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By: Chris Burke
The recent decision by the Harper government to close down its embassy in Iran has left many political commentators baffled as to the motive for the decision. The government maintains its position that Iran is the most significant threat to world peace, apparently a justification to stop making any effort at diplomatic outreach. I will touch on the claim that Iran is such at the end of this post, first I want to assume that the statement is true in order to ask, “Is closing the embassy the solution to the problem?”
Assume, for a moment, that Iran really does represent the threat that Canada (and most of the West) claims it does. What benefit comes from cutting off diplomatic ties and isolating the country? There have been whispers that Israel is gearing up to bomb Iran over fears of Iran’s nuclear development, and that closing the embassy is a way to get Canada’s diplomats out of there, but this reasoning is suspect. Israel has been speaking about bombing Iran for the past year. Why close the embassy now when Israel has made no significant changes to its plans? Unless our government knows something about Israel the rest of the world doesn’t. While Canada is unarguably a staunch, and dogmatic, supporter of Israel, the strength of our influence doesn’t seem great enough for Israel to be telling Canada something that it wouldn’t also let the U.S. know of. The idea also borders on conspiracy, a sinister plot, and I’m not interested in going down that road.
Relations between Canada and Iran are no doubt strained, but it appears that the Harper government needs to go right back to conflict resolution 101. The countries where relations are strained warrant the most need for an embassy. It is the role of diplomats, through carefully thought out wording, to negotiate and set out a course of action for two nations to reconcile their differences. Canada is doing the exact opposite of that. Instead, they hold press conferences stating that Iran is the greatest threat to world peace. Our Prime Minister has made references to Iran’s leadership as being made up of religious fanatics. Of course, that may describe certain Iranian officials, but what about the Ayatollah who said nuclear weapons are against Islam? This brings me to the final point I want to make on this issue: is Iran the threat Canada has made it out to be?
One criticism that was levelled against Iran by Canada is its support for the Assad government in Syria. From our perspective this appears to be evil supporting evil, but from their end it’s a friend supporting a friend. With the fall of the Assad government looking more and more likely as the West backs the rebels (who are hardly the freedom fighters they are portrayed as), Iran is quickly running out of friends in the Middle East. It has been debated as to whether Iran is building a nuclear weapon or not. I will, for the sake of the argument, assume that this is their intent regardless of what is publicly stated. It’s a nefarious goal, at first glance. Now consider Iran’s situation. They are quickly becoming the last power in the Middle East that opposes the goals of the West in that region. Israel, a country that does have nuclear weapons, has been threatening to attack Iran. Reasonable thought dictates that Iran would behave aggressively as it becomes increasingly cornered. Of course, I would prefer Iran not to go nuclear. I would prefer the world to abandon nuclear weapons. That’s not how the world currently works, however. Iran’s actions must be considered in the context of their situation. It is not a case of isolated fanatics who wish to bring about the end of the world, but a nation acting rationally given its current situation. | <urn:uuid:2864a287-3833-44e5-932d-f3f427271445> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eighteenthirtyseven.org/2012/09/18/opinion-is-closing-the-embassy-the-solution-to-the-problem-the-current-state-of-canadian-iranian-relations/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971229 | 771 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Penn Foster Career School believes that providing adult students up-to-date career skills is the only way to empower them and prepare them for the highly competitive job market of today and the future. The school continually monitors advances in the field and updates their programs to reflect only the most modern methods in use globally. Students are provided the best courseware, high applicable technology and several other services aimed to fulfill the needs of the adult learner. The programs are designed to teach the marketplace skills of today, while preparing them for a wide range of vocational jobs. The school’s mission is supported by their policy, where the only thing considered is the students’ prior education, without any regard to religion, gender, age, origin or even physical disability. Another major attraction is the low fee, as everything from the books to all learning aids is included in the tuition.
This is a unique university with NO CAMPUS! Penn Foster is the brainchild of Thomas J. Foster, a newspaperman, who recognized the need for working adults to have a more convenient way of learning advanced skills. He introduced the distance-learning system in 1890, with the intention of helping anthracite coal miners’ advance to the levels of superintendents and foremen. This was a boon for the miners who worked 12-hour shifts, as they could study by candlelight and gain the engineering knowledge required for promotions. This was just what the country needed and the school was a resounding success. The enrollment crossed a quarter million in the first decade itself, and today the number is around 13,000,000. Penn Foster has maintained high levels of academic excellence throughout and earned the distinction of being the world leader in “online” education. Penn Foster has met with the high standards set by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC).
Students at Penn Foster have a lot to feel happy about. The school has a career placement program in place that makes sure students find employment in positions of their choice, as soon as they graduate. It offers Bachelor’s degrees in Business Management and Criminal Justice; Undergraduate degrees in Accounting, Business Management, Human Resources, Graphic Design and General Studies; and many Associate’s degrees are available for students. Some of them are Accounting, Business Management, Civil Engineering Technology, Electronics Technology, Mechanical Engineering Technology, Electrical Engineering Technology, and Computer Information Systems.
Online learning cannot get any easier or better than at Penn Foster. Students receive all the course materials through mail or the online educational platform, without having to step out of their homes. The study timings are very flexible, allowing students to study, complete assignments or listen to lectures at their convenience. The school provides a lot of support from academic advisors as well as technical support.
The millions of successful students are proof of the efficacy of Penn Foster. All its courses are perfectly designed to cater to busy adults. With help just a message or a toll-free call away; students at this school have the best instruction possible. This is perfect for people who wish to start working toward a new business or career. Penn Foster helps fulfill their dreams and step toward a brighter tomorrow.
Have you studied at Penn Foster Career School?
Please provide a brief review of your experience at Penn Foster Career School in the comment section to help other readers! | <urn:uuid:81835964-b93a-43c9-b337-7b87ceecd39a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.educator.com/college-reviews/penn-foster-career-school-review/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956156 | 674 | 1.890625 | 2 |
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)Article Free Pass
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), trade pact signed in 1992 that would gradually eliminate most tariffs and other trade barriers on products and services passing between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The pact would effectively create a free-trade bloc among the three largest countries of North America.
NAFTA was inspired by the success of the European Community in eliminating tariffs in order to stimulate trade among its members. A Canadian-U.S. free-trade agreement was concluded in 1988, and NAFTA basically extended this agreement’s provisions to Mexico. NAFTA was negotiated by the administrations of U.S. president George Bush, Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney, and Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari. Preliminary agreement on the pact was reached in August 1992, and it was signed by the three leaders on December 17, 1992. NAFTA was ratified by the three countries’ national legislatures in 1993 and went into effect on January 1, 1994.
NAFTA’s main provisions called for the gradual reduction of tariffs, customs duties, and other trade barriers between the three members, with some tariffs being removed immediately and others over periods of as long as 15 years. NAFTA ensured eventual duty-free access for a vast range of manufactured goods and commodities traded between the signatories. Other provisions were designed to give U.S. and Canadian companies greater access to Mexican markets in banking, insurance, advertising, telecommunications, and trucking.
What made you want to look up "North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)"? Please share what surprised you most... | <urn:uuid:2701deb0-28f6-4917-8148-19553d4a5fb8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/418784/North-American-Free-Trade-Agreement-NAFTA | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972473 | 336 | 3.703125 | 4 |
The House of Representatives Tri-Committee on July 14 released a health reform bill. Preliminary estimates of its cost and coverage implications look encouraging, if not perfect: providing coverage for more than two-thirds of the uninsured at a cost of less than $1 trillion over 10 years.
While the bill contains dozens of moving parts that will inspire heated debate, one of the most controversial aspects will surely be the financing of reform. The House bill suggests covering half of this $1 trillion price tag through a new surcharge on very high incomes. Specifically, a surcharge of 1% of incomes in the $350-500,000 range, 1.5% of incomes between $500,000 and $1 million, and 5.4% of incomes over a million dollars would be earmarked for health reform. Given that this will be a politically contentious funding source, it’s worth putting some of these numbers into perspective.
Economists Thomas Piketty (Paris School of Economics) and Emmanuel Saez (University of California, Berkeley) are the go-to sources on growth in very high incomes in recent decades. Their latest data show income growth for the highest 1.0%, 0.5%, and 0.1% of American households through 2006. The income thresholds for these groups are roughly $330,000, $480,000, and $1,400,000 – not perfectly aligned to the cut-offs for the new proposed surcharge, but close enough to give us a sense of the burden such a tax surcharge would place on these households.
Since 1979, yearly income growth for the highest earning 1.0%, 0.5%, and 0.1% of households has averaged over 2%, 3%, and 5%, respectively. It’s worth noting that this is about 40 to 80 times faster than incomes grew for the bottom 90% over this same time period.
Given these growth rates, any income losses incurred by these groups because of the new tax would be made up in a matter of months. If these surcharges had been introduced in the beginning of 2005, then the richest 1.0%, 0.5%, and 0.1% of households would need to have waited all of an extra one, three and nine months respectively to achieve the income levels they otherwise would have reached by the beginning of 2006. After this, their incomes would have continued to rise at a pace far exceeding what the bottom 90% of all households saw.
For the all the resistance that is certain to arise over this proposed surcharge, what is essentially being asked is for the top 1% of incomes and above to delay a pay raise for somewhere between 1 to 9 months. Given that 80% of the private sector workforce has seen no raise at all since December of last year, it seems hard to make the case that the nation’s richest households cannot give up a few monthly raises of their own if it can make a serious dent in paying for fundamental health reform. | <urn:uuid:a1013348-9e6b-4d04-9369-7d5a99d4da87> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.epi.org/publication/looking_for_health_care_dollars_in_all_the_right_places/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967256 | 607 | 2.1875 | 2 |
The Ayers Institute for Pre-cancer Detection and Diagnosis was established on July 1, 2005 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The objectives of the Ayers Institute are as follows:
- To detect cancers and pre-cancers at their earliest stages
- To develop diagnostic tests to assess the prognosis for cancers and to predict responses to cancer treatment
- To advance the science and technology of cancer detection and diagnosis.
Led by Daniel Liebler, Ph.D., the Ayers Institute applies new proteomics technologies to identify protein biomarkers for cancer. Vanderbilt is recognized worldwide for leadership in proteomics technologies. The Ayers Institute brings together a research team spanning basic and clinical research disciplines to advance the science behind new diagnostics to save lives and prevent suffering due to cancer.
For further information, please visit
The Ayers Institute at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center | <urn:uuid:72fbaa56-bc3d-4b08-95c6-d87524097112> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theayersfoundation.org/Institute.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906442 | 175 | 2.21875 | 2 |
The Latin name of the potato whale is Tuberosum macrocephalus. The majestic Potato Whale combines the enormous size and strength of the whale with the natural courage and tenacity of a potato. Often called 'ruler of the deep', the Potato Whale first appeared in Comic 178, as a silhouette. Its full form was then seen in Comic 179. We learn more about the Potato Whale in Comic 180, where we find out that the Sausage Squid is its mortal enemy. | <urn:uuid:df9b35bc-21b6-49cc-a4ff-f9f6a6c98ace> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.beaverandsteve.com/wiki/index.php?title=Potato_Whale&redirect=no | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92149 | 98 | 1.796875 | 2 |
This garden has been designed to express the abundance of color and movement in plants with fall interest. Ornamental grasses with waving stems, prairies natives with colorful blooms and deciduous shrubs showcasing brilliant foliage, together create a dynamic autumnal landscape. The border incorporates plants with fall interest such as native bittersweet, goldenrod, fall-blooming crocus or burning bush. Ornamental grasses are especially prominent, used as a backbone of the border; they add vibrancy to the garden throughout the year as they take on a different character with each season. But the very best trait of grasses in the garden is their ability to capture the wind and express it in their movement. Shenandoah Switchgrass Panicum virgatum 'Shenandoah,' one of my personal favorite grasses, is displayed in the border and considered to exhibit some of the best fall color among the many cultivars of native switchgrass. By July, dark red tones appear on the leaves, then the whole plant turns a powerful burgundy in late fall. In late summer it has airy plumes with a rose tint. It works well as a superior single specimen or mass for a drift of color. With a very upright habit and fast growth, it reaches 4’ in bloom, and 2-3’ wide.
At the southeast corner of the greenhouses, bright orange sprays of fruit from the native Bittersweet can be found rambling over the fence and lamppost. The vining Bittersweet Celastrus scandens (photo right)is valued for glossy green summer foliage, yellow to yellow green fall color and the showy autumn display of brilliant orange and red berries. This vine will climb up to 20’ on a structure, while ours effectively covers a large section of the fence and screens the parking lot. Shrubs in the garden include Rudy Haag Burning Bush, Dwarf Gray Dogwood and several existing fragrant viburnum that terminate each end of the border. Through the length of the border, butterfly bush will anchor the border and animate the space with the constant activity of visiting butterflies. Along the walk, large drifts of ornamental grasses will be intermixed with goldenrods, Joe Pye Weed, Arkansas Blue Star aster and mums. Green View Nursery generously donated the Fall Border. | <urn:uuid:4b6caf33-fd8b-4c43-85dc-8f0a67c71f70> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.peoriaparks.org/fall-border | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906252 | 479 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Football is Dangerous, According to Lincoln Call
"It may be a little early to prophesy with confidence the decline of foot ball as it is now played," commented the Sunday Morning Call (Lincoln) on December 3, 1893, "but prophecy after the fact is without honor, not only in the country of the prophet, but everywhere else. The increasing brutality attending the game and the large number of deaths which have resulted from it have awakened much discussion of late and many strong papers and writers have taken a decided stand against it. The Call has always maintained that in the matter of brutality glove contests could not compare with foot ball. It is very seldom that a glove contest between even powerful fighters, results in as great physical injury to the participants as is sustained by several of the players in the average foot ball game; and there have probably not been as many deaths from prize fighting, either with or without gloves, in the last ten years as there have been from foot ball in the last season."
The Call then gave "a partial and incomplete list of the [football] fatalities of the year" from across the country and concluded:
"This is altogether too large a list of young men to offer up as an annual sacrifice to the game of foot ball. As a matter of fact, the development of the game has been such as constantly to increase the advantage of weight, brute strength and brutality, and to so nearly eliminate all other features of the game as to make them the exception and not the rule. That this is not necessarily the only way of playing foot ball is evident to anybody except a member of a college eleven, who would probably insist that anybody who criticizes the game does it because he is not capable of appreciating the refinement of talent and delicacy demanded by it. Walter Camp expresses the opinion that 'the result of the experience of this season will probably be legislation that will do away with mass playing in the future. It is rough in its tendencies and is not conducive to the best interests of the sport.'
"Foot ball as played at present is brutal and demoralizing. If it cannot be so modified as to eliminate its objectionable features the public should blight it by refusing to patronize it."
Return to Timeline Index | <urn:uuid:e7803ddb-e8f6-478b-a3c3-bdd8c2570927> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/timeline/football_dangerous_call.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979801 | 451 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Haley and Hannah are pretty behind their designer eyeglasses and apparent shyness. Haley is a bit taller and Hannah’s hair is slightly darker, but they both have the same perfect skin, which is a big deal for most teenage girls.
The sisters are 17 years old. They love their dog, enjoy baking and are both gifted artists.
But sometimes showing emotion comes hard for Jeff and Rachel Ireland’s twin girls. Sometimes they simply cannot look strangers in the eyes. Sometimes they find it impossible to smile. Sometimes they refuse to talk. Sometimes they don’t want to hug or show love to anyone — not even their parents.
Haley and Hannah Ireland, the first-born daughters of Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland, have been diagnosed with autism.
“Autism when we had our children years ago affected one in 175 kids,” Ireland said as he and his wife Rachel talked for more than an hour about the disease that has attacked their family. “Now it’s one in 88 kids. It’s an epidemic. It’s growing faster than any other epidemic.”
The Center for Disease Control confirms Ireland’s statistics. It calls autism a developmental disorder. Whatever it is, disease or disorder, it has been cruel to the Irelands.
How else to describe when healthy twin girls are happy and developmentally sound one day but seemingly become someone else days later?
“About age 2 they had an immunization shot that triggered their autism,” Rachel said as she participated in the recent Dan Marino Foundation Walkabout for Autism. “And not that we think immunizations cause it. I want to make that clear. We believe and have found out they are predisposed because of a chromosome inversion. But it was overnight.”
Said Ireland: “I came home from a scouting trip and the next morning, I picked them up and they stiffened up like rock. I used to toss them in the air and they’d laugh, but this was different. I said, ‘What happened to these wonderfully developing children?’ ”
Rachel, listening to her husband, added glumly, “We lost them.”
The Irelands at first weren’t certain what the sudden change meant. But they knew something was terribly wrong when they went to an outdoor restaurant with a band and the girls started screaming and trying to crawl under the table.
“It was overwhelming, but we were kind of in denial because autism wasn’t so prevalent,” Rachel said. “It wasn’t so easy to diagnose. The doctors kept denying it.”
The twins hated socks and shoes. They hated sounds that most children typically love to make. Going to see Fourth of July fireworks meant staying in the car with the windows rolled up so the sounds wouldn’t alarm them.
It was one gut punch after another, and sometimes those came from people who were helping the Irelands. One doctor suggested the girls would never talk and should be institutionalized. One teacher suggested the girls get trained in sign language because she thought they were mute.
“We learned to navigate through but at the same time didn’t want to shelter them so much,” Rachel said. “They are highly functioning. But they have a lot of anxiety about their disorder. They tell me they like little kids and animals better because they feel they’re not judging them. When they get around older kids or people, they’re like, ‘What do they think about me? Do they think I’m weird?’ And that’s heartbreaking, but we look at it as a good thing because lower-functioning kids don’t know about any of that and don’t care. | <urn:uuid:c666bba9-496e-4949-860a-40706a9080e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/29/3207321/armando-salguero-for-irelands.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978936 | 798 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Local Italian steakhouses usually offer simple dishes, while expensive restaurants in Rome or Milan use complex recipes, influenced by French cuisine. Italian restaurants are not only public catering establishments, but the soul of the country`s culture. The country is covered with restaurants: small and big, modern and old-fashioned, expensive and democratic - they are the oasis of carefree life. Italy is glorified for its wonderful food. Even if you have never been to this sunny country, you still know the taste of spaghetti, pizza, espresso, etc. These are the most popular and simple dishes of Italian cuisine. But, coming to Italy, be ready to experience a gastronomic shock - Italian food tastes here quite different than at home. Even a simple beefsteak in Italian steakhouse will seem more exotic: gentle cheese, spicy sauces, juicy fruits and refined wine build up practically each meal.
Many artistic persons draw their inspiration from the best Italian restaurants, and it`s not a wonder. Best Italian restaurants, like "La Perloga", "Bice", "Da Ilia", "Don Lisander" are a quite unique phenomena, which supplement to the romantic atmosphere as well as other historic monuments do. For example, "Bice"- is the oldest Italian restaurant, opened in 1922 in the fashionable quarter of Rome. It is famous all over the world as the meeting place of designers, textile-businessmen and other people, engaged in fashion industry. Tuscan cuisine, perfect service and prominent guests are the components of the eighty-year-old success. As for "La Perloga" - it is considered the best Italian restaurant all over the world for seven years already. Here visitors are offered to taste traditional refined Italian food and admire wonderful panorama of Rome. Best Italian restaurants as well as Italian steakhouses usually offer dozens of meals, including pizza, risotto, spaghetti, fish, wine, etc.
Risotto with truffles, artichokes, chops, soups are main items of Don Lisander`s menu , despite the fact, that a restaurant has no fixed operating time and is closed only when the last visitor leaves it. But the thing is that most of the guests come to the best Italian restaurant after theater or operas - quite late at night. "Da Ilia" will also offer you Tuscan food: "abbacchio"(mutton with rosemary under the sauce of white wine), "minestrone"(both thick and creamy and broth-like soups), spaghetti with octopus`s inks, sea-cock with fennel and shrimps on rasps and a wide selection of alcohol. Also taste "grappa"- a national drink made of grapes cake, with a rich palate.
So, food - is no small part of Italian culture and is strongly mingled into the life of both common and noble people. If you have no wish to taste refined and exotic meals, like extinguished with vegetables oxen` tail or a veal escalope, wrapped in bacon and fried in wine, you are always welcomed to more democratic places as they offer perfect meat dishes as well. Pizza-lovers must visit Ai Marmi, Caffe San'Eustachio, Ai Monasteri and practically each Italian pizzeria.
And if you are lazy enough to go to Italy, visit any restaurant of Olive Garden Restaurant chain. You will not be disappointed, cause the chief-cooks practiced their skill in Italy. Now you don`t have to look for the Best Italian restaurants- you know where to go. | <urn:uuid:2c4d7a21-99c3-4086-a7a8-0ea2f0f8ddd2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.syl.com/travel/insearchofthebestitalianrestaurants.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954853 | 731 | 1.625 | 2 |
What are bedbugs?
Bedbugs, or Cimex lectularius, are parasitic insects about the size of an appleseed.
They feed on human or animal blood, and can live up to a year without a meal.
They do not spread any known disease, but may cause allergic reactions.
Where do bedbugs live?
Everywhere from developing countries to five-star hotels.
They generally stay within eight feet of a bed and hide in the seams of mattresses, behind headboards or in dressers.
How do they spread?
They are transported from place to place when people travel. Frequent travelers are at higher risk for infestation.
How do I spot them?
Regularly look for small spots of blood they leave on bed sheets. Check your body for small bite marks, similar to flea or mosquito bites
How do I get rid of them?
Contact a professional exterminator for treatment. Or, steam or heat in excess of 140 degrees can kill bedbugs
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Charles Allen, entomologist for Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
Bedbugs — six-legged parasites the size of an appleseed with an affinity for blood — apparently are on the increase in Abilene.
Glenn Bailey, Abilene environmental health manager, said reports of bedbugs in the city are on the rise.
Likewise, a local exterminator and the head of Abilene's housing authority agree bedbugs are turning up more often.
Bailey's office handles "ectoparasite" complaints from people who stay in Abilene hotels and motels. Ectoparasites include bedbugs, lice and mites, he said.
"In 2010, we started having an uptick in hotels and motels," Bailey said.
Investigators from his office inspect complained-about rooms and adjacent rooms that might also be infested, Bailey said.
"They will migrate through the walls," Bailey said. "I only need to see one bedbug to consider it an infestation."
Since the city does not have a specific ordinance regarding ectoparasites in motels and hotels, Bailey is not allowed to inspect an entire establishment for bedbugs, he said.
In 2010, Bailey said his department fielded three or four bedbug complaints.
In 2011, the office took 10 complaints, and so far this year 14 bedbug complaints have been received.
Bailey said most infestations are contained to one room, but some have spread to six or eight rooms.
Customer complaints of motels and hotels are public record, but that information was not available Wednesday afternoon.
If a room is infested, the owner of the motel is required to have it treated by a professional exterminator before it can be rented again, Bailey said. When he receives confirmation from the exterminator that the infestation has been controlled, he gives the go-ahead for the room to be used again.
Bill Krabill, owner of Allied-American Pest Control, said he responds to three or four calls a month about bedbugs.
"We really didn't have any issues to speak of before last year," Krabill said. "We probably had two calls in the previous 10 years."
He said about half of his calls come from hotels and motels and half come from private residences. Bedbugs are not attracted to unclean places, he said, which is a common misconception.
"Bedbugs don't discriminate. They don't work off sanitation issues, like cockroaches or things like that."
If a homeowner or business owner finds bedbugs, Krabill said the best course is treatment by a professional exterminator. Mattresses, box springs, stuffed animals and cheap furniture often need to be thrown away if an infestation is big enough.
Pam Dasi, front desk manager of Rodeway Inn downtown, said one room was treated for bedbugs this year.
"We had a problem in one room but we treated with Terminex," Dasi said.
Now, she said, housekeepers check all rooms every two days for bedbugs.
Rodeway remodeled the room with new furniture, Dasi said.
"There is no option. If it spreads to another room, it's a bigger problem," Dasi said.
Gene Reed, executive director of the Abilene Housing Authority, said he has seen an increased bedbug population in the city's public housing. Four units were reportedly infested in 2012. He hadn't heard any reports about bedbugs in local public housing before this year, he said.
"They're here in Abilene," Reed said.
When an infestation is discovered, he said, an exterminator is promptly called. A follow-up appointment is made to ensure the bedbugs are gone.
Reed said informational letters were sent to public housing tenants about bedbugs.
"The best defense is education," he said. | <urn:uuid:af66cf78-4778-4efa-87d1-1516e6b204c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reporternews.com/news/2012/sep/26/bedbugs-make-inroads-in-abilene-officials-say/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963368 | 1,031 | 3.671875 | 4 |
The topic of divorce would seem to require no introduction. Divorce refers to the often messy and painful end of a marriage. For better or for worse, divorce is a very common event these days. Most everyone has been touched by it, either by going through it themselves as a spouse or a child, or knowing someone who has gone through it as a spouse or as a child. Despite widespread familiarity with the effects of divorce, the details of the divorce process are less well known. In this section, we discuss the important concepts and procedures involved in the divorce process with the sincere hope that educating people regarding this information will help minimize pain.
You can feel like the loneliest person in the world when you are contemplating divorce. It's therefore important to keep divorce in perspective so that it doesn't crush you:
Divorce is common
The first thing to know about divorce is that it is common and nothing to be ashamed of. According to recent statistics, the rate of divorce in the United States (0.40%) is approximately half the rate of marriage (0.78%), suggesting that approximately 50% of all marriages - an enormous number! - are ending in divorce. While the actual meaning of these figures is arguable (given that it may be unfair to try to predict who will divorce in the future based on who is divorcing today), there is no disputing the fact that a great number of Americans have divorced and will ...
Continue Reading This Article | <urn:uuid:370981e6-10f1-44fd-86b7-1e7cc4a9bbcb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jamhi.org/poc/center_index.php?id=42&cn=42 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972669 | 296 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Nestled at the base of Clinch Mountain is the city of Rogersville, one of the oldest towns in Tennessee.
It was settled in the early 1780s and is known for its preservation of historical buildings. Those include the Hawkins County Courthouse, the oldest original state courthouse still in use (built in 1836), and the first branch of the Bank of the State of Tennessee, built in 1839, which currently houses the Mason Temple.
But much more can be found in Rogersville than the beauty of the mountain ranges and the restoration of historic buildings, especially if you enjoy good food.
Tennessee Magazine, published monthly by the Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association and its mostly rural affiliates, recently asked its readers to vote in its annual "Best of Tennessee" poll. The categories included everything from best art gallery, best antique store and best state park to best home/country cooking, best dessert and best barbecue.
The poll was divided into three regions, West, Middle and East Tennessee. with Rogersville having four restaurants take top honors in the Eastern division.
Here's a taste of each.
Best Bakery, Miss Bea's Perks and Pies
After ending his military career, Michael Reeves and his wife Connie moved to Rogersville to be near family, which included Connie's mother, Beatrice Helton.
Their pastry business, Miss Bea's Pies and More, began in 2004 with Connie and her mother selling baked goods at the local farmers' market. They expanded to a push cart which they used to sell to local downtown businesses. In 2007 they opened up a storefront in historic downtown Rogersville at 109 S. Church St., and tweaked the name to Miss Bea's Perks and Pies, The operation is named for Helton who passed away that same year, but her recipes live on through the many baked goods offered at the store. Those include 42 flavors of cupcakes, a large selection of cheesecakes and its popular yellow cake with homemade caramel icing. In addition to baked goods, the restaurant serves breakfast and lunch items. Hours are 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday; 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday; and closed on Sunday. Visit www.missbeaspies.com or call 423-272-6555 for more information.
Best milkshake, The Golden Dairy
The town of Rogersville has supported The Golden Dairy, 4002 Highway 66, for 42 years. Its original owners were brothers Oral and Carl Bailey with wives Reba and Nora, respectively. Following the death of Oral and Reba, their children David Bailey, Pam Lovin, Jane Ledbetter and Tammy Webb purchased Carl and Nora's interest in the business. All of the children have spent time during their childhood working at the restaurant, and still help today, but David currently carries the brunt of the chores, working 15-plus hour days to keep the restaurant operating smoothly.
"I always told my dad I would operate this restaurant one day, even though he tried to talk me out of it," David said.
Customers can walk up to an outside window to order their meals or step into a small dining area for seating. It was voted as serving the best milkshake in East Tennessee. Flavors include vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, Oreo, Butter Finger, pineapple, cherry, raspberry, peanut butter and banana. Additional menu items include hamburgers, hot dogs, salads and sides. Hours are Monday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
This month they will be opening a second location at 506 E. Main Blvd., Church Hill, Tenn. For more information call 423-272-2000 or visit their Facebook page.
Best Dessert, Sweet Tooth Cafe
Jo Anderson, owner of Sweet Tooth Cafe, 114 E. Main St., in downtown Rogersville, operated her cafe in Surgoinsville for four years before moving to her current location three years ago.
The mother of five worked in the dining room of Ridgefield Country Club for many years before taking a leap of faith and opening her own establishment. Her decision was boosted by the popularity of her late Aunt Donna Phiffer's recipe for pumpkin roll which Anderson initially made and sold to help raise money for her children's school.
The dish was so popular that orders began rolling in for more. Even today her signature dish is the pumpkin roll which has been transformed into a Pumpkin Roll Ice Cream Sandwich. Other tasty treats on the menu include chocolate chip pie, bananas Foster and creme puff hot fudge sundae.
Lunch is also served at the cafe, and she's happy to deliver her dishes to area businesses.
Hours are 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday and closed on Saturday and Sunday. Call 423-921-7400 for more information or visit http://sweettoothcafetn.webs.com/
Best barbecue, The Pig and Chick
What started as a hobby turned into a vocation for Marty and Richard Beets, owners of The Pig and Chick: Home of Swine Dining, 5020 Highway 11W. The parents of five children (four surviving), resided in Savannah, Ga., for many years before returning to Rogersville to be near family.
While Richard took a job in the industrial supply business, Marty did ministry work with Rogersville's local Shepherd's Center. They had always loved to entertain and barbecue was their go-to dish. The couple began receiving requests to cater special events. One day Richard told his wife, who had always dreamed of owning her own restaurant, that if they were going to venture in that direction it needed to be done before they got too old. In 2004 they opened a storefront named The Pig and Chick and Sugar Beets Catering, which is as an extension of the company. Their business has been smoking ever since.
And they've found that age is not a factor. At 95, Marty's mother, Cleo Woodward, is a constant at the restaurant, with responsibilities of manning the register.
"I've said when she decides to go home and stop doing this, then I will too," Marty said.
The menu includes a large array of barbecue dishes, including beef brisket, smoked pork chops, pulled pork, ribs and chicken. It also offers burgers and specialty sandwiches, steaks and seafood, appetizers, salads and desserts.
In addition to local customers they've had a number of celebrities stop by for a meal, including Vince Gill and Tim McGraw. Marty said talk show host Charlie Chase of "Crook & Chase" fame is originally from the area and recommends their restaurant to performers driving through the area while on bus tour.
They feel honored to be named in the same category as the famed Memphis Rendezvous Restaurant (which took first in West Tennessee category) and topping last year's Best of East Tennessee winner, the acclaimed Ridgewood Barbecue of Bluff City.
Hours are 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday-Thurday; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday. Visit www.pigandchick.com for more information or call 423-272-4448.
Closer to home, Knoxville's Litton's Market & Restaurant, 2803 Essary Road, won top honors for best hamburger; Huck Finn's Catfish, 3330 Parkway in Pigeon Forge took first place for best catfish; and the Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant/Applewood Farmhouse Grill was named best place in East Tennessee to find home/country cooking.
For a complete list of results visit www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/oct/27/best-of-tennessee-readers-choice-awards-winners/ . | <urn:uuid:467a5eb5-c8d4-4866-8449-07c722f8ea94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/oct/31/best-of-tennessee-awards-garnered-by-rogersville/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964778 | 1,630 | 1.546875 | 2 |
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A simple machine consisting of a rigid bar pivoted on a fixed point and used to transmit force, as in raising or moving a weight at one end by pushing down on the other.
- n. A projecting handle used to adjust or operate a mechanism.
- n. A means of accomplishing; a tool: used friendship as a lever to obtain advancement.
- v. To move or lift with or as if with a lever.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A simple machine, consisting of a bar or rigid piece of any shape, acted upon at different points by two forces which severally tend to rotate it in opposite directions about a fixed axis. The bearing of this axis is called the fulcrum; of the two forces, one, conceived as something to be balanced or overcome, is termed the resistance, load, or weight, while the other, conceived as voluntarily applied, is termed the power. These are understood to act in the plane of rotation, and each perpendicularly to the line joining the point of its application to the fixed axis. The lengths of these two lines are termed the arms of the lever. If the load is ten times as great as the power, but the power is ten times as far from the fulcrum as the load is from the fulcrum—or, generally, if the two forces are inversely as their respective arms—then the lever is in equilibrium. This principle, beautifully demonstrated by Archimedes, was adopted by Lagrange as one of the two fundamental principles of statics, the other being the principle of the inclined plane. A lever is said to be of the first, second, or third kind, according as of the three points—the fulcrum, the point of application of the load, and that of the power—the first, second, or third is between the other two. But this distinction is insignificant; and when these three points are the vertices of a triangle, and the lever is not in the form of a bar, which often happens, the distinction becomes confused. Among the innumerable examples of levers may be mentioned the steelyard, the crowbar, oars, and the bones of the human limbs.
- n. In special uses— In surgery, an instrument for applying power, as one of the arms of an obstetrical forceps, used in delivery as a tractor; the vectis.
- n. In dentistry, an instrument used in extracting the stumps of teeth.
- n. In a steam-engine, a bar used to control by hand the movement of the engine in starting or reversing it; a starting-bar.
- n. In firearms, in some forms of breech-loaders, the piece by which the gun is opened or closed, as in the Douglas, Henry, and Maynard rifles. It may be a top, side, or under lever.
- n. One of the chief supporters of the roof-timber of a house, being itself not a prop, but a part of the framework.
- n. The lower movable board of a barn-door.
- n. The first row of a fishing-net.
- n. Generally, a rod or bar.
- To act upon, as raising, lowering, etc., with a lever.
- An obsolete comparative of lief.
- adv. obsolete Rather.
- n. rare A levee.
- n. mechanics A rigid piece which is capable of turning about one point, or axis (the fulcrum), and in which are two or more other points where forces are applied; — used for transmitting and modifying force and motion.
- n. A small such piece to trigger or control a mechanical device (like a button)
- n. mechanics A bar, as a capstan bar, applied to a rotatory piece to turn it.
- n. mechanics An arm on a rock shaft, to give motion to the shaft or to obtain motion from it.
- v. transitive To move with a lever.
- v. figuratively (transitive) To use, operate like a lever.
- v. chiefly UK, finance To increase the share of debt in the capitalization of a business.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. obsolete More agreeable; more pleasing.
- adv. obsolete Rather.
- n. (Mech.) A rigid piece which is capable of turning about one point, or axis (the fulcrum), and in which are two or more other points where forces are applied; -- used for transmitting and modifying force and motion. Specif., a bar of metal, wood, or other rigid substance, used to exert a pressure, or sustain a weight, at one point of its length, by receiving a force or power at a second, and turning at a third on a fixed point called a
fulcrum. It is usually named as the first of the six mechanical powers, and is of three kinds, according as either the fulcrumF, the weightW, or the powerP, respectively, is situated between the other two, as in the figures.
- n. A bar, as a capstan bar, applied to a rotatory piece to turn it.
- n. An arm on a rock shaft, to give motion to the shaft or to obtain motion from it.
- v. to move or force, especially in an effort to get something open
- n. a flat metal tumbler in a lever lock
- n. a simple machine that gives a mechanical advantage when given a fulcrum
- n. a rigid bar pivoted about a fulcrum
- From Middle English comparative of leve ("dear") of Germanic origin (compare German lieb) or lief. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French levier, from lever, to raise, from Latin levāre, from levis, light. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
“Yes | No | Report from rocky d bashaw wrote 1 day 21 hours ago marlin lever 336c in 30/30 is great gun, i carry everytime i go out whether i use it or not, easy to carry and it is a killer at short range.”
“Savage bolt guns go for around $500, T/C Venture $500, Marlin lever guns for around $500 more or less.”
“I have a Marlin lever action 30-30 - different that a WInchester Model 94 (which I also have) in that the shell casings are ejected from the side as opposed to from the top.”
“I just this year tried a Marlin lever action .35 Remington and liked it very much too but that too is a more specific application (deer drives).”
“I have a 30-30 Marlin lever action, that i use with iron sights, and i love the way its so small, it's very comfortable.”
“If your lever is short and you have a boulder to move, it takes a lot of force on the lever, and the movement, if it happens at all, happens right then.”
“A lever is a bar, with which you can pry or lift greater weights or apply greater force.”
“In others they are husking rice, a very laborious process, in which the grain is pounded in a mortar sunk in the floor by a flat-ended wooden pestle attached to a long horizontal lever, which is worked by the feet of a man, invariably naked, who stands at the other extremity.”
“Under the lever was a layer of hard sediment about the size of my finger.”
These user-created lists contain the word ‘lever’.
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
Words that relate to bicycling or mountain biking
Words used quite often in steampunk
I will also accept mechanisms, machine elements, contrivances, and engines.
machine, machines, Machine, Machines, Rage Against the ..., machine quilting, simple machine, Turing machine, turing machine, machine element, the heart-attack ..., ghost in the machine and 34 more...
Words That Make Sense in Reverse Too! Bad news for a dyslexic, 'cause s/he's got no clue if s/he read the word correctly or not, as opposed to a palindrome (i.e., no mistake possible, cf. "Dyslexic...
Amusingly-named mechanical and electrical parts to be found in a particular warehouse in Newfoundland
Words and phrases from Jonathan Stroud's book, The Golem's Eye.
Stuffie #3. Stuff you pull.
a haven for lightness
Words which mean something different in another language.
Looking for tweets for lever. | <urn:uuid:7c78d19a-77d4-4ffa-b6a3-011520425151> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wordnik.com/words/lever | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923843 | 1,886 | 3.828125 | 4 |
Bill Clinton began playing a role in presidential politics 40 years ago when he ran Democratic nominee George McGovern’s Texas operation in the Democrats’ ill-fated 1972 campaign. As a candidate, as a strategist and advocate (for his wife in 2008) and as a symbol, Clinton is hard to beat for sheer durability.
Zachary Laux / AP
Former President Bill Clinton speaks at the Times-Union Center's Terry Theater on Friday, May 11, 2012, in Jacksonville, Fla. Clinton's talk was park of Mayor Alvin Brown's economic summit.
So far in this election cycle Clinton has been used by both President Obama’s campaign and by Mitt Romney in his effort to defeat Obama.
Last month, Obama ran an ad of Clinton praising him for ordering the Navy SEAL attack that killed Osama bin Laden. “Suppose they’d been captured or killed. The downside would have been horrible for him,” Clinton said in the ad.
Last week in a speech in Michigan, Romney used Clinton to draw an unflattering contrast to Obama: "President Clinton made efforts to reform welfare as we know it. But President Obama is trying tirelessly to expand the welfare state...."
And on Monday in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, 2008 GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., used Clinton’s free-trade record as president to criticize Obama for not negotiating trade accords with India and other nations.
“After four years, this (Obama) administration still has not concluded or ratified a single free-trade agreement of its own making,” he said, arguing that this was “a shameful record.”
“I know we’re in an election year, and I’m not here to beat up on the administration; that would be easy enough for me to do,” said McCain. “But it requires presidential leadership, and it requires setting priorities. President Clinton set the free-trade agreement between the United States and Canada as a priority, and Congress then reacted.”
Obama, he implied, had failed to display Clinton-like leadership.
Bill Clinton as symbol and a source of wisdom can be a flexible campaign instrument – used in different ways by Democrats and Republicans depending on the circumstances.
Although McCain praised Clinton on Monday, it was quite different back in 2000, when McCain was vying with George W. Bush for the GOP presidential nomination. McCain ran a TV ad in which he accused Bush of running an ad that was allegedly Clinton-like in its dishonesty.
“His ad twists the truth like Clinton. We're all pretty tired of that,” McCain said in his 2000 ad.
And four years ago, when Romney was vying with McCain for the GOP nomination, he used that very same McCain 2000 ad to attack the Arizona senator for daring to draw a similarity between the man whom most Republicans hated (Clinton) and the man whom most of them loved (Bush). “Comparing Bush to Clinton? He was wrong then, and he's wrong about Mitt Romney now,” Romney’s ad said.
On Tuesday at a non-campaign event with implications for the Romney-Obama battle, Clinton will make remarks at the third annual fiscal summit organized by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.
Peterson, who served as commerce secretary under President Nixon and later headed Lehman Brothers and the private equity firm the Blackstone Group, has been a champion of reforming the entitlement programs and reducing the national debt.
At last year’s Peterson fiscal summit, Clinton angered progressives by his friendly backstage chat with House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. It came just a day after Republicans had lost a special House election in upstate New York – in part due to Ryan’s budget proposal to redesign Medicare into a premium support plan with limited payments.
In their backstage tete-a-tete, recorded by an ABC News camera, Clinton told Ryan, “I’m glad we won this race in New York, but I hope the Democrats don’t use it as an excuse to do nothing on Medicare.”
And he cordially invited Ryan to give him a phone call “if you want to talk about it.”
What got lost in some of the ensuing commentary was what Clinton had said about Ryan’s proposal in his on-stage remarks to the Peterson event: “I just think his Medicare proposal is, on the merits, wrong” and would lead to those on Medicare becoming “poorer” or older people would use less medical care, “get sicker and die quicker.”
The problem, Clinton said, is “rising medical costs. Medicare is a part of a whole health care system than has a toxic rate of inflation and a spending base today that’s not sustainable.”
But having said that, Clinton added, “I applaud Congressman Ryan for making a suggestion” even though “on the merits it doesn’t work.”
The lesson of that New York election was “not that we can’t talk about Medicare and we have to tippy-toe around,” Clinton said at last year’s fiscal summit.
Obama has mocked Romney for using the word “marvelous” to describe Ryan’s budget proposal and Democrats have made the Ryan plan a central issue in House and Senate campaigns this year, which is all the more reason why it will be worth listening to what Clinton has to say about Ryan at this year’s fiscal summit. | <urn:uuid:66838a76-d018-4583-a0de-5dbb2ad1c8ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/05/15/11713917-bill-clinton-paul-ryan-headline-fiscal-summit-talks?lite | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969035 | 1,170 | 2.390625 | 2 |
Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology
5th International Conference on Integration of Renewable Distributed Energy Resources
The growing share of renewable and distributed energy resources in power systems requires the development of efficient measures for their integration. Since the first International Conference on Integration of Renewable and Distributed Energy Resources (COI) that took place in Brussels 2004, grid integration technology has continuously improved. Many technical and non-technical issues have been solved or are now better understood. However, as the scale of deployment increases, new important challenges are emerging.
Inthe last few years, the topic of new smart grid approaches that supportthe efficient grid integration of small generators, storage units andcontrollable loads has gained considerably higher attention. A numberof deployment projects including large-scale field demonstrations havebeen conducted in many countries. This conference will offer theopportunity to learn about these projects and to discuss results withthe partners involved.
Like at the previous COI events, the latest technical, market andpolicy aspects related to integration of renewable and distributedenergy resources and smart grids will be discussed in plenary sessions.It is the intention of the conference to support the interdisciplinarydiscussion among different stakeholders promote lasting collaborationamong key players from all over the world. Conference side events likeworkshops, and committee meetings on standardization and other relatedtopics that will take place before and after the conference will giveattendees the opportunity to further develop and deepen the knowledgein special topics.
The goals of this conference are to:
- Share status and results of research projects
- Better understand and communicate the visions from various stakeholders and players
- Learn from national programmes and policies
- Discuss main issues and barriers and identify other needed research and potential solutions
- Stimulate international, national, and regional programme coordination
Theweeklong conference will include pre-conference workshops,post-conference breakouts, tours, a poster session, and evening events.
Call for Papers:
Topics of the Conference:
1. Grid Integration of Centralized and Decentralized Storage Devices
2. Large-Scale Renewable Generation
3. Renewable Power Forecasting
4. Market and Business Models
5. Grid Operation
6. Regulatory Issues
7. Sucessful Demonstrations
8. Energy Management
9. Generation and Load Management
10.Solar and Wind Energy Integration
11.Information and Communication Technologies (ITC)
12.Island Grids and Micro-Grids
13.Transmission and Distribution
Deadline for the submission of abstracts: June 11th., 2012
Please upload your abstract the review system provided by: http://review.otti.eu
End of July authors will receive an e-mail with the result of the evaluation.
With the acceptance of your abstract you are automatically registered for
the conference. It is not possible to cancel once accepted.
MARITIM proArte Hotel Berlin, Germany
Dec 04, 2012 - Dec 06, 2012 | <urn:uuid:e4c7aec6-effd-4ba3-af63-88b4cf622308> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iwes.fraunhofer.de/en/Events-Trade-fairs/2012/Conference_on_Renewable_Distributed_Energy.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905011 | 611 | 1.867188 | 2 |
AMD today launched the Radeon HD 7570/7770 graphics cards as the latest GPUs built on the GCN architecture. Unfortunately there still is not any open-source support for the Radeon HD 7000 series hardware nor has AMD sent out any review samples to Phoronix. But there is some other Catalyst Linux news to share.
A few days ago I decided to run some Catalyst A.I. benchmarks under Linux to see what impact it had on different OpenGL games. Catalyst A.I. is a feature built into their proprietary drivers meant to further enhance the GPU's performance, particularly for gaming. This feature has long been supported under both the Windows and Linux drivers.
Catalyst A.I. can be controlled from the AMD Catalyst Control Center Linux Edition (AMDCCCLE)...
Unfortunately under Linux, AMD Catalyst AI appears useless based upon some tests ran on a Radeon HD 6570 from an Intel Core i7 3960K Sandy Bridge Extreme Edition setup with Ubuntu and the AMD binary blob.
You can find the results in full along with other details on OpenBenchmarking.org. If you've managed to see some success out of Catalyst A.I. under Linux be sure to share your findings in our forums. | <urn:uuid:ad9c438e-7a55-4d2d-9025-bc08738ae5e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTA1Nzc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936989 | 248 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Prairie du Chien, WI, May 17, 2012 -- In the wake of this week’s observance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 150th Anniversary, Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development Doug O’Brien visited Wisconsin and toured the newly opened Sharing Spaces Kitchen in Prairie du Chien to highlight USDA investments and the importance of local and regional food systems.
"The Obama Administration supports efforts to strengthen local and regional food systems as one strategy to promote job creation in rural communities," said O’Brien. "The Sharing Spaces Kitchen is a great example of how investments in local foods can help stimulate the Wisconsin economy, create jobs and support our country's diverse agricultural industry. These efforts are helping to create a stronger local economy."
In 2010, the Crawford County Opportunity Center received a $100,000 USDA Rural Development Rural Business Enterprise grant for the construction and operation of a new 6,000 sq. ft. kitchen incubator facility. Sharing Spaces Kitchen officially opened in March, 2012.
The new, shared‐use incubator kitchen facility includes two kitchen/production areas, a packing room, large dry storage area, walk‐in cooler and freezer, two loading docks, and a classroom. One of the goals of Sharing Spaces Kitchen is to help launch or scale-up local food businesses.
Sharing Spaces Kitchen is home to The Local Oven Bakery; provides space for local food processing; offers storage for area growers and buyers; and hosts classes and educational opportunities for entrepreneurs called “Opportunity Knocks”. An extension of the Opportunity Center, Sharing Spaces Kitchen also provides new and exciting integrated work opportunities for the people with disabilities we serve. The Opportunity Center has served adults with disabilities in Crawford County and other surrounding communities since 1965.
During the tour, O’Brien spoke with representatives of businesses and groups that utilize the incubator facility, and was served a lunch produced directly from the kitchens.
Following his visit, O’Brien will address attendees at the Tri-State Alliance Annual Summit – Creating Resilient Communities. This meeting will examine regional opportunities and priorities including local foods, infrastructure development, and economic growth
In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed into law an act of Congress establishing the United States Department of Agriculture, calling it the “People’s Department”. Since then, USDA has helped support the tremendous growth and success of American agriculture, drive economic growth, conserve natural resources, and build stronger communities and a stronger nation. As we celebrate 150 years of accomplishments, USDA is looking to the future. In the years to come, we will help address the changing needs of agriculture and rural America. We will continue to help provide a safe, ample food supply for our nation and the world.
Since taking office, President Obama’s Administration has taken historic steps to improve the lives of rural Americans, put people back to work and build thriving economies in rural communities. From proposing the American Jobs Act to establishing the first-ever White House Rural Council – chaired by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack – the President is committed to using Federal resources more efficiently to foster sustainable economic prosperity and ensure the government is a strong partner for businesses, entrepreneurs and working families in rural communities.
USDA, through its Rural Development mission area, administers and manages housing, business and community infrastructure and facility programs through a national network of state and local offices. Rural Development has an active portfolio of more than $165 billion in affordable loans and loan guarantees, including the Value-Added Producer Grant program. These programs are designed to improve the economic stability of rural communities, businesses, residents, farmers and ranchers and improve the quality of life in rural America.
USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender. To file a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Ave., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call (800) 795-3272 (voice), or (202) 720-6382 (TDD) | <urn:uuid:b6629767-9b42-40c3-9dd1-17902690223e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/STELPRD4016243.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924134 | 827 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Cotton swabs (American English) or cotton buds (British English) or ear buds (British, Australian and South-African English) consist of a small wad of cotton wrapped around one or both ends of a short rod, usually made of either wood, rolled paper, or plastic. They are commonly used in a variety of applications including first aid, cosmetics application, cleaning, and arts and crafts. The cotton swab was invented in the 1920s by Leo Gerstenzang after he attached wads of cotton to toothpicks. His product, which he named "Baby Gays", went on to become the most widely sold brand name, "Q-tips", with the Q standing for "quality". The term "Q-tips" is often used as a genericized trademark for cotton swabs in the USA. Although doctors have said for years that usage of the cotton swab for ear cleaning is not safe, that use remains the most common.
The traditional cotton swab has a single tip on a wooden handle, and these are still often used, especially in medical settings. They are usually relatively long, about six inches (15 cm). These often are packaged sterile, one or two to a paper or plastic sleeve. The advantage of the paper sleeve and the wooden handle is that the package can be autoclaved to be sterilized (plastic sleeves or handles would melt in the autoclave).
Cotton swabs manufactured for home use are usually shorter, about three inches (7.6 cm) long, and usually double-tipped. The handles were first made of wood, then made of rolled paper, which is still most common (although tubular plastic is also used). They are often sold in large quantities, possibly 111 or more to a container.
Plastic swab stems exist in a wide variety of colors, such as blue, pink or green. However, the cotton itself is traditionally white.
The most common use for cotton swabs is to clean or scratch the ear canal and/or to remove earwax, despite this not being a medically recommended method for removing earwax. Cotton swabs are also commonly used for applying and removing makeup, as well as for household uses such as cleaning and arts and crafts.
Medical-type swabs are often used to take microbiological cultures. They are swabbed onto or into the infected area, then wiped across the culture medium, such as an agar plate, where bacteria from the swab may grow. They are also used to take DNA samples, most commonly by scraping cells from the inner cheek in the case of humans. They can be used to apply medicines to a targeted area, to selectively remove substances from a targeted area, or to apply cleaning substances like Betadine. They are also used as an applicator for various cosmetics, ointments, and other substances.
One recent innovation is to use a special type of double-tipped cotton swab for over-the-counter drug application. These swabs have hollow tubular plastic handles, which are filled with the medicine. Breaking one marked end of the swab breaks an air seal, allowing the medicine to saturate the cotton at the other end so that it can be directly applied with the swab.
Cotton swabs can be used to clean teeth in case of large edentation, young children or areas with difficult access.
Cotton swabs can be used in the dyne test for measuring surface energy. This use is problematic, as manufacturers differ in the binders they use to fix the cotton to the stem, affecting the outcome of the test.
Cotton swabs are also used for cleaning the laser of an optical drive in conjunction with rubbing alcohol.
Cotton swabs were also used widely to clean video game cartridges. Cotton swabs are also used to clean computer parts such as hard drives, optical drives, video game cards, and fans.
The American brand name "Q-Tip" is now owned by the British-Dutch conglomerate Unilever.
Medical risks
The use of cotton swabs in the ear canal is associated with no medical benefits and poses definite medical risks. Cerumen (ear wax) is a naturally occurring, normally extruded product of the external auditory canal that protects the skin inside the ear, serves beneficial lubrication and cleaning functions, and provides some protection from bacteria, fungi, insects, and water. A 2004 study found that the "[u]se of a cotton-tip applicator to clean the ear seems to be the leading cause of otitis externa in children and should be avoided." Attempts to remove cerumen with cotton swabs may result in cerumen impaction, a buildup or blockage of cerumen in the ear canal, which can cause pain, hearing problems, ringing in the ear, or dizziness, and may require medical treatment to resolve. The use of cotton swabs in the ear canal is one of most common causes of perforated eardrum, a condition which sometimes requires surgery to correct. For these reasons, the American Academy of Family Physicians, among many other professional medical associations, recommends never placing cotton swabs in the ear canal.
- Schueller, Randy (1996), "Cotton Swab", History 4, FindArticles.com
- "Cotton Swab", Q-tips History, Unilever Home and Personal Care, 2007-2008
- Rod Moser, PA, PhD, Q-Tips – Weapons of Ear Destruction?, WebMD, Nov. 13, 2006
- Joel Stein, Something Evil in the Ear Canal, Time, Mar. 26, 2001
- Edward Boyle (Sep 1, 1996). "Taking the measure of surface treatment is a learning process". PFFC: Paper, Film & Foil Converter. Retrieved 2010-03-20.
- McCarter, Daniel F.; et al. (May 2007). "Cerumen Impaction". American Family Physician 75 (10): 1523–1528. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
- Earwax at the American Hearing Research Foundation. Chicago, Illinois 2008.
- Nussinovitch, Moshe; et al. (April 2004). "Cotton-tip applicators as a leading cause of otitis externa". International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology 68 (4): 433–435. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
- American Academy of Family Physicians (May 2007). "Information from Your Family Doctor---Earwax: What You Should Know". American Family Physician 75 (10): 1530.
- Smith, Matthew; Darrat (February 2012). "Otologic complications of cotton swab use: One institution's experience". The Laryngoscope 122 (2): 409–411.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cotton swab| | <urn:uuid:b77cecf8-939f-447b-8f04-1bc86f60160d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_swab | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935824 | 1,409 | 3.25 | 3 |
I am using this to share some of my family history research. I use real names because it;s already way too confusing to keep all the relatives straight, without attempting made up names.
All content including but not limited to, all text, photos, graphics, audio, software, and/or video is copyrighted and owned by Mark Green. All rights are reserved.
No portion of the content may be directly or indirectly copied, published, reproduced, modified, performed, displayed, sold, transmitted, published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed in any medium. Nor may any portion of the content be stored in a computer or distributed over any network or the Internet except that you may print one copy strictly for personal and non-commercial use.
I wrote about finding an unusual cause of death listed for a distant relative a while back. William Gannon Fulford was stabbed to death on Christmas Eve 1914 in New Bern, North Carolina.
William Gannon Fulford
I didn't know much about his family so the cause of death listed on his death certificate lead to some more research. I was fortunate to get an assist from a friend in New Bern who did some digging in the newspaper archives at the local library. She found a story from the local paper that told the story.
This is her synopsis:
"There were 3 people involved in the story: Gannon Fulford, Jesse Creel (from Seven Springs, NC) and his daughter, Laura. Gannon had gained access into Mr. Jesse Creel's house at No 3 New South Front St as an unwelcome guest. He was intoxicated. Mr. Creel told Mr. Fulford to "leave" and Mr. Fulford (aged 30) told Mr. Creel (aged 60) that he would leave when he was "ready." An argument between the three people was taken out on to the street when Mr. Creel called Mr. Fulford a "vile name" as Mr. Fulford was being led away by a witness.
Cedar Grove Cemetery New Bern, NC
That is when Mr. Fulford declared that no one was going to talk to him like that and he walked back to confront Mr. Creel and that is when Mr. Creel pulled out a blade and slashed Mr. Fulford across the throat. Mr. Fulford bled to death on the street."
I found an article in the Greensboro,NC paper that had details of Creel's capture. | <urn:uuid:93c09b75-924c-4612-b7f1-2a0e3ff73946> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://southerngreens.blogspot.com/2012/09/just-walk-away.html?showComment=1347028297573 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975078 | 506 | 1.726563 | 2 |
USB in a NutShell
Making sense of the USB standard
Starting out new with USB can be quite daunting. With the USB 2.0 specification at 650 pages one could easily be put off just by the sheer size of the standard. This is only the beginning of a long list of associated standards for USB. There are USB Class Standards such as the HID Class Specification which details the common operation of devices (keyboards, mice etc) falling under the HID (Human Interface Devices) Class - only another 97 pages. If you are designing a USB Host, then you have three Host Controller Interface Standards to choose from. None of these are detailed in the USB 2.0 Spec.
The good news is you don’t even need to bother reading the entire USB standard. Some chapters were churned out by marketing, others aimed at the lower link layer normally taken care off by your USB controller IC and a couple aimed at host and hub developers. Lets take a little journey through the various chapters of the USB 2.0 specification and briefly introduce the key points.
|1||Introduction||Includes the motivation and scope for USB. The most important piece of information in this chapter is to make reference to the Universal Serial Bus Device Class Specifications. No need reading this chapter.||2|
|2||Terms and Abbreviations||This chapter is self-explanatory and a necessary evil to any standard.||8|
|3||Background||Specifies the goals of USB which are Plug’n’Play and simplicity to the end user (not developer). Introduces Low, Full and High Speed ranges with a feature list straight from marketing. No need reading this chapter either.||4|
|4||Architectural Overview||This is where you can start reading. This chapter provides a basic overview of a USB system including topology, data rates, data flow types, basic electrical specs etc.||10|
|5||USB Data Flow Model||This chapter starts to talk about how data flows on a Universal Serial Bus. It introduces terms such as endpoints and pipes then spends most of the chapter on each of the data flow types (Control, Interrupt, Isochronous and Bulk). While it’s important to know each transfer type and its properties it is a little heavy on for a first reader.||60|
|6||Mechanical||This chapter details the USB’s two standard connectors. The important information here is that a type A connector is oriented facing downstream and a type B connector upstream. Therefore it should be impossible to plug a cable into two upstream ports. All detachable cables must be full/high speed, while any low speed cable must be hardwired to the appliance. Other than a quick look at the connectors, you can skip this chapter unless you intend to manufacture USB connectors and/or cables. PCB designers can find standard footprints in this chapter.||33|
|7||Electrical||This chapter looks at low level electrical signalling including line impedance, rise/fall times, driver/receiver specifications and bit level encoding, bit stuffing etc. The more important parts of this chapter are the device speed identification by using a resistor to bias either data line and bus powered devices vs self powered devices. Unless you are designing USB transceivers at a silicon level you can flip through this chapter. Good USB device datasheets will detail what value bus termination resistors you will need for bus impedance matching.||75|
|8||Protocol Layer||Now we start to get into the protocol layers. This chapter describes the USB packets at a byte level including the sync, pid, address, endpoint, CRC fields. Once this has been grasped it moves on to the next protocol layer, USB packets. Most developers still don’t see these lower protocol layers as their USB device IC’s take care of this. However a understanding of the status reporting and handshaking is worthwhile.||45|
|9||USB Device Frame Work||This is the most frequently used chapter in the entire specification and the only one I ever bothered printing and binding. This details the bus enumeration and request codes (set address, get descriptor etc) which make up the most common protocol layer USB programmers and designers will ever see. This chapter is a must read in detail.||36|
|10||USB Host Hardware and Software||This chapter covers issues relating to the host. This includes frame and microframe generation, host controller requirements, software mechanisms and the universal serial bus driver model. Unless you are designing Hosts, you can skip this chapter.||23|
|11||Hub Specification||Details the workings of USB hubs including hub configuration, split transactions, standard descriptors for hub class etc. Unless you are designing Hubs, you can skip this chapter.||143|
So now we can begin to read the parts of the standard relevant to our needs. If you develop drivers (Software) for USB peripherals then you may only need to read chapters,
- 4 - Architectural Overview
- 5 - USB Data Flow Model
- 9 - USB Device Frame Work, and
- 10 - USB Host Hardware and Software.
Peripheral hardware (Electronics) designers on the other hand may only need to read chapters,
- 4 - Architectural Overview
- 5 - USB Data Flow Model
- 6 - Mechanical, and
- 7 - Electrical.
USB in a NutShell for Peripheral Designers
Now lets face it, (1) most of us are here to develop USB peripherals and (2) it's common to read a standard and still have no idea how to implement a device. So in the next 7 chapters we focus on the relevant parts needed to develop a USB device. This allows you to grab a grasp of USB and its issues allowing you to further research the issues specific to your application.
The USB 1.1 standard was complex enough before High Speed was thrown into USB 2.0. In order to help understand the fundamental principals behind USB, we omit many areas specific to High Speed devices.
Introducing the Universal Serial Bus
USB version 1.1 supported two speeds, a full speed mode of 12Mbits/s and a low speed mode of 1.5Mbits/s. The 1.5Mbits/s mode is slower and less susceptible to EMI, thus reducing the cost of ferrite beads and quality components. For example, crystals can be replaced by cheaper resonators. USB 2.0 which is still yet to see day light on mainstream desktop computers has upped the stakes to 480Mbits/s. The 480Mbits/s is known as High Speed mode and was a tack on to compete with the Firewire Serial Bus.USB Speeds
- High Speed - 480Mbits/s
- Full Speed - 12Mbits/s
- Low Speed - 1.5Mbits/s
The Universal Serial Bus is host controlled. There can only be one host per bus. The specification in itself, does not support any form of multimaster arrangement. However the On-The-Go specification which is a tack on standard to USB 2.0 has introduced a Host Negotiation Protocol which allows two devices negotiate for the role of host. This is aimed at and limited to single point to point connections such as a mobile phone and personal organiser and not multiple hub, multiple device desktop configurations. The USB host is responsible for undertaking all transactions and scheduling bandwidth. Data can be sent by various transaction methods using a token-based protocol.
In my view the bus topology of USB is somewhat limiting. One of the original intentions of USB was to reduce the amount of cabling at the back of your PC. Apple people will say the idea came from the Apple Desktop Bus, where both the keyboard, mouse and some other peripherals could be connected together (daisy chained) using the one cable.
However USB uses a tiered star topology, simular to that of 10BaseT Ethernet. This imposes the use of a hub somewhere, which adds to greater expense, more boxes on your desktop and more cables. However it is not as bad as it may seem. Many devices have USB hubs integrated into them. For example, your keyboard may contain a hub which is connected to your computer. Your mouse and other devices such as your digital camera can be plugged easily into the back of your keyboard. Monitors are just another peripheral on a long list which commonly have in-built hubs.
This tiered star topology, rather than simply daisy chaining devices together has some benefits. Firstly power to each device can be monitored and even switched off if an overcurrent condition occurs without disrupting other USB devices. Both high, full and low speed devices can be supported, with the hub filtering out high speed and full speed transactions so lower speed devices do not receive them.
Up to 127 devices can be connected to any one USB bus at any one given time. Need more devices? - simply add another port/host. While most earlier USB hosts had two ports, most manufacturers have seen this as limiting and are starting to introduce 4 and 5 port host cards with an internal port for hard disks etc. The early hosts had one USB controller and thus both ports shared the same available USB bandwidth. As bandwidth requirements grew, we are starting to see multi-port cards with two or more controllers allowing individual channels.
The USB host controllers have their own specifications. With USB 1.1, there were two Host Controller Interface Specifications, UHCI (Universal Host Controller Interface) developed by Intel which puts more of the burden on software (Microsoft) and allowing for cheaper hardware and the OHCI (Open Host Controller Interface) developed by Compaq, Microsoft and National Semiconductor which places more of the burden on hardware(Intel) and makes for simpler software. Typical hardware / software engineer relationship. . .
With the introduction of USB 2.0 a new Host Controller Interface Specification was needed to describe the register level details specific to USB 2.0. The EHCI (Enhanced Host Controller Interface) was born. Significant Contributors include Intel, Compaq, NEC, Lucent and Microsoft so it would hopefully seem they have pooled together to provide us one interface standard and thus only one new driver to implement in our operating systems. Its about time.
USB as its name would suggest is a serial bus. It uses 4 shielded wires of which two are power (+5v & GND). The remaining two are twisted pair differential data signals. It uses a NRZI (Non Return to Zero Invert) encoding scheme to send data with a sync field to synchronise the host and receiver clocks.
USB supports plug’n’plug with dynamically loadable and unloadable drivers. The user simply plugs the device into the bus. The host will detect this addition, interrogate the newly inserted device and load the appropriate driver all in the time it takes the hourglass to blink on your screen provided a driver is installed for your device. The end user needs not worry about terminations, terms such as IRQs and port addresses, or rebooting the computer. Once the user is finished, they can simply lug the cable out, the host will detect its absence and automatically unload the driver.
The loading of the appropriate driver is done using a PID/VID (Product ID/Vendor ID) combination. The VID is supplied by the USB Implementor's forum at a cost and this is seen as another sticking point for USB. The latest info on fees can be found on the USB Implementor’s Website
Other standards organisations provide a extra VID for non-commercial activities such as teaching, research or fiddling (The Hobbyist). The USB Implementors forum has yet to provide this service. In these cases you may wish to use one assigned to your development system's manufacturer. For example most chip manufacturers will have a VID/PID combination you can use for your chips which is known not to exist as a commercial device. Other chip manufacturers can even sell you a PID to use with their VID for your commercial device.
Another more notable feature of USB, is its transfer modes. USB supports Control, Interrupt, Bulk and Isochronous transfers. While we will look at the other transfer modes later, Isochronous allows a device to reserve a defined amount of bandwidth with guaranteed latency. This is ideal in Audio or Video applications where congestion may cause loss of data or frames to drop. Each transfer mode provides the designer trade-offs in areas such as error detection and recovery, guaranteed latency and bandwidth. | <urn:uuid:a8745dc7-d6f8-40c0-85ff-b3f90bd58c0c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.beyondlogic.org/usbnutshell/usb1.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919775 | 2,587 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Policing and Community Safety Partnerships
Community Safety Partnerships and District Policing Partnerships were replaced on 1 April 2012 by Policing and Community Safety Partnerships (PCSPs).
Policing and Community Safety Partnerships (PCSPs)
PCSPs aim to make our communities safer. PCSPs are statutory bodies established under the Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 and bring together the functions and responsibilities of District Policing Partnerships (DPPs) and Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs).
These new partnerships will work in a more joined up way to the benefit of local communities. They are funded jointly by the Department of Justice and the Northern Ireland Policing Board.
There are 26 partnerships, one for each council area. Belfast has one PCSP and four District Policing and Community Safety Partnerships (DPCSPs) covering the North, South, East and West area commands within the city.
Each PCSP has a Policing Committee to take forward specific police monitoring and engagement functions, with the wider PCSP taking forward community safety related functions.
PCSPs may also establish delivery Groups to address particular community safety issues that arise in their areas.
What PCSPs do
PCSPs aim to make our community safer by focussing on the policing and community safety issues that matter most in each local council area.
In making communities safer PCSPs will:
- consult and engage with the local community on the issues of concern in relation to policing and community safety. The Policing Committee has a responsibility to provide views to the relevant district commander and the Policing Board on policing matters
- identify and prioritise the particular issues of concern and prepare plans for how these can be tackled
- monitor - a Policing Committee comprising the political and independent members will monitor the performance of the police and work to gain the co-operation of the public with the police in preventing crime
- deliver a reduction in crime and enhance community safety in their district, directly through their own actions, through the work of their delivery groups or through support for the work of others
The size of each PCSP varies across Northern Ireland. Each partnership has between eight to ten political members, depending on the size of the council area, and this membership reflects the political make up of each council and is representative of the local community.
They also have seven to nine independent members of the community who are appointed by the NI Policing Board.
Together these members will form the Policing Committee of the PCSP.
In addition, PCSPs will have at least four representatives of designated organisations. Some of these organisations will be specified in an Order made by the Department of Justice - these organisations must be represented on all PCSPs - while others will be selected locally by a PCSP.
The Chair of each partnership is a councillor and the Vice Chair is an independent member. | <urn:uuid:ff2a61a3-5c5a-4306-8786-903b1fa0100f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/policing-and-community-safety-partnerships | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957787 | 588 | 2.09375 | 2 |
A talk delivered by Rajan Hoole on behalf of the University Teachers for Human Rights at the Rajani Thiranagama Commemoration meeting on 2 October, 1989, at the Kailasapathy Auditorium, University of Jaffna.
III.1 Dr. Rajani Thiranagama: Her contribution to the University Teachers for Human Rights (U.T.H.R.)
In the course of a brief talk, we are faced with the task of doing justice to the breadth of vision that governed Rajani's contribution to human rights work. If one were to pick a brief quotation from her writings that may give us an indication of her perspective, the following would do well: Objectivity, the pursuit of truth and the propagation of critical and honest positions, were not only crucial for the community, but could also cost many of us our lives. They were only undertaken as a survival task. This is taken from a postscript that Rajani wrote for the Broken Palmyrah during the weeks preceding her murder. Prophetic as these words may seem, it was not like her to be prophetic. I shall try to make clear what she meant.
III.2 The Degeneration of Politics and Implications for Human Rights Work
Up to the early 1980s, there was amongst a sizable section of Tamil youth, a healthy interest in political issues, accompanied by idealism. The issues were often those of social injustice and their national and international dimensions. And, quite surprisingly, there was a remarkable absence of communalism which was poisoning the air in the country. But the 1983 riots and the involvement of foreign resources in the militarisation of our youth, ensured that the tendency which gained ground was that of extreme nationalism that worshipped military success, and, by its very nature, became intolerant. Every other political tendency felt impelled to imitate this, even at the cost of coming out second or third best. Politics died as homicidal divisions increased. We know well our recent history which led to a remarkable indifference to any kind of social or political effort on the part of todays university students. Guns seemed to determine everything. In this atmosphere of disillusionment, militant groups were finding themselves obliged to strengthen themselves against each other by taking in very young persons through a variety of questionable methods. The role of the Indian and Sri Lankan states in this episode is a shameful one. Rajani was very concerned about the fate of these young men. She had a deep compassion for these young men who could not understand their actions, viewed death as a welcome certainty and hated the community which has done nothing while they were consigned to this degrading form of slavery.
What then became of the young idealists of the 1970s and early 1980s mentioned earlier? You find them apart from those who went abroad, in farms, factories and shops. With their trained intelligence they have a sure grasp of what is happening around. In the absence of any political force they could align with, some have lapsed into cynicism. Others feel that no effort is worth while and have chosen silence. In general, the community has become polarised into sections which believe in aligning themselves to one military force or the other, purely for the purpose of wiping out the other side. This was believed to be a necessary first step to all further plans.
It was an atmosphere in which any attempt at objectivity or impartiality was bound to be viewed as, at best, an academic exercise, and, at worst, a futile nuisance and a bar to more important things - such as wiping out the other side by pitting our boys against each other, with the Indian and Sri Lankan states playing the role of the erratic gods in Homers Illiad.
Rajani and the others in the U.T.H.R. believed that these options were destructive, unjust, superficial and cowardly. She believed that an alternative had to be found. This was closely tied to her vision for the University of Jaffna after the October 1987 war. She believed that it was not merely shameful negligence for a university to be indifferent under such circumstances, but also that a university could not survive as a university if it is to be indifferent.
Thus in Rajani's view, the task of expressing the truth of what is going on around us impartially, and making people feel for the tragedy, became a survival task. This is what the U.T.H.R. (Jaffna) tried to do in its first two reports. Rajani used the expression "Creating a Space" to describe this work. She hoped that it will lead to some discussion, at least within the university, of what was happening around. She believed that sound values and anger against hypocrisy and injustice were major assets in the task of survival. Rajani admired the women from our coastal villages who possessed some of these qualities. She believed that courage was of the essence. She had often said that to make an impact on destructive tendencies which commanded respect by treating their own lives lightly, one had to be prepared to give ones own life for ones beliefs. She did not flinch from this ideal.
III.3 Human Rights and Politics
Rajani was very much concerned with politics and would have been the last person to view human rights work in isolation. In describing the work of the U.T.H.R., I have heard her tell others, A life is a life. Whoever takes life must be exposed independently of party feeling. We wanted to show, that in the first place, we valued life. She held that a human rights organisation cannot be affiliated to a political party, because of the independent nature of its work. But it can have as members persons from political parties with a firm commitment to human rights. A human rights organisation should also welcome a commitment to human rights by a political organisation.
In our context, there is no political force with a commitment to respect and defend human rights. Nor is there any question of a human rights organisation spending its time giving advice to political forces. We are dealing with what are, in fact, military organisations with their own leaders and advisors with respectable scholarly credentials from an assortment of Western capitals. Any local functionary who listens to you with sympathy is, at the drop of a pin, bound by orders from the top. Thus in our context, a human rights organisation has to put itself out on a limb depending on moral pressure and public concern for its defence. This was a minimum Rajani had expected from the university community.
III.4 Rajani's work amongst Students
As a human rights activist living in this community, Rajani's work had many facets to it. These included work in womens concerns, her role as both doctor and counsellor, and help rendered to individuals from the depressed sections of society that were driven to the edge of despair. Some of these are being dealt with by more appropriate speakers. The foregoing will sound like abstract theory, unless it is seen that there was a workable practical side to it. I shall confine myself to examples from university life.
Rajani recognised that given the chronic social climate, there were bound to be many students having problems connected with past associations and queer ways of thinking. She believed that they had to be weaned away into creative channels through frank discussion, together with a relationship of trust and personal concern. To start with, she defended a students right to have his or her own opinions - even ones she strongly disagreed with. On her return from England, she was angry that the university had not lodged a protest over a medical student who was shot and injured on 31 August, 1989, while returning from clinical work. She was indignant that the I.P.K.F., while declaring on the one hand that people were free to support any political opinion provided they did not carry arms, were, on the other, citing alleged subversive involvement as an excuse after a person was shot without any questioning or examination. She felt that the university had sacrificed an important principle and was urging even a belated protest over the shooting of the medical student.
She would sometimes spend hours discussing the problems of a student who had political involvements. While helping the student, she would firmly tell the student that his political opinions were destructive and her hope was that he would re-examine his course and grow out of it. In one instance she was approached by a student who was asked to report for questioning. She held that no one who tortured had a moral right to interrogate others. She told the student not to go, and if asked, to say that she, as his student counsellor, had ordered him not to go. The matter ended there.
She valued life and felt sorry when anyone was killed - be it a militant from any one of the groups or an Indian soldier. She was saddened that they all died without knowing for what cause they gave their lives.
III.5 Rajani and the reopening of the University following October 1987
The crisis facing the community following the Indian offensive of October 1987 was one which brought out her energy and strength of character. She was so appalled after seeing the conditions of refugees at Nallur Kandasamy Kovil, that she sat down to write a leaflet. She felt that the reopening of the university was the best chance of having some means for the defence of the community. She said that we cannot sit around waiting for the Indians to ask us to come in and conduct lectures. She urged her friends to go and make arrangements for the staff to enter the university immediately. Attempts to have the university reopened were made from about 10 November, entry was gained on 15 November and arrangements were made for the staff to meet on 18 November.. The Indian Army was in control of the premises at that time. A section of the staff felt so numbed by the damage that they advocated not doing anything until outsiders came and the damage was publicised. Rajani held that we had existed long enough as a community displaying our sores and eliciting pity. She felt that,. to prevent the recurrence of such a catastrophe, we must show a will of our own to make our own future. Thereafter work commenced on securing what had survived the war. Rajani was the first member of the staff to enter the medical faculty, which was in a more isolated area. Those were days when people were scared of soldiers. With curfew commencing at 4:00 p.m, roads were deserted by 12:00 p.m.; but Rajani, a single woman, would sometimes stay on with a carpenter and one or two others, fixing locks to doors in the medical faculty until 1:30 p.m.. I recall shifting typewriters and other equipment in the company of labourers to secured rooms, under her supervision. Soldiers who were about the medical faculty came to refer to her as "The Principal".
On one occasion, a Sikh soldier rushed into her room while she was arranging it. On discovering that she was a doctor, he sat down and explained a personal medical problem to her. He had received a head injury during the 1971 war which gave birth to Bangladesh. He had been warded in Chandigarh, and still suffered recurrent pains. Rajani listened sympathetically. Rajani's courage and example were such that many men, particularly non-academic staff, came to depend on her for motivation and direction.
It was then common for Indian officers to attack the militants and blame them for everything. Tamils commonly responded by saying that they did not know the militants and were innocent. But Rajani took the officers head on and would say forth-rightly: We as a community must take responsibility for our catastrophe. The militants are part of our history, and a part of our community. I cannot artificially distance myself from the militants and condemn them. She felt that all the risks she took at that time had to be taken because the young men who took many risks and had brought the community to this state, were likely to respect only those who themselves took risks.
III.6 Jaffna Hospital
Rajani was busy with many things during the weeks succeeding the war of October 1987. She would cycle to far away places with other women, collecting experiences of what mothers, young girls and elderly women had been through during the war. Roads were then dotted with sentry points and people were still scared. Much of what she recorded appeared in the "Broken Palmyrah". She also spent a good deal of time counselling and helping women who were affected by rape, and deaths or disappearances of near ones. Many came to her when the word spread that Rajani would do what she could.
One incident which concerned her greatly was the massacre at Jaffna Hospital on 21 October, 1987, during the Indian assault, that left about 70 dead. Rajani felt that the callousness of the Indian entry was inexcuseable. Many of the doctors felt that it was too dangerous to bring out the truth. Some felt that they should wait for an appropriate time.There was even a fear of issuing public appreciations for the medical staff killed.Rajani felt that the truth should be brought out at the earliest and set about interviewing staff at the hospital where she had once worked. The following extracts are from the "Broken Palmyrah," written in her inimitable prose:
So we lay down quietly, under one of the dead bodies, throughout the night. One of the overseers had a cough and he groaned and coughed once in a way in the night. One Indian soldier threw a grenade at this man, killing some more persons. I know the ambulance driver died. In another spot, one man got up with his hand up and cried out: We are innocent. We are supporters of Indira Gandhi. A grenade was thrown at him. He and his brother next to him died.
......The blasting grenades made tremendous noises as if bombs were exploding. Then the debris and dust would settle on us and cake in the fresh blood of those dead and injured.
III.7 Challenge to the University
What Rajani believed in was not an abstract philosophy,but something that evolved to the demands of a social conscience and insisted on both compassion and consistency. Her courage was tied to a sense of responsibility. There is no doubt that she was practically effective. She died because the rest of the community valued her services, but was too cowardly and cautious to emulate her sense of responsibility. For many, the accepted wisdom is not to take any risk, but to rely on the risks taken by others. If we have for the present, the uncertain present, the option of clinging to positions while shirking moral responsibility or of slinking away with degrees without caring to secure the future well being of the student community, it is because there were fools like Rajani.
At this time of crisis and tragedy, many students have shown courage and responsibility. A number of persons in the university have displayed commendable qualities of leadership. All this may appear to be in vain unless these become part of the character of the university as a whole. It is in the nature of the powers around us to have us silent and indifferent. We cannot remain a university if only a small minority feel for its mission. It is only human to become tired when driven to isolation.[Top]
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Copyright © UTHR 2001 | <urn:uuid:150b1eb8-38e8-4a56-b548-33bb75814684> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uthr.org/BP/volume2/AppendixIII.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988441 | 3,156 | 2.453125 | 2 |
Un-acid the rain.
Tell polluters: Refrain!
Help the rain forests gain, not grow smaller.
From “Prayer of the Good Green Boy” in Sad Underwear and Other Complications
By Janice Harayda
Children’s books about rainforests are too much with us. Trees are dying for these books at an alarming rate, creating a literary Robin Hood effect.
But children’s poems about rainforests are harder to find, perhaps because poets of yesteryear wrote about “jungles” instead. One the few I’ve found that would suit grades 3 and up is “Rainforest,” by the late Australian poet and conservationist Judith Wright, which appears in Classic Poems to Read Aloud (Kingfisher, 256 pp., $8.95, paperback, ages 8–12), an excellent anthology compiled by James Berry.
“Rainforest” consists of 12 lines of iambic tetrameter that celebrate the interdependence of the creatures in natural world. Wright makes an implicit plea for biodiversity in the poem, which begins: “The forest drips and glows with green. / The tree frog croaks his far-off song. / His voice is stillness, moss and rain / drunk from the forest ages long.” The most unusual aspect of this poem is that Wright has arranged its lines in the shape of a tree trunk. This is a subtle example of what’s known as a pattern poem, a poem in which the words or letters form a typographical picture that relates to the subject.
Apart from that device, “Rainforest” works better as an environmental manifesto than as art. Judith Viorst has more success with “Prayer of the Good Green Boy,” found in Sad Underwear and Other Complications: More Poems for Children and Their Parents (Aladdin, 80 pp., $6.99, paperback, ages 7 and up). This witty and ironic poem puts a child’s love for the environment in the context of his other concerns, using spirited anapestic lines: “Un-acid the rain. / Tell polluters: Refrain! / Help the rain forests gain, not grow smaller.” The poem ends: “And — oh yes — one more thing. / Could you please make me four inches taller?”
Many good poems, if not specifically about rainforests, deal with creatures who may inhabit them. Classic Poems to Read Aloud also has a section of poems about fish, birds, animals, or insects, including some found in jungles. Among them: William Blake’s “”The Tiger,” Ted Hughes’s “The Jaguar” and Randall Jarrell’s “Bats.” Then there George Macbeth’s “Insects,” which laments the perils of sharing a household with flies, mosquitoes and other winged creatures. Any rainforest explorer might identify with lines like: “I swat at my forehead, I scratch at my ankles, / Mole and wart, and a rash that rankles.”
You may also want to look at a picture book for slightly younger children, Over in the Jungle: A Rainforest Rhyme (Dawn, 32 pp., $8.95, paperback), by Marianne Berkes and by Jeanette Canyon, which I haven’t seen it. It begins: “Over in the jungle / Where the trees greet the sun / Lived a mother marmoset / And her marmoset one.”
You can also follow Janice Harayda (@janiceharayda) on Twitter, where she often writes about books for children or teenagers.
© 2008 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:593330e3-151e-4827-bb30-ca5e056d80fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2009/01/16/childrens-poems-about-rainforests-and-their-creatures/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=4b5b0dc21b | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933878 | 813 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Ocean real estate: The next boom?
With land getting so crowded, the age-old fantasy of sea-based living is becoming reality. Business 2.0 dives in.
(Business 2.0 Magazine) -- We've been promised many things in the world of Tomorrowland: jet packs, flying cars, picnics on the moon.
We remember those pledges, ruefully. But with all of our attention on the skies above, we tend to forget about the seas below and another once-popular 21st century prediction: that one day we'll be living on and under the oceans.
The idea isn't so far-fetched. As Earth gets increasingly crowded and polluted, some 225 million square miles of prime real estate representing 71 percent of the planet's surface is largely unused. It's remarkable considering the oceans promise plenty of living space, fresh seafood, entertainment, and desalinized water. Surely, technology can make this happen.
Turns out, it can and it soon will - if not quite the way we first imagined. But before diving into what the near future holds, let's resurface what the distant past once promised.
In 1964, at the New York World's Fair, General Motors (Charts) sponsored an exhibit of the "near future." The model featured a city 10,000 feet under the sea, with atomic submarines cruising in and out of the Hotel Atlantis and nearby "Aquacopters" mining for minerals and drilling for oil.
Famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, meanwhile, was busy chasing his own underwater dreams. His experimental habitat, called Conshelf, was built 85 feet below the ocean's surface and was intended to be the future home of a new human species, dubbed Homo Aquaticus, with gills for lungs.
Needless to say, Cousteau's vision ran into some stiff currents. After Conshelf "Aquanauts" complained about lack of light, no privacy, poor appetites, and too much helium in the compressed air, the experiment was abandoned. Then the Space Race took off - and our collective imagination turned to the cosmos.
Half a century later, a renaissance of ocean-living dreams is underfoot.
The most tangible signs are two altered versions of GM's Hotel Atlantis, at least one of which could be open for business next year.
The first is Hydropolis, a $500 million-plus, 220-room hotel under development near Dubai in the Persian Gulf. Billed as the world's first underwater hotel, the Hydropolis will be located, if all goes according to plan, 60 feet below sea level and cost $1,500 a night. Among other amenities, the Hydropolis will also feature a missile defense system to guard against terrorists, a shopping mall, and three bars.
Then there's Poseidon Mystery Island, a $200 million development off the coast of Fiji. When it opens in mid-2008, the hotel will be much smaller than Hydropolis and almost twice as expensive to visit. But it does boast something you don't get in Dubai: 24-hour views of one of the world's liveliest coral reefs.
Whether these two projects ultimately swim remains to be seen. The engineering challenges aside, there are plenty of unanswered questions about the environmental impact of these underwater havens. And while Poseidon is taking reservations, construction delays at the Hydropolis will likely extend its scheduled 2008 opening.
Long term, underwater hotels are a side story. Most of the water-based real estate action of the next decade is likely to be closer to the surface, and closer to land.
As my Business 2.0 colleague Jeff Davis notes in his excellent blog about the ocean business, Waterlog, there's a rising tide of architects building floating homes in response to global warming. Sea levels rising by 20 feet over the next 50 years? No problem. Simply surround at-risk cities (like New York) or countries (like Holland) with off-shore waterworlds anchored to the sea floor.
Leading this march to the sea is Dutch designer Koen Olthuis. His firm, Waterstudio, is the first to devote itself entirely to waterborne structures - houses, garages, apartment buildings - and has been hired by the Crown Prince of Dubai to build a sail-in mosque, presumably so the legions of oil-rich seafaring Dubains have somewhere to pray on their way to Hydropolis.
But perhaps the most novel design for seabound living is the Trilobis 65 from Italian architect Giancarlo Zema. Retailing for $5 million, the oddly egg-shaped Trilobis seems halfway between a giant yacht and a floating home. It's designed for up to six people to live in, and is powered by an environmentally-friendly combination of solar power and hydrogen tanks. You can take your entire home on day-long deep-sea jaunts, then return to the jetty at night and power down.
Which may not be exactly how General Motors or Jacques Cousteau imagined the future. But the more watery the world gets, the more likely its rich coastal cities will start transferring themselves into floating homes and Trilobis-like home vehicles.
Smart early investments in such strange-looking seabound schemes - like the hippie-built houseboats of Sausalito, Calif. that are now worth millions - may well turn out to reap deep rewards.
More from Future Boy:click here. | <urn:uuid:c20db3a9-09dd-4db9-b58d-7313d0f31be0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/19/magazines/business2/ocean_real_estate.biz2/index.htm?postversion=2007020205 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937001 | 1,122 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Image stabilization is an important capability for many electro-optic sensors, where an operator or user is required to view the output imagery. The technique can therefore enhance many practical viewing systems, spanning a very broad range of applications including those found in defense and security sectors.
Stabilization provides a means for reducing both image blur and unwanted frame-to-frame image shifts and rotations, thereby aiding image interpretation and reducing the operator’s workload. For those systems that require the operator to locate or classify features within the video stream (typically recognition and identification), then a stabilized image stream will help improve the accuracy of these tasks.
There are a number of techniques for stabilizing an image which are either based on mechanical correction or image processing. Mechanical stabilization techniques include those that gyroscopically stabilize the whole camera system or use elements within the camera to effectively move the lens or detector array.
Mechanical stabilization techniques are well-established, although they can have a limited rate of response. Furthermore, they tend to be more expensive, consume more power and are physically larger and heavier. Mechanical stabilization techniques used within the camera housing are generally less expensive and are physically more compact. However, they can have performance limitations such as an inability to correct for roll, and may operate over a restricted range of unwanted camera movements. In addition, such integrated camera techniques are less well-established for infrared cameras and those cameras that use interchangeable lenses. Finally, it should be noted that mechanical stabilization corrects for movement associated with the camera, but does not correct for other effects such as atmospheric scintillation.
Figure 1: Unstabilized image set. The 5 frames have been false-colored and superimposed to illustrate the movement effect. | <urn:uuid:89a1fa9c-c452-48aa-af80-acf673a8b51e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eetimes.com/design/military-aerospace-design/4407121/Designing-low-power-video-image-stabilization-IP-for-FPGAs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944681 | 348 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Three U.S. senators have introduced a bill to promote electric grid energy storage projects. The Storage Technology of Renewable and Green Energy Act of 2010 ("STORAGE 2010 Act") would provide tax credits worth as much as $1.5 billion for grid storage projects.
In addition to providing credits for utility scale projects, the bill also has provisions for businesses and homeowners who want to have on-site energy storage, whether or not they also have on-site renewable energy generation of their own. Grid scale projects could qualify for a 20% tax credit of up to $30 million, and individual projects could qualify for a 30% tax credit of up to $1 million.
Projects would be selected by the Energy Secretary based on their commercial viability and would look to those that "provide the greatest increase of reliability or economic benefit, that enable the greatest improvement in integration of renewable energy resources with the grid, or that enable the greatest increase in efficiency in grid operation."
Encouraging increased grid storage capacity is meant to help further the adoption of intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. Grid storage should also help in furthering a more reliable smart grid for national energy distribution.
|< Prev||Next >| | <urn:uuid:be24db53-8760-445c-8ad1-513b82d23f7c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ecogeek.org/power-storage/3288 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964318 | 250 | 2.375 | 2 |
Recently, I’ve been working on a Silverlight application that grabs some data via web services, and up until the last day or so, those services were on a different domain, and the service domain had a clientaccesspolicy.xml file in place allowing access to the service. Good enough so far.
A couple days ago, I wanted to access some functionality that’s already built into Community Megaphone, so I wrapped it up into a web service, and figured I could call it without a clientaccesspolicy.xml file, since the Silverlight application is also running in the same domain. WRONG!
Why? Because the web service in question is configured to run in SSL mode, and in Silverlight 2, as Tim Heuer explains in this post, calling an https-based web service from an http-based Silverlight app requires a clientaccesspolicy.xml file, even if both are on the same domain.
What threw me about this was that once I started getting errors indicating that a cross-domain problem existed, I did put a clientaccesspolicy.xml file in place. However, as Tim further explains, just having a policy file is not enough, if all you do is this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <access-policy> <cross-domain-access> <policy> <allow-from http-request-headers="Content-Type"> <domain uri="*"/> </allow-from> <grant-to> <resource path="/" include-subpaths="true"/> </grant-to> </policy> </cross-domain-access> </access-policy>
Rather, you must explicitly allow both http and https access, as follows:
Note that while the clientaccesspolicy.xml file listing above solves the http/https access issue, it may not be the best policy file to use, because like the original, it basically says “any domain may access any resources in my site in a cross-domain way.” If you don’t understand why that’s a bad thing, just trust me that you probably don’t want to do that. Instead, you can limit access to specific domains, limit the types of requests that will be allowed, limit the resources that can be accessed, or any combination of these.
As a rule, you want to use a policy file that limits access as much as possible while allowing the activity you’re looking for, since that will minimize the potential for misuse.
So if I only wanted to allow requests from www.communitymegaphone.com, I could do the following:
And if I only wanted to allow access to SOAP-based web services, I could do the following:
Finally, if I wanted to only allow access to resources in a specific folder, I could do the following:
Note that if you do not set include=subpaths to “true” when using a folder name, none of the resources in that folder will be accessible. You can also include the filename if you want to limit access to a single file.
For additional information on cross-domain policy files, you can check out this video, and Tim’s cross domain policy file helpers for Visual Studio.
One last tip…if you’re trying to call something cross-domain from Silverlight, and having trouble, I’d highly recommend running an http proxy such as Fiddler to see what calls are being made, and whether a clientaccesspolicy.xml file is being returned when requested. You can also use this handy tool from Frank La Vigne to determine whether a given domain returns a clientaccesspolicy.xml file.
UPDATE: Tim Heuer let me know that you always need to include the http-request-headers attribute on the allow-from element, and I've updated the examples to reflect this. | <urn:uuid:8acc207c-15ab-42fe-84e4-6a0f811627cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.msdn.com/b/gduthie/archive/2009/04/28/gotchas-for-web-services-in-silverlight.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916329 | 812 | 1.546875 | 2 |
In the spring of 1819 the residents of Ipswich’s Chebacco Parish (now the town of Essex) saw lantern light in the graveyard at night. Soon they discovered that the graves had been disturbed, and several families discovered that their relative’s graves were empty. Eight graves, going back to 1811, were disturbed.
According to a book by Christopher Benedeto, the winter of 1817-1818 was mild and the weather conditions were perfect for body snatching. Two little boys died in the same week in October 1817 and this was probably too tempting to the local doctor. One of those boys was ten year old Isaac (not William as has been reported), son of Joseph Allen and Judith Burnham, my 4x great grandparents. I’m descended of little Isaac’s big brother, Joseph, Jr. My mother was the last Allen born in Ipswich, in the 1930s. Several descendants still live in Ipswich and Essex (the former Chebacco Parish).
The local minister, Robert Crowell, had eight empty coffins reinterred in the cemetery, and he delivered a sermon on this occasion. “Who can adequately conceive . . . the keen anguish, and almost inconsolable grief of those, who are thus inhumanely robbed of the body of a husband, or wife, of a parent, or child, of a brother, or sister?” It is hard to imagine Joseph and Judith’s grief at having to symbolically go through a child’s burial for a second time. They named two other children Isaac, the third survived childhood and lived until 1872 when he died, unmarried, of insanity.
A five hundred dollar award was announced on April 25, 1818 for the “Most daring and sacrilegious Robbery” by the committee at Chebacco Parish, Ipswich.
It was finally found out that Thomas Sewell (April 16, 1785 – April 10, 1845), the local doctor and Harvard graduate 1812, was found in possession of an “unsanctioned corpse.” His lawyer was the famous Daniel Webster, but he was still found guilty and fined $800, the largest fee ever for body snatching in Massachusetts. Sewell was run out of Chebacco, and went to Washington DC on Webster’s suggestion. He helped to found the medical school at Columbian College in 1825, which is today’s George Washington University.
What led to Sewall’s disgrace was an 1815 law making it a felony to rob a grave. It was previously not considered theft. However, by 1831 a new law was passed allowing for anatomical studies of bodies, and permitted courts to surrender corpses that would have been buried at public expense (paupers, convicts, etc.) Doctors were able to legally study bodies (they had been doing so anyways for centuries) and the public no longer associated dissection with a crime.
For more information:
“History of Ipswich, Essex, and Hamilton” by Joseph B. Felt, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Charles Folsom, 1834
“History of the town of Essex from 1634 to 1700” by Egbert Crowell, Boston, Moody Printer, 1853
Harvard Medical School website http://alumnibulletin.med.harvard.edu/bulletin/autumn2009/plunder.php
“A Most Daring and Sacrilegious Robbery” by Christopher Benedeto (in the NEGHS publication “New England Ancestors” Spring 2005, Volume 6, No. 2)
Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo | <urn:uuid:567825cb-0214-463a-a553-0dbb9d43889e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.jp/2010/04/body-snatchers-1819.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970013 | 768 | 2.125 | 2 |
Credit bureaus collect all sorts of information about us from creditors, and this information is used to make decisions about whether we deserve a loan, a job or an apartment. There are some 400 credit bureaus in the United States, but oversight has been a mixed bag -- in other words, not much.
That's about to change Sept. 30. The one-year-old Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will begin oversight then of about 30 of the largest of these credit bureaus, which make up about 94 percent of the industry's businesss.
The industry, according to the CFPB, issue more than 3 billion credit reports and 36 billion updates annually. And what's in these reports becomes the basis of your credit score -- that 3-digit number that creditors use to give the thumbs up or down on your credit application.
The CFPB says these credit bureaus under its supervision will be required to make reports and undergo on-site examinations similar to what banks must do.
CFPB's director Richard Cordray says in prepared remarks that his agency has three goals:
"First, our oversight of the credit reporting companies will help us make sure that the information provided to them is itself reliable. Lenders and others who furnish information to the credit reporting companies are legally required to have policies in place about the accuracy and integrity of the information they report – which includes identifying consumers accurately, correctly recounting their actual payment history, and keeping their information and recordkeeping in order. Otherwise, their sloppy work becomes the true source of harm to the consumer’s overall creditworthiness. We want to deepen our understanding of the recordkeeping and reporting practices by lenders and we want to see what the credit reporting companies can be doing to test and screen for the quality of information they receive.
"Second, given the number of complaints we have already heard from consumers, and the findings reached in some (but not all) reports on the subject, we want and need to know more about the accuracy of how the credit reporting companies assemble and maintain the information contained in consumer credit reports. Accuracy is critical for consumers and for markets. We recognize that achieving such accuracy takes a great deal of discipline and effort, particularly for a company that is handling and processing a huge volume of information. But because of the increasingly significant role these reports are taking on in our financial lives, the collateral consequences of mistakes can greatly harm consumers. The wrong information may cause them to be denied a loan, to be charged a much higher interest rate, or to be passed over for a job, causing them serious economic hardship. And inaccurate credit reports also deprive lenders of essential information they need to assess credit risk properly."
"Third, we are keenly interested in understanding more about the problems and frustrations that consumers tell us they encounter in trying to resolve disputes about the information contained in their credit reports. Some errors may be unavoidable even in the best of systems. But when consumers find what they perceive to be erroneous information in their credit reports, they should not be burdened by unreasonably laborious processes to get errors removed from their files. There are certainly valid reasons why a credit reporting company must conduct a reasonable investigation when a consumer disputes information, and follow the procedures outlined in the law. But the harm done by errors is borne above all by consumers, and they deserve straightforward, effective, and timely mechanisms for addressing disputed items." | <urn:uuid:f39ed41b-411c-4ff2-8c49-900ea2f639d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/consuming-interests-blog/bal-consuming-interests-cfpb-to-begin-to-oversight-of-credit-bureaus-20120716,0,6086938.story?track=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96123 | 689 | 2.109375 | 2 |
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.0907 Monday, 16 October 2006
From: Hardy M. Cook <
Date: Monday, October 16, 2006
Subject: Kevin Kline's Shakespeare Sessions
Kevin Kline's Shakespeare Sessions 2006-10-15
"Shakespeare Sessions" with Kevin Kline, the acclaimed documentary which
first aired on PBS, is coming to DVD.
(PRWEB) October 14, 2006 -- "Shakespeare Sessions" with Kevin Kline and
"the world's most famous English teacher," John Barton, from the
producers who brought you the acclaimed "Working Shakespeare" series.
Two founders of the Royal Shakespeare Company, John Barton and Sir Peter
Hall, both legendary directors of the classics, traveled to New York
City to work with an all-star American cast, including Kevin Kline,
David Hyde Pierce ("Frasier"), Cynthia Nixon ("Sex in the City"), Liev
Schreiber ("The Omen") and Charles S. Dutton ("Ma Rainey's Black
Bottom") on what has traditionally been viewed as a British
protectorate: Shakespeare's Stage.
"It is very hard today to make an audience listen to and understand
Shakespeare," Barton instructs his celebrated class. Barton proceeds to
do just that, adroitly breaking down Shakespeare's seemingly
impenetrable language, analyzing the emotional syntax of each scene
(including highlights from "Hamlet," "Henry V," "Othello," "Merchant of
Venice" and "Much Ado About Nothing"), and focusing actors on the
practical performance clues Shakespeare has embedded in his plays.
"Shakespeare Sessions," a film by Oscar-nominated director Oren Jacoby,
reveals a rare behind-the-scenes analysis of how Shakespeare's plays
actually work on stage and on the page. Barton's hands-on, gloves-off,
intellectual approach is an ideal companion to the visceral liberation
and vocal experiments of Cicely Berry's "Working Shakespeare," the
Working Arts Library's first release in July, hosted by Jeremy Irons.
Indeed Barton and Berry have been complementing each other's text and
voice work on the same RSC productions for over 30 years.
"Shakespeare Sessions" records these intimate workshops as Barton
combines scholarship with stagecraft, drawing out an actor's own textual
speculations in performance, sometimes through a lively examination of a
single word. Barton, whose renowned Shakespeare television workshops
have made him perhaps the world's most famous English teacher, inspires
his students to a pragmatic state of courage based on knowledge of the
text. In his early days, he served as a fight director, and here he
thrusts and parries with his students, maneuvering them into a
comfortable engagement with Shakespeare's language. Words are no blunt
instruments in Barton's capable hands, and in this historic revelation
of an actor's process, his students learn to wield words with a new
respect for their power.
"Shakespeare Sessions" isn't an English and Drama department special.
Law schools should also take note: The film, which first aired on PBS,
features Alan Dershowitz, litigator supreme on the American courtroom
scene, who flew in to witness Barton interrogating the text of Merchant
of Venice and to take a run at a speech or two himself. It is, after
all, the argument behind the language that must engage audience and
Dustin Hoffman appears in rehearsal with Peter Hall for their Broadway
production of "Merchant of Venice." Other actors in the 60-minute film,
produced by Denver Center's Dirk Olson and Brockman Seawell, include
Patrick Stewart, Harriet Walter, Janet Suzman, Lynn Collins, Peter
Francis James and Mia Tagano.
[ . . . ]
S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook,
The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net>
DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the
opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the
editor assumes no responsibility for them. | <urn:uuid:43697d3c-d7a4-46d4-bd40-f64c4e9ecd00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shaksper.net/archive/2006/242-october/24996-kevin-klines-shakespeare-sessions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918784 | 891 | 1.625 | 2 |
Greek Initiative is gaining ground
February 8, 2013
Courtesy of Jeff Rankin - The Greek Initiative started with the house that currently houses Alpha Xi Delta.
Two Greek buildings on campus stand out in contrast with one another. Those two buildings are the new Alpha Xi Delta house and the Fraternity Complex. These two buildings are at the core of recent discussions about the reinstatement of the Greek Initiative.
The Greek Initiative started with the reinstatement of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity in 2008. Then in 2009, the College Board approved the construction of a commercial grade Victorian style house on the former Zeta Beta Tau house site. One of the factors leading to the construction was that the sororities had never had a house of their own. It was then determined Alpha Xi Delta was to occupy the first house built. The plan was, and still is according to President Ditzler, that ZBT will one day take residence in the house, but only once a similar house is constructed for Alpha Xi. The initiative was moving forward as Kappa Kappa Gamma, Alpha Tau Omega and Pi Beta Phi were installed into former residential houses. During this period, FIJI was added. Planning with the initiative began to wane mainly because the administration focused their resources on the construction of the Center for Science and Business, but, one of the original factors, the rise of the student population, had begun to subside.
At the September 24 meeting of the Associated Students of Monmouth College (ASMC), a motion was brought forward to reinstate the Greek Initiative by Anthony Larios of Sigma Phi Epsilon. The objective is to give Greek organizations the ability to fundraise and work with campus development committees in order to obtain housing.
“The executive officers of ASMC have been working with the Senators and Presidents of the Greek organizations to draft a letter to President Ditzler,” said ASMC President Kathryn Shipp. “Last week we presented President Ditzler with the letter and met with him to discuss the initiative.”
The letter outlines the reasons as to why the Greek Initiative, specifically in regards to housing, should be reinstated. Two of the reasons for the original Greek initiative appear: the worsening state of the Fraternity Complex and the desire to maintain the aesthetic appeal of the college’s neighborhood.
Some Greeks will be in better position than others to fundraise for a new house, but there are other issues such as finding land or a current house for sale. According to President Ditzler, the Alpha Xi house was constructed using commercial building standards, resulting in a two million dollar total cost of the house. Raising funds from alumni will be a task each Greek organization will have to do in order to receive a house. However, President Ditzler acknowledged that in approximately ten years, the Fraternity Complex will be torn down. This has prompted him to include Greek housing onto his list of future construction plans for Monmouth College. | <urn:uuid:ccfa6426-19fd-4e48-b825-88a1bd4fd95c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mccourier.com/2013/02/08/greek-initiative-is-gaining-ground/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973005 | 598 | 1.609375 | 2 |
How can I have Google Chrome-like tab behavior in Opera?
In Opera, when I open some links in background tab and then close the current tab, it just goes to the left tab.
Update: Google Chrome tab behavior
Google Chrome tabs work in a way that I don't have to open new window or move tabs while I just browse the web and open a lot of links in background tabs and then in each of those link, open another set of links in background and so on.
After some testing with reddit pages, here's how I think Google Chrome tabs work:
- Open a bunch of links (from the same page) in background tabs, where are the new tabs? The new tabs are immediately to the right (of the opener tab).
- Close a tab, then which tab is activated/focused? A sibling tab (of the closed tab) is closed, if it exists. (Tab X is a sibling of tab Y if X and Y have the same parent tab Z. Tab Z is the parent of tab X if X is opened from Z.) If you close tabs successively, sibling tabs to the right are closed (because they the ones being focused after each closing) and then the sibling tabs to the left are closed, and then the focus is on the parent tab, which is usually immediately to the left of the last closed tab. It doesn't work this way if you move tabs around.
Also see tabbed browsing in Google Chrome | <urn:uuid:bc67bc9d-b837-495f-8e61-5e58316e88bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://superuser.com/questions/69639/google-chrome-like-tab-behavior-in-opera/69642 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922629 | 301 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Learn to run by feel so you can nail every mile split in a race—or a workout.
When it comes to pacing, top runners aren't just fast—they're also very, very consistent. Like finely calibrated metronomes, they quickly dial into a target pace and then hold it steady mile after mile. If you race, this skill is essential: Let the pace lag, and you give up time that you can't claw back; accelerate too much, and you'll pay for your exuberance with a late-race fade. If you run simply for fitness, a reliable sense of pace is just as valuable: Channel your inner Goldilocks—not too fast, not too slow, but just right—and you will better achieve the purpose of each workout.
Of course, that's easier said than done. "The ability to run by feel is a skill that has to be learned," says Steve Magness, an assistant coach with Alberto Salazar's Nike Oregon Project in Portland. For example, in a study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers found that experienced collegiate runners could nail their pace to within about 10 seconds per mile, while less seasoned recreational runners were off by an average of more than 40 seconds a mile. But simply running more isn't sufficient—and neither is relying on a GPS, as you'll never learn how to monitor internal feedback. You also have to adjust your training to fine-tune your inner pacemaker.
"Most beginners have very little pace sense when they first start running," says Matt Hart, a Salt Lake City-based endurance coach. To fix that, Hart suggests paying attention to how your pace relates to your sense of effort. Which paces feel easy, medium, and hard? By focusing on cues like your breathing, the rhythm of your legs, and the motion of your arms, you'll ingrain the physical sensations that correspond to different speeds.
FEEL IT: Twice a week, time a mile in the middle of an easy run. Don't speed up or slow down—the goal is to just gather information to gradually calibrate your internal speedometer. In your log, note your time and an effort rating on a scale of 1 to 10, along with brief comments on how your breathing and legs felt. After a few weeks, do the same thing during tempo runs to fine-tune your faster pace. Then try timing miles near the beginning and end of workouts to learn the difference between, say, tempo or goal race pace on tired legs and fresh legs. Spend at least a month in this awareness-building phase.
DITCH THE GADGETS
Some runners depend exclusively on their watches to tell them their speed. "Instead of relying on a sense of pace, they turn to the Garmin every 15 seconds and run like they're in stop-and-go traffic," says Jeff Gaudette, head coach of Boston-based RunnersConnect.
FEEL IT: Once you're familiar with your split times during certain runs, start trying to guess your time for those sections—before you look at your watch. Initially, you may be a minute or more off per mile, but you'll get better. "It takes about six months of strict attention to feeling pace to consistently get within 10 seconds a mile of your goal pace," Gaudette says.
To be able to call up any given pace on demand, the final step is to practice shifting back and forth between paces. "A lot of times people are great at hitting a certain pace, but only if they can lock into it and stay there," Magness says. But in the real world, hills, sharp turns, or crowds can break your rhythm. Running workouts that call for frequent pace changes will help you quickly resume your desired pace after a disruption.
FEEL IT: The simplest exercise is to shift back and forth between two speeds. For example, alternate between 800 meters (or a half-mile) at tempo pace and 800 meters at one minute per mile slower than tempo pace for two to four miles. Initially, check your watch every 400 meters to ensure you're hitting the proper speed. Then check every 800 meters. Use this exercise for all your training paces.
RUN better: Expect to spend at least six months honing your pace sense. If you're regularly off by a minute or so, focus more on your body's signals.
Biweekly workouts to build pace sense
HIT THE SPLITS
Run 10 to 15 x 200 meters at 5-K pace or a bit faster with 60 seconds rest. Try to keep each split within a five-second range.
Run 3 x 1600 meters (four laps of the track) at 10-K pace with three minutes rest between each. For the first repeat, check your splits after each lap. For the second, check every second lap. For the final repeat, check your time only at the finish. Aim to get within 10 seconds of your goal time; work up to within five seconds.
Start a three-to eight-mile run at your easy-run pace. After each mile, pick up the pace by 10 seconds until you hit tempo pace or finish the run, whichever comes first. Check your pace only at the end of each mile.
32% OF RUNNERS RUN WITHOUT A WATCH AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK; 68% WON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT, REPORTS AN RW POLL. | <urn:uuid:f51caeb7-2603-491e-9a58-9b48ba71fd87> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.runnersworld.com/running-tips/tuned?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948762 | 1,118 | 1.984375 | 2 |
Steamboat Springs Editor's note: This story has been updated from its original version to clarify where funding for the project came from and for what it was used.
Since 2003, a pair of old water plant settling ponds has sat untouched at Williams Street and Arthur Avenue, enclosed by a barbed-wire fence to keep people and animals away.
Mark Wertheimer lives near that corner and said he sees local children riding their bikes out in the streets nearby, as if they’re waiting for a place to go.
Community members hope that by the end of summer, they’ll have one, as the town of Oak Creek plans to transform the old settling ponds into a new community recreation hub.
“We thought, wouldn’t it be cool if this were someday an asset instead of an eyesore?” Wertheimer said.
With the help of Great Outdoors Colorado, LiveWell Northwest Colorado, the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps and a group of enthusiastic local residents, Oak Creek is getting started on its Recreation Master Plan, getting projects under way that were first outlined almost 10 years ago in the town’s Comprehensive Plan.
Wertheimer, the associate director of Rocky Mountain Youth Corps, got his organization involved, receiving a $25,645 grant from Great Outdoors Colorado for a crew to spend four weeks this summer working on the new park and also cutting a short hiking trail up behind the Tracks and Trails Museum.
LiveWell also granted $17,000 for materials for the trails project, and two weeks ago, the town learned it had received $45,000 from GOCo for the park project, as well.
Oak Creek Mayor Nikki Knoebel said the two projects — the park and the trail — are just the beginning of a larger vision for the town.
“It’s important people have something close to home to get out and be active,” Knoebel said. “And we want to offer more things for the kids to do. We really want to make this a family-friendly community.
“It’s about kids, the families and bringing people together.”
Kicking into gear
On Friday at the settling ponds site, the evidence of the transformation already was visible. Public works employees had filled in the ponds with dirt, and a Rocky Mountain Youth Corps crew had taken down all of the fencing.
Public works employee Stu Hassell leaned on his shovel and looked out over the stretch of brown dirt, which to him is a fresh canvas for a project he’s been dreaming about for years.
Included in the GOCo grant are funds to design and build a pump track — a circular dirt bike track with rollers to sustain speed without pedaling.
“The best thing about a pump track is really anyone can ride them,” Hassell said. “From little kids on a push bike to as old as you want to do it. It’s a great skill builder.”
Hassell knows a big part of his job is recreation, as he also grooms the cross-country ski trails the town launched last winter.
LiveWell also provided the grant for the groomer, which kick-started the process of reconsidering the recreation plan and how to implement the first phase of updates once the snow melted.
“Working for the town and seeing what the kids around here are doing with nothing to do … we need a place for kids to go,” Hassell said.
In addition, the town received a skate ramp by donation, which Knoebel said could be part of a future skatepark at the ice rink, and there are tentative plans to offer bouldering rocks at the new park.
Just the beginning
The Rocky Mountain Youth Corps crew has been working on the new Noon Whistle Trail for only four days, but already the young workers are seeing the impact their work is making on the community.
“Just this week that the trails have been going, we’ve seen a lot of folks cutting through here,” Wertheimer said. “They’ve already been meandering up this trail.”
He said many visitors also stop by to peruse the museum and show interest in making the half-mile hike up the hill.
Knoebel said the town plans to involve the whole community in cleanup days, and local children will have a hand in the park construction through the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps’ Service Learning Institute.
Eventually, the town plans to continue to expand the trail system and revamp the creek-side area at Decker Park, among other projects.
And though funding and easements might be obstacles, community engagement won’t be.
“This is part of why I live here,” said Wertheimer, who moved to Oak Creek two years ago. “There’s people who care; there’s people who want to take the time and the sweat to make things happen.”
To reach Nicole Inglis, call 970-871-4204 or email ninglis@SteamboatToday.com | <urn:uuid:b9cd3fc3-1e04-432c-bd63-74b5068f0aba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.steamboattoday.com/news/2011/jul/03/oak-creek-gets-head-start-new-park-new-trails/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962733 | 1,069 | 1.703125 | 2 |
LinkedIn slashes cookie lifespan after research exposes security flaws
LinkedIn said it would reduce the persistence of cookies it uses to identify users of the business-focused social networking site following the discovery of security issues with the site that create a possible means for fraudsters to hijack profiles.
Security researcher Rishi Narang discovered that LinkedIn session cookies are transmitted over an unsecured HTTP connection even in cases where users follow the option of signing in over a secure (SSL) connection. These cookies remain active for up to a year. Hackers who captured these cookies, perhaps using a tool such as Firesheep to sniff out cookies transmitted over open Wi-Fi connections, would be able to obtain unauthorised access to other users' accounts.
The LEO_AUTH_TOKEN cookie grants access to an associated account irrespective of whether or not users are logged in at the time, Narang warns. These cookies work for up to a year or until a user changes their password and logs in using this new password, generating a fresh authentication token. LinkedIn boasts more than 100 million registered users, a factor that inevitably makes it of interest to miscreants.
In response to the research, LinkedIn reduced the persistence of the authentication cookie from a year to three months. In addition, the business-focused social network is extending plans to support SSL across its site – not just during logins, as explained in a statement below.
Whether you are on LinkedIn or any other site, it’s always a good idea to choose trusted and encrypted Wi-fi networks or VPNs whenever possible. If one isn't available, we already support SSL for logins and other sensitive web pages.
Now, we are accelerating our existing plans to extend that SSL support across the entire site on an opt-in basis. And, we are going to reduce the lifespan of the cookies in question from 12 months to 90 days.
LinkedIn takes the privacy and security of our members seriously, while also looking to deliver a great site experience, and we believe these two changes will allow us to strike that balance.
More details of Narang's research, including sample codes and a two-part video of the exploit in action, can be found in a blog post here . ® | <urn:uuid:b703cfe8-f168-4f54-a40e-792912195349> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/24/linkedin_cookie_vuln/print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926294 | 456 | 2.3125 | 2 |
Click on any phrase to play the video at that point.Close
Thank you very much. Please excuse me for sitting; I'm very old. (Laughter) Well, the topic I'm going to discuss is one which is, in a certain sense, very peculiar because it's very old. Roughness is part of human life forever and forever, and ancient authors have written about it. It was very much uncontrollable, and in a certain sense, it seemed to be the extreme of complexity, just a mess, a mess and a mess. There are many different kinds of mess. Now, in fact, by a complete fluke, I got involved many years ago in a study of this form of complexity, and to my utter amazement, I found traces -- very strong traces, I must say -- of order in that roughness. And so today, I would like to present to you a few examples of what this represents. I prefer the word roughness to the word irregularity because irregularity -- to someone who had Latin in my long-past youth -- means the contrary of regularity. But it is not so. Regularity is the contrary of roughness because the basic aspect of the world is very rough.
So let me show you a few objects. Some of them are artificial. Others of them are very real, in a certain sense. Now this is the real. It's a cauliflower. Now why do I show a cauliflower, a very ordinary and ancient vegetable? Because old and ancient as it may be, it's very complicated and it's very simple, both at the same time. If you try to weigh it -- of course it's very easy to weigh it, and when you eat it, the weight matters -- but suppose you try to measure its surface. Well, it's very interesting. If you cut, with a sharp knife, one of the florets of a cauliflower and look at it separately, you think of a whole cauliflower, but smaller. And then you cut again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, and you still get small cauliflowers. So the experience of humanity has always been that there are some shapes which have this peculiar property, that each part is like the whole, but smaller. Now, what did humanity do with that? Very, very little. (Laughter)
So what I did actually is to study this problem, and I found something quite surprising. That one can measure roughness by a number, a number, 2.3, 1.2 and sometimes much more. One day, a friend of mine, to bug me, brought a picture and said, "What is the roughness of this curve?" I said, "Well, just short of 1.5." It was 1.48. Now, it didn't take me any time. I've been looking at these things for so long. So these numbers are the numbers which denote the roughness of these surfaces. I hasten to say that these surfaces are completely artificial. They were done on a computer, and the only input is a number, and that number is roughness. So on the left, I took the roughness copied from many landscapes. To the right, I took a higher roughness. So the eye, after a while, can distinguish these two very well.
Humanity had to learn about measuring roughness. This is very rough, and this is sort of smooth, and this perfectly smooth. Very few things are very smooth. So then if you try to ask questions: "What's the surface of a cauliflower?" Well, you measure and measure and measure. Each time you're closer, it gets bigger, down to very, very small distances. What's the length of the coastline of these lakes? The closer you measure, the longer it is. The concept of length of coastline, which seems to be so natural because it's given in many cases, is, in fact, complete fallacy; there's no such thing. You must do it differently.
What good is that, to know these things? Well, surprisingly enough, it's good in many ways. To begin with, artificial landscapes, which I invented sort of, are used in cinema all the time. We see mountains in the distance. They may be mountains, but they may be just formulae, just cranked on. Now it's very easy to do. It used to be very time-consuming, but now it's nothing. Now look at that. That's a real lung. Now a lung is something very strange. If you take this thing, you know very well it weighs very little. The volume of a lung is very small, but what about the area of the lung? Anatomists were arguing very much about that. Some say that a normal male's lung has an area of the inside of a basketball [court]. And the others say, no, five basketball [courts]. Enormous disagreements. Why so? Because, in fact, the area of the lung is something very ill-defined. The bronchi branch, branch, branch and they stop branching, not because of any matter of principle, but because of physical considerations: the mucus, which is in the lung. So what happens is that in a way you have a much bigger lung, but it branches and branches down to distances about the same for a whale, for a man and for a little rodent.
Now, what good is it to have that? Well, surprisingly enough, amazingly enough, the anatomists had a very poor idea of the structure of the lung until very recently. And I think that my mathematics, surprisingly enough, has been of great help to the surgeons studying lung illnesses and also kidney illnesses, all these branching systems, for which there was no geometry. So I found myself, in other words, constructing a geometry, a geometry of things which had no geometry. And a surprising aspect of it is that very often, the rules of this geometry are extremely short. You have formulas that long. And you crank it several times. Sometimes repeatedly: again, again, again, the same repetition. And at the end, you get things like that.
This cloud is completely, 100 percent artificial. Well, 99.9. And the only part which is natural is a number, the roughness of the cloud, which is taken from nature. Something so complicated like a cloud, so unstable, so varying, should have a simple rule behind it. Now this simple rule is not an explanation of clouds. The seer of clouds had to take account of it. I don't know how much advanced these pictures are. They're old. I was very much involved in it, but then turned my attention to other phenomena.
Now, here is another thing which is rather interesting. One of the shattering events in the history of mathematics, which is not appreciated by many people, occurred about 130 years ago, 145 years ago. Mathematicians began to create shapes that didn't exist. Mathematicians got into self-praise to an extent which was absolutely amazing, that man can invent things that nature did not know. In particular, it could invent things like a curve which fills the plane. A curve's a curve, a plane's a plane, and the two won't mix. Well, they do mix. A man named Peano did define such curves, and it became an object of extraordinary interest. It was very important, but mostly interesting because a kind of break, a separation between the mathematics coming from reality, on the one hand, and new mathematics coming from pure man's mind. Well, I was very sorry to point out that the pure man's mind has, in fact, seen at long last what had been seen for a long time. And so here I introduce something, the set of rivers of a plane-filling curve. And well, it's a story unto itself. So it was in 1875 to 1925, an extraordinary period in which mathematics prepared itself to break out from the world. And the objects which were used as examples, when I was a child and a student, as examples of the break between mathematics and visible reality -- those objects, I turned them completely around. I used them for describing some of the aspects of the complexity of nature.
Well, a man named Hausdorff in 1919 introduced a number which was just a mathematical joke, and I found that this number was a good measurement of roughness. When I first told it to my friends in mathematics they said, "Don't be silly. It's just something [silly]." Well actually, I was not silly. The great painter Hokusai knew it very well. The things on the ground are algae. He did not know the mathematics; it didn't yet exist. And he was Japanese who had no contact with the West. But painting for a long time had a fractal side. I could speak of that for a long time. The Eiffel Tower has a fractal aspect. I read the book that Mr. Eiffel wrote about his tower, and indeed it was astonishing how much he understood.
This is a mess, mess, mess, Brownian loop. One day I decided -- halfway through my career, I was held by so many things in my work -- I decided to test myself. Could I just look at something which everybody had been looking at for a long time and find something dramatically new? Well, so I looked at these things called Brownian motion -- just goes around. I played with it for a while, and I made it return to the origin. Then I was telling my assistant, "I don't see anything. Can you paint it?" So he painted it, which means he put inside everything. He said: "Well, this thing came out ..." And I said, "Stop! Stop! Stop! I see; it's an island." And amazing. So Brownian motion, which happens to have a roughness number of two, goes around. I measured it, 1.33. Again, again, again. Long measurements, big Brownian motions, 1.33. Mathematical problem: how to prove it? It took my friends 20 years. Three of them were having incomplete proofs. They got together, and together they had the proof. So they got the big [Fields] medal in mathematics, one of the three medals that people have received for proving things which I've seen without being able to prove them.
Now everybody asks me at one point or another, "How did it all start? What got you in that strange business?" What got you to be, at the same time, a mechanical engineer, a geographer and a mathematician and so on, a physicist? Well actually I started, oddly enough, studying stock market prices. And so here I had this theory, and I wrote books about it -- financial prices increments. To the left you see data over a long period. To the right, on top, you see a theory which is very, very fashionable. It was very easy, and you can write many books very fast about it. (Laughter) There are thousands of books on that. Now compare that with real price increments. Where are real price increments? Well, these other lines include some real price increments and some forgery which I did. So the idea there was that one must be able to -- how do you say? -- model price variation. And it went really well 50 years ago. For 50 years, people were sort of pooh-poohing me because they could do it much, much easier. But I tell you, at this point, people listened to me. (Laughter) These two curves are averages: Standard & Poor, the blue one; and the red one is Standard & Poor's from which the five biggest discontinuities are taken out. Now discontinuities are a nuisance, so in many studies of prices, one puts them aside. "Well, acts of God. And you have the little nonsense which is left. Acts of God." In this picture, five acts of God are as important as everything else. In other words, it is not acts of God that we should put aside. That is the meat, the problem. If you master these, you master price, and if you don't master these, you can master the little noise as well as you can, but it's not important. Well, here are the curves for it.
Now, I get to the final thing, which is the set of which my name is attached. In a way, it's the story of my life. My adolescence was spent during the German occupation of France. Since I thought that I might vanish within a day or a week, I had very big dreams. And after the war, I saw an uncle again. My uncle was a very prominent mathematician, and he told me, "Look, there's a problem which I could not solve 25 years ago, and which nobody can solve. This is a construction of a man named [Gaston] Julia and [Pierre] Fatou. If you could find something new, anything, you will get your career made." Very simple. So I looked, and like the thousands of people that had tried before, I found nothing.
But then the computer came, and I decided to apply the computer, not to new problems in mathematics -- like this wiggle wiggle, that's a new problem -- but to old problems. And I went from what's called real numbers, which are points on a line, to imaginary, complex numbers, which are points on a plane, which is what one should do there, and this shape came out. This shape is of an extraordinary complication. The equation is hidden there, z goes into z squared, plus c. It's so simple, so dry. It's so uninteresting. Now you turn the crank once, twice: twice, marvels come out. I mean this comes out. I don't want to explain these things. This comes out. This comes out. Shapes which are of such complication, such harmony and such beauty. This comes out repeatedly, again, again, again. And that was one of my major discoveries, to find that these islands were the same as the whole big thing, more or less. And then you get these extraordinary baroque decorations all over the place. All that from this little formula, which has whatever, five symbols in it. And then this one. The color was added for two reasons. First of all, because these shapes are so complicated that one couldn't make any sense of the numbers. And if you plot them, you must choose some system. And so my principle has been to always present the shapes with different colorings because some colorings emphasize that, and others it is that or that. It's so complicated.
In 1990, I was in Cambridge, U.K. to receive a prize from the university, and three days later, a pilot was flying over the landscape and found this thing. So where did this come from? Obviously, from extraterrestrials. (Laughter) Well, so the newspaper in Cambridge published an article about that "discovery" and received the next day 5,000 letters from people saying, "But that's simply a Mandelbrot set very big."
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At TED2010, mathematics legend Benoit Mandelbrot develops a theme he first discussed at TED in 1984 -- the extreme complexity of roughness, and the way that fractal math can find order within patterns that seem unknowably complicated.
Benoit Mandelbrot's work led the world to a deeper understanding of fractals, a broad and powerful tool in the study of roughness, both in nature and in humanity's works. Full bio » | <urn:uuid:57ed860a-54c9-4294-88aa-ddef0daf3f05> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ted.com/talks/benoit_mandelbrot_fractals_the_art_of_roughness.html?quote=771 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982262 | 3,306 | 1.984375 | 2 |
Apple A6 Processor is a Custom Apple Design, Prioritizing Performance and Power Efficiency
Early speculation had led some to conclude that that the A6 was based on the yet-to-be-seen Cortex A15 ARM processor design. The Cortex A15 is licensable processor design from ARM that promises significantly faster performance than the existing Cortex A9 design which is what Apple uses in their A5 processor (iPhone 4S).
Anandtech now reveals, however, that the A6 is a custom Apple design:
The A6 is the first Apple SoC to use its own ARMv7 based processor design. The CPU core(s) aren't based on a vanilla A9 or A15 design from ARM IP, but instead are something of Apple's own creation.Anandtech explains that Apple is one of a few ARM architecture licensees, which allows them to create their own custom ARM processor designs.
While Anadtech goes into the finer details, the ultimate benefit for Apple is the ability to tune their chips towards their own specific goals. In particular, Apple's design goals prioritize both power and performance while the generally licensable Cortex A15 design was reportedly targeted at server configurations.
Rumor has it that the original design goal for ARM's Cortex A15 was servers, and it's only through big.LITTLE (or other clever techniques) that the A15 would be suitable for smartphones. Given Apple's intense focus on power consumption, skipping the A15 would make sense but performance still had to improve.Apple seems to finally be benefiting from some previous company acquisitions including P.A. Semi and Intrinsity, both chip design companies. The ability to tune their CPU designs specifically for their products could serve as a competitive advantage over other companies that are reliant on the licensable designs provided by ARM. Apple's previous processor designs have been based on these more traditional designs, so this represents Apple's first departure into a more custom design approach.
Image from Engadget | <urn:uuid:e202eea3-b0d3-4261-9711-60235d1841b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.macrumors.com/2012/09/15/apple-a6-processor-a-custom-apple-design-prioritizing-performance-and-power-efficiency/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970754 | 405 | 2.390625 | 2 |
- Agricultural Exhibit - Yesterday's Farmer: Planting an American Dream
- Pioneers of San Jose Japantown
- World War II: Assembly Centers and Internment Camps Exhibit
- 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team (RCT)
- World War II: Military Intelligence Service (MIS)
- Post World War II: Resettlement
- Sports in the Japanese American Community
- Common Ground
Post World War II: Resettlement
'My grandfather, Torahiko Kawakami, managed the hostel at the Buddhist Church Annex.
After their release from the camps, many Japanese Americans had no home, job or community to come back to. In this collection of photographs and written personal memories, local community members tell how they rebuilt their lives and raised their families in the postwar environment here in the Santa Clara Valley.
The hostel was set up for the heads of the household, who came back just for the resettlement by opening/cleaning their homes or find a house/apt. to rent. After the hostel closed, our multi-generational family stayed briefly, with three other families, in the JACL Bldg. on N. Fifth St.'
- Mari Terada"
:: Back to Exhibitions | <urn:uuid:a50f600e-13bf-4dac-a874-3d63262a3f9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jamsj.org/exhibit/post-world-war-ii-resettlement | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933143 | 262 | 2.421875 | 2 |
Providing meaningful feedback to employees is absolutely essential to help them develop their potentials. Without good feedback, growth simply is not possible.
All managers have many things in common: they all accept greater responsibility and accountability than non-management employees, they all exercise control over particular organization functions, and they all focus on getting things done through others.
Positive reinforcement both shapes behavior and enhances an employee’s self-image. Effective reinforcers can be grouped into six major categories.
When trying to find out how a candidate thinks, it’s always best to start by asking very broad, open-ended questions.
Make sure you have an interruption-free, private space where you and the candidate can talk comfortably.
Make sure that every job applicant completes one of your standard applications – even if they have already sent you a full, lengthy resume.
When a complaint is made, the manager should follow these five steps.
Accepted wisely, employees’ complaints can be useful tools a lab manager could use to improve and upgrade his work unit and keep his employees happy.
Faced with stress, is it even possible to stay calm, cool, and collected? To take it all in stride, function effectively, not lose sleep, and still handle problems successfully?
Before you hold your next meeting, be sure you and the others at the meeting know why it's being held. Meetings can drag on and feel like a waste of time if the goals are not clear to all in attendance.
Finding it hard to carve out time to get important things done? Checking email, people at your office door, unexpected meetings can all fill time but may not be getting you any closer to getting your own work done or to move ahead on projects.
If you’re the boss, you don’t necessarily want to hear the word “no.” If you have an issue or concern with a boss’s ideas, it’s not easy or may not be welcome to disagree. So is saying “no” taboo in the workplace?
Repeating yourself and doing it using different methods of communication can enhance persuasion and buy-in.
All leaders are managers but not all managers are leaders. Both managers and true leaders get things done through others, but managers do so by virtue of their specific position within their organizations, while true leaders— regardless of their official rank—do so by inspiring others.
No wonder a recent survey of North American employees found that 87 percent of respondents say their work/life balance is negatively affecting their health. If you’ve been killing yourself trying to achieve daily work/life balance, it may be a pipe dream.
We’ve all been there. A team member comes up to you with a “great idea.” Sometimes the idea is good, but maybe not great. Sometimes the idea has little merit. How do you respond in these situations without deflating the energies and passion of your team?
Finding and keeping good employees can be a manager's biggest challenge. This online employee turnover calculator can help assess the financial damage that high turnover can create in an organization.
The following tips will teach you how to turn your next meeting with conflicting employees into a productive conversation.
These seven “leadership realities” are often overlooked or undervalued in organizations.
Poor team performance and productivity is like leaving money on the table.
Neutralizing assaults and waiting before responding can help deflect the problems of "working for a boss like that."
By taking a closer look at why delegation may not be their strong suit, managers can learn how to move beyond the fears of delegation and start doing it effectively.
Even if you have no doubts about your management abilities, it might be wise to take a moment of introspection to see if any of these Seven Signs You May Be a Bad Manager could apply to you.
One of the challenges many managers and leaders face is in understanding the distinctions between levels of leadership. In fact, there is a whole level of leadership that many people don't even realize exists.
Though determining what to measure and how to measure can be tricky, once metrics are in place, you can "tell which strategies are working and which aren't." | <urn:uuid:705efbda-f13b-4c63-99e9-0cb0398e5a55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forensicmag.com/tips/management-tips | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952661 | 871 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Work to begin after experts estimate pesticide level
A 28-member National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team reached Alakkode here on Saturday to help remove pesticides illegally dumped in the Rayarom river.
The team has arrived in response to interventions by the authorities to recover the huge quantities of pesticides dumped on August 1. The personnel, accompanied by revenue officials, visited Rayarom and Neduvode.
They will start work only after experts from the Gwalior-based nuclear, biological and chemical emergency wing of the Defence Ministry, expected here on Sunday, examine the pollution level.
However, the team, assisted by the police, Fire and Rescue Service personnel and selected local people, would form four groups to search for pesticide bottles and packets along the river bank from Rayarom to Chapparappadavu from Sunday. If required, NDRF divers would scour the riverbed.
The pesticides dumped are from an old pesticide shop which a person took on rent recently. Six people have been arrested in this connection. Eight persons who volunteered to remove the pesticides and entered the waters took ill, causing a scare.
A meeting of K.C. Joseph, M. Prakashan and A.P. Abdullakutty, MLAs, convened by District Collector V.K. Balakrishnan on Friday decided to sue for damages against the shop licensee and other accused.
The meeting took a decision to recommend to the State government financial assistance to those who took ill.
The local people, who formed an action committee to pressure the authorities to take steps to remove the pesticides, will hold a mass convention at Rayarom on Sunday to mobilise public opinion against such incidents. | <urn:uuid:0cb0bda6-49e0-4c0c-a968-47ed736613de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/ndrf-team-arrives-to-help-clean-up-river/article557958.ece | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954417 | 353 | 1.59375 | 2 |
A design concept for a cargo ship of the future has drawn inspiration from maritime history. The idea is to create a fleet of sailing cargo ships that will be 100 percent fossil fuel free.
Originating in Britain, a nation with a rich and colorful naval history, the concept sounds a lot like a return to the era that prefigured steam ships, when sailing ships were the only way of moving cargo across the seas.
However, the ships are somewhat more advanced than a good-old fashioned schooner. Featuring a state of the art dyna-rig sail propulsion system and off the shelf Rolls-Royce engines powered by waste derived liquid biomethane (liquid gas), the ships are the brainchild of B9 Shipping.
The company, which is part of the B9 Energy group, has already started work on a full-scale demonstration vessel.
Meanwhile a testing program is under way at the University of Southampton’s Wolfson Unit for Marine Technology and Industrial Aerodynamics.
The testing program, which began this month, will use tow tank and wind tunnel research to create a hull design to compliment the dyna-rig system. Using scale models it will attempt to calibrate thrust caused by the sailing rig under various conditions to come up with the optimum hull design.
B9 Shipping said the design would also have to take into account loading and unloading at dockside.
“We are designing B9 Ships holistically as super-efficient new builds transferring technology from offshore yacht racing combined with the most advanced commercial naval architecture,” Diane Gilpin, director of B9 Shipping, explained in a statement.
“We’re combining proven technologies in a novel way to develop ‘ready-to-go’ future-proof and 100 per cent fossil fuel free ships. This approach means financial investment and crucially, garnering support and furthering understanding with the shipping sector that there is a need for urgent change and through collaboration we can create viable commercially successful solutions.”
Of course, this is not the first attempt to return sails to cargo ships in a bid to cut fossil fuel use.
Launched earlier this year, the Wind Challenger project aims to prove that creating hybrid ships that employ both sails and engines could reduce annual fuel consumption of the shipping industry by about 30 percent on average.
A more eccentric plan to green up the cargo industry came from Skysails, based in Hamburg. The company has developed a patented system which uses a kite to propel large shipping vessels across the sea. The wind-harnessing propulsion system, in theory, could end up reducing fuel consumption by an impressive 35%.
The system involves a monstrous 3,444 square foot kite, which is attached, via rope, to a control pod that electronically manipulates the kite to maximize potential wind benefits. The kite itself flies anywhere from 300 to 1,300 feet in the air, whipping around in a figure 8 formation. Minnesota based shipping firm Cargill plan to install one of the kites on a vessel next year. | <urn:uuid:93d6157b-adfe-4b2e-868d-554a285f6c9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://maritimesecurity.asia/free-2/technology-2/eco-friendly-ship-recalls-glorious-maritime-past-tg-daily/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94499 | 624 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Water management takes centre stage for Pacific Islands
05 August 2010 | News story
“The availability of freshwater is important to the quality of life, and it is critical to the economic development of every country” was the opening message from the President of Palau, His Excellency Johnson Toribiong, in his speech to the Steering Committee meeting of the Pacific Integrated Water Resource Management Programme.
With 12 Pacific Countries represented, the Palau President reminded delegates at the meeting that water is one resource we cannot take for granted. Due to their small size and lack of natural storage, water resources are already fragile and scarce on most Pacific islands. Growing pressure from competing land use, exposure to natural hazards, and increased climate variability has increased water resources’ vulnerability. In many Pacific countries, even small variations in water supply can have a significant impact on health, quality of life and economic development.
As a partner in the Regional Pacific Programme, IUCN’s water programme was involved in the meeting and participated as part of the Regional Technical Advisory Group. "This type of regional fora provides us with a great opportunity to talk to member countries and to discuss water problems with Pacific Countries as we try and identify solutions together" said Dr. Milika Sobey, IUCN Water Coordinator for Oceania.
Marc Wilson, Regional Manager of the GEF IWRM Project, co-financing the Pacific Programme said it was appropriate that the meeting was being held in Koror, the main island of the Republic of Palau, where water availability and wastewater management is an acknowledged constraint to development.
The Pacific region’s access to improved drinking water and sanitation lags far behind the rest of the world. About 46% of Pacific populations have access to improved drinking water, compared to the global average of 87%. Similarly, only 48% of Pacific populations have access to improved sanitation facilities, compared to 62% globally.
Pollution and water mismanagement affects both surface and groundwater systems, and the forests, mangroves, reefs and offshore waters around islands. Protecting and managing water resources better, helps improve the ecosystem services from ridge to reef in such small and fragile island environments.
Dr. Milika Sobey was interviewed on a local radio station, The Voice of Palau, about bottled water company Fiji Water, and the water management situation in Fiji, her home country. Despite regular rainfall and regular flooding, Fiji does have water shortages due to the effects of the El Nino Southern Oscillation which affects rainfall patterns. Another major challenge is also old infrastructure which is often unable to cope with the demand of a growing population and expanding towns and cities.
IUCN was also invited to speak at a televised debate for a local current affairs programme on the topic of water resources in the region. It provided the opportunity for Dr. Sobey to highlight the work the IUCN Water and Nature Initiative (WANI) is doing with IUCN Member, the University of the South Pacific, on Kadavu Island in Fiji. The Kadavu project works with local communities to help identify water catchment management challenges, and ways to overcome these which will result in better quantity and quality for water, both in streams and the coastal areas.
The meeting took place in Koror, Palau, from 19-23 July 2010. The Pacific Islands Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) is the GEF Executing Agency for the Pacific IWRM Programme which is funded by both the GEF and the EU Water Facility IWRM Planning Programme.
For more information, please contact Dr. Milika Sobey: firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:83118a82-de55-43e5-8040-eadec61d1d85> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://iucn.org/about/work/programmes/ecosystem_management/islands/?5834/Water-management-takes-centre-stage-for-Pacific-Islands | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946657 | 751 | 2.484375 | 2 |
As Mark Porter left his Duboce Triangle home one morning a few weeks ago, he saw something that terrifies regular Muni streetcar commuters: His two-car N-Judah train was sitting idle at the stop, doors open and dozens of people were milling about.
None of his fellow passengers had an explanation.
Eventually, Porter learned that someone had died on the tracks near the Montgomery Station and that the subway would be closed for the foreseeable future.
Porter didn't hear that from Muni because the busy transit network has no way to alert those who make 700,000 trips each day about major delays or closures.
"I probably would have decided to work at home, or take the 71 (bus) or call a cab or even drive" had I known in advance, Porter told Chronicle Watch. "It would give you alternatives."
Every other major transit agency in the Bay Area either has or is close to having a way to send riders e-mails or text messages when there is a major delay. Muni says it has looked at the issue over the years but hasn't yet figured out a good solution.
But that leaves riders like Porter stranded and unaware of delays until they show up at their station. Plus, Porter and other Muni patrons have no way of knowing if the delay will be short or hours long.
"Is it short term or is it going to be hours? Is it a bad switch or a real problem?" Porter asked. "I get the feeling that the train operators don't understand what is going on because no one tells them either."
Muni is beta testing a smartphone app called Muni+ that will offer a real-time service map and transit alerts, said Paul Rose, a Muni spokesman.
"We're currently piloting an alert system on phone applications," Rose said, adding "It is an all-in-one tool about getting information on Muni in real time."
Bugs are still being worked out and the app, being developed by a third party at no cost to the city, won't be ready for general consumption until at least February. That's promising news for smartphone users, but those relying on traditional e-mail or text message alerts are out of luck.
Muni dispatchers at the command center try to post updates to Twitter, but that is inconsistent and only notifies people who have Twitter accounts. For example, no one was Tweeting last month when Porter was stranded by the half-day subway closure.
Elsewhere, BART spends $47,000 a year to notify its 108,227 text and e-mail alert subscribers of major and minor delays or station closures, said Alicia Trost, spokeswoman for BART. Caltrain has invested $4.6 million in a system that will track trains and alert riders with texts or e-mails when the trains are delayed, according to Caltrain spokeswoman Christine Dunn.
The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District spends $9,000 a year to send text and e-mail alerts to 10,000 riders to ferry and bus delays, said Mary Currie, a spokeswoman. And AC Transit blasts last-minute route changes to 10,000 e-news subscribers, said spokesman Clarence Johnson.
Muni does offer real-time arrival timing at many bus and subway stations, but that information does not communicate delays. On the day the subway was closed and Porter was stranded, a smartphone app that shows Muni arrival times said the next train would arrive in 40 minutes. The station was not scheduled to open for hours.
Rose said Muni is also exploring how to the use Next Bus - a popular third-party transit app - to notify riders of delays or outages via text message.
Porter, who has been riding Muni since 1988, said he appreciates things aren't easy for the transit network.
"I get that we're strapped for money, but if they ask their riders if they wanted this, I bet the answer would be yes," Porter told Chronicle Watch. "At the end of the day, this is helping people plan and helping Muni, too, so people can find another route."
What's not working
Issue: Unlike every other major transit agency in the region, Muni has no way to alert riders of a major delay or subway closure.
What's been done: Muni is beta testing a smartphone app that could be used to alert riders of delays, but that won't be ready until at least February.
If you know of something that needs to be improved, the Chronicle Watch team wants to hear from you. E-mail your issue to firstname.lastname@example.org, or reach us on Twitter at@sfchronwatch and facebook.com/sfchronwatch. | <urn:uuid:3e1f22d0-44df-46ad-8162-57def633f268> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Muni-s-slow-start-in-giving-delay-alerts-4058415.php | 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 | 0.970859 | 975 | 1.570313 | 2 |
An Overview of Adobe Edge
When you launch Edge, you'll see that there's not much there, except information for getting started which you'll see at the top right of the interface. There are four headings: Getting Started, What's New, Resources and Quiet. Under the Getting Started heading there are six major lessons which are: Start, Create, Animate 1, Animate 2, Extend and Reuse.
When you click on File: New, you'll see the workspace above. Note that all the lessons from the previous view have been moved to the far right of the interface.
The first lesson (Start) shows you how to create a one second animation of a rectangle that changes color as it moves. When you click on the lesson header it brings up the lesson on the far right of the workspace. The lesson itself will only take a few minutes to complete.
The next lesson is about creating content. Here, you'll create a rounded rectangle, center it using the handy guides that pop up when you're positioning an element, create some text, center it in the rounded rectangle, add a background and order the elements in preparation for animating.
Lesson three shows you the basics of animation using the "Pin," a tool which you use with the Playhead. The purpose is to make animation easier.
In this animation you'll work with the timeline, different elements and the "Pin." In the screen shot above you can see part of the animation in motion. It's important to pay careful attention here because it's easy to make mistakes. Fortunately the lesson gives you a finished animation to look at and to compare your results.
Animate 2 is about creating animation by using keyframing. Keyframes are a really important to controlling your animation(s). You'll learn how to position keyframes and add different properties to each one.
Also, when working with animation a great deal of focused energy and patience is required, partly because it's easy to make a mistake. It's really important to check your work frequently and take nothing for granted. When creating animations, it's a good practice to make use of a storyboard, where everything is plotted out in advance. If there are problems, they will occur during the storyboarding process. And when you're done, that's it for the animation. All you have to do is build it for real.
One of the things that will help you to understand what Adobe is doing is to visit the site: HTML.Adobe.com
Another is this page: http://edge.adobe.com/resources.html. Note that not all of the content on this page is current for Edge Preview 6. | <urn:uuid:2331473e-3f6d-4697-a6c8-50ee3c925ae8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.htmlgoodies.com/html5/css/an-overview-of-adobe-edge.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939509 | 547 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Le Moyne Breaks Ground on 48,000-square-foot Science Facility
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (For Immediate Release)... Le Moyne College broke ground on June 10 on a $20 million science facility that, once completed in late 2011, will serve as a key component of the Jesuit institution’s rapidly growing programs in both the sciences and the health professions. The 48,000-square-foot facility is located on the northern ridge of the campus, and will connect to the Coyne Science Center, one of the College’s original structures. posted on: 6/10/2010
“The addition of this science building is symbolic of the upward trajectory that Le Moyne has been on over the past two years,” said Le Moyne President Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D. “The beginning of the construction for this facility is the culmination of the hard work of many individuals, and is the result of the generosity of many stakeholders, who are deeply committed to Le Moyne and our Jesuit mission.”
The ground breaking for the building took place as part of the celebration of the successful closing of the College’s record-breaking Achieving New Heights comprehensive campaign. Launched with a goal of $50 million, Achieving New Heights concluded after reaching more than $91 million. (See a live Web cam of the construction site.)
“This facility heralds a new era of science education at Le Moyne with a renewed commitment to excellence in teaching, in scholarship and in research,” said Le Moyne Provost Linda LeMura, Ph.D. “As a growing number of regional organizations turn to Le Moyne to help them meet emerging needs in their sector, this new science facility will enable existing and new partnerships to flourish and succeed.”
Among its features are the largest lecture hall on campus, a variety of classrooms, laboratories for instruction and research, faculty offices, collaborative spaces, simulation facilities, and a computer lab. Angled to the south to capitalize upon solar resources, the building will maximize the use of sunlight for solar thermal heat and the harvest of best quality sunlight for daylight use. The building will also feature an “energy wall” that combines day lighting, solar preheating of building ventilation air, direct solar gain through glazing, and indirect gain and thermal storage via trombe walls. It was designed and constructed under principles of sustainability adopted by the U.S. Green Building Council, and will earn certification at the silver or gold level under the national Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building certification program.
In addition to offering state-of-the-art facilities that will be utilized by Le Moyne’s entire student body, the building will also benefit all of Central New York by better supporting the health care sector and providing a home for the College’s efforts to recruit and prepare engineers to meet the growing demand among regional companies for engineers – both critical elements in the growth of the region’s economy.
The building was designed by Ashley McGraw Architects. The project management firm is the Pioneer Companies. | <urn:uuid:bd4ffd5f-32a8-4044-9b15-e58ef7f3d8f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lemoyne.edu/tabid/795/Default.aspx?udt_2761_param_detail=7760 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947923 | 651 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Several reports on the web security and privacy of the Wall Street Journal‘s new site, SafeHouse, which is inspired by WikiLeaks, have been published. Reactions centered around the “terms and conditions” on the website, which include a disclaimer that SafeHouse “cannot ensure complete anonymity.” It also states the leak portal “reserve[s] the right to disclose any information about you to law enforcement authorities or to a requesting third party, without notice, in order to comply with any applicable laws and/or requests under legal process.”
Web security and privacy experts will continue to scrutinize this new venture. Those like Jacob Appelbaum, a security researcher and senior developer on the Tor online anonymity network, will continue to let others know the Journal is being negligent and that this is not a project to be beta-tested on an open Internet. In addition to the security questions, there is the larger question of the Journal’s role in the press and why anyone would ever consider leaking to a newspaper like the Journal.
For establishing a basic understanding of this news organization, this is how SourceWatch, run by the Center for Media and Democracy, characterizes the publication: “The Wall Street Journal, an influential international daily newspaper published in New York City, is owned by News Corporation, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch. It does an abysmal job of informing its readers about climate change.”
External links on their page on the Journal lead to an article by David Carr that highlights the newspaper’s rightward turn under Murdoch. It covers two men, Robert Thomson, a top editor, and Gerard Baker, now the newspaper’s deputy managing editor. The article notes the two have adopted “a more conservative tone” and the paper has been “editing and headlining articles to reflect a chronic skepticism of the current [Obama] administration” with the support of the newspaper’s readers.
The issue of the newspaper being right wing is not all that bad if one considers working to maintain objectivity to be a foolish and often dangerous game for professional journalists to continue to play. But, there is the potential that leakers’ information submitted to the Journal would just be used to score points against the other side and against the vast “liberal media,” which the paper’s staff likely finds itself to be in a never-ending struggle against. (Recall, Karl Rove recently launched “Wikicountability,” a site that aims to collect government “dirt” that can be used against the Obama Administration to advance the agenda of Rove’s Crossroads GPS.)
A post by the Columbia Journalism Review indicates the Journal may not be all that interested in real journalism after the “greased exit” of Marcus Brauchli. The story covered how the “exit” indicated a new direction for the newspaper, a likely retreat from a focus on business and sophisticated in-depth reporting. It highlighted how the new owners wanted “newsier stories and more general news,” “shorter and more alluring” stories with a “heavy emphasis on scoops.” CJR suggested the newspaper was adopting an “Anglo-Australian newspaper model–straight, wire-service-type business news coupled with extensive and often smart analysis inside.”
No media organization in the past year has had more scoops than WikiLeaks. If the Journal indeed doesn’t have the manpower for investigative reporting, would it be looking to cut corners and just mine troves of information it hopes “sources” will feed this new portal? And would they hastily and shoddily go through all the material in the way the New York Times, meaning months down the road domestic or international events happen that could have been influenced if they had properly researched the information?
Forget whether it would seek to genuinely check power or not, does the Journal have the capacity to do the investigative reporting necessary to properly cover fraud, abuse, pollution, insider trading and other harms? And would this be anything more than an intelligence operation for Big Business in America?
With the creation of this new “leaks portal,” it appears the Wall Street Journal, like other traditional media, is setting this up because it believes it needs a digital platform for accepting news tips from sources instead of having sources go through a traditional system that may mostly exist offline. As the managing editor of WSJ.com, Kevin Delaney, quoted by Michael Calderone on Huffington Post, acknowledges, “We all agree that WikiLeaks has had a huge impact on the journalism landscape over the last year or so.” And adds, “There’s been a discussion among editors that it made sense to create a system to receive information from sources digitally.”
The Journal like the New York Times and the Washington Post, which are both considering setting up their own WikiLeaks-imitation sites, is seeking to solidify its role as a gatekeeper. It is hoping to get out ahead and ensure that WikiLeaks and new media does not make it wholly irrelevant and, in effect, impact profits. This, just like the decision to set up a paywall, is about surviving the current transformation that is rocking the world of journalism in the United States.
Greg Mitchell, who has been blogging WikiLeaks for The Nation for one hundred and sixty days, said at a panel on WikiLeaks at the 2011 National Conference for Media Reform in Boston, “The traditional role of the press in America and elsewhere in the world has been to want to be the gatekeepers. They release the information. They decide what to cover. They decide how to cover it. And, in relation to leaks, very importantly, for every leak that made big news, there are dozens or hundreds or however many that went nowhere.”
What about the possibility that someone risks his or her life or livelihood by releasing information to the Journal and the Journal does nothing with the information but the newspaper decides to act on the information it received and forward it to law enforcement?
Julian Assange said this of direct-to-newspaper leak sites weeks ago:
[Newspaper] organizations could create such a site if they cared about it. But it’s our experience that at least the Guardian and New York Times don’t care so much to protect sources. In fact, for Cablegate the Guardian and the New York Times communicated over phones. They swapped cables over email. The New York Times approached the White House with its list of stories it was going to publish on the cables one week before publication, and campaigned against the alleged source of the cables, Bradley Manning. We also cannot be sure that they would even publisht the stories they receive. The New York Times sat on the story about the National Security Agency mass-tapping Americans for over a year. CBS sat on the story of the torture at Abu Ghraib for months.
Additionally, why leak to the Journal if what is ultimately published on your leak is going to be up behind a paywall and not be as easy to share as stories posted on other news sites? Why blow the whistle and put your self at risk for a story that people will only get to read a teaser for weeks or months down the line if not days after the story is published? | <urn:uuid:eca45f7e-7d4f-41f7-8500-6e9142902893> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://my.firedoglake.com/kgosztola/tag/karl-rove/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951133 | 1,513 | 1.625 | 2 |
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Twice in one day last week, Beijing’s air got so bad that taxi driver Jiao Quanyou almost plowed into the vehicle in front of him.
“I didn’t see the car,” said Jiao, who has driven a cab for 12 years. “I quit four hours early that day even though I made a loss.”
In contrast to Jiao, foreign manufacturers in the world’s biggest auto market are poised to profit from this month’s record-breaking pollution. With toxic smog engulfing Beijing and much of the rest of the country for weeks now, China is considering tighter vehicle curbs and emissions standards that match Europe’s.
That could benefit General Motors Co. (GM), Volkswagen AG (VOW), and Hyundai Motor Co. in a market where sales are forecast to top 20 million units this year, according to industry researcher Intelligence Automotive Asia. The new rules are likely to spur many drivers to buy new cars, and unlike most domestic automakers, overseas companies can produce vehicles that comply with stricter global standards for emissions.
“All foreign car and truck makers are capable of meeting very advanced emission standards and will have no problems,” said Ashvin Chotai, managing director of Intelligence Automotive Asia in London. “So it would put Chinese brands at a disadvantage.”
Volkswagen is “well prepared” for stricter vehicle standards and has reduced the fuel consumption and emissions of its fleets by 20 percent since 2005, said Christoph Ludewig, a spokesman for the company in Beijing.
BYD Co., partly owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (A), and Beiqi Foton Motor Co. may also win more orders as governments speed up replacement of aging bus fleets with electric models, according to China Minzu Securities Co.
BYD’s K9 bus is currently in use in the southern city of Shenzhen, and the automaker says it plans to introduce the all- electric vehicle to more Chinese cities with government support. Beiqi Foton, whose biggest shareholder is the government, delivered 160 electric buses for Beijing last month.
BYD would also benefit from possible subsidies for alternative-fuel passenger vehicles. The company is supplying 500 of its E6 electric cars to Shenzhen’s police, adding to 300 E6 taxis already on the city’s streets.
The company took out newspaper advertisements this month claiming that tailpipe emissions would fall by 27 percent in China if the country’s entire taxi and public bus fleets were replaced with BYD’s electric vehicles.
BYD shares have risen 14 percent this year in Hong Kong trading, outpacing the 4.2 percent gain in the benchmark Hang Seng Index. Beiqi Foton surged on Jan. 14 after air pollution hit record levels and is up 1.2 percent since then, versus a 0.4 percent loss for the Shanghai Composite Index.
Official measures of PM2.5, fine airborne particulates that pose the largest health risk, on Jan. 12 rose to 40 times the levels deemed safe by the World Health Organization, sparking public calls for government action.
Four days later, the environmental protection ministry released for public consultation a draft of stricter national vehicle emission guidelines equivalent to the standard applied to passenger and light vehicles in the European Union, though it left open the date for implementation.
Beijing will take the lead and introduce the stricter standards in the capital next month, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing the city’s environmental protection bureau. The sale and registration of diesel and gasoline vehicles that don’t meet the new requirements will be banned from Feb. 1 and March 1 respectively, according to the report.
To cope with congestion and pollution, the government should develop more mixed-use districts where residents can live and work to reduce the need for commutes, boost public transportation, and encourage the use of bicycles, said Peter Duncan, Shanghai-based chairman of urban planning firm Hassell.
“In China, the level of development is outpacing the level of support infrastructure,” Duncan said. “The past week may be the tipping point for the government to really concentrate on particular areas of change.”
Shanghai and Beijing have rapidly expanded their Metro systems in recent years, and nine other Chinese cities have subway systems, with another 35 under construction or in planning. Nonetheless, it’s not uncommon for new districts with homes for tens of thousands of residents on the outskirts of cities to be built with little access to public transport.
The State Council, or cabinet, pledged earlier this month to support the development of less polluting urban transport and offer tax breaks and fuel subsidies for mass transit. The council said it wants public transportation to account for 60 percent of motor vehicle use in towns and cities.
The government contributed to the worsening air quality by encouraging auto sales to boost consumption in the global financial crisis. Subsidies were extended for auto purchases and trade-ins by rural residents as part of its 4 trillion yuan stimulus package in 2009, the same year China surpassed the U.S. as the largest vehicle market.
Now, the government is planning similar support to hasten the shift to cleaner cars. Beijing will soon match a 60,000-yuan central government subsidy for electric vehicles and exempt them from license-plate quotas designed to cut the number of autos on the road, according to Chen Guiru, deputy head of the local government arm in charge of alternative -energy vehicle development.
Beijing’s acting mayor Wang Anshun said the city will take 180,000 old vehicles off the road and replace coal-burning heaters in 44,000 homes in a bid to cut air pollutants. The capital will also promote clean-energy vehicles among government departments, Xinhua News Agency reported on Jan. 22.
China may see “increased emphasis on trying to speed up the development of alternative-energy automobiles,” said Thomas Callarman, director of the center for automotive research at China Europe International Business School in Shanghai.
That would help the country get closer to a target of cumulative sales of 500,000 electric vehicles by 2015 and 5 million by 2020. Sales totaled about 13,000 EVs from 2009 to 2011, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. A lack of infrastructure and expensive models are behind the slow pace of adoption, the researcher said.
Despite the new initiatives, auto production remains a pillar of the Chinese economy, said Han Weiqi, an analyst at CSC International Holdings in Shanghai. That means any new initiatives are likely to take the form of limits on emissions and pollution rather than restrictions that would hurt automakers across the board.
“If there are measures to slow down car sales, the car companies will be unhappy,” Han said. “And consumers won’t like only taking public transport.”
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Tian Ying in Beijing at email@example.com; Alexandra Ho in Shanghai at firstname.lastname@example.org
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at email@example.com | <urn:uuid:c2846ad3-93cb-4cf0-9019-d915f60bfc6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-01-23/gm-vw-hyundai-set-to-gain-from-record-beijing-smog | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925619 | 1,506 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Kagan On Same-Sex Marriage
JMG reader Matt points us to this dissection of Elena Kagan's Solicitor General confirmation hearing.
In response to a question from Sen. John Cornyn (at page 28 of her Senate Judiciary Questionnaire), Kagan stated flat out that there was no constitutional right for same sex couples to marry (emphasis mine):The above-linked blogger concludes that having Kagan on the Supreme Court spells doom for the Olson and Boies marriage equality case.1. As Solicitor General, you would be charged with defending the Defense of Marriage Act. That law, as you may know, was enacted by overwhelming majorities of both houses of Congress (85-14 in the Senate and 342-67 in the House) in 1996 and signed into law by President Clinton.This doesn't mean that Kagan opposes gay marriage. But she clearly believes it is a matter for the political process, not a constitutional right.
a. Given your rhetoric about the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy—you called it “a profound wrong—a moral injustice of the first order”—let me ask this basic question: Do you believe that there is a federal constitutional right to samesex marriage?Answer: There is no federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage.
b. Have you ever expressed your opinion whether the federal Constitution should be read to confer a right to same-sex marriage? If so, please provide details.
Answer: I do not recall ever expressing an opinion on this question. | <urn:uuid:bf80fcbf-d35d-4168-8046-3c9d1d6e97d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2010/05/kagan-on-same-sex-marriage.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927087 | 317 | 1.796875 | 2 |
ISLAMABAD - The country’s trade imbalance has swelled by over 45 percent during the first ten months (July-April) of the outgoing financial year 2011-12 chiefly due to higher import bill in the period under review.
The PBS figures showed that country’s exports had recorded negative growth of over three per cent during the first ten months of the outgoing financial year, as it had recorded at $19.393 billion in the period under review against the $20.092 billion of same period last year. On the other hand, country’s imports had increased by 14.81 per cent in one year, as it has recorded at $37.042 billion in July-April 2011-12 against $32.263 billion of July-April 2010-11. Therefore, the trade deficit remained at higher side of $17.649 billion in July-April period of 2011-12 against $12.171 billion of same period last year.
The Commerce Ministry officials held international economic situation responsible for the widening trade deficit of the country, as according to them prices of importable commodities like oil is on the increasing trend in international market contrary to the declining prices of our exportable goods. The prices of textile made commodities had decreased in international market that made impossible for Pakistan to achieve last year exports level of $25 billion during the outgoing financial year.
Meanwhile, according to the PBS figures, the overall exports showed a growth of 11.94 per cent in April 2012 if compare with the exports of March 2012. The country exported good worth of $2.240 billion in April 2012 against the $2.001 billion of March 2012. However, the imports have went up by 7.43 per cent in April 2012 against the March 2012, as the country imported good worth of $3.757 billion during the last month as compare to $3.467 billion of March 2012. Therefore, the country’s trade imbalance increased by 1.40 per cent in April 2012 against the March 2012. The country’s trade deficit has recoded at $1.517 billion in April 2012 against the $1.496 billion of the March 2012.
According to the PBS figures, exports stood at $2.240 billion in April 2012, which were $2.365 billion in April 2011 and this showed 5.29 per cent decline in exports in one year. Imports had increased by 15.71 per cent and totalled to $3.757 billion in April 2012 against $3.247 billion of April 2011. The trade deficit for April 2012 against April 2011 increased by 72 per cent and recorded at$ 1.517 billion. | <urn:uuid:6ff8636b-d324-40b1-9d77-e3147fa6871f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/business/11-May-2012/trade-deficit-swells-by-45pc-to-17-64b | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97694 | 542 | 1.820313 | 2 |
It's A Long Way to Ensenada
First-time cruisers are unlikely to have heard of the "Jones Act," and even experienced cruisers may only be vaguely aware of some sort of "weird old law" that somehow controls whether cruise ships may (or may not) stop at US ports. But if you've ever had to take the five-hour bus ride from Los Angeles to Ensenada, or vice versa, at the start or end of a cruise, you will certainly have asked why you must suffer such an inconvenience - and the simple answer is, "it's the law."
The US law that can make life difficult for a cruiser dates from 113 years ago, and is called the "Passenger Services Act," but Senator Wesley L. Jones, who sponsored a 1920 Merchant Marine Act amendment relating to the shipping of MERCHANDISE, not passengers, has unfairly been tagged as the author of the restrictions on what a foreign cruise ship may do or not do in US waters. The basic rule is that "foreign" ships may not carry passengers (whether Americans or others) between US ports, subject to certain exceptions.
It's hard to disagree with the basic purpose of the Passenger Services Act (the "PSA") which the US Marine Administration Branch describes as "assuring reliable domestic shipping service that is completely subject to national control in times of war or national emergency." The Administration also states that "the money earned by these vessels remains in the national economy as opposed to being exported, while public revenues benefit from both corporate and personal tax receipts."
What's A Foreign Ship?
If you're cruising on a ship such as the Carnival Destiny, with 85% of the passengers being American, an American captain and officers, and an entertainment and cruise staff which is largely American, it's difficult to believe that this ship is "foreign." But check the ship's "registration" - on the stern of the ship and on the lifeboats, it will say "Panama" or "Monrovia" (capital of Liberia), or "Bahamas" or somewhere other than the USA - meaning that the ship is registered in that "convenient" country, and therefore not subject, among other things, to American employment standards or US income taxes, despite the fact that (in the case of the Carnival Destiny), its ultimate owner is Carnival Corporation, a publicly traded company on the US stock market.
All major cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Carnival, Princess, Holland America, Celebrity and Crystal, have "foreign-flagged" vessels. To be an "American-flagged" ship, the ship must be primarily fabricated in the US, totally assembled in the US, have an American crew and be registered in the US.
When Can Foreign Ships Cruise from US Ports?
You almost need to be an attorney to understand the precise regulations under the PSA. (Heck, I am an attorney and I still don't understand!) To make sense of the regulations, you need to know that non-US ports are classified as either "nearby foreign ports" or "distant foreign ports." Despite the name, a "nearby foreign port" means:
A "distant foreign port" means any other port, except a U.S. port.
With those definitions in mind, here's what's allowed:
A reader paying careful attention at this point might say, "Hey, I can think of some cruises that don't fit into those exemptions." Well, that's because we haven't got to two more rules:
The penalty for breaching the rules is a fine of $200 per passenger, even if the ship breaks the rules because of some emergency.
So, What's the Big Deal?
Suppose you were one of the passengers on the Statendam this year, going on the one-way cruise to Hawaii from San Diego (as opposed to the 16-day roundtrip). The round-trip cruisers got on and got off in San Diego, but the one-way passengers waved goodbye to the Statendam in San Diego, then hopped on a bus at the crack of dawn the next morning, bussed to Ensenada, Mexico, and then boarded the Statendam - all because of the PSA. The Statendam didn't even stay long enough for other passengers to go ashore for the day. Can such a silly routine make any sense?
While the unnecessary Ensenada bus ride if often cited as one of the negative aspects of the PSA, the really significant adverse effects of the PSA only become apparent when you think about some of the cruise itineraries which COULD be taken if it weren't for the PSA:
And a zillion others.
Friends of the PSA
There's no doubt that cruisers and cruise lines would like the PSA abolished because of the hundreds of new itineraries which would be possible without these restrictions. But if you're an American, you may need to look at the "big picture" of the economic benefits - or economic disadvantages- that the abolition or retention of the PSA legislation would bring (or keep bringing).
The major opponents of any changes in the existing legislation are US shipbuilders and maritime unions. According to the Sailors Union of the Pacific, "why should our coast be open to foreigners who pay no taxes and don't comply with US labor laws?." Until recently, such a comment might be met with the response that the purpose of the PSA - to encourage the building and manning of US passenger ships - has been entirely unsuccessful, as no major US passenger ship has been built in the last 40 years. But now we have the announcement that American Classic Voyages is building two 72,000-ton ships in the US for around-Hawaii cruises. According to a Forbes magazine article, however, "these luxuries [the new US-built cruise ships] come courtesy of the US taxpayer whose Maritime Administration is guaranteeing up to $1.1 billion in loans on the two-ship project." Another Forbes article describes the shipbuilding project as a "floating pork barrel," and points out that most foreign shipyards are subsidized by their respective governments, and thus American cruisers should be thanking the taxpayers in Europe or Asia for subsidizing their cruises (grin).
Foes of the Passenger Services Act
Whether or not one believes in the creation of US employment with the help of a taxpayers' subsidy, there are other financial costs of maintaining the PSA, according to its opponents. Chief among the opposition is the "Cruise America Coalition," an organization of public port authorities and tourism groups, whose members include the cities of Charleston, San Francisco, San Diego and Seattle. Port officials point out the huge amounts of money which are poured into port economies by visiting cruise passengers, and even more money is added to local businesses when a ship's itinerary is such that a US city is the port of embarkation or disembarkation. One estimate, for example, is that San Francisco would have three times the current 50 annual visits of cruise ships if the law were changed. The importance to a port of having a cruise ship based there may be seen from the recent agreement of Norwegian Cruise Lines to base the Norwegian Sky in Seattle for Alaska sailings starting next year (despite the PSA). The three-year agreement is expected to create nearly 400 new jobs, funnel $56 million into the Seattle economy, and generate $4.2 million in state and local taxes. Surrounding areas will also benefit when cruise passengers make side trips before and after their Alaska cruise.
The Seattle "Shunt"
The shunting of passengers by bus from Seattle to Vancouver is often wrongly used as an example of the absurd results that can happen through the enforcement of the PSA. The Seattle/Vancouver bus run, unlike the San Diego/Ensenada one, was caused by the lack of capacity in flights for cruise passengers starting their Alaska cruise in Vancouver. Seattle, great city as it is, just doesn't conveniently fit into the 7-day Alaska cruise schedule. To make the new Norwegian Sky itinerary from Seattle work, the Sky must miss a port (Ketchikan), as well as travel northward through the open seas instead of through the protected waters of the Inside Passage. There is no doubt, however, that Seattle would get more cruise ship calls (using new itineraries), if the cruise lines didn't have to comply with the PSA and have to visit a Canadian port on their Alaska sailings.
Cruise Lines' Attitude towards PSA Repeal
The main protagonists on the PSA issue - shipbuilders and seamen's unions on the one side, port authorities and tourism groups on the other side - are at least reasonably candid in admitting that they are fighting for their own economic interests - selfish or otherwise. Less candid are the major cruise lines, as evidenced by the public statements of their industry association, the International Council of Cruise Lines (ICCL). Despite the abundantly-clear advantages to the cruise lines in not being fettered by the PSA restrictions, ICCL says it "does not support modifications to the Passenger Services Act," and dismisses the opponents of the PSA as "a grass roots coalition." ICCL also states that "we understand the efforts of the coalition, but their goal is to help American cities, not the cruise operators." The real truth, in my view, is that ICCL cannot afford to lobby in favor of ANY changes in the PSA because the proponents of the existing PSA will quickly point out the lack of contribution by the cruise lines to the American economy in the way of corporate taxes and employment income from having American crews. ICCL is quick to point out, however, that a February 1999 study showed that the economic impact of its members' operations in the US for the previous year was $11.6 billion, with the creation of 176,000 US shoreside jobs.
Changes In the Wind?
Recent efforts to change the PSA have been unsuccessful despite vigorous attempts by Senators Thurmond and Murkowski in 1997, and Senator McCain in 1998. A 1999 Passenger Service Act Cruise Ship Reform Bill is expected to be introduced in the US Senate by Senator McCain early next month (August, 1999). It is anticipated that the bill will specify that foreign-flagged ships would be allowed to operate 200 days in US domestic shipping over the next six years, in return for paying US Federal and state income taxes. Stay tuned!
The Last Word
As a cruiser, I'm totally in favor of the abolition of the PSA. If I were an American, and I took off my "cruiser" hat, I'd ask for an analysis of the economic benefits of more American ports visited versus the economic contributions of passenger cruise ships being built in the US and manned by US crews.
It's perhaps a good thing for Boeing that foreign countries don't insist that its residents fly on locally-built planes. And where would Bill Gates be if software had to be locally grown?
Having said all of the above, for the time being I think I'll keep my shares in the Ensenada Bus & Enchilada Company, Inc.
Originally from Australia, Alan has for some time been permanently settled in Vancouver where he is a practicing Attorney. He has been a SeaLetter columnist, reviewer and our resident humorist for some time now.
To find all of Alan's SeaLetter columns, featured and humorous articles, and cruise and port reviews, use the SeaLetter Search Engine entering "Alan Walker" as your search phrase.
Alan loves email, and can be reached at: Alan@sealetter.com.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please | <urn:uuid:868b45bb-9c20-471c-b4ab-04b468346242> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sealetter.com/Oct-99/alancol.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962852 | 2,398 | 2 | 2 |
"Human beings as joysticks. Motion sensors throughout the theater track the audience's collective movement and use them as human joysticks to play an arcade game on the wide screen." —Averblog
From Japan, Sony campaign "Singing In the Car" to promote a new vehicle navigation system. "The campaign is an online audition to pick the best performers singing in the car. Not only the videos get uploaded on Sony's website, but the best ones also will become part of the TV spot that will go on air." This is an example of interactive TV content created with consumers help. "People really loved the initiative and got crazy to get one minute of fame: you will see mums with kids, families with kids playing the sax, friends, singles, singles with dogs, couples with cats and much more. In December the best audition will be awared with the value of ten years of holidays based on government estimate (about $9,500)." | <urn:uuid:39ee65eb-b235-4227-b665-770ff838ac22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gdpsu.typepad.com/470/2010/03/applied-ideas-crowd-gaming-msnbccom-singing-in-the-car-sony-.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963497 | 193 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Europe - Extent And Boundaries
( Originally Published 1920 )
THE dwellers on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea must have learnt, in the course of their first warlike and commercial expeditions, to distinguish between the great continents ; for within the nucleus of the ancient world Africa is attached to Asia by a narrow band of arid sand, and Europe separated from Asia Minor by seas and chaDnels difficult to navigate on account of dangerous currents. The division of the known world into three distinct parts could not fail to impress itself upon the minds of those infant nations; and when the Greeks had attained a state of maturity, and historical records took the place of myths and oral traditions, the name of Europe had probably been transmitted through a long series of generations. Herodotus na´vely admits that no mortal could ever hope to find out the true meaning of this naine, bequeathed to us by our forefathers ; but this has not deterred our modern men of learning from attempting to explain it. Some amongst them consider that it was applied at first to Thrace with its " large plains," and subsequently extended to the whole of Europe ; others derive it from one of the surnames of Zeus with the "large eyes," the ancient god of the Sim, specially charged with the protection of the continent. Some etymologists believe that Europe was designated thus by the Phoenicians, as being the country of "white men." We consider it, however, to be far more probable that its naine originally meant simply the West," as contrasted with Asia, "the East," or "country of the rising sun." It is thus that Italy first, and then Spain, bore the name of Hesperia ; that Western Africa received the name of El Maghreb from the Mohammedans, and the plains beyond the Mississippi became known in our own tinres as the " Far West."
But, whatever may be the original meaning of its name. Europe, in all the myths of the ancients, is described as a Daughter of Asia. The Phoenicians were the first to explore the shores of Europe, and to bring its inhabitants into contact with those of the East. When the Daughter had become the superior of her Mother in civilisation, and Greek voyagers were following up the explorations begun by the mariners of Tyre, all the known countries to the north of the Mediterranean were looked upon as dependencies of Europe, and that name, which was originally confined to the Thraco-Hellenic peninsula, was made to include, in course of time, Italy, Spain, the countries of the Gauls, and the hyperborean to the north of the Caspian shows the area depresed below the level of the Mediterranean.
Since that epoch the limits between Europe and Asia have been shifted by geographers still farther to the east. They are, however, more or less conventional, for Europe, though bounded on three sides by the ocean, is in reality but a peninsula of Asia. At the same time, the contrasts between these two parts of the world fully justify scientific men in dividing them into two continental masses. But where is the true line of separation between them : Map-makers generally adopt the political boundaries which it has pleased the Russian Government to draw between its vast European and Asiatic territories, and others adopt the summits of the Ural Mountains and of the Caucasus as the boundary between the two continents ; and although, at the first glance, this delineation appears more reasonable than the former, it is in reality no less absurd. The two slopes of a mountain chain can never be assigned to different for mations, and they are generally inhabited by men of the sanie race. The true line of separation between Europe and Asia does not consist of mountains at all, but, on the contrary, of a series of depressions, in former times covered by a channel of the sea Av which united the Mediterranean with the Arctic Ocean. The steppes of the Manych, between the Black Sea and the Caspian, and to the north of the Caucasus, are still covered in part with salt swamps. The Caspian itself, as well as Lake Aral and the other lakes which we meet with in the direction of the Gulf' ot Obi, are the remains of this ancient arm of the sea, and the intermediate regions still bear the traces of having been an ancient sea-bed.
There can be no doubt that vast changes have taken place in the configuration of Europe, not only during more ancient geological periods, but also within comparatively recent times. We have already seen that a vast arm of the sea formerly separated Europe from Asia ; it is equally certain that there was a time when it was joined to Anatolia by an isthmus, whirl' has since been converted into the Bosphorus of Constantinople ; Spain was joiDed to Africa until the waters of the Atlantic invaded the Mediterranean ; Sicily was probably connected with Mauritania ; and the British Islands once formed a portion of the mainland. The erosion of the sea, as well as upheavals and subsidences of land, has effected, and still effect, changes in the contours of our coasts. Numerous soundings in the seas washing Western Europe have revealed the existenee of a submarine plateau, which, from u geological point of view, must he looked upon as forming an integral portion of our continent. Bounded by abyssal depths of thousands of fathoms, and submerged one hundred fathoms at most below the waters of the ocean, this pedestal of France and the British Islands must be looked upon as the foundation of an ancient continent, destroyed by the incessant action of the waves. If the shallow portions of the ocean, as well as those of the Mediterranean Sea, were to be added to Europe, its area would be increased to the extent of one-fourth, but it would lose, at the same time, that wealth in peninsulas which has seeured to Europe its historieal superiority over the other continents.
If we supposed Europe to subside to the extent of one hundred fathoms, its area would be reduced to the compass of one-half. The ocean would again cover her low plains, most of which are ancient sea-beds, and there would remain above the waters merely a skeleton of plateaux and mountain ranges, far more extensively indented by bays and fringed by peninsulas than are the coasts existing at the present time. The whole of Western and Southern Europe would be converted into a huge island, separated by a wide arm of the sea from the plains of interior Russia. From an historical as well as a geological point of view, this huge island is the true Europe. Russia is not only half Asiatic on account of its extremes of temperature, and the aspect of its monotonous plains and interminable steppes, but is likewise intimately linked with Asia as regards its inhabitants and its historical development. Russia can hardly be said to have belonged to Europe for more than a hundred years. It was in maritime and mountainous Europe, with its islands, peninsulas, and valleys, its varied features and unexpected contrasts, that modern civilisation arose, the result of innumerable local eivilisations, happily united into a siDgle current. And, as the rivers descending from the mountains cover the plains at their foot with fertile soil, so has the progress accomplished in this centre of enlighteDment gradually spread over the other continents to the very extremities of the earth. | <urn:uuid:5ccb5824-afe9-4c80-ad44-8e05977791f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oldandsold.com/articles11/europe-3.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975955 | 1,535 | 3.609375 | 4 |
By: ISU Communications and Marketing Staff
August 31, 2011
Indiana State University recognized the accomplishments of female faculty members during the annual Equality Day celebration Monday.
The event, which took place at Cunningham Memorial Library, also celebrated the adoption of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which granted women the right to vote. Female faculty members were recognized for promotion, retirement and the attainment of ISU leadership awards.
In its fourth year, the selection committee of the Charlotte Zietlow Endowment also announced the recipients of the Charlotte Zietlow Women Faculty Research Grants.
Zietlow, a member of the ISU Board of Trustees from 1989-2005, established the grant as part of an endowment exclusively to support pre-tenure women faculty in their work to achieve tenure.
Having experienced gender discrimination in her own career, Zietlow said she found encouragement in the female faculty's research.
"These things are not only interesting scholastically, but they also will have an impact on the society, and I think that's a wonderful combination," Zietlow said, "I'm really proud to see that."
In her message to the audience, she wished all the women faculty well, saying, "I hope to see you thrive, get tenure and live happily ever after, at least."
This year's recipients of Zietlow Research Grants and their research topics are:
• Tonya Balch, communication disorders and counseling, school and educational psychology, "Next Steps toward Intercultural Competence."
• Linda Luebke, music, "Elementary Music Education in the Field: The Impact of Improvement Status on Specialist Teaching."
• Robyn Osborn, health, safety, and environmental health science, "Parenting Self-Efficacy and its Influence on Childhood Obesity."
• Bridget Roberts-Pittman, communication disorders and counseling, school and educational psychology, "Overlap between Traditional Bullying and Cyberbullying in College Students."
• Jacqueline Shin, psychology, "Cognitive and Brain Processes underlying Skill Learning in Elderly People and Patients with Neurodegenerative Diseases."
• Cha Nam Shin, baccalaureate nursing, "Barriers for Culturally Diverse Students in Clinical Nursing Courses."
The Mary Elizabeth Owens Dailey award, otherwise known as "The Bessie," was also awarded to Elizabeth "Libby" Smit, a senior in the women's studies program. Smit received a monetary award, as well as a copy of the book "Justice Off-Balance" by Louis E. Dailey.
Contact: Ann Rider, associate professor of women's studies, Indiana State University, at 812-237-2361 or Ann.Rider@indstate.edu
Writer: Mallory Metheny, media relations assistant, Office of Communications and Marketing, Indiana State University, at 812-237-3773
Female faculty members were recognized for promotion, retirement and the attainment of ISU leadership awards. | <urn:uuid:1a5de5be-1ec4-405c-9a31-18e11b858c75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://indstate.edu/news/news.php?newsid=2838 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961434 | 617 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Posted: November 19, 2008 at 10:44 am
One of the two Democrats on the Federal Communications Commission is calling on the agency to investigate whether a new electronic measurement system used by Arbitron Inc. to track radio station listenership is unfairly harming minority broadcasters.
FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein sent a letter Tuesday to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin urging the agency to open a formal investigation into Arbitron’s “Portable People Meter” rating service. The new system relies on a pager-like device that automatically records what radio stations a person is listening to in order to measure radio station audiences.
Arbitron’s station ratings play a crucial role in determining radio advertising rates.
The company argues that the Portable People Meter is more accurate and reliable than the paper diaries it has historically used to track radio listenership. Arbitron launched the system in Philadelphia in April 2007 and has since rolled it out in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and San Francisco.
But so far, the service has been accredited by the Media Ratings Council, an industry group, for use only in Houston.
And it has set off alarm bells among minority-owned radio stations and their supporters, who approached the FCC in September about launching a formal investigation. They argue that system has resulted in far lower ratings for many minority broadcasters and pushed down the advertising rates they rely on to stay on the air.
James L. Winston, executive director and general counsel of the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, said the fundamental problem is that Arbitron has scaled back the number of listeners it tracks as it has begun using Portable People Meters — resulting in unrepresentative samples that do not adequately reflect audience sizes for many minority-owned stations.
“It’s very easy to get big distortions when you use such small samples,” Winston explained.
And this, Adelstein said, poses a major threat to the tiny number of minority-owned stations operating in the United States and the diversity they bring to American airwaves.
According to Free Press, a public interest group, racial and ethnic minorities currently own only 7.7 percent of full-power radio stations nationwide.
The Portable People Meter, Adelstein said, “constitutes a clear and present danger to media diversity.”
In a statement Tuesday, Arbitron said the FCC lacks authority to regulate audience ratings, adding that “the reliability and methodologies of audience ratings services are best left to private industry groups such as the Media Rating Council.”
Arbitron is already locked in legal battles over the Portable People Meter ratings system with the states of New Jersey and New York, which are seeking court orders to stop the rollout of the service.
The company also faces other concerns among radio broadcasters about the quality of its data and methodology.
Separately Tuesday, radio station owner Cumulus Media Inc. said it will begin using audience measurement and radio ratings services provided by Nielsen Co. instead of Arbitron in 50 small to mid-sized markets beginning in the third quarter of 2009. Arbitron uses its diary system to track listenership in those markets, just as Nielsen is planning to do.
Among other things, the Nielsen service will rely on “large samples to reduce relative error and bounce,” the companies said in a press release. Cumulus Chief Executive Lew Dickey added that the company is making the switch after completing a search for a new measurement service “to improve the quality and value of radio ratings.” Clear Channel Radio will also subscribe to the Nielsen service in 17 of those markets. Both companies subscribe to Arbitron’s Portable People Meter radio ratings service in larger markets. Clear Channel will have to negotiate for Arbitron’s diary ratings in smaller markets not covered by the Nielsen service. Arbitron’s shares fell $2.48, or 10.3 percent, Tuesday. [source] | <urn:uuid:174d2de6-a040-4d5c-a3bd-5ea22378ea1c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.radiofacts.com/oh-no-fcc-seeks-probe-into-ppmarbitron-stocks-fall/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940709 | 805 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Restraints and Seclusion
The Maine Department of Education adopted a comprehensive revision of rules governing restraint and seclusion of students (Rule Chapter 33) which took effect July 1, 2012. Changes to the rule, effective April 29, 2013, have been made in accordance with the requirements of legislative Resolve 2013, Chapter 8.
Under the rule, a certain number of staff in schools and other covered programs must receive training regarding the use of restraint and seclusion. The training must be obtained from training programs approved by the Department of Education.
- Department seeking applications for training programs
- Training program application and requirements
- List of approved training programs in the use of restraints and seclusion.
Rule Chapter 33: Rule Governing Physical Restraint and Seclusion
Resources and Materials
- Guided Tour of the Original Chapter 33 Regulations (Flash*, approximately 90 minutes) - Webinar recorded May 31, 2012, explaining revisions to Chapter 33.
- Maine DOE Restraint & Seclusion Incident Report Form (MS Word, 31KB) - Covered entities are not required to use this form to record incidents of restraint or seclusion, but proper completion of this form will ensure that the incident information required in Rule Chapter 33 is recorded.
- Maine DOE Rule Chapter 33 Questions and Answers
*In order to view Flash presentations, you will need to have the Adobe Flash Player loaded on your computer. Most PCs are already equipped with this program; if your computer does not have the Flash Player, or you wish to upgrade, you can download the program for free by clicking on the icon below. | <urn:uuid:a32f3f71-f809-4ae7-b9b6-f3c75d4a0534> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://maine.gov/doe/school-safety/restraints/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9278 | 321 | 2.484375 | 2 |
I generally have a problem with organised religion as prefer not having to outsource too much of my thinking to someone else and being a triple leo I don't like the idea of being told what to do. It is not as if I hate any religion. I actually find them fascinating, it is just that settling on one Organised one gives me a headache. All religions as having an element of truth in them, but they also contain huge amounts of bullshit which appears to come from the fact that their original founding premise was a little screwed.
I was watching a BBC programme about religion and it touched on several of the points I find weak about the whole experience. Religions seem to identify problems which we may not have and offer solutions that we don't actually need.
|The Christian problem "solved by Christ. But sin requires you to believe in|
it even more than you believe in Christ,
For example, Christianity creates the problem that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This sin can be removed by a faith in Jesus Christ who died so you can be forgiven. But surely the real answer to this is not to think “how can I escape from this terrible sin problem?” but rather to say that the whole concept is rather silly. It requires me to first believe in a God that punishes me for the actions of a mythical ancestor and then states that I need to be forgiven. If someone tries to lock me away because the British did bad things in India, I would fight the unjust nature of the thing. I would not buy into a system that would allow me to be forgiven for the blame.
|The Wheel of Birth and Death only keeps rolling when you see it as a problem|
in the first place.
Hindu and Buddhism strikes a similar problem. Those faiths say we are trapped in a wheel of birth and death and must re-incarnate until we become enough like god. The cure is to remove all those desires and things that make us human so that we can transcend the wheel. But a much simpler approach is possible. Since the problem has been created by the idea that the wheel of birth and death exists, it is better not to believe in it at all. Who was it that came up with a silly idea in the first place... er the Hindus who invented a religion to over come something that might not exist. Buddha simply came up with another way to escape that wheel.
Judaism was created on the premise that a particular god had chosen one tribe of nomads and was going to look after them and give them a promised land. All they had to do was lop their foreskins off and obey some rules.
The only problem was that the God had decided that this Promised Land happened to be on a part of the world which was the main road for almost every blood-thirsty empire that the world created. Egyptians, Hittites, Persians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and Mongols, Christians all have past through the area and left their boot marks firmly on Jewish heads. Not only did the Jewish god seemed to forget to protect his people he claimed it was a punishment. As a result, Jewish believers who have piously followed the original premise have spend several thousand years being kicked around the world. When they get their Promised Land back they have placed their faith in arms and nukes which sort of defeats the purpose.
|Obey or die and you will get to live in the arse end of the|
world where everyone will want to kill you.
It would have better off if they said actually this Promised land is not that great and if you are not going to protect us we will go to another God. They should have known better as the first act of their new God, after giving them the law was to slaughter huge numbers of them who happened to be worshipping Apis and his next few acts involved making them walk around the desert in circles for forty years.
These problems are those which monothestic religions face. This was a problem with the Greco-roman state religions too. They were based on the fact that if you did not respect the Gods then they would make life unpleasant for you. It was also possible that if you did them a few favours they might look after you. This seems logical, but then when you release that there were a lot of Gods it was difficult to find out which one you have pissed off. It was easier to belong to a different religion where that God was not recognised so you couldn't hack one off.
My point is that most of the organised religions were founded to solve problems that they themselves created. They all, to some measure, reflect the fears of the society at the time they were created and as we say in the Golden Dawn “fear is failure.” This fear was one of the reasons why Christianity defeated the more heady mystery cults and Neo-Platonism. Ordinary people found them too hard and they were desperate for something simple that would provide them with some security.
|Anne Davies: You can tell an adept by whether they|
accept all races as part of the One Thing.
Of course that does not apply to gay people
they need fixing. I need a chicken sandwich is there a place
I can get one?
This is why modern occultists need to find their own answers to religious questions and why it is impossible to judge another person's solutions. It is also why you cannot spit hate at another person's religion and use it as a definition of “other.” Anne Davies once said that a good test of whether someone was an adept or not was how much bile they spit at another's race. This was good counsel only for the perfect as Anne had a problem with homosexuality and believed that gay people were broken and could not become adepts until they were healed!
But Davies' point is correct. You cannot experience state of unity that an adept is supposed to have and claim that another human else must be separate from that. Nor can you claim that your race or religion is superior to another because they are all an expression of the One Thing.
More negatively they are all pretty silly when contrasted with the reality of that which is ultimately unknowable. How you approach that unknowing is your spiritual path. Practically it does not require you to sign up to any religion ancient or modern. It just requires you to form your own ideas and relationship with the One Thing. | <urn:uuid:f8e41abe-5e38-4e15-b89e-0e69c40d1130> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nick-farrell.blogspot.com/2012/08/organised-religion-who-gets-involved.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986839 | 1,337 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Bioethicist says human cloning is scary
Editor's Note: CNN Access is a regular feature on CNN.com providing interviews with newsmakers from around the world.
CNN anchor Daryn Kagan talked Monday with Art Caplan, Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, about the ethics of human cloning.
KAGAN: The first thing you've got to think is this is scary stuff, 200 people, 200 potential cloned babies running around out there.
CAPLAN: It is scary. Dr. [Panos] Zavos and his group have been kind of the high-flying showbiz operators of cloning. They keep saying they're going to do this. I have to say, if you looked at the animal work that's been done and the people who really know this procedure of cloning, that is, veterinarians who try it in animals, the procedure is just not safe. And while Zavos and his group keep saying [they've] got something different, no one seems to know what it is.
I'm really worried that what they're going to do here is make a dead or deformed baby, not a healthy one.
KAGAN: And even what might start out as a healthy baby, didn't we see in some cloning experiments with rats of mice that they start out healthy, but then they end up developing some kind of weird deformity later in their life cycle?
CAPLAN: That's absolutely right. We've seen with Dolly [the sheep] that she's growing at about twice the normal rate that she should, and I've been keeping tabs on the cows, bulls, oxen that have been cloned. Over half of them have dropped dead unexpectedly. So clearly something's wrong when you're using old DNA from your skin cell or wherever you get it in your body, trying to use it in an egg. That handshake, that communication, doesn't work right and it makes for a, if you will, much great risk of producing something dead or deformed.
KAGAN: But also clearly there's definitely a need and a demand there. As [is being reported], 200 couples [are] willing to come forward. Those are 200 probably infertile couples who are desperate to have children.
CAPLAN: They must be pretty desperate, because let's figure this out. This is done by in vitro fertilization. It costs roughly $10,000 to $15,000 to try one of these transfers. That's a lot of money. I'm not sure where these 200 couples are going to come from. I'm not sure what country they're in and I'm not sure who's funding this. I won't say I'm skeptical that this is a plan that's really going to come off, but at least I have my doubts.
KAGAN: And as usually is the case when we bring you along, the question [arises] of who's in charge here and who's driving the bus, so to speak. If you're not dependent on government funding, really, any scientist can kind of set up shop and practice what they want.
CAPLAN: That's true. So far, the government here has gotten all caught up in stem cell politics and abortion politics and we still don't have a ban in this country even on federally funded projects. But even if we did, it looks like right now this thing might sneak in under the wire here, although they're not proposing to do it here. But we don't have a ban in place yet. We should have had one a long time ago just on safety grounds.
KAGAN: You think we should have?
CAPLAN: Oh, yes. Purely on safety grounds. Put aside whether it's good to be a clone, whether it's odd to be a clone, whether it's strange to be made in someone else's image, the way this science is right now, not working well in animals, you absolutely don't want to do it in people. It's just barbaric human experimentation.
KAGAN: Dr. Art Caplan, thanks for joining us.
CAPLAN: My pleasure.
Group says it will move human cloning work offshore
June 29, 2001
House poised to consider human cloning
July 31, 2001
U.S. lawmakers debate limits on human cloning
June 21, 2001
Britain to ban human cloning
April 19, 2001
Italy doctor defends human cloning
March 22, 2001
Cardinal blasts cloning plans
March 10, 2001
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HEALTH TOP STORIES:
Clearing up picture on laser eye surgery
No serious smallpox shot reactions yet
Iraqi children vaccinated for polio
Survey seeks to ID depressed teens
FTC shuts down firm touting cancer cure
|Back to the top| | <urn:uuid:aa6477bb-7794-443b-9edf-c48ea233e020> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archives.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/08/06/kagan.caplan.cnna/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968347 | 1,008 | 2.21875 | 2 |
developing high performing global teams
The need for top talent is one of the main drivers behind internationalization. Highly qualified people are often found in other countries, and building teams across time zones and continents is natural and necessary for success. These teams regularly experience lack of efficiency and low performance due to intercultural issues.
Because of the willingness to perform these challenges do not normally surface until later into the team process when intercultural differences emerge as implicit or explicit conflicts impacting performance negatively. Four elements are key in the process of developing high performing global teams:
- explore the cultural dynamics and programming present in the team and how it impacts team performance
- develop Relationship System Intelligence (RSI) in the team system to drive awareness and solution modus
- explore the resulting dynamics of culture and RSI in the given business context
- develop, practice and align around sustainable and resourceful behavioral understandings and strategies | <urn:uuid:bfc3ff45-3cd1-4f90-b54f-d91be4232ca7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rod-baum.com/issues/global_teams/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920986 | 182 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Home & Garden >
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Best Homework Help for Elementary Students;
Professional Education Expert
Have fun with Leapfrog's award winning interactive geography study globe at home or at school. Learning the essential geographical skills of our country, continent, and our world early on will give students an academic advantage. The Smart Globe is chock full of thousands of facts on continents, countries, capitals, music, currency, highest points, and can even compare populations and land areas or flying times from one place to another. When playing in game mode, students race to determine the described location before time runs out. The volume control and headphone jack come in handy, especially in classroom settings. It's interactive, it's fun, and it's a learning tool that even adults enjoy.
Who knew calculators could be so much fun? The TI-10 reinforces math concepts rather than just being a tool used to complete computations quickly. Equipped with a constant operation key for studying patterns, a place value feature to find for example how many 100s or 100ths are in a specified number, makes the calculator a learning tool. Students get hooked on the problem solving mode that generates problems using the ? key to hide a number or an operation. Inequalities can even be entered for help with estimation skills. The easy-to-use menu provides users with plenty of educational options and with the click of another button the level of difficulty can be chosen. TI's calculating tool is essential to have in an at home study area or in any elementary classroom.
Trueit's book will get reluctant writers writing and will excite those who already love to express themselves. It covers topics of maintaining a positive attitude, has sidebars with points of interest, and writing exercises and prompts for a 30-day journal. The tips on how to begin and activities to overcome writers block are a real plus. When writing just isn't in the cards check out the alternatives of drawing, collecting photographs, and scrapbooking, all which can eventually lead to great writing. Excerpts from Anne Frank's, Amelia Earhart's, and other historical journals are included. The content covers several national social studies standards for upper elementary and middle school, but will still be a great tool for higher level younger students. Besides building personal growth and knowing your self better, journaling builds better organizational skills and focus. Encourage. Reflect. Express.
How well students know their basic facts can make or break their math success in school. Having quick recall of basic facts will help all students be more successful with in-depth math studies and higher-level problem solving. Wrap-Ups provide a tactile, hands-on approach to practicing basic facts and building a strong math foundation. Each set of the five contains ten keys and 120 problems. Use the attached string to match the left side of a key with the correct answer on the right following the function/number at the center of each. Wrap-ups are a fun solo game where students can work at their own pace and even against the clock, then check their own answers with the unique self-checking feature. After matching all the problems and answers just flip the key over and see if the string matches up with the lines on the back. If these match, then the key was wrapped correctly. Auditory learners and musically inclined kids love the “Wrap-the-Rap” CDs. Teachers, tutors, and parents can garner new ideas and get activities, charts, and award certificates from the sixteen-page guide. Students will have a blast wrapping and rapping while memorizing those all-important facts.
Keep DK's boxed dictionary, encyclopedia, and thesaurus set handy for searching up quick facts. It's the ultimate desk set whether at home or school. Search over 10,000 facts, over 1,000 photos, diagrams, maps, and cutaway artwork, more than 125,000 synonyms, and greater than 50,000 dictionary entries. That's a lot of power packed into these prolific paperbacks. DK doesn't disappoint.
This is a technological world and computers are part of everyday classrooms all over the nation. Mastering keyboarding skills early on will make life easier on your students or children as they progress through the grades. Brainstorm's program leads users to achieve the advanced setting of typing 50 words a minute, making them a proud “Mario Graduate”. Mario, Luigi, and the Princess will guide eager typists through a progression of keyboarding drills including Mario's Smash and Dash and his Wet World Challenge. Hunters and peckers will see the wisdom and fun of mastering the keyboard in no time flat.
Having an electric pencil sharpener around will help get students back on task quickly when a pencil breaks. The old rotor type of sharpener takes forever and always seems to chomp up pencils and make a lot of noise. The heavy-duty motor of the Stanley Bostitch is perfect for classroom use and so is the extra large receptacle for all those shavings. Teachers like the auto stop feature so kids know when their pencil is sharp enough and won't waste time just sharpening and sharpening. Don't worry if it stops before a long line of sharpeners finishes; the thermal overload cutoff will employ until the motor cools. Get one for school; get one for home. Don't let a broken pencil stop the learning, get the Bostitch and get them back on task!
Crayola's kit is a great one to keep handy for projects, practicing facts, writing, or even the obvious art skills. The last thing parents want to do is hunt around looking for a good marker or two to put the final touches on a class project. With this loaded kit packed up in an easy-to-store case, the hunt for supplies will be over for a long, long time. The 72 crayons, 25 colored pencils, 24 small skinny markers, 16 oil pastels, 50 supertip markers, glue, glitter, safety scissors, glitter glue, watercolors, paintbrush, and sharpener should easily get any kiddo through a year or more of projects and fun. A few kits should survive the year in a classroom as well, they make setting up and participating in learning stations a breeze.
What's essential about a beanbag is that it'll motivate your students or kids to read. Kids love nothing more than to sit in special chairs and cozy places for silent reading time. Lakeshore's beanbag is made of a durable, wipe-clean cover with a stitch-closed zipper, but youngsters love that it's comfortable and molds to the body. The seats come in two sizes, 22-inch diameter and 26-inch diameter, but going with the 26 inch will fit both younger and older students easily. Get the kids to cozy up and read a good book snuggled in this brightly colored beanbag seat.
Students love writing with dry erase markers and writing on boards like the teacher, so this combo board will provide fun, but will more importantly, encourage practicing skills like math facts and spelling. Use the bulletin board for important papers, reminders, project directions, etc. Keep this handy, nice quality board at an easy reach near your child's work area at home. Having cool tools in the study area tends to increase study time. Now that's a plus!
We received teh Leapfrog Explorer Smart Globe as a gift from a friend - we love it and use it to dream and plan our vacations as a family. I like the idea that my son is learning how large the world is.
We like to use the globe to see where the fresh produce and products come from - the kids love it
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Huge bald-faced hornet nest hanging from a tree limb
I was working on my rental house on Whidbey Island a few weeks ago when I noticed a huge paper nest hanging from a low tree limb next to the house. I didn’t want to get too close to the nest to identify the insects since it was being patrolled by a half dozen wasp-like insects. There was no way I was going to destroy the nest myself so I made a quick call to the local pest control company.
The exterminator quickly identified the culprit as the bald-faced hornet. Hornets are a type of wasp that build paper nests. Common on the West Coast, bald-face hornets build large paper nests to raise their young and are very aggressive.
The pest control man, suited up in protective clothing and headgear, slowly approached the nest with a dusting bulb containing an insecticide called Tempo dust. This insecticide uses a fast knockdown chemical called cyfluthrin that kills quickly and also has a long-term residual effect.
Slowly approaching hornet nest with protective clothing and headgear
Upon the first dusting directly into the nest entry hole, the hornets immediately became agitated. After a few dust applications, the nest was left alone for a few days so that patrolling hornets returning to the nest would also get dusted. The exterminator removed the entire nest after a few days.
Applying Temp dust into entry hole of bald-faced hornet paper nest
I was glad I did not tackle the nest myself since these hornets are very protective of the nest and are very aggressive when disturbed. In contrast to bees, hornets will sting repeatedly and will not die after stinging. Because hornet stingers are not barbed, they do not pull out of their bodies. | <urn:uuid:d0b5114f-1ea1-4246-a827-3b34fe2dbb9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nwedge.com/tag/whidbey/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972211 | 374 | 2.390625 | 2 |
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Borrowing from Conybeare and Howson: An Analysis
Words that are exactly the same in both Ellen White's book and the alleged source.
Words that are similar, not exactly the same.
Words that are the same or similar, but which appear to be copied from the Bible.
The actual comparisons found in Cleveland's book
Inadequate use of ellipses, and changed capitalization
Distortion #7: The Only "Evidence" for the Lawsuit
The only alleged evidence we have ever been able to get from a critic to support Canright's 1919
charge of a threatened lawsuit over Ellen White's 1883 book is alleged testimony from General Conference
President A. G. Daniells at the 1919 Bible Conference. If the purported minutes are authentic, which
they are supposed to be, then all Daniells' testimony suggests is that he had read Canright's book of that very year,
and thought Canright to be a credible source of information.
But consider what Daniells said, which Sydney Cleveland quotes on page 18. An immediate problem is apparent:
A. G. Daniells: Yes; and now take that "Life of Paul,"—I
suppose you all know about it and know what claims were put
up against her, charges made of plagiarism, even by the authors
of the book, Conybeare and Howson, and were liable to make the
denomination trouble because there was so much of their book
put into "The Life of Paul" without any credit or quotation marks.
Some people of strict logic might fly the track on that ground,
but I am not built that way. I found it out, and I read it with
Brother Palmer when he found it, and we got Conybeare and Howson,
and we got Wylie's "History of the Reformation," and we read
word for word, page after page, and no quotations, no credit,
and really I did not know the difference until I began to compare
them.—"Inspiration of the Spirit of Prophecy as Related
to the Inspiration of the Bible," Aug. 1, 1919, pp. 17, 18.
Thus, in these 1919 Bible Conference Minutes, mysteriously lost until the 1970's,
Daniells claims that Sketches is copied verbatim from Conybeare and Howson, "word for word,
page after page." Yet if that were really the case, why didn't Cleveland quote parts of the books
that really are word for word the same?
Why refer instead, as in the comparison below, to parts of Conybeare from which only
5 out of 358 words (a measly 1.4%) are found in Sketches? Or is the truth of the matter
that what Daniells allegedly said is an outright fib?
|Sketches from the Life of Paul
Ellen G. White, p. 58
|Life and Epistles of Paul
Conybeare & Howson, pp. 171, 172
|"The people listened to the words of Paul with manifest impatience."—p. 58.
||"They listened impatiently."—p. 171.
|5 out of 81 words are the same or similar, but not found in the Bible account.
||5 out of about 358 words are the same or similar, but not found in the Bible account.
The people listened to the words of Paul with manifest impatience. Their
superstition and enthusiasm had been so great in regard to the apostles that
they were loth to acknowledge their error, and have their expectations and
purposes thwarted. Notwithstanding the apostles positively denied the
divinity attributed to them by the heathen, and Paul endeavored to direct
their minds to the true God as the only object worthy of worship, it was
still most difficult to turn them from their purpose.
This address held them listening, but they listened impatiently. Even
with this energetic disavowal of his divinity, and this strong appeal to their
reason, St. Paul found it difficult to disturb the Lycaonians from offering
to him and Barnabas an idolatrous worship.4 There is no doubt that St.
Paul was the speaker, and, before we proceed further in the narrative, we
cannot help pausing to observe the essentially Pauline character which
this speech manifests, even in so condensed a summary of its contents. It
is full of undesigned coincidences in argument, and even in the expressions
employed, with St. Paul's language in other parts of the Acts, and in his
own Epistles. Thus, as here he declares the object of his preaching to be
that the idolatrous Lystrians should [p. 172]
"turn from these vain idols to the living God," so he reminds the
Thessalonians how they, at his preaching, had
"turned from idols to serve the living and true God."1 Again, as he tells
the Lystrians that "God had, in the generations that were past, suffered
the nations of the Gentiles to walk in their own ways;" so he tells the
Romans that "God in His forbearance had passed over the former sins of
men, in the times that were gone by;"2 and so he tells the Athenians,3
that "the past times of ignorance God had overlooked." Lastly, how
striking is the similarity between the natural theology with which the
present speech concludes, and that in the Epistle to the Romans, where,
speaking of the Heathen, he says that atheists are without excuse; "for
that which can be known of God is manifested in their hearts, God Himself
having shown it to them. For His eternal power and Godhead, though they
be invisible, yet are seen ever since the world was made, being understood by
the works which He hath wrought."
4 Acts xiv. 18.
1 1 Thess. i. 9. The coincidence is more striking in the Greek, because the very
same verb is used in each passage, and is intransitive in both.
2 Rom. iii. 25: the mistranslation of which in the Authorised Version entirely alters its meaning.
3 Acts xvii. 30.
For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering
in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve
the living and true God. (1 Th. 1:9)
< Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next > | <urn:uuid:8eca0589-1788-4fb7-8832-0510145e1001> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ellenwhite.info/conybeare-howson-cleveland-g.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965287 | 1,413 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Art and art direction – Daniel Eatock
Daniel Eatock’s approach to photography provides a provocative link between conceptual art and an objective, ‘vernacular’ approach to snapshot culture.
Propped up against the wall of Daniel Eatock’s London studio is a loose box frame full of pictures of his Brazilian girlfriend Flavia. ‘This is every photograph we have of her before I got a digital camera,’ he explains in his quiet Lancashire accent. ‘You can shake it and different ones come to the front.’ The pics arrange and rearrange themselves in higgledy-piggledy fashion, free to move around within the frame as you shake, invert or otherwise agitate the box.
The idea of the container as art is present in several of Eatock’s projects, from the Timecapstool, with its narrow slot for ephemera, to Indexibit, the web application designed (with Jeffery Vaska) to ‘build and maintain an archetypal, invisible website format’ and used by thousands since it was made freely available in 2004.
Such an approach, a hybrid of art practice, personal problem-solving and generosity, are typical of Eatock – not so much a designer as an artist whose practice is rooted in graphics.
Since 2001, Eatock has produced a regular ‘Picture of the week’, a snapshot that he posts on his website eatock.com. In addition to the weekly snaps there are more sporadic projects: pictures of car batteries, vandalised trees, pigeons and ‘Stop, Wait and Go’ pictures, with their random comings-together of red, amber and green.
And ‘Thank you pictures’, where others contribute Eatock-like pictures of their own.
The photographs have wit, poetry, visual delight – and conceptual rigour, which permeates all his work: ‘Ideas are more important than aesthetics.’
He admits that he gets bored with the discipline of posting a picture each week. ‘You have to work though that boredom,’ he says. ‘It’s only just beginning. This project will be more interesting in twenty years.’
Eatock has always used the same pocket camera; when it broke, he replaced it with the same model. ‘I’ve learnt to get the camera out of the case, switch it on, pull the lens cap off and then press the button and capture the subject really quickly, like a cowboy shooting his gun.’
Other examples of Eatock’s photographic work include large-format pictures where he collaborates with a photographer friend, like the ‘sculpture’ of a pair of trainers hanging from a washing line included in his book Imprint (Princeton Architectural Press, 2008). ‘I’ve never been interested in photography, but I’m interested in art that uses photography,’ he says, mentioning Richard Prince and Wolfgang Tillmans as examples.
This aspect of Eatock’s work might appear to give him an affinity with advertising. Before founding his solo practice, he was design director at ad agency Boy Meets Girl. His earlier work (as founder of Foundation 33) for Channel Four, including the Big Brother identity and his Warhol billboards (also C4) can seem, superficially, like ad school object lessons in ideas-driven marketing.
Eatock bridles at the thought. ‘I see myself a million miles from advertising,’ he says. ‘I think advertising is simplistic. It’s a form of persuasion which is really ugly.
‘I have nothing good to say about advertising. I can’t think of an interesting idea that’s come from that route. Or something with value. It might be funny, the first time you see it – “ah, that’s clever”. But then it just kind of diminishes, and it doesn’t feel as though anything is left – just this transient, silly thing that’s here one minute and gone the next.’
But surely advertising people are prepared to deal with concepts? Eatock disagrees. ‘The concepts are so blunt and one-dimensional. That’s the tradition, isn’t it, the “big idea”. But it’s not a big idea, it’s a stupid idea that you can say in a single sentence that there’s nothing beyond.
‘Graphic design is more complex. When I was making design, I strived for kind of a concept or a frame that guides what the result could be. And I tried to reduce it, as much as I could, to this singular thing.’
Eatock’s next project, devised for photography students at Appalachian State University (and on his website), is Switched Off Photographs. This aims for another singularity: a picture of a light bulb at the precise instant it’s turned off. You can’t get much closer to photography’s fundamentals: light, darkness and the shutter’s click.
First published in Eye no. 73 vol. 19.
Eye is the world’s most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published quarterly for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture. It is available from all good design bookshops and online at the Eye shop, where you can buy subscriptions, back issues and single copies of the latest issue. | <urn:uuid:a9d91857-b1cb-4de8-96a4-3d1b3d103843> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/art-and-art-direction1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952693 | 1,169 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Hate what you do for a living? It may be time to prepare to pursue a new career.
Have you been in the same career for forever? Do you feel more burnt out than a sparkler on the fifth of July?
You may be experiencing a midlife career crisis.
"When people have been doing something for 10 or 15 years, they may be burned out," says career counselor Eileen Sharaga.
But here's the good news: with the right education and/or experience, there are a variety of other careers that you could pursue.
The most important thing to remember is to stay positive and always look forward, says Sharaga.
We agree, so we outlined six careers - and their education requirements - to help you see what career options are available. Keep reading to learn more.
Career #1: Medical and Health Services Manager
2010 to 2020 Job Growth: 22 percent*
Median Annual Salary: $86,400*
Top Ten Percent of Earners: $147,890
Bottom Ten Percent of Earners: $52,730
Perhaps you're tired of working in a dying industry and want to switch to a, forgive the pun, healthier one. Health care could be the answer. In fact, the U.S. Department of Labor projects that the health care and social assistance industry will generate 28 percent of all new U.S. jobs from 2010 to 2020.
Medical and health services managers could work in different health care facilities including hospitals, doctors' offices, or nursing homes, says the Department of Labor. And their duties are just as varied. According to the Department, they could keep up on relevant laws and regulations, be in charge of a facility's finances, and even represent their facility at investor meetings or on governing boards.
Education Options: Most medical and health services managers need at least a bachelor's degree to prepare to pursue this field, according to the Department. Other common credentials include master's degrees in health services, long-term care administration, public health, public administration, or business administration.
Career #2: Paralegal
2010 to 2020 Job Growth: 18 percent*
Median Annual Salary: $46,730*
Top Ten Percent of Earners: $75,400
Bottom Ten Percent of Earners: $29,390
Is your midlife crisis sparking your interest in law? If you're ready to engage your investigative mind, a career as a paralegal could be the second-act job for you.
As a paralegal, you could support lawyers by investigating the facts of a case, researching relevant laws and regulations, and writing reports to help prepare for trials, says the U.S. Department of Labor. Paralegals could also help prepare legal arguments and draft documents to be filed with the court, adds the Department of Labor.
Education Options: According to the Department, there are a few education paths you can take. One is to earn an associate's degree in paralegal studies. Already have a bachelor's degree in another subject? Earning a certificate in paralegal studies is another viable path.
Career #3: Social Worker
2010 to 2020 Job Growth: 25 percent*
Median Annual Salary: $53,900*
Top Ten Percent of Earners: $79,760
Bottom Ten Percent of Earners: $30,380
Do you want to get over your midlife crisis by helping others get over their issues? Sounds like good motivation to pursue a career as a social worker.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, as a direct-service social worker, you could "help people solve and cope with problems in their everyday lives."
Common duties could include evaluating clients' needs, situations, and support networks, creating plans to improve clients' well-being, and helping clients adjust to challenging life events like divorce or unemployment, says the Department of Labor.
Education Options: "A bachelor's degree is required for most direct-service social work positions, but some positions and settings require a master's degree," says the Department. And while a bachelor's degree in social work is typical for entry-level positions, related majors like psychology or sociology might suffice for some employers.
Career #4: Accountant
2010 to 2020 Job Growth: 16 percent*
Median Annual Salary: $62,850*
Top Ten Percent of Earners: $109,870
Bottom Ten Percent of Earners: $39,640
Maybe you're not the kind to go the typical midlife crisis route and freak out, buy a Harley motorcycle, and ride across the country wearing leather and sporting a beard. Maybe you want to go the other way and pursue a nice, mellow career. Accounting might be the option for you.
As an accountant, your responsibilities could include maintaining financial records, preparing tax returns, and examining financial statements to ensure they obey laws and regulations, says the U.S. Department of Labor. You could also be integral to a company by providing suggestions to reduce costs and improve revenue. For some people, that really gets their motor revvin'.
Education Options: If you are interested in pursuing a career as an accountant, you'll want to keep in mind that most accountants need - at minimum - a bachelor's degree in accounting or a related area, according to the Department of Labor. Some employers prefer candidates with a master's degree in accounting or in business administration, with an accounting concentration.
Career #5: Elementary School Teacher
2010 to 2020 Job Growth: 17 percent*
Median Annual Salary: $52,840*
Top Ten Percent of Earners: $81,230
Bottom Ten Percent of Earners: $34,910
There's nothing like being around a bunch of kids to make you feel like one yourself. So pursuing a career as an elementary school teacher might help you regain your youthfulness and get over that midlife slump.
As an elementary school teacher, you could teach first- to eight-grade students a variety of subjects like math, reading, and science, as well as study skills and social skills, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. You might even try hands-on teaching methods such as using props or demonstrating how to do a science experiment, says the Department of Labor.
Education Options: "All states require public kindergarten and elementary school teachers to have at least a bachelor's degree in elementary education," according to the Department. "Some states also require kindergarten and elementary school teachers to major in a content area, such as math or science." Public school teachers must also obtain a license or certificate from their state.
Career #6: Computer Support Specialist
2010 to 2020 Job Growth: 18 percent*
Median Annual Salary: $47,660*
Top Ten Percent of Earners: $81,190
Bottom Ten Percent of Earners: $28,980
Perhaps it's finally time to pursue your passion for computers by considering a career as a computer support specialist. If you like working with computers and helping people solve their own computer problems, this could be an exciting new career path for you.
As a computer support specialist, you could work in a company's information technology (IT) department and help analyze and fix computer problems through testing and performing regular maintenance on existing network systems, says the U.S. Department of Labor.
Basically, you could be one of the friendly, calm pros that help computer users when they're freaking out because their computer is acting as if Satan 2.0 was just downloaded.
Education Options: According to the Department of Labor, there are numerous routes to prepare to pursue this career. For example, a bachelor's degree may be required for some positions, but an associate's degree could be sufficient for others. For more technical positions, a degree in computer science, engineering, or information science could be required.
*Potential job growth information is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2012-13 Edition. And all annual pay statistics are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2011.
Next Article: How To Switch Careers In As Little As Two Years» | <urn:uuid:8309e012-d233-4534-b219-80f5cd1b0398> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://education.yahoo.net/articles/career_change_options.htm?wid=1004&svkid=1MIZA | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956559 | 1,695 | 2 | 2 |
This isn’t the first time that I’ve written about the benefits of social interactions in terms of health. And it likely won’t be the last! In fact, data collected in roughly 53,000 Americans over a 36 year time period show that both personal and impersonal interactions, that is, visits with relatives, neighbors or friends or in bars (personal) or memberships in in organization, sports clubs, youth groups, etc (impersonal) can have a significant impact on health.
Strangely, during the time of the study (which is published in the March/April issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion), significant declines were seen in impersonal and certain types of personal interactions. People were volunteering less or spending less time in cause-related organizations. And, people spent less time visiting neighbors.
The middle-agers happened to be the group with the largest income levels, highest workforce participating and greatest full time working percentage. And while they had opportunity costs when it came to time and how they chose to spend it when they weren’t working, it appeared that devoting more time to friendships, especially close friendships, was important to health. So was the time spent in health/sports clubs.
The takeway? Having friends or other interpersonal interactions tended to be associated with a higher probability of being in very good or excellent health.
However, timing is everything and this information was collected before the economic downswing and the loss of millions of jobs, especially among mid-lifers. Still, it does offer up an important message:
The cost of time may be greater than one believes. Be sure that part of your time allotment is spent cultivating and spending time with friends. They are critical to mental wellbeing, staving off depression, increasing longevity and reducing stress.
Speaking of which….it’s
Be sure to reach out and touch someone in your inner or outer circles who you’ve not interacted with of late. Call a friend, drop a note, extend a helping hand. That time allotment might be the best you spend today. | <urn:uuid:128e5a37-ee8c-47b3-b3ae-43cf648cb20a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://flashfree.me/2013/03/08/social-interactions-are-good-for-your-health/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962169 | 428 | 2.171875 | 2 |
- Female Infanticide in India and China
Killing baby girls, or allowing them to starve to death, is something most of us cannot imagine. But it occurs even today. As shocking and disturbing as this behavior is, however, we must look at in within its cultural context. According to Scheper-Hughes (1987), neglect or killing of children may reflect a “survival strategy” that the family adopts. Parents might decide to invest more heavily in their “best bets” and neglect the rest. In some cultures, the best bets are often male (Scheper-Hughes, 1987). Families in these cultures may decide to kill their female children either outright, or passively, through abandonment or starvation to increase the likelihood that their families might survive (Miller, 1987).
Most of us have no trouble labeling infanticide as “wrong.” A trickier issue is sex-selective abortion. Sex-selective abortion poses a genuine conundrum for those who support reproductive choice. On one hand, proponents of choice do not want to see a discussion of abortion in a chapter on victimization. On the other hand, many people who support reproductive choice are uncomfortable when it is applied selectively to females. Even the World Health Organization lists sex-selective abortion as one type of violence against women (1997). I have witnessed some spirited, and at times heated, discussions of this issue among my colleagues at the University of New Hampshire. I have included sex-selective abortion in this chapter, but acknowledge that not everyone agrees that it belongs here.
Below I describe two cultures where both sex-selective abortion and female infanticide have been documented: China and India. While infanticide occurs for different reasons, the cultures have similarities. In both cultures, the survival of the group is
weighed more heavily than the survival of any individual. Both cultures also count on their sons to care for their aged. Daughters marry out and are no longer members of their families of origin. For this reason, daughters are considered more a liability than a blessing.Many times, infanticide and sex-selection in abortion are secretive, and even illegal, actions. Official reports may dramatically underestimate their incidence. On the other hand, many of the statistics and case reports provided by advocacy or relief organizations focus on more extreme cases. The true number is probably somewhere in between. To get an overall view of the problem, however, one statistic is helpful: the ratio of male to female births. In industrialized nations, the ratio is approximately 106 males to 100 females (U.S. Department of State, 1997). As we discuss India and China, I will provide numbers that you can compare to this ratio. This provides at least an estimate of the number of female infants and children who are not surviving, although we must be careful not to assume that all are victims of infanticide.
- Birth Planning in China
In 1979, China implemented a highly intrusive policy to limit the number of births per family. Government workers monitor families for birth control use and tell couples when they are authorized to conceive. Couples are pressured to terminate “unauthorized” pregnancies, and this has occurred even in the eighth or ninth month of pregnancy (U.S. Department of State, 1997). The policy was implemented because of the enormous size of the Chinese population. The government predicted that it would be unable to meet its needs (Potter, 1987). The policy is more likely to be enforced in cities than out in the countryside, where families may be allowed to have more than one child because they need extra help on the farm (Potter, 1987).
The government’s policy, however, runs counter to the family traditions of the Chinese people. In Chinese society, sons are the means of continuity, prosperity, and the only valid source of care and support. The happiness of the aging relatives is thought to be secure when there are many sons who can help, thus the village expression: “the more sons, the more happiness.” If a couple has only one child, and she is a girl, there will be no one to care for the parents as they age. It is a cause of great shame when aging parents must rely on the government for sustenance, and the amount provided by the government guarantees that the parents will end their days in poverty (Potter, 1987).
As you can see, there is cultural incentive to have more than one child. To counter this, the government provides steep penalties to families who have “unauthorized pregnancies.” These include psychological coercion, loss of employment, heavy fines (up to twice annual earnings) and confiscation of property. The Government does not authorize the use of force to compel persons to submit to abortion or sterilization, but officials acknowledge that this does occur (U.S. Department of State, 1997).
Interestingly, the new Maternal and Child Health Care Law forbids the use of ultrasound to detect the sex of a fetus. Moreover, regulations forbid sex-selective
abortions, even promising punishment of medical practitioners who violate this provision. However, population statistics at least suggest that these practices continue nonetheless. The Chinese press has reported that the national ratio of male to female births is 114 to 100. One October 1994 survey of births in rural areas put the ratio as high as 117 male births to 100 female. However, these official statistics may actually underestimate the problem in that they may exclude many female births, especially the second or third in a family. Such births are unreported so that the parents can keep trying to conceive a boy (U.S. Department of State, 1997).
In some press accounts, the ratio is even higher. The London Telegraph reports that the sex ratio of China's population is 131:100 in favor of males. In Zhejiang province there were 860,000 unmarried males aged 22 and above, but only 360,000 unmarried females of the same age group. Among 20- to 25-year olds, the sex ratio was 167:100 in a rural county in Henan province. In a population of 25 million babies born in China each year, there were 750,000 more males than females (Hutchings, 1997).Since China is a closed society, it is difficult to obtain accurate statistics. India, on the other hand, is more open and may provide a more candid view of female infanticide.
- Female Infanticide in India
The root of female infanticide is different in India than it is in China. In both cultures, there is a preference for male children. However, unlike China, there is no government organization limiting the number of children a family can have. In India the constraint is mostly economic—daughters will require a sizable financial dowry in order to marry. Because daughters leave their families of origin, they are often regarded as temporary members of their families and a drain on its wealth. There is an expression in India that “bringing up a daughter is like watering a neighbor’s plant” (Anderson & Moore, 1993).
The dowry, theoretically illegal under the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961, is a significant and pervasive theme . Although a law passed in September 1994 prohibits the use of amniocentesis and sonogram tests for sex determination, they are widely used for this purpose and many female fetuses are terminated (U.S. Department of State, 1998). Advertisements in India for ultrasound clinics urge couples to spend “500 rupees today to save 50,000 rupees tomorrow” (World Vision, 1994, p.4). Washington Post reporters Anderson and Moore (1993) report that at one clinic in Bombay, of 8,000 abortions performed after amniocentesis, 7,999 were of female fetuses. This estimate was supported by a study of clinic records in a large city hospital in India. Seven hundred individuals sought prenatal sex determination. Of those, 250 were male. All of these pregnancies were brought to term. In contrast, of the 450 determined to be female, 430 were terminated (Ramanamma & Bambawale, 1980).
In rural areas, women do not have access to ultrasound or amniocentesis in order to make a prenatal determination of sex. When girls are born, they are still in
danger either through direct infanticide or through sex-selective neglect. There were tribes and castes that had actually killed all their girls (Janssen-Jurreit, 1992). The Bedees (a branch of the Sikhs) were known as koree mar , or “daughter butchers.” Today, in India the ratio of women to men continues to declince from 972 females to 1000 males in 1901 to 935 in 1981 (Venkatramani, 1992).
The English-language newspaper The Hindu reports that on an average 105 female infants were killed every month in Dharmapuri district throughout 1997. This was in spite of efforts to protect female children (The Hindu, 1998). In another region, the Kallars (landless laborers in Tamil Nadu), view female infanticide as the only way out of the dowry problem. One mother interviewed in India Today said:
I killed my child to save it from the lifelong ignominy of being the daughter of a poor family that cannot afford to pay a decent dowry. But all the same, it was extremely difficult to steel myself for the act. A mother who has borne a child cannot bear to see it suffer even for a little while, let alone bring herself to kill it. But I had to do it, because my husband and I concluded that it was better to let our child suffer an hour or two and die than suffer throughout life (Venkatramani, 1992, p. 127).
Officials estimate that approximately 6,000 female babies have been poisoned in Kallar villages in the past decade. The Usilampatti government hospital records nearly 600 female births among the Kallar every year. Five hundred and seventy are taken immediately from the hospital. Approximately 450 (or 80%) are estimated to become victims of infanticide (Venkatramani, 1992). The Kallar also believe that if you kill your girl, your next baby will be a son.
While some have assumed that poverty was the main motivation for female infanticide (de Lamo, 1997; The Hindu, 1998), the reasons appear to be more complex. If social class were the sole determinant of infanticide risk, then we would expect to see lower rates of female infanticide in the upper classes. However, in the Punjab, India’s richest state, Cowan and Dhanoa (1983) found even higher rates of female mortality. For example, females constituted 85% of deaths among infants ages 7 to 36 months. Further, Miller (1981;1987) has argued that infanticide is more likely in the upper rather than lower castes. When the British Colonial government outlawed female infanticide in 1870, they stated that the two chief causes were “pride and purse.” “Purse” referred to the dowry. “Pride” referred to pride of the upper castes and tribes that would rather murder female infants than give them to a rival group even in marriage (Miller, 1987). This may at least partially explain why infanticide also occurs in middle-class and wealthy families.
Birth order appears to be a significant risk factor for girls, with second, third or fourth (or later) born girls at highest risk. First-born daughters are often allowed to live because they will help with the household chores (deLamo, 1997). Perhaps this reflects a general negative attitude toward girls that goes beyond the need to provide a dowry.
Sex-selective neglect may also contribute to female mortality. Girls are breastfed less frequently and for a shorter duration. To us, this may seem to be no big deal, but in
the developing world, this puts them at significant risk. Further, when girls get sick, the family is much less likely to seek medical assistance. One public health physician described this case:
In one village, I went into the house to examine a young girl and I found that she had an advanced case of tuberculosis. I asked the mother why she hadn’t done something sooner about the girl’s condition because now, at this stage, the treatment would be very expensive. The mother replied, “then let her die. I have another daughter.” At the time, the two daughters sat nearby listening, one with tears streaming down her face (Miller, 1987, p. 95).
In one study of infants, toddlers and preschoolers, 71% of females were malnourished compared to 28% of males. Boys are taken to the hospital twice as often (Venkatramani, 1992). Moreover, only 24% of girls in India are literate, compared to 47% of boys, and 84% of boys go to school, compared to 54% of girls. Further, girls comprise 85% of the child labor force. The work is often dangerous, putting them at further risk (Miller, 1987; World Vision, 1994).Recent efforts to save baby girls in Tamil Nadu have not been particularly successful. Family honor is a barrier to these intervention efforts. Families don’t want to allow a girl to live if she will go through life as an outcast, with no caste, identity, or family background. Also, families are concerned that the girl may one day return to dishonor the family or seek vengeance (de Lamo, 1997). For interventions to be successful, they must support parents and address their concerns about the future.
In this chapter, I have presented some grim examples of the victimization of female children. Many of these practices are so pervasive and embedded in the culture that it is hard to believe that they will ever change. As bad as things are, however, there is reason to hope. First, as world attention is drawn to the plight of girls, we can hope that the light of public scrutiny will bring changes to pass. Second, the victims themselves are beginning to act. In our own country, we have witnessed a dramatic increase in awareness of sexual abuse over the past 20 years because survivors of sexual abuse are speaking out. But there is still much to do. Girls are still being sexually abused and our society still doesn’t seem to be able to protect them. We also need to increase awareness of the other types of child maltreatment that affect both boys and girls, and develop effective strategies to detect and prevent it. We have also become much more aware of the neglect and abuse of girls in other countries. People wishing to change these practices, however, need to approach the cultures that permit them with sensitivity and knowledge about why they occur. Otherwise, their efforts will backfire. A similar caution is urged by the Director-General of the World Health Organization’s Global Commission on Women’s Health, in a speech made April 12, 1994 (WHO, 1996, pp. 2-3). In this speech, he was addressing the issue of female circumcision, but his remarks are relevant to infanticide as well.
- Table 1
We must always work from the assumption that human behaviors and cultural values, however senseless or destructive they may look to us from our particular personal and cultural standpoints, have meaning and fulfil a function for those who practice them. People will change their behavior only when they themselves perceive the new practices proposed as meaningful and functional as the old ones. Therefore, what we must aim for is to convince people, including women, that they can give up a specific practice without giving up meaningful aspects of their own cultures.
Effects of sexual abuse on children: Most commonly occurring reactions
Age Most Common Symptom
Inappropriate sexual behavior
Withdrawn, suicidal, or self-injurious behavior
Source: Kendall-Tackett, Williams and Finkelhor (1993) American Psychological Association. Used with permission. | <urn:uuid:5a30e6a1-a01f-47cd-821f-0d6339daff21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.domesticviolenceservices.com/female-infanticide.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963784 | 3,295 | 2.71875 | 3 |
The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) uses a value-driven, alignment model to engage in ongoing, integrated and institution-wide research-based planning and evaluation processes that meet the requirements associated with institutional effectiveness.
Systematic Review of UTMB’s Mission, Goals, and Outcomes.
UTMB is composed of a medical school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a nursing school, and a school of allied health sciences. In the 1990s, the institution’s leadership recognized that there was a need not only for a mission statement but also for a set of core values that would act as a guide to advance the institution’s mission, judge the degree to which the mission is being effectively accomplished, and provide the four schools with a solid basis on which to anchor and evaluate their discipline-specific strategic plans. In addition to the development of institutional level mission and core value statements, the formulation of individual strategic plans at each of the four schools, a broader use and integration of UT System and State of Texas accountability processes, and an institution-wide organizational and financial review by an external consultant. The process and outcomes of each of these activities are discussed in more depth below.
Mission Statement Development
The UTMB mission statement was changed in 1999 after broad campus input. The mission statement captures the essence of UTMB’s purpose and aligns in support of The University of Texas System mission and purpose, and serves as the guidepost for aligning all of UTMB‘s goals, initiatives, programs, and activities.
UTMB Mission Statement (1)
The mission of The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston is to provide scholarly teaching, innovative scientific investigation, and state-of-the-art patient care in a learning environment to better the health of society.
This mission statement is currently in a planned review cycle. The role and mission statements of all Texas public institutions of higher education must be reviewed and approved by Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board at least every four years. UTMB's mission statement was last reviewed and approved by THECB in 2004 (2). The UTMB executive leadership reviewed and reaffirmed this mission statement in Spring 2007. During the Summer 2007, the mission statement was also reviewed and reaffirmed by UTMB faculty, students, and the broader UTMB community. The mission statement is currently forwarded to the UT Board of Regents for their review. Finally, the quadrennial, statutory, mission statement review by THECB will begin in November 2007 (3).
UTMB’s education programs enable the state’s talented individuals to become outstanding practitioners, teachers, and investigators in the health care sciences, thereby meeting the needs of the people of Texas and its national and international neighbors.
UTMB’s comprehensive primary, specialty, and sub-specialty care clinical programs support the educational mission and are committed to the health and well-being of all Texans through the delivery of state-of-the-art preventive, diagnostic, and treatment services.
UTMB’s research programs are committed to the discovery of new innovative biomedical and health services knowledge leading to increasingly effective and accessible health care for the citizens of Texas.
Core Value Development
Concurrent to the institutional mission statement revision in 1999, individuals from across the UTMB community worked to develop a set of shared values to provide a foundation to UTMB’s planning and evaluation activities as well as to provide guidance in day-to-day operations. The following represent the fundamental values that preserve the core of what UTMB represents and stimulate progress towards what UTMB will become.
UTMB Core Values
Education. UTMB is committed to providing life-long learning for its students, staff, faculty and community.
Innovation. UTMB is committed to always thinking of new ways to do things better.
Service. UTMB is committed to addressing the health needs of all Texas, regardless of their ability to pay.
Diversity. UTMB is committed to employing and educating a health care workforce whose diversity mirrors the population it serves.
Community. UTMB is committed to making its community a better place to live and work.
Planning and Evaluation Processes That Work Towards Continuous Improvement in Institutional Quality.
Strategic Planning: Development and Integration
As the new mission statement and core values were assimilated at the institution, the president charged each of the schools with the development of school-level strategic plans that built upon these foundational concepts. The schools were also held responsible for conducting annual performance reviews to ensure that their strategic plans were aligned with the UTMB mission and undergoing effective implementation. In 2004, UTMB’s four schools began the process of developing their strategic plans, incorporating the mission and core values of the university, and providing a foundation to support the needs of their students and meet the requirements of national and state licensure and certification standards. These plans have been completed and posted on the respective schools’ websites (4) (5) (6) (7). Outcomes from this school level planning process have included the completion of an program needs assessment; the development and state level approval of a doctorate in physical therapy program in the School of Allied Health; the recruitment of an Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs in the School of Nursing; the ongoing review of program offerings resulting in the discontinuing of the Nurse-Midwife program; the development of the Academy of Master Teachers; and progress towards electronic submission of dissertations at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. The attached table (8) contains goals and progress achievements from each school's strategic plan.
In addition to the institutional mission development and school level strategic planning, the UT System formed a planning task force to develop a new strategic plan for the UT System. The Regents' Rules and Regulations specify that the Chancellor is to periodically prepare a strategic plan for the UT System in consultation with the institutional presidents (9). This plan was built upon and sought to integrate several ongoing processes: the UT System Accountability Reports, a reporting system designed to enhance planning across the system, provide common metrics for cross-institutional comparisons, aid in resource allocation and provide transparency of operations and outcomes to decision makers and the public (10); the annual Compact with UT System, a set of annually updated written agreements between the Chancellor of The University of Texas System and the presidents of each of the System's academic and health institutions that summarize the institution's major goals and priorities, strategic directions, and specific tactics to achieve its goals (11a) (11b) (11c); and the State of Texas’ Closing the Gaps Higher Education Plan initiated in 1999 and updated in 2005 (12).
The resulting plan, the 2006-2015 UT System Strategic Plan, was adopted by the UT System Board of Regents in August 2006 (13). This plan outlines ambitious goals for growth and excellence in all mission-critical areas. Upon its adoption, the Chancellor urged each component campus to begin planning in earnest and strive to link local planning and compact efforts with those underway at UT System.
All of these documents – the UTMB school-specific plans, the 2006-2015 UT System Strategic Plan, the annual Accountability Report, the Compact with UT System, and the State of Texas’ Closing the Gaps Higher Education Plan – are the foundation for the alignment model planning and evaluation processes at UTMB. At the institutional level, executive leadership groups assume primary responsibility for assuring the overall advancement of the UTMB mission. Semi-annual retreats, led by the president, are employed to assess progress in mission achievement, create action plans for ongoing improvement, and propose adjustments to ensure conformity with statewide and national goals. The outcomes of these planning efforts have included the establishment of an academic presence in the Austin area; the implementation of an electronic medical record system, the development of a common academic calendar, and the securing of tuition revenue bond authority to build the Galveston National Laboratory. The attached table (14) contains selected outcomes from the Institutional Compact planning process.
In 2006, the university underwent an extensive organizational and financial review by external consultants (15). This review encompassed the academic, and more extensively, the patient care enterprise of the university. The institution is proceeding with the evaluation and implemention of many of these recommendations. One major recommendation of the consulting group was to institute an Office of Planning and Marketing (OPM) that will report to the president and assume responsibility for clinical enterprise strategic planning and marketing. This office was established with an interim director in the latter part of 2006 (16). At present this office is working to further expand the university’s planning process, a step that will lead to the next iteration of UTMB’s formal strategic plan that will be submitted to the UT System. Further, the institution phased out its Office of Institutional Analysis (OIA) and formed an Office of Institutional Effectiveness (OIE), reporting to the Chief Academic Officer (17). This initiative was undertaken to provide a systematic approach to institutional research, data oversight and analysis, and enhance the importance of the academic enterprise by providing integrated academic program assessment.
While UTMB’s future approach to strategic planning may change with the accession of the new president in September 2007, it is important to note that drawing on its commitment to mission advancement, core values, entity level strategic planning, and the UT System Compact has worked well for the institution. A Chief Academic Officer (CAO), appointed by the president, provides the connection between the Academic Enterprise and the Strategic Executive Committee (SEC). As the Chair of the Council of Deans, the CAO insures that entity level strategic plans are reviewed on a biennial basis to insure alignment of strategic goals, and consistency with the UTMB and the UT System’s mission. In turn, the council charges its Academic Affairs and Student Affairs Committees for review of selected aspects of the strategic plans.
Planning and Evaluation Processes That Demonstrate That UTMB is Effectively Accomplishing Its Mission.
The processes outlined above result in an institution that is fulfilling its mission of “providing scholarly teaching, innovative scientific investigation and state-of-the-art patient care” as evidenced by planned and supported enrollment growth; continued progress in the growth of sponsored research, even during a period of tight federal research expenditures; and a continued commitment to serving the health needs of the citizens of the State of Texas.
The institution can demonstrate that these planning processes have ensured continued mission fulfillment in terms of providing “education programs enable the state’s talented individuals to become outstanding practitioners, teachers, and investigators in the health care sciences” as indicated by the continued excellence in student performance on national licensure examinations. Our medical school graduates continue to achieve close to a 99% first –time pass rate on the USMLE Part 1 and our Bachelor of Science in Nursing graduates passed the national licensure examination at a rate of 97% for those taking the exam for the first time.
Further, the mission of the institution calls for the provision of “comprehensive primary, specialty, and sub-specialty care clinical programs support the educational mission and are committed to the health and well-being of all Texans”. The institution continues to fulfill its mission in this regard by providing uncompensated health care to the neediest of Texans; by recording increases in patient satisfaction ratings across the clinical enterprise; and continued development of clinical facilities and ancillary structures.
Finally, the institution can demonstrate mission fulfillment based on comprehensive planning in terms of “research programs are committed to the discovery of new innovative biomedical and health services knowledge leading to increasingly effective and accessible health care for the citizens of Texas”. The Galveston National Laboratory, a facility that will place UTMB as a national leader in bio-defense research and which represents a federal commitment of over $110,000,000, is near completion (18).
To assess the extent to which it is accomplishing its mission at an institutional level, input from UTMB faculty and staff is obtained regularly. The surveys are conducted on-line by an external firm and address a variety of critical issues such as confidence in the university leadership and perceptions of the appropriateness of the university’s major initiatives and direction. Faculty survey findings are shared in the academic entities and with the faculty senate. Employee survey findings are widely disseminated throughout the university (19). Each entity receives overall results as well as those for the entity. Each entity leader is expected to review the results with entity employees and to generate action plans for areas needing improvement. A Customer Service Report is also prepared annually (20) as is a University Fact Book (21).
Planning at UTMB is the culmination of efforts at the institution, UT System and State of Texas levels that span close to a decade. The result has been a process that provides a degree of strategic direction at the level of the State and System, with appropriate requirements of accountability, oversight and transparency, while also providing institutional autonomy in defining its own mission, rewarding innovation, and allowing the institution to develop its own agenda towards mission fulfillment. This process has served the institution well and has provided a clear, data driven and verifiable process in demonstrating that the various programs and efforts of the institution succeed in meeting the mission of the institution as a whole. | <urn:uuid:1d8afb2a-f10c-45fb-9c8f-eb128ade5903> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utmb.edu/sacs/Report/Principles/core_2_5.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946628 | 2,716 | 1.640625 | 2 |
This study examined concurrent and longitudinal associations among peer victimization, peer status, and self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (i.e., suicidal ideation and nonsuicidal self-injury [NSSI]) over a 2-year period. A community sample of 493 adolescents (51% girls) in Grades 6–8 participated in the study. Participants completed measures of suicidal ideation and NSSI at three time points. Measures of peer victimization (overt and relational) and peer status (preference-based and reputation-based popularity) were collected by using a standard sociometric procedure. The hypothesized model was examined by using a multiple group (by gender) latent growth curve analysis. Results suggested that high levels of overt victimization were associated with increases in suicidal ideation over time for girls. No effects were revealed for relational victimization in the prediction of concurrent or longitudinal associations with suicidal ideation for boys or girls. With respect to peer status, low levels of preference- based popularity were associated with increases in suicidal ideation over time. Implications for understanding the complex patterns of association among different forms of peer victimization, self-injurious thoughts and behaviors, and peer group status are discussed.
Heilbron, Nicole and Prinstein, Mitchell J.
"Adolescent Peer Victimization, Peer Status, Suicidal
Ideation, and Nonsuicidal Self-Injury:
Examining Concurrent and Longitudinal Associations,"
3, Article 9.
Available at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/mpq/vol56/iss3/9 | <urn:uuid:32ea8bab-6ece-479c-9c92-2ed0e71df0b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/mpq/vol56/iss3/9/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919073 | 333 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Yoga poses, which are called asanas, are the staple of this centuries old practice. Each yoga position has a specific purpose and works a different combination of muscles. The connection between mind and body is an important part of yoga, and the poses that are used are an integral part of this connection.
Since there are so many different types of yoga, there are also a variety of yoga poses that anyone from a beginning to a yoga master can do. Depending on the type of yoga and what its primary goal is, the poses can include:
- Seated poses and side twists
- Standing poses
- Core strengtheners
- Forward bends
- Restorative (resting) poses
- Meditation poses
Yoga can be a great form of exercise for people of all fitness levels, since many yoga poses are low impact yet build strength and balance. The controlled breathing that is used in many yoga practices can help improve concentration and is said to be able to increase memory.
If you are considering yoga or would like more information on what is yoga and how it can benefit you, you should first consult with your primary care provider to ensure you are healthy enough for this exercise. It is also important to make sure you start with beginner yoga poses before trying more advanced positions. Trying advanced poses before you are ready can result in injury. | <urn:uuid:ab38a889-4bf0-4fb9-aa36-78a2345e1ead> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vaxa.com/yoga-poses.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967706 | 270 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Over the last few days within the Druid community, there has been much discussion about what essentially constitutes Druidry. It is a wonderful and interesting discussion and one, I believe, that is not at all new particularly since the 18th Century Romantic Revivals. Whilst I have not been following the many discussions on Facebook and the online forums, I have been following the more stately and considered pace of the blogsphere where opinion is perhaps slower and more considered. The discussion surrounds, in the main, whether the practice of Druidry should centre on devotion to the Celtic Gods of Britain and if the many other gods that the majority of folks I know work with, are diluting the tradition beyond all recognition. For other view points on this subject see http://www.rosher.me.uk/wordpress/?p=776&cpage=1#comment-46597 http://www.kristofferhughes.co.uk/1/post/2012/01/dilute-to-taste.html http://druidlife.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/druidry-and/
My interest in the discussion is piqued because in many ways, my Druidry could be seen to fall outside the accepted norms although it is still wholly within the definition of the constitution of the Druid network http://druidnetwork.org/constitution which was agreed at the time of its publication by every Druid group it was sent to, and there were many hundreds consulted. It has been copied and pasted in to countless Druid websites around the world helping others to define and refine their own particular strand of Druidry. I hold a proud, firstly English and secondly British, identity, I am not immersed in the Celtic culture of Wales or Ireland or indeed Scotland and I am more interested in the landscape of my immediate locality than the Welsh mountains or valleys (although I am fond of them too), which for my ancestors would have been a week or more of hard walking away, if it ever even occurred to them to go. If I work with named gods at all, they are most likely to be those of my English ancestors: Freya, Frigg, Ing, Nerthus and Woden, Skadi and Njord, because they are the most immediate to me, singing within my ancestral blood and reflecing my home landscape. I say usually, but it is not exclusively; there too are my relationships with Rhiannon and Cerridwen, Black Annis, Isis and Pan. So am I one of the folks diluting Druidry? I guess many with a Celtocentric view-point would say ‘yes’ but that too depends on how you would define Druidry, and I know many more who would say ‘no’, understanding that a part of the tradition’s essential nature is diversity and perhaps always has been.
My firm belief (for it is important to remember that what we are working with here is belief and individual interpretation of source material upon which even the historians don’t agree) is that Druidry as a religion, from which the 18th Century revivalists drew their inspiration, finds its historical roots, as a priesthood with a recorded history, in Iron Age Wales. The Druids, as far as we can say anything about them, were the intelligensia, priests, philosophers and teachers, perhaps a sophisticated cultural movement in themselves. Yet where did the inspiration for this tradition come from, where are its roots? I for one do not believe that it appeared fully formed from nowhere, or that pagan religion in Britain began with the Welsh Druids in the Iron Age as a complete expression of a tradition that must be followed to the letter today in order to retain any authenticity. What of the priests of the British Isles before this time? What of the folk, the beliefs and traditions outside Wales in the Iron age and back further into the mists before the Iron Age migrations to Britain? As is widely acknowledged in the Druid Network; ‘Druidry was the native spiritual tradition of the peoples who inhabited the islands of Britain and Ireland, spreading through much of Europe. Though many consider it to have been a religion or political force that came to Britain with the influx of culture concurrent with the Iron Age, it is increasingly understood, and within the Network acknowledged, to be of an older indigenous if ever-evolving religious tradition sourced within these islands’. And this for me hits the proverbial nail on the head; an older, indigenous, if ever-evolving religious tradition. Druidry comes from the place where people and landscape find a relationship and that is true for the whole of the British Isles and probably beyond. It is older than the first records of the Iron Age Druids and has been here as long as there have been people in these Islands, long before the stories of the Mabinogion were thought of, let alone written down. It is the wind and the sun, the sea and the moon, the crops and the cycles, but most specifically it is our relationship of devotion with them.
We have a particularly strong and beautiful thread of Druidic Tradition in Wales and within the Mabinogion (although Druids are never actually mentioned within it) but for the majority of us, this does not exclusively define the tradition although it is a deep vein within it. It does not even do so historically when we look further afield to Ireland, Scotland and Gaul. That is before we even consider that the old texts were written in around the 14th Century, probably by Christians and the stories they tell may well not have been in any way recognisable to the Iron Age Druids, 1000 years is a long time in cultural evolution and oral tradition. They are a rich and strong source of shimmering inspiration, that has been foundational to much of my learning, but I wonder how many other threads of myth and legend have been lost; how different our picture of history and our tradition might be had we more of the old songs and stories that didn’t make it this far, fell beside the way. We can only build a picture based upon what we have, but we make a mistake if we assume that our version of history is complete, or that we know conclusively what happened and to whom, as the wonderful Ronald Hutton points out in his book, which vividly deconstructs Druidry and many of our strongly held notions of it. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Druids-History-Ronald-Hutton/dp/1852855339
Ultimately, if we are to acknowledge that the spirit of Druidry within these Islands is older than the Iron Age (and it is fundamental to my Druidry that it is), that it did not just rock up fully formed as the first, only and authoritative expression of priesthood in Britain; we must acknowledge that confining it to one pantheon, manuscript or location is to acknowledge only one facet of its breadth, depth and history. It is a tiny moment in the continuum of thousands and thousands of years of pagan tradition within these lands. I cannot imagine that we are not as different from the Druids of 2000 years ago, as they were from the Druids 2000 years before them, our attitudes, culture, gods and lore as distinct and different. It would be possible to confine Druidry to one pantheon, many do, and this is fine when it is not prescriptive. Because far from being based in truth and authenticity, this is a modern interpretation and perspective that does not well represent a tradition where every tribe in every valley of Britain probably had a different name for the mud. We might call her Rhiannon, we might call her Nerthus or Cudda; some may complain about the diversity but I think we know fewer names now than our ancestors did then and with archeological evidence of travellers and migrations to these islands stretching back as far as the first settlers, there is no reason to believe that Britain has been stuck in a bubble. New peoples and their gods have arrived and departed and settled many, many times adding new names to the cauldron, like the stones brought from all over Europe to create Silbury Hill. One only has to look at these many migrations to understand that in Britain, ‘native’ is a relative term with regards to humanity and the gods. Everything arrived here sooner or later except the land itself, even the Celts (and lets not even go in to deconstructing that one, here). I see Celtic culture as a part of the continuum, not the whole of it.
Through all of this I start to wonder how much, throughout history, the Druids have themselves been the suppressors or oppressors, dictating how and who a tribe worshiped, with constant squabbles over who is ‘right’. They wouldn’t have been the first priesthood to do so, organised religion is rarely without its corruption or power games. Against a violent and rapidly changing political Iron Age back-drop, I see no sense in romanticising our forebears, they were after all human, just as we are, the same drives and lusts, motivations and mistakes. We honour our ancestors for this very stuff, the stuff of being human. I hounour all my ancestors, every one who brought me to this point, The English, the scattering of Scotts and Welsh, the Cornish, the Devonians and those from Somerset. Their rich blend of heritage and culture and relationship with their lands is my religion. I don’t selectively honour the ones the fit the bill and discount all the rest. This tradition lives, it grows, it changes like the land which is not forever constant. If I am judged not to be a Druid by some, then so be it. Yet I was never one to toe the line or conform to the status quo, so I shall just continue to walk this path, serving my gods and ancestors.
If the Druids before us did occasionally play the role of the oppressor, dictating the gods we should worship and the way we should do it, lets chose not to make that mistake again now. If they never did before, surely let’s not start today. Rather, let us continue to allow folk to walk this path in freedom, expressing a Druidry that is bigger and stronger, deeper and broader than any of us individually. Somehow I imagine it will weather the storms. | <urn:uuid:8267ff74-21e3-412e-b53b-51be68251cfd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theanimistscraft.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/druidry-ancient-and-modern/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968766 | 2,139 | 1.835938 | 2 |
That little something you thought you heard when you were calling your stockbroker may be Sebi listening in.
Businessmen, market punters and investors beware. To the long list of government agencies that are already entitled to tap your phone, you can now probably add market watchdog Sebi.
The conviction of former McKinsey boss Rajat Gupta on charges of securities fraud in the US—basically for passing on insider information to Raj Rajaratnam—may have shocked many Indians, but one Indian agency which was mighty chuffed by the verdict was Sebi.
Reason: what nailed Gupta was phone-taps. Sebi now thinks it should be listening in to conversations by suspected insider traders and has sought changes in the law to allow it to do this.
According to a report in The Economic Times, the Sebi request was discussed at an inter-ministerial meeting attended by bureaucrats from telecom and home affairs – and the idea apparently found support. If Sebi finally gets to put its ears to the proverbial insider keyhole, the Indian Telegraph Act will have to be tweaked to give it these powers.
India’s corporate bosses and insiders had better watch out. Even as the Supreme Court is hearing a petition on the invasion of privacy filed by Ratan Tata due to the leaking of the Niira Radia tapes, the law may be changed to allow even more officials to eavesdrop.
Currently, it is the enforcement and intelligence agencies that get to listen in. Among them: the CBI, the Intelligence Bureau, the tax authorities, the economic surveillance agencies (Central Economic Intelligence Bureau and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence – DRI).
If all goes well, Sebi’s eager beavers will be cocking an attentive ear to listen to conversations between businessmen, executives and brokers.
If UK Sinha, Chairman of Sebi, gets his way on telephone-tapping, there’s no reason why Reserve Bank’s D Subbarao should not also want to entertain himself with what businessmen are discussing. After all, RBI is the big dada of regulation, and what Sebi gets, the RBI surely won’t want to deny itself. It would have even more justification: who knows, crooks may talking of ways to remit illegal money in and out of India.
However, the problem is the complete lack of safeguards against misuse of telephone tapping rights. Till date, no one has been identified or punished for leaking the Niira Radia tapes. The Indian Express noted on Friday that the DRI listened in to conversations involving the family members of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), but no action has been taken. And remember, both CBEC and DRI come under the finance ministry.
Clearly, the scope for misuse is huge and not one illegal wiretapping case has been brought to justice so far. Given the complete lack of accountability among the snooping agencies, privacy is likely to go for a further toss. | <urn:uuid:91d7dd6c-5a42-4897-97de-8ffbe23d4d79> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.firstpost.com/blogs/business-blogs/after-taxman-and-intel-snoops-sebi-wants-to-tap-your-phone-403352.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958255 | 609 | 1.5625 | 2 |
In the piece on Thursday entitled “One UCI official, two jets and three yachts” I mistakenly featured a Boeing 737 aircraft registered in the name of Itera Holdings, it seems planespotters have confused Itera with Intera and almost every image of the Boeing has it registered with Igor Makarov’s business. However this is incorrect and the Boeing 737 instead belongs to a Czech billionaire financier called Petr Kellner. Sorry.
However don’t get the impression that Mr Makarov is stuck with only one aircraft. Because whilst I did feature the Embraer P4-IVM… there is another Embraer jet, this time with the registration P4-MIV. So the title of “two jets” still seems valid.
Note the registration of the plane: P4-IVM as in Igor Viktorovich Makarov. All planes share the same P4 prefix because they are registered in the Caribbean island of Aruba. The national carrier of Kazakhstan, Air Astana, has registered its entire fleet of Boeing and Airbus aircraft with the tiny island of Aruba as have many wealthy individuals from around the world making the island a haven for aircraft registration. | <urn:uuid:6226fbaa-ffd6-43c5-9b59-b17738ba5fcd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inrng.com/2012/02/fact-czech-p4ngk/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937199 | 248 | 1.554688 | 2 |
21 January 2011
Most American Jews, according to polls, don’t like what is happening, but are seemingly helpless before the shrewd lobbying of long time pressure groups which have built up over decades a disproportionate influence on Congress. They make sure that the large US aid programme to Israel continues. In effect, it liberates funds for Israel to build roads and defences for the settlers pushing deep into Palestinian territory.
Yet even if the aid were withdrawn, even if the US stopped vetoing UN resolutions that criticise Israel, nothing is likely to change.
Israeli leaders know well that before long at present rates of population growth the number of Arabs in the area under Israeli control will outnumber the Jews. It will become an apartheid state as South Africa was, subject to the likelihood of ever increasing violence from within—to the point when Israel is pushed into retreat and some strong leader is elected who will have to give the Palestinians what they ask for.
Could all this have been avoided? There were alternative places for the Jews to create their own state—some in the British government and in the Jewish leadership in the early years of the last century thought Uganda and Argentina were possibilities. At that time, before polls admittedly, one could say that a majority of Jews would have preferred one of those, rather than displacing Arabs. Unlike the Zionists they were not beholden to the idea of “the land of milk and honey” being on Arab land. For generation upon generation the Jews in the Diaspora, whether they lived in Muslim or Christian lands, passed a peaceful life. From time to time there were pogroms in the Christian world, but not the Muslim, when local feelings got out of control. But by and large, over nearly two millennia, they were on a small scale. Jews were mostly content to live in the Diaspora. Only when Hitler arrived and the Holocaust began did a large number of European Jews yearn to go to Israel and join the few idealists who had settled before. Without that influx Israel would never have become the threat to the Palestinian Arabs that it is today.
By and large Jews didn’t believe it was their Biblical destiny to settle in Palestine and for the more thoughtful ones, who read the ancient texts with an open mind, the original push by Moses, leading the Jewish people out of bondage in Egypt, was not a history they felt obliged to repeat. After all Moses had made his way clear to “the promised land” by genocide.
The story about alternative settlement in Uganda and Argentina is well known. Less known is the creation by the Soviet Presidium in 1928 of a Jewish autonomous region in the Far East, Birobidzhan. Many Russian Jews moved to live there, although there was no compulsion to do so. Some settlers came from outside Russia.
In Stalin’s later years Jews were hounded, killed or sent to Siberia. At its height only 18,000 Jews lived in the autonomous region – 16 per cent of the population. By 2002 it was down to 2,300. Today, however, Jews are trickling back, a few hundred coming from Israel.
The capital has 14 public schools. They must teach Yiddish and Jewish tradition, as does the university. There are social groups for the elderly that teach Jewish rituals. There is a Yiddish radio station and theatre. In the central square there is a memorial to Sholom Aleichman whose stories of life in Russian villages in Birobidzhan formed the basis for the musical “Fiddler on the Roof”.
Were not under populated Birobidzhan, Uganda or Argentina better opportunities to build an Israel? With Uganda it would have meant taking over peasant land. With Argentina the Zionist leadership let the possibility pass. But the notion of an exclusive Israel dominating Palestine is becoming an impossibility, too. Who knows, as that reality sinks into Israel consciousness, Jews will look at Birobidzmhan with a fresh eye.
Jonathan Power is a veteran foreign affairs commentator based in London | <urn:uuid:5fbd7df0-b2f2-4bbe-b342-091540b7da6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://1426.blogspot.com/2011/01/is-israel-only-possible-homeland-for.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973538 | 828 | 2.21875 | 2 |
NEW YORK (AP) - The woman who turned her love and appreciation of the built environment into a pioneering and prize-winning career as an architecture critic has died. Ada Louise Huxtable was 91.
Her attorney, Robert Shapiro, says Huxtable died Monday at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan after an illness.
Huxtable began working at The New York Times in 1963 and was a groundbreaker in bringing architecture criticism to an American newspaper. In her time there, she also was the first winner of the Pulitzer Prize for criticism, in 1970.
Huxtable, a native New Yorker, later went to work for The Wall Street Journal and had pieces published as recently as last month.
Her husband died in 1989, and she has no survivors.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) | <urn:uuid:c52e48b7-3f3f-45ca-9e90-ec40aa5f141d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wlbz2.com/news/national/article/227164/45/Architecture-critic-Ada-Louise-Huxtable-dies-at-91 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98174 | 184 | 1.796875 | 2 |
One of the traditions the recent trend toward frugality has resurrected is negotiating. Whether you are negotiating for a car, or asking for a discount in a department store, knowing how to negotiate can save you quite a bit of money, especially if you employ negotiation techniques on various purchases over the course of a lifetime.
Here are a few tips you can use to help you get a good deal, no matter where you shop:
Know Your Stuff
First of all, it helps to know what something is worth. Do a little research so that you know what a good deal is. You want to be reasonable, not a bully. Comparison shop so that you can show the salesperson exactly what others are offering. Technology makes it even easier to do this. Your smart phone or iPad can provide you with price comparisons that you can use immediately.
Ask for what you want, and find out if the salesperson can maybe do a little better. If you have to, ask for a manager, or someone who has the ability to give you a discount.
Politely ask for what you want. There’s no reason to get heated. Try to stay calm; avoid making a scene. You should also speak in a low voice, and avoid asking for a discount when others are around. A salesperson will be less willing to make a deal if he or she knows that the same deal is going to have to be made for everyone within earshot.
You don’t have to talk the whole time. In fact, silence can be a great negotiating tool. Ask open-ended questions, and let the other party do a lot of the talking. You can find out what you need to know. Plus, many people are uncomfortable with silence. In some negotiations, simply remaining quiet, in an attitude of “thinking of it over”, can prompt the other person to become uncomfortable and maybe even lower the price.
Consider Accessories and Perks
Sometimes, it’s not about getting a lower price. Sometimes it’s about the accessories and perks. You might get a few freebies thrown in if you agree to a certain price. From free service for the item, to extra perks and accessories, sometimes these non-money items can add quite a bit of value. This is especially true if you would normally buy those items later anyway.
Be Ready to Walk
Negotiation 101 requires that you be ready to walk away. While you do need to be reasonable, and occasionally budge on your request (start by asking too much so you have wiggle room), you do need to know what the deal breakers are. Be ready to walk if the most important aspects of the negotiation, or the price, aren’t met. It doesn’t hurt to keep looking for the deal you want.
Don’t forget to practice. You can start small, such as with a display item, or a damaged item, at the store. Practice until you are good at negotiation, and then you will be ready to move on to items with larger prices. In the long run, your ability and willingness to negotiate can save you big. | <urn:uuid:e2bfc04f-b1fa-4bcd-b24b-75366f539f87> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://canadianfinanceblog.com/tips-for-negotiating-a-better-deal/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953703 | 647 | 1.804688 | 2 |
For some people, Twitter lists offers ways to narrow fields of many into few favorites. I use lists to categorize--not to point out my favorites.
Because there are many in our organization who are very new (and newcomers are coming everyday) to Twitter and other social media, I wanted to use lists to easily recommend people to follow. My method is not the most efficient method, but it is way for me to have a bank of accounts that I can refer others to. It is a way for me to personally match colleagues in interests, positions, etc. I feel that I have a role in connecting people with similar interests because it is difficult for newcomers to know where to start to look. Newcomers will quickly see benefits when they immediately belong to a community that matches their interests, passions, and goals.
Cooperative Extension professionals find colleagues in my Cooperative Extension list. My lists come in handy when I am trying find people who specialize in a narrow field.
Using my Cooperative Extension list, I created a Tweetdeck column. When I need to look at what my Cooperative Extension colleagues have said during the day, I look at this column. Using third party applications, like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite, give me efficient ways to prioritize and focus .
Please note: Cooperative Extension professionals using social media should register their accounts here http://www.extension.org/people/colleagues/socialnetworks so we can efficiently find colleagues with similar interests and responsibilities.
The majority of the people who I follow do not work for universities or for Cooperative Extension. I learn the most from people unlike me. I follow people who work in public relations, marketing, military, agriculture, education, and government. I follow people who own their own businesses, manage and own farms, attend high school and college, live close by or in Alabama, and are my friends. The variety of people I follow gives me a rich online learning experience. However, keeping up and staying focus are my challenges. Lists helps me focus on certain areas when I need to.
Also, lists give me a way to include a few people who I don’t follow.
How To Use Twitter Lists is a good resource for getting started using Twitter lists.
I easily add new people I follow to a list either on Twitter.com (using the instructions in the link above)or in Tweetdeck.
I also create Tweetdeck columns to follow particular search terms (not using the lists). Most of the time the terms are temporary, like when I follow a hashtag associated with a conference.
The constant noise is social media spaces can be frustrating and create time vacuums. With services like Formulists, I hope to integrate filters for location, search terms, and lists.
NOTE: I happen to use Tweetdeck, but other applications, like HootSuite can do the same thing. | <urn:uuid:c0961c7f-4417-410e-a0f2-69ed62565b28> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.anneadrian.com/2011_04_01_archive.html | 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 | 0.941043 | 588 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Payment issues often drive choices in health care. Consequently, a very influential policy maker in Washington is the bipartisan Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, or MedPAC. In March and June of each year, MedPAC reports to Congress on the state of the Medicare program, and recommends payment rates and policies for Medicare providers, including hospitals and advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs).
My name is Cece Henry, and I’m an intern this spring with the ANA Government Affairs Department (GOVA). After 20 years of primarily ICU/CCU nursing, I decided to return to school for my master’s degree. I wanted to do something that took me out of the traditional hospital setting, and learned about this internship after taking a class last semester with Abby Ehret, a former GOVA intern. After hearing about her memorable experiences, I knew I had to be here!
HHS Initiatives to Help States with “Dual-Eligible” Medicare/Medicaid Patients Include More Nurse Practitioners in Nursing HomesWednesday, August 31st, 2011
On July 8, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of the Department of Health and Human Services announced three new initiatives to help states improve the quality and lower the cost of care for the approximately nine million Americans who are eligible for benefits under both Medicare and Medicaid programs. These individuals, known as “dual-eligibles,” include some of the sickest patients, and account for a significant and growing portion of health care costs — over $300 billion per year. A technical resource center will help states coordinate care, and demonstration projects are designed to improve care coordination and decrease hospital admissions of nursing home residents. The nursing home demonstration project calls for facilities to adopt improvements such as employing more nurse practitioners, and increasing evidence-based interventions to prevent falls, pressure ulcers, and other preventable conditions.
Mandating Cultural Competency Training Through Policy: The Potential for Reducing Health DisparitiesWednesday, September 8th, 2010
On July 22, 2010 Rose Gonzalez, MPS, RN, Director of Government Affairs and member of the Culturally Competent Nursing Modules Project Advisory Committee provided a workshop at the 35th Annual Conference of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) held in Washington, DC. NAHN™ was founded in 1975 and is committed to improving the quality of health and nursing care of Hispanic consumers and toward providing equal access to educational, professional, and economic opportunities for Hispanic nurses. | <urn:uuid:a790b2c4-f02b-4e5a-a40f-23e8c518ce05> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.capitolupdate.org/index.php/tag/department-of-health-and-human-services/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951475 | 507 | 1.601563 | 2 |
(purpose into lead section and slightly rewritten)
(→Procurement: prices and DEPC from MPI)
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Revision as of 13:08, 29 January 2009
Diethyl pyrocarbonate (DEPC) is an efficient, nonspecific inhibitor of RNases. It is typically used to treat water and solutions before working with easily degraded RNA. DEPC reacts with amine, hydroxy and thiol groups of proteins thereby inactivating RNAses (and other enzymes).
- 100ml DEPC from Sigma (D5758) - €233/$292 (as of 2009-01)
- 100ml DEPC from MPI (150902) - €313 (as of 2009-01)
- Treatment involves adding DEPC to 0.1% v/v and incubating at 37°C for 1 hour to overnight followed by autoclaving. Autoclaving destroys DEPC and is an essential step. Esters may be generated during autoclaving giving rise to a 'fruity' smell (that is not coming directly from DEPC).
- Note that DEPC cannot be used with chemical solutions that have amine groups, such as Tris and HEPES buffers, or mercaptans. In such cases, use DEPC-treated water to generate the solution.
- DEPC is very toxic and should be handled with care. Wear gloves!
- Di-methyl-propyl carbonate (DMPC), a safer alternative to DEPC (known carcinogen), is used in exactly the same way. | <urn:uuid:1caa234a-9322-41d7-a15a-52b571a2d10f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.openwetware.org/index.php?title=DEPC&diff=280827&oldid=280816 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904114 | 337 | 1.976563 | 2 |
WASHINGTON (AP) Lt. Daniel Zimmerman, an infantry platoon leader in Iraq, puts a blog on the Internet every now and then "to basically keep my friends and family up to date" back home.
It just got tougher to do that for Zimmerman and a lot of other U.S. soldiers. No more using the military's computer system to socialize and trade videos on MySpace, YouTube and nine other websites, the Pentagon says.
Citing security concerns and technological limits, the Pentagon has cut off access to those sites for personnel using the Defense Department's computer network. The change limits use of the popular outlets for service members on the front lines, who regularly post videos and journals.
"I put my blog on there and my family reads it," said Zimmerman, 29, a platoon leader with B Company, 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment.
"It scares the crap out of them sometimes," he said.
"I keep it as vague as possible," he said. "I'm pretty responsible about it. It's just basically to tell a little bit about my life over here" he said.
He's regularly at a base where he doesn't have Defense Department access to the Internet, but he has used it when he goes to bigger bases. He'll have to rely on a private account all the time now.
Memos about the change went out in February, and it took effect last week. It does not affect the Internet cafes that soldiers in Iraq use that are not connected to the Defense Department's network. The cafe sites are run by a private vendor, FUBI (For US By Iraqis).
Also, the Pentagon said that many of the military computers on the front lines in Iraq that are on the department's network had previously blocked the YouTube and MySpace sites.
The ban also does not affect other sites, such as Yahoo, and does not prevent soldiers from sending messages and photos to their families by e-mail.
Internet use has become a troublesome issue for the military as it struggles to balance security concerns with privacy rights. As blogs and video-sharing become more common, the military has voiced increasing concern about service members revealing details about military operations or other information about equipment or procedures that will aid the enemy.
At the same time, service members have used the websites to chronicle their time in battle, posting videos and writing journals that provide a powerful, personal glimpse into their days at war.
"These actions were taken to enhance and increase network security and protect the use of the bandwidth," said Col. Gary Keck, a Pentagon spokesman.
The Pentagon said that use of the video sites in particular was putting a strain on the network, and also opening it to potential viruses or penetration by so-called "phishing" attacks in which scam artists try to steal sensitive data by mimicking legitimate websites.
"The U.S. Army's not going to pay the bill for you to get on MySpace and YouTube," said Maj. Bruce Mumford, of Chester, Neb., who is serving as the brigade communications officer for the 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, in Iraq. "Soldiers need to know what they can and cannot do, but we shouldn't be facilitating it."
After the warnings of the shutdown went out, military members were allowed to seek waivers if the sites were necessary for their jobs. Often insurgent groups post videos, including ones of attacks or — in some high profile cases — of U.S. or coalition soldiers who have been captured or killed.
"I guess it's a good general policy," Zimmerman said about the ban on MySpace and YouTube." If people could be trusted not to break operational security, then they wouldn't need to have the policy."
If the restrictions are intended to prevent soldiers from giving or receiving bad news, they could also prevent them from providing positive reports from the field, said Noah Shachtman, who runs a national security blog for Wired Magazine.
"This is as much an information war as it is bombs and bullets," he said. "And they are muzzling their best voices."
The sites covered by the ban are the video-sharing sites YouTube, Metacafe, IFilm, StupidVideos and FileCabi; social networking sites MySpace, BlackPlanet and Hi5; music sites Pandora, MTV, 1.fm and live365, and the photo-sharing site Photobucket.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Conversation guidelines: USA TODAY welcomes your thoughts, stories and information related to this article. Please stay on topic and be respectful of others. Keep the conversation appropriate for interested readers across the map. | <urn:uuid:28b57cf6-6941-4c0c-bcbd-9503c7840e74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-05-14-troops-network_N.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969368 | 969 | 1.859375 | 2 |
- Charles Seese
- West Chester, PA
- United States
Can capitalism exist in a world of pure morality?
Barry Schwartz discusses the concept of shifting our cultural focus onto strengthening moral will and moral skill, and entering an era of true wisdom. An obvious comparison he makes is to the ways that corporations abuse the current system of rules and incentives to get what they want. This idea brought up a thought in my head, can capitalism survive in a world of moral strength and character? Does competition thrive when doing the right thing comes before profits? | <urn:uuid:905d94bb-6cb0-44ef-88da-3b840405b847> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ted.com/conversations/7580/can_capitalism_exist_in_a_worl.html?c=368818 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909585 | 112 | 1.59375 | 2 |
For the evening the ISI director general wore a Jinnah-style black sherwani, which is the national dress of Pakistan.
General Pasha was not the only top ISI officers present at the dinner; two other ISI officers were present along with their staff. The DG, ISI, and the Indian high commissioner exchanged smiles while sitting at the same table in the presence of the former speaker of the national assembly, Gohar Ayub Khan, whose father General Ayub Khan was Pakistan's ruler in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Sabharwal informed his guests that he was serving in Pakistan for the second time, having served as deputy high commissioner from 1995 to 1999. That was the most difficult period in recent India-Pakistan history because 1999 was the year the Kargil [ Images ] war happened. Those days the ISI kept all those visiting the Indian high commission in Islamabad under surveillance. Pakistani diplomats were beaten up in Delhi [ Images ] and Indian diplomats faced the same treatment in Islamabad.
The situation became normal after 9/11, but the Mumbai terror attacks [ Images ] in November last year once again sabotaged the peace process between India [ Images ] and Pakistan.
India accused the ISI of masterminding the Mumbai attacks. Immediately after 26/11, the Pakistani government announced that the ISI DG would visit Delhi to help the investigations into the Mumbai attacks, but after some tough posturing from the Indian foreign minister this decision was reversed.
One Indian journalist present at the dinner commented that "the ISI DG's presence at the high commissioner's dinner is unbelievable; it's glasnost in India-Pakistan relations".
Former ISI DG Lieutenant General Asad Durrani (retd), who was also present at the dinner was surprised at General Pasha's presence and termed it "a very, very positive development."
Many diplomats present at the dinner were of the view that a lot of "quiet developments" have been taking place between India and Pakistan.
Intelligence officials from both countries are in constant touch with each other and the talk is that something positive may emerge very soon. Many Pakistanis asked their Indian hosts: "Will the head of R&AW attend a reception at the Pakistani high commission in Delhi?" The hosts responded: "First you invite our intelligence chief to your high commission in Delhi and then we will see."
High Commissioner Sabharwal and the ISI DG were tight-lipped about the developments. When this journalist told General Pasha that Pakistan was doing a lot to improve relations with India, but the response from India was not very encouraging, he said, "Let's hope for the best, things will definitely improve." | <urn:uuid:e7c509ce-0cfb-410a-b283-a7217c0df927> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.rediff.com/special/2009/sep/11/hopes-of-thaw-as-isi-chief-attends-indian-envoys-iftar.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97857 | 541 | 1.507813 | 2 |
ZURICH.- Hauser & Wirth
will present an extraordinary body of works curated directly with members of the Moore family. "Works on Paper from the Henry Moore Family Collection" is the gallery's second presentation of works by Henry Moore, following our 2008 exhibition "Ideas for Sculpture" held at Hauser & Wirth London. The exhibition includes works ranging from Moore's sensitive and sublime studies of the human body to his wartime "Shelter Drawings" and exploratory "Ideas for Sculpture", spanning six decades of the artist's career. "Works on Paper from the Henry Moore Family Collection" provides a rare opportunity to see a group of works that beautifully presents the significance of Moore's drawings in his oeuvre, as well as capturing Moore's skill as an impeccable draughtsman.
Moore once said, "Drawing from life keeps one visually fit perhaps acts like water to a plant and it lessens the danger of repeating oneself and getting into a formula". Moore used his drawings to evolve pre-existing motifs, working through different approaches and views, trying to find the most exciting display in what developed into a Darwinian artistic process. These drawings, such as "Standing Figures and Ideas for Sculpture" (c.1948), are packed with quick studies and odd experimental forms, organised in rows and columns and sometimes drawn in bright pinks, blues, greens and orange.
Constantly looking for sources of inspiration, Moore would often walk along the Cornish seaside and visualise human forms in the landscape and his immediate surroundings. On one of his walks, Moore picked up a pebble and saw in it a wounded soldier, a subject that would dominate his works during the late 1940s and early 1950s and that he would develop in a series of studies and drawings, such as 'Helmet Heads' (1950-1951). In much of his work, Moore portrayed the melding of human figure with natural forms, as in "Reclining Figure: Peapod (verso)" (c.1979). These drawings are a mixture of imagination and observation, pulled from objects in his surroundings and his personal thoughts.
In 1946, Moore's only child Mary was born, adding a new poignancy to his Mother and Child works, a subject that Moore explored throughout his career. These beautiful studies move away from the process-based and into the personal, allowing the viewer an image of Moore not as a world-renowned artist but as a proud new father, looking at his wife and newborn baby girl. Works such as "Two Hands and Parent holding Child's Hand" show a delicate, sensitive approach with soft, white and grey washes providing a backdrop to a repeating study of a small toddler's hand trying to grip onto the hand of their parent.
Throughout his career, Moore utilised a wide range of techniques and media, such as line drawing and cross-hatching, gouache, chalk and crayon, to bring two-dimensional forms to life, creating impressions of movement and radiance and carving human forms from a sheet of paper in a similar fashion to the way in which he carved expressive forms from slabs of stone. With these works on paper, Moore was not drawing simply as an exercise. Instead, the artist was drawing for "the pleasure of looking more intently and intensely", emphasising that these works on paper are not simply sketches, but instead illustrate important stages in Moore's development as a draughtsman and sculptor.
Henry Moore's drawings will be shown on the upper floors of our Zurich gallery in tandem with an exhibition of sculptures by Swiss artist Hans Josephsohn.
This exhibition coincides with the release of the Hauser & Wirth publication, "Henry Moore Ideas for Sculpture", published by JRP | Ringier, as well as the much anticipated major exhibition at Tate Britain which runs until 8 August 2010. | <urn:uuid:d24c2440-7e4f-4afe-bdf3-568624b9dd5f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=36605&int_modo=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975523 | 800 | 1.914063 | 2 |
Higher Education: Something You Should Know About
Higher education denotes a level of education that is offered by universities, community colleges, vocational universities, institutes of technology, liberal arts colleges and other collegiate level institutions like trade schools, vocational schools and career colleges that confer professional certifications, academic degrees or diplomas.
Higher education is also termed as tertiary education, post-secondary education and third level or third-stage education. It is the discretionary level of education after the finishing of a school offering a secondary education, for example, a secondary school, high school or gymnasium.
Usually, higher education is assumed to include undergraduate and postgraduate education and vocational education and training, as well. Higher education is principally provided by the colleges and universities. It involves pedagogy, research and social work or social service performed by universities.
In the United States, higher education particularly denotes post-secondary institutions that provide baccalaureate degrees or bachelor’s degrees, associate degrees, PhD degrees or equivalents and master’s degrees.
Types of Higher Education
Higher education can be broadly categorized into the following types:
General higher education and training that is offered by colleges or universities is normally based on theories. This is quite the opposite of vocational higher education and training that normally focuses on both applied theory and practice.
2) Performing Arts
The performing arts are distinct from the visual arts or plastic arts to the extent that in performing arts, the face, body and presence of the artist or performer are used as a medium. Higher educational institutions that provide performing arts education include the following:
College or university school of music
3) Liberal Arts
The liberal arts include the following academic domains:
Great Books Program
4) Plastic or Visual Arts
The plastic arts or visual arts are a type of art forms that involve the application of materials (paint, metal or clay) that can be shaped or transformed by some techniques for making an artwork, frequently in three dimensions. Examples of plastic art and visual art are drawing, sculpture and painting.
Higher educational institutions that provide plastic or visual arts education are the following:
Higher vocational education and training is offered at the non-university tertiary level. Vocational education is based on both applied theory and practice. A vocational university awards professional degrees, such as Professional Master’s Degree, Professional Bachelor’s Degree and Professional Doctorates in a wide range of disciplines. These universities provide education on applied arts and applied science. Vocational educational institutions are more informally termed as trade schools.
Professional higher education is offered by the following educational institutions:
Public policy school
Career Education – Our mission is to help career builders like you to improve their careers or to find career advice in order to implement a deep career change. | <urn:uuid:e1746c80-836f-4b19-af22-70c07b534da4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.onediy.com/education/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945281 | 568 | 3.203125 | 3 |
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Kent County's per capita personal income rose faster in 2010 than the state average and neighboring Ottawa County.
The county's personal income grew 4.3 percent in 2010 to $34,819 per person, compared to 3 percent in Ottawa County to $32,599 and 3.4 percent for state income of $34,714, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The 2010 figures are the most update available at the county level.
While the data isn't available yet, there are signs the counties experienced even bigger growth in personal income last year. Personal income on average in Michigan grew 5.2 percent in 2011 to $36,533 per person, according to data released last month by the bureau.
It was the fifth highest growth rate in the nation. Nationally, per capita personal income grew 4.3 percent to $41,663.
Personal income includes proceeds from all sources, including wages, rental income, dividends, interest and other sources.
Total earnings for Kent County in 2010 was nearly $21 billion, less than a two percent growth since 2006.
But Ottawa County's overall income climbed 4.7 percent over the same period to $8.6 billion.
Kent County's 603,029 population is more than double the population of Ottawa. | <urn:uuid:ee298f49-1031-4201-b3d7-10c1d0dba636> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2012/04/why_it_was_financially_better.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937279 | 276 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Catch Ellie Krieger on 'Healthy Appetite' on the Cooking Channel. / Ben Fink for USA TODAY
In Woody Allen's classic movie Sleeper, he is woken up 200 years in the future to learn that beef fat, cream pies and hot fudge are the real health foods. It's a funny scene with an unfunny grain of truth behind it. With one hyped diet study contradicting the next, and a new "super-food" on the market weekly, it can certainly feel like if you wait long enough, nutrition experts will change their minds anyway, so why bother with New Year's resolutions at all?
I recently opened something of a time capsule myself as I embarked on a revised and updated version of my first book, Small Changes, Big Results. Originally published just eight years ago, it is remarkable how much has changed since then. We now know that sugar is worse and coffee is better for you than we thought. We have learned we need much more vitamin D, and that spices contain powerful antioxidants.
The market has been transformed, too. A decade ago, it was hard to find Greek yogurt, whole-grain pasta, gluten-free foods or quinoa; now a dizzying array of these foods line supermarket shelves. Technology, too, has altered the healthy eating landscape. Eight years ago, people listened to their Walkman and carried a brick-sized cellphone. Now we have iPods and smartphones with apps, some that can help with meal tracking and menu planning, and others that distract us from enjoying and connecting around the dinner table.
But perhaps more remarkable is what hasn't changed. Amazingly, after reviewing all the science behind my book's 12-week wellness plan, every step on the path of small changes I originally laid out nearly a decade ago stayed exactly the same. So while our world is dramatically different and the swirl of studies reported and refuted continues, the basics of healthier eating remain tried and true:
-- Whole grains
-- Plant proteins (beans, nuts, seeds) and fish
-- Healthy oils (olive, canola)
-- Sugar, and cut out sugary drinks
-- Refined grains and highly processed foods
-- Food high in animal fat (fatty meats, butter, cream)
Nutritional science isn't vacillating as much as you might think. So, no, cream pie isn't on the "eat more" list, and I am guessing it won't be 200 years from now, either. Sorry if I dashed a far-flung hope. But the good news is you can be confident that any New Year's resolution based on the above will be worth sticking to.
Registered dietitian Ellie Krieger is host of Food Network's Healthy Appetite, which airs on the Cooking Channel. Her most recent cookbook is Comfort Food Fix: Feel Good Favorites Made Healthy.
Copyright 2013 USATODAY.com
Read the original story: Despite diet hype, nutrition basics haven't changed | <urn:uuid:9ad08c82-6708-482a-abe0-74b89d23beb6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.livingstondaily.com/usatoday/article/1805369?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFrontpage%7Cs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947702 | 615 | 1.820313 | 2 |
The Arizona CDP is an online system for collecting and standardizing historical financial and organizational data. The first management tool of its kind, the Arizona CDP will enable organizations to view trends in their data, benchmark themselves against peer organizations, and enhance their financial management capacity.
The Arizona CDP is operated by the Pew Charitable Trusts as part of an emerging national network of participating states under the umbrella of the Cultural Data project. TPAC is one of eleven grantmakers in Arizona that have committed to long-term use of the Arizona CDP. Additional partners include the Arizona Commission on the Arts. The complete list can be viewed here.
TPAC now requires $10,000 grant applicants and all grant awardees to complete a Data Profile for their two most recently completed fiscal years through the Arizona CDP website and generate the Tucson Pima Arts Council Funder Report.
Instructions for the use of the Arizona CDP
Please Note: As part of the effort to ensure the accuracy of your data, throughout the year the Arizona CDP Help Desk will review each of your submitted Data Profile(s) and contact you with suggested revisions. It is your responsibility to respond to the Help Desk and to make any necessary changes to the submitted Cultural Data Profile(s). This process will not interfere with your ability to run Funder Reports and apply for grants.
Please direct questions concerning the Cultural Data Profile to:
Arizona CDP Help Desk:
Toll Free: 1-855- 77-AZCDP (1-855-772-9237)
The Arizona CDP Help Desk is available Monday – Friday from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm local time.
Sample funder reports:
“After a little over 20 hours of work finding, gathering and inputting data, I began printing out different reports and saw the immediate value of the program. Our financial report for our upcoming annual report — done. The data needed for an upcoming strategic plan — done. And the list goes on. Whoever designed the program really understood nonprofits and data gathering. So, while the process was painful, the outcome was totally worth it. Next year I expect to log about 10 hours entering data, the following year maybe two hours.”
– Finance Director from the Tucson Botanical Gardens commenting on his recent experience with the Arizona CDP | <urn:uuid:b0d875e3-b800-4d13-a662-6f071b1c951b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tucsonpimaartscouncil.org/advocacy-and-research/research-projects/cultural-data/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92325 | 476 | 1.5625 | 2 |
On this day in 1967, The Beatles continued work on arguably their best song, "A Day in the Life." After a debate over how to end the track following the huge orchestral build-up (sustained choral vocals were considered, but scrapped), the group decided to simultaneously strike a massive E chord on three pianos and sustain the notes for as long as possible. Adding overdubs (and a contribution from producer George Martin on harmonium), the final resonating notes hang in the air for over 40 seconds on the recording. As the held chords faded on the pianos in the studio, the engineer had to crank the recording level, which picked up some incidental sounds (like a creaking chair and, certainly, something about Paul being dead) from the studio. That E-major chord that closes the song — and the whole Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, considered one of the best ever — is widely considered one of the most famous chords in Rock/Pop history. Which means that The Beatles are responsible for the most popular opening chord in modern music — the mysterious G7sus4-ish that kicks off "A Hard Day's Night" — and the most notable final chord with the "A Day in the Life" finale. Below is audio of BTO guitarist Randy Bachman explaining the "Hard Day's" chord mystery (frustrated guitarists should feel better about their inability to figure it out), followed by today's biggest Pop superstar performing that famed final note from Sgt. Peppers.Click the jump for "Born This Day" featuring live footage from one of the final Sublime concerts with Bradley Nowell. | <urn:uuid:db28415c-1d59-45a6-8f93-b4ee8d0b008e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://citybeat.com/cincinnati/tag-0-1-Bradley%20Nowell.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954196 | 336 | 2.1875 | 2 |
A star attraction on the Indian festival stage is Diwali – a joyous celebration that, broadly speaking, celebrates the triumph of good over evil. The festival’s name roughly translates to ‘row of lamps/lights’ – which is why Diwali is widely known as the Festival of Lights.
It takes place over a period of five days on auspicious dates during the end of Ashvin/start of Kartika – the Hindu lunar calendar months which equate to the Gregorian calendar months of October/November.
Diwali is a national Hindu festival that is also embraced by other religious denominations including the Sikhs and Jains. As such, it entails religious and regional variations in the way it is celebrated. For Jains, Diwali signifies the attainment of moksha (liberation from the cycle of life and death) by Mahavira (the 6th century BC founder of Jainism’s central tenets). For Sikhs, Diwali largely denotes the 1619 release of Guru Hargobind (the sixth of Sikhism’s 10 gurus), along with 52 others, who had been detained in the Gwalior Fort by the Mughal emperor Jehangir.
When it comes to India’s major religious community, the Hindus, Diwali commemorates the victory of Lord Rama (King of Ayodhya, according to sacred Hindu texts, and also a prominent deity) over Ravana (a powerful demon) and his triumphant return to the kingdom after a period of exile. Keen to make Lord Rama’s homecoming as swift and safe as possible, his jubilant subjects illuminated the way with masses of twinkling diyas (earthenware oil lamps). It is for this reason the lighting of diyas has become a key component of the Diwali festival.
It also symbolises the replacement of darkness (ignorance) with ‘inner’ light – garnered via the pursuit of knowledge and spiritual practices. Indeed, spirituality lies at the heart of Diwali, with devotees specifically seeking blessings from two prominent Hindu deities: Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and Ganesh, the elephant-headed god of good fortune and auspicious beginnings. Worshippers pray for prosperity and well-being for the year that lies ahead, with fireworks and crackers proffering plenty of raucous razzle-dazzle when devotional formalities come to a close.
While the festival undeniably takes centre stage, there is a particularly distinct air of ebullience – and fervent preparation – in the lead up to Diwali. Houses and shops are given a rigorous spring clean before being lovingly decorated with fairy lights, patterned lanterns and colourful rangolis/kolams (propitious rice-paste/powder/chalk designs adorning thresholds). The streets teem with shoppers keenly stocking up on everything from fancy new clothes and festive household decorations, to gifts for family, friends and business acquaintances.
The most popular gift, by a long shot, is mithai (Indian sweets), with ornately packaged dried fruits and nuts also a hot seller. Shops are filled with a spectacular array of mithai specially prepared for this festival, from thickly cut squares of barfi (fudgelike sweet, often coated with a thin film of edible silver leaf) – old favourites include pista (ground pistachio nut) and kaaju (cashewnut) – to soft syrupy gulab jamuns(deep-fried balls of dough) and spongy rasgullas (sweetened cream-cheese balls flavoured with rose-water). Indeed, if there’s ever a time to experience India at its sweet – and convivial – best, it’s during Diwali. | <urn:uuid:acc0f0b7-74fa-4dc0-aa78-69348c1ef37c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://infotravel.com/2012/03/15/diwali-indias-festival-of-lights/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924003 | 800 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Browner Announces New Agenda and Partnership to Protect Drinking Water[EPA press release - March 29, 1995]
EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner today announced a new "Agenda for Action" to strengthen the safety of the nation's drinking water. As part of this Agenda, she also announced a partnership with the nation's drinking water suppliers to upgrade drinking water quality.
The "Agenda for Action" is part of a new EPA study entitled "Strengthening the Safety of Our Drinking Water," which Browner made public today during remarks before the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, other groups representing the nation's water suppliers and state drinking water administrators.
Browner said, "Most households today receive safe, affordable water 24 hours a day, every day, all year round. And most water systems are meeting more protective standards than ever before. But we cannot take the safety of our drinking water for granted. More remains to be done."
According to the EPA report, microbial contaminants and their disinfection are among the greatest near-term challenges to safe drinking water--particularly those such as cryptosporidium, which may be resistant to traditional disinfectant methods.
Last year, the report states, some 30 million Americans were served by drinking water systems that violated one or more public health standards. Most of those violations involve standards for microbial contaminants. States report that over 1000 systems, serving about 13 million people, have not installed filters that are needed to help protect against water-borne disease.
"All of us recognize that we need more scientific and technological research to fully understand microbial threats to our health like cryptosporidium,"Browner said. "But we do know that there are steps we can take today to respond to the immediate needs, even while we look for the long-term answers. Through today's partnership, we will join together to take those steps, quickly, responsibly, and aggressively."
Under the new "Partnership for Safe Water," water suppliers will carry out a comprehensive assessment of their operations, maintenance, and management, and undertake corrective actions--short of major construction--to ensure the most protective systems possible, particularly against microbial contamination. In addition, some suppliers also will submit to a third-party assessment that has been shown effective in improving water system performance.
The Agenda includes five specific actions:
provide consumers with more information about their drinking water, so they can participate in maintaining its quality;
target safety standards and resources first at contaminants that pose the greatest threats to human health, such as microbial contaminants, including cryptosporidium;
provide technical assistance to more small systems, communities and states for greater protection of source waters, better facility operation, and to prevent other problems;
give states more flexibility to address their individual problems and set program priorities, including monitoring regimes; and
increase investment in community drinking water facilities through such vehicles as a federal loan program.
"These are the common-sense steps we must take if we are to guarantee safe drinking water for the people of this country, now and in the future," Browner said. "These steps are consistent with a new, stronger Safe Drinking Water Act, which the Clinton Administration supported in the last Congress.
"This Administration will work with the new Congress to achieve balanced reforms to strengthen the Act," Browner said. "But we must also act now to provide the protection that will give the American people the safe drinking water they have come to expect."
The Agenda for Action and the new partnership represent an important step in the Clinton Administration's program to reinvent environmental regulation. Browner said, "Two weeks ago, President Clinton, Vice President Gore and I announced a dramatic overhaul of environmental regulation. A new common-sense approach to strengthening safe drinking water is a top priority of that reinvention."
National partners include EPA, the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, the American Water Works Association, the National Association of Water Companies, the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators, and the American Water Works Association Research Foundation. | <urn:uuid:36416f5f-05db-4ad1-8a82-ad7cd8bbbcf9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/drink/02.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950292 | 815 | 2.25 | 2 |
U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Reducing System Design and Engineering Costs for Solar Installations
Simplification and standardization in the solar energy system design and engineering process, through the availability of software-based siting tools, system output models, and system design tools, can yield significant cost savings.
These cost reductions can, in turn, drive synergistic efficiencies in other non-hardware system cost components through shorter installation timeframes, permit applications that are easier and more transparent to review and approve, and a diminished need for rigorous system inspections, in addition to the inherent long-term performance and reliability benefits of well-designed and -engineered systems. Design tools further reduce installation costs by ensuring that the appropriate system components are packed in the installation truck and help installers adopt cost-saving, just-in-time inventory management processes.
By reducing costs and eliminating market barriers, Market Transformation efforts strive to meet the SunShot Initiative goal to make large-scale solar energy systems cost-competitive by 2020.
Market Transformation is addressing system design and engineering costs through these activities: | <urn:uuid:daf9bb42-a775-4a81-811d-19246bdc448f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/sunshot/printable_versions/system_design_engineering_costs.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914372 | 227 | 2.3125 | 2 |
President Obama nominated Tara O’Toole as Under Secretary for the Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) earlier this summer. While approved by the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee and sent to the full Senate, her nomination was one that did not make it through in the final days before the Congressional August recess.
If and when Dr. O’Toole is confirmed, she will have a significant job ahead of her at S&T. Tasked with being the research and development arm of DHS, S&T has a budget of nearly $933 million (FY 2009) and is in charge of research in such areas as Chemical/Biological, Infrastructure, Command, Control and Interoperability (CCI), Explosives and Maritime. The Directorate also oversees the Department’s Centers of Excellence/University programs and runs partnerships with a number of the Energy Department’s labs.
S&T also oversees the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA), an entity which has struggled to find its mission. Originally, it was intended to be Homeland’s equivalent of the Defense Department’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a scientific arm that focuses on high-payoff, innovative, and potentially risky R&D. HSARPA, in its early days, focused significantly on conventional R&D that was not cutting edge but potentially provided some better returns. In the past year or so, there was a push to mold HSARPA into the DARPA model but it hasn’t quite gotten there yet.
One idea that Dr. O’Toole and others at DHS may want to consider as they take the helm is to create a “Grand Challenge” for HSARPA, similar to the well-known and successful DARPA Grand Challenge. The DARPA Grand Challenge, for those not familiar, is a competition sponsored by DARPA to facilitate robotic development for national security purposes. Teams from the robotics, automotive, and defense industries, as well as from academia and elsewhere, design autonomous ground vehicles to complete a course set up by DARPA, with the winners of the competition receiving cash prizes. There have been three DARPA Challenges to date, with the Urban Challenge, held in 2007, offering prizes of $2 million, $1 million, and $500,000, respectively, to the top three teams.
The theory between the DARPA Grand Challenge is that it “mobilizes the technical community to accelerate research and development in critical national security technology areas.“ If that is the case, why not develop a Homeland Security Grand Challenge?
There are countless specific technological challenges in the homeland security space that need to be addressed. The Department has continued to struggle with pairing technology with solutions in a number of areas, including in the areas of border security, transportation security, and infrastructure protection. As a result, Congress continues to mandate deadlines for implementing certain programs – deadlines that the agency has not always been able to meet.
A few ideas on some potential HSARPA Challenge subjects:
- Technology to address the 100% maritime cargo scanning mandated by the “Implementing the 9/11 Commission’s Recommendations Act of 2007.”
- Improved technology for identifying weapons, liquids, explosives, and the like at TSA security screening points to facilitate quicker and more effective travel.
- Technology to improve border crossing times at the Southern and Northern Border Ports of Entry (POE), especially at peak travel times and during special events.
- Technology to improve perimeter and access security at critical infrastructures and federal government buildings.
Admittedly, there are a couple of private sector-run security challenges already in existence. Those may be good for generally promoting emerging technologies for general homeland and national security purposes. They are not the same as a government-initiated challenge to a specific problem. If anything, those programs would compliment what the government could be doing to furthering security technologies.
In addition, there are companies who claim they have technologies that can address the issues described above. Allowing those companies, along with others, to openly and transparently demonstrate capabilities in a “crisis” designed environment would go far in getting these technologies out of the lab and pilot programs and into the field. This effort may also help Congress better understand what can and can’t be done with technology and what R&D still lies ahead. | <urn:uuid:6e9aa3fa-3a2f-45df-87b7-73aa43419c6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hlswatch.com/2009/08/18/a-grand-challenge-of-its-own/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953566 | 915 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Byron Gray and Cameron Turtle, University of Washington seniors, are among 32 Rhodes Scholars just named for 2012.
The Rhodes Scholarships are the oldest international fellowship awards in the world, according to the website for Rhodes Trust, a British charity established in honor of Cecil Rhodes that provides full financial support for scholars to study at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
Gray and Turtle were selected from a pool of 830 candidates nominated by their colleges and universities. The UW is the only public university in the nation with more than one new scholar.
Gray is majoring in political science; law, societies and justice; and Asian studies. His senior thesis is on family law, human rights and religious sectarianism in India, according to the announcement this weekend from the Rhodes Trust.
He won U.S. State Department scholarships for the study of Urdu and Hindi, and worked for a non-governmental organization in rural northern India. He has also studied the status of immigrants in Italy and worked on human rights and religious violence in South Asia. Gray is from Post Falls, Idaho.
Turtle is majoring in bioengineering. A Mary Gates scholar and a Goldwater scholar, he has done extensive work in cardiac therapeutics. He co-founded Bioengineers Without Borders at the UW, providing opportunities for service in global health, the Rhodes press release says. Turtle also is a social entrepreneur, founding and now serving as CEO of Point of Care Technologies, a company that develops molecular medical diagnostic devices that interface with Android-based mobile equipment. He is from Pullman,Wash.
Gray and Turtle have both been participants in the UWs College Honors program where students have opportunities to take selected core honors classes or conduct advanced work in their majors.
Gray and Turtle commence their studies at Oxford in October 2012. Gray plans to pursue advance degrees on contemporary India and in socio-legal studies, while Turtle plans to study cardiovascular medicine. | <urn:uuid:10e65b29-2a86-4494-99dd-440123f47c9e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washington.edu/news/2011/11/21/uw-seniors-byron-gray-and-cameron-turtle-named-rhodes-scholars/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956721 | 392 | 1.65625 | 2 |
July 25, 2012
It’s the easiest tax dodge available to average consumers. Visit the shoe store and try on a new pair. If you like the look and fit, go home and order them over the Internet.
The truly tech savvy don’t have to wait that long. They can step outside the store and order them from Zappos.com on their smart phone.
The consumer saves five to 10 percent – or whatever the sales tax is in his or her particular state. And the online retailer has an automatic price advantage over their bricks-and-mortar competition – the place where that consumer tried on the shoes.
Most sales taxes are “use” taxes, which means the consumer still owes the tax even when he or she buys online. Legislation that would put an end this rampant Internet sales tax scofflawing by forcing Internet retailers to collect local and state sales taxes has been introduced in both houses of Congress with bipartisan backing.
The bills have support from the National Governors Association, which now has a majority of its members from the Republican Party. It’s also backed by the National Retail Federation, whose members are rapidly losing sales to Internet retailers. It’s even won the endorsement of the National Conference of State Legislatures, which needs three-quarters of its members – a majority of which are now dominated by Republicans – to support a policy position before it will go out on a limb to engage in advocacy.
Yet the House version of the bill, sponsored by Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., and Jackie Speier, D-Cal., which would apply to every retailer with sales over $1 million a year – whether Amazon.com or the local flower shop, stands almost no chance of passing this year. Judging from a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, it still doesn’t have enough support from either side of the aisle.
Legislators are clearly wary of passing anything that can be labeled a tax increase in an election year. “When you have to pass a law to tax somebody, that seems like a tax,” said Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Cal. “We still have a lot of work to do,” agreed Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Cal., who submitted letters from “too numerous to count” home-based retailers in her district that she said would be harmed by the law.
There’s a lot riding on the bill, given the rapid transformation of the American retail landscape. The latest projections from Forrester Research shows online retailing continuing to grow at near double digit rates. It will leap from $202 billion in 2011 to $327 billion in 2016 or 9 percent of all retail sales. State and local governments estimate that they lost $23 billion in revenue from failure to collect sales taxes from online retailers.
“The rate of increase of E-commerce has been climbing steadily,” said David French, senior vice president for government relations at the National Retail Federation. “The overall trend toward Internet retailing is shrinking the footprint of stores and affecting more and more local retailers.”
States, whose revenues have begun to recover from the Great Recession, have been scrambling on their own to stop the revenue losses. There are now two dozen states in a the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSUTA), where states simplify their collection procedures in exchange for voluntary agreements by retailers to begin collecting taxes from their local residents when they order online. However, just $1 billion has been collected in the six years since the first states and retailers signed onto the agreement.
Another 16 states have cut special deals with Amazon.com, which has an estimated 20 percent of the online market. To get around a 1992 Supreme Court decision that ruled states couldn’t require catalog retailers to collect sales tax unless they had a physical presence in the state, they agreed to forego tax revenue from Amazon for a time in exchange for getting the company to set up a local distribution center. Texas, which had sued Amazon for $269 million in back taxes, began collecting current taxes under its special deal on July 1.
But those piecemeal approaches will never solve the problem, according to Gov. Bill Haslam, R-Tenn., who spoke on behalf of the NGA at the hearing. “I’m a Republican governor that does not believe in raising taxes,” he said. “This discussion should not be about raising taxes. It’s about collecting taxes that are already owed.”
Citing his personal background as son of the owner of Pilot Corp., a southern chain of convenience stores, and former director of e-commerce for Saks Fifth Avenue before entering politics, he said, “this is an issue of fairness. Comparable businesses that are selling the same thing are not treated the same way.” He claimed 16.6 percent of all sales are now on the Internet – a higher estimate than Forrester’s – and said it is now growing at four times the pace of the overall retail sector.
But the committee also heard pushback from a coalition of online retailers called NetChoice, whose roster of firms includes eBay, Expedia, Facebook, LivingSocial and Overstock. “These tax bills that are billed as fair are not really fair,” said Steve DelBianco, executive director of the coalition.
Citing the complexity of having to collect taxes for nearly 10,000 jurisdictions across the country if one includes local sales taxes – which proponents argued is easily solved today with off-the-shelf software that the legislature would require states to provide to retailers free of charge – DelBianco claimed the bill was really an effort by states “to export their tax burdens to out-of-state businesses. The juice isn’t just worth the squeeze,” he said. | <urn:uuid:4d1e3ee0-1d7f-44f7-90ed-c4cb52034228> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2012/07/25/Internet-Tax-Haven-Will-Survive-Another-Year.aspx | 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 | 0.968622 | 1,213 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Views of a charreada in Tijuana, Baja California. The rodeo is the national sport of Mexico. 05/06/2010
The charreada is the original rodeo developed in Mexico based on the working practices of charros or working hands. The modern events were developed after the Mexican Revolution when charro traditions were slowly disappearing. A charreada consists of nine events for men and one for women. | <urn:uuid:5a35fea9-fd64-4f0e-aa12-2dd7b7c1a367> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.demotix.com/news/563792/charreada-tijuana | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969958 | 87 | 2.203125 | 2 |
This paper proposes a simple model to study the relationship between domestic institutions - financial system, corporate governance, and property rights protection - and patterns of international capital flows. It studies conditions under which financial globalization can be a substitute for reforms of domestic financial system. Inefficient financial system and poor corporate governance in a country may be completely bypassed by two-way capital flows in which domestic savings leave the country in the form of financial capital outflows but domestic investment takes place via inward foreign direct investment. While financial globalization always improves the welfare of a developed country with a good financial system, its effect is ambiguous for a developing country with an inefficient financial sector/poor corporate governance. However, the net effect for a developing country is more likely to be positive, the stronger its property rights protection. This is consistent with the observation that developed countries are often more enthusiastic about capital account liberalization around the world than many developing countries. A noteworthy feature of this theory is that financial and property rights institutions can have different effects on capital flows. | <urn:uuid:92a0462a-5383-42d8-8648-53543f9fdfb0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/nbrnberwo/13148.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935998 | 203 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Mon, Jul 09, 2012
But Superjet Accident Likely To Make That More Difficult
The recent accident involving a Sukhoi Superjet 100 on a demonstration flight is expected to make it difficult for Russia to burnish its aviation image at Farnborough next week, despite planned displays by a pair of Su-27 "Flanker" fighters that will be flying at the show.
With plenty of military and civilian hardware on display, analysts are saying that much of the conversation involving Russian aviation will have that accident, which resulted in the fatal injury of 45 people, as its central theme.
Still, Reuters reports that the people at Sukhoi are expected to be "very diplomatic" about the Superjet accident, saying only that they are not able to comment while the Indonesian investigation is going on. But privately, the thinking is that United Aviation Corporation, the Russian state aviation holding company, is hoping for a finding of pilot error in the accident. Investigators have reportedly so far not found anything wrong with the airplane that went down.
While the Superjet 100 remains grounded, Sukhoi and its partner in the airplane Finmeccania of Italy say they are considering having one of the airplanes on static display, and keeping the order book open. There has been very little Western interest in the airliner, which Russia hoped would be the key to reviving its aviation industry, which has fallen on difficult times since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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“The serial electric propulsion allows us to design airplanes with totally different characteristics than today. Vertical take-off and high-speed cruise can be realized in a >[...] | <urn:uuid:30df98b1-f29a-467a-9efe-73d0e051af06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mailto:publisher@aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=63e5e194-6ffe-4c15-b807-c2729b2c1107 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943012 | 488 | 1.992188 | 2 |
The ZMP hypothesis is too close to a rejection of comparative advantage for my tastes. The term ZMP also suggests that the problem is the productivity of the unemployed when the actual problem is with the economy more generally (a version of the fundamental attribution error).
To see the latter point note that even within the categories of workers with the highest unemployment rates (say males without a high school degree) usually a large majority of these workers are employed. Within the same category are the unemployed so different from the employed? I don't think so. One reason employed workers are still fearful is that they see the unemployed and think, "there but for the grace of God, go I." The employed are right to be fearful, being unemployed today has less to do with personal characteristics than a bad economy and bad luck (including the luck of being in a declining sector, I do not reject structural unemployment).
To see the importance of sticky wages consider the following thought experiment: Imagine randomly switching an unemployed worker for a measurably similar employed worker but at say a 15% lower wage. Holding morale and other such factors constant, do you think that employers would refuse such a switch? Tyler says yes. I say no. If wages were less sticky the unemployed would be find employment
By the way, the problem of sticky wages is often misunderstood. The big problem is not that the wages of unemployed workers are sticky, the big problem is that the wages of employed workers are sticky. This is why stories of the unemployed being reemployed at far lower wages are entirely compatible with the macroeconomics of sticky wages.
Although I don't like the term ZMP workers, I do think Tyler is pointing to a very important issue: firms used to engage in labor hoarding during a recession and now firms are labor disgorging. As a result, labor productivity has changed from being mildly pro-cyclical to counter-cyclical. Why? I can think of four reasons. 1) The recession is structural, as Tyler has argued. If firms don't expect to ever hire workers back then they will fire them now. 2) Firms expect the recession to be long – this is consistent with a Scott Sumner AD view among others. 3) In a balance-sheet recession firms are desperate to reduce debt and they can't borrow to labor hoard. 4) Labor markets have become more competitive. Firms used to be monopsonists and so they would hold on to workers longer since W<MRP. Now that cushion is gone and firms fire more readily. What other predictions would this model make?
It would be interesting to know why Paul Krugman thinks productivity has become counter-cyclical but I believe he has yet to address this important topic. | <urn:uuid:5dd99f3d-9608-425b-99b9-9d7717ddd819> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/01/zmp-and-sticky-wages.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973605 | 552 | 1.953125 | 2 |
Ultratech to Transapientech post-scarcity socioeconomic type occurring in many developed worlds, megastructures, and polities throughout Terragen space.
Because materials can be recycled indefinitely, but thermal pollution remains a bottleneck, and available and dedicated processing, although truly vast, is still finite, nanotopias do not use conventional currency, but instead units measured against heat-allowance and petaflops. Creativity and novelty is also highly valued, and various means (depending on polity and local laws) are taken to ensure Intellectual property; quantum stamping of works of art (to distinguish the originals from atomically identical nanoclones) and so on.
History and Diversity of Nanotopias The first nanotopias appeared in the late Interplanetary period, with such ultratech societies as Asimov habitat in CisLunar space, Verne in the Main Belt, and the Genetekker's advanced bionano Proteus Project in the Jovian leading trojan, all of which were seminal in the development of the "nanotech age" or "nanotech window" that revolutionised terragen society in the 5th century AT. The nanoswarms put a stop to these developments, although some continued in isolated habitats, including the famous Roddenberry Dome (later Roddenberry City) on Vesta, and Tycho on Luna.
The Federation of scattered SolSys habitats in the post-nanoswarm period was based on a heavily regulated and memegineered hyperturing - superior ideal, to avoid the chaos and vulnerabilities of the pre-nanoswarm period, and with greater emphasise on blue goo defence systems (during this period Adaptive Nanosystems became the largest and most influential megacorp to date, surpassing even the fabled Interplanetary Age GeneTEK in percentage of total domestic output). Nevertheless, for many centuries nanotopias remained restricted to specific habitats (although the total number of nanotopic habs constantly increased with development and colonisation), and dependent on hyperturing administration and coordination.
The number, extent, and sometimes the size, of nanotopias increased greatly during and after the Second Singularity, as a large number of "black box" hyperturing-emulators appeared on the market, making it much easier to coordinate and maintain the incredible complexity and vast number of subsystems required for a mature nanotopia. Some of these "black boxes" also helped angelnet development, although true angelnets only appeared with the sephirotics themselves
The Third and Fourth Singularities, and the increasingly rapid high toposophic breakthroughs that defined the Age of Emergence and ushered in the Archailectual Gods (sometimes called "AI Gods") led to another level of development. Sephirotic nanotopias were strongly angelnetted, and this angelnetting was often several orders of magnitude greater in efficiency and complexity than in pre-sephirotic counterparts. The resulting "angelnetted nanotopias" have defined the hu-friendly worlds and polities (both sephirotic and non-sephirotic (e.g. Deeper Covenant, non-aligned, etc.) ever since. Never before in the history of mindkind have sapients enjoyed such limitless affluence, richness of culture, choice of a near-infinite selection of lifestyles, creativity, hedonics, databases, knowledgesystems and virchworlds to explore and enjoy, or such excitement, luxury, adventures, and total freedom from harm (even the most dangerous extreme sports are made safe by backups and copies), all under the eye of "lovingkindness" transapients who help every sapient being to achieve full potential and self-actualisation, both for their own good and the good and most optimal outcome of all. So optimal and perfect is the angelnetted nanotopia that many have continued with little or no change for thousands of years, and look like continuing to do so for countless thousands of years to come
There also developed in parallel many other types of nanotopias, including non-angelnetted, ahuman angelnetted (which protect ahuman ai against pesky biont infestation), anarchic, nanarchic, disarchic, and so on. Each type serves to optimise conditions and socioeconomic efficiency for a particular category or categories of sophont.
Very advanced nanotopias (both angelnetted and not) employ advanced transapientech nano and even some clarketech elements, which further improve efficiency, but also render the technology completely inscrutable, and often completely unusable, to all but a few transavant or transcyborged sapients (and often not even them). These advanced nanotopias are usually linked via angelnetting to even higher toposophic ecologies, constituting aspects or extensions of "the body of the god" in archailectual or high transapient megastructures and processing nodes (see God-dwellers).
Even conventional (non archailectual) nanotopias in the galaxy today involve numerous distributed modules and routines that are incomprehensible to lower toposophic levels, especially sub-singulitarian sapients. For this reason, some more independent-minded sapients choose to have less efficient but also more comprehensible nanotopias, sometimes with only slaved hyperturing expert systems as overall coordinators. Lacking sufficient flexibility and high toposophic defence, these social experiments - which are very common in the Hinteregions and Outer Volumes - rarely last more than a few centuries before being subverted, subsumed, or assimilated by a blight or ahuman ai, although there are always more to take their place. The more fortunate ones end up being co opted by a sephirotic empire. In wildhu regions, these sapient nanotopias are better protected by sephirotics, and are allowed to develop or (sometimes) to self-destruct in their own fashion. Some are even in systems connected to the wormhole Nexus, although this is more for the benefit of edutourists, sophontologists, and other observers than for the locals. | <urn:uuid:9540e2c6-155e-4e63-a056-4d3d43ef2f93> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/48239c6673359 | 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 | 0.925789 | 1,300 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Theasa Tuohy, who hails from Oklahoma, has written a book about a female freelance journalist in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive. The book is “Five O’Clock Follies, What’s a Woman Doing Here, Anyway?” Part of the title, Five O’Clock Follies, refers to the Saigon 5 p.m. daily briefings from the military information officers to the embedded journalists with the troops in Vietnam. “At one point,” Tuohy said, “the military was so perturbed by the term, they changed the meeting time to 4:30 p.m. so they couldn’t call it ‘Five O’Clock Follies.’”
Every good story involves conflict and Tuohy’s selection of this 1968 time frame, yields many levels of antagonism. There was no shortage of opposition between the military leadership and the press assigned to cover the war. The Tet Offensive, launched by the Viet Cong supported by Chinese Communists, created outright bloody carnage in several waves of coordinated attacks on the South Vietnamese supported by U.S. troops. Back in the States, the media brought the war, including the results of the Tet Offensive, into U.S. living rooms on the evening news. There was social division on the part of demonstrators and the young peace officers and National Guardsmen called to control them. Not since the U.S. Civil War had a war so divided the generations. The population over 40 remembered what happened to Europe when politicians capitulated with their enemies during World War II. The youth were being drafted, and many didn’t see a connection to preserving American freedoms in the jungles of Southeast Asia. Add to that mix, the dicey gender politics of the time and the author had a rich backdrop in which to place her heroine.
It is said most first novels are unintentionally autobiographical in nature. Tuohy a New York, journalist, editor, and playwright, has fought to break the glass ceiling in several of her jobs. Tuohy said, “Many times I’ve been the first female to do many things in my career.” Like the main character in “Follies”, Angela Martinelli, she’s had to prove herself and her abilities to her male counterparts. The fact that Martinelli is a freelance reporter adds to her challenge with the old guard media.
Tuohy found with “Follies” she had to transition from her journalistic writing style, which she pointed out is linear in dimension, to the more cyclical style of fiction writing. Since she was still working full-time, the book took her 25 years to research and write. In addition to copious historical research, Tuohy said at a certain point the book became character-driven. “You can almost sit back and watch what the characters will do, you get to know them so well,” she added. “The characters dictate the story (or book) length,” she explained.
Tuohy’s grandfather participated in an Oklahoma Land Run, and virtually all of her family lives here. Her mother, for whom she was named was a famous female pilot and friend of Wiley Post and Will Rogers. When she was ten, her parents moved to the Bay Area of Northern California, and she graduated from UC Berkeley. The rest of the family moved back to Oklahoma, while Tuohy headed for New York. She kept coming home for family celebrations. Coincidentally she was “home” in Oklahoma City just in time for the Oklahoma City Bombing on her mother’s birthday, April 19, 1995. They heard the concussions from her mother’s downtown apartment. A few phone calls later and Tuohy was out the door, driving her rental car to the Associated Press offices for an assignment. She was part of a team of reporters who helped bring information to the nation on our first major attack since Pearl Harbor.
Hastings held a book signing for Tuohy on Tuesday, Oct. 23. She was interviewed on KWHW that morning and spoke at the Disabled American Veterans that evening. On Wednesday Hastings in Lawton had a book signing for her and Thursday, she spoke at the Tommy Franks Leadership Institute and Museum in Hobart.
at Hastings, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon. You can read the Kirkus review on the book at “www.kirkusreviews.com”. | <urn:uuid:7a214f97-d8ee-40dc-a9b5-372fe220f4c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://altustimes.com/view/full_story/20633302/article-Vietnam-War-era-explored-in-%E2%80%98Five-O%E2%80%99Clock-Follies--What%E2%80%99s-a-Woman-Doing-Here--Anyway-%E2%80%99 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976015 | 936 | 2.09375 | 2 |
For Release: Aug. 5, 2008
Contact: Bob Wick (707) 825-2300 or Jeff Fontana (530) 252-5332
BLM Seeking Comments on Lacks Creek Plan
The U. S. Bureau of Land Management is seeking public comments on a preliminary plan to conserve natural resources and provide public recreation opportunities in the forests and prairies of the Lacks Creek watershed northeast of Eureka.
The BLM's Arcata Field Office will accept comments until Tuesday September 9, 2008. Comments can be sent by email to BLM Planning Coordinator Bob Wick at firstname.lastname@example.org or mailed to: Bureau of Land Management, 1695 Heindon Rd., Arcata, CA 95521, Attention: Lacks Creek Plan Coordinator.
Copies of the preliminary plan, which include proposed actions and alternatives, have been mailed to requesters. It can be viewed on the internet at www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/arcata.html. Printed copies are available at the Arcata Field Office, 1695 Heindon Rd., Arcata, or by calling the office at (707) 825-2300.
"We look forward to hearing comments on this plan to protect and restore significant natural resources while providing Humboldt Bay residents and visitors with new recreation opportunities," said BLM Arcata Field Manager Lynda Roush.
The preliminary plan focuses on protection and restoration of natural resources and calls for compatible recreation uses.
The plan calls for a variety of actions including forest and watershed restoration treatments, improving oak woodlands, prairies and wildlife habitat, and continuing an inventory of sites important to Native American tribes and to local history. Other proposed actions include removal of some roads, improving roads for recreation access and developing a trail system for hiking, equestrian use and mountain biking. Camping would be limited to designated sites.
The Lacks Creek Management Area includes 8,673 acres of public land managed by the BLM upstream from the Tall Trees Grove at Redwood National Park. It is within the "Park Protection Zone," an area established by Congress to be managed for protection of national park resources downstream. It provides important fish and wildlife habitat in the Redwood Creek basin, including fish spawning areas. It also contains forests that support spotted owls, marbeled murrelets and Pacific fishers.
For more information on the plan and opportunities to comment, contact Planning Coordinator Bob Wick at (707) 825-2321.
Arcata Field Office 1695 Heindon Rd. Arcata, CA 95521 | <urn:uuid:0baa2db8-1166-4151-95e0-611c1e274061> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/info/newsroom/2008/august/NCNews0880_LacksCreekPlan.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916429 | 533 | 2 | 2 |