatted for relational databases, and evaluate processing capabilities and techniques to handle the proliferation of big data. IT professionals therefore must understand how to work with analysts and business management to deliver timely, benefit-based big data deployments.
IT should evaluate whether it can use existing skills to shorten the time it takes to get big data to users. Since our research has found lack of resources to be the top barrier to using innovative technology, according to 51 percent of organizations, businesses should make sure their IT staff does everything possible to maximize skills and resources internally and not waste them on custom, manual siloes of effort. Having the right data integration processes and data management methods can help IT work more efficiently and partner better with the business units.
Not having a dialogue about what information management competencies a business needs is a mistake. I have seen most IT industry analyst firms’ content deal with just a portion of the big data picture, discussing for example just the technologies for storing and accessing data, with a fixation on variety, velocity and volume. However, decision-makers must consider the efficient flow of data across its entire path of travel, from its origins to user systems, to ensure the effective functioning of any big data project. Failure to do that means failing to optimize information across its life-cycle for business value. Without the ability see the entire big data value chain, a business may find its initiatives exceed available limits of cost and time and damage a business case built on time-to-value metrics. According to our research, the most important benefits of big data technologies include retaining and analyzing more data (74%) and increasing the speed of analysis (70%). Organizations need to make sure they do not increase the number of manual processes they run and the time spent on them, thus impairing the value of big data.
We have begun research to assess the latest big data integration technologies and best practices to help advance these efforts, as we outlined in our research agenda on big data and information optimization for 2013. We will document emerging best practices in big data integration to meet business needs, from basic access and replication to transformational migration. Until we can share our results, be sure to consider big data integration as part of your business case and project, because it is essential to gaining the most value from your big data investments.
This blog originally appeared at Ventana Research. | <urn:uuid:52413083-386e-41cf-8e96-29d3afe5e5c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.information-management.com/blogs/big-data-pointless-without-integration-10023993-1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925151 | 917 | 2.578125 | 3 |
January 15, 2013
Contact: John Ascenzi, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 267-426-6055 or email@example.com
Genetics researchers have identified 25 additional number variations (CNVs)—missing or duplicated stretches of DNA—that occur in some patients with autism. These CNVs, say the researchers, are “high impact”: although individually rare, each has a strong effect in raising an individual’s risk for autism.
“Many of these gene variants may serve as valuable predictive markers,” said the study’s corresponding author, Hakon Hakonarson, MD, PhD, director of the Center for Applied Genomics at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “If so, they may become part of a clinical test that will help evaluate whether a child has an autism spectrum disorder.”
Hakonarson collaborated with scientists from the University of Utah and the biotechnology company Lineagen, Inc., in the study, published Jan. 14 in the journal PLOS ONE.
The current study builds on and extends previous gene research by Hakonarson and other scientists on autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), a group of childhood neurodevelopmental disorders that cause impairments in verbal communication, social interaction and behavior. Estimated by the CDC to affect as many as one in 88 U.S. children, ASDs are known from family studies to be strongly influenced by genetics.
In the current study, the researchers first analyzed DNA from 55 individuals from Utah families with multiple members diagnosed with ASDs. Study co-author Mark Leppert, PhD, of the University of Utah, had collected the data from these high-risk families. The team identified 153 CNVs as potentially specific to autism.
To investigate these CNVs in a broader ASD population, the study team custom-designed a DNA array with probes for those 153 CNVs, as well as for another 185 CNVs previously reported to be associated with autism. They then analyzed the actual prevalence of all the CNVs in a larger sample set of 3,000 ASD cases and 6,000 control subjects previously gathered in studies by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
The researchers found that 15 of the CNVs found in the family studies, in addition to nine other CNVs found by their custom array, all had odds ratios greater than 2.0, meaning that subjects with those variants had at least two-fold increased risk of having an ASD, compared to controls. Another 31 CNVs previously reported to be associated with autism also had odds ratios above 2.0.
These findings, said Hakonarson, could be incorporated into clinical tests for evaluating children for ASDs. “These high-impact variants could be most useful in advising parents who already have one child with an ASD,” said Hakonarson. “If a second child has delays in reaching developmental milestones, testing for these CNVs could help predict whether that child is also likely to develop an ASD.” He added that the newly identified variants would need to be added to the existing commercially available diagnostic array in current use.
The CNVs detected in the current study, Hakonarson said, occur in genes involved in neuronal development and signaling pathways—reinforcing similar findings by Hakonarson and colleagues in their ASD-related genomic research published in 2009.
“Many of these gene pathways active in ASDs overlap with those in other nervous system disorders, such as schizophrenia and epilepsy,” he added. “At the same time, our results are consistent with other studies suggesting that many different biological pathways, when disrupted, can lead to ASDs.” Hakonarson concluded that further research may help establish whether the CNVs reported in the current study may be categorized by how they contribute to specific clinical subtypes of ASDs.
The Autism Genetic Resource Exchange (AGRE) Consortium provided resources for this study. In addition to his position at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Hakonarson also is on the faculty of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Matsunami N, Hadley D, Hensel CH, Christensen GB, Kim C, et al. (2013) “Identification of Rare Recurrent Copy Number Variants in High-Risk Autism Families and Their Prevalence in a Large ASD Population,” PLOS ONE 8(1): e52239. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0052239 | <urn:uuid:6cfd9a66-371a-4f10-aec9-c6b5ffca9d8f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chop.edu/news/new-autism-related-gene-variants-discovered.html?calYear=2013&calMonth=2&calDay=16&range=month&view=events | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944973 | 929 | 2.8125 | 3 |
In this gripping chronicle of the never-ending conflict between the heart and the mind - and the pain and passion of true romance - Emily Brontë created an unforgettable classic saga of love, desperation, vengeance, and forgiveness. Published just one year before Brontë's death in 1848 at the age of 30, Wuthering Heights endures as one of the world's greatest love stories and a classic of English literature.
"It is as if Emily Brontë could tear up all that we know human beings by, and fill these unrecognizable transparencies with such a gust of life that they transcend reality." (Virginia Woolf)
I read so I can write
I'm not sure of it was the narrator or just the book itself, but though I really love this book and have read it several times, I didn't enjoy the audio that much.
For being called a classic and a must read by many, it was not quite what I expected. At least as far as the story is concerned. I didn't feel like it was really a love story. Yes, there were some parts about love, but to me it seemed more a story of hate and revenge for being supposedly denied the love long wished for. Quite frankly I think both Heathcliff and Catharine were being petty and foolish. Heathcliff especially. He goes around blaming others for the consequences of the choices he makes. That just isn't right. I did not sympathize with him at all. Nor Catherine or any of the other characters. Maybe it's just my own taste and view of what love is. But like I said, this story is more centered around hate and revenge than it is love. At least now I can say that I have listened to one more classic.
An old broad that enjoys books of all types. Would rather read than write reviews though. I know what I like, and won't be bothered by crap.
I love the overall atmosphere of this story. It's quite different from the original Laurence Olivier-Merle Oberon movie. ( I haven't seen the latest reincarnation.) Cathy Earnshaw is not in half of the book and new characters that I didn't know come to life.
I compare this to Dracula as a mood piece. Even though one is much more paranormal, this book has it's share of weird goings on.
She is quite good at the accents. My only problem is her Heathcliff was a bit of a dullard, only complaint. She does a wonderful Nellie Deane and Joseph.
I cry during the movie every time I see it. This book didn't make me cry so it didn't have the same impact on me. Wonderful story though.
I loved this audio book from the very first sentence. The speaker held my attention throughout the entire novel. To feel Heathcliffe and Catherine's pain in every word. It was fantastic to see in the end how their relationship would have been in a better world through Catherine and Hinton. I think that is what eventualy made peace in Heathcliffe's heart. It was a wonderful foil to have the daughter of Catherine and the son of Heathcliffe the exact opposite of themselves. Catherine was so weak and Heathcliffe was so strong. I will listen to this audio book more than once. It was fantastic.
"Hi My name is Ali and I'm an Audible addict." "Hi Ali!"
The story line is the first and a classic. A soap opera for it's day. Despite this, the writing is melodramatic and the character development is over dramatic but not very deep. One can go through the abnormal psychology book and list diagnosis for the characters. The audio is fine, not great but fine. I am pleased I purchased it, in the same vain as eating my spinach. I believe I did or accomplished something good --good for me to have been exposed too.
I did not enjoy the audible. The book is a great story, intense emotions, dramatic, dark. the recording was very easy to understand every word, but the emotion was lacking. also i would have preferred a man's voice tell this story, after all, it is told by a male guest at the home of Heathcliff.
the emotional intensity between Heathcliff and Catherine--that they did not openly admit to each other when they should have. as a result there was a lot of pain and suffering.
the emotion was lacking. Her voice was nice. the story is not. it is dark, with hostile moments.it needs to be read with fire, and in a strong, gruff voice
Narrator did a first rate job on a very good story.
Wuthering Heights is the first book narrated by Anne Flosnik to which I have listened.
Runs with scissors.
How can anyone who has read Jane Eyre (or ANY other Bronte novel for that matter) call this depressing tale of a group of petty, misguided, abusive, intolerent and hostile people "the greatest love story ever"? I am confused. Maybe its because these people are more "realistic" in their view? I have no idea, what I do know is that I felt little or no compassion in my heart for anyone in this tale as they all came off as ugly, petty and self centered. I have no idea what the literary powers that be proclaim about the book, I am sure it is adored for its bleak outlook on 18th century life but I think a book can be bleak and still give us sympathetic characters we can actually like. This one failed miserably and should more accurately be described as "what can happen if you are black hearted and evil, or a selfish petulant brat with ill luck and think you know what love is".
Love to read, and Audible has made the two-hour daily commute enjoyable!
I read before as a teenager and thought Heathcliffe was misunderstood and mistreated. A dark, brooding, romantic hero. I had forgotten how horrible and cruel he becomes.
This book was a fun surprise. It is dark and gothic - the eeriness of the atmosphere and depth of characters is delicious.
Anne Flosnik's narration was wonderful.
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|Other Egyptian Gods|
Tefnut was the Egyptian goddess of moisture and water, particularly in the sky and near the Nile.
Tefnut's name is made up from the roots tef, meaning 'to spit' or 'to be moist' and nu, meaning 'sky' or 'waters'. This not only confirms her status as a goddess of moisture, but also establishes her as a consort and counterpart to her brother, Shu, by also being related to the sky.
She was mostly shown either as a lioness, or as a woman with the head of a lioness. Her status as an Eye of Ra meant that she often wore the sun disk on her head. She also held a sceptre and ankh, symbols of power and life. Sometimes she was shown in a similar position to Ma'at, helping Shu to hold the sky (Nut) up from the earth (Geb). Most other times she simply was shown lying horizontally between them, representing the moisture in the air.
Tefnut, with Shu plays a central part in the creation myths of Heliopolis and Thebes. In both myths she is the female counterpart of Shu, whose important role it was to become the first mother, initiating the sexual cycle of creation and giving birth to Nut and Geb. This automatically made her a goddess of fertility, as were most ancient godforms connected with water. Water was particularly important to Egyptian life, as the country received little rain and survived mostly through the annual inundation. Therefore, Tefnut was seen as at least partially responsible in keeping Egyptians alive.
Initially, Tefnut was the left eye of Ra - the moon. The rain, dew and moisture she governed was primarily associated with the night, as the Egyptian climate was too warm to see rain last in the daytime. Shu's tenuous link to sunlight gave some people more reason to see her as a lunar goddess, by making her Shu's opposite.
However, as Ra became increasingly merged with Atum, Tefnut became a solar goddess. She was now a daughter of Ra and thus an Eye of Ra with the form of a fiery lioness. She also became associated with the uraeus, an image of a snake curling around the sun disk which often symbolised Ra. Eventually, Tefnut could even represent the opposite of moisture, threatening Egypt with dryness and heat.
Tefnut is central in the Ennead creation myth of Heliopolis, and plays a similar role in the creation myth of Thebes. In Memphis she was called the "Tongue of Ptah", who helped the creator god carry out his will.
One of the most famous myths involving Tefnut, aside from the Ennead creation story, is where she argues with her father, Atum-Ra. Tefnut angrily runs to Nubia, taking all of Egypt's moisture with her. Egypt suffered a severe drought while Tefnut, as a lioness, killed anyone who came near her in Nubia. Ra missed Tefnut and despaired in the chaos Egypt had fallen into without water, and so sent Shu and Thoth to retrieve her. Thoth disguised himself and persuaded her to return, whereupon she blessed each city with the inundation and returned to her father as his Eye. This myth underlines Tefnut's importance to life in the Egyptian mind, as well as going some way to explaining Tefnut's role as an Eye of Ra and in the inundation.
Tefnut and Shu, unlike most other prominent Egyptian deities, does not seem to have any centre of worship, or any known temples dedicated to either of them, together or separately. Iunet had a district named "The House of Tefnut". She is only known to have been worshipped as part of the early Ennead worship at Iunu, which later gave the Ennead cult status as the town grew into sprawling city the Greeks called Heliopolis.
Akenaten and his wife Nefertiti were said to have initially tried to depict themselves as Shu and Tefnut on earth. This did not appear to be widely accepted by Egyptians, which some historians speculate led to Akenaten's pushing forward of a more monotheistic worship of Aten, the sun disk.
- Ancient Egypt: the Mythology - Tefnut
- Crystalinks.com: Tefnut
- Tour Egypt: Tefnut
- Wikipedia: Tefnut (2005)
- This page was originally sourced from Thelemapedia. Retrieved May 2009. | <urn:uuid:27587e7a-8534-4b80-9acb-43f3989da4b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lashtal.com/wiki/Tefnut | 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 | 0.984804 | 944 | 3.21875 | 3 |
After messing around with overclocking on an AMD Athlon X2 3600+, I was wondering exactly how accurate the lm-sensors application is. When I first installed it, I was overclocked at about 2415MHz, which was 254MHz x 10 according to my motherboard, and at 1.400v (from 1840MHz and about 1.300v I THINK). The sensors told me that my processor temperature was only 22 degrees Celsius, which is pretty low, so I figured I had quite a bit of headroom to overclock. I pushed it just a little further, till I got to about 260MHz x 10, where it wouldn't start up.
Well, I tried to go back to a slightly lower clock speed, but now I cannot boot unless I am even lower than the speed I had before; now I am at 248 x 10 bringing me to 2381MHz and cannot go any higher. The temperature is now 24 degrees celsius, with the same apps running when I first checked the temperature.
Did I damage my processor? Is lm-sensors 100% correct? Or was I stupid and did I just overestimate how far I could overclock?
Its probably too high htt or too high memory clock that its keeping you back.
Your cpu may also need more than 1.4 volt to climb in mhz. But you should not increase it beyond 1.4 volt if using stock heatsink.
And the lm sensors are probably very wrong as 24 degrees sound way too low.
What MOBO are you using? Chances are lm-sensors is reading the sensors from the cores (not the CPU temp. reading from the BIOS). The sensors on the cores are not accurate. No way the cores idle at below ambient and load just a few degrees above (unless you're running some extreme cooling). This seems to be a bug on Brisbane cores. You're better off reading the temperatures from your BIOS (the general CPU reading) and have a small Windows partition for any overclocking you want to do (to monitor temperatures and stuff).
I still have the stock heatsink on this processor, and I am not running any "extreme" cooling really, just my case's 3x120mm fans.
I am using a Gigabyte M55SLI-S4 motherboard.
Regarding the Windows partition for overclocking, would running Windows in a VM such as Virtualbox suffice? I have heard bad things about Windows destroying GRUB or something if you don't install it before you install any Linux distros.
Actually it does. If you install Windows after any Linux installatiom, the Windows installer will "disable" all other partitions (it just won't recognize them). Running it in a VM will not do (I don't think) since the sensors will have nothing to read (it's a VM after all).
Does lm-sensors not detect any other sensors? When I was running an nforce4 lm-sensors detected the core sensors, as well as the sensors from the motherboard. Lm-sensors doesn't seem to like my X580 so the only readings I get are from the cores (which are useless for Brisbanes).
Lm-sensors also detects four instances of core sensors on my Brisbane, but none of them seem to be copies of another. Simply odd if you ask me. As for the other temps., check your BIOS and see what kind of readings it has, and then try to match them with the temp1, temp2, temp3 readings. I bet temp3 is your CPU reading, and temp1 the system reading. Temp2 seems odd because it's negative, so I would discard that one.
After checking the BIOS, it stated my "system temperature" at about 27 degrees celsius and my "processor temperature" at about 38 degrees celsius. So, lm-sensors is reading the wrong temperature (I guess?).
Hopefully there's a fix for this soon. :/
Also, if I do (and I do) want to overclock further, what would be a decent aftermarket heatsink for a processor? I obviously don't want to spend TOO much, as anything over $60 will just buy me a faster processor :P.
Or would I be better off just investing in a higher model processor?
For around $50 you can get a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme, which is probably the best air cooler out there. Cheaper are the Tuniq Tower and regular Ultra120. Keep in mind that the Thermalright coolers don't come with a fan. | <urn:uuid:8d56730e-b33a-40f1-8cb0-3ef3affad595> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?992-Need-advice-for-an-upgrade&goto=nextoldest | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956233 | 956 | 1.671875 | 2 |
These are the heart-rending images of a dolphin carrying her dead baby out to sea.
The pictures were taken by tourists in China's Guangxi Zhuang region, an area known for of its dolphin-watching tours.
The mammals' mourning ritual is rarely seen - and it is even more rare for it to be caught on camera.
The adult dolphin repeatedly lifted the dead calf to the surface, as if helping it to breathe. It was also moving the calf away from the shore, heading for deeper water.
A large gash was seen across the calf's belly, and it is possible the infant was killed by the propeller of a boat. Ironically, it may have been one of the many boats that take tourists out for day trips.
Researchers have observed dolphins carrying or pushing stillborn calves or those that die in their infancy. The dolphins show distress and can stay with the dead baby for several days.
Mourning rituals in the animal kingdom have also been observed in whales, elephants, chimps and gorillas.
While experts are reluctant to attribute human emotions to animals, the behaviour seems to show that dolphins are at least aware of their mortality - and may even contemplate their eventual death.
Heartbreaking: A dolphin carries the body of a dead calf, undoubtedly her own, off the coast of the Guangxi Zhuang region, in China. The 'mourning ritual' is rarely caught on camera
Researcher Joan Gonzalvo, of the Tethys Research Institute, observed a similar scene in 2006, where a mother was carrying its dead calf on its back. He said that the mother seemed unable to accept the death.
A year later, he witnessed a pod of dolphins trying to help a dying calf - lifting it to the surface and swimming around the sick individual in a frantic and erratic manner.
He told Mother Nature Network: 'My hypothesis is that the sick animal was kept company and given support, and when it died the group had done their job. In this case they had already assumed death would eventually come - they were prepared.'
Dolphins are famed for being highly intelligent and social animals.
Out to deeper water: The dolphin repeatedly lifted the calf out of the water, as if helping it to breathe. It was also taking out to sea, perhaps because it had been killed by a boat closer in to shore
While it is difficult to compare intelligence levels between species, they are certainly considered among the smartest animals on Earth.
They appear to have a complex language, communicating to each other in a series of whistles and clicks, and have a developed social structure.
They travel in pods, which can involve strong bonds between individuals, but pods are not exclusive,. Members can join or leave pods at will. In areas of abundant food, pods can unite to form superpods of more than 1,000 individuals.
They have been observed working together to feed, forming walls of bubbles around their prey to concentrate schools of fish into balls for easier feeding.
As well as looking after their own, dolphins have also been known to protect human beings from shark attacks. Documented cases include dolphins forming a protective ring around swimmers, or charging the sharks, aiming for the fish's gills with their pointed snouts.
A dolphin named Moko was observed guiding a female Pygmy Sperm Whale and her calf away from shallow water off the coast of New Zealand, where they would have been stranded.
Moko also interacted with humans, swimming with them and playing 'fetch' with objects, until he fell foul of locals by becoming too playful and trying to stop swimmers from returning to shore - sometimes keeping them hostage for hours..
Dolphins also display culture, something long believed to be unique to humans.
They use tools, such as incorporating sticks and weeds in mating displays, and have been observed covering their snouts with sea sponges to protect again abrasion while foraging on the sea floor.
This use of tools is what experts refer to as 'learned behaviour', and is passed on from adult to child.
But it's not all fun and games. Dolphins can be capable of extreme aggression. Males almost always bear scars from the equivalent of adolescent fighting.
They are also capable of rape and murder, with regularly documented cases of dolphins killing porpoises off the coast of Scotland. The reason for this is unknown, as porpoises do not share the same diet as dolphins and, as such, pose no threat. | <urn:uuid:af226dc4-8373-42d6-ae7d-82255cee2ea5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.whitewolfpack.com/2012/07/in-mourning-dolphin-photographed.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980082 | 916 | 2.90625 | 3 |
|Research Methods in Nutritional Anthropology (UNU, 1989, 201 pages)|
|6. Elementary mathematical models and statistical methods for nutritional anthropology|
The objective of this paper is to provide a non-rigorous overview of a few elementary mathematical models and analytic techniques that appear to have utility for furthering the goals of nutritional anthropology. Among these goals are recognizing and specifying the conditions under which regularities occur in how people conceptualize, procure, process, distribute, and use food, and the attendant consequences. As in any science, the aim of nutritional anthropology is to provide reliable and valid information in a form suitable for practical use. Striving to achieve these goals entails several operations (not always in this order): observation, concept formation, measurement, enumeration, comparison, classification, proposition formulation, verification, and extrapolation. And these in turn require, among other things, a precise language, logic, and calculus for: (a) defining relations between concepts and variables, and relations between these and empirical phenomena and substantive theory; (b) formulating and verifying propositions; and (c) deriving implications and extrapolations beyond the facts observed. We conjecture that mathematics can meet these needs, for it is simultaneously an abstract, yet precise, language, logic, and calculus for defining the relations among a set of elements. If correspondences between empirical phenomena or substantive theory and mathematical systems can be successfully established, then the full conceptual and analytic power of mathematics can be harnessed and put to use.
The process of mapping empirical data and substantive theory onto abstract, mathematical systems (or the converse) is known as "mathematical modelling." Mathematical models (like other kinds of models, such as toys, games, and maps) are abstract expressions or representations of part of the real world. They consist of statements about relationships among a set of variables. These statements normally take the form of a set of equations or rules for establishing identities among quantities. Like other models, they are designed to be observed, contemplated, manipulated, tested, and revised. As Hoffmann comments, "A calculus is an abstract mathematical structure, a model its interpretation within an empirical context" (1971, pp. 189-190).
The value of building a mathematical model is considerable. It provides a medium for precise description and a logic for reasoning through complex arguments and for examining the logical validity of statements. Also, a model greatly augments analytic power by enabling the decomposition and reduction of data to intelligible proportions and by allowing for complex, subtle, and extended derivations. A model serves to define problems concisely and to generate verifiable predictions and extrapolations in a way that makes practical implications more obvious. A model may also indicate significant gaps in data and measurements requisite to resolving certain problems, and provide direction for the collection of new kinds of data and the development of new kinds of measurement procedures. Moreover, a model facilitates the transfer of data, concepts, and patterns from one field to another by formalizing representations and descriptions of empirical phenomena and substantive theory at a level abstract enough to be integrated with models of similar phenomena in other disciplines, e.g. economics, physics, and biology.
At the outset we acknowledge that the scope and treatment of mathematical models in this chapter will be quite limited, for several reasons. First, we have tried to focus on models with rather obvious connections to both pure and applied research in nutritional anthropology, as is often indicated by their prior use. Second, as far as possible we want to avoid conjuring up artificial examples and to demonstrate the application of mathematical models to real data from actual research in the field. While the problems and data to which we have applied certain models are attenuated, we hope they will show how analysis can proceed and how analogous research concerns can be tackled. Third, our presentation is limited to modelling, for the most part, with pre-calculus mathematics. Because we have assumed little more than an elementary background in algebra and statistics, we have allocated considerable space for illustrating basic computational procedures. We forgo enunciating theorems, discussing proofs, and making extensive derivations. Finally, we should stress that we see our purpose as offering a smorgasbord of appetizers, prepared to convey some of the flavour of mathematical analysis, but not to be mistakenly consumed as a substitute for a more substantially nourishing main course. If we motivate a desire to explore the benefits of mathematics a little more than before, then we will have succeeded.
The models we have selected to describe are, in order: (a) prediction models, using explicit functions to infer the values of unknowns from the values of knowns; (b) preference relations for the analysis of the properties of relations in a set of elements to construct a preference order; (c) decision-making models for optimally allocating scarce means to alternative ends, with surrounding constraints; (d) input-output models for specifying the structure of relations of interdependence among a set of components conceived as an endogenous system and the relations of this system to exogenous environmental variables; and (e) stochastic process models for representing phenomena as a sequence of random outcomes that are governed probabilistically. | <urn:uuid:984abe25-b188-41fe-bf24-fcd31c484547> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nzdl.org/gsdlmod?e=d-00000-00---off-0ccgi--00-0----0-10-0---0---0direct-10---4-------0-1l--11-en-50---20-about---00-0-1-00-0-0-11-1-0utfZz-8-00-0-0-11-10-0utfZz-8-00&a=d&c=ccgi&cl=CL3.6&d=HASH0ef2a4112fe6e464268e9c.9.2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924103 | 1,053 | 2.59375 | 3 |
In my decade of research and writing on brain development and the brain disease of addiction, understanding the whole story about puberty and the brain’s evolution gave me the pieces that finally completed the puzzle on how/why teens do the things they do and how/why their peers are so influential and why all of this is so instrumental in the development of substance abuse problems.
If you are a parent, you know what I’m talking about. When your child is around 10 – 11, they still want to be around you, turn to you for comfort and guidance, talk to you about their day and may even still give you big hugs and take your hand. But then puberty arrives, and everyone’s world feels as if it turns upside down. And that’s because it does.
Way back in the day, man’s average lifespan was about 25 years. [Sometimes it helps to think of man as but one of the species that make up our world.] For general, not-to-scientific discussion purposes, the brain organized into three general areas: Cerebral Cortex (includes prefrontal cortex), Limbic System and Cerebellum.
The portions of the brain that were most used were the cerebellum – the “motor control” portion of the brain where the neural networks that control breathing, heartbeat, movement are found, and the Limbic System – the “reactionary” portion of the brain where the neural networks that control pleasure/reward, fight-or-flight, pain and emotion are found. It wasn’t until much, much later in man’s existence that the cerebral cortex (includes the prefrontal cortex) – the “thinking” part of the brain, where the neural networks that control reasoning, judgment, motivation, perception, memory and learning are found, evolved into what it is, today.
So what does all this have to do with puberty and talking to the teen brain in order to reach a teen, let alone have to do with the development of substance abuse problems?
There are three key reasons for puberty, which on average begins around age 12:
1. to develop the adult like body and the hormonal changes necessary to make the species want to have sex which then relied on the pleasure/reward pathways in the Limbic System that made the species enjoy sex enough to have it again and thereby reproduce.
2. to take risks (think of the baby bird who one days hops out the nest because something in its species triggers the timing of when it must learn to fly in order to stay safe, find food, reproduce and thereby continue the species)
3. to turn to their peers.
And believe it or not, without these three events, mankind would likely have become extent. Why? Because when a child reached age 12 way back in the day – the age of puberty – mom and dad were likely dead – remember, the average lifespan was 25 years. So there was no mom or dad to run interference. If the species did not gear up, so to speak, in order to want and have sex, take risks and turn to their peers, it would have stayed in the cave, and… well…so much for mankind.
Dr. Paul Thompson’s team has completed a time-lapse study of the brain’s development from age 5 – 20. Though this study and similar research, we now have the visual proof that the cerebral cortex portion of the brain doesn’t really start maturing until around age 16 and continues until an average age of 22 for girls and 24 for boys. It is this part of the brain that serves as the brakes on a teen’s risk taking behaviors. It is also this part of the brain that can think through actions and consequences thereof, before taking said action, and better sort through reliable sources vs. unreliable sources. It is this part of the brain that will help a teen become the adult, with the adult-like thinking, judgment, perception, reasoning skills they need to succeed. Unfortunately, it doesn’t start nor fully develop until several years after puberty begins.
Bottom line… until the cerebral cortex gets fully up and running with the critically important “thinking” neural networks in place, parents, teachers, coaches – anyone who engages with teens – need to better understand this brain development and learn how to talk to the teen brain in order to reach the teen.
For additional resources and images showing the brain's evolution and development from ages 5 - 20, check out this blog post of a similar name, Want To Get Through to Teens | Talk to Their Brains.
Lisa Frederiksen is one of three Bay Area moms writing Parent to Parent ~ a blog sharing concerns about substance abuse. Cathy Taughinbaugh, Parent Recovery and Life Coach and Founder of Treatment Talk, and Shelley Richanbach, Certified Addictions Specialist, Peer Facilitator and Founder of Next Steps for Women, round out the Parent to Parent team. Check back every Wednesday as one of these moms will share their expertise and personal experiences with substance use, abuse, addiction and recovery. And if you find yourself in any one of their stories, consider attending their March 3, 2013, Substance Abuse Workshop for Parents. | <urn:uuid:dfeb15e5-6105-4548-972b-2a310084f9cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sanmateo.patch.com/groups/lisa-frederiksens-blog/p/bp--want-to-get-through-to-teens-talk-to-their-brains | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954765 | 1,080 | 2.796875 | 3 |
"Yet long before Iranians gave any serious thought to learning how to produce pretty mushroom clouds designed to erase humanity in broad strokes, or before Iraqis had reason to think anything but pleasant thoughts about America, or before the Taliban decided that playing host to Al-Qaeda might add some pizazz to a life bogged down by keeping girls out of school and maintaining strict guidelines concerning the lengths of men's beards--there was Palestine.
"Or rather, there wasn't. Which isn't to say there's been a lack of Palestinians. They're all over--in the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East (in Jordan, Palestinians outnumber the natives)--everywhere, that is, except in an independent Palestine. And though it may be tempting blame a group like Hamas for recruiting the suicide bombers that have so long bedeviled Israel, that would still leave two important considerations out of the equation.
"First, that Palestinians aren't fighting Israel; they're fighting Israel's illegal occupation of their territories, and see no clear incentive to stop. And second, that a teenager about to graduate high school abruptly finding himself at the funeral of his one-year-old sister, killed by an Israeli bomb as she slept in her crib, peacefully sucking on a pacifier and dreaming baby dreams, is unlikely to need much recruiting.
"Abandoned, stateless and impoverished (and were that not enough, targeted) many Palestinians--be they college students, professors, plumbers or young widows--turn to resistence, which often includes blowing themselves up in crowds of Israelis, because in their minds to not resist would be akin to joining the living dead. | <urn:uuid:c8f2a331-cc0f-457f-8724-aed34a2ab564> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://siratyst.blogspot.com/2006/09/price-of-ignoring-elephant-palestine.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972866 | 338 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Tashkent Amusement Parks
Location: The botanic garden with the area of 66 hectares is located in D. Abidova Street.
The foundation of the botanic garden of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan dates back to the 20s of the last century. The garden started to have its modern shape in the 50s under the supervision of academician Fedor Nikolaevich Rusanov.
Nowadays the garden has a collection of plants from Eastern Asia, North America, Central Asia, Europe, Far East, the Crimea. There are more than 4500 species, forms, varieties and breeds of trees, shrubs, half-shrubs, lianas, herbaceous plants.
The botanic garden is a museum, a book under the open sky, which is filled with the eternal life of the unity of a human being and nature and striking with the diversity of forms, species, colors.
One can come with children for a walk here, bring students for a fascinating excursion to be conducted by a professional guide who will tell the story of each tree and shrub in this huge park explaining when and from what place each of the species had been brought and occasionally will inform the visitors about the history of druids. You will be curious to learn which tree is related to your date of birth and finding that tree will lean against its trunk absorbing the positive energy of these silent contemplators of our bustling life.
Do come here in spring, when the air is filled with the fragrance of violets, which grow all over the garden as whole spots, when you can smell the sweet odor of elder overgrown everywhere. You will be delighted with the beautiful view of numerous varieties of blooming tulips. Do not forget to visit a special nursery where local medicinal herbs as well as rare species of stinking irises are grown. On the way to the nursery you will come upon two ponds with Indian lotuses which blossom beautifully at the end of spring.
By all means drop in at the garden in summer to enjoy the shady coolness and amazing peace on hot languishing summer days, to walk around the pond filled with water for summer time. You may be lucky to have a chance to see a real blue bird living on the lake, the bird is completely blue or rather light blue and of the size of a big dove.
But the garden is especially picturesque in autumn. The riot of the garden's colors in combination with particularly fresh and clean air evokes a blissful state of calm and quiet. And amidst the leafless tree branches you can easily find mischievous squirrels which have selected this a bit wild place in the heart of a huge city for their home.
And if you feel like eating something during your fascinating walks along the intricate paths of the garden you can always have a snack in a small cafe under centuries old plane trees fully under the impression of being in a wild forest, because you will have for chairs and tables billets of wood of various sizes.
Come to the botanical garden to find peace for your soul! | <urn:uuid:c330e853-d7e6-45bb-b978-f12b6c135d23> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://orexca.com/botanical_gardens.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93947 | 630 | 1.578125 | 2 |
gogo recycle is the digital casual game that teach environmental awareness with the theme of garbage. This game teaches habits to categorize garbage in the disposal so it can be used again and give advantage to us.
This game can be embed and played online at our site or published in general with a computer CD.
gogo recycle using the concept of casual games that can be enjoyed by children and adults. computer specifications required are also very minimal so it can be enjoyed by all people in the world | <urn:uuid:f499defe-427a-4829-a892-7bfae977bf63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.design21sdn.com/competitions/26/entries/9467/gallery/55100?back_to_winners=true%3Fshow_all_entries%3Dfalse | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958248 | 99 | 2.03125 | 2 |
POMEROY — As the Meigs County Fair begins and animals fill the barns, the importance of frequent hand washing or the use of hand sanitizers as a step toward not picking up the swine flu is being stressed by the Meigs County Health Department.
Meanwhile, the Meigs CountyFair Board has increased the number of hand-washing stations from the two or three at previous fairs to five this year. They are located outside the animal barns and are open for use to not only exhibitors but the general public.
Since the outbreak of swine flu in Butler and Gallia counties, which occurred following county fairs, prevention is being stressed in Meigs County, and steps are being taken to prevent further spread of the virus at the Meigs County Fair which officially opens tonight.
Four cases of the swine flu were confirmed in Gallia County following the fair. All four individuals had direct contact with swine at the fair, according to the latest report from Gerald E. Vallee, MD, Gallia County Health Commissioner. That report also noted that 200 suspected cases have been reported, 69 of which tested positive for Influenza A (not the swine flu), and samples from others are being sent for further testing.
“When it comes to numbers, of both suspected and confirmed cases, the situation is very fluid,” said the health commissioner, adding that “symptoms have usually been mild and have not lasted long.”
He emphasized that it is safe to attend county fairs.
Sherry Wilcox, R.N. advises that the Meigs County Health Department has had 12 reported cases where swine flu is suspected, but none have been confirmed.
Since swine flu is initially contracted through animal to human contact, she stressed that frequent hand-washing with soap and water is the best deterrent to picking up any virus which an animal might be carrying.
Wilcox described the symptoms of swine flu as being very similar as for Influenza A. She stressed that transmission of the swine flu is animal to person and that’s why frequent hand washing is so important for anyone coming in contact with pigs, and why food should not be taken into the animal barns where it might get contaminated.
“Just follow precautions such as washing your hands after being around animals and not eating or drinking around animals or in the barns, and you’ll probably be just fine,” said Wilcox.
In answer to questions being asked by the public, Wilcox says cooked pork is perfectly safe to eat, and “no” the regular flu shot will not prevent swine flu. | <urn:uuid:8d100fe8-4677-42d8-9db8-0c0fb9047db3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mydailysentinel.com/pages/home/push?per_page=5&class=prev_page&x_page=92&rel=prev | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978308 | 545 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Take this ad from Adidas' "Impossible is Nothing" campaign as an example. Sure, the bus is plastered with the campaign's regular ads -- but check out the guy who's actually dragging the bus.
Now that's what I call walking the talk.
Implications - Taking advertising to the streets is a reaction to increasing protests around the world. More and more, people are occupying public space and re-appropriating traditional environments for alternative purposes -- whether it be for revolutions or for products. This trend translates into the fusion of performance art, advertising and retail in order to catch the attention of a large segment of potential consumers. | <urn:uuid:e5daec2c-a276-4ff5-9e6c-4e7b3c8bc9f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/action-advertising | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918747 | 129 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Dog aggression training set at area libraries
Last year while Deb Chebatoris was walking her two schnauzers in their own neighborhood, they were suddenly and unexpectedly attacked by a larger, aggressive dog. Both dogs sustained injuries requiring treatment.
While Chebatoris was unhurt, she understood that this could have been a tragedy and decided to sponsor classes so that people would know what to do when approached or attacked by an aggressive dog.
“I was very ill-prepared for what happened,” she said. “And I don’t want to see a dog or cat or any pet come to me as the result of an aggressive dog.”
She contacted Penny Layne, a certified professional dog trainer and owner of Aunt Penny’s Pet Sitting, Dog Walking & Dog Training Services, to design informative introductory classes. The class will be offered at area libraries during the first quarter of 2013.
Layne’s approach to training dogs has as much – or more – to do with training humans. “It’s all about learning canine body language, or ‘learning to speak dog’ as I call it,” she said. “It’s ‘Human Education for Fur Parents,’ because you can’t influence a dog unless you know what the dog is thinking, just like with kids.”
Layne uses only positive and effective training methods to work with dogs, as well as people. She has a 20-year background through her work with service dogs, working in a vet hospital and owning a boarding, grooming, training and breeding kennel and then branching into Aunt Penny’s Pet Sitting and Dog Training. Penny is an Advanced Certified Pet Tech, a certified professional dog trainer, a professional member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers and member of International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants and the Association of Animal Behavior Professionals.
In a case like Chebatoris’s that seemed to “come out of the blue,” there would have been warning signals that, with a bit of training, either the aggressive dog’s owner or Chebatoris herself would have known to look for, and possibly known what to do to avoid actual physical contact, which is the goal of the introductory classes.
“For instance, with training, a person would notice a particular head turn, or rapid eye blinking in one or both of the dogs,” Layne explained. “If dogs growl, we tell them to stop and we’ve taken away their best and safest means of communication because the bite response is next.”
Unfortunately, physical and emotional injuries usually occur and too often dogs considered aggressive are euthanized. The goal is to avoid these types of euthanasias and receiving the victims of aggressive behavior by giving people tools to reduce or avoid aggression.
Chebatoris’s goal in providing training for people is concurrent with that of Layne’s: “To educate as many people as possible and save dogs’ lives.” To that end, Deb had organized Pet First Aid classes last year as a community service. The dog aggression classes are an extension of that educational effort.
Classes are two hours long and will cover types and signs of aggression, predicting aggression through body language, how to prepare for a walk and what to do if attacked.
Layne will also offer some suggestions on how to work with aggressive dogs, but most of the class will focus on dealing with example situations and how to respond.
Classes are scheduled for the following dates:
• Mt. Lebanon Public Library – 7-9 p.m. Jan. 29
• Monroeville Public Library – 7 to 9 p.m. Feb. 12
• Bethel Park Public Library – 7 to 9 p.m. March 27
Instruction is underwritten by Chartiers Custom Pet Cremation, making classes free. Space is limited and pre-registration is necessary. To register, call Deb Chebatoris at 412-220-7800. For new classes and updates, visit www.ccpc.ws. To learn more about Penny Layne and her services, visit www.myauntpenny.com.
Dog aggression training set at area libraries
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Group expands special-needs students’ social circle (1)
Fired up (1) | <urn:uuid:ee9ab654-0d9c-4003-833a-1c010bb6cdc1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thealmanac.net/article/20130122/NEWS/130129992 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951082 | 1,190 | 2.265625 | 2 |
Ask me about my in-flight necessities and I'll happily rattle off a few of my favorite things for making that cramped, nerve-wracking time in the sky a little easier: a large bottle of water; a cozy wrap sweater; a travel-size face mist; a good read. And to my fellow passengers, this list probably looks complete (if a little self-indulgent), right? Not so, says Dr. Amy Wechsler, Chanel's in-house dermatologist. The glaringly nonobvious item? Travel-size SPF!
Brace yourself for some crazy facts: According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, UV radiation increases four to five percent with every 1,000 feet you go above sea level—meaning rays 35,000 feet in the air are 175 percent more damaging to your skin than the rays that hit you every day. And most airline windows (and car and office windows, for that matter) only block UVB rays, not UVA. "Frequent flyers and flight attendants, people who are up there every day, definitely face a higher risk of sun damage," explains Wechsler. "But it's a good idea for anyone flying—especially people taking antibiotics or who have just had treatments that may make them extra sensitive to sunlight—to put on some sunscreen." (Wechsler herself always asks for aisle seats to minimize exposure.) She also recommends applying sunscreen to your hands (and a chapstick with SPF to your lips). "You can always tell if someone's been a driver or a passenger their whole life," says Wechsler. "And you can often see it in their hands." Studies also suggest pilots face an increased risk of skin cancer due to frequent exposure.
Wechsler's other tips for a glowing post-flight complexion? Drinking plenty of water and avoiding booze. "Drinking alcohol on an airplane is so dehydrating," she says. "And it really pushes you into a negative water balance."
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES | <urn:uuid:d1eca983-5ea2-421a-8d1c-66c2d4ec3518> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.allure.com/beauty-trends/blogs/daily-beauty-reporter/2012/11/the-importance-of-spf-while-traveling.html?mbid=synd_sugar | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946333 | 415 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Despite below-average test scores in third and fourth grade, KIPP students make substantial gains in math and reading in fifth through eighth grade, concludes a Mathematica study of 22 schools. In half the schools in the study, KIPP students — nearly all low-income and black or Hispanic — made progress equal to an extra year of math and reading instruction, substantially reducing the achievement gap.
Compared to the public schools from which they draw students, KIPP middle schools have student bodies characterized by higher concentrations of poverty and racial minorities, but lower concentrations of special education and limited English proficiency students.
“The consistency of the effects across most of the 22 schools and the magnitude of the effects are pretty striking and impressive,” said Brian P. Gill, a senior social scientist for Mathematica and an author of the study. “We do a lot of education studies, and often the effects are nonexistent or quite small.”
KIPPsters are more likely to repeat a grade, especially in fifth and sixth grade, because of KIPP’s reluctance to move students to the next level without mastery of the current grade’s subject matter.
The study compares demographically similar students in the same districts. Presumably parents who sign their children up for KIPP are more motivated and involved than average. But the study found KIPP students were scoring below the district average in elementary school, so that parental involvement hadn’t translated into success pre-KIPP.
Three KIPP schools out of the 22 studied did not show progress. The KIPP Foundation has withdrawn support for two of those schools. Since KIPP’s founding, nine of 91 schools have lost KIPP support for failure to meet standards.
The study will continue through 2014 and will expand to include 50 KIPP schools. Students who spend a year at KIPP and then return to district-run schools will be counted as KIPP students, points out Jay Mathews. If less-capable students are more likely to leave, that won’t help KIPP’s results. | <urn:uuid:828c0067-2ccc-4ba9-911d-996b671ffb9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.joannejacobs.com/tag/attrition/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95714 | 424 | 2.84375 | 3 |
As North Carolina chafed at British rule and edged toward independence during 1774 and 1775, the former colony was governed largely by a new Provincial Congress and, at the county level, by local Committees of Safety. News of resistance in other colonies was spread by local Committees of Correspondence. As events unfolded, several local committees published documents, known as "resolves" or "associations," that stated the position of the delegates on loyalty to the Crown and to the emerging American republic. The early resolves usually carefully pointed out that the rebellious colonists were actually loyal to the Crown but objected to certain policies of Parliament that they believed to be unfair. Gradually, the professed loyalty to the Crown became conditional upon the colonies receiving fair treatment and justice from the king. From that point, without meaningful overtures from the Crown, it was a short step to calls for complete independence.
An early series of resolves in North Carolina date from the summer of 1774, when county Committees of Safety were selecting delegates to the First Provincial Congress, held in New Bern from 25-27 August. The North Carolina resolves of 1774 affirmed loyalty to the Crown while also declaring that the colonists could not be taxed without their consent or the consent of their elected representatives. Most of these documents specified that the colonial Assembly, not Parliament, had the right to tax them, that the colonists should have the same rights as British citizens, that recent Parliamentary acts to punish Boston for radical activities were cruel and unlawful, that the colonies should unite to resist unfair British policies, and that a boycott of British goods by the colonies should be imposed if Parliament did not institute more favorable policies. Each set of the surviving 1774 county resolves also named delegates to the upcoming Provincial Congress. The resolutions passed by the First Provincial Congress closely echoed the resolves enacted by the counties.
Another series of resolves, more emphatic and advocating complete independence from Great Britain, was passed after the 19 Apr. 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord, in Massachusetts, which marked the beginning of armed conflict with Britain. On 31 May the New Bern Committee of Safety passed a strongly worded set of resolves calling for support for the armed struggle against England, because the "British Ministry mean no longer to receive the peaceable addresses of the much injured People of America."
Also on 31 May 1775, the Mecklenburg County Committee of Safety met in Charlotte and passed the Mecklenburg Resolves. Far more radical than the New Bern document, the Mecklenburg Resolves denied the authority of Parliament and specifically rejected the authority of the king-the first time any colonial committee had done so. The document declared all laws passed under royal authority to be void, condemned all holders of royal commissions as enemies, and called for a temporary local government to run affairs until a Provincial Congress could meet and pass new laws.
Following the Mecklenburg Resolves, the New Hanover County Committee of Safety drew up an "association" that was "unanimously agreed to, by the inhabitants" on 19 June 1775. Although holding out hope for "a reconciliation" with Britain, the New Hanover committee stated that "under our present circumstances, we shall be justified . . . in resisting force by force." In Cumberland County, 54 men signed a similar document at Liberty Point on 30 June 1775, using wording much like that of the New Hanover Association.
On 1 July 1775 the Pitt County Committee of Safety produced a set of resolves at Martinborough. This committee still professed loyalty to the Crown but pledged to follow the directives of the Continental Congress to resist "the several arbitrary Illegale acts of Parliament." The Tryon Resolves were passed by the short-lived Tryon County's Committee of Safety on 14 August. All of the resolves penned in 1775 declared that British provocation had driven the people of North Carolina to armed resistance, that they should unite in resistance with the other colonies, and that they would follow the directives of the Provincial and Continental Congresses.
The Halifax Resolves, signed on 12 Apr. 1776 by the delegates of the Fourth Provincial Congress, ended the series of resolves with a bold call for independence not only for North Carolina but also for all of the American colonies. The dates of the Halifax Resolves and the 20 May 1775 Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence (a legendary document that is most likely a distorted echo of the Mecklenburg Resolves) are inscribed on the state flag of North Carolina.
Robert L. Ganyard, The Emergence of North Carolina's Revolutionary State Government (1978).
"Halifax Resolves This mural depicts the delegates to the Fourth Provincial Congress at Halifax leaving the meeting house at nightfall on April 12, 1776, after they had voted "to concur in independency" by adopting the Halifax Resolves. Among those in the scene are Samuel Johnson, Thomas Burke, and Cornelius Harnett. This mural was painted in Williamsburg, Virginia, where Paul Green's drama "The Common Glory" was playing at the time, enabling Kughler to use the costumes and actors as models." Photo and caption courtesy of the UNC School of Government. Available from http://www.iog.unc.edu/75/murals.htm (accessed May 11, 2012).
1 January 2006 | Norris, David A. | <urn:uuid:f5ac1b9c-d045-466a-a0d6-f15ac096dcef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ncpedia.org/resolves-prerevolutionary | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969386 | 1,088 | 3.78125 | 4 |
Presentation-Quality Math with Three.js and WebGL
For most of my life, I've found math to be a visual experience. My math scores went from crap to great once I started playing with graphics code, found some demoscene tutorials, and realized I could reason about formulas by picturing the graphs they create. I could apply operators by learning how they morph, shift, turn and fold those graphs and create symmetries. I could remember equations and formulas more easily when I could layer on top the visual relationships they embody. I was less likely to make mistakes when I could augment the boring symbolic manipulation with a mental set of visual cross-checks.
So, when tasked with holding a conference talk on how to make things out of math at Full Frontal, I knew the resulting presentation would have to consist of intricate visualizations as the main draw, with whatever I had to say as mere glue to hold it together.
The problem was, I didn't know of a good tool to do so, and creating animations by hand would probably be too time consuming. With the writings of Paul Lockhart and Bret Victor firmly in mind, I also knew I wanted to start blogging more about mathematical concepts in a non-traditional way, showing the principles of calculus, analysis and algebra the way I learnt to see them in my head, rather than through the obscure symbols served up in engineering school.
So I set out to create that tool, keeping in mind the most important lesson I've picked up as a web developer: one cannot overstate the value in being able to send someone a link and have it just work, right there. It was obvious it would have to be browser-based.
Choose your Poison
Now, when people think of graphs in a browser, the natural thought is vector graphics and SVG, which quickly leads to visualization powerhouse d3.js. It really is an amazing piece of tech with a vast library of useful code to accompany it. When I wrapped my head around how d3's enter/exit selections are implemented and how little it actually does to achieve so much, I was blown away. It's just so elegant and simple.
Unfortunately, d3's core is intricately tied to the DOM through SVG and CSS. And that means ironically that d3 is not really capable of 3D. Additionally, d3 is a power tool that makes no assumptions: it is up to you to choose which visual elements and techniques to use to make your diagrams, and as such it is more like assembly language for graphs than a drop-in tool. These two were show stoppers.
For one, manually designing layouts, grids, axes, etc. every time is tedious. You should be able to drop in a mathematical expression with as little fanfare as possible and have it come out looking right. This includes sane defaults for transitions and animations.
For another, I've found that, when in doubt, adding an extra dimension always helps. The moment I finally realized that every implicit graph in N dimensions is really just a slice of an explicit one in N+1 dimensions, a ridiculous amount of things clicked together. And it took until years after studying signal processing to at long last discover the 4D picture of complex exponentiation that tied the entire thing together (projected into 3D below): it revealed the famous "magic formula" involving e, i and π to be a meaningless symbological distraction, a pinhole view of a much larger, much more beautiful structure, underpinning every Fourier and Z transform I'd ever encountered.
So, WebGL it was, because I needed 3D. Unfortunately that meant the promise of having it just work everywhere was tempered by a lack of browser support, but I would certainly hope that's something we can overcome sooner than later. Dear Apple and Microsoft: get your shit together already. Dear Firefox and Opera: your WebGL performance could be a lot better.
These days I don't really touch WebGL without going through Three.js first. Three.js is a wonderful, mature engine that contains tons of useful high-level components. At the same time, it also does a great job in just handling the boilerplate of WebGL while not getting in the way of doing some heavy lifting yourself.
Rendering vector-style graphics with WebGL is not hard, certainly easier than photorealistic 3D. Primitives like lines and points are sized in absolute pixels by default, and with hardware multisampling for anti-aliasing, you get somewhat decent image quality out of it. Though, as is typical for a Web API, we're treated like children and can only cross our fingers and request anti-aliasing politely, hoping it will be available. Meanwhile native developers have full control over speed and quality and can adjust their strategy to the specific hardware's capabilities. The more things change... And then Chrome decided to disable anti-aliasing altogether due to esoteric security issues with buggy drivers. Bah.
The second option is to leverage the GPU's own capabilities as much as possible, doing computations in GLSL through so-called vertex and fragment shader programs. These are run for every vertex in a mesh, every pixel being drawn, and have been the main force driving innovation in real-time graphics for the past decade. With the goal of butter-smooth 60fps graphical goodness, this seemed like the better choice.
Unfortunately, GLSL shaders are rather monolithic things. While you do have the ability to create subroutines, every shader still has to be a stand-alone program with its own main() function. This means you either need to include a shader for every possible combination of operations, or generate shader code dynamically by concatenating pre-made snippets or using #ifdef switches to knock them out. This is the approach taken by Three.js, which results in some very hairy code that is neither easy to read nor easy to maintain.
Having made a prototype, I knew I wanted to show continuous transitions between various coordinate systems (e.g. polar and spherical), knew I needed to render shaded and unshaded geometry, and knew I would need to slot in specific snippets for things like point sprites, bezier curves/surfaces, dynamic tick marks, and more. Sorting this all out Three.js-style would be a nightmare.
So I wrote a library to solve that problem, called ShaderGraph.js. It is best described as a smart code-concatenator, a few steps short of writing a full blown compiler. You feed it snippets of GLSL code, each with one or more inputs and outputs, and these get parsed and turned into lego-like building blocks. Each input/output becomes an outlet, and outlets are wired up in a typical dataflow style. Given a graph of connected snippets, it can be compiled back into a program by assembling the subroutines, assigning intermediate variables and constructing an appropriate main() function to invoke them. It also exports a list of all external variables, i.e. GLSL uniforms and attributes, so you can control the program's behavior easily.
If I'd stopped there however, I'd have just replaced the act of manual code writing with that of manually wiring graphs. So I applied the principle of convention-over-configuration instead: you tell ShaderGraph to connect two snippets, and it will automatically match up outlets by name and type. This is augmented by a chainable factory API, which allows you to pass a partially built graph around. It allows different classes to work together to build shaders, each inserting their own snippets into the processing chain.
For example, to render a Bezier surface, the vertex shader is composed of: cubic interpolation, viewport transform (position + tangents), normal calculation and lighting. When transforming to e.g. a polar viewport, the surface normals are seamlessly recalculated. It really works like magic and I can't wait to use this in my next WebGL projects.
Viewports, Primitives and Renderables
At its core, Three.js matches pretty directly with WebGL. You can insert objects such as a Mesh, Line or ParticleSystem into your scene, which invokes a specific GL drawing command with high efficiency. As such, I certainly didn't want to reinvent the wheel.
Hence, MathBox is set up as a sort of scene-manager-within-a-scene-manager. It's a little sandbox that speaks the language of math, allowing you to insert various primitives like curves, vectors, axes and grids. Each of these primitives then instantiates one or more renderables, which simply wrap a native Three.js object and its associated ShaderGraph material. Thus, once instantiated, MathBox gets out of the way and Three.js does the heavy lifting as normal. You can even insert multiple mathboxen into a Three.js scene if you like, mixed in with other objects.
For example, a vector primitive is rendered as an arrow: it consists of a shaft and an arrowhead, realized as a line segment and a cone. An axis primitive is an arrow as well, but it also has tick marks (specially transformed line segments), and is positioned implicitly just by specifying the axis' direction rather than a start and end point.
To render curves and surfaces, you can either specify an array of data points or a live expression to be evaluated at every point. This turned out to be essential for the kinds of intricate visualizations I wanted to show, my slides being driven by timed clocks, shared arrays of data points, and live formulas and interpolations. I even fed in data from a physics engine, and it worked perfectly.
This is all tied together through Viewport objects, which define a specific mapping from a mathematical coordinate space into the 3D world space of Three.js. For example, the default cartesian viewport has the range [–1, 1] in the X, Y and Z directions. Altering the viewport's extents will shift and scale anything rendered within, as well as reflow grids and tick marks on each axis.
Interpolate all the things!
Finally, I had to tackle the problem of animation, keeping in mind a tip I learnt from the ever so mindbending Vihart: "If I can draw the point of a sentence, I don't actually need to say the sentence." This applies doubly so for animation: every time you replace a "before" and "after" with a smooth transition, your audience implicitly understands the change rather than having to go look for it.
Hence, each primitive can be fully animated. Each has a set of options (controlling behavior) and styles (controlling GLSL shaders), and there is a universal animator that can interpolate between arbitrary data types in a smart fashion.
For example, given a viewport with the XYZ range [[–1, 1], [–1, 1], [–1, 1]], you can tell it to animate to [[0, 2], [0, 1], [–3, 3]], and it just works. The animator will recursively animate each subarray's elements, and any dependent objects like grids and axes will reflow to match the intermediate values. This works for colors, vectors and matrices too. In case of live curves with custom expressions, the animator will invoke both the old and the new, and interpolate between the results.
However, executing animations manually in code is tedious, particularly in a presentation, where you want to be able to step forward and backward. So I added a Director class whose job it is to coordinate things. All you do is feed it a script of steps (add this object, animate that object). Then, as it applies them, it remembers the previous state of each object and generates an automatic rollback script. It also contains logic to detect rapid navigation, and will hurry up animations appropriately. This avoids that agonizing situation of watching someone skip through their slide deck, playing the same cheesy PowerPoint transitions over and over again.
With MathBox's core working, it was time to build my slides for the conference. After a quick survey, I quickly settled on deck.js as an HTML5 slidedeck solution that was clean and flexible enough for my purposes. However, while MathBox can be spawned inside any DOM element, it wouldn't work to insert a dozen live WebGL canvases into the presentation. The entire thing would grind to a halt or at least become very choppy.
So instead, I integrated each MathBox graphic as an IFRAME, and added some logic that only loads each IFRAME one slide before it's needed, and unloads it one slide after it's gone off screen. To sync up with the main presentation, all deck.js navigation events were forwarded into each active IFRAME using window.postMessage. With the MathBox Director running inside, this was very easy to do, and meant that I could skip around freely during the talk, without any worries of desynchronization between MathBox and the associated HTML5 overlays.
In fact, I applied a similar principle to this post. To avoid rendering all diagrams simultaneously and spinning up laptop fans more than necessary, each MathBox IFRAME is started as it scrolls into view and stopped once it's gone.
I've also found that having a handheld clicker makes a huge difference while speaking—as it allows you to gesture freely and move around. So, I grabbed the infrared remote code from VLC and built a simple bridge from to Cocoa to Node.js to WebSocket to allow the remote to work in a browser. It's a shame Apple's decided to discontinue IR ports on their laptops. I guess I'll have to come up with a BlueTooth-based solution when I upgrade my hardware.
Towards MathBox 1.0
In its current state, MathBox is still a bit rough. The selection of primitives and viewports is limited, and only includes the ones I needed for my presentation. That said, it is obvious you can already do quite a lot with it, and I couldn't have been happier to hear that all this effort had the desired response at the conference. I wasn't 100% sure whether other people would have the same a-ha moments that I've had, but I'm convinced more than ever that seeing math in motion is essential for honing our intuition about it. MathBox not only makes animated diagrams much easier to make and share, but it also opens the door to making them interactive in the future.
I plan to continue to evolve MathBox as needed by using it on this site and addressing gaps that come up, though I've already identified a couple of sore points:
- I used tQuery as a boilerplate and because I liked the idea of having a chainable API for this. However, this also means it's currently running off an outdated version of Three.js. I need to look into updating and/or dropping tQuery.
MathBox has been updated to Three.js r53.
- Numeric or text labels are completely unsupported. It should be possible to use my CSS3D renderer for Three.js to layer on beautifully typeset MathJax formulas, positioning them correctly in 3D on top of the WebGL render.
I've added labeling for axes. I've integrated MathJax, but it's tricky because the typesetting is painfully slow in the middle of a 60fps render. But it's automatically used if MathJax is present.
- All styles have to be specified on a per-object basis. Some form of stylesheet, default styles or class mechanism to allow re-use seems like an obvious next step.
- There are undoubtedly memory leaks, as I was focused first and foremost on getting it to work.
- Expressions that don't change frame-to-frame are still continuously re-evaluated, which is wasteful. There is a
live: falseflag you can set on objects, but it triggers a few bugs here and there.
- There needs to be a predictable, built-in way of running a clock per slide to sync custom expressions off of. In my presentation I used a hack of clocks that start once first invoked, but this lacks repeatability.
I added a
director.clock()method that gives you a clock per slide.
Finally, it doesn't take much imagination to imagine a MathBox Editor that would allow you to build diagrams visually rather than having to use code like I did. However, that's a can of worms I'm not going to open by myself, especially because the API is already quite straightforward to use, and the library itself is still a bit in flux. Perhaps this could be done as an extension of the Three.js editor.
You can see what MathBox is really capable of in the conference video. I invite you to play around with MathBox and see what you can make it do. Contributions are welcome, and the architecture is modular enough to allow its functionality to grow for quite some time. | <urn:uuid:19900175-0a20-48ee-b6d4-b851d42636a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://acko.net/blog/making-mathbox/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954686 | 3,537 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Why Do Women Make All the Household Decisions?
When a new work project took Diane Richards away from her family for three months, one thought got her through the separation: Maybe her husband would finally learn something about managing the household.
Before this time-out, Richards, a graphic designer from San Jose, California, was the spouse who schlepped three kids to and from school and activities, paid the bills, and handled the shopping, cooking, cleaning, and laundry -- all while holding down a full-time job. Her husband? "He fell into the category of 'semi-helpful,'" Richards says. "I was the one keeping all the balls in the air." By the time the three-month separation was over Richards sensed a change. "My absence forced my husband to be the logistics chief. He didn't always do things as I would -- he constantly ran out of bread, for instance -- but he did them. I hope it continues."
I can't help but envy Richards. Not for her three-month sabbatical (okay, a little), but because she's reaping the benefits of her husband's immersion in one of the most demanding and thankless jobs around -- domestic decider. Wives generally get appointed to this position when they take their wedding vows and the job only grows in size and complexity from there. Duties include everything from resolving the daily dilemma of what to have for dinner to keeping mental tabs on when the kids need new shoes, which plumber to call on a Saturday, and where the belongings of every single family member hide themselves at the end of the day. Oh, and the clincher -- acting as the social director for every occasion, including get-togethers with his family.
All this despite the fact that women hold nearly half the nation's jobs and indeed may soon outnumber men in the workforce, according to The New York Times.
Much has been made of the notion that men help out more around the house than they used to. And it's true that husbands today spend significantly more time on household chores than they did a generation ago: 13 hours a week in 2005 versus six hours a week in 1976, according to a University of Michigan study. But as every woman knows (and most men seem clueless about), there's a big difference between doing a chore and taking responsibility for it. Most of us have at least two to-do lists running in our head at all times -- one of our own and one for him. Did he pay this bill? Did he buy the new garbage cans? "If I always have to remind him to do the laundry, then it's still my job," says Judith Massengale, of Austin, Texas. "I don't even want a compartment in my brain that says 'laundry.'"
Getting men to fully own their piece of the domestic agenda may be marriage's last frontier. "Men have stepped up in so many ways, except in this area -- the executive function," says Stephanie Coontz, author of Marriage, A History. "It's probably the least-visible role in the household and the hardest to explain. It's one of the remaining barriers to full equality."
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Historical Overview + Documentation
The federal government, through the U.S. Bureau of Roads, was also promoting roadside development. In fact, by 1933 the federal government specified that a minimum of one-half of one percent of all federal highway funds be spent on roadside development. This amount was increased to one percent the following year.
A summary of the Bureau's design philosophy for roadside development appeared in an issue of the Improvement Bulletin dated May 4, 1934:
For the cost of a single mile of high grade road surfacing, 30 miles
of roadside can be improved. This estimate ... is calculated...to avoid
construction scars, with side slopes graded during construction to fit
landscape requirements, and includes the salvaging of valuable trees available...
Local materials for improving roadsides may be utilized at comparatively low cost ... Such materials include boulders or native stone for guardrails, suitable plant material salvaged in the path of construction operations, careful trimming and cutting of trees, ... and utilizing other objects naturally adapted to the landscape.
This new philosophy for highway design was also described in a 1938 study entitled the Minnesota State Park, Parkway, and Recreational Area Study in which it was noted that "... basic consideration in determining the location of new highways and the realignment of old locations are...safety, construction and maintenance costs, preservation of the character of the natural landscape…, and provision of accessory facilities for the pleasure and convenience of the public." It was noted that, "A nation-wide change is occurring in which Minnesota participates." | <urn:uuid:d7a88ff3-da24-4453-b377-ad979ec5f473> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/hli/currents/newdeal/hist_page2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954775 | 313 | 3.421875 | 3 |
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Convenient Use With their ergonomic handles, our wrenches are designed for convenient, comfortable use. Reduce the risk of blisters or scrapes with work gloves. | <urn:uuid:c73ac52b-f232-4eba-a31c-08498fa6802c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.staples.com/Wrenches/cat_CL166913 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931317 | 180 | 1.507813 | 2 |
- Science: A combination of THC and prochlorperazine effective in reducing nausea and vomiting in women following breast surgery
- Science: No association between lung cancer and cannabis smoking in large study
- Science: Cannabidiol reduces the development of diabetes in an animal study
- Economy: Nabilone again available in the USA
- News in brief
- A glimpse @ the past
Science: A combination of THC and prochlorperazine effective in reducing nausea and vomiting in women following breast surgery
Researchers of the University of Arkansas and the Central Arkansas Veterans Hospital System investigated the effects of 5 mg oral THC and 25 mg rectal prochlorperazine on the rate of nausea and vomiting in women following breast surgery under general anaesthesia. The rate of nausea decreased from 59 per cent to 15 per cent and the rate of vomiting from 29 per cent to 3 per cent compared to non-treated patients.
A retrospective review of 242 eligible patients, who underwent surgery between July 2001 and March 2003 was performed. 127 patients received surgery before September 2002 and did not receive a prophylaxis. 115 patients received surgery after September 2002 and were treated before surgery with oral THC (dronabinol) and rectal prochlorperazine. Data were collected from hospital records. Researchers concluded that post-operative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is a "significant problem in breast surgical patients. Preoperative treatment with dronabinol and prochlorperazine significantly reduced the number and severity of episodes of PONV."
(Source: Layeeque R, Siegel E, Kass R, Henry-Tillman RS, Colvert M, Mancino A, Klimberg VS. Prevention of nausea and vomiting following breast surgery. Am J Surg 2006;191(6):767-72)
A large study on the association between cannabis smoking and lung cancer already presented at the 2005 Meeting of the International Cannabinoid Research Society was now also presented at The American Thoracic Society Conference in San Diego and received much media interest. The study with 611 lung cancer patients and 1,040 healthy controls as well as 601 patients with cancer in the head or neck region found no increased risk for lung cancer even after heavy long-term use of cannabis.
"We expected that we would find that a history of heavy marijuana use - more than 500 to 1,000 uses - would increase the risk of cancer from several years to decades after exposure to marijuana," lead researcher Dr. Donald Tashkin of the University of California, Los Angeles, said in the Scientific American. But the scientists found that even those who smoked more than 20,000 cannabis cigarettes in their life did not have an increased risk of lung cancer.
(Sources: Scientific American of 24 May 2006; Morgenstern H, et al. Marijuana use and cancers of the lung and upper aerodigestive tract: results of a case-control study. Presentation at the ICRS Conference on Cannabinoids, 24-27 June 2005, Clearwater, USA)
Researchers of the Hadassah University Hospital of Jerusalem investigated the effects of the plant cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) on the development of diabetes in mice, which develop diabetes due to genetic causes. So-called NOD mice develop insulitis within 4 to 5 weeks of age followed by diabetes within a median of 14 weeks. Insulitis is an inflammation of the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, and diabetes is a result of a destruction of these cells.
NOD mice aged 6 to 12 weeks that were treated with 10 to 20 injections of CBD (5 mg per kilogram body weight) presented with a significantly reduced incidence of diabetes of 30 per cent compared to 86 per cent in untreated control mice. In addition, in the mice that developed diabetes in the treated group disease onset was a significantly delayed. Blood levels of two cytokines that promote inflammation, IFN-gamma and TFN-alpha, are usually increased in NOD mice. A treatment with CBD caused a significant reduction (more than 70 per cent) in levels of both cytokines. In another experiment CBD-treated mice were observed for 26 weeks. While the 5 control mice all developed diabetes, 3 of 5 of the CBD-treated mice remained diabetes-free at 26 weeks.
Researchers concluded that confirmation of the observed immunomodulatory effects of CBD "may lead to the clinical application of this agent in the prevention of type 1 diabetes" and possibly other autoimmune diseases. They note that many patients diagnosed with type 1 diabetes have sufficient residual cells that produce insulin at the time of diagnosis, and may be candidates for immunomodulation therapy.
(Source: Weiss L, Zeira M, Reich S, Har-Noy M, Mechoulam R, Slavin S, Gallily R. Cannabidiol lowers incidence of diabetes in non-obese diabetic mice. Autoimmunity 2006;39(2):143-51)
Seventeen years after it was withdrawn from U.S. markets nabilone, a synthetic derivative of THC, is going back on sale as a prescription treatment for nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy, its manufacturer said on 16 May. Nabilone is marketed under the trade name Cesamet by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, a company based in Costa Mesa, California. Valeant bought the drug from Eli Lilly in 2004 and currently sells it in Canada.
Eli Lilly originally received approval from the American medicines control agency FDA (Food and Drug Administration) for nabilone in 1985 but withdrew it from the market in 1989, Valeant said. The drug will compete with dronabinol (THC), the main active compound of cannabis, which is marketed under the trade name of Marinol, by Belgium-based Solvay Pharmaceuticals. Dronabinol, which is the international non-proprietary name (INN) of this cannabis compound, is erroneously often called synthetic THC because dronabinol in Marinol is produced synthetically, and Marinol was the first dronabinol product available in pharmacies. Side effects of nabilone are similar to those of dronabinol.
(Sources: Press release of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International of 16 May 2006, Associated Press of 16 May 2006)
The city council of the Swiss capital Bern decided to start a pilot project on the controlled sale of cannabis, although the federal government and the canton oppose it. It is intended that in the project cannabis will be allowed to be sold if certain rules are followed, such as prohibition of advertisement, no sale to minors and maximum amount of sale per day. A measure in support of a controlled sale of cannabis failed last year in the Swiss Parliament. (Source: 20min.ch of 23 May 2006)
Italy: Law changes
On 9 May a law introduced by the old government that increased sanctions for the possession of small amounts of drugs went into effect. However, four new bills proposed after the election of the new government in May would depenalize the possession of cannabis and improve the possibilities of therapeutic uses. (Sources: dire of 5 and 8 May 2006)
Science: Liver fibrosis
French researchers reported that treatment with a CB1 receptor antagonist decreased the wound-healing response to acute liver injury in mice and inhibited progression of fibrosis in three models of chronic liver injury. They concluded that "our study shows that CB1 receptor antagonists hold promise for the treatment of liver fibrosis." (Source: Teixeira-Clerc F, et al. Nat Med. 2006 May 21; [Electronic publication ahead of print])
Canadian researchers found that the cannabinoid system is involved in the ability of long-term tricyclic antidepressant treatment to suppress stress-induced increase of corticosterone levels in mice. Three-week administration of the tricyclic antidepressant desipramine resulted in a significant increase in the density of CB1 receptors in certain brain areas (hippocampus and hypothalamus) without significantly altering endocannabinoid levels. The reduction of stress-induced corticosterone secretion by the antidepressant was blocked by a CB1 receptor antagonist. (Source: Hill MN, et al. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2006 May 10; [Electronic Publication ahead of print])
One year ago
- Science: THC helps to reduce delayed nausea following cancer chemotherapy
- Science/UK: Three-year study to look into therapeutic effects of THC in multiple sclerosis
Two years ago
IACM Conference 2013
7th Conference on Cannabinoids in Medicine
27-28 September 2013
Holiday Inn, Cologne, Germany.
6th European Workshop on Cannabinoids
18-20 April 2013
Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
The University of British Columbia in partnership with the ICRS and the CCIC will organize “Cannabinoids in Clinical Practice” on 21 June 2013, a full day continuing medical education (CME) event. | <urn:uuid:2b7677bb-11af-407e-989a-80bcfb550b3c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cannabis-med.org/english/bulletin/ww_en_db_cannabis_artikel.php?id=219 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942842 | 1,834 | 1.679688 | 2 |
I wonder if it's possible to do something like:
ip = static
ip = dynamic, behind router so NAT
main (postfix) --> *@example.org,*@example.com --> zimbra (which handles spam, mailboxes,...)
zimbra --> main
Is this possible? if so how does this work DNS wise?
currently I have example.org has a MX pointing to mail.example.org.
(which currently resolves to the same IP as Example Web Page)
so I want to point mail.example.org to my zimbra server at the office (via cname to my dyndns account).
Will this work? what do I need to do at the zimbra end config and dns wise?
I want the mail to be buffered on the main server incase the one in the office goes down and send once it's back.
I know I'm asking a lot here but the information i can find seems to say it's possible but it's very very confusing.
I haven't done any install yet for the zimbra server.
It will either be a chroot on my gentoo server or a domU on out main server.
So I'm open for sugestions even on which distro to use.
Thanks in advance for any help info.
some extra information:
So far i've used kerio mail server but my companies license is expiring and it's way to expensive we have around 8 active users.
I've no prior experience with zimbra or postfix. | <urn:uuid:a983ddf4-690d-4701-bae4-8fed7dcb091f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zimbra.com/forums/installation/29117-front-end-satic-ip-zimbra-dynamic-ip-possible.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90775 | 330 | 1.6875 | 2 |
The Center for Italian Language
and Culture Studies in Rome
Via dei Due Macelli, 47/Iº piano
Tel: +39 06 69941314
Fax: +39 06 69202174
At Italiaidea, our Italian language school in Roma, language is not just a system of rules but an instrument for communicating, understanding, and expressing oneself.
In our Italian language courses we employ a communicative approach based on authentic and up-to-date materials like newspapers, video, and music. In the stimulating lessons one immediately applies the structures and vocabulary introduced by the teacher.
Thanks to a low class size (a maximum of 10 students per class) each Italian language class is individualized and developed according to the specific needs of the class itself.
From the very first day of your Italian language course you are involved with professional, fun, and approachable teachers who respect the individual learning rhythm of each student. | <urn:uuid:7dbdbe4f-1d57-45a8-b348-569f2e221065> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.italiaidea.com/methodology.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914343 | 191 | 1.609375 | 2 |
A research team at Uppsala University has managed to clarify how proteins that regulate the activity of genes quickly find their way on chromosomes among millions of possible binding sites. The study also confirms a more than 30-year-old theory about the process. The findings are being published today in the scientific journal Science.
Protein synthesis is one of life’s absolutely most central processes, and its correct functioning is of great importance for whether we are healthy or ill.
The production of a certain protein in cells starts with the corresponding gene on the chromosome. This production is to a great extent regulated by other proteins, so-called transcription factors, that stimulate or block production by binding to the DNA, close to the relevant gene.
These thermostat-like regulatory systems enable the cell to shut down the production of certain proteins if they are not needed at a given time. Production can also be quickly turned on when changes in the cell’s environment call for new functions. For this regulation to have a rapid response time, it’s necessary for bound transcription factors to be able to be released from the DNA at a given signal, but also for them to be able find their way back quickly. In the bacterium Escherichia coli this involves locating a unique DNA sequence among nearly five million incorrect sites on the chromosome.
- We have studied how transcription factors find their specific sites on the chromosome and how quickly they do so. It turns out they scan some 40 DNA base pairs at a time by sliding along the DNA filament and then testing a new chromosomal region, says Royal Academy Research Fellow Johan Elf, whose team has been addressing this question for several years.
A theory of how the right genes are found was proposed by Uppsala researcher Otto Berg more than thirty years ago. Now Johan Elf’s group shows that the theoretical predictions are correct by using newly developed microscopy that is so sensitive that it’s possible to see individual protein molecules in living cells.
- The findings show that problems that previously could only be studied using biochemistry in test tubes can now also be investigated in living cells. The study also stresses the usefulness of combining advanced new measurement technology with detailed physiochemical models to break new ground in molecular biology, says Petter Hammar, a doctoral candidate at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology.
The study was funded by, among others, the European Research Council, ERC.
For further information, please contact Johan Elf at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, tel: +46 (0)18-471 46 78, e-mail: email@example.com
This news release was sent using Mynewsdesk - http://www.mynewsdesk.com | <urn:uuid:c7779c14-2d45-41d1-a89e-6cdfc22f9557> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uppsalabio.se/DynPage.aspx?id=84034&mpath=6310,6319,6361&news=772121&type_of_media=pressrelease | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935062 | 573 | 3.453125 | 3 |
Australian Bureau of Statistics
1504.0 - Methodological News, Mar 2011
Previous ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 31/03/2011
|Page tools: Print Page Print All RSS Search this Product|
Time Series Analysis Section's Flood Response
TSA established early contact with collection areas to gauge the likely impact of the floods on data. This focussed subject matter area attention on the quality of time series and helped TSA to anticipate the kinds of action required to stabilise seasonal factors and ensure the trend estimate behaved within expectations. As part of the process, TSA maintained centralised documentation about the floods and related statistical activities, including a flood events timeline, content of press releases, publication commentary and action taken for time series collections.
In order to encourage communication between collection areas (as well as communication between them, TSA and the Statistical Services Branch) TSA organised a half day workshop. The workshop, held March 15th and sponsored by Peter Harper and Ian Ewing, was designed to inform on issues perceived by TSA and encourage collaboration, rather than to problem solve. It was attended by representatives of most collection areas that publish time series. At the workshop is was agreed that the attendees would continue to constitute a semi-regular forum to discuss issues that have arisen and to further communication activities. Importantly for the ABS, the forum continues to grow in numbers.
For more information on TSA activity in this area, please contact Evrim Aydin Saher on (02) 6252 5659, Alex Stuckey on (08) 9360 5378 or Philip Carruthers on (02) 6252 5307. Email: firstname.lastname@example.org, email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.org.
These documents will be presented in a new window.
This page last updated 21 June 2011 | <urn:uuid:bc7acc8c-8273-4010-bdf4-ef8df111a193> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Previousproducts/1504.0Main%20Features7Mar%202011?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=1504.0&issue=Mar%202011&num=&view= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916573 | 399 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Since 1986, the Phoenix Friends of the Arizona Cancer Center have supported scientific research at the Arizona Cancer Center to help transform the future of cancer care. Funds raised by the Friends have gone toward new laboratory equipment, patient support materials, endowed chair positions and more. More recently, funds have been used for the Phoenix Friends Scholar Program, which supports world-class physician-scientists who show extraordinary potential for significantly advancing cancer treatments.
The 2010 Phoenix Friends Scholars are Ravitharan “Ravi” Krishnadasan, MD, Mark "Marty" Pagel, PhD, and Karen Weihs, MD.
Ravitharan “Ravi” Krishnadasan, MD
Dr. Krishnadasan is an assistant professor of clinical medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. He received his medical degree at St. George’s University School of Medicine, and completed his residency in internal medicine at Norwalk Hospital/Yale University School of Medicine. He earned his fellowship in hematology oncology at Yale University School of Medicine.
Dr. Krishnadasan, certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in hematology, oncology and internal medicine, worked as an assistant professor of medicine at Brown University for three years before joining the UA College of Medicine and Arizona Cancer Center hematology/oncology section.
His medical focus is on benign hematology, which includes bleeding and clotting disorders, anemias and white cell and platelet disorders as well as malignant hematology, such as leukemias, myelodysplastic syndromes, aplastic anemia, multiple myeloma, myeloproliferative disorders, polycythemia vera, myelofibrosis and essential thrombosis. His research focuses on leukemias, myelodysplastic syndromes and multiple myeloma.
Mark "Marty" Pagel, PhD
Dr. Pagel developed MRI methods to evaluate anti-cancer therapies at Pharmacia Corp. before joining Case Western Reserve University in 2003 to develop MRI contrast agents that detect molecular compositions in tumors.
Dr. Pagel joined the University of Arizona in 2008, where he is now an associate professor of biomedical engineering and chemistry and biochemistry. His laboratory is located in the Arizona Cancer Center, which provides an outstanding environment for cancer imaging research. Dr. Pagel continues to apply MRI methods to evaluate anti-cancer therapies, and has developed a new type of MRI contrast agent for in vivo studies of mouse models with cancer.
Dr. Pagel has also expanded his research program to develop contrast agents for optical imaging and photoacoustic imaging. His interdisciplinary research with molecular imaging contrast agents facilitates much collaboration between biomedical imaging and cancer biology researchers.
Karen Weihs, MD
Dr. Weihs, board certified in family medicine and psychiatry, is the medical director for Supportive Care for Healing, in which Survivorship, Psychiatric and Palliative Care Clinics are integrated with other aspects of multidisciplinary cancer care.
Dr. Weihs' research aims to improve knowledge of how to prevent depression in patients with cancer and their family members, as well as to effectively treat stress and depression when they occur in cancer patients.
She completed medical school at the University of Iowa, followed by residency training in family medicine that included studying family therapy at the Ackerman Institute. After four years as a family medicine faculty member at Brown University, Dr. Weihs completed residency training in adult and child psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin.
Dr. Weihs launched her research career at the Center for Family Research at The George Washington University. She was federally funded to study families and illness, as well as teach brief psychotherapy for psychiatry residents, providing psychiatric care for cancer patients and directing the Clinical Psychiatric Research Center for the conduct of clinical trials of pharmacologic interventions for anxiety and depressive disorders. | <urn:uuid:f4a6c0d8-8a95-4ef8-83bc-febc16f90dfc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://azcc.arizona.edu/node/3605 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943082 | 809 | 1.5 | 2 |
Aiming even higher
It's been a bad week for the Royal West Academy (RWA), Bristol, after a 6.7m-high statue by Damien Hirst was left with a graffiti tag last Tuesday night. The sculpture, worth £1.5m and inspired by a collection box girl used by a former charity, is the second sculpture this year to have been vandalised at the institution. In May, a bronze sculpture by David Backhouse, which had stood at the front of the building, was smashed up. Keen to learn from the experience, the RWA perched the 3.5-tonne Hirst sculpture on its balcony in a bid to remove temptation from criminals. A spokesperson for the RWA said “maybe we'll have to put work even higher next time. We're concerned it may put people off loaning to us, but the graffiti has already been removed and there is no lasting damage to the work.”
Damien now does deckchairs
"Save £30 when you buy a Damien Hirst beach towel and deckchair together," trumpets the latest email from Hirst’s London-based edition shop Other Criteria. Sun worshippers can indeed bag a Soul Love double beach towel and a deckchair bedecked in butterflies by the Brit artist for £345 (rather than the usual £375): ideal for Blackpool, Biarritz and other beach resorts worldwide.
Hats off to Dulwich
The Good Times: Art For Older People programme at Dulwich Picture Gallery in South London, now in its sixth year, has always pushed the boundaries with original and innovative projects for older adults who are often isolated and vulnerable. For the latest initiative, the gallery has teamed up with Hat Designer of the Year 2010, Kate Langrish-Smith, whose millinery workshops are tailored to the needs of the elderly participants. Dutch hats seen within the gallery's collection are the inspiration for this chapeau smorgasbord. "The sessions are already fully booked and the gallery is brimming with excitement at such a wonderful collaboration," said a jaunty press statement.
Elton's specs appeal in Basel
The Doll's House Museum in Basel gets all goggle-eyed this autumn with an exhibition devoted to Eyewear (note the jaunty sub-title: Past, present and future –vision aid and fashion accessory). The show, which opens on 15 October, explores the history of glasses from antiquity to the present, with plenty of celebrity specs on view, "among them the ostentatious glasses of Sir Elton John, those of the unforgettable Marilyn Monroe, the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer or the Swiss ski-jumping legend Simon Ammann. Also featured are spectacles of the eccentric Basel couturier Fred Spillmann," said a press statement. In fact, 20 gorgeous sets of glasses from Elton will wow visitors to Basel.
ICA gets balletic with Bronstein
Buenos Aires-born artist Pablo Bronstein brings pirouettes and pointe shoes to the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London next month with his new ballet Plaza Minuet/The Birth of Venus. So how Black Swan-esque will Bronstein be? The two-part piece will be performed by classically trained dancers, including Matthias Sperlinger and Rosalind Masson, in costumes designed by Mary Katrantzou. In Plaza/Minuet, the performers will "follow lines marked out on the floor that might represent an architectural void or an imagined piazza", says a press statement. The birth and triumph of Venus is explored in part two. The spectacle hits the ICA on 16 and 17 September after a performance at Glasgow's Tramway on 3 September.
Marina comes to MOCA
Hot on the tails of her hugely successful performance in Manchester, Marina Abramovic has been named to direct LA MOCA's annual gala on 12 November. The fundraising event has become something of an art world performance extravaganza, with Doug Aitken creating an immersive, multi-media project last year including a set by folk favourite Devendra Banhart. Lady Gaga and Francesco Vezzoli paired up the year before, with a performance featuring dancers from the Bolshoi Ballet. Details are still unconfirmed for Marina's plans, but since her Manchester magnum opus, The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic, included talented actor Willem Dafoe, ethereal singer-songwriter Antony Hegarty and legendary director Robert Wilson, the MOCA event is sure to be a crowd pleaser.
Collishaw event a no-go in Camden
The London riots which have engulfed the capital - from Hackney to Ealing - have had an impact on the art world. "Due to police intelligence, The Roundhouse in Camden is closed to the public this evening [9 August]. As a result, the screening of Mat Collishaw's Sordid Earth has been postponed," says Collishaw's dealer Blain Southern. Collishaw's piece was set to be projected on to Ron Arad's Curtain Call installation made of 5,600 silicon rods. The event will thankfully be rescheduled...
Holler's Roman ride for art thrill-seekers
This November, Belgian artist Carsten Holler will send visitors into a spin (again) with the launch of his new piece at Rome's Macro Museum of Contemporary Art (30 November to March 2012). The work, entitled Double Carousel with Zöllner Stripes, has bagged Holler the Enel Contemporanea prize - now in its fifth year - which is awarded by Italy's largest power company to an original work on the theme of energy. Holler takes interaction to new heights with a press statement noting: "Turning slowly and in opposite directions, the merry-go-rounds allow the public to get on and off easily, as if they were enormous mills or grindstones, where the people, sitting on top, come closer together and move further apart in constant rotation." Criss-cross lines around the carousels may fuel the queasy feeling experienced by some participants (white knuckle or what?).
Paul Smith on trend with Mr Moore
Art and fashion, always cosy bedfellows, snuggle up once more with the news that UK designer Paul Smith has teamed up with the Hertfordshire-based Henry Moore Foundation. "I have always been a fan of Henry Moore and this is the first time a contemporary designer has been granted permission to make use of his prints and drawings on clothing. I was most privileged to visit the Henry Moore archive to select the drawings I wanted to use," quips Smith. Moore's imagery graces Smith's trendy togs and accessories such as a weekend bag, ladies' handbag and clutch bag, ties, scarves, and a man's leather billfold wallet. The Paul Smith & Henry Moore collection goes "in store" (as they say) this month and is also available at: http://www.henry-moore.org/hmf/shop
Feel the heat
This interesting take on Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi, currently the target of Nato air strikes, features in the Summer in the City exhibition at Ben Uri, Jewish Museum of Art in north London which opens today (until 4 September). The arresting image taken on London's Tower Bridge - cheekily entitled I've got a 99, problems and a great tshirt (2011) - is by Saatchi New Sensations award-winner Sarah Maple, one of seven young artists (Miriam Elia and Seren Jones also participate) invited to respond to works in the Ben Uri Collection by art titans such as Frank Auerbach, Lucien Pissarro and Leon Kossoff. "From 3D painting to fictionalised audio histories, each [artist] has taken the opportunity to get out of the studio, out of their own heads and onto the streets," says curator Nathalie Levi, jauntily adding: "Enjoy the show, avoid the rush hour."
Cindy puts on her face
Cindy Sherman and MAC are teaming up for a cosmetic line that comes straight from the big top. Taking a cue from her 2004 clowns series, the garish makeup seems better suited for Bozo than a young beauty. In the ad campaign, the famed photographer/master of disguise creates three different personas using distinct colour stories. She is a clown, a bewigged madam and a Joker-lipped ingénue. The line is scheduled to debut in September. | <urn:uuid:beb85d65-887f-46aa-942d-80dff5286242> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theartnewspaper.com/in-the-frame/2011/8/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943951 | 1,766 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Earlier this week figures from the latest MoneyTree report found that VC funding for web startups has reached a 10-year high. Contrast that with the latest funding figures from the Dow Jones VentureSource, out on Friday, which found that venture investment in the energy sector dropped by more than half.
Dow Jones reports that startups in the “energy and utility industry” raised $566 million in 29 deals, which was less than half the amount raised by energy startups in the second quarter of 2010. Clean-power companies were responsible for $540 million and 27 deals out of that total, according to Dow Jones.
Clearly generalist venture capitalists that had dabbled in energy investing over the past couple of years have shifted away from energy. Earlier this year Mass High Tech published a report that studied 10 venture firms that made five or more new cleantech deals between 2003 and 2008 and then completely pulled back from new cleantech investments after 2008.
Corporate investors are moving in, partly taking up some of the drop in energy investing. Jessica Canning, the global research director for Dow Jones VentureSource, was quoted in the release as saying, “As fewer venture dollars are committed, we see energy companies raising funding from corporations, the government and other types of investors.”
The amount of new corporate investors in greentech is one bright spot in energy investing. Last month natural gas company Chesapeake Energy announced that it plans to invest up to $1 billion into technologies that can use natural gas instead of oil. NRG Energy, ConocoPhillips and GE announced a new $300 million back in January. GM launched an inaugural $100 million auto-tech fund last year. Intel Capital has been investing in tech, including solar and energy efficiency, for years, and oil companies like Valero, BP, Chevron and Exxon have all made small investments into mostly biofuels.
While generalist VCs are moving away from cleantech, a variety of investors are doubling down or are creating new types of funds, like moving to later-stage investing or focusing on the intersection of IT and green. Former First Solar CEO Michael Ahearn has a new $300 million fund; Silver Lake recruited Adam Grosser, Cathy Zoi and Raj Atluru for its inaugural Kraftwerk fund; and big players like VantagePoint Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins continue to invest.
Image courtesy of PinkMoose | <urn:uuid:609a11dd-fd44-4a1b-8f98-2ec9a55c2654> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gigaom.com/2011/07/22/as-web-vc-investing-booms-cleantech-slows/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958949 | 498 | 1.84375 | 2 |
USMAN FAROOQ; MUHAMMAD UMAR FAROOQ MSE-2010:39, pp. 119. COM/School of Computing, 2011.
Context: Global software development is the emerging trend in today’s world as it provides the software companies with certain advantages like access to skill and cheap labor, low development cost etc. There are also many challenges and risks involved in globally distributed software project as compare to co-located projects like communication, coordination and control etc. due to geographical separation. There is also a recent interest in applying agile methods in offshore projects in order to minimize certain offshore challenges. Agile methods in collocated environment demands high communication, coordination and collaboration between the team members. However implementing agile methods in distributed environment is beneficial and challenging too, because of inherited GSD challenges. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully understand the benefits and challenges of applying agile methods in distributed project before actually initiating the development.
Objectives: This research study aims to look at current empirical evidence regarding benefits and challenges of applying agile methods in offshore projects, in order to understand it properly. Furthermore, we have examined that which of the benefits and challenges reported in literature can be seen in practice. This helped us in finding out the similarities and differences between the benefits and challenges that are reported in literature and in practice.
Methods: To fulfill our aims and objectives we have first conducted the detailed systematic review analysis of the empirical studies from year 2000-2010. The systematic review approach helped us to collect and summarize the empirical data available regarding the benefits and challenges of applying agile methods in offshore projects. The research studies were identified from the most authentic databases that are scientifically and technically peer reviewed such as Inspec and Compendex, IEEE Xplore, ACM digital library, Springer Link, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Scopus, ISI Web of Knowledge and Willey Inter Science Journal Finder. Furthermore, industrial survey was conducted in order to identify whether the benefits and challenges enlisted in literature can be confirmed by practitioners. This helped us in determining the similarities and differences between benefits and challenges that are reported in empirical literature and industrial survey.
Results: From systematic review results, we have found the list of benefits and challenges of most applied agile practices such as daily scrum meetings, sprint planning meetings, sprint review meetings, retrospective meetings, pair programming, short release and on-site customer. The most common benefits related to above identified agile practices are early problem identification, project visibility, increase communication, coordination and collaboration, trust, clarification of work and requirements, early client feedback and customer satisfaction. Similarly the most common challenges associated with above identified agile practices are lack of linguistic skills, culture differences and temporal differences.
From survey result, it was found that the majority of benefits and challenges identified through literature review are prevalent in software industries to some extent. We were able to identify the benefits and challenges of agile practices such as daily scrum, sprint planning meetings, sprint review, retrospective meetings and short release. The most common benefits of above identified agile practices highlighted by survey participants are project visibility, early problem identification, increase coordination, opportunity for knowledge sharing and transferring, immediate feedback from client, and opportunity for understanding the task properly. Similarly the most common challenges identified by survey participants are language problems, temporal difference and difficult to explain and understand problems or issues over communication technologies. However, there are certain challenges like trust and culture issues, which have received most attention in the empirical literature, but are not identified by majority of industry respondents.
Conclusions: From the information attained so far regarding the benefits and challenges of agile methods in offshore projects, we observed that there is an emerging trend of using agile methods in offshore projects and practitioners actually found it beneficial. The benefits of agile practices does not achieve straightaway there are certain challenging factors of GSD too, which can restrict the implementation or make the methodology not useful such as communication, coordination and collaboration. These challenges are usually occurred due to geographical separation, lack of trust and linguistic skills, culture difference etc. The presented work add contribution in a sense as to the best of our knowledge no systematic review effort has been done in this area with specifically focuses on highlighting the benefits and challenges. From survey results we found that majority of benefits and challenges highlighted by survey participants are to some extent same with what we have already studied in literature. However there are certain important challenges which have received most attention in empirical literature but were less identified by the survey participants like trust issue and culture difference.
The benefits and challenges identified through industrial survey do not add much information into our attention. This does not mean that all possible benefits and challenges of applying agile methods in offshore project have been explored. The responses which were received from industry practitioners were quite few to make any kind of arguments. There is a probability that we missed the important benefits and challenges related to particular agile practices during our industrial survey. Therefore we conclude that a much thorough and inclusive answers should be required to identify the benefits and challenges of applying agile methods in offshore projects. | <urn:uuid:41bbab4e-f00f-4db0-8507-630212308150> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bth.se/fou/cuppsats.nsf/04c233cb0d90bad0c1256cec00325988/7be787136d994a5bc125782b007879dd!OpenDocument | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948231 | 1,011 | 2.296875 | 2 |
15 residents have lost their lives to influenza this season.
(Cleveland) – This is becoming a very deadly flu season for Greater Cleveland.
The Cuyahoga County Board of Health reports that 15 people have died from influenza so far this season.
There were 5 additional fatalities last week, pushing the total up from 10.
Richard Stacklin of the Board of Health tells Newsradio WTAM 1100 the current 15 are 3 more deaths than occurred during the peak of the dreaded H1N1 flu season a few years ago.
Of the 15 deaths this season, all were senior citizens except two.
Stacklin says they are currently seeing the number of cases decline, however, he is predicting that trend to quickly reverse with influenza spiking in the coming weeks.
Clevelander receiving a flu shot.
Stacklin explains there are about 8 weeks left in the flu season, so it's not too late to get vaccinated, and it's never too late to practice preventative measures.
He warns, never cough into your hands, wash your hands frequently, and stay away from public places if you feel sick.
Get breaking news sent to your mobile phone. Text "news" to 21095.
(Copyright 2013 Clear Channel, all rights reserved. Nurse photo by Getty Images.) | <urn:uuid:118dadf9-fc33-4901-9b96-5de8db961175> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wmms.com/pages/local_news.html?feed=122520&article=10787680 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968178 | 265 | 1.984375 | 2 |
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Apples, Apples Everywhere!
The beginning of our apple unit means fall has finally arrived! I think. It's still kind of hot here, but I know that fall "feeling" is on it's way! I like to kick off the apple unit by having everyone bring in their favorite kind of apple, and then we create a pictograph to show the results. Another fun activity is reading the story "The Little Red House Without Doors or Windows and a Star Inside" and cutting open the apple to reveal that the seeds in the apple make the star! A hilarious writing activity: having the kids explain how they would make an apple pie! I didn't know that gummy worms would be an essential ingredient to apple pie, but my first grade chefs think they are pretty important! We always finish our apple unit by doing an apple tasting. The items sampled this year: apple pie, apple juice, apple jacks, apple butter, apple sauce, and apple chips. Yum. Here are a few pictures of some of my other favorite apple-tivities this year:
A construction paper apple cut-away diagram.
A giant apple guy. You know I love those big crazy eyes! The kids wrote words on white slips of paper to describe an apple. From far away, it kind of looks like the apple has little band-aids stuck all over it! Ha!
During math, we were learning how to solve simple word problems, so we had to do apple problems, of course!
A favorite apple poem with illustrations by my first grade artists. I really liked the poem being this large--great for buddy reading station! | <urn:uuid:6d872bd6-4112-4cea-a67a-1b404fa3be4a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://firstgraderatlast.blogspot.com/2010/10/beginning-of-our-apple-unit-means-fall.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962428 | 342 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Tuesday February 19, 2013
Cops on the trail of animal killers
By R.S.N. MURALI
MALACCA: The hunt is on for the killers of a 14-year-old female Malayan Sun Bear and an Arabian stallion at the Malacca Zoo.
Visitors alerted the zoo keepers when they saw a male Sun Bear lying protectively over the still body of its partner at about 5pm on Sunday.
“The keepers rushed to the site and found the animal lifeless,” said zoo veterinarian Dr Zubaidah Kamarudin.
A post-mortem revealed that the bear had eaten a banana laced with toxin.
An autopsy is yet to be performed on the 17-year-old horse “Basket” which was found dead by groomer P. Lohan around 7am yesterday.
“We have yet to identify the type of poison used but have lodged a police report,” Dr Zubaidah added.
She also said poison-laced oranges, bananas and sugar canes were found in the enclosures of a chimpanzee and two orang utans, which are believed to have refused to eat them because of the pungent smell. The feed has been sent to the Chemistry Department.
The zoo is not taking any chances. “We are monitoring the condition of the animals round the clock,” added Dr Zubaidah.
State CID deputy chief expressed confidence in catching the culprits soon.
He declined to elaborate but sources said police were looking for two former zoo workers seen at the elephants' enclosure on Sunday trying to feed the animals.
“They ran off carrying a package when ex-colleagues spotted them,” a source said.
The sources believe the two were linked to private zoo operators.
It is learnt that the Sun Bear was presented to the Malacca Zoo in 2000 after it was caught in the wilds of Johor.
The owner of the stallion had kept the horse at the zoo and it was not one of the exhibits.
The Malacca Zoo and Night Safari, sited on a 21.22ha zoological park, is the second biggest zoo in the country after Zoo Negara.
It has over 1,200 species of animals made up of 215 different types of birds as well as mammals, reptiles and amphibians.
The major attractions at the zoo include the critically-endangered Sumatran Rhinoceros, Malayan Sun Bear, Malayan Gaur Oxen, Serow and the Malayan Tiger.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam has offered an RM10,000 reward to anyone providing information leading to the arrest of the culprits.
He also asked the zoo management to install CCTVs immediately. | <urn:uuid:49d8537e-d2aa-430d-8e82-7fe904e979d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2013/2/19/nation/12729177&sec=nation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969009 | 580 | 1.851563 | 2 |
PERALIYA, Sri Lanka — The sea shimmers to the west as the train rattles north toward Colombo. It passes a Christian cemetery, fields where grazing cattle listlessly watch boys in white uniforms play cricket, and crumpled shacks unrepaired nearly a year after the waves came.
Three of the eight coaches of the Colombo-Matara train have been set up on unused track in Peraliya in honor of the dead.
This is the same track that carried more than 1,000 passengers and railway workers to their deaths when the Dec. 26 tsunami hit a stopped eight-car commuter train here — one tragedy among many on a day when more than 216,000 people are believed to have died across southern Asia.
Now, vendors walk the aisles offering their wares in singsong voices. Namal Paranavithana, 35, settles back in his seat. He's on his way from his home in Matara, about 40 miles south of here, to his job as a criminal investigator in a government office in Colombo, a trip he makes every two days.
Yet whenever the train passes Peraliya, he pauses a moment to remember the day, Dec. 26, and the dead. He wasn't on the train when it was swamped here. He had business north of Colombo. But like most Sri Lankans, he has losses to grieve. An aunt and uncle died on the train. At home in Matara, the tsunami carried away his son — his only child — who was 7.
In honor of the dead, three of the tsunami-battered train's eight coaches have been set up on unused track in Peraliya. It has become a makeshift shrine. Meanwhile, the restored railway line along Sri Lanka's southwestern coast has become a testament to the living.
Defying skeptics in the government and setting aside a history of bitter disputes, rail workers and their managers came together to get the trains running again in just 57 days. It was a symbolic triumph for this shattered country, and a practical one, too: 77,000 Sri Lankans, many commuting from jobs in the south to the capital, Colombo, take the train each way daily.
As the first anniversary of the tsunami approaches, the state-run railway's success stands in sharp contrast to Sri Lanka's overall reconstruction and particularly its efforts to house the half-million people left homeless by the tsunami. Red tape and political squabbling have left tens of thousands of Sri Lankans living in temporary wooden shelters, awaiting permanent housing.
The return of rail service "was a marvelous achievement," says Lalithasiri Gunaruwan, a University of Colombo economics lecturer and an adviser to the railroad during the reconstruction. "It's a showcase. If 130 kilometers (80 miles) of railroad track can be reconstructed in 57 days, six months should be sufficient to finish housing."
'People were running in fear'
The Colombo-to-Matara coastal train was running on time when it reached this southern village at about 9:20 on the morning of Dec. 26.
Sri Lankan trains typically run late and erratically, but on that morning the 50-year-old Canadian-built General Motors locomotive was being piloted by one of the rail line's best engineers: Janaka Fernando. Just a couple of days earlier, Fernando had been recognized for his excellence: He had been picked to take a special train from Colombo to the east coast town of Batticaloa to inaugurate a new railway timetable.
But something was wrong the morning after Christmas. The train suddenly stopped in this village, a mile north of the resort town of Hikkaduwa on the southwestern coast. The engineer awaited a green light that never came. Weddkial Chandrasiri Silva, 54, was riding in a small compartment just behind the train's engine; he and two other rail workers were on their way to deliver spare parts to a crew laboring on the track south of Hikkaduwa.
They didn't know an earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra 2½ hours earlier had sent a tsunami rolling toward Sri Lanka.
Suddenly, water began seeping into the carriage, Silva recalls: "People on the train started shouting. As the water rolled in, we heard a sound. The carriage behind us toppled over and lodged against a tree. Bodies were floating. People were running in fear. We minded our own business and stayed in the compartment."
The water began to recede. Passengers stayed dry in the train; villagers clambered aboard to seek refuge from the water. Then, "Somebody shouted, 'There's another wave coming.' And I looked out." Silva saw a wave 25 to 30 feet high. "The water was completely black. It was like a mountain moving toward us." The raging water pulled Silva out the window, up and over the top of the train. He was swept along, bobbing up and down, swallowing water, trying to find something secure to hold on to. "I got banged against lots of things," he says.
Silva figures the water carried him a half-mile inland before he managed to grab a tree. He made his way to a Buddhist temple on high ground and then to a hospital, where an overworked doctor, unimpressed with his aches, gave him painkillers and sent him on his way. After hours on foot and buses, he arrived at his home in Payagala, south of Colombo, around midnight. He later learned that his two colleagues, men he had known for 15 years, had died in the train along with engineer Fernando and more than 1,000 others.
Within days he was back on the track, working to get the trains running again.
Sri Lankan officials originally figured it would take foreign expertise, at least six months and tens of millions of dollars to get the trains running again along the route from Colombo to Matara, on the island's southern tip.
Priyal de Silva, the general manager of Sri Lanka's state-run railways, disagreed. He'd seen worse: In 1957, massive floods tore up Sri Lanka's railways. De Silva, then 10 years old, had tagged along while his father, a senior railroad engineer, inspected the destruction.
"I knew (the tsunami damage) could be repaired in two to three months because my father had repaired greater damage in four months," de Silva says. "I was confident. I told the government I could do it in three months."
The railroad's achievement is even more remarkable because it occurred despite:
• A history of conflict between the railroad's management and the hard-line Marxist union that represents its 17,000 workers.
• A shortage of supplies, money and material.
• The fact that many of those repairing the line were themselves recovering from injuries and grieving lost loved ones.
• The opposition of top-level bureaucrats who were convinced Sri Lankans couldn't do the job themselves.
Union general secretary Sumathipala Manawadu, speaking in union offices in Colombo below portraits of Lenin and Marx, concedes that Sri Lankan "trade unions have a bad name for trying to get their workers benefits without caring for the general public." The union had led a 14-day rail strike in January 2004 and had been threatening another when the tsunami hit.
After the water receded, the union decided it had a duty to the nation and an opportunity to improve rail workers' image. The union mobilized 1,000 volunteers to clear the tracks — crucial work that let engineers assess the damage and figure out what to do. Three days after the tsunami, they had removed bodies, fallen trees and other debris, former rail adviser Gunaruwan says.
"They had identified us as an inefficient, lazy lot," union leader Manawadu says. "We always wanted to prove that if we had good leadership we could work."
De Silva divided the ravaged track between Kalutara and Matara into four sections and ordered repair work to begin on all of them simultaneously. The thinking: progress could continue even if work on one section got bogged down by something difficult such as replacing a damaged bridge.
Every Sunday, de Silva met his senior engineers in a track-side bungalow to assess the progress. They set a public deadline of April 13,the traditional Sri Lankan new year, to restore rail service from Colombo to Matara; privately, they meant to finish a lot faster.
De Silva's superiors at the Transportation Ministry were skeptical. They wanted to raise money from international donors such as the United Nations and the World Bank and hire foreign engineering firms to do the job. But the railway management and workers were determined to reconstruct the railway themselves. "If they had given it to foreign institutions, we knew from experience that a lot of money would be wasted and lost to corruption," Manawadu says.
To avoid spending money on new railroad ties and other parts, rail workers dug into the muck to salvage old parts buried 2 feet deep by the tsunami. They often worked from dawn until well into the night. Sometimes they took a bus back to a makeshift camp at a school in Ambalangoda, 50 miles south of Colombo. Sometimes they camped out where they were working.
"Everyone pitched in," says railroad laborer Kumara Wadu Prasama Priyal, 42. "We couldn't be happy because we kept seeing dead bodies, but we kept on working. ... Even the officials didn't pull rank. ... Usually, the higher officers don't do as much work, (but) they stayed by our sides without eating or drinking."
A key obstacle was a damaged bridge outside Kalutara, the first major town south of Colombo. The tsunami had washed away the embankment, leaving the bridge isolated in the middle of a river. Laborers painstakingly replaced the embankment by hand, filling in the gap with boulders.
The rail adviser, Gunaruwan, was attending a Buddhist ceremony when his cellphone rang Jan. 7 to bring him the news: The bridge had been repaired and the first train was on its way from Colombo to Kalutara; the first link had been completed. "I rode back to Colombo on that train," he says. "That gave us a boost. It showed that things can get done."
Even as the progress continued, top government finance officials wanted to hand the job to foreigners. De Silva pleaded with them: "I have already made the cake. Let me finish the icing." Finally, they relented.
The entire track was completed Feb. 21, 57 days after work had begun. Now, like the rest of Sri Lanka, where at least 35,000 people died in the tsunami, things aren't exactly back to normal on the railway. Repairs are still needed. The track isn't as solid as it was before the tsunami. So the trains are running at reduced speed — 38 miles an hour, down from 50 miles an hour, de Silva says. But they are running.
A makeshift shrine
On a typical day, 300 visitors stop by Peraliya to inspect the battered carriages and remember those who died here. Children climb inside, ignoring the signs warning visitors to stay away. Another sign declares: "Attention! Do not give money to schoolchildren. They will avoid school and beg here."
The shrine has become a local commercial enterprise. A snake charmer sits cross-legged near the main road; he has a dancing money, too — performances available for a tip. A gap-toothed man sells 10-cent ice cream cones from the back of his motorcycle. A local Buddhist temple has set up a booth to raise money for the village, which lost more than 300 people.
Former rail adviser Gunaruwan wishes the shrine had never been built. "I think it was a mistake," he says. "We did not want to see the carriages packed up as a museum. They are rotting and rusting there."
He says the three carriages should have been repaired like the other five and returned to service as a "running museum" and a symbol of human determination in the face of massive natural calamity.
"We have raised our hand up to the tsunami," he says. "The train is not a ghost. It is alive." | <urn:uuid:38bfba77-0685-4dba-a844-55ed63f76673> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://servesrilanka.blogspot.com/2005/12/on-train-tracks-in-sri-lanka-life-does.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981839 | 2,546 | 2.09375 | 2 |
The lower house of the French parliament has approved a bill that puts France on track to legalise gay marriage and allow same-sex couples to adopt children.
"This law is a first necessary step, a social evolution that benefits society overall"
- Corinne Narassiguin, Socialist party
Tuesday's measure, approved in the National Assembly in a 329-to-229 vote, puts France on course to join nearly a dozen mostly European nations that allow gay marriage and comes despite a string of recent demonstrations by opponents of the so-called "marriage for all" bill.
"This law is going to extend to all families the protections guaranteed by the institution of marriage,'' Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said ahead of Tuesday's vote.
"Contrary to what those who vociferate against it say fortunately they're in the minority this law is going to strengthen the
institution of marriage", Ayrault said.
Conservative opponents forced a discussion of nearly 5,000 amendments, a move derided by Socialists as inconsequential stalling tactics.
Tuesday's vote makes France and Britain the largest European nations to adopt pro-gay marriage policies.
Polls indicate a narrow majority of French support legalising gay marriage, though that support falls when questions about the adoption and conception of children come into play.
"Opening up marriage and adoption to homosexual couples is a very beautiful advance. ... It is an emblematic vote, a vote that will mark history", said Corinne Narassiguin, Socialist representative, announcing her party's support for the measure.
The Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Spain, as well as Argentina, Canada and South Africa have authorised gay marriage, along with nine US states and the District of Columbia.
"This law is a first necessary step, a social evolution that benefits society overall," Narassiguin said.
However, the political right has not given up just yet, saying the Constitutional Court, whose 12 members include three former French presidents and several other prominent conservatives, will determine whether the law, if finally passed, meshes with the law of the land.
"So it's not the end of the story yet", said Herve Mariton, a member of the main opposition UMP party.
"We still have arguments to make and we want to convince people that it is not a good project."
Francois Hollande, the French president, made legalising gay marriage one of the planks in his 60-point programme on the way to winning the presidency in May over Nicolas Sarkozy, the conservative incumbent. | <urn:uuid:d8fec538-a407-4e82-8874-83f2bd93e35d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/02/2013212182433573400.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946209 | 527 | 1.765625 | 2 |
It’s no secret that most college students aren’t crazy about textbooks. But will moving required-reading materials to an e-book format really change all that? A new market research study indicates that it just might.
Seventy-three percent of college students who responded to a new Kelton Research study sponsored by education software startup Kno said they’d be willing to do something they might not normally do — including giving up dating or sex — if they could never carry another textbook.
That sounds a bit sensational, but it makes more sense when you think about the financial and physical burden that college textbooks represent: College students can expect to spend some $2,400 on textbooks during their undergraduate careers, and a quarter of students have to carry in excess of 20 pounds’ worth of books on a typical day, according to the study.
But would shifting to a digital format really make students fall in love with “books”? The research data implies that it certainly could help. Sixty-two percent of respondents said they would study more often if they could access their textbooks from anywhere without having to carry them around, and 54 percent said it would make their studies more efficient. A full 71 percent of college students said they were keen to “go digital” by putting required-reading materials on a mobile or desktop application or through the web.
Even so, many educational software companies have not taken off as quickly as many may have hoped. Kno itself was forced to pivot earlier this year after a number of launch-related hiccups. But now that college students are wanting to go digital more than ever, the tide may finally start to turn away from traditional textbooks for good. | <urn:uuid:2cdeb3fd-0143-4da7-a7b3-55e724e61087> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gigaom.com/2011/07/27/college-textbooks-ebooks-software/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974136 | 351 | 1.835938 | 2 |
How do you think the new GigE standards will influence the machine vision industry?
Respond or ask your question now!
Readers can visit www.ni.com/robotics/industrial to learn more about NI tools for industrial robotics applications.
About National Instruments
National Instruments (www.ni.com) is transforming the way engineers and scientists design, prototype and deploy systems for measurement, automation and embedded applications. NI empowers customers with off-the-shelf software such as NI LabVIEW and modular cost-effective hardware, and sells to a broad base of more than 30,000 different companies worldwide, with no one customer representing more than 3 percent of revenue and no one industry representing more than 15 percent of revenue. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 5,000 employees and direct operations in more than 40 countries. For the past 10 years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America. Readers can obtain investment information from the company's investor relations department by calling (512) 683-5090, e-mailing email@example.com or visiting www.ni.com/nati.
About DENSO Robotics
DENSO is the world's largest user of small assembly robots, with more than 16,000 DENSO robots designed and used in its own manufacturing facilities. More than 44,000 DENSO robots are used in other companies. DENSO Robotics offers a complete line of robots, controllers and software covering a wide range of applications. For more information, visit www.densorobot.com.
DENSO Corporation, headquartered in Kariya, Aichi prefecture, Japan, is a leading global supplier of advanced technology, systems and components. Worldwide, the company employs approximately 120,000 people in 33 countries and regions, including Japan. Consolidated global sales for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009 totaled US$32.0 billion. DENSO common stock is traded on the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya stock exchanges in Japan. For more information, go to www.globaldenso.com, or visit our media website at www.densomediacenter.com.
ImagingLab is a small hi-tech company with a mission to offer its know-how to system integrators, machine builders and end-users with the need to adopt innovative technologies in the field of machine vision and robotics, to minimize their investments and shorten their learning curve. The company has a solid academic background, wide system integration experience and a deep knowledge of imaging tools and software. ImagingLab has successfully deployed integrated vision robotics solutions into many different industrial applications such as flexible manufacturing and automated assembly, pharmaceutical and cosmetic packaging, automated testing in microelectronics, tire manufacturing and high-energy physics. ImagingLab is also actively pursuing the adoption of robust 3D machine vision techniques to complement and extend its offering of 2D vision for robotics. For more information, visit www.imaginglab.it. | <urn:uuid:f1757692-4554-44f0-9aeb-2462912c26c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.advancedimagingpro.com/online/article.jsp?siteSection=3&id=6313&pageNum=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92539 | 612 | 1.539063 | 2 |
How To Finally Get A Grip On Wine And Start Appreciating It Like A Master In Record Time
Watch this video and discover WinesWonderland
Maybe you thought wine was a bit mysterious…
Wine terminology is a bit like a verbal mine field. What is an fruity taste? What is acidity? What is an earthy taste?
Well, the truth is that you can quickly discover a few fundamentals about wine that dramatically increase your enjoyment of wine, make you seem like a wine expert to your friends and make you stop being embarrassed to talk to the people in your local wine store.
Discover How By Reading This Page!
Instant Video Online Wine Classes
A great place to get started is our video online wine classes. They make it easy and fast to learn the essentials of buying, tasting and storing wine. It’s an easy way to jump start your wine enthusiasm. Our classes include things to print out like wine tasting sheets and videos to watch from some of the best experts on wine like Oz Clarke, the wine guy and Kevin Zraly, acclaimed as the best and most entertaining wine teacher. We add to these courses all the time, so be sure to check back regularly.
Discover How To Have Fun Visiting Local Wineries
It’s great fun to share your enthusiasm for wine with your friends by taking a tour of a winery. Even local, less well-known wineries can be great day adventures. Learn how wines are made, spend some time doing wine tasting, eat a bite of lunch or dinner, and enjoy an evening’s entertainment. Oh yes, you might even want to have a very special event like a wedding at a winery. Discover the tricks for having the most fun at our winery tour guide. Check out some of the wineries that we think are particularly unique… and some that produce really outstanding wines.
Enjoy Great Wine And Food
When you enjoy wine, you enjoy it more with good food. Discover how to pair the right wine with the right food as we reveal some of our favorite dishes and recipes in our Wine and Food Pairing Gallery. Plus, get our free Basic Wine and Food Pairing Charts.We add new recipes to our gallery all the time…
…and of course,we suggest some good wines to buy to go with each dish. You can shop for wine online if you like. We take suggestions from our local sommelier and from the experts in the wine world. We add new wines all the time, so be sure to check out our choices for Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Riesling, Pinot Noir and much, much more.
Our Favorite Wine Storage And Wine Accessories Products
It’s a simple truth that the more you enjoy wine the more wine you buy to enjoy… and that means you need to keep the wine you buy someplace. Proper wine bottle storage is critical to preserve the flavor of your wine and protect your wine investment. Discover the best metal wine racks, wood wine racks, wall mounted wine racks and stack-able racks… and if you’re really serious about storing wine, see the best small wine refrigerators, wine coolers and wine cellar credenzas. Check out our reviews of wine storage solutions.
Plus, we help you discover great accessories that make wine even more enjoyable. Things like wine aerators, wine decanters, wine chillers, wine glasses, wine label removers, wine books and a lot more.Check out our favorite products.
Get Started Now
Ready? The best way to get started is to download our free gifts.You get 3 terrific eBooks including our Wine Vocabulary Book. Plus, you get instant access to our exlusive step-by-step guide, The 15 Simple Steps You Can Take To Enhance Your Enjoyment Of Wine.
And the best part, is that it doesn’t cost a thing to get all these free bonuses. In fact, you will also be automatically registered in a free contest to win a Ravi Instant Wine Chiller. That let’s you enjoy your wine at the right temperature without waiting. It’s one of our top two wine accessory favorites. | <urn:uuid:43a1966c-b0b8-47d9-9ae3-6dafaa6d33df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wineswonderland.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93849 | 870 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Every boss has a different management style, which can be frustrating for employees. Once you learn to adapt to one style, you're thrown in with a new manager you have no idea how to please. This guide will give you a few basic types of managers, plus provide tips for getting along with each.
1. The "My Way or the Highway" manager. Not one for being open to others' ideas, this manager is happiest when she's getting her way. She likely thinks she's the most competent person at the company, which can make it difficult to meet her sky-high expectations.
Don't expect praise or even recognition from this manager, as she's too wrapped up in her vision for the company. Instead, focus on figuring out what that vision is, and what she's looking to achieve. It might be a purely selfish motive, such as getting a promotion of her own, or something that will put her in a positive light, like helping the company achieve record sales. Whatever that vision, get on board. Do whatever you can to support her vision, and she'll take notice.
2. The Mama or Papa manager. Some bosses take on the role of parent in their management style. They may urge you to come to them with all manner of issues—from not getting along with a co-worker to marital issues at home. While it may make things easy on the job to have a manager that cares so much about his staff, make sure to keep your distance when it comes to opening up about your personal life.
There is such a thing as too much involvement on the part of a manager. While he should take interest in his staff and make efforts to remedy difficult situations, you and your co-workers should not rely on him completely. Instead strive for independence, maintain a professional distance when it comes to talking about your personal life, and ask for help when appropriate.
3. The Wishy-Washy Fish manager. If you've ever had a manager say she'd take care of something and then never do it, or who was reluctant to make a hard decision on anything, you've worked for a Wishy-Washy Fish. It's a mystery how she came into management in the first place, as she's lacking all the key components a good manager should have: decisiveness, assertiveness, and confidence. Instead, she puts it on you and your team members to make decisions she should be making.
Unfortunately, this type of manager can be detrimental to the entire department, as she likely won't have the spine to fire underachievers, or put her foot down when things are going poorly. Take control by working independently, or being frank with her in saying you'd rather her be firm in her decisions, as that helps the team function better.
4. The Center Stage manager. The Center Stage manager is always the center of attention and willing to do anything to get people to like him. He's a bit of a politician, playing to sides to get what he wants, yet unable to deliver when it comes time. Beware of getting used by this manager, as he's not afraid to take on a willing scapegoat to make himself look good.
If you're looking to climb the corporate ladder, find a way to get in his good graces, and he'll take you along for the ride. Determine how much you're willing to be used to achieve your own professional goals. His network of contacts alone might be worth it.
Your best bet on the job is to figure out what makes your manager tick, then determine how you can play to that to achieve what you want out of the job. The better you get along with your boss, of course, the more likely you are to succeed.
Lindsay Olson is a founding partner and public relations recruiter with Paradigm Staffing and Hoojobs.com, a niche job board for public relations, communications, and social media jobs. She blogs at LindsayOlson.com, where she discusses recruiting and job search issues. | <urn:uuid:9fe5b2ad-45d7-4903-9a93-35e0f19102a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2012/09/20/could-you-thrive-working-with-one-of-these-managers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979187 | 824 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Neither pear-tree partridges nor roasted duck are the type of holiday bird drivers sometimes serve up this time of year.
Auto insurance companies, law enforcement officers and psychologists caution that aggressive actions and responses - gestures, words or actions - behind the wheel can lead to nothing but trouble.
"If you let yourself be carried away by road rage, the vast majority of the time you're going to wind up with a bad decision," said Gary Sollars, chief executive officer of Charlton Manley Insurance, 211 E. Eighth St. "And bad decisions lead to bad accidents. We find a lot of accidents stem from just losing your good judgment for a brief time."
According to a recent national survey of 1,000 motorists by Leflein Associates in Ringwood, N.J., 50 percent of drivers said they have participated in aggressive behavior when they've been cut off, tailgated or "given the finger."
Thirty-four percent of drivers honk their horn, 27 percent yell, 19 percent give the finger, 17 percent flash their headlights, 7 percent mimic the offense and 2 percent admit to trying to run the other driver off the road.
Not much has changed in the years since a similar survey was taken in 1999, said Ray Palermo, director of public relations for Meriden, Conn.-based Response Insurance, the national auto insurance company that commissioned the survey.
The new survey includes information about driving while using a cell phone. Surveyed cell phone users are 15 percent more likely to honk, 10 percent more likely to yell and 9 percent more likely to give the finger than those who don't use cell phones.
Since 2003, aggressive or antagonistic driving has been attributed to 714 accidents, resulting in 15 deaths, according to the Kansas Department of Transportation.
"On holidays, there's always more people on the roads, so there's always more potential for accidents to occur," said Lt. Robert Baker of the Kansas Highway Patrol.
Lauren Schwab, 23, a senior at Kansas University and a server at Vermont Street BBQ, admits she can be an aggressive driver.
"I just have absolutely no patience on the road," said the southside Chicago native. "I speed up and cut people off. If somebody is tailing me, I slam on the brakes."
Such aggressive driving manifests itself around the holidays when people are more stressed.
"I think we're particularly prone to project our feeling of anger or stress on strangers at this time of year," said Marciana Vequist, a licensed psychologist at Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center in Lawrence. "People are not paying as close attention to their driving as they usually do and other people are more stressed out and would overreact."
The antidote to this aggression, to some, is simply to back off. Some drivers have a sense of humor about those who rant at perfect strangers to gain a few extra seconds.
"It's hilarious," said aspiring chef Jesse Murphy, 24, of Lawrence, who thinks that no response is the best for angry drivers.
"I prefer giving a 'thumbs-up' to giving 'the bird,'" said Casey Thornburgh, 23, a recent graduate in film from KU who grew up watching her dad honk and tailgate drivers. | <urn:uuid:644e9102-5262-4c9f-9dfb-571fc0abce7f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/dec/24/road_rage_accelerates_holidays/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964973 | 669 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Morels in Northern Illinois
emilsson at ARIES.SCS.UIUC.EDU
Thu Apr 24 00:16:28 EST 1997
On Wed, 23 Apr 1997, Zoyd wrote:
> Vicki Latta wrote:
> > vividly that I went out to check my most reliable morel spot before work
> > this afternoon. None yet... but was saddened to see the someone in their
> > infinite wisdom has put a "snowmobile" trail right through the spot....
> > but it appears to be used far more by those four wheel things that tear up
> > the soil. Am concerned about how edible these morels will be if they even
> > grow this year... any thoughts?
> > Getting the butter nad skillet ready just in case.... <G>
> > vicki
> Vicki: morels are known for favoring disturbed ground. could be the
> snowmobile trail might actually help.
Aha!!! That must be the reason why my buddies find morels in my footsteps,
while I get skunked! :-)
More information about the Mycology | <urn:uuid:2b37775f-9ce7-4b7a-8cae-27a5217e6d06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bio.net/bionet/mm/mycology/1997-April/005560.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914199 | 240 | 1.671875 | 2 |
At least in China's case they actually have the money in house instead of needing to borrow it for "mirage like" gains. Can't say that for another country where this is happening...
p.s. which country is a more open and relatively transparent system of disclosure? ....with government economists being forthright with what is happening with actual statistics and data? And which is not? Sorry, I sometimes get confused.
"Prosperity". It's everywhere. (just don't look under the hood at the nexus of said green shoots)
- Chinese new bank loans worth about an estimated 1.16 trillion yuan ($170 billion) were invested in the stock market in the first five months of this year, China Business News reported, citing a government economist.
- That’s 20 percent of the 5.8 trillion yuan loans banks extended in the period, the Shanghai-based newspaper said, citing Wei Jianing, a deputy director at the macro-economics department of the Development and Research Center under China’s State Council.
- Record lending after the central bank scrapped loan quotas in November last year is helping the economy to revive after the weakest growth in almost a decade.
- About 2.4 trillion yuan worth of bank loans were invested in projects in that quarter, Cheng said, leaving a further 2.18 trillion yuan in new loans of the total. “Where did it go? It’s undeniable that a portion of the lending may have flowed into stock and real estate markets and triggered the rebound in these two markets,” the former official said at a financial forum in Ningbo city in eastern China.
- A further 30 percent of the loans may have been used for discounted bill financing, or short-term credits used to fund working capital needs, according to the report. These funds may help form a financial bubble, the newspaper cited Wei as saying, adding this is the economist’s personal view. (the Chinese are learning from the masters of bubbles - Alan Greenspan must be proud his groundbreaking work is being copied the world over)
- [May 27, 2009: How is China Spending their Stimulus Money; and How many Loans will go Bad?]
- [Feb 16 2009: Is China Pulling an Alan Greenspan?]
This also says a lot of about the nature of the commodity "boom" and what is really the cause.
That said, it is what it is - and if governments are insistent on creating dislocations in price, there is really no fighting it. As Jim Rogers says, this is one of the few times he is not hedging (shorting) anything due to the massive flood of money from the heavens. | <urn:uuid:eec7da6d-1351-4612-95d5-966afcfbe61f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fundmymutualfund.com/2009/06/china-business-news-170b-of-bank-loans.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961732 | 554 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Ducks Unlimited has secured a perpetual conservation easement on the Double Dog Ranch on the South Platte River in Nebraska between Paxton and Sutherland. The easement will protect almost two miles of the Platte River, which provides critical migration and wintering habitat to waterfowl. One mile of this property is directly across the river from DU’s first conservation easement in Nebraska, which means that DU has now perpetually protected both sides of the river in that location.
DU’s goal is to provide food rich migration habitat in Nebraska during spring migration because it will help influence reproductive success and ultimately increase waterfowl populations that migrate south each fall. The protected habitat will provide important staging, roosting, loafing and foraging habitat to thousands of waterfowl. This is particularly important during spring migration when waterfowl need adequate foraging and resting habitat to replenish energy reserves depleted during long migration flights.
Research has shown migration habitat has a direct link to reproductive success in the prairie pothole region. The Platte River has realized dramatic habitat loss over the years, largely as a result of the construction of dams in the upper watershed that hold back floodwaters, depriving the river of its natural ability to control invasive plant species and recharge wet meadow and wetlands. The Double Dog Ranch conservation easement and the planned habitat enhancement projects on the site will help ensure that waterfowl always find adequate habitat on the river to meet their needs. The Nebraska Environmental Trust and the North American Wetlands Conservation Council are important partners in this effort. | <urn:uuid:b468bedc-216e-4a19-b021-60f11f286c55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ducks.org/nebraska/nebraska-projects/protecting-double-dog-ranch?poe=wr | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934364 | 317 | 2.1875 | 2 |
My greyhound has a problem that the vet seems unable to put a name on. It is difficult to explain - Her upper paws or knuckles are very red and bleed if she plays in garden.She seems to be loosing hair on same area. It is spreading up her legs ie. the hair loss not the redness. She licks her paws but DOES NOT CHEW or seem to be too bothered. It does not seem to be painful as I can wash and dry her paws without a problem. I am very concerned ad would appreciate any advice.Thank you,Mary
Type of Animal: Greyhound
Age: nine ish
Name of Dog: Sasha
Antibiotics and a solution to soak paws in ie. Hibiscrub.
Hello. Thanks for writing in. I would have your vet check a skin scraping to look for skin mites (Demodex usually) and a fungal culture to look for ringworm (can get from the soil). Most likely, though, she has an allergy to something in the environment, possibly in the garden. If your vet has ruled out Demodex and ringworm, it may help to put her on a short course of steroids, rule out a secondary yeast infection on the paws (would need oral anti-fungals), wipe her paws with antibacterial/antifungal wipes after coming in from outside and soaking her paws in the Hibicleans (dilute it) 2-3 times weekly for 5-10 minutes. Please let me know if you have any other questions. Hope this helps.
Over 10 years of clinical veterinary experience
Hi Mary,I'm just following up on our conversation about Sasha. How is everything going?Texas Veterinarian | <urn:uuid:53fb7921-65c2-4ba9-b7fc-9fe05130eb3e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.justanswer.com/dog-health/6sga4-greyhound-problem-vet-seems-unable-put.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952697 | 354 | 1.875 | 2 |
What is Laser Eye Surgery
Laser eye surgery is a procedure undertaken to correct vision. It has become quite popular in the UK, with around 100,000 surgeries being conducted every year. It is viewed as a convenient and easy way of correcting problems related to eyesight without getting the patients to wear contact lenses or glasses. While contact lenses and glasses have been traditionally used to correction vision problems, some find it inconvenient and difficult, and would like a permanent solution. With the help of laser eye surgery, a person no longer has to wear a vision corrective device and is able to get near perfect eyesight.
The eye surgery usually involves changing the shape of the cornea with the help of a laser known as excimer laser. However, there are many types of laser eye surgery, which are mainly used to correct myopia, hypermetropia and astigmatism. As the surgery is not considered as an essential procedure, it is normally not available through the NHS. The Royal College of Ophthalmologists suggests that patients should get the surgery done by trained ophthalmologists, who have had additional training in performing refractive surgery.
Types of Laser Eye Surgery
LASIK — The full form of LASIK is laser in situ keratomileusis and has been available in the UK since the middle of the 1990s. This is the most frequently performed laser eye surgery in the country. Practically all kinds of refractive errors can be corrected with the help of LASIK, but usually it is not recommended for extreme myopia. In LASIK, the cornea is cut with the help of a special blade called microkeratome to make a flap and then the exposed part is reshaped with the help of an excimer laser. Thereafter, the corneal flap is replaced.
LASEK — This is acronym for laser epithelial keratomileusis. In this procedure that epithelial layer of the cornea is cut with the help of a trephine and kept as a flap. The exposed part is reshaped. It is claimed that by keeping the epithelial layer of the cornea, complications are averted, but healing is hastened.
PRK — This stands for photorefractive keratectomy and has been available in the UK since the latter half of the 1980s. It is used primarily for correcting low degrees of myopia. The procedure of reshaping the cornea does not involve cutting a corneal flap. Instead the epithelial layer is completely removed during the course of the surgery.
Wavefront-guided LASIK — This procedure is used mainly to remove irregularities of the eye which result in the light rays focusing incorrectly. The irregularities are found out by using severe light sources to get a scanned image of the cornea. Once the surgeon has the required information, the reshaping of the cornea is done using a laser. The surgery helps to improve vision for accurately compared to LASIK and LASEK.
Risks of Laser Eye Surgery
Usually, complications due to laser eye surgery are less than 5 percent, but it is important for a person to check with the ophthalmologist about all the associated risks and complications. Some people complain for dry eyes following the surgery. This can be rectified with the help of artificial tear. Several people complain of halo effects while driving at night. This is more common immediately after the surgery, and occurs when high degree for myopia or hypermetropia is done. It is not a severe condition.
In rare instances, due to over thinning of the corneal tissue, the shape of the eye becomes unstable. Although vision loss after a laser eye surgery is rare, some people may have to undergo additional corneal surgery or wear hard contact lenses to get back their vision. | <urn:uuid:8f226625-2c7a-42b8-8ff4-b429c588033a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yourlasereyesurgery.co.uk/what-is-laser-eye-surgery | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962556 | 780 | 2.859375 | 3 |
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“How long are winters in Minnesota again?” Wilmers asked.
Remixes (noun): a popular video or photo that has been changed, added to and reposted to the Internet.
Some memes went viral because they were remixed, localized and re-shared. Remember “Gangnam Style”? Who could forget? The 2012 Korean dance pop single spawned hundreds of parodies and knockoff videos on YouTube, raking in more than 1 billion views.
Other popular remixes are of photos, not videos. “Texts From Hillary” is a single image of a serious-looking Hillary Rodham Clinton texting on her phone. The photo has been reproduced with dozens of silly captions and reposted. And reposted. And reposted.
“Today’s memes are a manifestation of the remix culture that’s permeating art, advertising and media right now,” said Weber Shandwick’s Greg Swan. “Many discount the impact on pop culture that [they] have, but I challenge you to find someone who doesn’t know the chorus of Rebecca Black’s “Friday.’ ”
LOLCats (noun): Images and videos of cats, often accompanied by humorous text.
Grumpy looking cats. Babies laughing at cats. Cats playing ping-pong. While cat memes aren’t new, they are peculiar — and increasingly popular. According to KnowYourMeme.com, cat-related media took a leap forward beginning in 2006, with the growing influence of websites like LOLcats and Caturday.
Last year, the Walker Art Center hosted a one-day film festival dedicated to online feline videos. Curator Katie Hill said the event was an experiment, of sorts.
“The whole point of the festival is to see if this community exists in real life,” she said.
That question was answered when more than 10,000 people came to see the outdoor show.
Aimee Blanchette • 612-673-1715
Poll: Would you let someone turn your yard into an edible landscape? | <urn:uuid:b4318bb3-9272-47aa-9e95-2c9a5ef02275> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/188099571.html?page=2&c=y | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918516 | 458 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Although homeopathic substances listed in this article are generally not known to cause serious side effects, their effectiveness has not been demonstrated by scientific research. Consumers should check labels carefully, since a homeopathic product that is not diluted, or not diluted enough, may contain ingredients that cause allergic reactions, side effects, or interactions. It is always advisable to discuss any new treatment program with your healthcare practitioner.
Eczema is the common term for atopic dermatitis—a chronic, allergic skin irritation. An itchy, flaking rash may appear on the inner surface of elbows and knees, the backs of the upper arms, wrists, cheeks, scalp, or eyelids. From the homeopathic point of view, the suppression of skin eruptions (especially with cortisone or other drugs) can lead to deeper health problems. Homeopathic and herbal remedies can be soothing during flare-ups—but for deeper treatment, a constitutional remedy should be chosen by an experienced practitioner, to fit a person on many levels, and bring the body into better balance.
Copyright © 2013 Aisle7. All rights reserved. Aisle7.com
The information presented here is for informational purposes only and was created by a team of US–registered dietitians and food experts. Consult your doctor, practitioner, and/or pharmacist for any health problem and before using any supplements, making dietary changes, or before making any changes in prescribed medications. Information expires June 2014. | <urn:uuid:9b949887-e114-4910-8d93-3defdf275c86> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.puritan.com/pages/healthnotesnew.asp?Resource=%2Fassets%2Fhomeopathy%2Feczema%2F~default | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932641 | 293 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Genome as Commodity
In a few years, millions will have purchased their own genome
Photo: Kevin Van Aelst
For the price of a sports car, you can have a pint of your blood drawn and a month later receive your entire genome—all 6 billion base pairs—encoded in a 1.5-gigabyte data file. That means the price has dropped to 1/50 000 of what it was less than a decade ago (the first genome, after all, cost US $3 billion). Yet the price is expected to fall to 1/1000 of the current price in the next four years.
The cultural ramifications of a $100 genome—which is where we’re headed, whether it takes 4 years or 10—are as wide and deep as those of any other recent innovation, including search engines and cellphones.
”Personal genomics goes far beyond medicine,” says George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and the founder of the open-access Personal Genome Project. ”What if you could test everything in the air around you? You could say, ’I don’t want to go into that room because it’s full of swine flu.’ ” Church suggests that refrigerator-size vending machines offering rapid genetic testing of biosamples may one day be as common as Internet kiosks. Imagine being able to easily and cheaply find out every genetic pitfall and bragging point about a potential mate right in the middle of your first date.
Of course, genetic sequencing today is neither fully automated nor cheap enough to be delivered by vending machine. But the price is dropping faster than that of transistors in the glory days of Moore’s Law.
Today, Knome, in Cambridge, Mass., will sequence your entire genome for $68 500. Illumina, based in San Diego, goes one better—it charges only $48 000 and delivers the data on a new MacBook or iMac that you get to keep. Jay Flatley, Illumina’s president and CEO, says that within two years a personal genome will cost between $5000 and $10 000 and that within five years ”we’ll be pressing up against $1000.” As of last September, Illumina had sequenced 28 complete human genomes. ”Next year,” Flatley says, ”there will be thousands.”
One company is already charging a mere $5000 per genome—in bulk orders of a thousand or more. Complete Genomics of Mountain View, Calif., which styles itself as a research genomics institution only, doesn’t offer a single-genome price.
Nevertheless, CEO Clifford Reid says he sees a consumer genomics marketplace springing up out of nowhere—like that for personal computers in the 1980s. ”Right now it’s a purchase for wealthy individuals, because the price is so high and the medically actionable information that you learn from your genome is so low.” But, Reid says, ”it’s inevitable that this is going to be a very large market. The only question is how long it will take the prices to come down and for the discoveries to go up.” [See "Path to the Personal Genome" for more market trends.]
Church agrees that early adopters are helping to underwrite the fledgling personal genomics industry. ”The people who bought cellphones the size of their heads—the rest of the world is benefitting from the fact that they fueled that embryonic industry at a time when it needed money,” Church said. ”The same is true for personal genomics. The people who are willing to do the early adoption today will be paying for the privilege of being guinea pigs.”
Church’s Personal Genome Project seeks to cut price out of the equation entirely, underwriting the sequencing of genomes of people whose histories, conditions, or medical records it considers interesting for research purposes—making their genomes and medical records, he warns, publicly available. ”We are not publishing our volunteers’ names,” Church said. ”But we tell them to think about it as if we were. We’re making enough information about them available that, if somebody worked at it, they could figure out the name.” He says that 15 000 people have volunteered for the project already.
One person who would, nonetheless, like to participate is Laura White, a lead analyst at life sciences advisory firm TSG Partners, in Atlanta. She hasn’t yet heard whether she’s been accepted as a volunteer. ”For me, it’s fascinating, which is why I signed up,” she said. ”I could end up finding out I have something I’m not comfortable with at all. But given the option, I want to know.”
This article originally appeared in print as "The $100 Genome." | <urn:uuid:56549521-a2b3-49fc-8c80-f4ed9cc0a242> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/diagnostics/genome-as-commodity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942231 | 1,029 | 2.421875 | 2 |
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The objective of the Lisbon process is to give the European Union the means to become a knowledge-based society with a competitive economy able to meet the social and environmental expectations of its citizens. At the European Council to be held in March, the Luxembourg Presidency will conduct an interim review of this process based on an orientation report from the Commission. The task will be to relaunch the strategy around the three pillars (economic, social and environmental) by identifying a limited number of priorities. Simplifying management of the Lisbon process will enable citizens as well as political, economic and social players to better understand what is involved.
Alongside the mechanisms of the Lisbon strategy, completion of the internal market remains an essential driver of European economic growth.
In this vein, efforts to accelerate and improve the transposition of directives must be maintained. The Luxembourg Presidency shall strive to ensure that this instrument of European integration, which benefits citizens and consumers as well as economic operators and corporate partners, continues to generate positive effects. The emergence of new economic powers means that setting up a real internal European market, which is effective and integrated, is now becoming an absolute necessity in order for the European Union to be able to face global competition.
Reinforcing economic governance of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and clarifying implementation of the stability and growth pact are two other important objectives of the Luxembourg Presidency, which aims to conclude the examination of the stability and growth pact and will seek to reach an agreement on its precise content in March 2005.
All progress on matters of European construction requires adequate financial resources. The three-year strategic programme of the Council for the period 2004-2006 provides that Member States shall reach a political agreement on financial planning for 2007-2013 in June 2005. The Luxembourg Presidency wishes to reach this strategic objective on schedule and will organise its work accordingly.
This approach should enable the various legislative instruments of the next financial framework to be adopted by the end of 2005. In addition, it should enable the preparatory work essential to setting up the new generation of Community programmes from 2007 onwards to be carried out in 2006.
The European Union will continue its enlargement under the Luxembourg Presidency.
The membership treaty with Bulgaria and Romania will be finalised with a view to signature in the margins of the General Affairs and External Relations Council to be held in April 2005. Once it has been signed, this will mark the end of the current accession cycle.
A new cycle, that of the Balkan countries, is being set up on the basis of the conclusions of the Thessalonica European Council. Membership negotiations with Croatia should commence on 17 March 2005. Following its membership application, the FYRM (former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) will submit its responses to the questionnaire from the Commission in order for the Commission to give its opinion.
Preparations for membership negotiations with Turkey are not likely to begin before early summer 2005.
The external relations dimension of the Presidency is expanding considerably as the European Union becomes increasingly important on the global stage. New responsibilities are arising from this development.
The aim of the Union’s foreign policy is to make the world safer, more prosperous and to ensure greater observance of human rights. A wide range of instruments is employed to achieve these objectives.
Through its external activities, the Presidency will be responsible for implementing the European Security Strategy adopted in 2003.
One of the primary focuses of this strategy is the priority given to multilateralism. The European Union perceives in this approach the best way to reach its ambitious objectives.
At the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Presidency will favour rapid conclusion of work on the Doha Round, which is essential to developing the global economy and integrating developing countries into global trade.
The Hague programme aims to develop the area of freedom, security and justice within the European Union. This programme will serve as a framework for the Luxembourg Presidency in JHA issues. The aim is to optimise operational cooperation among the 25 within a legal framework which will be consolidated and continue to evolve.
The organisation of future work will be structured around an action programme that the Commission has been assigned to prepare and which should be ready for approval by the Council within the next six months.
For Luxembourg, all progress made in creating an area of freedom, security and justice is also tantamount to consolidating the four freedoms (free movement of persons, goods, capital and services) that form the cornerstone of the great European project.
Initially, the political domain of JHA formed part of intergovernmental cooperation within the European Union. Through the various treaties, it is being progressively integrated into the Community framework. The area of freedom, security and justice is now having its way marked out by the new treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, the objective of which is definitive removal of the ‘JHA exception’.
Luxembourg considers that, henceforth, all work within the JHA Council should be carried out towards this end. Furthermore, the work will aim to complete the final large-scale phase for the area of JHA, namely full integration into European construction through flawless application of the Community method.
Ratification of the treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe
Moreover, 2005 will be a pivotal year in view of ratification of the treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. This new founding pact will enter into force only after ratification by the 25 Member States, most of which are aiming to complete their national ratification procedures during 2005.
Throughout the year, the various national procedures will be monitored closely. The results will undergo in-depth analysis, irrespective of whether the text is submitted for ratification by parliamentary vote or by popular consultation.
Copyright © Luxembourg Government | <urn:uuid:e1f919dc-b945-42b7-bd4e-3d78e1b5d6f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eu2005.lu/en/presidence/dossiers_et_rv/grands_dossiers/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937146 | 1,176 | 1.960938 | 2 |
The explosion of communication technologies has created a new venue for the timeless adolescent phenomenon of bullying. VPR reports
According to researchers at Clemson University 25 percent of middle school girls and 11 percent of middle school boys say they have been electronically bullied at least once in the last two months...
Nancy Willard of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use says parents should also be more proactive about checking computer files.
(Willard) "Finding out where your child has registered, find out what your child has posted in his or her profile, what your child is posting online. These are all public places. Now your child may say, 'Oh, you can't invade my privacy.' But guess what? This is public information and they're posting it for the world to see. Certainly you as a parent ought to be able to look at it."
(Keck) For parents who don't know how to do this, Willard suggests asking for help at a local computer store. She's also written a parent's guide that's available on her Web site.
Anecdotally, much electronic bullying is associated with mass circulation of embarassing pictures or text about the victim, and involves more of a theme of exclusion than physical threat when involving girls. But electronic bullying is only an old problem with a new face.
Bullying is associated with poor physical and emotional health consequences, as well as legal consequences (60% of kids classified by teachers as bullies in grades 6-9 had a criminal conviction by age 24, and 40% had three).
The bullying problem garnered some attention after the wave of school shootings in the 1990s, but we need to continue to address the problem to prevent the long-term social costs of dealing with the self-perpetuating problems that bullying fosters. This Dept of Justice report discusses the 'whole school' approaches pioneered by Olweus in Norway in the 1970s which have the best evidence documenting efficacy in reducing bullying and improving the school environment, also benefitting other aspects of school performance.
School climate is a local school problem, and needs to be addressed locally. Our local Vermont school district has made the reduction of bullying a priority, and is participating in an Olweus program. I would encourage you to see what your district is doing. | <urn:uuid:ed9607df-1826-4f31-9ab2-8f43f0feac2f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://modoblog.blogspot.com/2005/11/cyber-bullying.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971443 | 467 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Fletcher Allen, a Vermont university hospital and medical center, serves all of
Vermont and the northern New York region. Located in Burlington, Fletcher Allen is a regional, academic healthcare center and teaching hospital in alliance with the University of Vermont.
LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) is the most widely used hallucinogenic drug. Hallucinogenic drugs cause a person to see vivid images, hear sounds, and feel sensations that seem real but are not. LSD is also called acid, blotter, or dots. It is odorless and colorless and has a slightly bitter taste. It can be obtained as a colored tablet, clear liquid, or thin square of gelatin (window panes) or on blotter paper. Most often, LSD is licked off blotter paper or taken by mouth. But the gelatin and liquid forms can be put in the eyes.
The effects of LSD are unpredictable and depend on the amount taken; the person's personality, mood, and expectation; and the situation in which the drug is used. Effects are usually felt within 30 to 40 minutes after taking the drug. The LSD experience is often called a "trip" and can last up to 12 hours.
- Dilated pupils, increased body temperature, increased heart rate and blood pressure, sweating, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, and dry mouth.
- Changes in sensations and feelings. The person may feel several different emotions at the same time or rapidly swing from one emotion to another. Also, the person may confuse sensations and feelings, such as "hearing" colors or "seeing" sounds.
- Loss of time. The person may feel that time is standing still.
- Delusions and visual hallucinations, if taken in large doses. Delusions are false beliefs, and hallucinations are seeing and hearing things that are not present.
A "bad trip" may contain terrifying thoughts, feelings, and fears. Also, LSD can cause flashbacks, in which the person suddenly relives certain aspects of the experience without having taken the drug. Flashbacks may occur a few days or more than a year after use of LSD.
Serious psychiatric conditions can develop after even one use of LSD. The cause of these effects is not known. The effects include:
- Drug-induced psychosis. Psychosis is a serious condition in which the person has lost the ability to recognize reality, think rationally, or communicate with others. The person may have dramatic mood swings, ranging from being extremely overactive (mania) to severe depression. Psychosis from LSD may last for years.
- Hallucinogen-persisting perception disorder (HPPD). With HPPD, the person has flashbacks in which the person experiences recurrences of some of the sensory distortions that occurred while under the influence of the drug. The person may have the same flashback for years after stopping use of LSD.
LSD is not considered an addicting drug. But it does require increasingly higher amounts to obtain the same effect (tolerance).
LSD is typically out of a person's system within 24 hours, and standard drug screens (toxicology tests) are not able to detect it. But special laboratory tests can be used to detect LSD in the blood.
Signs of use
It is difficult to detect LSD use. Things that point to LSD use may include:
- Dilated pupils, sweating, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, and dry mouth if recently taken.
- Possession of small squares of blotter paper (sometimes stamped with cartoon characters) or other forms of the drug.
|Primary Medical Reviewer||Patrice Burgess, MD - Family Medicine|
|Specialist Medical Reviewer||Peter Monti, PhD - Alcohol and Addiction|
|Last Revised||July 20, 2012|
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2013 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated. | <urn:uuid:360c4b26-a345-4559-a831-faf85b6544c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fletcherallen.org/health_information/?id=uq2451 | 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 | 0.928409 | 822 | 3.328125 | 3 |
What a fun, very busy week! This week we spent our time reviewing our letters, numbers, colors, and shapes. Let's remember not to overlook reviewing already learned letters with our children. The kids are demonstrating their knowledge in what has been taught but there are some gaps still, which varies amongst each child. Throughout the two week break let's take some time during each day to have our children point out some letters, sounds, and numbers in the world around us while we are busily preparing for the holidays. Stop for 5 minutes a day and read to your child. Allow your child to pick out the book they would like to read.
The children had fun preparing their gift for you and singing. The holidays are such a wonderful, magical time. We had many lasting MEMORIES this week. Comment below on what your thoughts were on this week or the school year as a whole.
Thank you for letting me have the opportunity to help your child get a step ahead. I absolutely enjoy teaching and love spending time with your child. Have a joyous holiday!
It is fun to see the variety of things that the kids bring to share every week. The students beam with pride while they stand in front of the class explaining their item.
This week we spent our time ordering, counting, and identifying numbers with snowflakes and cookies. Some students even ordered numbers all the way up to 30 with assistance!
Today we made masterpieces which stayed at school to be wrapped next week...SURPRISE.
During school we have Rhythm and Movement time where students tap the beat, sing, and move their body. I would have to say the girls like this section of the day more than the boys, though the boys do like the movement. We also use puppets every week to learn a very important life skill. This week we learned why it is important to know our family members real name and our phone number.
This week we took writing one step further. We learned about 4 square writing where students write a story having four parts. Some students are using beginning, middle, and ending stories while others are writing all about a specific topic.
With all the masterpieces we were creating this week we ran out of time to practice our number 4 handwriting. Please practice writing this number with your child. Keep encouraging your child to always try their best. One week before Christmas Break. I hope the family Christmas party will be fun for all. | <urn:uuid:af49cc62-6419-43e8-b0f0-39e2d143a7f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.memoriesandmilestonespreschool.com/1/archives/12-2011/1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97288 | 498 | 2.65625 | 3 |
A facelift is a cosmetic surgery procedure which is used to tighten the skin of the face as well as to lift areas of the face that’s hanging. Hence, a facelift, essentially, improves the wrinkles on the face of a patient and also the sagginess of the face and neck area.
The cosmetic procedure of a facelift involves undermining the skin covering the face and redraping it along with the muscle. In addition, the fat is also tightened and the fat underneath the face is redistributed and tightened higher. As a result, the structure of the face that is sagging due to gravity can be pulled up and also the redistributed fat due to aging can also be restored. Lastly, the wrinkles and the damage caused from the sun and environment to the face can also be improved by stretching and lifting the skin.
With the aging process, patients develop normal wrinkles and folds under their face. In addition, they also tend to develop what are known as nasal faults. These faults tend to come up on the side of the nose and drapes down to the lip. This area typically gets thicker and the fault gets deeper and with further aging, these faults transform into one big fault with the jaw area below. All of these conditions combine to form ‘jaults.’ With a facelift, the jaults can be taken care of by lifting, raising and redraping the area.
Similar to facial conditions which develop with aging, the appearance of the neck area changes with time as well, sometimes referred to as ‘turkey neck.’ Since this is caused due to excess fat, the neck area can be liposuctioned and the skin can be lifted in a facelift to restore the smooth contour of the neck.
In conclusion, one of the main benefits of a facelift is that patients end up with a higher cheek, lifted cheek area, a smoother jaw line, and a smoother neck. At the end of the day, a facelift will make patients look more youthful.
Back To Face Lift Home Page | <urn:uuid:2946c1f4-f6a9-45ee-ae77-8a105b34548f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dredmundkwan.com/face-lift/facelift.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962807 | 426 | 1.625 | 2 |
The Minority Student Program (MSP) is a post-admissions program that reflects the faculty’s long-standing commitment to promoting diversity and opportunity in the classroom and the legal profession. The program provides academic support, mentoring, and internships to students who, regardless of race or ethnic origin, can demonstrate through a history of socio-economic, educational, or cultural experiences that they have been disadvantaged.
Admission to the MSP is separate from and subsequent to admission to the law school. Every applicant is invited to indicate his or her interest in the program on the admission application. All matriculated students, regardless of race or ethnic origin, are eligible for consideration for the MSP.
The MSP was established in 1968 when, after the urban unrest in 1967, the faculty voted to pursue an aggressive policy of equal opportunity for those who historically had been under-represented in law schools and in the legal profession. Since that time, the law school has become a nationally recognized leader in increasing representation in the legal profession of all segments of society. Almost 3,000 students have participated in the MSP and graduated from the law school. MSP alums can be found on the bench, in the U.S. Congress, in private practice, government agencies, major corporations, legislative bodies, public interest organizations, and academic institutions across the country.
|Yvette Bravo-Weber, MSP Dean, meets regularly with students. | <urn:uuid:34b0ed0f-1a0f-4449-930b-97f775148770> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.law.newark.rutgers.edu/print/193 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959948 | 293 | 1.804688 | 2 |
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Headquarters
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation headquarters is located in downtown Seattle and is a multi-phased contiguous office campus of three buildings totaling one million SF, as well as underground parking facilities. Two of the three buildings were constructed in Phase I of the project—one of which includes a 15,000-SF visitor’s center that explains the Foundation’s work in global health, development and education. The project includes underground rainwater collection and thermal energy storage. A “green roof” structure with plant materials covers most of the lower level roof areas. Extensive landscaping with water features, sidewalks, plaza and other site work will be constructed throughout the 12-acre campus.
EEI was hired as the Commissioning Authority for this impressive LEED Platinum project. In that role, EEI provided a commissioning plan that detailed and guided the process, wrote the commissioning specifications, reviewed design and construction documents, provided functional test procedures, and performed functional testing of the following systems and equipment:
- Mechanical HVAC equipment
- Central plant equipment (heat recovery chiller, exchangers and pumps)
- Energy management and monitoring system
- Building automation system
- Domestic water, pumping and mixing systems
- Occupancy sensors
- Lighting controls and daylighting controls
- Emergency electrical systems
- Uninterruptible power systems
As a requirement of LEED certification, EEI provided the recommissioning manual that summarizes the building operations from conception through construction, EEI also provided a post-occupancy review that verified operations and resolution of all outstanding issues.
|Owner||Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation|
|Commissioning Authority||Engineering Economics, Inc.|
|Total Construction Cost||$600 Million| | <urn:uuid:b1f1bf88-ca49-4686-8544-d5b81512c712> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eeiengineers.com/index.cfm/id/35/Gates-Foundation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920873 | 364 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Kumquats love the kindergarten. It is one of their sweet spots and you can use them in many different ways:
- start a group session
- easy way to connect to the children
- to solace (minor injuries, personal problems)
- role plays
- as a birthday surprise (puppet appears only to celebrate a birthday with the kids)
The Kumquats-puppets help to develop creativity and free speech. They also support kindergarten teachers conveying specific topics as the puppets are part of the group. It makes the subject thaught more accessible to them. As the puppets are bigger than usual handpuppets it is easier for the kids to relate to the puppet. | <urn:uuid:7eee288f-9802-46b5-8d7d-865ec9940777> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kumquats-usa.com/index.php?page=Kumquats-Kindergarten | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944578 | 147 | 2.484375 | 2 |
A modern take on the old ‘chain letter', the purpose of these mails is to collect email addresses and the content will be designed to prompt a wide circulation. This can include:
- A ‘helpful' warning about a virus (fake) and quite often from someone ‘once removed' (e.g. ‘..this happened to a friend of mine and I was so concerned that I thought I should let you know....').
- Offering a free gift, voucher or cash for forwarding the email (these can also be pyramid schemes that promise unfeasibly huge amounts of money if the message is forwarded to enough people).
- An emergency request from a charity: these are more prominent after genuine disasters, so if you do want to make a donation, don't click on any of the links within the mail, go to the charity directly. Use Google or Yahoo to find the genuine website.
- An appeal on behalf of someone who is ill or in trouble (stranded far from home with lost documents and no cash).
- Straight-forward chain letters.
- Malicious emails that damage the reputation of an individual.
Take a look at our 'How to help youself' page to find out more. | <urn:uuid:0bacb8e1-349d-4466-a4a8-b119751bca5b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dur.ac.uk/cis/security/keepdetssafe/hoaxemails/ | 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 | 0.930782 | 255 | 2 | 2 |
John D. Zuccarino wrote:It seems that apparently over 30 years of independent testing has been done. Some testing has been done very secretly by the French, sneaky French. Who knew? Very few people obviously.
I'm not surprised about this.
From the History and Revival of Screwcaps written in 2001 from www.wineoftheweek.com
"On 10th August 1889, Dan Rylands of Barnsley in the UK patented the screwcap. It was some time, however, before this advance in bottle and jar closures was used on wine bottles ........ It wasn't until the introduction of the Stelvin screwcap, developed in the late fifties by the French manufacturer, La Bouchage Mecanique and now the registered trademark of Pea-Pechiney, a French manufacturer of bottle seals, that the seal became to be recognised as a quality product".
Laboratory trials started in the 1960's and in the early 1970's even Haut Brion trialled the screwcap. | <urn:uuid:cecc95c6-bd30-4532-9481-58c6ee2ec1f0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/village/viewtopic.php?p=8103 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977669 | 211 | 1.71875 | 2 |
US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton on Thursday reiterated the strong US-Israel relationship in messages for its 64th Independence Day.
Noting that the US was the first country to recognize Israel, Obama touted the special relationship between the two countries. "Ours is a unique relationship founded on an unbreakable commitment to Israel’s security, and anchored by our common interests and deeply held values," Obama said in a statement.
While mentioning Israel's "remarkable achievements over the past six decades," Obama also took the opportunity to reiterate the goal of establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Israel and the United States's shared values, he said, guide the efforts "to confront shared challenges and to achieve a just and comprehensive peace based on a two-state solution that will usher in a future of peace, security, and dignity for the people of Israel and its neighbors."
Clinton released a message Thursday saying
that "for many around the world, Israel remains a beacon of hope and an
inspiring example." Clinton's congratulatory remarks came as Israel was
celebrating its 64th year of independence.
Clinton added that the
Israel and the United States "are united by a deep and unbreakable bond
based on mutual interests and respect. Our relationship grows stronger
every day as we work to promote regional security, create new economic
partnerships, increase two-way trade and broaden our energy
The US secretary of state continued, "We are
steadfast in our commitment to Israel’s security, which is a cornerstone
of our foreign policy in the Middle East."
Clinton also sought
to reassure Jerusalem that with all of the change in the region
following the Arab Spring, the US "will continue to work with you and
your neighbors to achieve the shared goal of a comprehensive, just, and
lasting peace in the Middle East." | <urn:uuid:5296f335-0749-4d82-b67a-b534f4eed039> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=267664 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9461 | 387 | 2.078125 | 2 |
1983: Microsoft chief Bill Gates unveils the Windows operating system for PCs. Don’t hold your breath waiting until you can buy a copy … unless you can hold your breath for two years.
Gates, Microsoft’s president and board chairman, held an elaborate event at New York City’s posh Helmsley Palace Hotel. The debutante at this ball was an operating system with a graphical user interface.
If you were struggling with the arcane and unfriendly MS-DOS, you were ready to get something that was easier to drive. Typing commands at the C prompt may have been a piece of C:\ake for programmers and geeks, but it was a pain in the wrist for the run-of-the-mill office chair jockey.
Microsoft started working on a product first called Interface Manager in September 1981. Early prototypes used MS Word-style menus at the bottom of the screen. That changed to pulldown menus and dialogs (a la Xerox Star) in 1982.
By 1983, Microsoft was facing competition from the just-released VisiOn and the forthcoming TopView. Apple had already released Lisa, but Digital’s GEM, Quarterdeck’s DESQ, the Amiga Workbench, IBM OS/2 and Tandy DeskMate were all still in the future.
At the November 1983 unveiling, Gates promised an easy-to-use graphical interface with dropdown menus, tiled windows, mouse support, device-independent graphics, the ability to run several applications at the same time and even get them to cooperate with one another. It was supposed to be ready in April 1984, and the cocky young Microsoft chief predicted it would be running on 90 percent of all IBM-compatible computers by the end of 1984.
He was off by only 90 percent. Windows 1.0 didn’t achieve retail launch until Nov. 20, 1985, more than two years after its immodest debut. What was modest were the sales figures.
Few third-party applications were available, but the Windows 1.0 package included MS-DOS Executive, Calendar, Cardfile, Notepad, Terminal, Calculator, Clock, Reversi, Control Panel, PIF (Program Information File) Editor, Print Spooler, Clipboard, RAMDrive, Windows Write and Windows Paint. All this was supposed to let everyday users manage their everyday activities.
But things were changing fast. Apple had already unleashed the Macintosh on the world in January 1984. And Windows 2.0 didn’t show up until 1987.
Screenshot: Microsoft Windows 1.01
This article first appeared on Wired.com Nov. 10, 2008
- Oct. 28, 1955: Gates Open for Tech Titan
- April 4, 1975: Bill Gates, Paul Allen Form a Little Partnership
- New Windows Start Screen Paves Way for Touchscreen PCs
- Windows 8 Re-Imagines the Windows Experience
- Jan. 19, 1983: Apple Gets Graphic With Lisa
- Jan. 26, 1983: Spreadsheet as Easy as 1-2-3
- March 23, 1983: Reagan Taunts the Russians With ‘Star Wars’ Plan
- June 13, 1983: Pioneer 10 Reaches an End … and a Beginning
- June 18, 1983: Sally Ride, the First American Woman Into Space
- June 23, 1983: DNS Test Sets Stage for Internet Growth
- Sept. 26, 1983: The Man Who Saved the World by Doing … Nothing
- Nov. 10, 1983: Computer ‘Virus’ Is Born
- Nov. 10, 1999: Metric Math Mistake Muffed Mars Meteorology Mission | <urn:uuid:1f6f6667-51c5-4343-9f44-2f0b662d37da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/tag/software/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921157 | 758 | 2.453125 | 2 |
We have had hens since the first Fall we were here in 2003. We started with four.
They roost every night in this side of the barn, and this is where they lay their eggs - most of the time. They do have a very nicely decorated home don't they?
For all I know, one of our current eight hens is still from the original four, but we have lost one hen here and there to heat, cold, and a hawk strike one January.
Every couple of Septembers, we made the trip to Myersdale to get a few more hens to replace and expand the flock.
|Carlene and Truffles at two days old in 2005|
We also raised a couple day old chicks, and we still have Truffles who must be seven years old now. Pullets start laying at 20 weeks old. Hens best production is during their first two years and then they taper off. Hence the reason to replace them as they age.
What is impressive is that just a few days ago, during all this awful heat, all eight hens gave us an egg. And they are huge.
I'm betting it has a lot to do with being free range, pastured hens with about the best life ever. | <urn:uuid:8d54a8f9-b498-4cd8-8a4e-c09a467a4b44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://onthepondfarm.blogspot.com/2012_07_01_archive.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 | 0.983755 | 263 | 1.875 | 2 |
Two PSUs are better than one
Subject: Cases and Cooling | August 26, 2011 - 10:57 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: PSU, enthusiast, dual PSU, DIY
[H]ard|OCP visits the weird world of dual PSU products, which allow the usage of two PSUs in a single system and which are transparent to the end user as they are both controlled as if there was only one. There are four methods covered; Add2Psu, the Lian Li Secondary Power Supply Starter Kit and both auxiliary and redundant PSUs. They range in style from the impressive abilities of Add2Psu to string together unlimited amounts of PSU using Molex connectors and Lian Li's PSU crossover cable to FSP's 5.25" Booster X5 450W auxiliary PSU and the Athena Atlas 800 redundant PSU which seems more at home in the server room. If you want more power but don't have a PSU big enough this will show you how to give your existing PSU a helping hand.
"Putting two powers supplies in your computer has been a recurring subject in our forums for years. While the physical process of making that happen is not exactly rocket science, it still can be daunting for some users. Today we show you a few products that make it easy for anyone to double up on the power should your wattage needs increase."
Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
- Rasurbo Real & Power 350W PSU @ Funky Kit
- OCZ ZX850W Power Supply Review @ TechwareLabs
- Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1200W @ Bjorn3D
- Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 800 W @ techPowerUp
- Coolmax V-500 Power Supply Review @ Hardware Secrets
- Huntkey Jumper 300G Planet3dnow.de Edition Power Supply Review @ Hardware Secrets
- Innergie mCube Slim 65W/95W Universal Adapters Review @ Real World Labs | <urn:uuid:47d827a9-c4a2-4dc2-a563-145fdddfe1c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pcper.com/news/Cases-and-Cooling/Two-PSUs-are-better-one | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919716 | 405 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Mark My Footsteps!
We're already digging around in the garage loft for our Christmas decoration and lights, such as they are. We don't light the lights until Christmas Day, but they get dusty up there. Advent is about preparation.
What songs shall the grade school kids sing for the Christmas recital? What projects with construction paper and paste shall we make with the kindergartners and first graders?
I am besides myself with glee, as usual.
I think I'm going to teach them Handel's Hallelujah Chorus and have everyone sing along. They do that out here at the Hollywood Bowl every year. I've never gone. I suppose I should try to go and sit in the nose bleed seats (which are fantastically inexpensive) and take notes.
And I think this year we'll make a study of Christmas songs. They have such an influence over the season. Rudolph was invented in a Christmas song. We love the Little Drummer Boy, but he certainly is not found in the New Testament. Silent Night was written by a priest.
What's your favorite Christmas song? I have ten or twenty favorites. I have a few that don't exactly float my boat, either. Not a big fan of "We Three Kings", love "O Come All Ye Faithful".
I truly love "Good King Wenceslaus". What a great story! What great imagery! "When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even." Beautiful! Can't you just see it? Wencelaus and his aide go trudging out on a freezing ("the frost was cruel") night because the King has spotted a poor man feebly gathering sticks to burn. Wencelaus orders up meat and wine and logs for fuel to take to the poor man. Out they go. Wenceslaus barrels ahead while the aide struggles to keep up. Finally he informs his master that he is freezing and can't go another step. The King tells his aide to "mark my footsteps my dear page, tread thou in them boldly, you will find the winter's rage, freeze the blood less coldly."
Clumsy, I know. But the aide does as the King says and finds that the footsteps of Wenceslaus are indeed heated.
What a great story! Such a happy tune!
Good King Wenceslaus was a real person who became known as the the champion of the wretched because of his kindness to the poor. He was really the Duke of Bohemia who was raised by his dear old grandma. He brought his country to Christianity.
Unfortunately, he came to a bad end in 929 AD or so, when he was murdered by his brother and a band of pagans. Oh, well.
Welcome to Advent everyone! Prepare ye the way! | <urn:uuid:6d2c860a-b7a3-447a-88e6-10659541f5c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://asksistermarymartha.blogspot.com/2010/11/mark-my-footsteps.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975969 | 578 | 1.875 | 2 |
Rupert Murdoch once described classified advertising revenue as "rivers of gold". A few years later, having witnessed a cascade of classified advertising revenue from newspapers to the internet, he admitted: "Sometimes rivers dry up."
Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian, added his gloomy prognosis last week, predicting that newspapers faced the complete loss of classified advertising to the internet by 2020.
The trends are irreversible. European consumers now spend more time online than they devote to newspapers and magazines, and the internet is tipped to overtake national newspaper advertising by the end of the year.
Classified is a large growth area for online media owners. Last week, the Government announced that it would shift the bulk of its recruitment advertising from newspapers to online in a bid to save money. Its advertising is thought to account for 12 per cent of the UK recruitment market, worth £1.2 billion.
All of this is deeply worrying for newspapers, which rely on the likes of recruitment, property and motoring ads for a quarter of their income. And, not only do classifieds pull in the ad money, they also sell papers, especially to job-seekers.
While most newspaper groups are pushing classified revenue on to their online platforms, a typical online recruitment ad costs a third of a newspaper equivalent, meaning less money is coming in.
The response from the newspaper groups varies, but all are fighting to stem the leak.
1. Guardian Media Group recently announced a restructure to better reflect the growing profile and sales offering of its online properties. Guardian Newspapers Ltd becomes Guardian News & Media, while GMG Regional Newspapers changes to GMG Regional Media. The Guardian will be badly hit by the Government's shift of public sector recruitment advertising online, but, according to Helen Bird, the general manager for recruitment solutions, the online advertising boom is "a real opportunity" for GMG. With a redesigned online recruitment section and a strong Guardian Unlimited internet arm, she says GNM is well placed to keep spend, however it shifts, in-house. But, she also argues that clients "still recognise the value of print", especially in a market where it's hard to find good candidates.
2. Also changing its name to project a more cross-platform personality, Telegraph Media Group claims it has not been as affected by the online migration of classified as other print media. Alex Foster, the classified sales director, says: "We have innovated throughout the year with new products and ideas to expand our print business. In fact, our classified print business is up year on year." Like The Guardian, TMG is also working hard to offer advertisers cross-platform solutions, and Foster says there is a clear complementary role for on- and offline advertising. She says: "Restructuring TMG is all about being able to give (people) what they want, when they want it, and in a format that suits them."
3. Interim results from Daily Mail & General Trust (six months to March 2006) show that classified advertising at Associated Newspapers fell 9 per cent to £53 million. However, the group's online ad revenues, through sites such as ThisisLondon, have been thriving. As such, Associated New Media's response to the classified spend shift has been to invest heavily in online assets. During 2006, it acquired a host of businesses, including the overseas property site Villarenters.com and Data Media and Retail, the UK's leading operator of car classified portals, including Carsource.co.uk. It has also bought recruitment advertising businesses, including Interbase, which runs a recruitment site for the television industry. All of these have now been rolled into AN Digital, which now claims revenues of around £75 million.
4. Craigslist epitomises the scale of the challenge newspaper groups face. Craigslist is a community of local sites where anyone can post a classified ad, mostly for free. There are more than 300 Craigslist sites in cities around the world, used by more than 15 million people per month. In the US, Craigslist, which is the seventh most popular English-language site in the world, is said to run more classifieds than every newspaper combined, posting more than 750,000 new job listings each month. However, Craigslist is itself in a crowded market of other online buying and selling sites, such as Gumtree, Loot and eBay.
WHAT IT MEANS FOR ...
- Although newspapers are busy talking themselves up as "cross-platform" and "channel neutral", the relentless march of classifieds from newsprint to online is a huge concern for the industry.
- Dominic Williams, the press director at Carat, says: "Every sector has been affected: financial, cars, jobs, property - the lot. Our classified spend figures are down by about 50 per cent year on year. The Guardian's classified revenue is down by 60 per cent. There is still an argument that press plays a part in driving people to the advertising websites, but that's becoming less persuasive as the online destinations become more established."
- Newspaper groups are concerned that their content is found by search engines, which then sell ads on the back of it. Although grateful for the traffic, some newspaper grandees, including Andrew Neil, are asking if the likes of Google should pay them for their audience-grabbing content.
- Cheaper ads, better targeting and measurability are all bonuses of advertising online, and, realistically, that's the only place where many, especially younger, job-seekers are looking.
- In response, print versions of papers are prepared to be more flexible and accommodating, as in the case of The Guardian, offering front-page job ads on editorial supplements. Newspapers also argue that newspaper ads get better-quality responses. Buy cheap ads online, they say, and you get a lot of cheap, low-quality, responses.
This article was first published on Campaign | <urn:uuid:2f7ddbd6-0c62-4449-9f4e-0fb27d4468a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/605394/Media-Classified-advertising/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965405 | 1,199 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Spain's registered jobless ticks up in September
MADRID -- The number of people registered as unemployed in Spain rose by a little under 80,000 people to 4.71 million in September as the summer tourism season came to an end and businesses let workers go, the Labor Ministry said Tuesday.
The country is in its second recession in three years with an overall unemployment rate of nearly 25 percent. The country is debating whether to seek international assistance to help it manage its debts.
Spain has already been granted a (EURO)100 billion ($128 billion) loan from its eurozone partners to help its troubled banking sector and is under pressure to take up the European Central Bank on its offer to buy unlimited amounts of its debt to help bring down the country's borrowing costs.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who has pushed through nine straight months of tough austerity measures, met Tuesday with the leaders of Spain's 17 regional governments about the economic crisis and the latest austerity measures. The regions, some of them heavily indebted, are being forced to push through government cutbacks affecting cherished national health care and education.
Also Tuesday, ratings agency Moody's Investors Service said it would announce the outcome of a review of Spain's sovereign debt rating this month. Moody's had been due to issue the report by the end of September, with many analysts predicting Spain's rating would be reduced to junk.
That would hurt Spanish markets because many pension funds and banks would have to sell Spain's bonds from their portfolios and desist from buying them at auction. That, in turn, would force Spain to pay higher rates to borrow money, further hurting its finances.
Moody's said it "is continuing to assess a number of factors, including Spanish banks' capital needs, the nature and size of support mechanisms, the recently released 2013 budget plan and the consequences for the euro area's crisis management framework of the further advancement of a banking union." | <urn:uuid:67089b5e-e5b1-40a3-bcc2-684dd79d6d9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnbc.com/id/100124205 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971072 | 391 | 1.640625 | 2 |
As a new school year is quickly approaching a time to gather the school supplies and for some it includes arming your smartphone with apps! I've gathered a list of the top five iDevice (iPhone, iPad, etc) and Android devices to give your student a hand up with their studies!
iHomework is a student's best friend during the busy times of the school year. Keep up-to-date with your school work, grades, to-do's, teacher's information, and almost everything else you need during the school year. iHomework is the only school organizer that can be with you anywhere you go, whether that be on your iPhone/iPod touch, iPad, or Mac! ($0.99)
Read books on your iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad! Lexcycle Stanza brings the digital book revolution to your pocket with a reading interface that is unrivaled in its clarity and ease of use. (Free) iPhone and iPad.
Powerful, and yet beautifully designed, Mental Case can help get things into your head, whether you want to learn Spanish, study for exams like GRE, SAT and GMAT, or are undertaking a legal or medical degree at college or university. Whether it's Anatomy or Arabic, Mental Case is the tool for you. ($4.99) iPhone and iPad
Have you forgotten most of your algebra? Algebra Touch will refresh your skills using touch-based techniques built from the ground up for your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch.
($1.99) iPhone and iPad
Do you like stars? Star Walk is a stellar augmented reality app that labels all the stars, constellations, and satellites you point your iPad at. You can track the ISS, find out what constellation you’ve been looking at from your bedroom window and get a lot of exciting and educative information. ($4.99)
Give your student a hand up with a schedule management helper for busy school life. ($1.99)
Miss Spell’s Class is an original word game that lets players test their spelling skills against the most commonly misspelled words on Dictionary.com. Players must quickly decide whether each of 20 words is spelled correctly or incorrectly, as speed and accuracy count to get to the top of the class!
A fully featured scientific calculator which looks and operates like the real thing.
Calm the chaos of family life! Cozi makes your phone the ultimate family organizer with a shared calendar, grocery shopping lists, to do lists and a journal the whole family can access on the go.
Studydroid lets you take flashcards everywhere. Type on the phone or online. | <urn:uuid:7f909aff-144f-43b8-8e62-e77d788ed865> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.examiner.net/community/blogs/gadget_girl_blog/x423027621/Back-to-School-Apps?rssfeed=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935173 | 543 | 1.96875 | 2 |
On a flat surface, open the front cover of your album. Unfold the skinny flap to expose post heads. Unscrew posts with a flathead screwdriver. If you don’t have a flat-head screwdriver on hand, you can always use an ordinary penny to unscrew the male portion from the female portion of the post.
Preserving Handwritten Notes
To add interest to your heritage albums, scan the back of the photo's if there is writing on them and include that writing as the journaling. It's a great way to see family member's handwriting in your album! (To those of you that think your handwriting is not good enough, someday your children will love it!)
How to Stay Current
Are you behind on your scrapping? As you are having your pictures printed, use a date stamp and Staz-On ink to stamp the back of the pictures with the date of the activity. Or create "Album" folders on your computer, cd or online at trusted websites such as Snapfish. You can title the folder with the date. If you name it with the year first, sorting is a breeze! For example: 2012 January. When you are ready to scrap the event, there will be no need to have to dig through all of your stuff.
If you stay current by having your photos printed, uploaded to a website or downloaded to a CD (or external hardrive), your computer you won't be caught with no memory space when you need it for other things.
No Pictures? No Problem!
Don't you hate it when you have a great scrap-able moment but you either forgot your camera, batteries ran out, etc. Don't worry, there are other ways to "capture" the moment.
*Use memorabilia such as ticket stubs, receipts, napkins, front of shopping bags, etc and then journal about why it was special.
*Recreate the photos- go back to an old spot and take pictures of what is there and tell about the special times you spent there.
*Look for photos or other images online that capture the feeling of the event and journal about what it means to you.
Basic Heat Embossing
The Embossing technique is easy to do!!!! Stamp the image to be embossed and sprinkle embossing powder quickly over the wet stamped image. Remove any excess powder from around the stamped image by lightly tapping the paper. Use an embossing heat tool to make the powder melt and give the raised embossed effect.
1.Ink stamp with a VersaMark or Glue pad and stamp image
2. Pour embossing powder onto image while it is still wet.
3.Tap excess powder off sheet and put back into jar.
4.Heat until powder melts and becomes shiny.
The Scrapbook Store
8751 N 117th East Avenue Suite I Owasso, OK74055-2098 | <urn:uuid:3168e6ff-7637-49ee-b780-e47099a2d882> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.owassoscrapbookstore.com/Idea_Gallery_Tips.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933468 | 606 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Lillian Wald, 1867 - 1940
"This book attempts to show the harmonies built up in the community by the many little groups, through their sympathetic relations with other groups; and also to show how effective these group relations often are in dealing with social problems, which may vary in their importance at times, but not in their urgency, from generation to generation."
Between 1920 and 1923, Wald suffered several personal losses, including the deaths of her mother and her longtime friend and early Henry Street benefactor, Jacob Schiff. In April 1925, her own health began to fail. After suffering a debilitating stroke in 1933, Wald retired to her "house on the pond" in Westport, Connecticut. Many national and international figures, including Jane Adams, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Albert Einstein, continued to visit her there. With more time to record her thoughts, Wald wrote Windows on Henry Street, which detailed the changes to the Lower East Side and Henry Street over the decades Wald had resided there. In 1937, Henry Street celebrated Wald's seventieth birthday by broadcasting a radio program during which Mrs. Sara Delano Roosevelt read a letter from her son, President Franklin Roosevelt, praising Wald for her "unselfish labor to promote the happiness and well being of others."
- "This book attempts..." Lillian Wald, Windows on Henry Street. (New York: Little Brown and Company, 1934) 5.
- "unselfish labor to promote..." "Lillian D. Wald, 1867-1940: Hall of Fame for Great Americans." (New York University, Sept. 19, 1971) 18. | <urn:uuid:e0957ad1-8554-4fad-8438-f713528d2dc1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jwa.org/womenofvalor/wald/retirement | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955982 | 325 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Mental wellbeing is about feeling good and functioning well, as individuals and as communities. It is also about our ability to cope with life’s problems and making the most of life’s opportunities.
Good mental health is more than the absence of mental illness. It is the foundation for wellbeing. It is something you have to take care of, rather than take for granted.
Looking after your mental health is just as important as taking care of your body.
Below are five daily steps to help you promote your mental health.
5 daily steps for individual wellbeing
Do things and talk to people that make you feel good about yourself
Keep away from the things or people that trigger off negative feelings
Look after your body – eat healthily and take regular exercise
Spend time outside; enjoy the natural things around you
Think back on the things you do. Learn from things you do right, but also when you do things wrong
What is mental health?
“Mental health is the emotional and spiritual resilience which allows us to enjoy life and to survive pain, disappointment and sadness. It is a positive sense of wellbeing and an underlying belief in our own, and others’, dignity and worth.” Health Education Authority,1997
“A state of wellbeing in which the individual realises his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.” World Health Organisation, 2001
Mental Health Problems generally refer to difficulties we may experience with our mental health. Mental health problems can affect the way we think, feel and behave. | <urn:uuid:60a33aa5-b9ab-4be4-a566-ecd822e5b056> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.somerset.nhs.uk/welcome/healthy-living/mental-health/?vAction=fntUp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968626 | 342 | 3.390625 | 3 |
Last year I spent some time with mountain safety, and it really opened my eyes to a lot of the problems occurring on the slow trails. This year I have been noticing even more careless incidents, and some people need to be made more aware of what they are doing. It is not that these people have bad intentions; these things can be easy to do. I can relate to a lot of these skiers and riders, having made a few mistakes with my skiing in the past. I am not trying to vilify any of these skiers, but simply trying to educate them.
A problem many skiers and snowboarders have is knowing when to back off their speed coming into the slow zones at Whistler Blackcomb. Less than 10 per cent of all the terrain here is considered a slow zone or green run. Green runs are for beginners and itís not fair to have others whipping by them at high rates of speed. The rule of thumb when youíre in slow zones is to go the same speed as everyone else even if youíre on the side of the run. Try to remember when you first started riding how difficult it was. Beginners get scared when you go by them too quickly.
We as locals do not spend our days riding the slow area trails. Weíre more experienced so we can ride one hundred per cent of our mountains. The tourists are the ones that play on green runs and they pay our wages. It is really not that bad of a deal, give the beginners their bit of space and the rest of us can have the huge amount of the remaining terrain to ride.
With a bit of knowledge of the mountain itís often not hard to avoid these runs all together. On all of the other runs you can go fast, jump off cliffs, and ski however you like without anyone minding. There are some times when you do have to ski on the slow trails, but chances are that you wouldn't be on them for all that long, so just take it easy for that little bit of time. Maybe help a tourist with a pointer or two; the tourists will be thankful and you might make new friends.
Nik Van Scoyk | <urn:uuid:0e560a89-703d-46fb-9526-02bc2a225b80> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.whistlerquestion.com/article/20130124/WHISTLER07/301249972/WHISTLER/change-can-come-from-breaking-the-law | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973616 | 444 | 1.671875 | 2 |
The achievement gap begins before the first day of school. Each child enters kindergarten at a different level of preparedness. Those differences can grow over time without individualized intervention. Pearson Digital Learning offers powerful software that provides the one-on-one attention of a personal tutor for every elementary student in the classroom to start them strong, move them forward, and uncover each learner’s true potential.
Build early foundations in reading, math and science for learners in grades K-2.
A K-8 reading and math learning experience singularly focused on the needs of the individual learner.
From true beginners to more experienced learners, ELLIS is your comprehensive English language teaching and learning solution for students of all ages. | <urn:uuid:2430e453-efa4-41e9-b071-a4220558d837> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pearsonschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PSZu6o&displayRep=0&serialized_context= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911005 | 147 | 2.359375 | 2 |
This large work fills and dominates the specified space it is created in. Comprising a variety of materials typical to Black’s work, the sculpture’s fragility contrasts to its commanding nature. The subtle pink colour is created with crushed children’s chalk, which, when combined with crisp white plaster and billowing polythene sheets, creates a sense of both movement and tranquillity. With its deliberate edges the work moves away from being purely gestural to demonstrate Black’s definitive decision-making process. Black’s intentionally evocative titles, such as ‘Contact Isn’t Lost’, highlight her belief that language occupies a secondary role in comparison to the work itself and the effect it has on the viewer. | <urn:uuid:d4bef7ad-692f-4527-9ae5-599c021b7637> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/subjects/Crafts%20and%20practical%20arts/503012/artist_name/Karla%20Black/record_id/8949 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930168 | 153 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Once I make a decision, the Universe conspires to make it happen.
Process Of Creation: Personal
For personal applications such as relationships and personal growth, the methods used by The School of Creation will help you literally "re-wire your brain". As stimuli hit the brain, our synapses build a neural network that is either reinforced over time or neglected and made weaker by inactivity.
As James Allen once observed, "We become what we think about all day long." As we give more priority to various thoughts, beliefs and actions, they become what we call habits. Over time, these networks become so developed we do things easily and unconsciously. We don't have to re-invent the wheel each time. For example, once we master tying our shoes or driving a car, we no longer have to consciously think about each step.
While this may be a tremendous time saver with driving, it can get us in big trouble with other behaviors, such as becoming angry if someone looks at us a certain way, or being impatient when faced with an obstacle. Each time the brain receives a stimulus it continues to build either a "good" habit or a "bad" habit.
- We are often not aware of the habits we have already created and are now running on auto-pilot.
- We do not know how to short circuit the habits we want to change and get different results in our lives.
- We are unaware of other people habits and do not see how we interact with them.
The methods and concepts taught by The School of Creation assist you in becoming aware of the programs you have installed, the results those "belief programs" are creating in your life, and gradually de-installing the limiting programs while installing more empowering ones. This helps you recognize the programs being run by others. This awareness allows you to consciously create your vision in the world rather than being an unconscious puppet of the habits you have built over a lifetime.
To help you become aware, we take you through each step of the Process of Creation, teaching you the tools to understand when and how your relationships are “stuck” - because of this unconscious programming - so that you can learn how to transform them.
The 10 Step Process
As an examlpe of how this Process of Creation is applied, let's look at a personal situation that very large number of people can relate to - the concept of finding another person and living life together in a committed, monogamous relationship. It begins with the idea "I want to experience marriage".
We will outline the 10 Steps in the Process of Creation and how it pertains to relationships, in this case marriage.
1. Seed: Purpose and Nature of Relationships
Outer: The intention to live the unity, happiness and joy in a marriage. The vision comes to us that we would like to create ourselves something we have seen others experience around us. Our parents, our neighbors, aunts and uncles, people on TV and in the movies, all have demonstrated that there is a concept out there called "harmonious marriage." Out of compassion comes the vision and the seed of what we want to create.
Inner: We form a vision to experience this kind of union with another. Both partners must ask themselves; What am I here to experience? What is the purpose of this marriage?
Qualities: Compassion for self and the other
Challenges: Expectations, following the Hollywood portrayal of the ideal marriage, rigidity of current image of a marriage
2. Experience: Wisdom from Living
Outer: We gather all the experiences we have had ourselves or have seen others experience. We are willing to be fully immersed in the experience, be playful and present. We are signing up to a passionate living of the current perceived reality. We immerse ourselves in it and observe it first hand.
Inner: We make a personal decision to experience what it is like to be committed in a long-term relationship. We decide to buy into the concept of marriage- to experience it, to learn about it, to pursue it.
Qualities: Willingness to experience ups and downs
Challenges: Irresponsibility, unrealistic expectations, imbalanced ability to respond
3. Definitions: The Full Description
Outer: We are gathering the experience from step 2, considering all available options and developing of our final and clear definition of marriage. We are considering the words we need to use to describe what it is that we want the relationship to be.
Inner: We spend a period of time germinating the ideas. We look at all the options available and define what kind of union we would like to create. We think about the qualities we would like in a potential mate, the way we would like the relationship to work, and what our life would look like together. The idea is gestating within us until we are ready to let the world know what we would like to create.
Qualities: Nurturing and protection of yourself, your partner and the union
Challenges: Overprotection, self-sacrifice, self-centeredness
4. Power: Soliciting Support Using Inspiration
Outer: This step is about finding the partner we want and agreeing on a Mutual Model. This period is characterized by taking the concept out into the world of others. During this stage of understanding the power, we begin to utilize our influence, charisma, and an ability to take action. We verbalize our intention. We present the vision and the concept to potential partner(s) and attempt to get consensus and to be willing to join us on our path. We identify the areas where a consensus in the priorities, motivation and values is achieved. We consider the resources available when identifying this overlap. Once the relationship begins to develop, we may begin to experience a "power struggle" as each party jockeys to determine who will be the driving force of the relationship. It may be as small as who always picks the restaurant for dinner or the movie to rent, or as big as who is the "decider" about the major steps in life. It may soon become clear who is driving the relationship and who is going along for the ride.
Inner: Our partner is touching our unresolved issues related to power struggles. We retrieve our beliefs about how the power should be handled in the relationship, what we have seen our family and friends do. We apply them; observe results and modify beliefs. We are resolving conflicting beliefs within.
Qualities: inspiration, readiness to resolve conflicts, empowering the partner
Challenges: My way or the highway, victimhood, indecisiveness, lack of commitment
5. Boundaries: Implementation Sequencing
Outer: We describe how our relationship is going to unfold and what we plan to implement when. We make choices on what is in and what is out defining priorities we both agree on, evaluating how much we can put on our plate and still do it with love. A defining moment in any long-term relationship is when a couple decides to be "exclusive" and not date other people outside the relationship. This is an excellent example of Boundaries.
Inner: Preparing yourself to let go of your desires that did not reach consensus. Knowing how much you can do, how much your partner can do, and how to respect each other's boundaries with love. Feeling how much both partners can handle and where each needs to grow and giving each other space to do it.
Qualities: Understanding of each other's limits, needs, abilities and vulnerabilities
Challenges: Fear of losing, inability to let go,
6. Physical Manifestation: Reality of the Vision
Outer: Now it is time to manifest the plans defined in step 5. It may be just doing things together, going on vacation, implementing small projects. This is the time to evaluate how it all actually works for you as a couple. We are implementing partial (specific) aspects of the relationship and experiencing how they work.
Inner: The couple may get carried away with physical reality and seek to extend themselves well beyond their needs and means. They may believe that physical things will make them happy and seek to get all they can. They might be motivated by a desire to impress others, or to compensate for not feeling "good enough".
We may try to manifest those things that are outside the boundaries of what is possible for us as a couple. You may see the fruit of your creation that you agreed to, and find that you're not happy with it because you were hoping for more. The overlap that you believed was there is not as you thought it would be when you created it together. If this is the case, then it is necessary to go back to the vision, experiences, specifications, and then to renegotiate the relationship.
Qualities: Responsiveness to the physical needs and real time situations
Challenges: Greediness, disappointment, lack of communication, lack of willingness to go back to the beginning to recapitulate.
7. Long Term Planning: From Here to There
Outer: Including the experience learned in step 6, now we begin to see how our relationship fits in the larger context of our life. The pursuits of life now requires us to undertake long term planning to include "legacy" ideas such as children, grandchildren, charitable causes, environmental responsibility, spiritual communities, or making a long-term impact through one's career or public service.
Inner: Finding a balance between the physical and the eternal. Also the understanding that nothing happens by accident: everything is a result of something. Here we are defining what is needed to sustain and nurture this relationship for the years to come.
During this stage, some become disillusioned with the lack of fulfillment in the ‘Physical, or Material stage. As a result for example a subsequent belief that money doesn't buy happiness, the couple or individual moves into a pursuit of spiritual fulfillment to the exclusion of the physical domain. Whatever the nature of the spiritual activity, the person seeks to find love from God directly while excluding other people from the equation.
Qualities: Broad vision, understanding that there is a before and after, cause and effect.
Challenges: Daydreaming, withdrawing from the physical
8. Infrastructure: Supporting your Vision
Outer: We begin to create the foundation for our life together with all the elements required to support it. We better understand our roles and responsibilities. We know some things about the other person, their strengths and weaknesses, what motivates them and what "pushes their buttons". We know some things about relationship dynamics that we have acquired through the wisdom of others and our own experience and we are able to lovingly apply that wisdom to our daily lives. We develop processes and acquire things needed to support daily living.
Inner: As a lot of elements need to be synchronized and we often don't have enough data to make our decisions. Very frequently we need to rely not only on reasoning but also on intuition. Very frequently intellect can really wreak havoc in matters of the heart. It may attempt to block us from feeling our own emotions, and may numb us to the feelings of others. In fact, when others attempt to express their feelings, we may respond with "there's no need to get all emotional about it. The intellect will often try to fix any problems that arise in the relationship, and try to solve problems of the heart with logic or "tried and true" formulas derived from experts, rather than checking in with one's own feelings. A common statement of someone on the shadow side of intellect is "I need to figure this out myself." We need to create a balance and be guided by the heart as well as by the logic.
Qualities: Open mind, open heart, ability to listen and respond
Challenges: Rigidity, fixed ideas, inability to adapt
9. Virtual Reality: The Final Test
Outer: In this process you are a truthful, loving mirror to your partner. You tell them the truth without "sugar coating" it. You are honest about your feelings and observations. You "reflect" it like it is." You are also able to receive this same kind of honest feedback from the other person without anger, defensiveness, blame, criticism, or "heading for the door".
Inner: Addressing the conflicts within. Here you may want to "shoot the messenger." If your partner has feedback for you, or mirrors back to you a behavior, belief, or situation you find irritating, objectionable, or just plain wrong, you may attack. You may blame, criticize, deflect, run, or do any number of things in order to avoid facing the truth head on.
This is the domain of the image management, trying to look good to the other person or the outside world. Another attribute is self-sacrifice or feeling and expressing that no one appreciates you. An example of this space in a relationship is the mother who wears herself out cleaning up after everyone else rather than holding individuals accountable.
Qualities: Partnership, seeing your reflection in the other, lack of separation, truthfulness
Challenges: Pointing fingers, masks, illusions
10. Living the Vision | <urn:uuid:17633b94-7766-40a8-90db-ed3f1e83d5a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.schoolofcreation.com/content/process-creation-personal | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954117 | 2,706 | 2.59375 | 3 |
The “story” about her death: In this morning’s New York Times, Leslie Kaufman writes a fascinating piece about journalism and novels.
On its face, Kaufman discusses the brutal, once-famous murder of Kitty Genovese, a 24-year-old New York City woman who lost her life in 1964. But at its heart, this fascinating news report is about something quite different.
The Genovese murder became nationally famous because of what it supposedly showed about deteriorating civic culture. According to the standard story—a story which came from the New York Times—38 people saw or heard Genovese being murdered. But none of the 38 witnesses intervened, or even called the police.
At the time, we were in high school in California; this was a gigantic story out there. But uh-oh! As Kaufman explains, the original reporting by the Times seems to have been massively wrong. Here’s how Kaufman sketches it:
KAUFMAN (1/31/13): But over time the basic facts were called into question. As early as 1984 The Daily News published an article pointing to flaws in the reporting. In 2004 The Times did its own summation of the critical research, showing that since Ms. Genovese crawled around to the back of the building after she was stabbed the first time (her assailant fled and returned) very few people would have seen anything.Kaufman doesn’t say if any of those (maybe) five people actually did call police. But to appearances, the original report—38 silent witnesses!—seems to have been grossly wrong.
The article quoted among others Charles E. Skoller, the former Queens assistant district attorney who helped prosecute the case and who also has written a book on it. “I don’t think 38 people witnessed it,” said Mr. Skoller, who had retired by the time of the interview. “I don’t know where that came from, the 38. I didn’t count 38. We only found half a dozen that saw what was going on, that we could use.” There were other mitigating factors as well; it was a cold night, and most people had their windows closed.
“Maybe only five people were in the position to hear her calls, if even that,” said Kevin Cook, an author who is currently researching the case for a book of his own and trying to determine exactly who knew what.
That’s the background. What’s interesting in today’s report is the way people in the publishing world view the reissue of the book which helped make the bogus claim famous.
That hurry-up 1964 book was called Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case. And uh-oh! The book written by A. M. Rosenthal, who went on to be a very big honcho at the New York Times.
Rosenthal’s book is being reissued in digital form by the publisher Melville House. In her report, Kaufman asks if Melville should have included some sort of notice about the questions which have arisen concerning the book’s basic claims.
It would have been easy to include an introductory essay. No such essay appears.
We were very much struck by the reactions Kaufman records. Let’s start with the reaction from Melville House itself, and from a second observer in the publishing world:
KAUFMAN: Dennis Johnson, the publisher of Melville House, said he knew about the controversy but decided to stand behind Mr. Rosenthal’s account. “There are, notably, works of fraud where revising or withdrawing the book is possible or even recommended, but this is not one of those cases,” he said. “This is a matter of historical record. This is a reprint of reporting done for The New York Times by one the great journalists of the 20th century. We understand there are people taking issue with it, but this is not something we think needs to be corrected.”In fairness, the various parties Kaufman quotes may still believe that Rosenthal’s work is basically accurate. But as is true with others who get quoted, Johnson takes a weirdly casual approach to the question of basic accuracy.
But others say there was a way to tip at the controversy without correcting the book. “If you are taking a piece of iconic journalism and reissuing it, it is probably in the interest of the reader of today to place it into a context that makes sense,” said Peter Osnos, the founder and editor at large of PublicAffairs Books, which handles numerous works by journalists. “That doesn’t change the value of the literature.”
“This is a reprint of reporting done for The New York Times by one the great journalists of the 20th century,” Johnson says, failing to note that the great man’s reporting may have been grossly inaccurate.
Osnos adopts a much more sensible view. But we’ll admit that we were struck by his use of the term “literature,” for reasons which may become clearer below.
Later, as Kaufman speaks with others, they seem to have a very weak sense of the basic notions of accuracy, truth and fact. In all honesty, some of these parties speak as if they think they’re discussing a novel rather than a piece of journalism about a deeply serious subject.
In the following passage, Kaufman quotes the person who pushed to get the book digitized, and a contemporary New York Times journalist. To our ear, they seem to think they’re discussing a novel. And they seems to care more about Rosenthal’s reputation than about issues of truth:
KAUFMAN: Mr. Rosenthal’s book was digitized in large part because of a campaign by Andrew Blauner, a literary agent whose clients included Mr. Rosenthal and who has long had an interest in the Genovese case.Blauner’s comments would make perfect sense—if Thirty-Eight Witnesses was a novel. He says the book “was about humanity and [is] thus more relevant than ever.” It sounds like he thinks he’s discussing The Bridge of San Luis Rey.
Mr. Blauner would not address the criticism of the book’s assertions but said he thought that, details aside, Mr. Rosenthal’s work was about humanity and thus more relevant than ever.
“I don’t think that there’s any question that the story of Kitty Genovese is iconic and important, timely and timeless and transcendent, on so many levels,” he said. “There is, in my view, great intrinsic value and virtue in Abe’s book being made available to as many people as possible, in as many formats as possible.”
Mr. Blauner argued that when Melville first brought the book back into print in 2008, it contained a new preface by Samuel G. Freedman, a journalism professor who also writes a religion column for The Times. The preface, Mr. Blauner said, acknowledged that “myths” had built up around the book. But that introduction talks only about myths about Mr. Rosenthal’s role in the story, not the story itself.
Mr. Freedman said that Mr. Rosenthal was a mentor and that he had been honored to be asked to write the introduction. “The post-facto controversy about Abe’s book is certainly available with a few simply online searches to anyone who wants to find it,” he said. “But I chose not to disparage the book in an introduction to it, and I live serenely with that decision.”
As presented, Blauner doesn’t ask if the book is factually accurate in what it says “about humanity.” As he continues, he says “the story of Kitty Genovese is iconic and important, timely and timeless and transcendent.”
He doesn’t seem to care if “the story,” however timeless, happens to be a true story.
Freedman adds to the general air of fantasy amd fawning. If readers wonder if the book’s claims are true, they can conduct online searches! And inevitably, when he wrote that earlier introduction, he protected the reputation of the great Times journalist.
Myths had developed, Freedman told readers, without acknowledging that the myths seem to begin right in the book’s title. He doesn't want to “disparage” a book which may have its facts grossly wrong.
All through this report, we see excessive deference to the reputation of a Big Famous Journalist. We also see a puzzling sense that the book is question is some sort of novel. It tells a timeless tale!
Stories came early in human history; the concept of accurate facts came much later. Jesus conveyed his ideas in parables. He didn’t use charts of graphs. His parables didn’t have footnotes.
“Tell me a story!” Children still say it. Journalists try to help out.
For fourteen years, we’ve discovered what follows:
Journalists often seem to live in a pre-factual realm, in the realm of the “story.” Five witnesses turn into thirty-eight. Slightly clumsy offhand remarks get transformed into damning “quotations” or paraphrases. All scribes agree to recite them.
Is this story still “too good to check?” A very, very peculiar world view emerges from Kaufman’s report. | <urn:uuid:5ec5539e-0e32-4b25-ad35-a9e1b90d55bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailyhowler.blogspot.com/2013/01/kitty-genovese-and-continuing-silence.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974533 | 2,027 | 1.835938 | 2 |
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3. State of the Union Address: December 4, 1827 (continued)
The radical principle of all commercial intercourse between independent nations is the mutual interest of both parties. It is the vital spirit of trade itself; nor can it be reconciled to the nature of man or to the primary laws of human society that any traffic should long be willingly pursued of which all the advantages are on one side and all the burdens on the other. Treaties of commerce have been found by experience to be among the most effective instruments for promoting peace and harmony between nations whose interests, exclusively considered on either side, are brought into frequent collisions by competition. In framing such treaties it is the duty of each party not simply to urge with unyielding pertinacity that which suits its own interest, but to concede liberally to that which is adapted to the interest of the other.
To accomplish this, little more is generally required than a simple observance of the rule of reciprocity, and were it possible for the states-men of one nation by stratagem and management to obtain from the weakness or ignorance of another an over-reaching treaty, such a compact would prove an incentive to war rather than a bond of peace.
Our conventions with Great Britain are founded upon the principles of reciprocity. The commercial intercourse between the two countries is greater in magnitude and amount than between any two other nations on the globe. It is for all purposes of benefit or advantage to both as precious, and in all probability far more extensive, than if the parties were still constituent parts of one and the same nation. Treaties between such States, regulating the intercourse of peace between them and adjusting interests of such transcendent importance to both, which have been found in a long experience of years mutually advantageous, should not be lightly cancelled or discontinued. Two conventions for continuing in force those above mentioned have been concluded between the plenipotentiaries of the two Governments on August 6th, 1827, and will be forthwith laid before the Senate for the exercise of their constitutional authority concerning them.
In the execution of the treaties of peace of November, 1782 and September, 1783, between the United States and Great Britain, and which terminated the war of our independence, a line of boundary was drawn as the demarcation of territory between the two countries, extending over nearly 20 degrees of latitude, and ranging over seas, lakes, and mountains, then very imperfectly explored and scarcely opened to the geographical knowledge of the age. In the progress of discovery and settlement by both parties since that time several questions of boundary between their respective territories have arisen, which have been found of exceedingly difficult adjustment.
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For information about public domain texts appearing here, read the copyright information and disclaimer. | <urn:uuid:aa400ffc-2d54-4a6b-add8-adc28761fa53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.literaturepage.com/read.php?titleid=john-quincy-adams-state-of-the-union&abspage=44&changesize=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957235 | 616 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Shop in Monroe County and Save!
It’s no secret that Monroe County residents often do their shopping in the La Crosse area. A common justification for this is that “Monroe County stores are more expensive.” A recent study by the Monroe County UW-Extension office and the IBuyMoCo program shows that this is not the case, and that you can save money by doing your routine shopping in Monroe County. If you live in Sparta, you can save up to twenty dollars per trip and up to forty dollars if you live in Tomah.
First, consider the cost of groceries. UW-Extension shopped the local grocery store in Sparta, Tomah and Onalaska for the same common products (milk, eggs, pasta, ground beef, and the like), taking note of the regular, non-sale prices. The cost of our shopping list in Onalaska came to $53.74. Given the conventional wisdom that Monroe County stores are more expensive, you might be surprised to find out that the same grocery list at Monroe County stores was only an average of $2.89 more!
The next step is calculating the “true cost” of your shopping trip. The actual price of goods is only the first piece of the calculation. When you figure in additional costs you can begin to see dramatic savings.
To begin with, look at the cost of the drive. Gas prices are high of course, but that is not where it ends. In addition to fuel, the wear-and-tear on your vehicle adds up, as do insurance and registration costs. The Internal Revenue Service uses these factors and more to arrive at a mileage reimbursement rate. Currently, the rate is 55.5 cents per mile.
If we simply add up cost of mileage using the IRS rate from downtown Sparta to the shopping district in Onalaska, we see that the mileage cost for a round-trip is nearly $25! For a similar round-trip from downtown Tomah, the mileage cost is over $40! This does not take into account extra expenses you may incur, such as “making a day of it” and having lunch or dinner at a restaurant.
Consider as well the time commitment of a drive to the La Crosse area. From Sparta you will spend about an hour in the car round-trip, perhaps more if traffic is heavy, and from Tomah you could spend nearly two hours round-trip. It is hard to put a price tag on this, but there is no question it reduces the time you have to spend on more relaxing pursuits.
When planning your next trip to the grocery store, consider the true cost and stay home in Monroe County. You will save time and money! | <urn:uuid:0db2c287-3369-435d-9124-ce7ed27dcaa3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://monroe.uwex.edu/ibuymoco/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951681 | 567 | 1.625 | 2 |
You’ve seen the fancy videos, the technical breakdown info-graphics and read the first person accounts about how completely awesome APRC is. But if you’re not a racer, why should you care? Technology from racing has been improving the street riding experience for decades. In the 1960s racing technology brought us powerful four cylinder engines with a ton of reliable smooth power. In the 70s we got disc brakes, providing linear, reliable stopping force. In the 80s we got aluminum frames and the addition of fairings (the 80s were kind of awesome for motorcycles). In the 90s we got good tires and ever improving suspension. The next step in this evolution? Electronic traction control, or APRC. When you’re riding on the street, you sometimes might be able to catch or hold a slide, and when you do, you feel like a superhero. Riding away from that corner, you breath a sigh of relief because you didn’t highside. How about having that feeling in every corner, just for fun? You can with APRC.
The principles of traction control are pretty simple: Monitor wheel speeds, gear selection, RPM, throttle position, lean angle and crankshaft acceleration to determine whether or not the rear wheel has traction and if not, reduce power until it does. Collecting and processing the data isn’t hard. The trick is in deciding how to handle a loss of traction.
APRC is the blanket name given to all the electronic systems on the RSV4. It includes traction, wheelie and launch control, as well as the quick shifter. Launch control is frankly too loud (and likely too hard on the clutch) to use on the street. Sure, it’ll work just fine, but every cop within a 6 block radius will know exactly what you’re up to. The quick-shifter works so seamlessly that you forget about it after just a few minutes. Why don’t all sportsbikes come with this feature? Wheelie control takes some stress out of riding a powerful bike, but I turn it down to it’s lowest setting and shift up when the front wheel gets more than a foot off the ground. It’s still there to catch you if you make a mistake though.
After spending some time with APRC’s traction control, I think I’ve figured out how it works. The secret is in the tires. Motorcycle tires are fairly complicated pieces of technology. Think about this for a minute: Just how does a tire work leaned over at 55º? Not many people can give you a straight answer to that question. Things are simple when a tire is perpendicular to the road. There’s only one diameter and force is applied relatively uniformly. No one but drag racers seem to have trouble with straight-line acceleration though.
When a tire is leaned over, its circumference is not constant. Measure around the middle of the tire, then around the very edge. There’s a huge difference in size.
Imagine the contact patch being forced into the road surface by the your and the bike’s weight and how the application of torque effects both weight distribution and traction. The tire will squish and deform and only a very small part of it will actually match speed with the road. You see, even though the tire flattens out where it contacts the road, those different circumferences still apply. Only one is going to match up with road speed. The rest will all have to slip in proportion to how much larger or smaller they are.
None of this is static either. On corner entry, almost all of the weight is on the front wheel. Traction control can’t save you from a low-side (and neither can ABS if you ask the impossible). As you trail off the brakes and pull the bike down to maximum lean, the rear tire starts to work. It’s not until you apply power though that it really matters.
Someone like Kenny Roberts can feel intuitively how the rear tire is interacting with the road. Knowledge of all those difference circumferences, that one small point of traction, tire flex and grip are what give the confidence to apply power and even initiate and hold a slide. Most people can’t just hop on a bike and feel that though. This is where APRC comes in.
APRC understands the rear tire. It knows about the changing circumferences and it knows that there’s really only one very tiny point that’s matching speed with the road. It knows how far the throttle is open and how much power is being produced. And it knows (because you told it when you selected a setting from 1-8) how aggressive you are and just how comfortable you are handling a sliding motorcycle.
Best of all, it can make very fine changes and do it very smoothly. When it works, it feels like you’re controlling the interaction between the tire and the road surface with your thoughts. You see the corner exit, smoothly open the throttle all the way and adjust your steering as you feel the tire start to slip as APRC moves accelerates the tire and moves it’s point of traction out to the very edge. It’s good enough that if you want, you can even take it past the edge and spin the whole tire, just a bit. You still have to be good enough to know what you want, but APRC makes it easy. APRC allows you to learn about traction with significantly less risk and at an accelerated pace
The answer to the age old question of how to apply maximum power with maximum control is one that motorcycle manufactures will always be asking, but for the time being, APRC is the best answer we have. | <urn:uuid:1d74fad0-3881-4233-b5e9-e69ff03a5d37> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rideapart.com/2011/10/how-aprc-works-on-the-road/?tubepress_page=19 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946792 | 1,189 | 2 | 2 |
Peter Jackson (boxer)
|Real name||Peter Jackson|
|Nickname(s)||Peter the Great|
23 September 1860|
Christiansted, Danish West Indies
|Died||13 July 1901(aged 40)|
|Wins by KO||31|
Jackson was born in Christiansted on the island Saint Croix, which was then the capital of the Danish West Indies. (Subsequently, it became part of the U.S. Virgin Islands.) His family originally came from Montego Bay, Jamaica.
His father, also called Peter Jackson, was a warehouseman and he was the grandson of a freed slave who had been owned by a planter with the surname of Jackson.
Born a free man, the future boxer was in fact a Danish citizen before he gained Australian citizenship. Jackson had a good primary school education before becoming a mariner. Landing in Sydney about 1880, he worked on the waterfront and in hotels before drifting to Brisbane, and thence into a career in boxing in 1882 under the tuition of Larry Foley, a famous Australian bare-knuckle pugilist and instructor.
Standing 6' 1½" (187 cm) tall and weighing in at 190 lbs (87 kg) he became the winner of the Australian Heavyweight championship in 1886. Originally working on ships as a deck hand in the Sydney Docks since he was 14, he used his fist to quell a mutiny. This garnered him some notoriety and brought him to the attention of Larry Foley and started his career in boxing. He came to be known as "Black Prince" and "Peter the Great".
Jackson won the Australian heavyweight title in 1886 with a knockout of Tom Lees in the 30th round, and the British Commonwealth title against Jem Smith by KO in the second round. In 1888 he beat "Old Chocolate" Godfrey to gain the world 'colored' heavyweight championship.
On 21 May 1891, in Benicia, California Jackson fought the future world champion James Corbett because the reigning title-holder, John L. Sullivan, would not fight him because he was black. The match with Corbett went 61 rounds before it was declared no contest, as both boxers were too exhausted to continue.
In 1898 he lost a bout to the powerfully built James J. Jeffries, another great boxer who would hold the championship of the world in the early 1900s.
Jackson's health began to fail towards the end of his career, hampering his performances in the ring.
He had been at one stage a pupil of "The Black Diamond" Jack Dowridge, a Barbadian Immigrant who pioneered boxing in Queensland, Australia. Among Dowridge's other pupils was "Gentleman Jack" John Reid McGowan, a fellow Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame Inductee.
A short time after becoming the first black heavyweight champion of the world in 1908, "The Galveston Giant" Jack Johnson, made a pilgrimage to Jackson's grave, a measure of the respect in which the man was held not only in Queensland, but in the boxing community worldwide.
Jackson's tomb is emblazoned with the words "This was a man".
See also
- Petersen, Bob (2011). "Tropical Danish, 1860-1879". Peter Jackson: A Biography of the Australian Heavyweight Champion, 1860-1901. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 5. ISBN 9780786458813. Retrieved January 13, 2013. More than one of
- 'BLACK PRINCE PETER'
- Broome, Richard (1983). "Jackson, Peter (1861–1901)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: Australian National University. Retrieved 2008-03-22.
- Peter Jackson - "The Black Prince" by Tony DeBolfo
- Boxing: Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame - Peter Jackson
- Boxing: The Best Heavyweights to Never Get a Title Shot
- IBHOF / Peter Jackson
- Peter Jackson
- Professional boxing record for Peter Jackson from BoxRec
- Jackson, Peter — Brisbane City Council Grave Location Search
- Peter Jackson: A Biography of the Australian Heavyweight Champion, 1860–1901 by Bob Petersen
|Awards and achievements|
|World Colored Heavyweight Champion
24 August 1888 - 1896
Won vacant title | <urn:uuid:5f110dbd-a0e2-4b91-8b2f-9972c3fe27e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jackson_(boxer) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944785 | 904 | 2.5 | 2 |
What is sexting?
Sexting is sending nude or semi-nude photos by mobile phone, or posting sexual images on social networking sites like Facebook or Myspace.
Often, teens send explicit images to a partner or friends for their eyes only. Or in a moment of blurred judgment, they let someone take pictures of them that they might not otherwise agree to.
What can potentially happen next is:
- Harassment or cyberstalking: threats to share the images
- Outing: posting or sharing the images publicly
- Impersonation: pretending to be the person who created the image and posting or sharing it publicly, often with the suggestion that the person is interested in sexual contact.
Why are teens sexting?
Flirtatious game playing, peer pressure and competition are common motivations. A survey by Girlfriend magazine found that four in ten girls had been asked to forward a nude photo of themselves. Similarly, another survey found 51% of teen girls had sent sexual messages or images due to male pressure. A majority of teen girls and boys also claimed they sent sexually suggestive content to be “fun or flirtatious”.
What are the consequences?
For the person forwarding or taking the images, sexting is a criminal activity. Taking a sexual image of a minor and then texting it is creating, holding and distributing child pornography, even if the person committing the offence is a child. In some states, if a person is convicted of child pornography offences they may be registered as a sex offender for the next 20 to 30 years!
For the victim, the damage can be as severe as other forms of bullying, sexual harassment and abuse. Consequences include poor self-esteem and self-image, isolating behaviours, truancy or avoidance of school, eating disorders, self-harm and even some cases of suicide.
The consequences can also be permanent. Once an image has been posted online it is very difficult to get it back. This means the images could be circulating as teens start applying for jobs and meeting potential long-term partners.
How can you protect your teen from sexting?
- Talk through the consequences of ‘sexting’, both posing for images and storing or sending them.
- Ensure your child understands that once an image is sent, it can't be retrieved. Not only will it be available for others to see now, but also in years to come.
- Encourage open discussion with your child about who they're talking to online and what sites they visit.
- Make an effort to become familiar with and understand the new technology your child is using.
- Encourage your child to talk to an adult about any problems or concerns they may have. Reassure them that this won't necessarily mean they'll be made to stop using the technology involved.
What should you look out for?
- Sudden reluctance to socialise with friends
- Disinterest or avoidance of school
- Dropping out of sports or other recreational activities
- Extreme sleeping behaviour (either more or less)
- Abnormal nail biting or hair pulling
- Abnormal changes in mood and/or behaviour
What to do next:
- Move your family computer to a public place so you can monitor the times they're online, and their anxiety levels
- Contact the police if the messages are threatening
What to do if your child has been a victim of sexting?
In the event your child has been a victim of sexting, parents can seek assistance from the following services:
Parentline QLD & NT - 1300 30 1300
Parentline VIC - 13 22 89
Parent Helpline SA - 1300 364 100
Parent Line NSW - 13 20 55
Parent Help Centre WA - (08) 92721466 or 1800 654 432
ParentLink ACT - (02) 6205 8800
Young people are encouraged to call Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800. | <urn:uuid:a6cec918-c1dd-4afc-8334-5cfa68916d7f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kidshelp.com.au/grownups/getting-help/cyberspace/sexting.php | 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 | 0.932517 | 817 | 2.90625 | 3 |
This could be because your user has no permission over the files in your external hard drive.
What I would like to know is if this is the only problem (if you open them as root, the file is opened correctly,
as expected), or if the problem is somewhere else (if you open them as root, even after the chmod has been
executed, they still won't open).
So now try to copy some file with the cp command as root to verify this.
If it works we will manage to get your user able to read and write on that USB device
Could you tell us how your external drive is partitioned too? (NTFS, FAT or ext partitions and such) | <urn:uuid:28692d42-40eb-40aa-97d7-f144d7bc8331> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forum.sabayon.org/viewtopic.php?p=99155 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970451 | 146 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Roll Film Scanning
IDSL expertly digitize images held on 16mm & 35mm role film and convert them to TIFF, JPEG, or PDF images. When one document per frame is filmed on 16 mm roll film, it is known as simplex. Two images side-by-side on each frame is called duplex.
The duplex images generally have the front and back of the original source document. Both sides can be scanned in either one frame, or documents may be divided into two different images.
Various organizations microfilm archive records on to 16mm and 35mm roll film. Document archiving is usually carried out on 16mm role film. Although, blueprints, maps and engineering drawings are customary the domain of 35mm. However 16 mm film on occasion, is used for maps or blueprints.
Image orientation appears in many forms. They are filmed in either the positive or negative, with varying image lengths and sizes. There have contrasting image density, possibly due to film being degraded, or the result of inconsistencies in the original development process. The reduction ratio or aspect ratio may also differ technically. 35mm film was commonly reduced 12-16x, while 16mm usually ranges from 20 to 48x.
The 16mm role cartridge which was a popular early type of film. It was kept in a sealed cartridge to protect it. The roll film cartridges may not have been perfect for scanning initially. However IDSL has created technology capable of digitally converting roll film cartridges, to meet a clients needs.
IDSL’s highly trained staff use cutting edge equipment, assuring clients that, during the scanning process, the finest images are captured from the original film. | <urn:uuid:330ada9d-bcbb-4e6b-af06-37ac75053283> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.idsl.org.uk/roll-film-scanning/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9558 | 343 | 2.65625 | 3 |
MOJAVE, Calif. (AP) — More aquifers in the Southern California desert contained high levels of arsenic, boron, fluoride and other naturally occurring elements compared with the rest of the state, a study released Wednesday found.
Federal scientists only looked at the presence of contaminants in raw, untreated groundwater and did not analyze tap water. Water agencies typically treat groundwater supplies to make drinking water and to comply with health standards.
Trace elements were found in high concentrations in 35 percent of groundwater used for public supply in the desert, compared with 10 to 25 percent elsewhere in the state.
One reason is that groundwater pumped from the desert tends to be older than groundwater pumped from other parts of the state, allowing more time for it to mix with elements found naturally in rocks and soil.
The study was conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey. Scientists tested groundwater samples from wells in the desert — including the Antelope Valley, Coachella Valley, Indian Wells Valley, Owens Valley, Mojave area, and the Colorado River basin — and around the state between 2004 and last year.
State and federal regulators and water agencies have long known about the existence of these elements in desert aquifers, but this is the most comprehensive assessment of groundwater quality in the desert.
Groups "are actively working to manage local groundwater resources and assure that water delivered to consumers meets water-quality standards," Miranda Fram, who heads the USGS groundwater monitoring program, said in a statement.
Besides studying the presence of naturally occurring contaminants, researchers looked at the role of human activity and found little impact on groundwater quality: High levels of solvents, pesticides and nitrates, typically associated with runoff from industries, agriculture and homes, were found in less than 1 percent of desert aquifers.
The USGS continues to monitor water quality in more than 100 groundwater basins around the state. | <urn:uuid:4f9c7041-002b-40f6-85bc-1f725424204d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news.net/article/96230/Health%20&%20Science/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950732 | 384 | 3.046875 | 3 |
School to Home Approach
Part of the Ohio Energy Project’s success is that we empower students to live what they learn and to show their families how to be smart energy consumers, too. Students are given energy efficient kits and the assignment to improve energy use in their own homes. Moms and Dads love this!
Plus students can get their families involved in our survey and play online energy games. | <urn:uuid:4257f335-a61e-49b0-804e-c9f5c4aa6ad8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ohioenergy.org/students-and-families | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951877 | 82 | 2.015625 | 2 |
User:JWSchmidt/Blog/10 November 2007
I previously commented on the never-ending debate over the role of experts within Wikimedia wiki projects. Veropedia has been added to the likes of Citizendium and says it hopes to make use of experts: "The role of experts and academics will be to check it and, ideally, approve it." Is it impossible for Wikimedia wiki projects to have a constructive relationship with experts? Are we inevitably moving towards a multi-tiered system in which Wikimedia wikis are the wild wikis "where anyone can edit" and other wikis will build upon Wikipedia content in a more controlled editing environment?
Spam and pseudoscience
As an editor of science-related Wikipedia articles, I often notice when spam links to commercial and personal websites are added to articles. Often editors come to Wikipedia to push fringe pseudoscientific ideas and make links back to their personal websites where they try to market their quackery. This past Summer I noticed a situation in which a valid biology article had been hijacked by an interesting team of two POV pushers who were both promoting their personal websites. Eventually one of these POV pushers became involved in an arbitration case. This POV pusher had been adding garbage to Wikipedia for two years and was still defended by some administrators as a valuable contributor.
Using experts
I recently made a comment in IRC #wikibooks that User:Whiteknight picked up on and blogged about. I commented there about the idea that we can think about Wikipedia as a book for which the Wikipedia model for collaborative book writing might be adequate because Wikipedia articles cover a network of topics that readers can explore in many different orders. Wikipedia sells itself as just a starting place for readers who are interested in a topic. The Wikipedia approach might not work for Wikibooks and Wikipedia. Many people view textbooks and curricula as tools to be used for an extended period of time and as a way to learn an extensive and coherent understanding of a subject area. When people are thinking about making that kind of investment of time, they do not want to be told, "this textbook can be wrong, use at your own risk". Really, people want a textbook that has some kind of expertise behind it, some sort of guarantee that they will not be wasting their time if they read it it. This is why I think Wikiversity needs to create new ways to involve and support expert editors (see Wikiversity:Review board) and I am also interested in ways to protect mature learning resources from vandalism.
Service provider vs Publisher
A recent new start of Wikipedia:Expert editors at Wikipedia:Expert editors/New draft quickly attracted this comment "Wikipedia, by legal Section 230 definition is an Internet service provider, not a publisher. Your attempt to create an "elite" corps of super-editors will threaten the protections that Section 230 accords, and therefore is not acceptable."
Would any attempt to make use of the expertise of wiki editors convert the Wikimedia Foundation from an internet service provider to a publisher? In a French lawsuit, a judge found that since the Wikimedia Foundation had quickly removed content upon request, the Foundation could not be liable for damages based on a claim of defamation and invasion of privacy arising from comments added to Wikipedia.
Section 230
The Wikipedia article "Online service provider law" lists some legal cases in which various websites were or were not held responsible for online content. I do not understand how section 230 is relevant to the issue of making use of experts to screen wiki content. Wikipedia might face special legal concerns because it includes biographies of living persons. The "Online service provider law" article cites a 2002 case in which it was decided that "a defendant who had notice of a defamatory statement must stop publishing it or face liability". Wikiversity has Wikiversity:General disclaimer....I wonder if there should also be a page like Wikipedia:Contact us/Article problem/Factual error (from subject) (gotta love that page name). | <urn:uuid:699807ff-53de-47d3-aef3-d1933882a2a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:JWSchmidt/Blog/10_November_2007 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948063 | 814 | 1.9375 | 2 |
What you do really want to do in the next step of your career? Have you always wanted to work in a particular industry, do you want more autonomy, do you want to change discipline? But… is it realistic? Be honest, is “being an F1 racing driver” going to happen?
We frequently speak to candidates who have, let’s say, ‘ambitious’ aspirations about their next career move. More often than not salary is stated to be the biggest motivator however in reality, salary is never the main motivator. It is of course a fundamental part of Maslows Heirachy of Needs and contributes to esteem and safety. But when you delve a bit deeper, the majority of candidates, certainly in the marketing field, value career progression, working environment, challenge and their level of interest in the product or service that they are promoting (self actualisation and esteem).
So, if you’re wanting to move in to a role where you are Marketing Manager for Nestle Cereals, or working for Nike then how do we start to move towards this position. Well, it’s clear that for the majority of people it is a process that starts with your next career move and may follow two or three career moves before you achieve your end goal. The key is to create the foundation of experience that will encourage a client to meet you. Understand what types of experience create the perfect candidate for these roles and build these into the profile of your next role thereby creating the right foundations for your ultimate job. Match these to the list you should have created yesterday from our ‘Day 1′ blog.
Don’t expect to be able to make significant jumps with your career – it doesn’t often happen. Take steps.
Plan these steps that will enable you to get to where you want to be. Don’t just accept the next position that is similar to the role you are currently in but offers 10% more salary. Think about how this next move will help you achieve your goals. Discuss them with your recruitment consultant. We come across very few people that have done any planning of this nature.
Don’t forget to log in tomorrow where we’ll be talking about researching your target companies. | <urn:uuid:a07f1254-5d7c-42d8-bcd1-85f355f32ecf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.networkmarketingjobs.com/marketing-jobs/day-2-deciding-on-a-realistic-next-step-in-your-career/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958105 | 465 | 1.632813 | 2 |
State schools superintendent talks vouchers
Published: Tuesday, September 25, 2012 at 7:12 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, September 25, 2012 at 7:12 p.m.
Matt Hise's fifth grade class at Maria Immacolata Catholic School in Houma was talking about something every south Louisianan should know about — natural disasters.
Hise showed a series of multiple-choice questions, getting students to answer on their individual “clickers.”
“This one happens where Mr. Hise comes from, but it doesn't happen where we live,” the Cleveland native hinted.
The answer was “blizzards.”
As he taught, Hise's glance occasionally darted to the back of the room, at a lanky, youngish-looking man who quietly watched the proceedings. He had a good reason to be nervous, though he didn't show it — the visitor was state Superintendent of Education John White.
Though White oversees Louisiana's public school system, Tuesday's visit marked the start off a statewide tour he's making of schools both public and private. He's out visiting dozens of schools as they implement a host of changes they're making this year.
Maria Immocalata is one of 118 schools across the state taking public students under the state's new voucher program, which uses public tax money to pay private-school tuition for low-income students who attend poorly rated schools.
This year the school has 14 students whose tuition is paid by a voucher, which many school officials refer to as a “scholarship.” As part of his state tour, White is meeting with voucher school officials to see how they operate and discuss how smoothly the program has gone so far.
The school's principal, Yvonne Weimer, told White there haven't been any problems.
“Things have gone very well. We haven't seen any kind of change in our school environment at all,” Weimer said. “We've had zero problems with discipline from any of the students who are here on the scholarship.”
Weimer said a few of the 14 students — many of whom are coming from poverty and troublesome home environments — are struggling to catch up with the school's more rigorous standards.
The principal also pointed out that accepting voucher students brings with it the kind of government bureaucracy that private schools are usually free from. But Weimer, who worked for decades in the Lafourche Parish public school system, said she's accustomed to that kind of work.
“With some of those administrators who maybe haven't worked in the public school system, it's intimidating, to be sure,” she said. “But it's not been a problem for me.”
And the parents are on board too, she said.
“I had some parents who had expressed reservations about this program at first,” she said. “But my parents are believers now.”
Still, Weimer doesn't plan on expanding the program much further. She wants to take only a limited number of voucher students and only when space allows.
“We want to help students when we can, and we certainly haven't had any real problems,” she said. “But the focus is on maintaining the school we've always had. We're not going to expand or change what we're doing to fit more students.”
Though the voucher system has proven controversial elsewhere, the situation at Maria Immacolata seems to be fairly standard in Houma-Thibodaux.
With only 17 students taking vouchers in Terrebonne Parish and only 65 taking them in Lafourche, local schools haven't been subject to accusations that they were recklessly taking on more voucher students for the extra state aid, as schools elsewhere have.
And, since only well-established parochial schools have taken vouchers locally, the region has avoided reports about ramshackle schools teaching questionable material that have popped up elsewhere.
White said he believes Houma-Thibodaux's example is pretty standard.
“The vast majority of schools taking vouchers are just like this one. They're well-established, good schools taking a few students at a time,” White said. “There are some kinks to work out, sure, but we think overall we've given parents choices to give their children the opportunities that are best for them.”
White also pointed out that the voucher system affects far fewer students than other sweeping reforms that haven't gotten as much attention. He said new teacher evaluations, a new school curriculum and changes to how schools fire teachers will likely prove much more wide-reaching.
“I think this voucher program will probably grow past what it is, but I don't think it's going to end up taking any huge percentage of students,” White said. “I think there are far bigger things going on right now that we should be paying attention to.”
Staff Writer Matthew Albright can be reached at 448-7635, or at email@example.com.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:fc089d70-95e9-4d24-93fa-a91f366c2bc2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20120925/ARTICLES/120929769/0/PHOTOGALLERY | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977311 | 1,098 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Further paralytic shellfish poisoning cases reported
Further paralytic shellfish poisoning cases reported – algal bloom worsens
The number of people affected by paralytic shellfish poisoning toxin has increased by seven since Tuesday. In total, 27 people have been poisoned by eating shellfish collected from the Bay of Plenty coastline.
Thirteen people have been admitted to hospital after suffering symptoms ranging from tingling around the mouth to difficulty walking. Three people remain in hospital.
The toxin that causes the illness comes from algae in the ocean. Shellfish feed on the algae and concentrate the toxin in their flesh. Algae levels are extremely high in the Bay at present so shellfish toxin is expected to rise. This underlines the seriousness of the current Medical Officer of Health warning.
“Paralytic shellfish poisoning can be a very serious illness, which can even be fatal. People have been really sick after eating shellfish from the Bay of Plenty. Please don’t collect or eat shellfish from the affected areas these summer holidays,” says Medical Officer of Health, Dr Neil de Wet.
As a reminder the Medical Officer of Health strongly advises against the collection of shellfish from Tairua on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula, south to Waihi Beach and along the Bay of Plenty coast to Whakatane Heads in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. The warning includes Tairua Harbour as well as Tauranga Harbour, Maketu and Waihi estuaries, Matakana and Motiti Islands, and all other islands along this coastline.
The health warning applies to all bi-valve shellfish including mussels, pipi, tuatua, cockles, oysters, scallops as well as cat’s eyes, snails and kina (sea urchin). Shellfish in the affected area should not be taken or eaten. Shellfish containing toxic levels of paralytic shellfish poison don't look or taste any different from shellfish that are safe to eat. Cooking or freezing the shellfish does not remove the toxin. Paua, crayfish and crabs can still be taken but as always, the gut should be removed before consuming. “Commercially supplied shellfish are safe to eat, so if you want shellfish on the menu over the holidays visit your supermarket or seafood retailer,” says Dr de Wet.
Consumption of shellfish affected by the paralytic shellfish toxin can cause numbness and tingling around the mouth, face, hands and feet; difficulty swallowing or breathing; dizziness; double vision; and in severe cases, paralysis and respiratory failure. These symptoms can start as soon as 1-2 hours after eating toxic shellfish and usually within 12 hours. Anyone suffering illness after eating shellfish should seek urgent medical attention.
Shellfish and seawater samples around New Zealand are tested regularly by the Ministry for Primary Industries to ensure they are not contaminated. Public health warnings are issued when shellfish are not safe to eat. For more information about marine biotoxin alerts visit www.foodsmart.govt.nz.
For up to date information on health warnings in the Bay of Plenty please visit www.ttophs.govt.nz and click on health warnings or call 0800 221 555 and select option 7 to speak to the on call health protection officer. | <urn:uuid:5ff6ffb0-6910-4f31-b2c7-d1f66920a0e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE1212/S00092/further-paralytic-shellfish-poisoning-cases-reported.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942914 | 690 | 2.3125 | 2 |