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Contract and delivery inspections
Many contracts signed in Sweden that relate to building work, industrial construction and installation activities include an agreement on the application of AB92 and ABT94 (standard documents agreed between the players in the Swedish construction industry).
The system of inspections that is specified in these regulations plays a key role in the construction process for both principals and contractors alike.
The aim of the various types of inspection is to determine the degree to which the work undertaken meets the requirements specified in the contract. For this reason it is crucial, both for the principal and the contractor, that inspectors carry out their duties in accordance with the industry's General Conditions of Contract.
The various checks and preliminary inspections of electrical installations that are made during the construction phase should ultimately lead to full approval in the final inspection.
In the case of machinery and other mechanical or electrical equipment, the agreed acceptance trials and inspections are carried out in the supplier's factory.
If no previous agreement has been reached on the technical parameters for the trials, these will be carried out in accordance with the standards that generally apply to the relevant machinery or product.
If the delivery inspection or acceptance trial shows that the goods do not comply with the contractual requirements, it is the supplier's responsibility to ensure that this is rectified at the earliest possible opportunity. If the purchaser so requires, a new test or inspection is then carried out. | <urn:uuid:5c85f155-dcae-4e29-b1da-1d72e015c45f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.afconsult.com/en/Sectors/Inspection-Testing--Certification/Electrical-inspections/Contract--Delivery-Inspections/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941508 | 279 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Autism in the News – Friday, 06.25.10
A boy and his dog: After being kept out of Columbia school, Carter and Corbin are thriving in Fairview (Fairview Heights, Ill.)
There have been no outbreaks of allergic reactions, no wild, uncontrollable children disturbed by a dog at school and no issues with the dog going to the bathroom in the school hallways. Read more.
Autism law a personal victory for L’Italien (Andover, Mass.)
Rudy Hall was reading at a level several grades higher than his public elementary school classmates but struggling to adjust socially. By the second grade, his parents made the difficult decision to send him to a private school. Read more.
FDA warns maker of product used as alternative autism treatment (Chicago Tribune)
A product promoted to parents of children with autism is not a harmless dietary supplement, as claimed, but a toxic unapproved drug that lacks adequate warnings about potential side effects, including hair loss and abnormalities of the pancreas, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned in a letter to its maker. Read more.
Business community receptive to autism center fundraising effort (Naperville, Ill.)
For Kim and Randy Wolf, founders of the Turning Pointe Autism Foundation, battling autism is more than just a way to give back to the community. It’s personal. Read more. | <urn:uuid:c4e1594a-589c-4dc9-b896-5b69118aa73d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.autismspeaks.org/2010/06/25/aitn-062510/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=0dd3db7641 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967766 | 289 | 1.640625 | 2 |
CBLI celebrates learning through service
Posted April 23, 2004; 04:55 p.m.
Projects ranging from an artistic collaboration with prisoners to research on clean water were among the educational partnerships between Princeton students and local nonprofit groups highlighted at an April 23 celebration hosted by the Community-Based Learning Initiative .
The sixth annual Community-University Luncheon, held at the Arts Council of Princeton, brought Princeton students, faculty and staff members together with their community partners to honor the work of CBLI. The initiative, which began at Princeton in 1997, incorporates community projects into courses, enabling students to produce academic work that addresses pressing political and social issues.
The luncheon featured presentations on four CBLI senior thesis projects, as well as an effort led by sociologist Patricia Fernandez-Kelly that helped prisoners in Trenton produce a literary and artistic magazine. Poems, essays and images from the magazine, "Inside Out," were displayed on the Arts Council's walls.
"It is the most stimulating, significant and moving educational event of the year for me to hear the stories of the students, faculty members and community partners who work together and do phenomenally sophisticated work," said Hank Dobin, associate dean of the college and director of CBLI.
Fernandez-Kelly and four students from her CBLI course, "Urban Sociology: The City and Social Change in the Americas," discussed their collaboration with Hispanic Americans for Progress, a group formed by inmates at the state prison in Trenton to deter young people in poor urban settings from crime.
Fernandez-Kelly said CBLI "is about the students learning something from real people in the world. I always see those participants in the Community-Based Learning Initiative as pro-bono consultants -- great talent that is put into circulation for the benefit of a small organization."
One of her students, sophomore Catherine Cambria, contrasted working in the prison with life on the Princeton campus. "You can't forget there's a real world out there and that we have these opportunities and all of this privilege. What's great about this program is it makes you realize we all have a social responsibility and that privilege comes at a price, that we all have to give back."
Senior Alexis Burakoff, a Woodrow Wilson School major, focused her senior thesis on the effects of poverty on self-image, interviewing residents of low-income areas of Trenton in collaboration with the Crisis Ministry of Princeton and Trenton. Burakoff said she relished the opportunity to do a community-based thesis.
"While my friends were in Firestone in their carrels with books up to their ears, I was in Trenton every day talking to people ... and spending time in an organization that I care about so much," she said.
Other students whose CBLI-sponsored theses were featured in the program included Robin Williams, a Woodrow Wilson School major who worked with the national Drug Policy Alliance to research the history of legislation on syringe access and successful strategies to prevent drug use. History major Elisa Minoff wrote her thesis on community development after conducting a neighborhood history research project with the Capital South Neighborhood Preservation Program in Trenton.
Stephanie Tatham, a politics major, focused her thesis on the legal steps New Jersey municipalities can take to protect their well water from pollution. Tatham's thesis adviser was George Hawkins, a member of Princeton's class of 1983 and executive director of the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association, a Pennington-based environmental group. Hawkins teaches a CBLI course, "Topics in Environmental Studies: Environmental Law, Community Action and Moot Court."
"I've watched CBLI as a program grow and become a stronger and bigger part of this University, which I think is a spectacular step," Hawkins said.
Noting the University's informal motto of "Princeton in the nation's service and in the service of all nations," Hawkins added, "I wish this was here when I was a student. I really think this is an incredibly powerful and important aspect of this University."
Contact: Lauren Robinson-Brown (609) 258-3601 | <urn:uuid:33a15d79-23f3-4f3f-8166-13ba3b9d6814> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S07/48/76I00/index.xml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967477 | 847 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Araki Tamana (born 1970) uses a number of techniques, including printmaking, sculpture, installation, and animation to create her unique art, which never fails to give the impression of being novel, despite its inherent simplicity. With solid technical skills and an ability to create exquisite combinations of shapes and colors, Araki explores themes related to everyday activities, such as habitat, travel, relationships, and growth. These themes serve to link her works with viewers, inspiring them to form their own interpretations.
Araki's installations often consist of multiple parts. However, rather than those parts coming together to form a whole, their combination seems to emphasize their individual identities. Myriad phenomena are caught inside these groupings, which at first glance appear similar; but each is different, almost like individuals, each burning with the flame of life. The sight of them at times isolated and at times side by side - like people progressing along their own paths - reminds one of what it means "to live."
Araki has spent time in Mexico on a number of occasions, and the influence of that culture can be seen in her choices of colors and forms. While sometimes appearing gaudy, her shapes and colors are expressed with a primal energy and toughness that makes them far more complex than their assertive appearance suggests.
For this exhibition Araki applies her unique sense of materials, originality of concept and superb technique to new installations made especially for Mori Art Museum’s exhibition space. No doubt they will bring with them opportunities for more new insights into her richly imaginative world.
|Organizer:||Mori Art Museum|
University/Highschool student: ¥1,000
Child (4 years to Junior Highschool student): ¥500
* Ticket also valid for “Annette Messager” and Tokyo City View observation deck
|Hours:||10:00 - 22:00 (Tuesdays: 10-00-17:00, 9/23 open until 22:00. )
* Admission until 30 minutes before closing. Open everyday. | <urn:uuid:f478db83-b94f-4b95-a19b-400c9fc0e0cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mori.art.museum/english/contents/mamproject/project008/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959227 | 421 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Four political forces close to deal on federalism based on multiple identities as House secretariat prepares preliminary draft of constitution
With just hours to go before the term of the Constituent Assembly expires, top leaders of four political forces – UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, CPN
(UML) and United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) – are engaged in top-level political parleys on Sunday to resolve the differences on disputed issues and promulgate the constitution within midnight today
In the meeting held at Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar since early morning, the leaders of the four political forces appear very flexible on their respective stance to create necessary grounds for promulgation of the constitution today.
After a series of bilateral and multilateral talks, the political parties are said to be inching closer to federalism based on multiple identities but giving “priority rights” to one dominant ethnic group in each state.
The discussions are said to be focused on this particular aspect of constitution to complete the ongoing negotiations.
The Standing Committee meeting of the Maoist party concluded just a short while ago also decided to adopt “maximum flexibility” on state restructuring.
With this, the chances of the NC and UML, which remain adamant on their demand for multiple identities, of agreeing to grant “priority rights” to a dominant group in each state, has grown.
Meanwhile, the Parliament Secretariat has prepared a preliminary draft of the new constitution hoping that the parties might complete negations on constitutional issues to promulgate the constitution within midnight today.
However, the draft of the constitution has only incorporated the constitutional issues already agreed upon while leaving the disputed issues to the “transformed parliament” to resolve, it is learnt. | <urn:uuid:d19add63-bcab-48aa-ba52-f077449ccf26> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2012/may/may27/news10.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934512 | 364 | 1.648438 | 2 |
DulwichArticle Free Pass
Dulwich, fashionable residential neighbourhood in the Greater London borough of Southwark, part of the historic county of Surrey. It lies in the southern part of the borough and is centred on Dulwich College.
The name Dilwihs (Dulwich), meaning “Marshy Meadow Where Dill Grows,” was first recorded in 967 ce. The manor of Dulwich was owned by Bermondsey Abbey from 1127 to 1538. Edward Alleyn, a successful Shakespearean actor, bought the manor in 1605 and founded the College of God’s Gift to provide education for “12 poor scholars” and almshouses for “6 poor brethren and 6 poor sisters.” The foundation, reconstituted in 1857 and again in 1882, now comprises three schools: Dulwich College, Alleyn’s School, and James Allen’s Girls’ School. The main buildings of Dulwich College were built in 1866–70 to designs of Charles Barry (the younger). Dulwich Picture Gallery (1814), fully restored after World War II, is a leading art gallery.
The College Estates Governors have contained development and preserved the area’s rural character. Dulwich Village is noted for its historic houses such as the 18th-century Belair (rebuilt 1965) and the 19th-century Kingswood, which are now used as community centres. Notable residents of the area have included the 19th-century writer and artist John Ruskin and the former prime minister (1979–90) Margaret Thatcher.
What made you want to look up "Dulwich"? Please share what surprised you most... | <urn:uuid:e716dd12-8ce6-4f9f-8ffe-8bb6850a8a00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/173403/Dulwich | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970498 | 355 | 2.390625 | 2 |
November 11, 2008
Miriam Makeba, Singer, Dies at 76
By ALAN COWELL
LONDON — Miriam Makeba, a South African singer whose voice stirred hopes of freedom among millions in her own country though her music was formally banned by the apartheid authorities she struggled against, died overnight after performing at a concert in Italy on Sunday. She was 76.
The cause of death was cardiac arrest, according to Vincenza Di Saia, a physician at the private Pineta Grande clinic in Castel Volturno near Naples in southern Italy, where she was brought by ambulance. The time of death was listed in hospital records as midnight, the doctor said.
Ms. Makeba collapsed as she was leaving the stage, the South African authorities said. She had been singing at a concert in support of Roberto Saviano, an author who has received death threats after writing about organized crime.
Widely known as “Mama Africa,” she had been a prominent exiled opponent of apartheid since the South African authorities revoked her passport in 1960 and refused to allow her to return after she traveled abroad. She was prevented from attending her mother’s funeral after touring in the United States.
Although Ms. Makeba had been weakened by osteoarthritis, her death stunned many in South Africa, where she stood as an enduring emblem of the travails of black people under the apartheid system of racial segregation that ended with the release from prison of Nelson Mandela in 1990 and the country’s first fully democratic elections in 1994.
In a statement on Monday, Mr. Mandela said the death “of our beloved Miriam has saddened us and our nation.”
He continued: “Her haunting melodies gave voice to the pain of exile and dislocation which she felt for 31 long years. At the same time, her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us.”
“She was South Africa’s first lady of song and so richly deserved the title of Mama Afrika. She was a mother to our struggle and to the young nation of ours,” Mr. Mandela’s was one of many tributes from South African leaders.
“One of the greatest songstresses of our time has ceased to sing,” Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in a statement. “Throughout her life, Mama Makeba communicated a positive message to the world about the struggle of the people of South Africa and the certainty of victory over the dark forces of apartheid and colonialism through the art of song.”
For 31 years, Ms. Makeba lived in exile, variously in the United States, France, Guinea and Belgium. South Africa’s state broadcasters banned her music after she spoke out against apartheid at the United Nations. “I never understood why I couldn’t come home,” Ms. Makeba said upon her return at an emotional homecoming in Johannesburg in 1990 as the apartheid system began to crumble, according to The Associated Press. “I never committed any crime.”
Music was a central part of the struggle against apartheid. The South African authorities of the era exercised strict censorship of many forms of expression, while many foreign entertainers discouraged performances in South Africa in an attempt to isolate the white authorities and show their opposition to apartheid.
From exile she acted as a constant reminder of the events in her homeland as the white authorities struggled to contain or pre-empt unrest among the black majority.
Ms. Makeba wrote in 1987: “I kept my culture. I kept the music of my roots. Through my music I became this voice and image of Africa, and the people, without even realizing.”
She was married several times and her husbands included the American black activist Stokely Carmichael, with whom she lived in Guinea, and the jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela, who also spent many years in exile.
In the United States she became a star, touring with Harry Belafonte in the 1960s and winning a Grammy award with him in 1965. Such was her following and fame that she sang in 1962 at the birthday party of President John F. Kennedy. She also performed with Paul Simon on his Graceland concert in Zimbabwe in 1987.
But she fell afoul of the U.S. music industry because of her marriage to Mr. Carmichael and her decision to live in Guinea.
In one of her last interviews, in May 2008 with the British music critic Robin Denselow, she said she found her concerts in the United States being cancelled. “It was not a ban from the government. It was a cancellation by people who felt I should not be with Stokely because he was a rebel to them. I didn’t care about that. He was somebody I loved, who loved me, and it was my life,” she said.
Ms. Makeba was born in Johannesburg on March 4, 1932, the daughter of a Swazi mother and a father from the Xhosa people who live mainly in the eastern Cape region of South Africa. She became known to South Africans in the Sophiatown district of Johannesburg in the 1950s.
According to Agence France-Presse, she was often short of money and could not afford to buy a coffin when her only daughter in 1985. She buried her alone, barring a handful of journalists from covering the funeral.
She was particularly renowned for her performances of songs such as what was known as the Click Song — named for a clicking sound in her native tongue — or “Qongoqothwane,” and Pata Pata, meaning Touch Touch in Xhosa. Her style of singing was widely interpreted as a blend of black township rhythms, jazz and folk music.
In her interview in 2008, Ms. Makeba said: “I’m not a political singer. I don’t know what the word means. People think I consciously decided to tell the world what was happening in South Africa. No! I was singing about my life, and in South Africa we always sang about what was happening to us — especially the things that hurt us.”
In a tribute, Jacob Zuma, head of the ruling African National Congress, said the party “dips its banner in tribute to an African heroine, Miriam Zenzile Makeba, a freedom fighter and outstanding African cultural figure.”
“Miriam Makeba used her voice, not merely to entertain, but to give a voice to the millions of oppressed South Africans under the yoke of apartheid,” Mr. Zuma said.
Celia W. Dugger contributed reporting from Johannesburg and Rachel Donadio from Rome. | <urn:uuid:600d8ad5-7855-40fd-a7f4-7adbac7828cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://musicandculture.blogspot.jp/2008/11/south-africa-singeractivist-miriam.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981027 | 1,399 | 1.890625 | 2 |
A hanging meadow planted in wool for the Christchurch Festival of Flowers may be adapted to create more affordable "green walls" for the city rebuild.
The grass and blooms that make up the aerial garden are growing in a felted wool product normally laid on steep slopes to prevent soil erosion.
Urban Designer Craig Pocock who came up with the concept says the hanging garden has already attracted interest from the wool industry and he believes it offers advantages over other vertical gardening systems.
"One of the things the Christchurch City Council has looked at (for the rebuild) is green walls and green roofs, but with the current economy it doesn't stack up to have 'green bling' so this is a cheap way to do it. It could hang on the side of a building, it's like hanging wallpaper.
"Green roofs in New Zealand tend to be limited to flat roofs, but they wouldn't have to be if we used this technology, and it gives you an instant result.
It's also transportable, you can roll it up and move it across the country the same way you do with Ready Lawn."
A couple of years ago Pocock created a vertical lawn for the Canterbury Museum by sandwiching a thin synthetic blanket with a built in irrigation system (ECO Rain) between about five layers of felted wool (Biomac) made from wool removed during dagging.
Maccaferri New Zealand Ltd, which makes the ECO Rain and Biomac products and provided them free of charge for the lawn project, loaned Pocock a special machine to stitch all the layers together. "We had to sew it together ourselves in the back of a garage."
Once the museum lawn was taken down, it was plucked clean of grass and went into storage until Pocock resurrected it for the flower festival exhibit.
Watering is a cinch. "We can plug it into a garden hose and irrigate the whole wall in 15 minutes then turn it off."
But he says getting flowers to grow successfully in the wool took a lot of trial and error, and once it got going the grass needed a trim.
"Within four weeks the grass had grown so quickly it was higher than the flowers so we had a group of six ladies with scissors hand cut the entire 28 square metres around all 1000 flowers."
Maccaferri's building products manager Nicholas Simmons says at present the wool-based hanging garden is expensive to make because of the labour content but if there is sufficient demand for it, his company could look at making a commercial version which would cut the cost considerably.
Simmons says Maccaferri's current green walls are made of modular plastic boxes that stand vertically.
"They don't do slopes or shapes and you're restricted to the type of plants you can grow in there. The meadow is a narrower and more flexible product so you can pack it up and move it around and change the shape of it.
"Where architects want to create more flowing shapes or curtains on a building or a structure, then this is where the meadow would come in."
Simmons says the wool green wall could also be used to treat grey water. "Perhaps running kitchen sink waste water through the green wall and using it as a purifier or filter so that the water coming out the end is better for the environment and has all the nasties cleaned out."By Amanda Cropp | <urn:uuid:3db65551-1523-49da-b572-67955e6a9dc8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nzherald.co.nz/design-garden/news/article.cfm?c_id=236&objectid=10789280 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970326 | 697 | 2.09375 | 2 |
DREAMers can seek 'deferred action' starting Aug 15th
In June, President Barack Obama announced a new policy to protect from removal young people commonly called "DREAMers" who were brought to the U.S. as children.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency that will oversee this process, has issued information and forms for eligible DREAMers to request "deferred action" beginning August 15, 2012.
Congresswoman Lofgren, a strong supporter of the DREAM Act, applauds the decision and wants to make sure every eligible DREAMer receives the information they need. This webpage contains important information on eligibility, documentation requirements, and resources such as instructions and official forms to help DREAMers.
DON'T BE SCAMMED!
Potential DREAMers with questions should turn to trusted community-based organizations for help, or consult a reputable attorney if you have specific concerns. Click here for more information about how to avoid being scammed.
|A message from Rep. Lofgren urging DREAMers to apply for deferred action but beware of immigration scammers.|
WHO IS ELIGIBLE?
Eligibility Criteria: On August 15, 2012, USCIS will begin accepting requests for deferred action together with applications for employment authorization from persons who are at least 15 years of age and meet the specific criteria below:
• They entered the U.S. before their 16th birthday;
• They have continuously resided in the U.S. for at least five years prior to June 15, 2012, and were in the U.S. on that date;
• They were under the age of 31, as of June 15, 2012;
• As of the date their request is submitted, applicants must be currently in school; or have graduated from high school or obtained a GED; or have been honorably discharged from the Coast Guard or the Armed Forces; and
• They have not been convicted a felony offense; a "significant" misdemeanor offense; 3 or more misdemeanor offenses; or otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety.
Deferred action will be offered for a two-year period and may be renewed.
For more detailed information, please click here to read the USCIS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the deferred action program.
HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?
Application Fee: The total fee will be $465. Fee exemptions will be available in very limited circumstances.
WHAT SHOULD I DO TO PREPARE?
DREAMers should collect relevant documents to show their eligibility for deferred action. Examples include:
• Financial records: leases, mortgages, bank statements, checks, and bills
• Medical records: immunization records or a medical history report from your doctor
• School records: report cards, diplomas, transcripts, GED certificates
• Employment records: pay stubs, employment contracts, direct deposit slips
• Other independently verifiable documents: records from a church, union, or other organization
Check official resources and attend an informational session by trusted community-based organizations, or consult a reputable attorney if you have specific concerns.
You can click here for a one-page eligibility and process explanation sheet to apply for deferred action.
RESOURCES TO HELP DREAMers
As of August 15th, DREAMers can begin submitting their requests for deferred action and employment authorization to the USCIS. Below you will find links to instructions and forms to apply for deferred action (Form I-821D) and employment authorization (Form I-765) from the USCIS:
Click here for instructions to fill out form I-821D requesting deferred action.
Click here for form I-821D to request deferred action.
Click here for instructions to fill out form I-765 requesting employment authorization.
Click here for form I-765 to apply for employement authorization.
Congresswoman Lofgren will be hosting informational workshops for DREAMers. You can also contact her office at (408) 271-8700 for assistance.
You can also click here for a detailed USCIS "How do I apply for deferred action" pamphlet.
In addition, here are links to helpful USCIS resources:
• USCIS webpage for the Deferred Action program: www.uscis.gov/childhoodarrivals
• USCIS information about how to avoid being scammed: www.uscis.gov/avoidscams | <urn:uuid:72741f3e-5d7b-4e50-b79d-9a3adce836ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lofgren.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=763&Itemid=164 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940117 | 922 | 1.671875 | 2 |
About our cover:
Any season can be good for launching a unit money-earning campaign to help pay for program supplies and activities, but the holidays are especially lucrative since so many people are buying gifts. Writer Mark Ray gives tips and examples of successful money-earning projects in his article. Sales items featured on our cover include evergreen garlands, wreaths, and centerpieces from Sherwood Forest Farms; Virginia Diner gourmet nuts; and Trail's End popcorn. Photograph by Tom Hussey; digital imaging by Stephen Schmitt, Tom Hussey Photography.
In the November-December 2007 Issue
- Holiday Magic
The magic of Scouting occurs when a young Scoutmaster brings his energy and focus to a community in which he might otherwise never be involved.
- 'One World, One Promise' Scouting's 100th birthday
Scouting's centennial marks a milestone in the history of the world's largest youth-serving organization.
- Raking in Good Will
During the Greater Cleveland Council's annual Yard Charge, Scouts help needy residents while providing a great example of Scouting's committment to service.
- Choose Your Own Major
The Heart of Virginia Council's University of Cub Scouting is a day of training opportunities for commissioners and unit leaders.
- Creative Money-Earning Projects
Packs, troops, and crews are using effective and often innovative techniques to fund their annual schedule of program activities.
- Stand and Deliver
Careful preparation and practice can eliminate the dread that many novice public speakers experience, whether talking to a small group or a full auditorium.
- Scouting Is Cool
Being cool is in the eye of the beholder -- unless, of course, you are between the ages of 10 and 14, and then it is in the eyes of your friends.
Copyright © 2007 by the Boy Scouts of America. All rights
thereunder reserved; anything appearing in Scouting magazine or on its
Web site may not be reprinted either wholly or in part without written permission.
Because of freedom given authors, opinions may not reflect official concurrence. | <urn:uuid:0438a9d2-1a0a-4363-9cd2-fddadd2b875a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scoutingmagazine.org/issues/0711/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910389 | 423 | 1.773438 | 2 |
It is no easy matter to pronounce which of Mr. Melville's books is the best. All of them (and he has published a goodly number, for so young an author) have had their own share of success, and their own peculiar merits, always saving and excepting Pierre -- wild, inflated, repulsive that it is.
For us there is something very charming about Mardi, all the time fully aware of its sad defects in taste and style. Of course, we give Mr. Melville every credit for his deliberate plagiarisms of old Sir Thomas Browne's gorgeous and metaphorical manner. Affectation upon affectation is scattered recklessly through its pages. Wild similes, cloudy philosophy, all things turned topsy-turvy, until we seem to feel all earth melting away from beneath our feet, and nothing but Mardi remaining....
... From forms, and forms alone does Melville take his text. He looks out of himself, and takes a rich outline view of what he sees. He is essentially exoterical in feeling. Matter is his god. His dreams are material. His philosophy is sensual. Beautiful women, shadowy lakes, nodding, plumy trees, and succulent banquets, make Melville's scenery, unless his theme utterly preclude all such. His language is rich and heavy, with a plating of imagery. He has a barbaric love of ornament, and does not mind much how it is put on. Swept away by this sensual longing, he frequently writes at random. One can see that he uses certain words only because they roll off the pen lusciously and roundly, just as a child, who is entirely the sport of sense, grasps at the largest apple. In Mardi is this peculiarly obvious. A long experience of the South sea islanders has no doubt induced this. The languages of these groups are singularly mellifluous and resonant, vowels enter largely into the composition of every word, and dissyllabled words are rare. Mr. Melville has been attracted by this. Whenever he can use a word of four syllables where a monosyllable would answer just as well, he chooses the former. A certain fulness of style is very attractive. Sir Thomas Browne, from whom Mr. Melville copies much that is good, is a great friend of magnificent diction. And his tract on urn burial is as lofty and poetical as if Memnon's statue chanted it, when the setting sun fell aslant across the Pyramids. But we find no nonsense in Sir Thomas. In every thing he says there is a deep meaning, although sometimes an erroneous one. We cannot always say as much for Mr. Melville. In his latest work he transcended even the jargon of Paracelsus and his followers. The Rosetta stone gave up its secret, but we believe that to the end of time Pierre will remain an ambiguity.
Mardi, we believe, is intended to embody all the philosophy of which Mr. Melville is capable, and we have no hesitation in saying that the philosophical parts are the worst. We do not for a moment pretend to say that we understand the system laid down by the author. Whether there be a system in it at all, is at least somewhat problematical, but when Mr. Melville does condescend to be intelligible, what he has to say for himself in the way of philosophy, is so exceedingly stale and trite, that it would be more in place in a school-boy's copy-book, than in a romance otherwise distinguished for splendor of imagery, and richness of diction. The descriptive painting in this wild book is gorgeous and fantastic in the extreme. It is a tapestry of dreams, worked with silken threads, dyed in the ocean of an Eastern sunset. Nothing however strange startles us as we float onwards through this misty panorama. King Media looms out from the canvas, an antique gentleman full of drowsy courtesy. Babbalanja philosophizes over his calabash, or relates the shadowy adventures of shadows in the land of shades. From out the woods, canopied with flowers, that let the daylight in only through courtesy, comes Donjalolo, the Southern Sardanapalus. Women droop over his pale enervate figure, and strive to light its exhausted fires with their burning eyes. He looks up lazily, and opens his small, red mouth to catch a drop of honey that is trembling in the core of some over-hanging flower. Fatigued with this exertion, he sinks back with a sigh into the soft arms interlaced behind. Then comes Hautia, Queen of spells that lie in lilies, and mistress of the music of feet. Around her float flushing nymphs, who love through endless dances, and die in the ecstasy of mingled motion. While far behind, throned in mist, and with one foot dabbling in the great ocean of the Future, stands the lost Yillah; problem of beauty to which there is no solution save through death.
All these characters flit before us in Mardi, and bring with them no consciousness of their unreality and deception. As shadows they come to us, but they are sensual shades. Their joys thrill through us. When they banquet in drowsy splendor -- when they wander upon beaches of pearls and rubies -- when they wreath their brows with blossoms more fragrant and luscious than the buds that grow in Paradise, our senses twine with theirs, and we forget every thing, save the vision of their gorgeous pleasures. It is this sensual power that holds the secret of Mr. Melville's first successes. No matter how unreal the scenery, if the pleasure be but truly painted, the world will cry "bravo!" We draw pictures of Gods and Goddesses, and hang them on our walls, but we take good care to let their divinity be but nominal. Diana, Juno, Venus, are they known, but they loom out from the canvas, substantial, unadulterated women. Seldom does there live an Ixion who loves to embrace clouds. Call it a cloud if you will, and if it have the appearance of flesh and blood, the adorer will be satisfied. But we doubt if there is to be found any man enthusiast enough to clasp a vapor to his heart, be it schirri-shaped or cumulous, and baptized with the sweetest name ever breathed from the Attic tongue. Mr. Melville therefore deals in vapors, but he twines around them so cunningly all human attributes, and pranks them out so lusciously with all the witcheries of sense, that we forget their shadowy nomenclatures, and worship the substantial incarnation.
It must not be imagined from this, that Mr. Melville is incapable of dealing with the events of more matter-of-fact life. He is averse to it, no doubt, and if we may judge by Pierre, is becoming more averse to it as he grows older. But he sometimes takes the vulgar monster by the shoulders and wields it finely....
Typee, the first and most successful of Mr. Melville's books, commands attention for the clearness of its narrative, the novelty of its scenery, and the simplicity of its style, in which latter feature it is a wondrous contrast to Mardi, Moby Dick, and Pierre....
White Jacket is a pure sea-book, but very clever. It is a clear, quiet picture of life on board of a man-of-war. It has less of Mr. Melville's faults than almost any of his works, and is distinguished for clear, wholesome satire, and a manly style. There is a scene describing the amputation of a sailor's leg by a brutal, cold-blooded surgeon, Patella, that Smollett might have painted. We would gladly quote it, but that it rather exceeds the limits usually afforded in an article so short as ours....
In Redburn, we find an account of the death of a sailor, by spontaneous combustion. Well described, poetically described, fraught with none of the revolting scenery which it is so easy to gather round such an end. In the last number of Bleak House, Mr. Dickens has attempted the same thing. He has also performed what he attempted. But, if ever man deserved public prosecution for his writing, he does, for this single passage. A hospital student could not read it without sickening. A ghoul, who had lived all his days upon the festering corruption of the graveyard, could have written nothing more hideously revolting than the death of Krook. It is as loathsome to read it as to enter one of the charnels in London city. We do not believe that a woman of sensitive nerves could take it up without fainting over the details. For ourselves, we fling the book away, with an anathema on the author that we should be sorry for him to hear.
Mr. Melville does not improve with time. His later books are a decided falling off, and his last scarcely deserves naming; this however we scarce believe to be an indication of exhaustion. Keats says beautifully in his preface to "Endymion," that "The imagination of a boy is healthy, and the mature imagination of a man is healthy, but there is a space of life between, in which the soul is in a ferment, the character undecided, the way of life uncertain, the ambition thick-sighted."
Just at present we believe the author of Pierre to be in this state of ferment. Typee, his first book, was healthy; Omoo nearly so; after that came Mardi, with its excusable wildness; then came Moby Dick, and Pierre with its inexcusable insanity. We trust that these rhapsodies will end the interregnum of nonsense to which Keats refers, as forming a portion of every man's life; and that Mr. Melville will write less at random and more at leisure, than of late. Of his last book we would fain not speak, did we not feel that he is just now at that stage of author-life when a little wholesome advice may save him a hundred future follies. When we first read Pierre, we felt a strong inclination to believe the whole thing to be a well-got-up hoax. We remembered having read a novel in six volumes once of the same order, called The Abbess, in which the stilted style of writing is exposed very funnily; and, as a specimen of unparalleled bombast, we believed it to be unequalled until we met with Pierre. In Mardi there is a strong vein of vague, morphinized poetry, running through the whole book. We do not know what it means from the beginning to the end, but we do not want to know, and accept it as a rhapsody. Babbalanja philosophizing drowsily, or the luxurious sybaritical King Media, lazily listening to the hum of waters, are all shrouded dimly in opiate-fumes, and dream-clouds, and we love them only as sensual shadows. Whatever they say or do; whether they sail in a golden boat, or eat silver fruits, or make pies of emeralds and rubies, or any thing else equally ridiculous, we feel perfectly satisfied that it is all right, because there is no claim made upon our practical belief. But if Mr. Melville had placed Babbalanja and Media and Yoomy in the Fifth Avenue, instead of a longitude and latitude less inland; if we met them in theatres instead of palm groves, and heard Babbalanja lecturing before the Historical Society instead of his dreamy islanders, we should feel naturally rather indignant at such a tax upon our credulity. We would feel inclined to say with the Orientals, that Mr. Melville had been laughing at our beards, and Pacha-like condemn on the instant to a literary bastinado. Now Pierre has all the madness of Mardi, without its vague, dreamy, poetic charm. All Mr. Melville's many affectations of style and thought are here crowded together in a mad mosaic. Talk of Rabelais's word-nonsense! there was always something queer, and odd, and funny, gleaming through his unintelligibility. But Pierre transcends all the nonsense-writing that the world ever beheld.
Thought staggers through each page like one poisoned. Language is drunken and reeling. Style is antipodical, and marches on its head. Then the moral is bad. Conceal it how you will, a revolting picture presents itself. A wretched, cowardly boy for a hero who from some feeling of mad romance, together with a mass of inexplicable reasons which, probably, the author alone fathoms, chooses to live in poverty with his illegitimate sister, whom he passes off to the world as his wife, instead of being respectably married to a legitimate cousin. Everybody is vicious in some way or other. The mother is vicious with pride. Isabel has a cancer of morbid, vicious, minerva-press-romance, eating into her heart. Lucy Tartan is viciously humble, and licks the dust beneath Pierre's feet viciously. Delly Ulver is humanly vicious, and in the rest of the book, whatever of vice is wanting in the remaining characters, is made up by superabundant viciosities of style.
Let Mr. Melville stay his step in time. He totters on the edge of a precipice, over which all his hard-earned fame may tumble with such another weight as Pierre attached to it. He has peculiar talents, which may be turned to rare advantage. Let him diet himself for a year or two on Addison, and avoid Sir Thomas Browne, and there is little doubt but that he will make a notch on the American Pine.
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Alternative Latin music is making new strides into the US, with Mexican bands packing venues from coast to coast.
MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Judging from the gallons of ecstatic tears pouring from the crowd, it looked like Bob Marley or Jim Morrison had risen from the grave to sing.
But to the Mexico City rock aficionados, it was an equally cataclysmic event: the reunion of the nation’s most legendary rock band, Caifanes.
As the group thrashed out its melancholy mix of indie, progressive rock and tropical grooves at Latin America’s biggest alternative festival in April, 70,000 spectators screamed, slammed and sobbed.
More surprisingly, Caifanes sparked a similar reaction a week later at the Coachella festival in Indio, Calif.
There was so much buzz around them at that major American rock event, they shot to second on the bill after the famed Kings of Leon, the highest profile a Latino band has had at the festival.
The strength of alternative Mexican music on both sides of the Rio Grande attests to sweeping changes in the two nations in the last decade.
Despite lingering perceptions of Mexicans in straw sombreros, the majority of the population is under 30 and lives in cities. Rock, electronic and hip hop music have all surged in popularity, rivaling the traditional sounds of mariachi, salsa and norteno.
Meanwhile, the booming Latin population north of the border brings these same bands to the United States. As well as Caifanes, alternative Mexican groups such as Cafe Tacvba, Molotov and Nortec Collective all pack venues from coast to coast.
Caifanes lead singer Saul Hernandez said he was delighted with the reaction at Coachella.
“It is great to play so high up at such an influential festival that has long been mainly Anglo,” Hernandez said in an interview with GlobalPost.
For a rock star of iconic status in his homeland, Hernandez is remarkably down to earth and modest, bringing along his two children and chatting away at length.
He said the Latin crowds in the United States are particularly passionate.
“Many Mexicans are in the U.S. out of necessity and have a hunger for their culture,” Hernandez said. “In the concerts, I see a very strong energy. The crowd expresses a search for identity, a catharsis.”
The rise of alternative music in Mexico is also connected to the nation’s democratic transition in recent years, Hernandez says.
When rock music first emerged in the late 1960s during the days of one-party rule, police were sent to break up concerts and festivals.
“The government was not so much concerned about an American influence like in the Soviet Union. It was just frightened by the idea of lots of young people in one place,” Hernandez said.
Such repression meant that Mexican bands that rose up in underground venues in the 1980s were more anti-system than many of the mainstream rock bands in the United States at the time.
The members of Caifanes were influenced by punk rock as well as the Beatles and the Latin rhythms they grew up with. The result is the distinct new sound that has become known as Alternative Latin.
However, as democracy and free-trade opened up, rock concerts have become wildly popular and big money-earners in Mexico. Most major English-language bands now play here, with U2 packing out three nights at Mexico City’s huge Aztec soccer stadium this month.
Mexico City’s Vive Latino festival, where the Caifanes played its reunion gig, has mushroomed since it started in 1998 to entertain some 200,000 revelers over three days this year.
Another Mexican group that headlined at the Vive Latino and is making waves in the United States is the Nortec Collective from the unwieldy border city of Tijuana.
Nortec Collective mixes an alternative electronic sound with norteno music that includes brass sections, accordions and jumpy polka rhythms. The result is a wild combination of pumping beats and tubas led by cowboy-looking DJs and musicians on stage.
As a border party town, Tijuana has long had a diverse music scene that mixes the sounds of the two nations, said Nortec founder and producer Pepe Mogt, also known as Fussible.
“We grew up traveling everyday between Tijuana and San Diego and taking in both cultures,” Mogt said.
In the 1980s Mogt saw bands such as Nirvana and the Ramones playing underground shows in Tijuana. In the 1990s, California promoters organized many rave parties in Tijuana.
“They would prefer to have shows or raves on the Mexican side of the border because there was less hassle with age limits and police,” Mogt said.
Mogt had already established himself as a DJ and producer of house music before he drew in the norteno sounds.
“After years of going to shows and night clubs, I started going to old Tijuana cantinas and realizing that norteno was not just cowboy music. It was a great sound,” Mogt said.
The resulting combination has been a resounding success, with Nortec download sales often topping the Latin American charts. Meanwhile, north of the border, the collective’s 2008 album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album.
“When we first started mixing electronic and norteno, people asked ‘what the f- are you doing?’” Mogt said. “But mixing sounds and cultures is the way that new music forms are born.” | <urn:uuid:fd9b6c06-b9ac-437d-a4c9-ac08f5951af9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/mexico/110516/indie-progressive-rock-alternative-music-caifanes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967697 | 1,174 | 1.71875 | 2 |
ASHRAE Receives NIST Grant to Study IAQ in Retail Stores
ASHRAE has been awarded $1.5 million dollars in grant money from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to conduct a three-year research project on ventilation and indoor air quality in retail stores.
ASHRAE's project, Ventilation and Indoor Air quality in Retail Stores, is one of 27 projects funded by NIST for measurement science and engineering research. The NIST Measurement Science and Engineering Research Grants Program, made possible through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides $34.12 million in grants at higher-education, commercial and nonprofit organizations in 18 states. The project will be conducted through ASHRAE's research program.
"ASHRAE thanks NIST for recognizing the great need for more information on ventilation and IAQ in retail stores," Society president Gordon Holness said. "The data gathered through this project will benefit not only the industry but the general public who work and shop in retail stores around the world."
Currently, there is little published information about air quality and ventilation rates in retail spaces in the United States-ventilation requirements for retail and other space types have been set largely by data for commercial office buildings.
Given that there are some 14.6 billion ft2 of retail space in the United States where people shop up to 24/7, it is vital that ventilation systems operate as efficiently as possible while maintaining good indoor air quality.
Through this study, ASHRAE is seeking to improve the energy efficiency of ventilation systems in retail stores while maintaining air quality by establishing a method to determine the relationship between ventilation rates and IAQ, using measured ventilation and pollutant concentration data. Specifically, the project will provide a quantitative basis for improving energy efficiency, while maintaining air quality, by increasing maintenance frequency and reducing ventilation rate requirements.
Existing pollutant and ventilation rate data, on which ventilation requirements for retail spaces are based, largely come from measurements in office buildings, which may not be appropriate. The project will conduct measurements in up to five retail building types: general merchandise, department, supermarket, restaurant, and home improvement/hardware.
Holness noted that the results will provide a more rigorous basis for the ventilation rate requirements in retail spaces and provide incentives for improved maintenance if it can be shown that clean and dry spaces will lead to lower pollutant concentrations and improve the perception of good air quality.
Ultimately, the project will establish a methodology for collecting real world ventilation and air quality data.
Founded in 1901, NIST is a non-regulatory federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce. NIST's mission is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life.
ASHRAE, founded in 1894, is an international organization of 55,000 persons. ASHRAE fulfills its mission of advancing heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world through research, standards writing, publishing and continuing education.
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Beijing shows displeasure with Tokyo over territorial claims
Taiwanese protestors from several right-wing parties and civil groups clutch anti-Japanese placards during a demonstration in Taipei on September 23, 2012, over a territorial dispute on the island group in the East China Sea. Hundreds of slogan-chanting Taiwanese activists and their supporters rallied against Japan amid the territorial dispute over the Senkaku island group controlled by Japan, which is also claimed by China and Taiwan under the name Diaoyu (Mandy Cheng)
HINA has cancelled events to commemorate 40 years of diplomatic relations
with Japan, further signalling anger over a territorial dispute.
Hiroaki Sakamoto, a Japanese foreign ministry official, confirmed that Beijing
has cancelled the events, planned for Thursday. He did not provide further
China's Xinhua News Agency, citing officials with the China-Japan Friendship
Association and another government-affiliated group, reported today that the
events would not take place as planned. It said they would be held "at a
Calls to China's Foreign Ministry were not answered today.
Relations have sunk to their worst level in years as the two sides spar over
islands in the East China Sea. The islands are also claimed by Taiwan.
In Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, hundreds of people marched today to protest
against Japan for occupying the islands.
They waved anti-Japan signs and asked Tokyo to relinquish the islands, called
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All About Humor
Our site teaches about the history of humor, the art of humor and the psychology of humor. The history of humor section includes a timeline and famous people. The art of humor section includes humor writing and joke telling. The psychology of humor section includes how how humor makes us feel and how to use humor in life. We also have an interactive section that includes a game, a survey, a quiz and access to a guestbook.
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Detroit: The new model for entrepreneurship?
$55 million VC fund in Cincy cloned on the success here
For at least one city, Detroit has become a model of entrepreneurial development.
Dismayed by a study that showed the Cincinnati region ranked behind its metropolitan peers in venture capital attraction and investment, executives at the consumer products giant Procter & Gamble wanted to figure out a way they and other corporate citizens in southern Ohio could help young companies get formed and grow.
For advice, they engaged the consulting firm of McKinsey & Co., which said, in effect, don't reinvent the wheel, do what Detroit is doing with its Renaissance Venture Capital Fund.
Members of the organization then known as Detroit Renaissance had decided in 2007 to raise a fund of funds that would invest in venture capital companies that would, in turn, invest in tech start-ups in southeast Michigan.
It would soon prove a lousy time to begin raising money, and if they had any idea the worst recession in 70 years was about to hit, the Renaissance folks probably would have put things on hold. But they managed to raise $45 million, anyway, with corporate investors including the Kellogg Foundation, Huntington Bank, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, AAA and DTE Energy Co.
It was the first effort of its kind in the nation — large companies raising a fund to invest in start-ups. While there was a sense of community good in doing it, there was a lot more to it than charity.
One, if things worked out, the companies would get a nice return on their investments. Two, they would be able to vet new technologies and better help young companies meet the needs of the marketplace. Three, the big companies would have first dibs on the products and services they had invested in.
Based on the success of investments made from the first fund, fund manager and President Chris Rizik was able to close on a second fund of $60 million in April, broadening his reach to add the Dow Foundation, the McGregor Fund, and three companies from western Michigan, including Meijer Inc.
Success? How about these numbers? The fund invested in three state VC firms and six outside the state. Two of those outside Michigan subsequently opened offices here: Florida-based Arsenal Venture Partners and Illinois-based MK Capital LLC.
The fund has made commitments of $33 million and written checks for $11.3 million. The fund's VC partners have in turn invested $34 million in 15 state companies and leveraged about $136 million more in coinvestments from their VC partners.
"That means we've leveraged our original investment about 15 times, in terms of Michigan companies raising money," Rizik said.
And seven of those companies have already had exits, returning 2.7 times their investors' money.
Gerry Anderson, the president, CEO and chairman of DTE, said that sort of leverage ratio is just what local execs had in mind when the first fund was formed. So, too, he said, was boosting Michigan's ranking among states when it comes to getting VC money.
The state had been middle-of-the-pack at best in quarterly rankings released by the National Venture Capital Association. While it still lags well behind such states as California, Massachusetts, New York and Texas, Michigan has fared better lately.
In the first quarter this year, for example, Michigan ranked No. 15, with 12 companies getting $48.4 million in VC investment. In the second quarter, according to numbers released this morning by the NVCA, Michigan was No. 17, with eight companies getting $25.6 million.
All of which led McKinsey to point Cincy toward Detroit.
Several months ago, P&G officials contacted Rizik and told him they were doing a clone. Called Cintrifuse, it has raised $55 million thus far, and P&G has lent its vice president of global business development, Jeff Weedman, to lead it for two years.
"When we formed Renaissance, I kept saying that if what we did worked, it would become a model for the rest of the national as a way to increase capital and innovation in regions that are underserved," says Rizik. "It was very cool for us that they found us via a McKinsey study that identified us as the best model. Good news for us and for Michigan." | <urn:uuid:1e0598d2-7f48-4a71-9f9f-e602413900ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.detroitmakeithere.com/article/20120809/DM01/308099997 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981049 | 907 | 1.53125 | 2 |
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War & Locale: World War II -- Pacific Theater
Date of Birth:
No Service Branch available for this record.
By Alicia Rascon
Ruben Casillas, a World War II veteran, remembers encountering discrimination on a daily basis in his youth.
Looking back, Casillas recalled being excluded from opportunities given to his classmates and still asks, "Why wasn't I included in that?"
As one of thousands of Mexican Americans to participate in World War II, Casillas fought not only for the safety of his nation but also to pave the way to equal opportunity in education and other government institutions for minorities.
Mexican American participation in World War II had tremendous impact on eliminating discrimination in the lives of Mexican Americans today.
"It had to change the world," Casillas said.
His own world would also change: he would see more discrimination in the military, yet remain loyal to his country; and he would recall the thrill of passing under the Golden Gate Bridge after the war, coming home to a new life with greater opportunities.
Casillas was born in Chula Vista, Calif. on May 17, 1921. His parents had immigrated to the United States in 1917. His father supported nine children with his job at a local chemical plant in the farming community of Chula Vista, Calif. As a youngster, Casillas helped his family and played Little League baseball. His summer months were spent working as a farm laborer. During the Depression, his father's stable factory job allowed his family to avoid some of the economic hardships other families faced.
Casillas grew up in a time when segregation persisted in the school system. In Southern California, he remembered how he and his Mexican classmates were routinely overlooked by the teachers.
"I noticed the teachers didn't spend as much time with the Mexicans," he said. "They didn't spend the time with you, but we overlooked it because we didn't know better."
At the age of 17, he dropped out of school to help his family financially. His father had tuberculosis and would succumb to the illness in 1943. Casillas worked at an S.D. Construction company that would later build airplanes. When the United States first entered the war, Casillas was exempt because he was a defense plant worker.
Casillas vividly recalled the shock he felt upon hearing the news of the Pearl Harbor attack.
"Everyone was amazed," he said. "It was unbelievable to fathom the fact they would hit a country as large as the U.S."
In 1944, he was drafted, forcing Casillas to leave his first wife Zoa St. Clair, and his son Ruben Jr.
"I felt that it was my duty as a citizen," he said. "I felt that this was a war that anyone who cared for survival had to go and fight...."
Casillas, who was one of four brothers to serve in World War II, proudly took on his duty as an American citizen and served his country in the Navy. He signed up for the Navy to be stationed near home. However, because the Navy positions were filled, he was sent to the Army and immediately taken to basic training at Camp Roberts, Calif.
While in the Army, Casillas served in the Pacific Theater.
Despite being a patriotic citizen, Casillas encountered discrimination.
"I found that the first moment I was at boot camp - I began to see how they separated you," he said.
Casillas continued to find prejudice among the military troops on several occasions.
"Those people were very racist," he said. "There was discrimination, yeah. ... I was told by my first sergeant that I would never go anywhere in the division because I was a Mexican. ... Mexicans always got the kitchen detail or guard duty. I knew that was why they were doing it."
Despite the unfair treatment he feels he received, Casillas remained loyal and continued to fight valiantly for his country.
"Your lives depended on each other," he said. "To me, race or religion did not matter. Your buddy next to you could be your life saver."
He clearly remembers seeing his fellow servicemen break down under the pressure of war. He, instead, focused on thought of his family back home.
"Thinking about my family helped energize me because I thought you had to get back home to that," he said.
Casillas platoon was in the Philippines preparing to hit the northern tip of Japan in 1945 when the news of the atomic bomb reached his commanding officers. The dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and Nagasaki three days later precluded the invasion of Japan. Japan surrendered unconditionally on September 2, 1945.
"If they hadn't, maybe I wouldn't be here," Casillas said. "If we had gone to Japan, it would have been a massacre."
The moment Casillas heard the war was over is something he'll never forget.
"I felt elation, jubilation, disbelief, happy it was happening," he said. "We were going home. It was a great feeling that we wouldn't have to face any more bullets."
Casillas recalled the overwhelming emotion of returning home after the war.
"It's a feeling I'll never forget," he said. "The ship was going under the Golden Gate Bridge on my birthday ... coming home. If you live to be a hundred, you'll never forget stuff like that."
After being discharged in 1946, Casillas used the GI Bill of Rights to finish his high school diploma and take some college courses.
Casillas married his second wife, Rosalie Silva, in 1949. The couple had four children: Christine, Ralph, Loretta and Paul.
The war had a great impact on Casillas and allowed him to get a larger view of the world. Casillas said he is proud of the fact that he fought for his country and proud of the thousands of other Mexican Americans who fought for the same cause.
Casillas said he believes that Mexican American troops did as good a job in the military as any other soldier. However, Casillas does not believe their contributions have been properly recognized.
"I think it's too bad that it has taken so long for this country - the government - to realize the effort that were put in by Latinos during World War II," he said.
Casillas thought Mexican American participation in the war would help end discrimination against all US citizens and residents. Although he believes that the lives of Mexican Americans have improved dramatically since the war, he still believes there are steps to be taken.
"There are still a lot of things that need to be changed," he said. "We always though time would change all, but it has been very slow." | <urn:uuid:2aec2c8d-3e5a-4738-a147-864cfcce8b20> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lib.utexas.edu/voces/template-stories-indiv.html?work_urn=urn%3Autlol%3Awwlatin.018&work_title=Casillas%2C+Ruben | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990419 | 1,390 | 3.390625 | 3 |
Monday, January 05, 2009
Imagine there's no artwork
Here is an interesting variation on my musician as artist thread. The sleeve of this 1962 recording of Toshiro Mayuzumi's Nirvana Symphony uses artwork by none other than Yoko Ono. Although better known as John Lennon's wife and as a notable conceptual artist in her own right, Yoko Ono has some interesting connections with classical music. While majoring in philosophy at Gakushuin University in Tokyo she also studied music, specialising in German lieder and Italian opera.
After moving to the US with her parents Yoko dropped out of Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY (which was then not coed), and aged 23 eloped with the Japanese composer Toshi Ichiyanagi (b. 1933) whose teachers included John Cage. The marriage did not last; Ichiyanagi returned to pursue his career in Japan while Yoko Ono stayed in New York to become a central figure in the Fluxus group which pioneered muti-media 'anti-art'. Other members of the group included Cage and La Monte Young. The 1962 date of the Nirvana Symphony LP coincides with the emergence of Fluxus as a new art movement.
The composer of the Nirvana Symphony, Toshiro Mayuzumi (1929-1997) studied at the Paris Conservatoire, and he is probably Japan's best known classical composer after Toru Takemitsu. Mayuzumi's early compositions were influenced by Edgar Varèse and other members of the European avant-garde. But, from the late-1950s Mayuzumi's music increasingly reflected his Japanese roots and used Buddhist references in a reaction against Western influences. His output includes two operas and two symphonies. The Nirvana Symphony is scored for orchestra, male chorus and electronics.
The Time Records recording of the Nirvan Symphony has disappeared from the catalogue, as has a later Denon version. But Naxos comes to the rescue with a CD of Toshiro Mayuzumi's music that includes his 17 minute Mandala Symphony. Sadly, sleeve art is just a box to be ticked in today's world of downloads and there are no budgets for Yoko Ono commissions. Which means the CD art of the otherwise excellent 2005 Naxos Mayuzumi disc falls somewhat short of the Fluxus vision of Nirvana. But the good news is that Yoko Ono continues her classical connections by contributing to Sarah Cahill's Sweeter Music piano cycle.
My samples of Yoko Ono's artwork used for the paragraph breaks lead us to some Japanese erotic variations.
To keep the record straight (sorry for the pun) the overall design for the album sleeve of the Time Records Nirvana Symphony, which incorporates Yoko's artwork, was by Murray Stein. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk | <urn:uuid:f790c332-25a3-4472-879b-71592a6bacb8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.overgrownpath.com/2009/01/imagine-theres-no-artwork.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965777 | 629 | 2.015625 | 2 |
TALLAHASSEE (AP) — Florida’s interim education commissioner says early glitches are no reason to slow the implementation of the state’s new teacher evaluation system.
Pam Stewart gave that response Thursday to lawmakers who were worried about problems that plagued the first release of data under the system a day earlier.
The Department of Education took down a website showing nearly
97 percent of Florida teachers were rated “effective” or “highly effective” within hours of putting it up.
Stewart said it will be restored once corrections are made. The problem was that some districts submitted duplicate information.
The evaluations are based in part on tests that measure student progress. Stewart acknowledged another problem is not all students are tested, but she said that should be fixed in the future. | <urn:uuid:7d3ab6ab-9b50-401c-83f4-aa1343d4ce99> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.venicegondoliersun.com/sunnews/venice/4624914-457/sunnewspaperseducationchiefdefendsteacherevaluations.html.csp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974133 | 163 | 1.8125 | 2 |
|[ Excerpt from The Science of Yoga, page 235 ]
Lord Ganesha said:
"Sages do not say, 'yoga is union.' Yoga is not union with wealth. Yoga is not union with objects or elements... yoga is not union with fathers, mothers, and others; or union with kinsfolk, sons, and others... Yoga is not even union with Indra's God's realm... I affirm that the yoga consisting in the attitude of non-separation is the perfect yoga."
Unity, the ultimate, indivisible reality, known as the tao in Taoism, as dharmakaya or tathata in Buddhism, is referred to as Brahman in Hinduism. Brahman is also often loosely translated as 'God', but this should not be confused with a common monotheic interpretation of God as a Supreme, Omnipotent Being; rather as the 'unitive principle' itself, or the indivisible 'One Reality' which manifests itself in all things.
Meenakshi Devi Bhavanani in her article entitled Oneness, fittingly demonstrates the innate yearning for unity within all human beings and the manifestation of this yearning from those with various degrees of awareness:
"Everyone wants Oneness in some form or another. The Unitive impulse is deeply imbedded in our DNA. But everyone seeks that union in a different way, and according to their own level of consciousness."
She explains that everyone inherently seeks oneness, albeit on an unconscious level. She continues:
"None of us likes the sense of the presence of 'the other'. When we sense 'otherness', we instinctively try to remove it in various ways according to our level of evolution.
At the lower animal level, we can remove the sense of the otherness by eating it, killing it, mating with it, or chasing it away.
This kind of oneness is still practiced by the animal man, homo erectus, who is still mostly dominated by his animal brain. Perhaps 90% of the human race still exists on this level of consciousness and this is one explanation for the horrendous wars and conflicts which are ravaging the earth. 'There should be ONLY ONE, and that ONLY ONE should be ME,' thinks the animal brain. This is a very crude concept of Oneness.
The egotistical man, who has risen above herd consciousness, above mob allegiances, interprets this primordial 'urge for Oneness' in more subtle ways. He may no longer kill, eat, mate with or chase away 'the other', but he will try to submerge 'the other' in his own ego presence. This can be done through social, political, emotional or economic dominance. He thus creates the presence of 'one will' or 'one aim', which dominates 'the other'.
Charismatic leaders such as Napoleon in France, Adolf Hitler in Germany, Mussolini in Italy, Stalin in Russia, Franco in Spain and Mao in China all demonstrated this kind of 'oneness'... Of course, history shows us clearly where all these crude attempts at Oneness end.
As one rises in evolution, one chooses more refined methods of achieving Oneness and erasing the sense of 'otherness'.
This may be expresses now in a more refined sense such as sports, competitions, takeover bids in business, different kinds of national and international gatherings which seek to resolve the 'otherness' through various methods of communication and communion, through conferences, political parties, rallies, etc.
Some think that they can banish that terrifying sense of 'otherness' by finding the 'perfect mate'. The man and woman unite and create the child and ONE UNIT is formed… [But] sooner or later even this family unit has to brush up against ‘the other’, and the [same] old patterns emerge.
Emotional bonds are formed to create a Oneness, but emotions are fickle and unstable. That kind of oneness can only be transient [and impermanent].
[But] those forces which push us toward union are powerful and strong. Perhaps the Universe is saying 'Look! Sooner or later you have to come back to me. What you are looking for here and there can only be found in the Real, True and Permanent sense, when you lift your eyes to the sky [or look deep within the Self] and realize that ALL IS IN ESSENCE, ONENESS'.
... At the top of the evolutionary ladder, at the peak, the point, the tip of the mountain, there is only Oneness. It is to those heights that this primordial unitive impulse seeks to propel us. The journey up this big and treacherous mountain may take us thousands of lifetimes, but it is a journey that we all have to make… sooner or later. But, says the Guru, 'if not now… When?'"
NOTE: This yoga article is an excerpt from The Science of Yoga, an online yoga training program with streaming yoga videos and 600 pages of step-by-step yoga instruction.
"The Science of Yoga is a course worthy of
leather binding and an honored place in the
finest libraries in the world
... It is indeed a masterful work."
Dr. John Michael Christian
Learn More About
The Science of Yoga Course | <urn:uuid:419a118e-31bb-4c4c-b7d3-5d5b4ad4b225> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theyogatutor.com/the-unity-of-all-things | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940606 | 1,094 | 2.296875 | 2 |
To the "university-trained mind" here is wildness almost as wild as Roger Bacon's once appeared to be; though of course even the layest of lay brothers must not assume that all wild science will in time become accepted law, as some of Roger's did. Retort to Mr. Fort must be left to the outraged astronomer. If indeed any astronomer could feel himself so little outraged as to offer a retort. Lay brethren are outside the quarrel and must content themselves with gratitude to a man who writes two such books as "New Lands" and "The Book of the Damned"; gratitude for passages and pictures--moving pictures--of such cyclonic activity and dimensions that a whole new area of a reader's imagination stirs in amazement and is brought to life.
rtisement. When, in August 1878, Prof. Swift and Prof. Watson said that, during an eclipse of the sun, they had seen two luminous bodies that might be planets between Mercury and the Sun, Prof. Chase announced that, five years before, he had made a prediction, and that it had been confirmed by the positions of these bodies. Three times, in capital letters, he screamed, or announced, according to one's sensitiveness, or prejudices, that the "new planets" were in the exact positions of his calculations. Prof. Chase wrote that, before his time, there had been two great instances of astronomic calculation confirmed: the discovery of Neptune and the discovery of "the asteroidal belt," a claim that is disingenuously worded. If by mathematical principles, or by any other definite principles, there has ever been one great, or little, instance of astronomic discovery by means of calculations, confusion must destroy us, in the introductory position that we take, or expose our irresponsibility, and vitiate all that foll | <urn:uuid:0ea4ae47-925d-4c3b-b64a-ae084c4c6433> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://manybooks.net/titles/fortcother05new_lands.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976322 | 375 | 2.265625 | 2 |
Yale Carbon Finance Speaker Series Kicks Off with "The History of Financial Innovation"
New Haven, Conn., September 12, 2007 — Professors William N. Goetzmann and K. Geert Rouwenhorst will present "The History of Financial Innovation," the first lecture in the Yale Carbon Finance Speaker Series, on Thursday, September 13, from 4:30 - 6:30 p.m. in Luce Hall, located at 34 Hillhouse Avenue. The event is free and open to the public; a reception will follow.
The Carbon Finance Speaker Series is part of the Environmental Finance project at Yale, which seeks to understand the role of carbon finance in accelerating solutions to climate change. Hosted by the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale and the International Center of Finance at the Yale School of Management, the series will feature monthly presentations during the 2007-2008 academic year by business leaders who are managing investments and initiatives for their companies in the carbon markets and will culminate in a year-end Carbon Finance conference.
Professors Goetzmann and Rouwenhorst will discuss the 4,000-year evolution of finance. The presentation will draw largely from their book The Origins of Value: The Financial Innovations that Created Modern Capital Markets, which details the history of financial markets, loans, interest rates, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, the corporation, and the New York Stock Exchange, among other financial tools and institutions. The lecture will provide a historical context for thinking about carbon markets in subsequent lectures in the series.
The Carbon Finance Speaker Series is funded through generous support from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation. Organizational support is provided by the Business and the Environment Club, the Yale Office of Sustainability, Yale Project on Climate Change, Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, and the Renewable Energy and International Law Network (REIL Network). | <urn:uuid:ea3bca1a-9cde-4331-adca-9ebe536a09b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mba.yale.edu/news_events/CMS/Articles/6136.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924252 | 379 | 2.0625 | 2 |
A head teachers' leader says British industry fails to signal to teenagers the importance of language learning.
Fewer and fewer students are learning German
John Dunford of the Association of School and College Leaders spoke out as GCSE results showed a further decline in the entries for French and German.
The Institute of Directors said this was as misguided as it would be to credit employer demand with a surge in the popularity of religious studies.
Studying a modern foreign language is now optional beyond the age of 14.
Exam entries in French fell 8.2% from last year to 216,718 and in German were down 10.2% to just 81,000.
These were "significant" falls, said the head of the AQA exam board, Dr Mike Cresswell.
He told journalists at a briefing by the Joint Council for Qualifications that youngsters and their parents were very attuned these days to shifts in the job market, in terms of their subject options.
"I don't think there are signals coming from the employment market that doing languages will be useful."
Greg Watson of the OCR board felt the same.
"There does seem to be a mismatch between what I hear when I talk to employers about this," he said.
"They say, 'We are desperate for language skills, we are doing more business abroad'.
"When I ask if they are putting it in job adverts or a salary premium the answer tends to be 'No'."
Later Dr Dunford of the head teachers' association predicted that this year would be the bottom of the decline, as people recognised that they were doing themselves no favours in the job market by cutting out foreign languages.
He said various factors were involved, including the relative difficulty of language subjects - whose exam grades needed to be brought into line with other subjects.
Also the tourist industry in other countries was so well geared to catering for English speakers that youngsters going on holiday felt they need not bother.
But "part of what is wrong with British industry" was "the culpability of employers in failing to make it clear to young people that modern languages are important", he said.
The National Centre for Languages (Cilt) said there were no quick fixes.
As a result of real concerns, highlighted in Lord Dearing's languages review, new initiatives were in train to arrest the decline and motivate pupils.
Cilt's chief executive, Isabella Moore said: "A more diversified language offer within the new 14-19 curriculum, which stimulates students' interests and is more responsive to individual and employers' needs, is within reach but will take time to achieve."
Schools Minister Jim Knight said: "Our long-term, radical measures will increase the number of people studying languages at GCSE, A-level and beyond".
These include making languages compulsory in primary schools.
The director general of the Institute of Directors (IoD), Miles Templeman, said that seeking to pin a decline in GCSE language entries on employers was misguided.
"Presumably employer demand is also responsible for this year's rises in religious studies and physical education entries," he said.
Students made the choices, with teachers and parents, to reflect their own interests and abilities as well as employment prospects.
"Equally clear is the fact that the government is right to focus efforts on primary education and on fostering a love of languages among young children.
"For older pupils, it should also explore approaches to teaching a range of languages at a lighter, conversational level, for example by following the IoD's suggestion for a GCSE in several languages."
Other shifts in popularity in the GCSEs highlighted by the Joint Council for Qualifications included a revival of sciences, following changes to the curriculum.
Figures showed that about 57,000 youngsters had taken the new science qualification after only one year rather than two - in Year 10 of their schooling.
There were mixed fortunes for another subject which, like languages, is no longer compulsory beyond the age of 14 in England: information and communication technology (ICT).
GCSE entries fell 9.1% to 99,656 and the Applied GCSE double award suffered a 37% decline.
The change was described as "really quite interesting" by Dr Cresswell - given that, last year, entries had "shot up". It was too early to discern a trend.
The managing director of the Edexcel exam board, Jerry Jarvis, said there had been a considerable migration to some of the newer vocational qualifications such as his board's diploma in digital applications (Dida) and OCR Nationals.
He said this was because students felt they were "more relevant".
But also schools know that they can be worth the equivalent of up to four good GCSEs in the school league tables.
Edexcel says it had approximately 200,000 Dida entries in 2007 with more than 138,000 certificated completions, with other students taking BTec Firsts, also worth four GCSEs.
But these are not reported with the GCSE results. Edexcel has called for a "national vocational results day".
The boom in religious studies mentioned by the IoD saw another 7.2% rise in entries this year, to 171,123 - putting it in 10th place overall.
The top 10 subjects, driven largely by curriculum demands, were unchanged except that French and history swapped places in the middle of the table - though history also suffered a decline.
As a percentage, the biggest rise was a huge 199% in additional maths, albeit to only 9,793 entries in total.
Statistics as a subject was up 21% to 82,682, and media studies up 15.5% to 66,425. | <urn:uuid:7cf04600-ae98-45c3-9c9d-b755d8534e3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/6960432.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976606 | 1,176 | 1.992188 | 2 |
If you do not know the correct pronunciation of certain words or names, you can use closed-captions videos on YouTube to learn how to pronounce any difficult word.
You can download the audio pronunciation files of English dictionary words in MP3 format and practice pronunciation on the go.
You can now see the readability level of web pages in Google itself. To read a page that’s written in more simple English, click the search result that’s marked as “Basic reading level.â€
If English is a foreign language for you, here’s an online proofing tool from Microsoft that will help you find and correct errors in your documents and emails on. Now you can write like a native English speaker.
Common Craft, a popular educational video site that is especially known for explaining technical stuff like Twitter, Blogs, RSS, Wikis, etc. in plain English, has just been revamped.
What is the Credit Crisis? Why did big Wall Street banks go bankrupt? This animated video explains the entire story of the Credit Crisis in Plain English.
Every year, hundreds of words are dropped from the dictionary to make room for new words. Lexicographers spend hours researching word usage and may drop words that have been completely neglected by the society.
This video shows how students in China learn English language in large groups – it looks like a large political gathering but they are all taking English Lessons.
Live Dictionary for Instant English definitions and meanings. | <urn:uuid:32ec05eb-50b3-4e45-8dda-da15fd92a5a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.labnol.org/tag/english/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912524 | 305 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Greg Phipps/Washington State Department of Transportation
1. At this point, no waterfront idea could win, so a no vote (the likely outcome) is meaningless. Once an issue gets this toxic, and there are all kinds of ideas on the table, no one proposal (such as the deep-bore tunnel) can get approval. Recall what happened when the cut-and-cover tunnel and the new viaduct were put on the ballot: both failed. Another reason almost any single idea would fail: the majority of voters would not benefit (non drivers, don't live on west side) and so would vote no, if asked. Further, with the stakes this high, the losing side is fairly certain to have enough legal firepower to challenge the election.
2. We already had a vote, during the 2009 municipal elections. That verdict, if it may be called that, was to go ahead with the tunnel plan. Mayor Mike McGinn owes his election to a last-minute switch to favor (technically, not to block) the tunnel, the same position of the runners up, Joe Mallahan and Greg Nickels. In the City Council races, three of the four winners were pro-tunnel (Sally Bagshaw, Richard Conlin, and Nick Licata), with one (Mike O'Brien) opposed to the tunnel.
3. The vote would not have legitimacy, so wouldn't settle anything. SR 99 is a state highway, so a local vote is mischievous and not exactly relevant. The idea of local vetoes of state highways is a bad precedent. The legislature would be miffed, dismissive, and punitively inclined.
4. It's not so much a vote as a political organizing device. Mayor McGinn and others would exploit the vote, and the battle to get a vote, and the battle over how to shape the ballot question, as a way of making the case that they "care for the Seattle taxpayers." The real point of all this positioning is to put pressure on the city council, making them look disdainful of the risk to taxpayers, in order to peel off a few more votes from the pro-tunnel council majority, and to mobilize an anti-tunnel slate to challenge councilmembers in the 2011 election.
5. Such a vote is bad governance, putting complex, engineering decisions in the hands of an emotionally charged up electorate. If the project fails, the voters will be able to punish the advocates at an election. Besides, putting issues like this up for a vote encourages all sorts of vote-getting concessions and compromises, likely pushing the bill much higher.
6. There's been a huge amount of public participation to date, with lots more to come. Every important stakeholder has been at the table for years; every step will be litigated and debated; the legislature has agonized for a decade. And one other thing: do participants who lose a fair vote get to keep appealing the decision forever?
7. No assurance that this vote would be the last word. Risk is everywhere in this mammoth project, so there might be still more votes on tough questions. The real risk to the city is the part it's on the hook for — the seawall, the park, the surface roadway — where the tab will come to about $1 billion and the city alone must deal with cost overruns. This city project is a better area to focus attention, even though the tunnel is the bigger attention-grabber. Moreover, if tunnel foes were to somehow lose a vote on the tunnel, they likely would attack another weak spot in the huge project.
8. Does Seattle really want to keep shooting itself in the foot? A recession is not exactly the best time for the city to be making more enemies in Olympia. By picking this fight and escalating it, Mayor McGinn is alienating himself and his causes from Gov. Gregoire and the legislature. Imagine how poorly disposed Olympia would be if the vote scuttled the project. And how ungenerous the lawmakers will be on other Seattle needs.
9. Civil wars have a lot of casualties. Forcing matters to a vote would produce a dramatic escalation of the war between McGinn and the council as well as the business community. The vote would be bloody, with many lasting wounds. Is this smart in a time of critical needs? Wouldn't the voters punish both sides for their sterile partisanship?
10. Stopping the tunnel would likely produce a worse solution. The legislature would be inclined to steal the money for other projects or to teach the city a lesson by ramming through a new viaduct. Finding consensus on a new solution would be impossible locally, with feelings rubbed this raw and recrimination politics in the saddle. The likely outcome of blocking the tunnel solution now would be to repair the viaduct and kick the can down the road a generation, hoping they can find the political unity to get rid of it and create a waterfront park. Such a defeat (resembling the Commons and the Monorail, with huge expenses of effort for naught) would be very demoralizing.
Like what you just read? Support high quality local journalism. Become a member of Crosscut today! | <urn:uuid:21336adc-6763-4c30-9b75-c15dbd456eaf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://crosscut.com/2010/07/30/alaskan-way-viaduct/20018/10-reasons-we-shouldnt-vote-on-waterfront-tunnel/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962907 | 1,066 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Pierre de Bourdeille, Seigneur de Brantôme
|←Edouard Branly||Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), Volume 2
Pierre de Brantôme, Seigneur de Bourdeille
One of the most famous of French writers of memoirs, b. in 1539, or a little later; d. 15 July, 1614. He was the son of a nobleman of Perigord and spent his childhood at the court of the Queen of Navarre. He studied at the College of France, at Paris, and at the University of Poitiers. When his education was completed he returned to court at a date not later than 1556, for he saw Mary Stuart "at the age of thirteen or fourteen, in the presence-chamber of the Louvre, publicly recite a Latin oration which she had composed, before King Henry, the queen and all the court". In 1557 Bourdeille was granted the Abbey of Brantôme, the name of which he took.
Brantôme's life explains his writings, for it is the life of a traveler, a soldier, and a courtier. He himself in a few lines thus sums up its characteristics: "From the time when I began to outgrow subjection to father, and mother, and school, besides the journeys I made to the wars and the courts in France, I have made seven, when there was peace, outside of France to find adventure by war, or by seeing the world, I was in Italy, Scotland, England, Spain, Portugal-then in Italy again, at Malta for the siege, at La Goulette in Africa, in Greece, and other foreign places, which I have liked a hundred times better for sojourn than my own country, having the disposition of wandering musicians who love the houses of others better than their own." In 1558 he went for the first time to Italy. He returned to France only to leave it again in the suite of Mary Stuart who went to Scotland to take possession of her kingdom. Brantôme has left a touching account of this journey of the unfortunate queen. In 1562 he took part in the first civil war between the Catholics and Protestants of France and was present at the battle of Dreux, his first engagement. Then he began again to travel, going to Portugal, Spain, and to Malta; at this last place he spent three months and a half, the active and adventurous life of the Knights pleasing him so greatly that he thought for a moment of entering the order. On his return to France he took part in the second and third civil wars, was present at the battles of Meaux and St.-Denis, at the engagement at Jarnae, and the siege of La Rochelle. His military career came to an end in 1574 after the campaign in Périgord. The office of gentleman of the bed-chamber kept him near King Henry III, and his journeys now were merely to follow the court, where all that interested him seems to have been the love intrigues, the duels, the rivalries, and the assassinations.
Notwithstanding the services he had rendered, his bravery, and the amusement which his Gascon animation afforded the king, Brantôme never obtained an important post, but remained among "the minor attendants". This made him indignant and he contemplated going into the Spanish service when an accident-a fall from his horse-put an end to his active life. An invalid for four years, he retired to his chateau Richemond and resolved, in order to pass the time, to take up his pen and recount his past life. This was the occasion and the beginning of his career as a writer. But for this fortunate accident posterity would not have had the precious "Mémoirs" of Brantôme and would have lost in them an unequaled source of instruction concerning the men and affairs of the sixteenth century. The works of Brantôme include: "Vies des capitaines étrangers et francais"; "Vies des dames illustres"; "Vies des dames galantes". His manner of writing is between the style of a biography and that of a personal memoir. At times he himself appears in his recital and most often he relates what he has personally seen. He has the most important qualification for a writer of memoirs: curiosity. Wherever he went, and he traveled in countries of all kinds, he observed, he listened, he asked questions, he informed himself. But he has no power of criticism; he is a doubtful witness. He has moreover, no sense of morality, in the modern meaning of the word. He admires but one thing in men and that is bravery; that this courage may be of a criminal character is of little consequence to him. He is not the man to bear malice towards others under pretext that they have "some little trifle of murder" on their conscience. In like manner he has few scruples either as to a choice of means or as to the sources of profit and ways of making gain. He writes in one place: "Nothing is so delightful, so sweet and attractive as spoils of any kind, whether gained by land or by sea." And he is strongly suspected of having plundered his benefice. In truth, when he talks of "honesty" and "virtue" he means what the Italians of that age called virtu, that is, personal courage, force, and elegance. Above all other spots Brantôme enjoyed the chamber and antechamber of the queen. He was never perfectly happy except when surrounded by the ladies who formed the real ornament of the court. This court of Catherine de Medici and its "flying squadron" of three hundred ladies made his paradise on earth. "Never since the world was made has its equal been seen." He made himself the historiographer of these dames of the Renaissance, both of the famous and of the notorious. Among his numerous portraits mention should be made of those of his favorites, Marguerite of Navarre and Mary Stuart. Light and frivolous, Brantôme passes over without mention some of the occurrences of his time of the greatest importance and most fraught with consequences. But we owe to him all sorts of small details, fingerposts to uses of the times. This brilliant and corrupt society, stamped with the characteristics of the sixteenth century, lives again in his "Mémoirs".
Brantôme is an uneven, incorrect, and rambling writer, but his works contain clever witticisms, imagination, and unexpected turns. He took more pains with his style than one would be apt to think, and sought renown as a man of letters. He directed his heirs to have the writings printed which he had made and composed "by his understanding and imagination, all very carefully corrected with much pains and time . . . I wish that the said impression be in beautiful and large type and in a stately volume in order to appear better. Otherwise I should lose my trouble and the glory that is due me." His desires, however, were not granted at once. His works did not appear for the first time until 1655, and then in a very imperfect and incorrect edition. It was not until the eighteenth century that his reputation, one of not very high order, was established. His writings are regarded, above all, as a collection of dubious anecdotes. From him the chroniclers of scandalous stories, the Tallemants des Réaux and the Bussy-Rabutins, are descended.
BRANTÔME, (Euvres, ed. by LALANNE in publications of the Societe de l'Histoire de France (11 vols., Svo); LALANNE, Brantôme, sa vie et ses ecrits; DOUMIC, Brantôme in Eltudes sur la litterature francaisse, II. | <urn:uuid:6e07c4cf-805e-4815-bf4b-f26b1b8a7c45> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Pierre_de_Bourdeille,_Seigneur_de_Brant%C3%B4me | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979179 | 1,653 | 2.34375 | 2 |
URBANITY, n. The kind of civility that urban observers ascribe to dwellers in all cities but New York. Its commonest expression is heard in the words, "I beg your pardon," and it is not consistent with disregard of the rights of others.
The owner of a powder mill
Was musing on a distant hill —
Something his mind foreboded —
When from the cloudless sky there fell
A deviled human kidney! Well,
The man's mill had exploded.
His hat he lifted from his head;
"I beg your pardon, sir," he said;
"I didn't know 'twas loaded."
2007 Update: The fashion of those influenced by vulgar neighbors to defy convention. | <urn:uuid:fe16af55-57b8-41cf-baf0-5fd11caaed8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bitterbierce.blogspot.jp/2007/05/urbanity.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969992 | 154 | 1.929688 | 2 |
The Jakarta Post, Commentary by Roby Arya Brata (Jakarta, Indonesia, Dec. 29 2012) — For the first time Syria’s most powerful ally, Russia, said earlier this month that President Bashar al-Assad was losing control of his country and the rebels might win the civil war, dramatically shifting the diplomatic landscape at a time of significant political momentum for the opposition (The Washington Post, Dec. 13).
“We must look at the facts: There is a trend for the government to progressively lose control over an increasing part of its territory,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said during hearings at a Kremlin advisory body, the Public Chamber. “[The possibility of] an opposition victory can’t be excluded.”
More importantly, the Assad regime was politically defeated when more than 100 countries in the “Friends of the Syrian People” conference in Morocco earlier this month recognized a new Syrian opposition coalition as representing the Syrian people. By international law, therefore, the Syrian National Coalition has a legal standing to act in international relations.
On the other side, without international recognition, the Assad regime as a government has become weaker and more ineffective in dealing with other sovereign powers.
However, the opposition will not easily win the war. As Bogdanov warned, it will take the opposition a long time to defeat the regime. This means more innocent civilians will become casualties in the civil war, which has already killed more than 40,000 people.
Compared to the Libyan and Tunisian conflicts, the Syrian conflict is more complex and difficult. Hence, Kofi Annan, who has reputable diplomatic and negotiation skills, gave up his efforts to solve the conflict.
The Syrian conflict is essentially a geopolitical war waged between Russia, China and Iran on one side and the US, Israel, the West and some Arab countries on the other side.
Historically, Syria under the Assad regime has had good relations with Russia and China. Having economic interests particularly in oil resources, Russia and China have also used Syria under Assad’s rule to counterbalance the power and political influence of the US in the Middle East. For these reasons, therefore Russia and China have vetoed three resolutions of the United Nations Security Council that would have imposed sanctions on the Assad regime.
Iran has political and military interests in keeping the Assad regime in power. Iran, together with Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Hamas, has a strategic alliance with the Assad regime — which has a Shiite Islam Alawite background — in protecting her security and political interests against those of Israel and the US in the Middle East.
With a possible war against Israel and/or the US, Iran will therefore pursue all efforts to prevent the installation of a US/Israel-backed “puppet” Syrian ruler. On the other hand, the US, Israel and the West have strategic political and military interests in overthrowing Assad’s regime.
They see the regime as a threat to their security interests in the Middle East, particularly in countering the military tactics of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. Moreover, like Russia and China, the US and the West have economic interests in Syrian oil resources to satisfy their need for energy.
Therefore, it is logical that Russia, China and Iran will attempt to keep the Assad regime in power. On the contrary, it is in their political and security interests for the US, Israel and the West to remove the Assad regime. Should the Assad regime be removed, these opposing countries will endeavor to influence the new Syrian government.
Thus, with the weakness of the United Nations security system, i.e. the veto mechanism, the worst possible scenario may take place. A deadly open war may be waged between those opposing countries. Even though this possibility is still remote, in fact an “open war” is already occurring, i.e. by militarily supporting and using the conflicting parties in the civil war.
However, facing the fact that the Assad regime is getting militarily and politically weaker a more realistic scenario may come about. Russia, China and Iran may secretly compromise with the US side.
They may withdraw their support for the Assad regime and let the opposition militia arrest, kill or grant political asylum to President Assad. In return, they will ask for some form of political and economic gains from the new US and Israel-backed Syrian government.
All those scenarios will therefore conflict with the legitimate interests of the Syrian people. Their interest is to form a clean, just and democratic government which is not under the control and influence of opposing countries.
For this purpose, Indonesia can have a key role to play. The mediating role played by the United Nations mediator including Lakhdar Brahimi will be seen by the opposing parties as not neutral or having a hidden agenda.
The Assad regime and the opposition see Indonesia as a good friend that has more neutral and supportive intentions in promoting the interests of the Syrian people.
Therefore, with his international reputation and goodwill, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono or Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa could be appointed as a mediator. Instead of representing the United Nations, either one could act to represent the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
As a mediator, President Yudhoyono could propose some solutions for the conflict. To prevent more casualties, in the first instance he should suggest a cease-fire. Operating under the United Nations, peacekeeping forces should come from Indonesia and other neutral, Islamic countries, not from the opposing countries.
He then should recommend that President Assad step down and administer a fair and democratic general election. Such an election must be supervised by the United Nations, Indonesia or other neutral countries.
Indonesia could help Syria by sharing its experience in administering this election. As a compromise, the ruling Ba’ath party, which still has some supporters, could run in the election.
Being disbarred from the election, President Assad should be asked to seek political asylum. Alternatively, he could stand trial, but the new president could grant him clemency.
Now, it is all down to President Assad. The game is almost over. You will never win a war against your own people. What you can do now is to win their hearts. Learn from history or you will face the same fate as Qaddafi.
The writer is an international legal and policy analyst at the Indonesian Cabinet Secretariat. The opinions expressed are his own. | <urn:uuid:63c224f1-dcde-4949-a414-ae5c5b94523d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://moroccoonthemove.wordpress.com/2012/12/30/assad-the-power-game-in-syria-is-almost-over-the-jakarta-post/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961515 | 1,317 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Hey, Egyptiandiamond1. The basics of the sounds of ancient Egyptian are all there in the monoliterals, sometimes called the Egyptian "alphabet." Any text on the language will have a summary of this right from the start, but here's a refresher:
A glottal stop, which doesn't exist in most Western languages. Similar to how the Cockney Brits kind of "skip" over the two "t's" in the word "bottle" ("bo--le"). In the West it's usually just rendered as an "a".
a sound common in Semitic tongues but absent in Western languages. I once had a teacher of Hebrew repeat it to me several times and still couldn't get it right myself! This sound, too, is usually rendered as an "a" in the West when speaking ancient Egyptian.
A single reed leaf, usually rendered as an "a" or an "i" sound, though it's not truly a vowel (linguists call it a "weak consonant").
A double reed leaf, generally pronounced as a "y" like in "belly
" (a long "e" sound); it is sometimes written in English as an "i."
The quail chick, a weak-consonant "w" and often pronounced like the "u" in "June"; depending on the word it can be pronounced as a regular "w," though.
The 1st "h," pronounced like a regular "h" in English
The 2nd "h," a harsh or aspirated "h" that is noticeably pronounced.
The 3rd "h," a soft gutteral "kh" sound similar to the Scottish "loch"
The 4th "h," a harsher
gutteral "kh" sound as in the German ach
(by the way, most people, including Egyptologists trained in the West, don't often bother to differentiate the sounds between this "h" and the previous "h")
An "sh" sound as in "shoot."
A glyph that serves both as a "z" sound and a regular "s" sound; by the New Kingdom the change to the latter was common, though it could still serve as a "z."
A "dj" sound as in the name "Jed" or "Joan."
Similar to the "s/z" glyph above, this one can be a regular "t" sound or a "ch" sound as in "chair."
A "k" that is pronounced at the back of the throat (as opposed to a regular "k," which is pronounced more toward the front of the mouth); this one takes a bit of practice to get right and can almost
sound like a soft click.
The others have sounds that are basically the same as their equivalents in English:
I grabbed all these little glyph-graphics, by the way, from a fun little site called Hieroglyphs
(practical name for such a site
In your studies you will come across varients for these monoliterals, such as a royal crown for the "n" sound. You might also see a pair of ribs for the "m," and a little curly-cue for the "w" (this curly-cue is nothing more than the hieratic version of the quail chick).
Depending on how far into your studies you are, you will find that these monoliterals are rarely used by themselves in the construction of words (which is why they're not a "true" alphabet). They help the reader flesh out the pronunciations of the much more common biliterals and triliterals and are frequently used as phonetic complements. It takes plain old hard work to learn this stuff.
Bear in mind we're not 100% sure how the Egyptians spoke
their language, especially considering they did not write with vowels (as was true for many ancient Semitic tongues, including Arabic and Hebrew and Aramaic). I think it was the Greeks who were the first to establish letter-forms for the full range of vowels. This is what tends to throw us with ancient Egyptian. It would be an oversimplification, though, to say we have no
idea how to pronounce ancient Egyptian. Linguists have used the Coptic tongue to help us with sounds because Coptic is a true descendant of ancient Egyptian--strip away the layers of Greek and other foreign influences and one gets an idea of original pronunciations.
I hope this is of some help. I love ancient Egyptian myself, and though I am certainly no expert, being able to read hieroglyphic inscriptions opens a whole new world to you when you visit a museum and pour over the artifacts. | <urn:uuid:f0c9c7ce-2b33-42da-91d5-17d1608fb332> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kingtutone.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=249&view=next | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974189 | 986 | 3.125 | 3 |
By: Darren Bonawitz
With the first hurricane of the season already here and gone, 1102 GRAND, Kansas City’s Data Center and Midwestern Internet hub, reviewed disaster recovery tips for companies at risk for earthquakes, hurricanes, blackouts, wildfires, tornados, ice storms, or the most common disaster risk of them all – people themselves.
Here are tips for disaster recovery.
1. Ensure you disaster recovery plan is flexible and scalable
2. Right size the solution to meet requirements and budget
3. Don’t assume – establish requirements with management
4. Prioritize recovery initiatives to meet company objectives
5. Document, document and document some more
6. Do not forget about redundancy with passwords – store them offsite too
7. Schedule semi-annual or annual requirement reviews
8. Disaster recovery is not “set it and forget it” – test regularly
9. Disaster recovery is more than just data – think through all facets of operations
10. Ensure at least two team members know each recovery procedure
By: Darren Bonawitz
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday it predicts an “active” to “extremely active” hurricane season this year. Coastal companies would be wise to turn to, or at least seriously consider, the Midwest for their data center disaster recovery solutions. Unfortunately, memories fade as time passes, and that means that the destruction from events such as Hurricane Katrina often are overshadowed by more recent events such as the economic turbulence which caused jobs and budgets to be slashed at many companies. Those companies and people directly affected by Katrina may find it more difficult to forget, but it is easier for those not directly impacted last time even though they are still at risk for future hurricane disasters. So whether your company has never had a disaster recovery plan or you started to develop a plan but shelved it due to budget cuts, now is the time to revisit the discussion and act. If NOAA’s prediction is correct, you will be glad you made the investment.
According to www.usatoday.com , “federal forecasters predict anywhere from 14 to 23 named storms to form in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.” This is the highest prediction made by federal forecasters since 1998 when they began to issue hurricane forecasts. | <urn:uuid:ca990b89-fe47-479d-acc3-675da6026413> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://1102grand.com/tag/cages/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954648 | 479 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Yogi Bhajan brought Kundalini Yoga to the West from India in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. However, he did not simply share yoga exercises and meditations. His teachings include a comprehensive lifestyle that allows the radiance of the soul to shine in every facet of life.
How to eat. How to dress. How to communicate. How to have relationships. How to raise children. How to do business. Yogi Bhajan infused every aspect of life with the beauty and grace of the Kundalini. When you raise your Kundalini and change your consciousness, every aspect of life gets transformed. The lifestyle teachings of 3HO are designed to support you through that transformation. In this way, you can live healthy, happy and holy; bountiful, blissful and beautiful; as a completely healed and sovereign human being.
You may also be interested in:
- Free Download - The 'I Like 3HO' Song:
- The Legacy of 3HO:
- What is Yoga?:
- Happy 31st Anniversary to 3HO!:
- Salt Lake City Sunflower Seed Sauce:
- Choose Your Ecstasy, Multiply Your Serenity :
- How it all Began - a Video with Shakti Parwha Kaur:
- Stories of the Master with Shanti Kaur :
- "Keep Up!" - Activate Your Heart with Sumpuran Kaur :
- "Patience Pays" by Yogi Bhajan Featuring Members of the 3HO Community:
- 1 of 2 | <urn:uuid:0d1a2251-8dcf-4b45-a6ed-e81b5cb40bd3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.3ho.org/3ho-lifestyle?language=en | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911723 | 323 | 1.5 | 2 |
Visitors staying in discount hotels near Regent’s Park in London are just a walk or a double-decker bus ride away from a site that one 19th century Londoner described as “among the magnificent ornaments of our metropolis.” Today it is still a beautiful park that covers 465 acres (188 ha) in the midst of bustling London. It is worth a visit at any time of year, but Regent’s Park is at its best in the summer when the roses are in bloom. It was once part of King Henry VIII’s royal hunting grounds. During the reign of the Prince Regent, later King George IV, it was transferred into a park by John Nash, one of England’s greatest architects.
Approaching from your budget hotel in London near Regent’s Park, go to the York Gate entrance, which is served by Baker Street. You will pass Madame Tussaud’s Museum and the Royal Academy of Music, founded in 1822. From York Bridge you have a beautiful view of historic St. Mary’s Church. Continue past Regent’s College, formerly part of Bedford College, founded in 1849. This route takes you to Queen Mary’s Garden, a magnificent rose garden dedicated to the memory of the wife of King George V. Nearby is the Open Air Theatre, founded in 1932, where on a summer night you can enjoy anything from Shakespeare to stand-up comedy. While you’re in Regent’s Park, also be sure to see the Hanover Gate, the London Central Mosque, Regent’s Canal, Lord’s Cricket Ground, and Little Venice.
Please provide this reference number to our customer service center representative on request, so we can help you better | <urn:uuid:59678624-6422-4480-bfaf-edf27352e010> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.easytobook.com/en/united-kingdom/greater-london/london/attractions/regent-s-park-in-london-hotels/?currency=NOK | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931356 | 374 | 1.695313 | 2 |
In this paper Mikovits and colleagues of the Whittemore Peterson Institute (WPI) and the Cleveland Clinic, reported the presence of xenotropic murine leukemia virus–related virus (XMRV) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). They used the very contamination-prone nested PCR to detect XMRV. This 2 round PCR enables detection of a rare target sequence by producing an unimaginable huge number of copies of that sequence.
XMRV was first demonstrated in cell lines and tissue samples of prostate cancer patients.
All the original authors, except for one , refused to retract the paper . This prompted Science editor-in-chief Bruce Alberts to issue an Expression of Concern , which was published two days earlier than planned because of the early release of the news in WSJ, mentioned above . (see Retraction Watch ).
The expression of concern also follows the publication of two papers in the same journal.
In the first Science paper Knox et al. found no Murine-Like Gammaretroviruses in any of the 61 CFS Patients previously identified as XMRV-positive, using the same PCR and culturing techniques as used by Lombardi et al. This paper made ERV (who consistently critiqued the Lombardi paper from the start) laugh-out-loud , because Knox also showed that human sera neutralize the virus in the blood,indicating it can hardly infect human cells in vivo. Knox also showed the WPIs sequences to be similar to the XMRV plasmid VP62, known to often contaminate laboratory agents.*
Contamination as the most likely reason for the positive WPI-results is also the message of the second Science paper. Here, Paprotka et al. show that XMRV was not present in the original prostate tumor that gave rise to the XMRV-positive 22Rv1 cell line, but originated -as a laboratory artifact- by recombination of two viruses during passaging the cell line in nude mice. For a further explanation see the Virology Blog .
Now Science editors have expressed their concern, the tweets, blogposts and health news articles are preponderantly negative about the XMRV findings in CFS/ME, where they earlier were positive or neutral. Tweets like “Mouse virus #XMRV doesn’t cause chronic fatigue #CFS http://t.co/Bekz9RG“ (Reuters) or “Origins of XMRV deciphered, undermining claims for a role in human disease: Delineation of the origin of… http://bit.ly/klDFuu #cancer” (National Cancer Institute) are unprecedented.
Thus the appeal by Science to retract the paper is justified?
Well yes and no.
The timing is rather odd:
- Why does Science only express concern after publication of these two latest Science papers? There are almost a dozen other studies that failed to reproduce the WPI-findings. Moreover, 4 earlier papers in Retrovirology already indicated that disease-associated XMRV sequences are consistent with laboratory contamination. (see an overview of all published articles at A Photon in the Darkness )
- There are still (neutral) scientist who believe that genuine human infections with XMRV still exist at a relatively low prevalence. (van der Kijl et al: xmrv is not a mousy virus )
- And why doesn’t Science await the results from the official confirmation studies meant to finally settle whether XMRV exist in our blood supply and/or CFS (by the Blood Working Group and the NIH sponsored study by Lipkin et al.)
- Why (and this is the most important question) did Science ever decide to publish the piece in the first place, as the study had several flaws.
Shortcomings in PCR-technique and study design**:
- No positive control and no demonstration of the sensitivity of the PCR-assay. Usually a known concentration or a serial dilution of a (weakly) positive sample is taken as control. This allows to determine sensitivity of the assay.
- Aspecific bands in negative samples (indicating suboptimal conditions)
- Just one vial without added DNA per experiment as a negative control. (Negative controls are needed to exclude contamination).
- CFS-Positive and negative samples are on separate gels (this increases bias, because conditions and chance of contamination are not the same for all samples, it also raises the question whether the samples were processed differently)
- Furthermore only results obtained at the Cleveland Clinic are shown. (were similar results not obtained at the WPI? see below)
- No variation in the XMRV-sequences detected (expected if the findings are real)
- Although the PCR is near the detection limit, only single round products are shown. These are much stronger then expected even after two rounds. This is very confusing, because WPI later exclaimed that preculturing PBMC plus nested PCR (2 rounds) were absolutely required to get a positive result. But the Legend of Fig. 1 in the original Science paper clearly says PCR after one round. Strong (homogenous) bands after one round of PCR are highly suggestive of contamination.
- No effort to exclude contamination of samples with mouse DNA (see below)
- No determination of the viral DNA integration sites.
Mikovits also stressed that she never used the XMRV-positive cell lines in 2009. But what about the Cleveland Clinic, nota bene the institute that co-discovered XMRV and that had produced the strongly positive PCR-products (…after a single PCR-round…)?
On the other hand, the authors had other proof of the presence of retrovirus: detection of (low levels of) antibodies to XMRV in patient sera, and transmissibility of XMRV. On request they later applied the mouse mitochondrial assay to successfully exclude the presence of mouse DNA in their samples. (but this doesn’t exclude all forms of contamination, and certainly not at Cleveland Clinic)
These shortcomings alone should have been sufficient for the reviewers, had they seen it and /or deemed it of sufficient importance, to halt publication and to ask for additional studies**.
I was once in a similar situation. I found a rare cancer-specific chromosomal translocation in normal cells, but I couldn’t exclude PCR- contamination. The reviewers asked me to exclude contamination by sequencing the breakpoints, which only succeeded after two years of extra work. In retrospect I’m thankful to the reviewers for preventing me from publishing a possible faulty paper which could have ruined my career (yeah, because contamination is a real problem in PCR). And my paper improved tremendously by the additional experiments.
Yes it is peer review that failed here, Science. You should have asked for extra confirmatory tests and a better design in the first place. That would have spared a lot of anguish, and if the findings had been reproducible, more convincing and better data.
There were a couple of incidents after the study was published, that made me further doubt the robustness of WPI’s scientific data and even (after a while) I began to doubt whether WPI, and Judy Mikovits in particular, is adhering to good scientific (and ethical) practices.
- WPI suddenly disclosed (Feb 18 2010) that culturing PBMC’s is necessary to obtain a positive PCR signal. As a matter of fact they maintain this in their recent protest letter to Science. They refer to the original Science paper, but this paper doesn’t mention the need for culturing at all!!
- WPI suggests their researchers had detected XMRV in patient samples from both Dr. Kerr’s and Dr. van Kuppeveld’s ‘XMRV-negative’ CFS-cohorts. Thus in patient samples obtained without a culture-enrichment step….. There can only be one truth: main criticism on negative studies was that improper CFS-criteria were used. Thus either this CFS-population is wrongly defined and DOESN’t contain XMRV (with any method), OR it fulfills the criteria of CFS and the XMRV can be detected applying the proper technique. It is so confusing!..
- Although Mikovits first reported that they found no to little virus variation, they later exclaimed to find a lot of variation.
- WPI employees behave unprofessional towards colleague-scientists who failed to reproduce their findings.
- Mikovits also claims that people with autism harbor XMRV. One wonders which disease ISN’t associated with XMRV….
- Despite the uncertainties about XMRV in CFS-patients, let alone the total LACK of demonstration of a CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP, Mikovits advocates the use of *not harmless* anti-retrovirals by CFS-patients.
- At this stage of controversy, the WPI-XMRV test is sold as “a reliable diagnostic tool“ by a firm (VIP Dx) with strong ties to WPI. Mikovits even tells patients in a mail: “First of all the current diagnostic testing will define with essentially 100% accuracy! XMRV infected patients”. WTF!?
- This test is not endorsed in Belgium, and even Medicare only reimbursed 15% of the PCR-test.
- The ties of WPI to RedLabs & VIP Dx are not clearly disclosed in the Science Paper. There is only a small Note (added in proof!) that Lombardi is operations manager of VIP Dx, “in negotiations with the WPI to offer a diagnostic test for XMRV”.
It is really surprising this wasn’t picked up by the media, by the government or by the scientific community. Will the new findings have any consequences for the XMRV-diagnostic tests? I fear WPI will get away with it for the time being. I agree with Lipkin, who coordinates the NIH-sponsored multi-center CFS-XMRV study that calls to retract the paper are premature at this point . Furthermore, -as addressed by WSJ - if the Science paper is retracted, because XMRV findings are called into question, what about the papers also reporting a link of XMRV-(like) viruses and CFS or prostate cancer?
WSJ reports, that Schekman, the editor-in chief of PNAS, has no direct plans to retract the paper of Alter et al reporting XMRV-like viruses in CFS [discussed in 18]. Schekman considers it “an unusual situation to retract a paper even if the original findings in a paper don’t hold up: it’s part of the scientific process for different groups to publish findings, for other groups to try to replicate them, and for researchers to debate conflicting results.”
I agree, this is a normal procedure, once the paper is accepted and published. Fraud is a reason to retract a paper, doubt is not.
*samples, NOT patients, as I saw a patient erroneous interpretation: “if it is contamination in te lab how can I have it as a patient?” (tweet is now deleted). No, according to the contamination -theory” XMRV-contamination is not IN you, but in the processed samples or in the reaction mixtures used.
** The reviewers did ask additional evidence, but not with respect to the PCR-experiments, which are most prone to contamination and false results.
- Chronic-Fatigue Paper Is Questioned (online.wsj.com)
- Lombardi VC, Ruscetti FW, Das Gupta J, Pfost MA, Hagen KS, Peterson DL, Ruscetti SK, Bagni RK, Petrow-Sadowski C, Gold B, Dean M, Silverman RH, & Mikovits JA (2009). Detection of an infectious retrovirus, XMRV, in blood cells of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. Science (New York, N.Y.), 326 (5952), 585-9 PMID: 19815723
- WPI Says No to Retraction / Levy Study Dashes Hopes /NCI Shuts the Door on XMR (phoenixrising.me)
- Alberts B. Editorial Expression of Concern. Science. 2011 May 31.
- Science asks authors to retract XMRV-chronic fatigue paper; when they refuse, issue Expression of Concern. 2011/05/31/ (retractionwatch.wordpress.com)
- K. Knox, Carrigan D, Simmons G, Teque F, Zhou Y, Hackett Jr J, Qiu X, Luk K, Schochetman G, Knox A, Kogelnik AM & Levy JA. No Evidence of Murine-Like Gammaretroviruses in CFS Patients Previously Identified as XMRV-Infected. Science. 2011 May 31. (10.1126/science.1204963).
- XMRV and chronic fatigue syndrome: So long, and thanks for all the lulz, Part I [erv] (scienceblogs.com)
- Paprotka T, Delviks-Frankenberry KA, Cingoz O, Martinez A, Kung H-J, Tepper CG, Hu W-S , Fivash MJ, Coffin JM, & Pathak VK. Recombinant origin of the retrovirus XMRV. Science. 2011 May 31. (10.1126/science.1205292).
- XMRV is a recombinant virus from mice (Virology Blog : 2011/05/31)
- Science asks XMRV authors to retract paper (photoninthedarkness.com : 2011/05/31)
- van der Kuyl AC, Berkhout B. XMRV: Not a Mousy Virus. J Formos Med Assoc. 2011 May;110(5):273-4. PDF
- Finally a Viral Cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? Or Not? – How Results Can Vary and Depend on Multiple Factor (laikaspoetnik.wordpress.com: 2010/02/15/)
- Three Studies Now Refute the Presence of XMRV in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) (laikaspoetnik.wordpress.com 2010/04/27)
- WPI Announces New, Refined XMRV Culture Test – Available Now Through VIP Dx in Reno (prohealth.com 2010/01/15)
- The murky side of physician prescribed LDTs (eurogene.blogspot.com : 2010/09/06)
- Given Doubt Cast on CFS-XMRV Link, What About Related Research? (blogs.wsj.com)
- Does the NHI/FDA Paper Confirm XMRV in CFS? Well, Ditch the MR and Scratch the X… and… you’ve got MLV. (laikaspoetnik.wordpress.com : 2010/08/30/)
- ‘Concern’ over ME/viral research (bbc.co.uk)
- Science raises questions about XMRV study (blogs.nature.com)
- The chronic fatigue virus: de-discovered? (blogs.discovermagazine.com)
- Studies Refute Virus’ Link to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (nlm.nih.gov)
- 2 Studies Examine Syndrome of Fatigue (nytimes.com) | <urn:uuid:eb41a300-e061-46d3-9f83-491fce9f6fb3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://laikaspoetnik.wordpress.com/tag/xmrv-virus/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90816 | 3,284 | 2.390625 | 2 |
Archives In Brief 58 - Bankruptcy and insolvency records
Insolvency - The inability to satisfy creditors or discharge liabilities. Early legislation in NSW addressed insolvency rather than bankruptcy.
Bankruptcy - Bankruptcy is similar, but not identical to insolvency. Bankruptcy involves the sequestration of a person's assets when they are unable to meet the demands of creditors. Bankruptcy is a state in which a person is unable to pay creditors and is required to undergo a legal process that usually results in liquidation of his/her estate in order to meet expenses (as least in part). If a person is declared to be a bankrupt then he or she cannot operate a business for profit, enter a business contract or borrow money.
Sequestration order - The order made by the court giving the trustee control of the debtor's property. The date of sequestration is the official date on which the debtor becomes bankrupt.
A proportion of Archives are fragile and at the risk of further damage if handled. For this reason we may withhold access to the original files in the reading room until they have received attention from our Conservation staff or provide surrogate copies where appropriate. Files will be checked on a case by case basis as they are requested in the reading room. Unfortunately, if a file requires conservation treatment, it will not be issued on the day it is requested. Conservation treatments can take up to six months to be completed.
The jurisdiction of insolvency was recognized in section XXII of the Act to Provide for the Better Administration of Justice in New South Wales, 1823 (4 George IV c.96) which gave the Supreme Court the authority to examine those unable to pay their creditors in full. Despite this act, insolvents were often imprisoned for debt. In 1830 an Act for the Relief of Debtors and for an Equal Distribution of their Estates and Effects amongst Creditors (11 George IV No 7) combined the two British concepts of insolvency and bankruptcy. The Bankruptcy Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was established under an Act to amend and consolidate the law relating to insolvency and bankruptcy (51 Vic No 19 1887). This act allowed for clearer guidelines over the process of bankruptcy, from the inability to meet creditors, to the distribution of the assets. The jurisdiction was transferred to the Commonwealth of Australia in 1928 following the Bankruptcy Act 1924 which took effect on 1 August, 1928.
Supreme Court, Registrar in Bankruptcy
NRS 13656, Insolvency index, 1842-87
The Insolvency Index, 1842-87 is available to search online.
NRS 13658, Bankruptcy index, 1888-1928
The Bankruptcy index, 1888-1928 is available to search online.
Supreme Court, Registrar in Bankruptcy
NRS 13654, Insolvency files, 1842-87
NRS 13659, Court books, 1900-34
These show for each case: name and number of each bankrupt and notes of exhibits, examinations etc.
Supreme Court, Insolvency Jurisdiction
, Insolvency Cause papers (incomplete) 1824, 1827-28, 1830, 1835, 1838-49, 1853-55, 1857-60, 1863, 1888
A full listing is available in the reading room.
Supreme Court, Prothonotary
, Term books (causes and matters in banco), 1889-1955, 1889-1935, 1935-55
, Bankruptcy index, 1888-93
, Copies of sequestration orders and memorandum of release relating to bankruptcy, 1912, 1914-16
These give the name, address and occupation of the bankrupt.
, Record of debtors lodged in gaol, 24 Oct 1909-21 Nov 1953
The volume shows date, name of debtor and gaol. This record is closed to public access.
Corrective Services, Carters Barracks Debtors Prison
, Copies of letters sent 7 Dec 1835-7 Mar 1839
This contains letters sent by the Gaoler to the High Sheriff, Police Magistrates and other public officers.
Corrective Services, Darlinghurst Gaol
, Debtors books, 1829-1900
These volumes list persons detained under civil process in Sydney and Darlinghurst Gaols.
Records generated by Judges in various courts are listed in Archives Investigator by name of the Judge. State Records holds notebooks for Judges presiding over hearings in the Court of Marine Inquiry and the Vice Admiralty Court. Researchers should consult Archives Investigator.
Tip: use Advanced Search - Person.
Further records in relation to debtors are also listed in Archives Investigator under the agencies No. 6, Sheriff's Office, No. 1045 Governor's Court of NSW, and the various gaols including Carters Barracks Debtors Prison, Sydney Gaol and Darlinghurst Gaol.
Other records may be identified in Archives Investigator. Researchers should consult the Register of Access Directions to confirm the public availability of records. State Records' staff can advise you on the availability of records if they are not listed on the register.
© State of New South Wales through the State Records Authority, 2003. This work may be freely reproduced and distributed for most purposes, however some restrictions apply. See our copyright notice or contact us. | <urn:uuid:de98c2eb-e779-4274-a37c-237682fe9384> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/state-archives/guides-and-finding-aids/archives-in-brief/archives-in-brief-58?cl=en&set_language=en | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924423 | 1,102 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Home » Opinion » Editorials
Want to hurt workers? Raise the minimum wage
In the last session, legislators repealed New Hampshire's minimum wage law, defaulting to the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour. As expected, Democratic members of the House are pushing to reestablish the state minimum at $8 an hour and raise it every two years.
Rep. Timothy Horrigan, D-Durham, a sponsor of that bill (House Bill 127), said, "I think wages in general are too low for working people. We seem to have accepted in the private sector that people doing the actual work, people at the bottom of the ladder, people out in the field, haven't had a pay raise for years. We sort of accept that as a fact of life, and now it's being used against public workers who have been attacked for having the audacity to ask for a pay raise."
This is an extraordinary comment. Horrigan admits that the goal of his bill really is to raise pay for public employees.
What about the private sector? HB 127 would hurt low-wage workers, not help them. Economists David Neumark and William Wascher found in their 2006 National Bureau of Economic Research review of more than 100 minimum wage studies that "the oft-stated assertion that recent research fails to support the traditional view that the minimum wage reduces the employment of low-wage workers is clearly incorrect.... In addition, among the papers we view as providing the most credible evidence, almost all point to negative employment effects, both for the United States as well as for many other countries."
They also found that "the studies that focus on the least-skilled groups provide relatively overwhelming evidence of stronger disemployment effects for these groups." That is, raising the minimum wage causes even more of the lowest-skilled people not to be hired.
If New Hampshire legislators want to hurt low-skilled workers, they will hardly find a quicker and more effective method than raising the minimum wage.
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License revocations for DWI announced
Memorial Day events in New Hampshire | <urn:uuid:21ca5ed4-4e06-4af1-b024-4128339985ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130123/OPINION01/130129740/0/NEWHAMPSHIRE0101 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933208 | 711 | 2.0625 | 2 |
And where better to prove this point than Mount Teide, Spain’s highest mountain, tauntingly visible from six of the seven Canary Islands. I’d long had an urge to climb it, so one Easter I set off for the peak of this long-extinct volcano with my childhood friend Hannah for company.
The day started badly when we arrived, mapless and thoroughly unprepared, to find the visitor centre closed. Still, we managed to orientate ourselves and set off for the Refugio de Altavista, a 10km uphill hike. The weather was glorious and all was well until lunchtime, when we suddenly found our heads in the clouds. Teide’s mighty peak disappeared from view and we felt a hint of raindrops. We shrugged it off and settled down to eat the first of a whole loaf of stale cheese and ham sandwiches, a delightful meal designed to last two days.
Rain we could cope with, but were rather surprised when, 10 minutes after lunch, it began to snow. We hastily donned our sweaters and long pants, suddenly regretting not packing waterproofs, thermals or even a hat. Some better-prepared hikers took pity on two woefully unprepared foreigners and donated some spare clothing – a couple of caps and a waterproof poncho – which we gratefully accepted.
We left them behind in our hurry to reach the shelter, envisaging a cosy log cabin with roaring fire. The snow was falling ever heavier and the previously well-marked track was becoming trickier to identify. It seemed hours since we’d seen a signpost and just as we started to worry we’d wandered off the correct path, we encountered a jovial German woman clad in shorts and heading back down to her car. She presented us with a map, allowing us to relax a little and stop thinking up headlines about our helicopter rescue from the mountainside.
An hour later our optimism was again fading when we met an energetic Austrian with glad tidings. ‘The refuge is only five minutes further. If it wasn’t so foggy you’d be able to see it,’ he shouted as he jogged past. Foggy seemed rather an understatement, but our bed for the night was indeed just minutes up the slope.
Photo below - arriving at the refuge
The conditions in the refugio couldn’t have been more basic, but we were so glad to arrive that the lack of heat and water barely registered. We peeled off our clothing, some of it soaking wet, some frozen solid, and removed the makeshift gloves from our hands (the none-too-fresh socks we’d been wearing that morning). It was 4pm when we climbed into bed, taking extra duvets from the bunks left empty by people with the good sense to stay away. With the exception of a rapid trip to heat up some pasta and a long held-off trip to the ‘bathroom’ (a sheltered snowdrift) we stayed in bed until an early alarm call the next morning.
We’d hoped for some good news, news that meant we could carry out our original plan to climb to the summit and take amazing pictures of the archipelago, before zooming down in the cable car. But the weather had rendered the cable car out of action and further ascent was impossible. We had to be up at dawn to start the return trip or risk getting snowed in at the refuge. No-one relished the downward trek, but we took the lesser of two evils and set off, alongside four students from Germany and half a dozen local hikers.
After three long hours of snow, sleet and then torrential rain, we reached the road and more importantly, a bar. On ordering two hot chocolates the barman took one look at us clad in our sopping wet sleeping bags, socks on our hands, bags on our heads and asked ‘brandy in those?’ We didn’t need to be asked twice.
The trip hadn’t turned out exactly as we’d imagined, but at least I’d proved a point about the islands being more than beaches and beer. I made a mental note to take out a couple of bikinis and make space for an umbrella and some mittens on my next visit to Tenerife.
Story Continues: Not one to be easily defeated, a year later I was back on Teide’s slopes. | <urn:uuid:5f179120-1d0d-4f9f-a485-f9c0d50532cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.europetoptravels.com/spain/teide.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964554 | 929 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Bellagio Initiative to consider call for greater checks and balances on philanthropic foundations
A distinguished expert in philanthropy is calling for a new system of checks and balances for philanthropic foundations involved in international development.
Michael Edwards, Senior Fellow at the New York think-tank Demos and Honorary Visiting Fellow at the Brooks World Poverty Institute at Manchester University, makes his appeal in a new paper, saying it is necessary to ensure the growing influence of foundations addresses global problems in a focused and democratic way.
The paper was commissioned by the Bellagio Initiative, a US$2m (£1.26m) Rockefeller-funded programme which aims to find new forms of collaboration between philanthropists and international development experts. It is jointly led by IDS and the Resource Alliance.
Edwards has studied and worked in the fields of philanthropy, civil society and international development for the past 35 years, including periods with Oxfam, Save the Children, the World Bank and the Ford Foundation.
Among the recommendations he makes in 'The Role and Limitations of Philanthropy in Meeting the Challenges of Human Wellbeing in the 21st Century' (pdf), are:
- The diversification of boards of trustees. He points out that the Gates Foundation, which controls a quarter of global health spending, has a board of three family members plus Warren Buffet.
- Greater coordination with host governments in order to generate a dialogue about priorities. He cites the Liberia case, where a special office for philanthropy has been established under the Office of the President, as a possible model for future good practice.
- The channeling of more resources through institutions governed by a broader cross-section of society, such as the Global Fund for Malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS which has formal civil society representatives on its board.Strengthening independent evaluation, transparency and debate.
Edwards points out that there are now more than 176,000 philanthropic foundations in the US and Europe alone, forming part of a growing movement to channel private funding to the public good in innovative ways. He says they are free from the financial and political pressures that constrain other funding agencies and can take risks from which governments and market-based investors might shy away.
However, he adds: 'Balancing the demands of democracy with the determination to address global problems in a focused and energetic manner is the key issue facing philanthropy in the century to come.'
Edwards is just one paper to have been commissioned by the Bellagio Initiative, which is engaging some of the world’s most respected and innovative thinkers to consider joint solutions to some of the major challenges affecting poor people today. As well as commissioning papers it is convening a series of global consultations on key topics affecting wellbeing, the results of which will feed into debate at a summit being held at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in Italy from 8-22 November.
The Initiative also wants to hear from anybody with an interest in philanthropy and international development. To find out more about how you can contribute, go to the Bellagio Initiative website.
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Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House, Westminster | <urn:uuid:4ed29209-a29a-4eb2-955a-59799727315f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ids.ac.uk/news/bellagio-initiative-to-consider-call-for-greater-checks-and-balances-on-philanthropic-foundations | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945077 | 784 | 1.570313 | 2 |
COLUMBUS (AP) — An overwhelming number of Ohio voters say they support banning drivers from talking on hand-held cell phones or texting while they’re behind the wheel.
Also, half of those surveyed say a ban on using handsets would improve road safety.
Proposals in the Ohio General Assembly would limit the use of cell phones and smart phones by motorists.
A handful of states prohibit drivers from using cell phones; Ohio is not one of them.
At least 14 states and the District of Columbia have passed rules against texting while driving.
A poll today from Quinnipiac University finds more people in Ohio support a ban on texting than on the use of hand-held cell phones while driving. Only 25 percent said they never use the phone behind the wheel. | <urn:uuid:15ce654d-8d79-4828-9b69-b0d42bbd4b25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vindy.com/news/2009/sep/15/3-of-4-ohio-voters-support-phone-ban-while-driving/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930378 | 160 | 2.125 | 2 |
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Overview: Australian Fish Names Standard AS SSA 5300
The need for Standard Fish Names in Australia was recognised as early as the 1920s in order to address growing confusion in the market caused by:
In surveys in Sydney, Perth and Melbourne, a large majority of the people surveyed rated accuracy in fish names and labelling as a major factor when purchasing seafood - the highest ranking of any category (Ruello, 2000).
The Australian Fish Names Standard AS SSA 5300 addresses these issues by assigning one Standard Fish Name for each species. It includes Standard Fish Names to be used in Australia for:
Industry-wide adoption of Standard Fish Names is vital for:
The Standard was developed by Seafood Services Australia's Fish Names Committee in accordance with Standard's Australia's requirements for accredited Standards Development Organisations. It is a result of extensive consultation and a consensus among a wide range of stakeholders, and input from several of the world's leading fisheries taxonomists.
Strategic investments by the Australian Government Fisheries Research and Development Corporation have made the development of this Standard possible.
Seafood Services Australia is a not for profit company supported by the Australian seafood industry and the Australian Government through funding from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation. | <urn:uuid:3d50e02b-438e-41dd-9941-989b9019806f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.seafood.net.au/fishnames/standard.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909929 | 302 | 2.203125 | 2 |
|Photography by Marty Snyderman|
Rick clung tightly to the surface line, searching for his fin. Six-foot seas were tossing the dive boat like a bathtub toy, lifting the ladder clear out of the water and jerking his body so hard that his arms ached. On his first attempt to haul himself aboard, Rick had been tossed back into the water. Confused, angry at himself and tired, he looked up to see he'd been swept underneath the swim platform, which was now crashing toward his face. Rick lifted his arms to fend off the boat, then everything went black.
Rick was an experienced recreational diver in good physical condition with numerous ocean dive trips under his belt. He and his buddy boarded the dive boat at 7:30 a.m. for a charter to a wreck in 120 feet of water. The seas were only one to two feet as the boat made its way to the wreck. The captain gave a detailed dive briefing, including special instructions on reboarding the boat if the seas were to pick up during the dive. Rick listened intently, but noted some of the captain's procedures were different from the ones prescribed by his training. After considering the differences for a moment, he decided to keep his questions to himself.
At the end of the dive, Rick and his buddy were well within no-decompression limits when they ascended to 15 feet and completed a very bumpy safety stop. While hanging on the anchor line, Rick looked toward the surface. He could tell from the violent motion of the surface water crashing against the boat's hull that the surface conditions had worsened.
The buddies then ascended behind the pitching boat within reach of the trailing safety line. Rick's buddy boarded first, following the captain's instructions. While gripping the line firmly, he removed his fins, slipping the straps onto his wrists. Keeping his mask and regulator in place, he deflated his BC and timed the boat's movement in the water. When the time was right, he pulled himself toward the ladder, grabbing it as the boat approached the bottom of a trough between swells. He kept his mask and regulator in place and climbed one or two rungs up the ladder each time the boat paused at the top of the swell or the bottom of a trough.
Meanwhile, Rick worried that if he removed his fins before grabbing the ladder he would have little control in the water. He decided that his training had kept him safe this long and that he would board the boat the way he always had. Keeping all of his gear in place, Rick used the line to pull himself close to the boat. When the stern bottomed out in a trough, he grabbed the ladder and began to remove his fins.
Each time Rick tried to remove his fin, the force of the water nearly ripped him from the ladder. As the boat platform submerged between swells, the force of his fully inflated BC worked to keep him afloat even as the ladder tried to pull him under. Caught in a tug-of-war between his BC and the submerged ladder, it was all Rick could do to hold on. He finally got his left fin off, only to have it ripped away. He reached down to catch the drifting fin, but the boat surged upward, causing him to lose his grip and fall into the water. Rick grabbed the line and looked up just in time to see the platform come crashing down.
The nearly 50 pounds of lift in Rick's inflated BC effectively trapped him between the surface and 15 tons of falling fiberglass. The bottom of the platform struck his head, knocking him out cold.
Ed, the boat's divemaster, grabbed a safety line and jumped into the water. He rotated Rick's body to prevent drowning and dragged the limp diver back to the boat. Rick sustained a mild concussion and suffered a hairline fracture in his right wrist and two broken ribs.
Rick made several errors leading to this accident. The most egregious was ignoring the advice of the experienced boat captain. Rick chose instead to follow an exit procedure that was inappropriate for the rough conditions. In six-foot seas, the stern of a boat can move vertically as much as 12 feet as it rides each swell.
Had he at least emptied his BC as he approached the boat, Rick would have been able to push off the boat and simply submerge as it crashed down on top of him. The 40 to 50 pounds of upward force from his BC trapped Rick beneath the falling boat and the surface. Only the response of a fast-acting crew prevented him from drowning.
Lessons for Life
- Conditions can change dramatically even during a relatively short dive.
- Follow the procedures outlined by an experienced and qualified dive crew.
- When approaching a boarding ladder in very rough seas, keep your regulator and mask securely in place. Deflate your BC as you approach the boat so that you can easily push away from the vessel if necessary.
- If a trail line is available on the surface, remove your fins a few feet from the boat so that you can climb the ladder immediately after reaching it.
- Keep your fins on your wrist so you can put them back on if you're thrown from the ladder and need to swim back to the boat.
- Always surface with enough air to allow you to breathe through your regulator all the way back on board the boat. | <urn:uuid:8a5b9876-1d79-419b-af7d-b97daa938cee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scubadiving.com/training/basic-skills/school-hard-knocks | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987441 | 1,088 | 2.0625 | 2 |
ABA Banking Journal - May 2011 - (Page 8)
editor’s column | by bill streeter
Avoid the size trap
Big banks, big unions, big government, big business. Each of those terms has come to be a pejorative. That is slippery slope. Equally dangerous is the attitude that small companies are “Mom and Pop” operations—that nothing really innovative comes from them, except maybe in Silicon Valley. Bunk to both notions. The United States is big. It grew to be the world’s largest economy by being successful. The country has been and still is an incubator for ideas and ventures, most of which began on “the back of an envelope,” often far removed from big companies and big cities. But those big companies got that way much the way the country as a whole did—by being successful. IBM was once a startup. Every large bank was once a small bank. There’s always been a certain tension between small and large in banking and in business generally. Some of that is just posturing, but in banking the financial crisis and the Dodd-Frank Act have led to greater polarization. This is a road down which banks should not go further. The big have great power, without doubt—buying power, pricing power, etc. It’s one of the motivations to become big. If abused, that power eventually attracts the attention of government, as it should. Even with that power, however, many of the mighty have stumbled. They did so in part because it’s very difficult to sustain the same level of creativity, agility, and control as the organization grows. People get sloppy, wasteful, arrogant. This happened to the mighty IBM. In that case, drastic changes managed to save the business, but as a very different company. Such big-company turnarounds are rare (especially without government support), and in banking even more so. Because of the unique role played by banks, turnaround usually involves acquisition. Community bankers would point out that in banking the very biggest have become too big to acquire and too big to fail, and that the new rules being put in place to end that condition may not work in practice. They may be right about that. Yet, if the industry falls into the trap of the small thinking that big is bad, and the big thinking that small is irrelevant, only bad things will happen. A divided industry cannot prevail. If you think JP Morgan Chase, et al are bad news for banking, criticize the specific practices you dislike, not the institution. And if, on the other hand, you are among those thinking community banks live in the past, think again. The good ones will run circles around you. It’s a shame that bankers from big and small institutions seldom meet and talk as they once did. They would find they have more in common than they might think. The article about U.S. Bancorp’s Richard Davis (p. 26) demonstrates this. The industry’s collective focus should not be on its asset-size differential, but on stemming the swelling tide of government involvement. That is the real threat to the future of a thriving and broadly diverse banking industry. n
If the small think big is bad, and the big think small is irrelevant, only bad things will happen. A divided industry cannot prevail email@example.com
8 | ABA BANKING JOURNAL | may 2011
If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here. | <urn:uuid:ba644bb4-b3ea-4866-8657-835ee63ac8b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/sb/ababj0511/index.php?startid=8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969624 | 734 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Cornell University Ergonomics Web
COMPUTER USE BY SENIOR CITIZENS
Positioning the keyboard.
It is important that the computer keyboard is positioned so that the hands can type while they are in a neutral, flat, posture. There are several ways to achieve this posture. The easiest way is to place the keyboard on a height adjustable, negative slope, keyboard tray that attaches to the underside of a desk or a table. Several manufacturers produce this type of product. A second way of working on the keyboard is to have this on a surface that is about and seated elbow high, and to remember to type with the hands straight rather than bent up or bent down. This approach can work for short periods of time, but as the forearms become tired, so the wrists tend to fall to the surface which causes the hands to be extended upwards on the keys of the keyboard, and this can cause wrist problems.
If you all working with a laptop computer, and this can be placed in the lap and you can sit back in a chair and type with your hands in a neutral position on the keyboard.
If you only have a single hand or have restricted mobility in one hand but not the other, then consider using a one handed computer keyboard.
Positioning the mouse.
If you are using a computer mouse, the mouse should be on a surface that is as close to your body as possible and that is at about your seated elbow high or slightly above this. If you have any keyboard platform, then make sure that this also has a mouse platform on it. The best design for a mouse platform is one that can move slightly above the keys on the keyboard, because as you hold the mouse indisposition it will put your hands into the most neutral posture. Keeping the mouse close to the body means that you don't have to reach forwards to use the mouse and you don't have to bend your on out to the side of the body. These awkward arm positions are associated with neck shoulder elbow and wrist pain. If you have difficulty in using a mouse then consider other import devices. If your hands shake then consider using a track ball which is less sensitive to hand tremor than a computer mouse. If you need to frequently use the Zoom capabilities of many software programs to be able to easily see what is on the computer screen, then consider using a multi-touch pad, such as an iGesture pad, that allows this control to be easily executed.
Positioning the computer screen.
Make sure that the computer screen is directly in front of you when you all working. Sit back in your chair, hold your arm out in front of you with your hand outstretched, and your fingers should just about touch the center of the computer screen. In this position the computer screen is at about the right height, at about the right distance from your eyes, and centered on your body. Try to use a LCD screen rather than a CRT screens because there is no flicker on an LCD screen. If you are using a laptop computer, try to position the screen at a comfortable viewing height and angle. Make sure that your computer screen is free from any reflected letter from the lights in your workspace. Make sure that your computer screen does not the face or back on to an unshaded window. If this is the position of your computer screen, then make sure that you have a blind or drapes that can cover the window to stop glare on the screen.
If you cannot comfortably read the computer screen when it is at about and arm's length away from your eyes, then use the magnification feature of most software programs to zoom the screen, rather than sitting much closer to the computer screen. Remember to change the appearance of your operating system default by increasing the font size for folders, and also use the magnification auction that will magnify the screen area beneath your cursor. If you need to magnify the whole computer screen, then consider using a screen magnifier that attaches to the top of your computer monitor. Finally, choose the screen colors that of the easiest for you to see.
Positioning the documents.
If you all working with paper documents, make sure that they are as close to the computer screen as possible. Use a document holder that it is height adjustable and positioned adjustable, and either place this in between the keyboard and the computer screen, or adjacent to one side of the computer screen. Never put documents flat on the surface if you are planning to refer to them frequently when you are typing.
The room lighting should be relatively dim for you to see the computer screen without any glare. However, you will need to use a supplemental task light to illuminate the paper documents so that you can read them without straining your eyes.
Use a chair that is comfortable for you to sit on it for long periods of time. Make sure that the chair allows you to sit comfortably under the keyboard tray or the desk that you are working at, and that any arms on the chair do not interfere with your ability to sit comfortably or to adjust the workspace around you. Make sure that your chair has a comfortable seat and most importantly, a comfortable back. The chair that should have some curvature or support at the little back level so that you can sit back again space and feel fully supported by the chair. If your chair does not have good back support, then consider using some type of back cushion or rolled towel to support your lower back when you are sitting down. If your chair seat does not feel comfortable when you have been sitting for a while, then consider buying a gel chair seat cushion or some other kind of cushion that feels comfortable to sit on.
You should be able to place your feet firmly on the floor or on some other support surface when you are sitting down to work at the computer. Never work with your feet dangling.
Working at a computer and be very fatiguing. It is important that you only work at a computer for somewhere between 20 and 50 minutes before you take a 1 to 2 minute break. During these brief breaks, you should stand up, move around to get the blood circulating, and look to the distance, preferably through a window, so that your eyes can be rested.
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79° 30' - 19°
|Hinlopenstretet by day||fotos: Michelle van Dijk|
In English: Hinlopenstreet. Most probabely, but not proved, this street is
named after Thymen Jacobsz Hinlopen, leader of the Noordsche
Compagnie in 1617. This street cuts (Vest)Spitsbergen of Nordaustlandet and
has a length approxemately 167 Km. The width rangs from 9 to 46 Km.
At the south it changes over into Olgastretet.
In the southern part of Hinlopenstretet are many islands. Wilhelmoya, Wahlbergoya and Von Otteroyane are the largest.
As Conway point out Hinlopenstretet was known many years before it appeared on the maps. For a long timeit was confused with Wijdefjord which is more to the west. That it was known before also appears from the fact that Hinlopen was leading 1617 and this street first was found on a map from 1662 (De Straet van Hinloopen).
Hinlopenstretet at midnight | <urn:uuid:9060632a-ac98-41e8-9749-a7299593d59e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.spitsbergen-svalbard.info/Hinlopen.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916645 | 251 | 2.453125 | 2 |
President Obama: My Budget Doesn’t Spend More Money Than It Takes In
“My budget freezes spending for five years and what that does is, is it solves the short-term problem by saying, ‘we’re not going to spend any more money than we’re taking in,’” said the President to a television station in Cincinnati.
If that’s true, then why does his budget add about $11 trillion in new debt over the next decade?
Per ABC News, Obama’s budget doesn’t become revenue-neutral in five years. It calls for another $3.5 trillion in borrowing the next five years after that:
Even after the president’s proposed budget – with its optimistic prediction of 3.9% growth – achieves a point, in 2017, when spending is roughly equivalent to taxes coming into the government, the U.S. government will continue to borrow hundreds of billions of dollars a year to pay for interest on the national debt accrued until that point – including debt racked up during the Obama presidency.
Indeed, the U.S., according to Obama’s own budget projections, would borrow $627 billion in 2017 to pay the interest on past debt; $618 billion in 2018; $681 billion in 2019; $735 billion in 2020; and $774 billion in 2021.
Or: $3.435 trillion.
By the way, keep in mind that the true amount of borrowing will likely be worse as our economy isn’t likely to hit Obama’s rosy 3.9% growth numbers.Tags: Barack Obama, deficits, national debt | <urn:uuid:aee33fe9-9925-41e0-ac20-acab6d9f1455> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/president-obama-my-budget-doesnt-spend-more-money-than-it-takes-in/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939677 | 342 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Smith wonders if she should cash out each of her HELOCs she has on two other properties she owns -- her Southern California home and another rental condo in Phoenix -- just so she has it in case those lines of credit are frozen, too.
"I'm considering it," Smith says, who currently has not borrowed against any of her approved credit lines.
That's a financially foolish move, warns Tom Orecchio, chairman of National Association of Personal Financial Advisors.
"Would I instruct them to take the money out now, when they don't need it?" he asks. "Absolutely not. Where would they put the money? In the stock market? That's risky."
Parking the money in a safer, lower-yielding investment also doesn't make sense, according to Orecchio: "They'll park it in cash and earn 2 (percent) or 3 percent, but they'll be paying 5 (percent) or 6 percent" interest for the HELOC.
Moreover, if you borrow up to the full value of your home, and it continues to plummet in value, you've "put yourself under water," Gumbinger says. "That's a financially foolish and risky thing to do."
As for those who are awash in debt? It's time to get used to tightened credit belts and take a more conservative approach to freeing up cash flow.
Orecchio urges consumers to amass emergency cash reserves. That means dusting off some old-fashioned strategies like cutting costs and earmarking extra dollars until individuals amass three to six months worth of basic living expenses to use in case of emergencies.
Homeowners whose credit lines have not been frozen should count themselves fortunate.
"In general, I like the idea of everyone having a home equity line of credit with a zero balance so they can access money when they need it," says Orecchio.
Orecchio explains that it's important to use these tools wisely, especially in a slowing economy. Pay off high-interest debts with them, but don't blow them on pricey luxuries you can save for instead. In general, try not to use your home as a means to get out of a financial jam, he says.
Finally, read the fine print: Banks have always had the right to freeze or scale back credit lines, Gumbinger says.
"Credit conditions in the last couple of years have not been normal," Gumbinger adds. "But we're returning to what normal was. And for some borrowers who haven't experienced that, it may be painful. We'll have to get used to hearing the word 'no.'"
Has your HELOC been frozen? Tell us what alternatives you've been considering. | <urn:uuid:e0ef0666-1fe5-4bdf-b4ee-faac40fc2af0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bankrate.com/finance/personal-finance/keeping-liquid-in-a-home-equity-freeze-4.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968511 | 556 | 1.625 | 2 |
ARTS & CULTURE
The vibrant arts and culture found in Port Hardy is an integral part of this west coast community. As soon as you enter the town, you’re greeted by world famous chainsaw carvings, also found at various locations around Port Hardy. Created by a former resident of Port Hardy, these attractions can be seen at many places including Carrot Park, the Public Library, the Highway 19 and Hardy Bay Road junction, and the Highway 19 and Bear Cove Highway junction.
In July, Communities in Bloom, a volunteer group which facilitates the beautification of Canadian communities, hosts a Garden Tour through selected gardens in Port Hardy. Visitors tour the gardens, occupied by artists capturing the beauty of the area, and a tea in the afternoon. This is a great opportunity to see works of art on canvas and growing in the soil.
In the spring, there is a Spring Art Display in Coal Harbour. This exciting event features local artists using an old school as their gallery and workshop. They exhibit their pieces and show guests their skills and techniques.
Port Hardy is also known for its expansive murals. Created by local painters, carvers and First Nations artists, the murals are displayed across buildings and are also central features of many buildings’ interiors. The intricate murals can be found at various local businesses throughout Port Hardy.
While large scale works of art may not fit in your suitcase, local artists exhibit and sell their wares at several craft shops, galleries and gift shops in and around Port Hardy. These shops give visitors the opportunity to take back exquisite native treasures and local art pieces. Open studios also allow visitors to view artists at work. Whether you enjoy hand-carved woodwork and silver, or pottery and painting, Port Hardy is a diverse artistic community with something for everyone. | <urn:uuid:90c5b56d-c654-4c1c-95bb-e9b6992404b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.porthardy.travel/arts/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969122 | 371 | 1.859375 | 2 |
Agreement of the People
The Agreement of the People was the principal constitutional manifesto issued by the Levellers. It was intended to be signed by all those who wished to enjoy rights of citizenship. The Agreement developed over several versions between October 1647 and May 1649.
Original Draft, 1647
The Agreement was first drafted in October 1647 when Agitators of the New Model Army and civilian Levellers collaborated to propose a new constitution in the aftermath of the First Civil War.
Stating that sovereign power should reside in the people of England rather than with the discredited King or Parliament, the original Agreement consisted of four clauses:
- The peoples' representatives (i.e. Members of Parliament) should be elected in proportion to the population of their constituencies
- The existing Parliament should be dissolved on 30 September 1648
- Future Parliaments should be elected biennially and sit every other year from April to September
- The biennial Parliament (consisting of a single elected House) should be the supreme authority in the land, with powers to make or repeal laws, appoint officials and conduct domestic and foreign policy
Certain constraints were placed on Parliament: it was not to interfere with freedom of religion; it was not to press men to serve in the armed forces; it could not prosecute anyone for their part in the recent war; it was not to exempt anyone from the ordinary course of the law; all laws passed by Parliament should be for the common good.
The Agreement was debated at the Putney Debates of October and November 1647 where the Grandees Cromwell and Ireton tried to curb the perceived extremism of the Levellers, particularly over a proposal to extend the franchise to all adult males. Attempts to gain general support for the Agreement at the Army rendezvous at Corkbush Field were forcibly opposed by the Grandees.
The Whitehall Debates, 1648-9
After the King's defeat in the Second Civil War, an extended version of the Agreement was promoted by John Lilburne who hoped to find a middle way between royal despotism and military dictatorship. The new Agreement was discussed by Levellers, London Independents and the Army Council at Whitehall in December 1648 in the aftermath of Pride's Purge. Lilburne wanted to secure Parliament's acceptance of the Agreement before the King was brought to trial so that the trial would have a basis in a legitimate and legal constitution. However, Lilburne and his colleague Richard Overton walked out of the discussions when Army officers led by Henry Ireton insisted upon making further modifications to the Agreement before it was presented to Parliament.
The discussions continued in Lilburne's absence. While Ireton appeared to make concessions to the Levellers over the franchise, it is probable that he was playing for time to distract the Army Levellers while preparations for the King's trial went ahead. The revised Agreement was finally presented to the House of Commons as a basis for a new constitution on 20 January 1649, the very day that the public sessions of the High Court of Justice began. As Ireton had calculated, MPs postponed discussion of the Agreement until after the King's trial, and it was never taken up again by Parliament.
Final version, May 1649
A fully developed version of the Agreement of the People was published in May 1649. Its proposals included:
- The right to vote for all men over the age of 21 (excepting servants, beggars and Royalists)
- No army officer, treasurer or lawyer could be an MP (to prevent conflict of interest)
- Annual elections to Parliament with MPs serving one term only
- Equality of all persons before the law
- Trials should be heard before 12 jurymen, freely chosen by their community
- No-one could be punished for refusing to testify against themselves in criminal cases
- The law should proceed in English and cases should not extend longer than six months
- The death penalty to be applied only in cases of murder
- Abolition of imprisonment for debt
- Tithes should be abolished and parishioners have the right to choose their ministers
- Taxation in proportion to real or personal property
- Abolition of military conscription, monopolies and excise taxes
This version was published after the Leveller leaders Lilburne, Overton, Walwyn and Prince had been imprisoned by order of the Council of State and a few weeks before the suppression of the Army Levellers at Burford, after which the Leveller movement was effectively finished.
S.R. Gardiner, History of the Great Civil War vols. iii & iv (London 1889-94)
Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down (London 1972)
David Underdown, Pride's Purge (Oxford 1971)
Agreement of the People, as originally drafted in 1647
Agreement of the People, as presented to Parliament in January 1649
Agreement of the People, extended version from the imprisonment of the Leveller leaders, May 1649 | <urn:uuid:da4a071c-f45b-44ea-93f0-3e91d18005b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/glossary/agreement-people.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971785 | 1,031 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Vs. 3, “But Israel has rejected what is good; an enemy will pursue him.” Hosea’s reminders are not easy to read. We would much rather focus on the grace of God, but here we are reminded of the power of God. He alone is worthy of ALL of our attention. Israel had become bankrupt and their ungodly acts that we have seen in Hosea would bring destruction. They had the opportunity to turn back, but they took the freedom God had given them and chose unwisely (vs. 4). They were no longer turning to God for guidance. They thought they could have friendship with the world and still appease God by empty sacrifices (vs. 7-11).
Regarding application…Awakening. Vs. 1, “Put the trumpet to your lips! An eagle is over the house of the LORD because the people have broken my covenant and rebelled against my law.” Question: What was the trumpet for? A blast of the trumpet was meant to alert the people to wake up! The enemy (Assyrians) were coming. Israel was spiritually asleep. I read an example of a Pastor comparing this to losing something and then forgetting where you put it. The item is not technically lost. It’s like the concept, “Out of sight, out of mind.” When you don’t have God in your sights on a daily basis, you no longer have the mind of turning to God. Question: Do you hear the trumpet call? I am reminded of the Apostle Paul’s encouragement to the Colossians, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” | <urn:uuid:4b08ad1e-d7f1-48ff-af8a-e4670a1a6f8c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thedailyqt.com/tag/mind/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981823 | 377 | 2.078125 | 2 |
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[Note - This is the latest in a series of posts about Aikido Words. Each of them is tagged "words" here. You can also find a page listing all of them on the other version of this blog: www.grabmywrist.com/words. There are also some links to video examples there.]
Weapons work shares many words with open-hand training, but weapons also have a lot of words of their own. There are a bunch of numbered things, too, and those can be really confusing until you have a sort of framework for understanding them.
So here are some words about weapons stuff, starting with the basics. There will be another couple of posts going into jo words and bokken words. Often you'll hear technique names with the numbers in Japanese. That will be another post, too.
I'm just going to cover the wooden weapons we use in regular training here. Maybe we'll look at katana, shinai, iato, shinken, and other weapons words later.
Jo - The longer straight one that looks like a rake handle.
Bokken - The somewhat shorter one with a little curve to it, like a sword. Also sometimes referred to as just ken. You'll also hear tachi in the names of bokken or sword exercises.
Tanto - The little one, about the size of a hunting knife.
The Kinds of Things We Do with Sticks
One of the most confusing things for me, when I was first trying to figure this stuff out, was sorting out the kinds of things we were doing. Not the specific instances, but the groupings. One exercise would be a suburi, another would be a kata, sometimes we practiced awase... I couldn't figure out what was what. It's hard even to describe. Let's just get right to it.
Suburi are discrete techniques, or very small groups of techniques, that you do by yourself. They are the very first things you learn.
They are like learning words or phrases in a language. You'll put them together later to form more complex expressions and conversations.
You will see the suburi referred to in numbered groupings, like the "20 jo suburi" or "ken suburi 1-7" For some reason the jo suburi have names, and the bokken suburi are numbered. We'll get into those in detail in a couple of other posts.
Kata are sets of techniques, still done alone, strung together in a prescribed way, each flowing into the next.
If we stick with the "suburi are like words" concept, kata are like poems. You memorize them and recite them. Like reciting poetry, everyone will have their own subtle ways of expressing kata, but we don't change the words.
You'll hear numbers when talking about kata, too. The "31 jo kata" is everywhere - it's a string of 31 movements. You'll also see the 13 jo kata, which has 13 movements. No reason you couldn't make up your own, either, but mostly we practice the set ones handed down to us. There are bokken kata, too.
This is where the numbered stuff starts to get weird. The jo kata are made up of the number of techniques in the name: 13 jo kata, 31 jo kata, etc. But the bokken kata are numbered: bokken kata 1, bokken kata 2, etc.
But back to the kinds of things we do…
Awase are prescribed sets of techniques that you do with a partner. One partner in an awase does a familiar suburi or kata, and the other partner does the appropriate techniques that complement it. These are basic exercises to learn timing and distance when working in relation to another. The suburi you have been learning will begin to make more sense in the context of practicing awase.
If suburi are words and phrases, and kata are poems, then awase are very simple conversations, the kind you learn when studying a new language. "Good morning." "Good morning." "Where is the library?" "Is there there, on the left." "Thank you." "You are welcome." Very simple, perhaps a bit formal, and not quite how a real conversation might go, but a necessary step in becoming fluent.
The two simplest are left awase, and right awase. Then there's a little more number weirdness… You'll hear the "5th awase" and "7th awase" mentioned. These are just partner practices incorporating the 5th and 7th suburi. (There are no 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 6th awase.)
Kumitachi and Kumijo are partner practices that more closely simulate an actual fight, using the bokken and jo, respectively.
The distinction between awase and kumitachi/kumijo seems fuzzy to me. There is a partner practice based on the 31 jo kata, for instance, that I see referred to both as the 31 jo awase and 31 kumijo.
A Last Comment About Numbers You'll Hear
The numbers for suburi have nothing to do with the numbers in the names of kata.
When you see "20 jo suburi" or "ken suburi 1 through 7" those are just describing which ones we're talking about. If you have to do the "bokken suburi 1-5" on a test that's just the first five descrete bokken techniques. Saito Sensei created a set of 20 jo suburi for us to practice. They are 20 separate exercises.
The 31 jo kata, on the other hand, is a single flowing exercise incorporating 31 movements. Note that the 20 jo suburi are not the 1st 20 movements of the 31 jo kata. They are completely separate things. | <urn:uuid:7715bb0b-154b-4440-a603-1cb15269a905> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/my-path-17246/weapons-words-the-big-picture-4266/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954539 | 1,356 | 2.359375 | 2 |
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Captain E J Smith
11:27am Thursday 21st June 2007 in Hampshire Heritage
HE will always be remembered as synonymous with one of the greatest disasters of modern times.
Captain Smith was 62 when he pulled the 46,000-ton liner out of Southampton for its first and last voyage.
A commodore of the White Star Fleet, he was the archetypal British sea captain - quiet, shrewd, strong in command and brave.
A Staffordshire man, he took his master's certificate at 25.
He had sailed many seas before he began his career with White Star in 1885.
Making Southampton his base, he commanded 17 White Star liners in procession, with the vessels getting progressively bigger and more important.
Captain Smith lived at Winn Road, Portswood, with his wife Eleanor and daughter Helen in a large red-brick house called Woodhead. The property was destroyed by aerial bombing during the war in 1939.
His first stroke of bad fortune came when he was in command of the "Olympic", which collided with HMS Hawke in the Solent.
The subsequent inquiry cleared him of all blame and White Star put him in charge of their newest and greatest vessel, the "Titanic".
But some seaman were superstitious and said "Captain Smith has broken his luck".
On the night of the disaster, he had been following the "invariable" practice of continuing at top speed - 22 knots - through the icefield.
He knew of the dangers and had ordered lookouts to keep a close watch for "growlers" - icebergs that show little of their presence above water.
When the fateful collison came, the Captain had been resting but it soon became clear that five of its 16 watertight compartments had been holed - enough to sink the unsinkable.
From then to the end, he kept a strong control over matters as lifeboats were lowered, despite the enormity of knowing his command was doomed.
After the Titanic sank, fireman Harry Senior saw him in the water holding a child.
He was a strong swimmer and gave the baby to those in a lifeboat.
Name: Captain Edward J. Smith OCCUPATION: Commanding the Titanic Date of Birth: January 27, 1850 Died: April 15, 1912 Local Link: Lived in Southampton | <urn:uuid:b4f34e82-ef9a-4255-a050-cf80ba0b4908> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/heritage/hampshire100/100historical/1488382.Captain_E_J_Smith/r/?ref=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986392 | 510 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Spore Research: Oh Snap That Was Us
When Will Wright and EA dropped Spore, their newest and most ambitious video game to date, they contacted B|P to study players' experience and see if they were having fun. So we came up with SNERD, a game research methodology that simulates a native gaming environment, uses touch screens to gather input, broadcasts 18 live video streams, and took the power down for our entire block. On the reals, we researched 59 individual gamers playing 393 hours over 13 months to help the Spore team hone the player experience. That's a whole lot of players swearing, and it's all in the outtakes video.
Peep the Video and Article
Ethnio Goes Multi-platinum
Since we made Ethnio free and awesome, there have been over 6 million people who have seen an Ethnio recruiting screener, 250,000 people who have filled one out, and over 20 requests per second to the ol' Ethnio servers. That is so holy crap.
Big thanks to everyone who has used it over the years, and sorry for the down time and time-outs
and time-warps. We learned it from Twitter (burn!). With some help from a few local Rails geniuses, we'll be eliminating the downtime and dishing out more of the raw recruiting vengeance you can't help but love.
Dig on Ethnio
Are you still testing users in a lab? Sign up for your first remote study with B|P, and
if you don't like it better than the lab, we'll give you your money back - seriously. How serious, you ask? Up to $30k serious. (Some restrictions apply, of course, but it's on the honor system, so go here to take the challenge.)
"Lab testing is soooo last year..."
- Brian Beaver, Director, Creative Services / Sony Electronics, Inc.
"Lab testing is like pornography --
bad lighting, awkward, and much about it is fake. Remote testing is messy, real, and honest, just like getting it on."
- Peter Merholtz, President, Adaptive Path
"Lab testing is cool if you like to waste money
and eat M&Ms. Remote testing is cool if you actually want to know what your users think."
- Maya Pacheco, Senior Product Manager, Autodesk.com
Take the Challenge
Vote for B|P @ SXSW
Cast your vote here plz
Nate will also be participating on a panel about user research at SXSW this year - if you vote that is. So you know what would super help us out? If you went ahead and voted for the aforementioned panel. You have to make a quick annoying account (sorry), but please remember that not voting for our panel is like voting for some other, more boring panel that nobody wants to sit through.
BayCHI and UX Magazine
Read our writing ha you just did lulz
On Aug. 12th 2008, literally dozens of BayCHI attendees fled the packed PARC conference hall after the sheer exuberance of Nate Bolt's talk, "in the moment: research about life not just interfaces," brought down the roof, which was on fire. Nobody was permanently harmed, but nearly half in attendance remain severely rocked.
On top of that, User Experience Magazine, which I'm sure you read "just for the articles", has published our article on client participation in remote research. That is a quick follow up to CHI accepting Tony and Nate's paper, "Science of Fun: One-to-Many Moderating" that we used for Spore testing. This goes to show that enough talent, hard work, insight, and blackmail will get you published just about anywhere.
The Fine People of B|P | <urn:uuid:401b673d-61c0-4c3b-ada3-8b90f8092a25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://boltpeters.com/newsy/past/082.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951205 | 791 | 1.859375 | 2 |
Cameron Spencer / Getty Images (m7uf1dpd20120728133520/600 )
The smallish young woman in the black headscarf spoke just above a whisper. Tears welled in her dark eyes as she talked about competing in the 2012 London Olympics.
"Yes," she said, "this is my dream come true."
It wasn't anything as trivial as victory or defeat that made Bahya Mansour Al Hamad turn emotional.
The 20-year-old had just finished the 10-meter air rifle, an event not many people care or even know about. Her 17th-place finish left her well out of the medals.
But three letters on her athlete's bib said it all. "QAT" stands for Qatar, a country that had never before allowed women on its Olympic team.
Simply by her presence in London, Al Hamad is a pioneer. Asked whether she ever expected to take part in the Games, she could only shake her head.
As recently as 15 years ago, dozens of countries sent only men to the Olympics. This summer marks the first time every team has at least one woman on the roster.
The last three holdouts — the Qataris and two other Muslim countries, Saudi Arabia and Brunei — agreed to change their policies after considerable pressure from the International Olympic Committee.
"This is a major boost for gender equality," IOC President Jacques Rogge told the crowd at last week's opening ceremony.
Qatar, which has been eager to host an Olympics, brought Al Hamad, swimmer Nada Mohammed WS Arakji, sprinter Noor Hussain Al-Malki and table tennis player Aia Mohamed. They chose Al Hamad to carry their flag in the opening ceremony.
Brunei similarly named its lone woman, runner Maziah Mahusin, as flag bearer. Saudi Arabia, which had its women marching noticeably at the rear of the delegation, did not seem as eager to make a shift.
Through much of the spring, Saudi officials flip-flopped on the issue. They added equestrian rider Dalma Rushdi Malhas to the team, then announced she had withdrawn because her horse was injured.
Under continued IOC insistence, they agreed to bring judoka Wojdan Shaherkani and runner Sarah Attar, a dual citizen who grew up in Southern California and runs for Pepperdine.
"A big inspiration for participating in the Olympic Games is being one of the first women for Saudi Arabia to be going," Attar said in an IOC news release. "It's such a huge honor and I hope that it can really make some big strides for women over there to get more involved in sport."
Saudi officials did not respond to requests for an interview with Attar in London. The Qataris have promised to make their female athletes available this week.
People have been more talkative back at Pepperdine, where Attar is a well-liked junior on the cross-country and track teams.
Coach Robert Radnoti said she came to him in May with news the Saudis might invite her to London. They talked about which event she should enter.
Though not the most talented runner on the Pepperdine team, Attar "shows up for practice every day and does everything we ask of her," her coach said.
It did not seem to bother her when Saudi officials vacillated on whether to include women.
"Sarah is an art major and the art major people are different," Radnoti said. "Very mellow, smiling at the world, whatever happened she would be fine with it."
Ultimately, the Saudis asked her to run the 800 meters. According to Radnoti, they also requested she wear a more modest suit on the track.
Published photos show her running in long sleeves and pants, a scarf wrapped around her head.
"She was perfectly fine with it," Radnoti said. "Because of her personality, it just wasn't an issue."
But some critics fear strict Muslim doctrine in numerous countries will continue to keep women from participating freely. They wonder whether the seven pioneers in London will lead to more female athletes in future Games.
"The whole thing could be stopped cold," said Nancy Hogshead-Makar, a three-time gold medalist in swimming and Florida law professor who advocates gender equity. "We'll have to wait and see."
At the University of Minnesota, sports sociologist Mary Jo Kane hopes that — at the very least — London represents a first step. She recalls the discrimination American women faced in sports before Title IX.
"Look at where we are now," the professor said. "It is a very slow process, but one of the things sport teaches us as human beings is perseverance."
Given their high profile, the Olympics can be especially useful in changing perceptions. The female athletes from Qatar, Brunei and Saudi Arabia will be performing before a global audience.
"Where sport has its biggest impact is on the masses," Hogshead-Makar said. "It's huge to give girls all over the world role models."
Al Hamad had the first chance, arriving at the Royal Artillery Barracks on the first full day of competition. | <urn:uuid:9ef0c662-e7b2-40f9-b29a-62c0c2294ee9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/30/sports/la-sp-oly-muslim-20120730 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974001 | 1,083 | 1.742188 | 2 |
GRIT, LUCK AND MONEY
by Emily Hanford
Preparing Kids for College and Getting Them Through
More people are going to college than ever before, but a lot of them aren't finishing. Low-income students, in particular, struggle to get to graduation. Only 9 percent complete a bachelor's degree by age 24. Why are so many students quitting, and what leads a few to beat the odds and make it through? In this documentary, American RadioWorks correspondent Emily Hanford introduces us to young people trying to break into the middle class, teachers trying to increase their chances and researchers investigating the nature of persistence.
The YES Prep charter school network has proved that a good high school education can help close the achievement gap. Since it was founded in 1995, almost all of its graduates have gone to college. But most of those students have not finished their degrees. Why aren't they graduating?
"Grit" is a personality trait that some people have more of than others. New research is exploring whether grit may be a key to college success.
First-generation college students are twice as likely to quit college as students whose parents have bachelor's degrees. Meet four students whose stories illustrate why it's a challenge to be the first in your family to go to college.
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American RadioWorks education correspondent Emily Hanford quit college and eventually went back and graduated. In this reporter's notebook, she talks about why she left and how her experience helped shape her interests as a journalist. Read her story.
Transcript | Resources | Credits
Published Fall 2012
The Tomorrow's College series is funded by a grant from Lumina Foundation, which is committed to enrolling and graduating more students from college, and by a grant from the Spencer Foundation, which is dedicated to the belief that research is necessary to the improvement of education. | <urn:uuid:3cc4c97a-5b8b-4174-af01-e336455061f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/tomorrows-college/grit/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967584 | 388 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Christmas songs: Musicians share favourites, from Nat King Cole to The Messiah
Another Christmas celebration approaches, and that means music. A handful of Canadian musicians share their most beloved seasonal songs.
What would Christmas be like without Christmas music?
Ask Gayane Bareghamyan. She can’t imagine Christmas in any other way — or at least not the Christmases of her youth.
“During the Soviet regime, people weren’t too much connected to the church,” says Bareghamyan, who grew up in Armenia when the country chafed under Moscow’s thumb. “There was no Christmas music in Armenia.”
Yerevan and other Armenian cities pulse with carols at Christmastime now, but that’s little consolation to Bareghamyan, who remembers a time when a silent night at Christmas meant exactly that and nothing more.
A violin teacher by profession, and a music lover by avocation, Bareghamyan cannot name a single special piece of music she associates with the Christmas season.
“I’m very sorry,” she says. “Not a particular one.”
To many Canadians, such a predicament would seem unthinkable.
For them, music is to Christmas what oxygen is to life.
“We used to fight on Christmas morning about what music to listen to during the opening of presents,” remembers Mervon Mehta, executive director of performing arts at the Royal Conservatory of Music, who grew up in Montreal. “We were all dragged to our Christmas concerts, to sing beautifully or badly. It was absolutely perfect.”
That is Christmas for most Canadians — a time for food and family, for laughter and gifts, but also for music and song.
“When families come together, music can create a certain atmosphere,” says Johannes Debus, music director of the Canadian Opera Company, who grew up in a small town in Germany. “Those tunes create in me certain feelings of home. It’s a certain nostalgic feeling.”
That feeling can be enjoyed and celebrated by means of any human sense — whether taste or touch or sight or smell — but it may well be through our ears and with our voices that we most fully experience that thrill of community and communion that resides near the heart of what we talk about when we talk about the spirit of Christmas.
In the paragraphs that follow, a handful of Canadians — all of whose lives revolve around music — share their favourite songs of the season and their fondest musical memories of the Christmas celebrations of their youth.
Debus’s earliest Christmas memories centre on an 11th-century Romanesque cathedral in his hometown of Speyer, Germany.
“It’s a stunning, remarkable building,” he recalls. “Since I was 5, I was singing in the chorale there. My favourite Christmas music is Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, which I often performed as a choir boy. That piece will never lose its power.”
Among familiar Christian carols, he says he especially loves “Adeste Fideles.”
Like Bareghamyan, Hungarian-born Michael Remenyi grew up under the long shadow of the Soviet Union, but he remembers Christmas as a happy and songful time.
“If we start with childhood memories, music is as important as sights and sounds,” says Remenyi, an accomplished cellist and owner of the venerable House of Remenyi musical instrument shop across Bloor Street from the Royal Ontario Museum. “When you’ve played your first Christmas carol, you are in the Christmas spirit.”
Music that spurs memories of Christmas for Remenyi includes Mozart’s Coronation Mass in C as well as almost any choral work by 20th-century English composer John Ritter.
“His choral music is just wonderful.”
If you prefer a more contemporary take on Christmas music, then Mehta at the Royal Conservatory is happy to oblige.
“My tastes are all over the map,” says the man in charge of organizing concerts at Koerner Hall.
His all-time favourite Christmas song is perhaps best known as “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” — its formal title is “The Christmas Song” — as performed by late American crooner Nat King Cole.
“To me, there’s no better Christmas song than that,” he says, praising Cole’s “butter voice.”
Mehta recalls Christmas morning debates, when his mother would call for German lieder to be played on the stereo, while her son insisted on, oh, maybe “Santa Claus is Coming to TOWNEND” by Bruce Springsteen (“How cool is that?”) or else an a capella number by The Sounds of Blackness, a U.S. gospel ensemble.
“I had moved away from traditional Christmas carols,” he explains.
Canadian mezzo-soprano Julie Nesrallah — host of the Tempo classical music show on CBC Radio 2 — agrees with Mehta on one musical point. She, too, claims “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” as her quintessential Christmas song. But she favours the Mel Torme version, which she used as a model when she first performed the piece in a school choir as a child of Christian Lebanese immigrants in Ottawa.
“Out of the blue, this Lebanese kid with big hair belts it out,” she says, referring to herself. “It’s been on my list of faves ever since. My next favourite, I would say, is ‘O Holy Night’ sung by Luciano Pavarotti. It is moving. Oh, my God.”
Surprisingly, no one has yet mentioned that perennial musical emissary of Xmas, Handel’s Messiah. So it’s a good thing that Gabriel Radford is on the line. He claims the Christmas staple as his No. 1 seasonal favourite.
“Handel’s Messiah and Christmas are totally inseparable,” says Radford, who plays French horn in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. “Hearing music from The Messiah instantly puts me in the Christmas mood.”
On Christmas Day itself, however, Radford favours traditional carols (“Nothing replaces them”), with one modern addition — an album by U.S. jazz diva Ella Fitzgerald called Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas.
“Ella is awesome,” says Radford. “That album is really great.”
Soprano Lorna MacDonald, who teaches music at the University of Toronto, has two favourite carols, one of them familiar — “Away in a Manger” — and one of them less so. The unfamiliar piece is entitled “See, Amid the Winter Snow,” and it has a lovely, haunting melody.
“Majestic,” she calls it.
And, like Radford, MacDonald is a grateful devotee of George Frideric Handel’s greatest gift to the Christmas season.
“I can’t imagine a Christmas without listening to The Messiah.”
Fortunately, she doesn’t have to.
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The famous singer-songwriter, 69, reminisces in a one-on-one interview with the Star as she prepares for Luminato Festival tribute to her, Joni: a Portrait in Song, on at Massey Hall June 18 and 19.
At first listen, Yeezus is abrasive and intentionally off-putting, as if to test the loyalty of even his most ardent fans. But, as usual, that’s only the beginning of West’s new detour. | <urn:uuid:8a01c00a-2cd6-4a49-8579-adc2034945b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/2012/12/22/christmas_songs_musicians_share_favourites_from_nat_king_cole_to_the_messiah.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944648 | 1,786 | 1.757813 | 2 |
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Weep Not, Kano. Be Innovative
The Kano bombings of Friday, 20 January 2012, could not have come as a surprise.
It is not the first time that Kano and Maiduguri would share the same fate. The early 1980s saw the Maitatsine religious crisis spread from Kano to Maiduguri, Gombe and Yola. This time, it reversed. Coming three decades later with its epicenter in Maiduguri, Boko Haram has spread to Kano.
The two are the most vibrant commercial cities in the far North. And not by coincidence, they are also the leading cities in Qur’anic tradition. Speaking in historical terms, they shared borders and there are large populations of Kanuri in the old Kano State. They are twins, you can say, in many respects.
While the people of Kano and indeed the entire country commiserate with the victims of the attack, and while the injured are still on hospital bed hoping for quick recovery, I feel not enough attention on the future is given in our commentaries. Will last Friday’s attack and its ongoing aftershocks be the last to visit Kano or will the second most populous city in the country share the fate of its twin sister?
The motive of Boko Haram and the reaction of government to the attacks suggest to me that Kano is likely to share the destiny of Maiduguri. More attacks should be expected. They are likely to come with no less, but if not more, degree of devastation. This is not a prayer but a prudent, albeit brutal, reading of the situation. It is the most likely scenario that needs to be prepared for or, if possible, avoided all together.
Boko Haram has given its reasons for the attack. It said it was predicated on the failure of the authorities to release innocent members of the sect detained from and after the 2009 crisis. Massive arrests, it said, took place in Wudil. Recently, also, added Boko Haram, many have been quietly arrested in the Kano itself without any trial.
The organization said it put off attacking the city many times before due to the intervention of some ulama it respects. But when neither of the demands was met, it ran out of patience and finally decided to go for what is correctly described as its biggest operation ever.
If previous arrests instigated the attack, as Boko Haram said, it will be difficult to see how the attack in itself would lead to amity with the government. Naturally, more arrests were made after the attack, and more will be made, in addition to a large dose, if not an overdose, of a cocktail of both preemptive and retributive measures. The killing of a Kantin Kwari merchant and his wife and the arrest of his children point at the extent that government would go with its policy of extermination, depicting another striking similarity with Maiduguri.
From experience, Boko Haram will not be cowed by such measures. They only serve to provoke it further. Unless a wiser approach is taken, last Friday's attack was the conjugation that will endlessly replicate the Maiduguri crisis DNA in Kano. I have not lost sight of the significance of the label given to the YouTube video released by its leader, Imam Abubakar Shekau, few hours ago: "Sako Game Da Harin Kano 1." In the caption is an implicit message that there might be Kano 2! The content of the video did not leave a better ground for hope either.
What should Kano resort to? Will it choose to depend on the overwhelmed federal government, in spite of the assurances of the new IGP, or would its leaders be innovative in following a complementary or, if need be, different path to peace?
Unlike Maiduguri, however, Kano has a small window of hope. If it is true that there are ulama in Kano who the sect hold at high esteem and whose reverence was instrumental in wading off earlier plans to attack the city, then the opportunity should be used to ensure that Kano is spared the crippling fate of Maiduguri.
In the pursuit of this goal, I advise that Kano must not solely rely on the federal government, whose extermination policy has only worsened matters nationwide. The Chief of Defence Staff just recently reiterated that government will not negotiate with Boko Haram. This high horse of government stupidity will not spare Kano the spectre of destruction that is staring at it. It will only destroy the city, to the delight of some.
The state government must quickly recruit the support of the Kano Emirate, the ulama of Kano as well as its businessmen to dialogue with the group. This should be done silently without courting publicity. Some non-Kano residents, like the Chief of Defence Staff, may think this is abominable. But think of it objectively. Is negotiation too big a price for peace and what it preserves of lives, property and businesses?
Let us examine the prospects of the government's military option briefly.
The most obvious thing that will happen is that the army will become increasingly drafted to Kano streets as the attacks continue. Their mandate will equally continue to expand, each time pouching from the authority of the state government, as we have seen in Plateau and Maiduguri, with state of emergency declared in all the local governments of the city.
The state will be spending chunks of its allocation to finance the military presence on its streets. It will be a web from which Kano will find difficult to extricate itself, moreso, when the misery of the city will mean a fortune for people who will exploit the situation to their advantage, diverting billions of security expenditure - which is a quarter of our federal budget - into their bank accounts.
The people who will suffer most will be the ordinary citizens whose businesses and livelihood will be impaired. When achaba is banned, for example, as in Maiduguri and Yobe state, a million commercial motorcyclists shuttling the streets of Kano will be jobless and their two million dependents will face serious hardships. And so with other businesses. The misery, in the end, will be unimaginable.
Markets, as it happened in Maiduguri, will also be at the risk of getting destroyed by fake soldiers who will cordon them, disperse their traders and set them ablaze immediately. Businessmen will be sent letters containing bullets demanding millions of naira or face death. Those who would like to cripple the long standing record of Kano's economic success will have a golden opportunity. They will carry their operations and push the blame to Boko Haram.
At home, families will be subjected to abuse. A single explosion will justify the ransacking of the entire neighbourhood by soldiers, killing the innocent, raping the women and shooting the men. Residents of the city will be forced to abandon it. Where will those millions go?
In the end Kano will be a ghost of its present state...if it solely relies on the federal government...if it commits the mistake of its twin sister, Maiduguri.
It must pursue a different path, wherever and whenever possible. It must not be overwhelmed by its tears, which at best preoccupies it with the past incident and prevents it from preparing for the future. But unlike Maiduguri, Kano must be ready to take its destiny in its own hands. Durkusawa wada ba gajiyawa ba ne.
As I was about to conclude this piece, Reuters reported that the President has confessed that the military option is not a solution, that his government is ready to dialogue if Boko Haram "will come out." Kano should not wait for Boko Haram to "come out" before it finds peace. It should take its own initiative. Who knows? Its effort, if it succeeds, may open the way for government to follow.
Finally, I hereby condole to the families of the victims that were killed and pray for fast recovery of all the injured.
Weep not, Kano. Your great people must take heart and take their destiny into their own hands.
As the poet al-Mutanabbi once put it, Innal 'azeema 'alal 'azeemi sabouru: Great people endure great calamity.
26 January 2012 | <urn:uuid:53454de5-5032-4003-9cc6-4c8c7e6cebdc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fridaydiscourse.blogspot.com/2012/01/discourse-340-weep-not-kano-be.html?showComment=1327652897199 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964576 | 1,724 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Lou Hatter 540-829-7537
Feb. 26, 2013
VDOT MONITORING FORECAST WINTER WEATHER
Motorists encouraged to check road conditions, drive with caution Tuesday morning
CULPEPER — Motorists who must travel early Tuesday morning are encouraged to check weather and road conditions before they drive. Crews with the Virginia Department of Transportation are monitoring highway conditions and preparing for another winter storm that may affect Piedmont Virginia this morning.
A wintry mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain is forecast to begin after dawn and continue through the morning before changing to rain later in the day. Western parts of VDOT’s Culpeper District, particularly the counties along the Blue Ridge Mountains, are most likely to see wintry precipitation early this morning.
Once the precipitation begins drivers may encounter slick road conditions and are strongly urged to check weather and highway conditions in their area before driving this morning. Temperatures are near freezing and precipitation is likely to begin as snow or sleet and may freeze on road surfaces. Slick conditions are most likely during the early morning hours, especially on bridge decks, ramps and turn lanes. VDOT advises motorists to consider delaying travel to avoid driving during the time when snow, sleet or freezing rain is forecast.
Residents should continue to monitor the weather throughout the day since rain is forecast to be heavy at times and may cause local flooding on secondary roads, especially those that cross or run along creeks and streams.
As precipitation begins VDOT crews will treat the roads with a mixture of sand and salt. The sand increases traction and the salt helps melt snow and ice and prevent it from bonding to the road surface. Even after roads are treated, however, sleet and freezing rain are extremely hazardous and motorists should observe the following precautions:
• Slow down and allow for extra time to reach your destination
• Be aware of potentially icy areas such as shady spots and bridges
• Keep a safe distance of at least five seconds behind other vehicles and trucks that are plowing the road
• Do not pass a snowplow or spreader unless it is absolutely necessary.
Drivers should also check VDOT’s 511 travel website, www.511virginia.org, before leaving on a trip. The winter storm is predicted to affect much of the western part of the state early Tuesday morning. The website is updated in real time with weather and road conditions for all highways in Virginia. Once on the road VDOT’s 511 mobile app provides real-time traffic and weather information for both iPhone and Android platforms. Travelers can also call 511 from any telephone in Virginia for real-time information on traffic and road conditions.
Note to reporters and editors: Additional information about VDOT’s preparations for winter weather, how the agency responds to snow and ice, FAQs and information about the technology and tools VDOT uses in its winter weather response is available online at www.virginiadot.org/travel/snow.asp.
Information in VDOT news releases was accurate at the time the release was published. For the most current information about projects or programs, please visit the project or program Web pages. You may find those by searching by keyword in the search Virginia DOT box above. | <urn:uuid:6e63d1a7-b065-47d3-8a4e-654329f62f3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://virginiadot.org/newsroom/culpeper/2013/vdot_monitoring_forecast_winter63845.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931203 | 687 | 1.625 | 2 |
Britain's Independent Police Complaints Commission has initiated a criminal investigation into police misconduct in a 1989 tragedy at a soccer ground where 96 people died.
The investigation follows a private inquiry that found serious failings by police and emergency services.
The private report, released last month, reviewed thousands of documents and cast doubt on the original inquest's finding of accidental death.
The crush at Sheffield's Hillsborough Stadium on April 15, 1989, has cast a lasting shadow over Liverpool and the surrounding Merseyside area.
The panel that compiled the private report also found evidence that indicated as many as 41 of those crushed could have survived.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission, which oversees police complaints in England and Wales, said Friday that last month's report "revealed extremely serious and troubling issues for the police."
"Its contents provoked a demand for those responsible for the actions revealed in the report to be held to account," it said.
The commission is reviewing hundreds of thousands of pages of evidence, and is paying special attention to allegations that police tampered with statements and that misleading information was passed to the media, among others.
"We have learned details of the run-up to the disaster including the unheeded warnings from previous incidents, the disaster itself, and its aftermath, including what appear to be attempts to distort the truth," the commission said.
It said it does not know how many officers and retired officers will be investigated. The commission can investigate both criminal and misconduct offenses, even after an officer's retirement.
The tragedy occurred when thousands of fans were let through a gate into an already crowded standing area, leading many to be crushed against metal fences and concrete walls.
Horrifying images from the scene showed panicked men, women and children pushed and trampled with nowhere to go as police lost control of the crowd. Of some 25,000 Liverpool fans who had traveled to Sheffield to watch their team play, 96 never came home. | <urn:uuid:c347a8cc-5243-41de-8e44-0abbcc31a4de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ksat.com/news/New-probe-opened-in-1989-UK-soccer-deaths/-/478452/16962856/-/7ygl1q/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969062 | 393 | 1.6875 | 2 |
We have attempted to make your access to the public documents of the Postal Regulatory
Commission convenient and efficient through the use of our electronic Library. The Library contains
summaries of docketed cases before the Commission, past and present, as well as summaries and details
of documents filed with PRC for these cases.
You can find reports and studies prepared by PRC and periodic
reports filed by the US Postal Service, as well as public notices
published in the Federal Register pertaining to PRC
and postal issues. The Library Reference Desk provides access to speeches, Congressional testimony,
and papers presented by the Commissioners, PRC staff
and others. The Mail Classification Schedule is available for viewing in the Library. Older documents
that are not associated with docketed cases can be accessed in the Archived Documents section.
Dockets is an electronic library of legal records filed for cases before the Commission. Since 1996,
when the website was created, attorneys, analysts, and other interested parties have accessed the
case records via the PRC Website. Dockets is organized
by Active Cases, All Cases, Opinions and Decisions, Orders, and Rate Commission Archives (1971-2004).
PRC Reports & Studies are accessible from the Library,
which lists the reports by title and date and allows a user to view, print, or download copies.
The US Postal Service files periodic financial summary and statistical
reports with the Commission. By selecting USPS Periodic
Reports from the side menu under Library, a user can view a list of the reports and can download or print any of them.
Federal Register Notices are public notices published in the Federal Register. PRC
posts notices that are pertinent to the Commission on its web site under the Library. A user can view a list of
Federal Register Notices, open and view each notice, and print or download any or all notices.
From the Reference Desk, a user can download speeches, papers, and Congressional testimony
presented by the Commissioners and PRC Staff.
Papers by other individuals are also available online. Select Reference Desk in the Library side
menu to view a list of speeches by individual Commissioner, a list of papers and other documents
by individual Commissioners and others, or a list of the testimony presented to the
US Congress. Each item on each list can be
printed or downloaded in PDF format.
The Mail Classification Schedule (MCS) as well as its predecessor,
Domestic Mail Classification Schedule (DMCS)
can be viewed in the Library. The Commission publishes updated versions of the
After their currency has passed, older PRC speeches, papers,
and other documents may be filed in the Archived Documents section of the Library. These archives are not
related to the archives for documents filed in docketed PRC cases.
Archived Audiocasts including older Postal Regulatory Commission speeches. | <urn:uuid:177e4868-a3de-49e7-b760-265ff74f3316> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://prc.gov/(S(1vrpis45ifpnhbbjv1e12y2u))/prc-pages/library/default.aspx?view=main&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915738 | 594 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Do drug companies conduct their clinic trial tests more frequently upon men or women?
I would like to know if drug companies do their trial tests more frequently upon men or women. If it is men, is it because women have hormonal levels that they don't want to deal with? Where could I go to find more information?
Yes -- in the past, drug trials were done almost exclusively on males, and yes, one main reason they did not use women for testing was changing hormone levels. Another reason was the potential impact or risk on future babies born to the women...
Unfortunately, as a result, women were/are prescribed medications based upon how they affected men without regard to whether the drugs act differently in women's bodies. Some heart medications, in particular, affect women differently than men.
I have two books to recommend. Molecules of Emotion by Candace Pert, PhD which gives a look behind the scenes at how research is conducted, by whom and why. Another excellent book is Outrageous Practices which describes medicine's bias against women and the lack of inclusion of women in clinical research.
back to questions
Disclaimer: FWHC makes health information
accessible in the belief that knowledge leads to empowerment, that people make
better health decisions when they have as much information as possible.
website does not offer advice about health or healthcare. The information
contained in this website cannot substitute for advice from a healthcare
practitioner. Only personal contact with the healthcare practitioner of your choice
-- who knows your health history, who can examine you personally, and who can
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no event will FWHC be liable to you or anyone else for any decision made or action
taken by you or anyone else in reliance upon the information provided through
this website (www.fwhc.org).
Feminist Women's Health Center proud to operate Cedar River Clincs | <urn:uuid:64e59906-66e2-48b6-8a3e-a3e9e0dd8a90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fwhc.org/qa/ro-drug.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952806 | 476 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Cod, Atlantic – US bottom longline
Atlantic Cod in U.S. waters grow at moderate rates, mature between the ages of one and four years, and can live to be 20 years and older.
Abundance is low in both the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank populations, although there have been moderate increases in recent years resulting from better management of Cod and other groundfish.
The main fishing method for Atlantic Cod is bottom trawling, but a small percentage is also caught using bottom longlines. This fishing method causes low to moderate damage to the seafloor and results in medium levels of bycatch.
Atlantic cod has a very similar cousin on the west coast called Pacific Cod which is nearly an identical stand-in for most recipes. The same flaky yet dense flesh cooks with the same distinctive flavor and responds well to the wide variety of cooking methods usually used for Atlantic cod. Also try Pacific Ling Cod or Alaskan Walleye Pollock as a substitute. | <urn:uuid:fdf413c5-48e3-4478-a8a8-caa1eada735f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blueocean.org/seafoods/cod-atlantic-us-bottom-longline/?showimg=309 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937745 | 202 | 2.375 | 2 |
In every kitchen there are a number of basic cooking utensils that are necessary for everyday cooking. Traditional cooking utensils were made from clay, stone or wood. Today, we have a variety of cooking utensils that influence our cooking and the flavor of the dish prepared.
Pots and Pans
We qualify a good cooking utensil as one that distributes heat evenly and uniformly. A poor cooking utensil will develop hot spots that are likely to burn or scorch the food being cooked. Two factors that determine a good pot are: its thickness on the bottom and the kind of metal. The kinds of metal affect the transfer or disperse of heat.
There are 5 commonly used metal pans.
- Aluminum. This cooking utensil is light weight and easy to handle while cooking. It is a good conductor of heat, but could be dented easily. It should not be used to cook strong acids, because it reacts chemically with many foods and tends to discolour light-coloured foods and sauces. Note: the Calphalon brand is made of anodized aluminum. It’s hard surface is more corrosion-resistant than regular aluminum pans. Most have nonstick finish and are less porous.
- Copper. This cooking utensil is the best heat conductor of all all pots, but is is expensive and requires a lot of care. Note: This utensil should be line with another metal such as tin or stainless steel to protect the food from getting poisoned.
- Stainless steel. This cooking utensil is a poor heat conductor. Therefore, food tends to scorch easily in this pan. It is ideal for low-temperature cooking and steaming. Stainless steel pot and pans are better heat conductors when they are layered with a copper or aluminum bonded to the bottom or lined with a heavy aluminum on the inside, or inside and outside.
- Cast iron- This is a favorite kitchen utensil for cooking. It has the ability to distribute heat evenly and maintain high temperatures for long periods. However, care is also required for this cooking utensil. It can crack if dropped, and it can rust if not cleaned properly.
- Nonstick plastic-type coating. The brands such as Teflon and Silverston have a slippery finish but requires a lot of care because they scratch easily.
Some cooking utensils used in Trini cooking
In Trinidad and Tobago, it is the same, but there are those utensils that are more important than others. This list provides the basic, traditional utensils, commonly used to prepare the Trini recipes in this blog. They are handy and make cooking easy. No Trini kitchen could do without this set of utensils. Here are 10 cooking utensils necessary for Trini cooking.
Mortar and Pestle
10 Basic Trini Cooking Utensils
- Iron pot – A heavy cast iron pot is also called a caldero or caldron. This main pot is similar to the Dutch Oven. The iron pot is used to cook meat, stews, soups and rice dishes such as pelau and mixed rice.
- Pastelle press - Pastelle presses are available in many sizes and are made of wood, plastic. They are mainly used to make the dishes from our Spanish influence like pastelles, empañadas, arepas, etc.
- Mortar and pestle (pilón) – A Mortar and pestle (pilón) is used to crush, grind, and mash ingredients.
- Bailna or rolling pin- A Bailna or rolling pin is used to roll out doughs to make roti or bake. Yes, even pizza doughs.
- Tawah (similar to a griddle) - A Tawa (tawah) or Platin is similar to a griddle. It is another cast iron cooking utensil that a Trini cannot do without. It is used for making bake and roti (and for me a good substitute for baking pizza).
- Kalchul (a metal ladle) – Kalchul (a ladle) is usually made of stainless steel or other metal and used mainly when chongkaying dhal and choka.
- Goble- A Goblet is an earthen ware jar used for storing water long time. It would be in an accessible but safe place in the kitchen only to be bent over to pour out the cool rain water.
- Swizzle Stick - A Swizzle stick (no, not the one that is used to mix cocktail drinks, etc.) is used for mixing powdered milk or any other powder and water mixture.
- Dhal Gutney- The Dhal gutney or dhal gutni (dal goot – nee) is a wooden cooking utensil, common in local East Indian cooking, used especially when making dhal.
- Dabla is used for making buss-up-shut or paratha roti.
Tell us, what are your favorite cooking utensils? | <urn:uuid:22d844bb-be11-40ac-8097-c186173bd960> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.simplytrinicooking.com/2008/03/cooking-utensils-we-use-in-trini-cooking.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923986 | 1,051 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Appendix talk:Orphaned words
Interestingly enough the three words listed all do in fact 'exist', kempt having well documented citations from the 11th century to the present day; styrene is the perfectly respectable chemical C6H5·CH:CH2 ; bue I grant is a bit of a stretch as it is an obsolete form of other words. — DavidL 13:40, 16 Sep 2004
Why is this page here as an Appendix - it looks like a perfectly normal Entry for "Orphaned" and "Orphaned Words" ??--Richardb 11:08, 21 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Ruthful? Wieldy?
What, exactly, is one without if one is ruthless? Is this another orphaned word? Is the opposite of 'unwieldy' still in use? If so, it's certainly not as common as its antonym. --Dvortygirl 06:32, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
"Stroy" is not an obsolete word from which "destroy" was formed, which once meant "create", with "destroy" as its opposite. "Stroy" is an obsolete word which was formed from "destroy" and meant exactly the same thing.
"Destroy" was taken from Latin "destruere"; while Latin did have "struere", meaning "construct", English never adopted that word.
So "stroy" doesn't really belong here at all.
Whelm threatened to overwhelm the list
- Yes, grade and progression both come from Latin gradī: progression < Old French < Latin progressionem (acc. of progressio, a going forward) < progressus (past participle of progredī, to go forward) < pro- (forward) + gradī (to step) < gradus (a step) < Proto-Indo-European *ghredh-.
- grade < French < Latin gradus (a step) < Proto-Indo-European *ghredh-. —Stephen 17:56, 8 March 2006 (UTC) | <urn:uuid:2fcb9d18-4be9-4d07-8c3a-036aea1ba38e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix_talk:Orphaned_words | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949424 | 432 | 2.625 | 3 |
NEW YORK - JANUARY 22: A tour bus passes the Wall Street bull in the financial district January 22, 2007 in New York City. In a study commissioned by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), it was determined that New York could lose its place as the financial capital of the world in as little as 10 years. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
While last-minute changes are still possible, below are some of the likely winners and losers under the bill.
The Senate bill would still need to be reconciled with a separate measure already passed by the House of Representatives and the final legislation may be dramatically different.
Credit Rating Agencies — Lose
Credit rating agencies would be subject to greater liability.
The biggest rating agencies — Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings —would face increased competition from the smaller competitors. Under the Senate bill, a credit rating agency board would be created to choose which rating agency would rate an issuer's debt.
Large Financial Firms — Lose
Large financial firms such as Bank of America and Goldman Sachs could be prohibited from proprietary trading and investing in hedge funds and private equity funds.
Large firms would also be forced to set aside billions of dollars in extra capital to ensure that they do not threaten the stability of the financial system.
The Senate bill could force banks such as Goldman and JPMorgan Chase to spin off their profitable derivatives desks or risk losing access to the Federal Reserve's emergency funds.
The firms' financial products such as mortgages and credit cards would be subjected to new rules from a newly created bureau designed to protect customers from risky products.
Most derivatives would be forced on to exchanges or through clearinghouses, in an attempt to limit the effect that large, risky trades can have on the economy, another factor that could curb bank profits. Non-financial players such as manufacturers, however, would be exempt.
Small Banks — Win
The Federal Reserve will continue supervising small banks. Small banks wanted to maintain a supervisory structure they were familiar with.
The new consumer financial product bureau will not enforce rules for small banks' products. Their consumer financial products will continue to be enforced and overseen by prudential regulators.
US Federal Reserve — Win
Gains powers to supervise systemically important financial firms.
Retains authority to supervise banks of all sizes.
Part of a "risk council" that would have authority to monitor risk in the financial system and decide whether a large complex company needs to divest assets.
Becomes home for the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Would have power along with other regulators to appeal consumer protection bureau's rules if deemed to hurt safety and soundness of banking system and stability of financial system.
Democrats and Republicans originally wanted to strip the Fed of its powers to supervise banks and confine the central bank to setting monetary policy and acting as the lender of last resort.
Consumers — Lose
New rules to protect consumers from risky financial products could be overturned by banking regulators if banking regulators believe the rules could threaten the financial system. The House bill and the original proposal from the Obama administration would not allow banking regulators to have input on consumer rules.
The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be housed in the Federal Reserve, which has been criticized for failing to rein in the risky lending that contributed to the financial crisis. Under both the House bill and the Obama administration proposal, the new consumer agency would have been fully independent. | <urn:uuid:a8c29637-5638-42ea-b6f9-878979820996> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/business/Senate_s_Financial_Reform_Bill__Some_Winners_and_Losers-94606594.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953208 | 710 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Three exams: 45%
Four short essays (two pages in length): 35%
Discussion Board participation: 20%
Each essay must be submitted as an attachment in a Word (not Works) document. The requirements are clearly under the Course Documents section on Course Compass.
By enrolling in this class, the student expressly grants MSU a “limited right” to all intellectual property created by the student for the purpose of this course. The “limited right” shall include but shall not be limited to the right to reproduce the student’s work product in order to verify originality and authenticity, and for educational purposes.
Note: You may not submit a paper for a grade in this class that already has been (or will be) submitted for a grade in another course, unless you obtain the explicit written permission of me and the other instructor involved in advance.
Late essays will be penalized one letter grade for each day that the paper is late.
Internet class: No attendance, but you must participate in the Discussion Board, which determines 20% of your semester grade.
This class is writing intensive. Not only is 35% of your grade based on essays, but also a significant percentage of your exams are essay questions. And to clarify, by writing, I mean academic writing. On both the essays and tests, you will be expected to formulate an analytical, subjective thesis statement and support it with well organized paragraphs. (By the way, simply regurgitating the plot is NOT being analytical.) If you check your catalogue, you will see that English 1113 and 1123 are prerequisites for this class. So in grading your essays, I will assume that you have learned the basics of those two important classes.
Here’s the problem with an internet class: most of you can’t come to my office for one-on-one help. Although I will post numerous examples of successful Think Pieces, the “distance” aspect of this class makes improving your compositional skills quite difficult. (However, if you submit rough drafts to me, that will like help your writing, as well as reading the recommended Trimble book.)
Many students sign up for internet course thinking that they will be “easier” than a typical lecture course. That will not be the case with this class. I cover the same material, and I require just as much work as a lecture class. You will quickly realize that this class is reading intensive. (However, we are not in class three hours per week either, so that time and more should be devoted to your reading.) Basically, you will need to be disciplined and diligent to keep up the pace.
I am not trying to scare anyone off, but I also want each of you to understand what to expect.
Discussion Board: Instead of an in-class discussion, we will collectively engage in a conversation regarding the texts via a Discussion Board found at CourseCompass.com. This is an opportunity for you to share your thoughts and clarify any questions or misunderstandings that you might have. Unless specified, you are required to post two questions and two answers to each Discussion Board forum. While I don’t like rigid deadlines in an on-line class, because of problems in earlier classes, I must impose a two-week window on each Discussion Board topic. In other words, the week after the assigned topic, I will “cut off” your ability to post to the Discussion Board. Of course, this class participation is 20% of your semester’s grade; plus engaging in our conversation will likely increase your understanding of the assigned texts. So keep up on the Discussion Board.
And finally, plagiarism:
Plagiarism is rampant in English classes, usually due to "copying and pasting" from the internet.
Plagiarism is one of the most serious examples of academic dishonesty; consequently, it will not be tolerated.
The following is the penalty of plagiarism: The student will earn a "zero" for that particular assignment, and he or she will not be able to replace that essay with a "re-write."
If a student commits plagiarism twice in the same semester, he or she will earn an F for that semester's grade. | <urn:uuid:64a23851-fef4-46f7-959b-b85e4c333a1e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mwsu.edu/profiles/courseDetails.asp?CID=4580 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939248 | 877 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Join us in celebrating an out-of-this-world anniversary with a viewing of Star Wars on Friday, May 11 in Marvin Auditorium. Crafts and activities begin at 6:00pm, and the film starts at 6:30pm.
May 2012 marks the 35th anniversary of the release of the original Star Wars movie (now more formally known as Episode IV: A New Hope). When it was first released in 1977 the public had no idea they were witnessing the birth of a universe that would dramatically influence pop culture for the next 30 years.
With its subsequent sequels (and prequels), books, and other merchandising, Star Wars (and storyline mogul George Lucas) forever altered the public’s appetite for science-fiction.
Nowadays, Star Wars is a part of everyday life. Jedi masters, stormtroopers and philosophical quotes about The Force pop up in all kinds of social situations. To paraphrase Carl Sagan: we are made of Star Wars stuff.
I mean – who doesn’t remember their first lightsaber? Whether it was a modified cardboard tube or store-purchased model, kids (and kids-at-heart) have been waving lightsabers, joining the Rebel Alliance and yelling “Punch it, Chewy!” for over three decades.
Now’s your chance to live your dream; come and make a mini-Death Star or Admiral Ackbar puppet before the show. Have a favorite Star Wars character? Come to the movie in costume and participate in the group photo. As always, Wookies are welcome! | <urn:uuid:1d826b88-b923-4f81-abea-f1f489f8ee90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tscpl.org/books-movies-music/star-wars-your-library/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936258 | 326 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Watch Bringing Up Baby: Mild mannered zoology professor Dr. David Huxley is excited by the news that an intercostal clavicle bone has been found to complete his brontosaurus skeleton, a project four years in the construction. He is equally excited about his imminent marriage to his assistant, the officious Alice Swallow, who is interested in him more for his work than for him as a person. David needs the $1 million endowment of wealthy dowager Mrs. Carleton Random to complete the project. Her lawyer, Alexander Peabody, will make the decision on her behalf, so David needs to get in his favor. However, whenever David tries to make a good impression on Peabody, the same young woman always seems to do something to...
|Released:||February 16, 1938|
|Actors:||Cary Grant Katharine Hepburn Ward Bond Larry Steers Walter Catlett D'Arcy Corrigan Pat O'Malley Duke Green George Irving Frank M. Thomas William Corson Billy Franey Jean Stevens Buck Mack Bobby Stone|
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hughsey : didn't like it all,their was minimal character development I didn't feel any... | <urn:uuid:3a84a140-69d5-49d0-804d-8ac023099662> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.1channel.ch/watch-4266-Bringing-Up-Baby | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936793 | 295 | 1.625 | 2 |
(1) Our Government is based on Religious Principles
School prayer proponents maintain the United States was established as a Christian nation with religion playing a central role in guiding the nation's destiny. Supporters of religion in school claim the founding fathers never intended a separation of church and state, evidenced by the fact that the phrase "separation of church and state" is not in the Constitution. Signs of a church/state union can be seen regularly: Congress prays at the opening of every session; federal officials take their oaths upon a Bible; "In God we trust" is stamped on our national currency; and Moses and the Ten Commandments are featured prominently in the Supreme Court building. If religion is accepted in these government institutions, they reason, it should not be stopped at the schoolhouse door.
(2) The Free Exercise Clause Protects School Prayer
Despite decades of Supreme Court rulings, many religious advocates claim the Constitution protects school prayer. According to their interpretation, the First Amendment does not separate God and government, but actually encourages religion. Many supporters believe the Establishment Clause was intended to bar only the establishment of a state religion. They narrowly interpret the Free Exercise Clause as requiring the government to accommodate religious observances in public life. Many advocates believe the restriction on graduation and student-led school prayers violates their... [continues]
Cite This Essay
(2005, 05). Prayer in School. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 05, 2005, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Prayer-School-57234.html
"Prayer in School" StudyMode.com. 05 2005. 05 2005 <http://www.studymode.com/essays/Prayer-School-57234.html>.
"Prayer in School." StudyMode.com. 05, 2005. Accessed 05, 2005. http://www.studymode.com/essays/Prayer-School-57234.html. | <urn:uuid:9895012b-888c-4416-85d1-da53d974f63d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.studymode.com/essays/Prayer-School-57234.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910299 | 407 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Shower Faucets - These include the trim to control the water, as well as a shower head.
Tub and Shower Faucets - These include the trim to control the water, as well as a shower head and tub spout.
Shower Panels - These are all-in-one systems, usually connected to a backplate. They typically include all of the necessary controls, body sprays, shower head, and sometimes a tub spout.
Complete Shower Systems - These include everything you need for your shower system, including controls, body sprays, and shower heads, but they are not all attached in one unit like shower panels.
Shower Heads - This option includes only the shower head part, with no controls.
Body Sprays - This option includes only body sprays, which project water out from the shower wall.
Hand Showers - This option includes only hand-held showers, which are connected to the system on a hose.
Faucet Trim Only - This option includes only the trim part of the faucet, which connects to the valve to control the water. This option is best if you already have a shower head you are planning to use.
A valve is the part of the faucet that connects to the pipework and actually controls the flow of the water. Many shower faucets do not include a valve, and are just the "trim", or the decorative part of the faucet. If you select a faucet that is the trim only, be careful to select the appropriate valve you need to make the faucet work. This should be clearly stated in the product specifications. | <urn:uuid:4715f4f5-eef7-444b-8c39-c8faff673022> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wayfair.com/Shower-Faucets-C531437.html?redir_sku=ASD5424 | 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 | 0.956969 | 344 | 1.78125 | 2 |
For years diets high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes were associated with reduced risk of colon cancer . But starting in the late 1990s, data began showing just the opposite-that fiber may not prevent colon cancer after all (New England Journal of Medicine, 1999).
However many of the fiber studies used wheat bran, which does not support the same function as the fiber found in fruits, vegetables and legumes, especially as it relates to clearance of toxins from the intestines, which is relevant to colon cancer. So it may be certain types of fiber that prevent colon cancer.
People with high cholesterol were told for a long time to avoid eggs, which are high in dietary cholesterol. However, it isn't clear to what extent dietary cholesterol raises blood cholesterol levels. Throughout the years, research has attempted to link dietary cholesterol to human cholesterol levels without much success.
Many scientists believe that saturated fats and trans fats raise blood cholesterol more than the dietary cholesterol found in eggs. In fact, the American Heart Association recently acknowledged it may be possible to include a daily egg in a healthy diet.
This is a particularly complicated topic!
But more recently, caffeine has been shown to improve muscle coordination and strength if consumed just prior to exercise or an athletic event. It also increases energy expenditure and may help us burn calories. So it appeared as though there were positive benefits of caffeine!
Now there are new concerns. In a study published about caffeine intake and miscarriage, research showed as much as a 30 percent increase in early miscarriage of normal pregnancies for women who drink one to two cups of coffee a day (Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2008). Another recent study published showed insulin levels were significantly higher, and insulin sensitivity was reduced by 35 percent after ingesting caffeine, with the effects persisting for at least a week (Metabolism, 2007).
Fuchs, C.F. et.al. (1999). Dietary Fiber and the Risk of Colorectal Cancer and Adenoma in Women. New England Journal of Medicine, 340(3), 169-176.
MacKenzie, T. et al. (2007). Metabolic and hormonal effects of caffeine: Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial. Metabolism, 56(12), 1694-1698.
Weng, X., Odouli, R., Li, D.K. (2008) Maternal caffeine consumption during pregnancy and the risk of miscarriage: A prospective cohort study. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 198(3), 279e1-279e8. | <urn:uuid:0f685804-7e2c-4ef6-a617-1a0c102c9002> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/print/421?quicktabs_2=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945168 | 534 | 2.890625 | 3 |
"Some secure protocols like SSH send encrypted keystrokes as they're typed. By doing timing analysis you can figure out which keys the user probably typed (keys that are physically close together on a keyboard can be typed faster). A careful analysis can reveal the length of passwords and probably some of [the] password itself."
"The great majority of OpenBSD developers are from outside the United States, and I would guess that most of us prefer not to visit the US now thanks to the murderous foreign policy, authoritarian domestic surveillance, and invasive border control. You'll find few of us there. Personally I've been refusing invitations to go to, or even transit through the United States for about 6 years."
"When you buy from Apple, you do not get what you paid for. Instead you get exactly what you got suckered into buying."
"I just imported ix(4), a driver for the Intel 82598EB 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapters. It is based on Intel's ixgbe FreeBSD driver, with many local changes for OpenBSD.
"Development is really fast right now, because of the hackathon in Edmonton. We are testing as much as we can before we commit, but as always during these hackathon processes we really depend on our user community -- to track our changes and help spot the occasional bug we accidentally introduce. We are developing really fast and hard; please help us by testing really fast and hard too."
"If you can't use strcpy and strlcpy correctly, then you should not be a programmer."
"I think people are placing too much blame on valgrind. valgrind doesn't tell you 'Delete this line of code.' It says 'You are using uninitialized memory here.' The correct fix is to initialize the memory, not delete the line of code. It's not about trusting or not trusting the tool; it's about responding correctly."
"It is kind of strange to us to have Sun suddenly be the perfect example of openness."
"If you truly wish to relinquish ALL rights then public domain is exactly that. This is obviously the most free. If additionally you wish to retain attribution only then /usr/src/share/misc/license.template is a great choice. This is probably the most free except for public domain. If it bothers you if Microsoft uses your performance in a Vista ad then you must pick something else.
"I would only do it if I could get some compensation for immaterial damage; yuck, working on Windows is so painful."
"There once was a message to test; Repeated unto being a pest; While marked to ignore; It was seen more and more; Until other begged, 'Give it a rest!'"
"Since you did it three times so rapidly, I am calling you a liar. And since you refuse to undo your commercial support in Emacs and GCC, I am going to call you a hypocrite."
"The US government has rules about what it can collect and put in it's own databases and use. Forward thinking people put careful rules in place preventing the government from legally playing big brother...
"There are people who write diffs, and people who _don't_ write diffs."
"Overall, I doubt that all of our security technologies add more than about 2% of a performance hit." | <urn:uuid:eff32492-9e6a-4468-b68c-ec623dc19f38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kerneltrap.com/taxonomy/term/1100 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958033 | 685 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Unless you would like a date with the porcelain, put your lunch in the fridge.
That's the advice from the Food Safety Information Council, which warns that many Australians fail to follow simple instructions to avoid food poisoning.
But employers appear to need to help out - a recent council survey found that many of the office workers who don't use the fridge for their lunch believe that it's more an incubator for food disasters than a way to keep food clean and cool.
The annual survey of about 1200 people found that three-quarters of office workers take their lunch to work, but 10 per cent of that number fail to put their lunch in the fridge.
The results were worse for school lunches: more than one-quarter of parents fail to put a frozen drink or ice block with their child's lunch - up 8 per cent on the survey in 2011.
"Food poisoning can have horrific long-term consequences, including reactive arthritis," Michael Eyles, council chair, said.
The council warns that food poisoning costs Australia an estimated $1.25 billion each year, including 2.1 million days lost at work and 1.2 million visits to the doctor.
The figures are calculated by microbiologists at the federal government entity OzFoodNet.
Dr Eyles warned that lunchboxes needed to be washed and dried daily and should be replaced if cracked, split or shattered
"Bugs will grow in any cracks," he said. "Avoid risky foods such as soft cheeses, sprouts and pate."
As for the workplace, employers should keep the fridges in good working order and make sure that they do not become overcrowded.
"Rather than avoid it, become friends with that fridge at work that no one seems to own," Dr Eyles said. "Make sure it is clean and not packed with ageing food."
And it's always good etiquette to ensure that if you open the fridge, you also close it properly. | <urn:uuid:f5230d0c-9623-4c92-a619-17e1c9db4b4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailyliberal.com.au/story/1253210/find-the-fridge-spoiled-foods-cost-business-a-fortune/?cs=24 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975757 | 399 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Odds of Winning the Powerball Jackpot
Written By: Joe Melillo
Twin Tiers (WENY) - The Powerball jackpot is up to $500 million and if you think the dollar figure is breathtaking, wait till you hear about your odds of winning it all. First Mega Millions, now Powerball, for the second time in a year's time, a record lotto jackpot will be paid out to anyone lucky enough to have those six magical numbers being drawn Wednesday. Half of a billion dollars are up for grabs, leaving anyone who bought a ticket wondering: do I have a chance. Christine Sterner a Sophomore at Elmira College is dreaming of big money.
“Pay off the rest of my tuition, buy a car, donate a good portion of it,” says Christine.
It's easy to dream about winning the lottery and what you'd do as a millionaire, but actually winning it is another story. If we work out the basic equation of winning the Powerball jackpot Wednesday, chances of winning are 1 in 275,223,510. Charlie Jacobson, an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Elmira College, put the odds into perspective.
“Winning is very unlikely. You get your ticket you hope you win and its fun to dream but its very unlikely, and it would be a horrible retirement plan.”
Nolan Pratt a Math Major at the college is still not scared by the odds.
“Absolutely I'm going to by a ticket,” says Nolan. “Me and my roommates we're going to buy it then move to Colorado and ski big mountains all day.”
Nolan is like many of us, beat the system by buying as many tickets as possible with some friends, sounds like a good idea, right?
“I mean we've been living together for two years now so we have a pretty strong trust for one another so its understood,” says Pratt.
People in a lottery pool may be your "friends" but here are some tips so you get your share of the dough. Select a leader, and make sure the rules are set before the lottery drawing. The leader should make a copy of all the tickets and hand each participant their own copy. Despite the tremendous odds a Math Major and a proffessor betting on luck.
“I'm not getting my hopes up because I know I'm not going to win but there's still a small chance and I'll take that chance,” says Pratt.
“If I won something like that I would use it for some charitable work where I feel like it was making a difference,” says Jacobson.
There hasn't been a Powerball winner since October 6th. The drawing is for $500 million Jackpot is Wednesday night at 10:59. | <urn:uuid:ae771805-5f36-407d-98d4-13e92bce9a20> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.weny.com/national-news/national-news/powerball-odds-112712 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972575 | 585 | 1.5 | 2 |
Green Travel Saving You at the Pump
By Veronica Polivanaya
Gas is at record high for this time of year. Turmoil in Egypt, Libya and parts of the Mideast is to blame, sending gas prices upwards of $3 a gallon. In the long run, shrinking supplies, increasing demand and the possibility of new climate change regulations will result in higher oil prices.
But if an electric car is currently out of your budget, have no fear. KOMU’s 8 Goes Green is here to show you five simpler ways to save money on gas and reduce heavy draw on natural resources. And that’s not all: the more gas we save, the less pollution we create, and the less we rely on those who control the oil supply.
Take Public Transportation
According to the Illinois Public Research Group, the public transportation system in the United States saves 3.4 billion gallons of oil a year, eliminates 541 million hours of traffic delays and cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 26 million tons. That comes out to nearly 222,000 barrels a day, which only amounts to slightly less than 2% of the total oil imported daily. Still, that’s 220,000 barrels per day that the U.S. wouldn’t have to import, burn and transform into pollution. Get in on the savings by hopping on a bus instead of driving your car. Sure, you still have to spend money on bus fare, but consider this: the average U.S. commute is 16 miles, and at today’s gas prices, the average passenger would spend $2.26 going that distance. That’s more or less what a typical public transit fare costs. Plus, you’ll spare your car from wear and tear, a hidden cost of driving that adds up.
If bus routes clash with your schedule, or don’t get you to where you need to be, try driving the car you own with greater fuel-efficiency. Experts say you can improve fuel economy 20% by reversing bad habits. Reversing bad driving habits and scheduling regular vehicle maintenance lessens the pollution your car produces by burning fossil fuel. That, in turn, means less smog, less asthma, less acid rain and contributes less to global warming. Here’s how: inflate your tires to the recommended level. Visit your mechanic for a tune-up if you’re due. Don’t forget to have your tires aligned, your air filter checked and your oil changed if needed. Another tip: when making trips, combine errands and get your groceries on your way home from work. When you’re on the road, drive smoothly, accelerate slowly and avoid speeding. Make sure to lay off the breaks as well. Riding with your foot on the brake pedal will not only wear out brake pads, amounting to extra costs at the maintenance shop, but can also increase gas consumption by as much as 35%.
Does the bus route miss your workplace entirely? Carpool and split the bill with a co-worker instead! That’s like paying $1.60 for gas that costs $3.20 at the pump. And the more, the merrier. With a car full of four people, the cost per gallon comes down to just $0.80! Want to reap the benefits of saving money, but don’t have anyone to carpool with? Consider joining Divide the Ride, eRideShare, RideCheck, Carpool World or other Web-based tools created to help like-minded commuters find each other.
Trade in Your SUV
If you must drive, replace your SUV with something more fuel-efficient. The most fuel-efficient car for several years in a row has been the hybrid Toyota Prius, averaging 50 mpg. New electric cars like the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt get around 100 mpg. The least fuel-efficient cars, like SUVs, the Chevrolet Suburban and the GMC Yokun, get about 12 mpg. By swapping your gas-guzzler with an electric car, you could potentially save more than $3000 from your annual fuel bill. At current gas prices, the cost of an average commute in a Prius is $1, compared to about $4 in an SUV. At current gas prices, the cost of an average commute in a Prius is $1, compared to about $4 in an SUV. Meaning, you can go almost four times as far on a tank of gas in the Prius.
Walk, Bike or E-Bike
Whenever possible, walk or bike. Your wallet and your waistline will thank you. If the distance of your commute intimidates you, try an electric bike instead. With each mile you spend on foot, or on the saddle, you save gas and money, all while staying in shape. By trading in a trip in the average car, you’d save about $2 per average commute. You can spend that money on an umbrella for rainy days instead. | <urn:uuid:4d27caf2-07f4-46a6-9b25-bec32f1bd760> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://8goesgreen.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/green-travel-saving-you-at-the-pump/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929516 | 1,030 | 2.46875 | 2 |
As Americans make up their minds and gear up to vote, CNN asks some of America's foremost presidential historians to weigh in on the question: What does it take to make a president great?
Richard Reeves: FDR's place in the 20th century
Presidential greatness is determined by being in the White House at the right time -- or the wrong time. The presidency is a reactive job and we judge the presidents by their handling of one or two big crises, usually unforeseen.
Nobody remembers whether Abraham Lincoln or Franklin D. Roosevelt or John F. Kennedy or Ronald Reagan balanced the budget. What we remember is the agony of the Civil War. The Great Depression and Pearl Harbor. The Cuban Missile Crisis and the threat of nuclear war. The winding down of the Cold War.
Roosevelt, who probably understood the presidency better than anyone else -- before or after him -- was the greatest president of the 20th century because he knew what people wanted from the highest office in the land: action, words and optimism.
That all came together when he said he was no longer "Dr. New Deal" -- he became "Dr. Win The War." While historians will argue forever whether FDR actually ended the Depression, he did take aggressive action and fought with the right words with his "infamy" speech on December 7,1941, after Pearl Harbor was attacked.
When the Soviet Union was putting nuclear missiles in Cuba, Kennedy said in private that doing nothing was the worst option and he would be impeached if he did not take action. In good times or bad, a president is expected to do something! Sometimes he does the right thing and becomes great for it.
Richard Reeves is the author of a presidential trilogy: "President Kennedy: Profile of Power," "President Nixon: Alone in the White House" and "President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination." He is senior lecturer at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California.
Aida Donald: Truman believed in the strength of character
In early 1962, my husband and I were invited to the White House by first lady Jackie Kennedy because she wanted the president -- who loved history -- to listen to my husband, David Herbert Donald, talk about Abraham Lincoln. | <urn:uuid:ed28d871-3aa9-4ad5-a09d-2615a47ef592> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wpbf.com/news/nationalnews/Opinion-What-is-presidential-greatness/-/8788944/17165882/-/hgfux0z/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958353 | 455 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Pneumonia is one of the most common diseases we see in dairy calves from birth to weaning. Diagnosing, treating and preventing pneumonia is very important for every dairy farm. Pneumonia is also a disease that you need to work very closely with your veterinarian for guidance.
Signs of pneumonia
Most calves that have pneumonia will have a fever (rectal temperature over 103 degrees) and a rapid respiratory rate (often over 60 breaths per minute). Often, I will look at the calf before disturbing it to see if it is breathing fast as this is a very sensitive indicator of pneumonia. All calves that are suspected of having pneumonia must have their temperature taken. Listening to the lungs with a stethoscope can reveal increased or scratchy crackling breath sounds. Coughing and nasal discharge is also a sign of pneumonia; however, this can also be a sign of poor ventilation and “stale” air. A calf that is coughing without a fever or any change in respiratory rate may just need fresh air and not antibiotics!
Treatment of pneumonia
Calves with pneumonia need injectable antibiotics. There are many antibiotics approved to treat pneumonia in dairy calves, so work with your veterinarian to choose a treatment protocol for your farm. The one antibiotic you should not choose is penicillin. It is ineffective against many causes of pneumonia and will only increase the chance of permanent lung damage by delaying effective treatment. Also remember that if you are going to give Banamine of Flunix to a calf, it must be given in the vein. Intramuscular injections of this product are not approved, cause pain and severe muscle damage. Be careful of giving antibiotics to bull calves. Many are not approved for veal calves, and an extended withdrawal time is needed since the Food and Drug Administration has established a ZERO tolerance for any antibiotic residues used in a class of animal not approved on the label.
Prevention of pneumonia
- Colostrum management. All calves must have one gallon of colostrum within 4 to 6 hours of birth to receive adequate immunity. Calves that are not given enough antibodies at birth are at increased risk for pneumonia and scours throughout the entire growing period. The most important step in any calf health-management program is a successful colostrum-management program.
- Ventilation. Have your veterinarian assess the ventilation in your calf area. In cold weather climates, we often see pneumonia in the winter not due to cold but due to closed up barns with inadequate ventilation. If you are at calf level and smell ammonia, you have a severe ventilation problem. Barns should have open sidewalls and ridge caps to allow stale air to escape. Positive pressure tube ventilation systems assist with bringing in fresh air and forcing out stale air from calf barns.
- 3Vaccination. There are several pneumonia vaccines on the market today. Some are for the common bacteria that cause pneumonia, such as Mannheimia (formerly known as Pasteurella) and others are for respiratory viruses that cause pneumonia (IBR, BVD, PI3, BRSV). There are also intranasal vaccines that can be used in young calves to prevent pneumonia and are a great benefit to many calves. Remember that correctly administering and storing vaccines is important to improve the success of a vaccination program. Ask your veterinarian to review your calf-vaccination protocol on a routine basis and above all follow these guidelines! No vaccination program will correct a poor colostrum-management program.
- Nutrition. A calf must grow one pound per day to maintain an adequate immune system. Feeding calves 2 quarts of milk twice a day is inadequate to ensure health and growth. Calves must have 6 to 8 quarts of milk per day, fresh water free choice and starter feed free choice to be healthy. Do not overlook the simple fact that calves must grow to be healthy, and in many situations we find inadequate nutrition to be a major cause of calf disease.
In a disease outbreak, it is very important to have your veterinarian evaluate the cause of the pneumonia in your calves. This includes necropsy of all dead calves to evaluate for mycoplasma. Pneumonia can be preventable, as well as treatable, by working with your veterinary and management team.
Fred Gingrich is a practicing veterinarian and owner of Country Roads Veterinary Services Inc., in Ashland, Ohio. | <urn:uuid:6a8c9f15-fc69-4123-b808-1cdeb58781c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bovinevetonline.com/news/industry/Pneumonia-in-dairy-calves-145156445.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94082 | 890 | 2.921875 | 3 |
This impressive and beautiful church was constructed in 1875. It was, I believe, the third German Roman Catholic parish in Detroit following St. Mary’s on Monroe and St. Joseph’s now on Orleans. It is interesting to note that those two other parishes are within short walking distance of Sacred Heart, reminding us of the very high population density that once characterized this neighborhood. All three of these Roman Catholic churches are still serving the needs of the faithful; indeed, in those two parishes Mass is still offered in Latin every Sunday.
The impressive, if modest in size, Sacred Heart Church, was designed by Peter Dedrichs. There are conflicting claims about his natal location. Some biographies suggest that he was born in Detroit in 1856, but that implies that he designed Sacred Heart before his twentieth birthday. Others apparently think that he was born in Germany. Apparently, there is no doubt that he learned his architectural skills in Germany. He designed at least four impressive Detroit Catholic Churches that continued to serve believers into the 21st century: St. Mary’s on Monroe; the large St. Bonaventure Monastery on Mount Elliot; St. Charles Borremeo in Indian Village and the Sacred Heart Church that you see in this picture. Peter Dedrichs was also responsible for the construction of the Customs House in Detroit and for the Wayne County Court Building.
For Sacred Heath, Dedrichs designed a red-brick,
pedimented Italianate structure with an attractive projecting entrance along
wood belfry and spire are impressive since they are painted in a rich, warm
cream, complementing the deep red of the brick that Dedrichs selected for
church. You will see roundhead fenestration with stone stills under the windows
and stone keystones above. This is an appealing combination, but also suggests
durability. Along both sides of this church are six bays with their attractive
two-story windows. The sacristy and service rooms are located in the seventh
bays, the one furthest away from Rivard and closets to the new McDonald’s
whose golden arches compete with the warm cream wooden spire of Sacred Heart
for attention when you view this church from Rivard. The church itself is,
I believe, the most lucid example of Italianate church architecture to be
in the Detroit area.
This parish was founded to serve the needs of German immigrants in the decade after the Civil War. It did so, with not only the impressive Church that Dedrich’s designed, but with an elementary school and then a high school. At the time of World War I, southern blacks arrived in large numbers and were confined to the neighborhoods along Hastings, northwest from the Detroit River. As the blacks moved into Detroit, Germans moved to the further corners of the suburbs and lost their need for German language Masses. In 1938, the Catholic diocese of Detroit converted Sacred Heart from a German parish to an African American parish. The first Jim Crow parish, St. Peter Claver, had been founded for black Catholics in 1911, using the school, but not the church of St. Mary’s parish on Monroe. St. Peter Claver was transformed into the racially changed Sacred Heart parish.
After World War II, much of the housing along Hastings was torn down to build the I-75 Expressway, a development strategy that was frequently called urban renewal in white Detroit and Negro removal in black Detroit. As you can see, Sacred Heart lost much of its catchment area with the building of the expressway. In 1957, the parish closed its secondary school and, eight years later, its primary school.
Architect: Peter Dederichs
Architectural Style: Late Gothic Revival/ Romanesque Italianate
Date of Construction: 1875
City of Detroit Local Historic District:
State of Michigan Registry of Historic Sites: P25215; Listed June 19, 1975
State of Michigan Historical Market: Erected October 25, 1978 and clearly visible on the Rivard frontage of this beautiful and inspiring church
National Registry of Historic Places: # 80001926; Listed June 6, 1980
Use in 2004: Roman Catholic Church serving the needs of the city’s Roman Catholics
Photo: Ren Farley; February 2004
Return to Religious Sites
Return to Racial History in Detroit
Return to Homepage | <urn:uuid:0e94841c-28ef-4f40-a6e3-707a25d55525> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.detroit1701.org/Sacred%20Heart%20Complex.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970163 | 907 | 2.609375 | 3 |
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama says it is important to resolve the ongoing conflict in Syria without outside military intervention.
Obama says not every situation allows for the type of military action the U.S. and allies took in Libya, which led to the removal of Moammar Gadhafi.
The president says a negotiated solution in Syria is possible. He defended his administration's handling of the violence there, saying the U.S. has been "relentless" in demanding that President Bashar Assad leave power.
However, an Obama-supported resolution at the U.N. Security Council was vetoed this weekend by Russia and China. The resolution would have backed Arab League plan aimed at moving Assad in the direction of a peaceful transition to democracy in his violence-wracked country.
Obama spoke during an interview on NBC's "Today" show. | <urn:uuid:2bc26407-f546-4c87-abe4-4a32a11683cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://the-daily-record.com/ap%20washington/2012/02/06/obama-syria-can-be-solved-without-military-action | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974189 | 174 | 2.140625 | 2 |
The Northwest Region of California
Established in 1973, Sinkyone Wilderness State Park, located along the southern stretch of California's iconic Lost Coast, can finally live up to its name. In November 2006, after hearing the impassioned pleas of Native American elders, local conservationists and other ardent supporters, the California State Park and Recreation Commission voted unanimously to designate 7,100 acres of Sinkyone as wilderness. Despite its name, Sinkyone Wilderness State Park had long existed with no designated
The striking scenery that brings visitors to the Sinkyone Wilderness State Park left the land largely undeveloped for so many years. The steep, foggy coastal cliffs connecting Mendocino and Humboldt Counties rise sharply up from the sea. It is a landscape so rugged that the engineers who designed Highway 1 decided that the better part of valor was to retreat inland to find an easier route. This gap in Californias famous coastal highway has since been known as the " Lost Coast."
The land's basking seals and sea lions, fluttering shorebirds, and misty forests appear peaceful. Yet conflict has left its mark over the last two centuries. In the 1800s, bounty hunters slaughtered Native Americans for a reward from the State of California. Near the park's Needle Rock, a group of the vigilantes fell upon members of the Sinkyone Tribe and massacred them. The sole survivor, given the name Sally Bell by a white couple who eventually adopted her, hid in the woods for months after watching the murder of her family.
Later, conservationists clashed with logging interests in a fight to preserve the park. Timber companies clearcut choice old-growth forests nearby. By the mid-1980s, Georgia-Pacific Corporation was on the verge of liquidating the last ancient redwoods in the area. While some activists filed suit, others chained themselves to trees in an old-growth forest they dubbed the "Sally Bell Grove." In 1986, after receiving a favorable court ruling and financial help from the Save the Redwoods League, the Trust for Public Land, the California Coastal Commission and other interests, the park was expanded to its current size and special places like the Sally Bell Grove were finally spared. North Coast activist Darryl Cherney commemorated this struggle with his catchy folk song, "Give 'Em Hell, Sally Bell."
The activists who helped defend Sinkyone in the 1980s continued to pressure the California Department of Parks and Recreation to officially protect the park as wilderness. At last, these efforts paid off this past November. President Bush created the first ever Lost Coast wilderness when he signed into law the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act, which included 42,000 acres of wilderness in the King Range National Conservation Area, adjacent to Sinkyone. The two areas of public land border each other and share the 50+ mile Lost Coast Trail. Both the governments of the State of California and the United States have finally given the historic and beautiful Lost Coast the permanent protection it deserves.
Trail name: Bloody Rock/Cold Creek
Distance: Your choice of 3.2 miles round-trip or 12.8 miles round-trip
Difficulty: Moderate; Moderately Strenuous
Features: This region is a wonderful mix of open meadows, oak woodlands, old-growth pine and fir forests, and 10 miles of the Eel River canyon. The wildflower displays in spring are truly outstanding, and wildlife is abundant. The Eel River can be reached via a moderate 3.2-mile round-trip hike. The stream offers great swimming holes and many flat, shaded areas for picnicking. Most hikers turn around at the river, but the trail continues east from the stream for another 4.8 miles up the wild, beautiful and seldom visited Cold Creek canyon.
The trail is an ancient Native American trade route between the Central Valley and the Eel River watershed. Impressive Bloody Rock, a mere 0.75 miles from the trailhead and accessible via a vague spur trail, is the site of a Nineteenth Century battle between members of the Yuki Tribe and local settlers. The story goes that instead of surrendering, about 30 Yuki warriors sang their death song, joined hands, and leaped to their deaths from Bloody Rock. Today, however, the rock is an extremely peaceful place. From the top, visitors can see much of the Snow Mountain region.
The area is accessible year-round, but it is best to visit in April or May to see the wildflower displays. As with any wild forest in California, watch for poison oak, ticks and rattlesnakes. Use bear-safe food storage methods. Use caution while cro?sing the Eel River during high flows.
For more information: Mendocino National Forest, Upper Lake Ranger District, (707) 275-2361. The official Mendocino National Forest map is essential.
Directions to trailhead: From the intersection of Highways 101 and 20 in Mendocino County 4.5 miles north of Ukiah, head east on Highway 20 for 5 miles. Turn left on Potter Valley Road. Continue for 6.5 miles to Eel River Road and turn right. Follow Eel River Road for 17 miles to Mendocino National Forest Road M1, turn left. Follow M1 for 6.3 miles to Road M6, turn right. Follow M6 for 2.7 miles to the signed Bloody Rock Trailhead on right. Approximate driving time from Ukiah is 1 hour.
This hike description was written with the assistance of Bob Lorentzens outstanding The Hikers Hip Pocket Guide to the Mendocino Highlands (Bored Feet Press, www.boredfeet.com ). | <urn:uuid:5e796389-2b8b-4f28-8588-cc0a5027fc44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://calwild.org/explore-wild-lands/northwest-ca.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942855 | 1,169 | 3.09375 | 3 |
What is that a child wants more than anything? Mother,Love,Toys,Friends or Father? Yes, it’s father Mariam wanted more than anything in the world, Mariam – five year old daughter of Jalil. All she wanted is her father, she loved Thursday more than any other day in the week because that’s the day when Jalil will come to meet his bustard daughter. Even though her mother told her multiple times not to trust any man because ‘A man’s accusing finger will always finds a woman,always’. She never believed her mother, never until it was too late until, the storm called reality stuck her so hard that, it was impossible for her to get out of that storm.
There are only few books which are written and explained with such a beauty that it will almost tore your heart apart and that’s exactly what “A Thousand Splendid Suns” did to me.
A Thousand Splendid Suns follows the lives of two Afghani girls, Mariam and Laila as the move from children to adults. This books spans 40 years, covering three decades of war in Afghanistan, starting with Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and closing with the overthrow of the Taliban. Story revolves around, Mariam who is born and bought up in small village with no education and Laila who born and bought up in Kabul with good educational background. Husseini has beautifully described how destiny will bring these two girls from two different parts of country to same place and how the enmity between them is turned into a beautiful friendship. A friendship you will never forget throughout your life.
There are only few writers who can produce back-to-back masterpieces and Husseini is one of those writers.There is lot to learn in this book, Love, Friendship, political turmoil in Afghanistan. The real picture of Afghani people in the midst of three decades of wars, their struggle for life, their struggle for food, their struggle for sleep and most importantly their struggle for peace . This book also describes the real beauty of Afghanistan.
There are parts in this book, which will make you privately shed tears and there are parts which will make you laugh(like Islamic flamingos).
The books describes the struggle of Afghani men/women (specially women) in the midst of political warfare, civil war and under an oppressive regime – you will be thankful to God for the things which he has given you.
Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman’s love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.
A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love.
Overall this is the book which is not be missed, seriously, not be missed. I recommend this book for everyone. Go ahead pick this up and read. | <urn:uuid:21578628-8d2b-44e0-9036-afb3194b493c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sayedkhadri.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/a-thousand-splendid-suns/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970744 | 734 | 1.953125 | 2 |
The UK's first 4G network has announced a raft of impending improvements to its superfast network, as well as improving 3G services.
A total of 17 new towns and cities will be getting the LTE service, which offers speeds around five times faster than 3G.
The new 4G zones are Bradford, Chelmsford, Coventry, Doncaster, Dudley, Leicester, Luton, Newport, Reading, Rotherham, St Albans, Sunderland, Sutton Coldfield, Walsall, Watford, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton, as EE looks to extend around the launch cities.
The 4G networks in these areas will be turned on by March 2013, with the full 98% coverage rollout set to finish by the end of the following year.
On the up and up
In addition to the new 4G locations, EE has announced that it will be improving the services in the current faster-speed cities, meaning a better signal and even speedier connections for those using LTE phones in the likes of London, Birmingham and Manchester.
And don't worry if you care about, you know, having money and don't want to shell out on 4G just yet; EE has announced it has managed to gain 40% of the population covered with DC-HSPA 3G signal, meaning you can get up to 42Mbps speeds on the go.
If all of this seems like total gibberish, don't worry as we've potted it down for you: 4G is the fastest mobile signal out there, but costs a rather large amount and you'll need a special phone. DC-HSPA is the 'normal' data connection you're used to, but about half the speed of 4G. Simple, eh? | <urn:uuid:c49c362a-a516-4182-8aed-309c2d093c90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/ee-announces-next-wave-of-4g-imbued-cities-1118727?src=rss&attr=all | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968398 | 358 | 1.71875 | 2 |
In a recent issue of New York magazine, the media maven Michael Wolff, writing about the creative political fund raising of Howard Dean, derided as "populist fantasy" the notion "that the Internet is some great mall of ordinary, uninformed, and uninterested zhlubs who have just been more efficiently organized, and by the wonders of the medium, happily politicized." On the contrary, Wolff observed, people reached on the Internet were those "whose very engagement [even overengagement] separates them most from ordinary zhlubby citizens."
With soccer moms and angry white males fading into the mists with little old ladies in tennis shoes, political analysts evidently must now focus on the mysterious zhlub vote.
Contrary to white-bread belief, zhlub is not a variant spelling of slob. That word, which has risen from slang to "informal" in most dictionaries, means "boor" and more particularly "a slovenly person." Slob is rooted, moistily, in the Scandinavian slabb, "slime, mud," and was picked up by the Irish around 1861 to look askance at the untidy.
What is a zhlub, and what quality is expressed in its adjectival form, zhlubby?
According to Sol Steinmetz, et al, in Meshugganery, an informal dictionary of Yiddishisms, the word is spelled "schlub" and means "a crude individual lacking in social skills and blessed with insensitivity, clumsiness and no manners." A less pejorative sense is "oaf, bumpkin." A third sense, similar to nebbish, less often used, is "a person of no color." The lexicographers refer to an ad placed in the personals by a schlub reading: "Sweet Jewish guy, 40. No skeletons, no heavy baggage. No personality, either." In its form as a modifier, zhlubby is synonymous with the British naff, "unfashionable, tasteless."
The spelling presents this year's political analysts with a problem. Having bloomed in Poland as "zlob" -- that's a z with a dot over it, an l with a stick through it, an o with an accent slightly acute over it, finishing with a naked b -- the derogation is pronounced "jzwoob," which does not come easily to reporters covering candidates on the stump.
In the wonderfully inclusive fourth edition of The American Heritage Dictionary -- 2,000 pages and 4,000 illustrations, with rich etymologies and a bargain at US$60 -- the seeker after meaning can find insightful little essays about usage. Regarding the sch sound, it notes that some words are "recognizably of foreign extraction because they begin with sound combinations (shl-, shm-, shn-) not found at the beginning of native English words. Schlock is such a word; it is descended from a Middle High German word for a hit or blow, and thus came to refer to damaged merchandise, and then to merchandise of poor quality. Other words beginning with this and similar sound combinations are Yiddish also: schlep, schlemiel, schmooze, schmuck and schnoz."
In the case of the up-and-coming schlub/zhlub, I would go with the "z" spelling, to differentiate it from the muddier slob.
I was filing a column from the London bureau of The New York Times when Warren Hoge, the bureau chief, poked his head in the visitors' cubicle. "Would the verb over-egging be familiar to an American reader?"
On behalf of American readers, I told him egged on would be taken to mean "urged," egghead would be taken to mean "intellectual" and egg cream was a New York soda fountain's admixture of seltzer and chocolate sauce. Hoge, working on deadline, figured this meant no, I never heard of over-egged, but hated to admit it. | <urn:uuid:e79f79d2-eace-4cdc-8951-36139de68c2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2003/10/05/2003070489 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948767 | 843 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Relevance to the Underserved Issue
Telepsychiatry is currently one of the most effective ways to increase access to psychiatric care for individuals living in underserved areas.
Summary of Key Information
Telepsychiatry, or telemedicine, is a specifically defined form of video conferencing that can provide psychiatric services to patients living in remote locations or otherwise underserved areas. It can connect patients, psychiatrists, physicians, and other healthcare professionals through the use of television cameras and microphones. Telemedicine currently provides an array of services, including but not limited to diagnosis and assessment; medication management; and individual and group therapy. It also provides an opportunity for consultative services between psychiatrists, primary care physicians and other healthcare providers. Telepsychiatry is also being used to provide patients with second opinions in areas where only one psychiatrist is available. Telepsychiatry has been shown to improve collaborative services between professionals. Studies indicate that healthcare professionals feel telepsychiatry has given them an opportunity to work more effectively as a team. Patients surveyed say they felt that the communication between their physicians had improved their outcomes. There are a few barriers to providing telepsychiatry services. Reimbursement is still difficult to receive, especially through third-party payers, and licensure can be difficult to obtain. Overall, telepsychiatry provides increased access to services and has helped enhance the provision of services to families with children and other patients who are homebound. Patients participating in telepsychiatry say they are satisfied with the care they are receiving and that they feel telepsychiatry is a reliable form of practice.
Model Programs and Collaborative Projects | <urn:uuid:34266eb4-13d7-4255-a686-73662b72a7a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://psych.org/practice/professional-interests/underserved-communities/telepsychiatry | 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 | 0.96149 | 337 | 3.1875 | 3 |
We got an email pointing to a website that said:
Many people think that Arinze, the Pope's Deputy for Outreach, is heir apparent to John Paul II. But even if he is not, his comments are chilling and revealing....An illustration of Roman Catholic ecumenism, which ices out the Gospel and makes mockery of the ministry of Jesus Christ, is found in Arinze's answer to the question, "Can you still get to heaven without accepting Jesus?" His answer, not surprising, but chilling and ominous, is: "Expressly, yes!"
The website quoted above has spent a lot of effort pulling Catholic statements from their original context to destroy ecumenical dialogue such as we have been doing on this site. They spend their days sifting through Vatican communications looking for quotes that they can pull out of context. They teach people that Catholics are not Christians and that we hang out with the New Age. URRRGGHHHH!!!
The Catholic Church discerned God's voice when it formed the doctrine of the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Ghost). Yup "the Trinity" is a Catholic doctrine that predates the Evangelical Church by 1500 years. That word isn't even in the Bible. That is just one example of the 100's of beliefs that Evangelicals inherited from Catholicism.
Evangelicals who assert that Catholics are not Christian are sometimes surprised to learn that they accept the authority of the Catholic Church (Council of Carthage 397AD) every time they pick up the New Testament.
Any time spent studying the Church Fathers will make it abundantly clear that early Christian beliefs were Catholic. Their complete unity over the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is only one example.
A timeline is here. Whether or not someone agrees with all of the doctrines of Catholicism is different issue, but we are clearly Christian. "No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor 12:3) The non-Catholic scholar Peter Flint, who translated the Dead Sea Scrolls, tells us that there was no Bible until the 300's when the Catholic Church infallibly decided on what books belong there. Before that there were hundreds of letters and the Septuagint, but no Bible. The Bible didn't just fall out of the sky with an NIV sticker on the binding. Catholics prayer, discernment, theological discussion gave us the Bible. This was over 1000 years before Luther. Yes, we are Christians.
Jesus has called Christians to unity "that they may all be one, as you Father, are in me and I am in you." (Jn 17:21) We hope that we can love one another as He has loved us. (Jn 13:34).
The Catholic Church makes it absolutely clear that anyone who willfully turns his back on Christ will be denied salvation. (Catechism 846) So why does the Church say that some people who have not surrendered their life to Christ ("born again") might make it to heaven? To begin this conversation let us take a tour through the Old Testament.
Let us look at King David, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. They never knew Christ. They never asked Jesus to be their personal Saviour. Some Evangelicals will say that these guys are not in heaven and never will be because they didn't make a "personal decision for Christ" during their life.
These Old Testament prophets cause some problems for many Evangelicals because the prophets did not meet the requirement of "making a personal decision for Jesus" while living. Some Evangelicals side step this issue and say, "I don't know where the Old Testament prophets are today, no one knows." But these same Evangelicals claim there are only two places for humans after they die, heaven or hell. They also claim that the only way into heaven is to claim Christ as your personal Saviour while you are living. That seems to leave only one place for the prophets, hell. It makes no sense to us that someone who wrote the Bible would be in hell. We must say that thankfully, not all Evangelicals follow this logic. Some Evangelicals follow the thinking of the Catholic Church on this matter.
Catholics believe on the day Jesus died, He descended to the realm of the dead (hell in English, Sheol in Hebrew, Hades in Greek). He descended there as Saviour, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there (1 Peter 3:18-19).
He did not do this to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him...And therefore Jesus' redemption extends to all men of all times and all places. (Catechism 633, Council of Rome 745AD)
Catholics think there is redemption for some faithful who seek God, but have never met Christ.
"And without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." (Heb 11:6)
The important word here is "seek." The Old Testament Prophets sought after God and were rewarded.
St. Paul then goes on walk us through the entire Old Testament. He speaks about
Noah... Abraham... Isaac...Jacob... Rehab the prostitute... Moses, Sarah... Gideon... Barak... Samson...Jephthah...David...Samuel and the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained, promised, shut the mouths of lions (Heb 11:7-12:1)
None of them knew Christ, none of them were "born again." Yet Paul does not at all suggest they are in hell. In speaking about them, he says "we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses." This does not sound like hell.
Christ made it clear that Moses and Elijah are doing fine and are not in hell (Mat 17:2) and that Abraham is doing fine also (Lk 16:22). None of these guys made a personal decision for Christ while they were alive. Obviously, these faithful souls pleased God. We think it was their honest search for truth and faith in God that saved them. We got an email that said:
the thing is,the old testament people believed the gospel, they believed the prophecies so even before jesus was born, they had already believed ...that soon emmanuel will be real...and the book that they read was actually what we now have as the bible.
Yes that is true, but modern Jews believe in the OT prophets and are expecting the Messiah to come. They just don't think he's come yet. So they are not Christian, and that presents a logic puzzle for this well meaning person.
Of course we believe all those Old Testament prophets are in Heaven. Jesus descended to the dead to go get them out of Sheol, during the 3 days after the crucifixion.
However, by nature of their own logic, those who claim that it is impossible to get to Heaven without confessing Jesus with the lips before dying, would have to conclude that the prophets of the Old Testament are not saved.
We work with people with disabilities. Some of them are so hit by cognitive disability that they are not capable of honestly surrendering to Jesus. They just don't have the mental capacity to consciously choose Christ. With all the compassion that Jesus showed to people with disabilities We don't think he will damn them to hell. He is a merciful God. That's the cool thing about Catholic baptism. We didn't choose to be born into a human life yet received the grace of life. Catholics believe a person can also receive the grace of eternal life before actually choosing it. The expectation of the Holy Spirit is that we will make a personal commitment to Christ if and when that is cognitively possible.
Jesus brought a girl back from the dead. It is doubtful that she had previously turned her life over to Jesus. (Mt 9:18) He is a God of mercy.
If someone has never been exposed to the Gospel message before he dies, yet believes in God and is searching for truth, Catholics believe the culpability falls on us as Christians for never having reached him.(1 Cor 9:16) That is why all Christians must evangelize. If an upright African guy believes in God and seeks him but never hears about the Gospel in an authentic way, you and me better get on our knees and ask for God's mercy. "Woe to me if I do not proclaim the Gospel" (1 Cor 9:16). We are responsible for getting the word out.
It is not because of his non-Christian religion that a person above could be saved. It would be because Catholics believe Jesus judges the heart of each individual. It would be cruel to believe that God would create this soul, and then condemn him to hell even though he believed and sought God. It would be through no fault of his own that he never heard the Gospel. It would be our fault. The Church teaches that it is by the mercy of Christ that people are saved, even if they may not realize it at the moment of death. Jesus is the only Saviour. The Catholic Church makes it clear that those who refuse Jesus, after having been presented the Gospel in an authentic way, will spend an eternity in hell. (Cat 846)
Part of the reason that Catholics have confidence that some honest seekers who never meet the Lord will be saved is because we believe in Purgatory. There is a similarity to what Jesus did when He went down to Sheol to preach to the Old Testament faithful there (1 Peter 3:18-19) and what he will do for honest seekers who were never evangelized in an authentic way here on earth. Catholics believe these people will go to Purgatory (a step before heaven). Jesus is present in Purgatory, and everyone there will accept Jesus as the Saviour before they enter into heaven.
It would be easy to say, "hey the Catholics think all non Christians are going to get evangelized and saved in purgatory." That is not so. The Catholic Church teaches that Purgatory is not for those who willfully reject Christ or never seek God in this life. Those who reject Christ will not enter Heaven or Purgatory, they will go to hell. If you have never made a personal decision for Christ, we beg you to do so now. It was the best thing we ever did. Here is an article that shows you how to do that.
Lord Jesus, let Your prayer of unity for Christians
become a reality, in Your way.
We have absolute confidence
that you can bring your people together,
we give you absolute permission to move. | <urn:uuid:c0976b0a-8c2b-49ad-b012-a5f86c7329f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://catholicbridge.com/catholic/are_non-christians_saved.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972287 | 2,188 | 1.765625 | 2 |
From weather radars to wildlife disease: Frontiers in bat ecology and conservation
A Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Seminar presented by Winifred Frick, Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, UC Santa Cruz
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Winifred Frick is an ecologist and research scientist in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Santa Cruz who studies population and behavioral ecology. Her work spans a number of broad research topics from pollination ecology to disease ecology as well as an emerging field called aeroecology. Much of her research focuses on bats, but she is broadly interested in species interactions as well as the interface between basic ecology and applied conservation biology. She will present her current research on transmission and population impacts of an emerging infectious disease on hibernating bats, White-Nose Syndrome. She will also discuss her research on use of weather radar technologies to observe and quantify aerial bat populations as well as share highlights from her research on nectar-feeding behavior in desert bats. | <urn:uuid:cad0c9c2-96b5-450b-9d65-cf73846b77f7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.environment.ucla.edu/lakretz/calendar/showevent.asp?eventid=855&eventdate=11/14/2012 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949251 | 215 | 2.28125 | 2 |
By Elizabeth Smith, April 11, 2013
Reaching for earth-conscious cleaners doesn’t mean wiping out your savings. We scoured our shelves for the three must-have products with high marks for safety—yours and the planet’s. These hardworking cleaners go from floor to skylights and everything in-between with cash to spare so you can grab a few rolls of 100%-recycled-paper towels.
By Elizabeth Smith, April 7, 2013
From ingredients to quantity to producer pratices, our choices at the grocery store count. We’ve collected nine of our favorite Earth Month tips for food choices. Take a look, get inspired, and share your ideas too.
By Elizabeth Smith, April 5, 2013
Food choices count, so celebrate Earth Month by eating your way to a greener planet. Here are six simple ways to make food choices that positively impact our environment.
By Jody Villecco, April 4, 2013
We believe in full disclosure. As a result, we developed our Eco-Scale™ rating system, meaning we evaluate every ingredient for environmental impact, safety, efficacy, source, labeling and animal testing. Based on audits conducted by a 3rd-party audit agency, the products are rated red, orange, yellow or green on our Eco-Scale™.
By Elizabeth Smith, April 3, 2013
As an adventurous home chef with a love for experimenting with new recipes and new foods, I’ve had to acquire a sharp set of money-saving skills to get the most out of my budget and my pantry. I’m proud when I use what I have in my kitchen in inventive (and tasty) ways, and happy that Whole Foods Market® can help me. Here are my top 12 ways to minimize food waste.
By Elizabeth Smith, April 2, 2013
Home is where the heart is, so show the Earth you care there! From your backyard to your bathroom to your closet, we’re sharing 11 of our favorite Earth Month tips for the home.
By MAKE Magazine, March 30, 2013
MAKE magazine brings the do-it-yourself mindset to all the exciting projects in your life and helps you make the most of technology at home and away from home. Projects in the magazine range from old-school balsa wood and tissue-paper airplanes to what to do to keep aging high-tech gadgets alive to building autonomous robots from junk.
In this post, MAKE contributor Thomas Arey shares how to make a composter from a trash can.
By Chad Lott, March 26, 2013
The best environmental solutions are the ones that are fun. Growing your own food is a great experience, riding a bicycle can be transcendent, and making some good home cooking for friends is just about the best combo of eco and enjoyable I can think of.
By Megan Myers, March 23, 2013
With the season’s egg dyeing and deviled-egg eating, chances are you’re starting to collect a few extra egg cartons around the house. Don’t throw them away!
By Elizabeth Smith, March 12, 2013
The Do Something Reel™ Film Festival continues this month with Bonsai People – The Vision of Muhammad Yunus, an uplifting documentary about one man’s extraordinary humanitarian work and his influence around the globe. | <urn:uuid:34753218-c9a0-4bbe-ae8d-54d0e60da6dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/tags/environmental-stewardship?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922122 | 697 | 1.773438 | 2 |
|National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day|
|Written by Chamber Web Administrator|
|Thursday, 05 March 2009 06:41|
Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team
“National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day” on March 10th
The Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team (APAIT), in collaboration with Khmer Girls in Action, Guam Communications Network, and the San Fernando - Filipino American Chamber of Commerce, honors National Women and Girls AIDS Awareness Day on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009. The event begins at 12pm at The Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach, 5450 East Atherton St Long Beach, CA 90815.
In recognition of National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, the Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team would like to place a special emphasis on Asian and Pacific Islander (API) women (API), hoping to empower API women in Los Angeles County about HIV/AIDS.
“Asian Pacific women are often left out of discussion in many health related issues,” said Lillian Chu, APAIT Program Manager. “AIDS is no different. We hope that women everywhere, particularly API women, pay attention to this important topic.”
Research and community perspectives will be presented showing the link between Asian Pacific Islander women and HIV/AIDS. Speakers include Lola Sablan-Santos, Executive Director of Guam Communications Network, Suely Ngouy, Executive Director of Khmer Girls in Action, and Dr. Rosemary Veniegas, HIV researcher at UCLA.
Established in 1987, APAIT is Southern California’s largest provider of HIV/AIDS prevention and care services to the Asian and Pacific Islander community. APAIT’s mission is to positively affect the quality of life for Asian and Pacific Islanders living with or at-risk for HIV/AIDS by providing a continuum of prevention, health and social services, community leadership and advocacy to the Southern California region.
This event is made possible through the Office of Minority Health and the Office of Women’s Health.
|Last Updated ( Saturday, 14 March 2009 08:10 )| | <urn:uuid:290ded33-5912-465d-b5a6-b5eb32e90b95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.facc-sfv.org/about-us/our-vision/67-national-women-and-girls-hivaids-awareness-day.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902099 | 443 | 1.695313 | 2 |
About John Penn
John Penn (aka "John Penn, Jr." [sic], "John Penn of Stoke") (22 February 1760, London, England – 21 June 1834, Stoke Poges, England) was an Anglo-American writer, a part proprietor of the Province of Pennsylvania (now the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a state of the United States), and a governor of the Isle of Portland.
John Penn was the son of Thomas Penn and his wife Juliana (the daughter of Thomas Fermor, first earl of Pomfret), elder brother to Granville Penn, and a grandson of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. He was sent to school at Eton College. On the death of his father in 1775, John Penn succeeded to his father's interests, but, with his cousin, also named John Penn ("John Penn the Governor"), lost the proprietorship by the American Revolution. In 1776 he entered Clare College, Cambridge as a fellow commoner. He made an extended visit to Pennsylvania (1783–88), renting a Philadelphia city house, and designing and building a country house which survives on the grounds of the Philadelphia Zoo. He returned to England in 1789 with 130,000 pounds compensation for the loss of the family's 21 million acres (85,000 km2) in Pennsylvania. With the money he rebuilt the mansion in the family estate of Stoke Park.
in 1798 he was appointed High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Helston from 1802 to 1805. In 1805 he became governor of the Isle of Portland, where he built Pennsylvania Castle. He published a tragedy (The Battle of Eddington, or British Liberty), some pamphlets, a volume of poems, and Observations in Illustration of Virgil's Celebrated Fourth Eclogue in 1810. This last title is a discussion of Virgil's Fourth Eclogue in which Penn reasons that Virgil's eclogue is not a prophecy of the birth of Jesus Christ but a Genethliacon, a birthday-poem in honour of Octavius who became Augustus Caesar. He received the degree of LL.D. from Cambridge in 1811.
In 1818, still a bachelor at age 58, he founded the "Martimonial Society", soon renamed the "Outinian Society," whose purpose was to encourage young men and women to marry.
He died, unmarried, at Stoke Park in Stoke Poges on 21 June 1834 and was succeeded by his brother Granville Penn. | <urn:uuid:4662ca47-970f-4f2c-88f0-9aced4aa22cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.geni.com/people/John-Penn/6000000009737301660 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970946 | 521 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Iceland is one of the more dramatic casualties of the global financial crisis. Government officials seized control of the country's biggest bank Thursday, trying to shore up its banking system. It's the third time this week it has had to nationalize a troubled major bank.
Iceland's banks were especially aggressive during the global credit boom and took on enormous amounts of debt. When that credit boom went bust, the banks were hammered.
Earlier this week, the prime minister warned that the entire country could go bankrupt. | <urn:uuid:06b15b43-1b22-433f-83b7-4495ae56eab5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/npr.php?id=95545740 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985131 | 103 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Where do the holes in Swiss Cheese come from?
The holes in Baby Swiss come from a process similar to that of bread dough. Propianic acid is added to the milk in the early stages of Swiss Cheese production as eye former. The acid then causes the eyes to grow. As the cheese cures the eyes form. For a more detailed explanation of our cheese making process check out our “Cow to Chow” section.
How do you make your cheese?
With a little bit of magic and a whole lot of love. But, it all starts with the milk, which is tested and certified even before it is pumped into our facility. From there the milk is pasteurized and we then add our magical ingredients that are full of love and years of experience. If that isn’t detailed enough for you, our cheese making process is actually explained in detail on our “cow to chow” process found here (http://penncheese NULL.com/c2c/c2c NULL.html).
Where are you located?
We are located in Winfield, the heart of Central Pennsylvania, where we produce, sell, and ship our award winning cheeses. For a detailed map and directions, follow to our “Contact” link.
Can you stop by the factory and buy cheese there?
Absolutely. We have a sales section right inside our main facility and we are currently expanding our plant to sell even more cheeses and make visits that much more enjoyable. We invite you to stop by during business hours to see the inside of Penn Cheese and take home some our our Baby Swiss.
Can you freeze the cheese?
Yes, you can. But, the best way to thaw out our cheese is to place it in the refrigerator so it can thaw out slowly and uniformily. This way our cheese can be enjoyed as you need it for snacks or meals.
What is the difference between Baby Swiss and regular Swiss?
Baby Swiss is younger and tends to have a more mild Swiss flavor. Our Baby Swiss is also a little sweeter with a nutty and buttery flavor. This is due to our secret, special, and unique ingredients that we have perfected over our years of operation.
Lacey Swiss? What is that?
Lacey Swiss is a lower fat lower sodium cheese than our Baby Swiss. And, it is still made with the same love and commitment that we put into all of our cheeses. Try our Lacey Swiss, as we are sure that once you have one bite, you will want more.
Why is organic cheese more expensive?
Dairy farmers have been operating under very price competitive conditions, and in order to survive, many were forced to use unnatural methods by feeding their cattle with unhealthy grains, as well as, using growth hormone injections. This resulted in most dairy cows producing 3 times as much milk, creating highly stressed dairy cows. However, this does result in the production of low cost cheese and dairy products.
Is your 100% grass fed raw milk organic cheese a health food?
Yes, it is. Comparing our organic cheese with other cheeses made with milk from grain fed cows, which you will find in most stores and restaurants, is as opposite as two different forms of the same food can get. Cheese made from grain fed cows is very high in the omega 6 fats that most people get far too much of and which leads to a variety of diseases. On the other hand, it is quite low in omega 3 which most people are dangerously deficient in. However, grass fed raw milk natural cheese is one of very few foods containing a perfect balance of omega 3 and omega 6 fats, a ratio ideal for good health. Our cheese also contains considerably more beta carotene, vitamin A, vitamin D and E, as well as additional calcium and protein.
How can I get your Organically Certified Cheeses?
All you have to do is ask. We are extremely proud of all of our cheeses and look forward to long term relationship, as a friend and customer. | <urn:uuid:00f014f9-db96-481b-9f3f-94bb503d75e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.penncheese.com/faq%E2%80%99s | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972869 | 832 | 1.960938 | 2 |
By OSV and CNS report - OSV Newsweekly, 11/27/2011
Bil Keane, a lifelong Catholic who chronicled the exploits of Billy, Dolly, Jeffy and P.J., their parents and pets in the beloved comic strip “Family Circus,” died Nov. 8 at the age of 89 in Arizona.
Our Sunday Visitor will remember Keane in a special way, as he created a “Family Circus” cartoon in which he mentions Our Sunday Visitor. It appeared on OSV’s cover in the July 4, 1982, issue.
In an interview inside the same issue, Keane told OSV that he wasn’t necessarily trying to make the comic strip funny, but rather wanted to depict “typical” situations in family life.
“I like people to have a recognizable scene so that they can say ‘The same thing happened in our house.’ Sometimes it’s funny, but not always. Sometimes it has a tender feeling to it — a tug at the heart,” he said. “I like to have a bit of nostalgia in the cartoons; to have people remember when their kids did the same thing or when their grandchildren did the same thing. And for young people — they know that when they get married the same thing is going to happen to them.”
Nun’s early support
Born William Aloysius Keane in Philadelphia, he taught himself to draw while a student at Northeast Catholic High School in Philadelphia. He got his first cartoon published in 1936 on the amateur page of the Philadelphia Daily News.
But the urge to do cartoons started even earlier. While a sixth-grader at St. William School in Philadelphia, Keane drew a picture of his teacher, an Immaculate Heart of Mary sister named Sister Ann. When she caught a glimpse of his art, though, she responded in a way no one expected: She decided the class needed its own newspaper and Keane should be editor. Sister Ann also told Keane that she’d pray for his future success as a cartoonist.
Keane served in the Army 1942-45, drawing for Yank magazine and later for the Army’s newspaper, Stars and Stripes. While serving in Australia, he met his wife, Thelma, the inspiration for “Thel,” the mother in “The Family Circus.” She died in 2008.
Returning to Philadelphia after his military service, he got a job with the Philadelphia Bulletin daily newspaper, first doing a comic strip called “Silly Philly” and later “Channel Chuckles.”
In 1960, after the family had moved from Philadelphia to Arizona, Keane came up with the idea for “The Family Circus.” He had planned to call the strip “The Family Circle,” but Family Circle magazine objected.
His five children served as the models for Billy, Dolly, Jeffy and P.J. In later years, his interactions with his grandchildren inspired the strip. The family pets, dogs Barfy and Sam and the feline Kittycat, were also inspired from real life.
“I think my whole basis for humor is to show how much fun life can be in a home where there’s love between the mother and father, between the children, respect for the parents, the interplay of little family situations — all that is the setting for what I consider a typical slice of life,” Keane told OSV in 1982.
Keane, who was named “cartoonist of the year” in 1982, did not shy away from depicting religion in the strip, but always made sure it was in good taste.
“I think the beauty of religious humor is that it deflates what is normally a very serious, pompous type of situation,” he told OSV.
Although Keane is gone, the exploits of his beloved characters will live on. One son, Jeff, took over drawing “Family Circus” and will continue the strip.
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Catholic Faith Resources | For Catholic Parishes | Order OSV Products | RSS | Advertise | About Us | Contact Us | Jobs | <urn:uuid:ae1321d6-41ef-4a36-92ee-0a436554576a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.osv.com/tabid/7621/itemid/8675/Catholic-cartoonist-Keane-kept-family-front-and-ce.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973192 | 904 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Scientists in Japan report they have created eggs from stem cells in a mammal for the first time. And the researchers went on to breed healthy offspring from the eggs they created.
While the experiments involved mice, the work is being met with excitement — and questions — about doing the same thing for humans someday.
"Wow. That's my general reaction," said Hank Greely, a bioethicist at Stanford University who studies stem-cell science. "Repairing hearts, repairing brains, repairing kidneys, that's all good and important, and we'd all love to be able to do that. But this involves making the next generation."
Scientists obtain the versatile cells from embryos. Embryonic stem cells are controversial because researchers destroy the embryos to get them.
But because these stem cells can morph into any cell in the body, there's always been the possibility they could do something especially profound. They could offer a way to create eggs from anyone at any age. That could change how humans reproduce.
"This is actually the first time to make eggs from embryonic stem cells and then produce eggs [that] become healthy offspring," Saitou said.
Moreover, Saitou's team did something potentially even more astonishing: They bred healthy mice from eggs made from another type of stem cell known as induced pluripotent stem cells.
These are cells that look essentially identical to embryonic stem cells. But instead of coming from embryos, they can be made from adult cells, such as skin or blood cells. So they don't have any of the ethical baggage of embryonic cells.
"They're gotten to what was our Holy Grail, which is making eggs," said George Daly, a leading stem-cell scientist at Harvard. "It's like cellular alchemy. I mean, they can turn lead into gold here. They can turn skin cells or blood cells into eggs."
The big question, of course, is whether anyone could do the same thing for people. No one knows for sure. And it would surely take a ton of work.
But John Gearhart, a stem-cell pioneer at the University of Pennsylvania, says mice are close enough to humans to think it's probably doable. "I think this will be worked out in time. I don't have any doubt about it," Gearhart said.
And if he's right, then, at the very least, it would be a huge advance for women who are infertile for medical reasons or who have postponed having babies too long.
"If we can make eggs from stem cells, then the biological clock isn't ticking so much for women," Stanford's Greely said.
But that could be just the beginning. The same team previously made sperm from stem cells. So, for example, the power to create sperm or eggs for anyone would be big news to many gay men and lesbians.
And Greely goes even further into territory charted by the book Brave New World. Combined with other techniques, eggs from stem cells could some day make it much easier for parents to pick babies with blue eyes or blond hair, or a talent for sports or music.
Speculation about the possibilities get even more sci-fi. "Any skin cell that you can find on the edge of a coffee cup theoretically could be induced back to being an egg, and a baby could be produced," said Ronald Green, a bioethicist at Dartmouth University.
"When you think about the commercial possibilities of people selling to infertile people babies produced from George Clooney or Jennifer Aniston, or whatever, you have to worry about it," Green said.
Now, it's important to remember that this may end up being nothing more than speculation. And even if it does prove possible, choices like these are probably decades away.
Even so, David Prentice of the Family Research Council says such research "cheapens all life in a way, not just embryonic or fetal life, but babies and the rest of us when we starting treating life as a manufacturing proposition."
But just the possibility is already stirring intense debate about where the power to use stem cells to make eggs might take us. "It's like any other technology," said Daniel Sulmasy, a professor of medicine and ethics at the University of Chicago. "Whatever we've done in human kind — whether it's discovering fire or creating the wheel — you can use these things to do lots of good and you can use them immoral ways," he says. | <urn:uuid:eecf85be-6ccd-4e5f-adb6-3efd89a6bc4f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wfuv.org/npr/scientists-create-fertile-eggs-mouse-stem-cells | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968035 | 910 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Idaho 34 became a victim of the region’s protracted wet spring recently when saturated soil gave out and caused a short segment of one lane between Soda Springs and Freedom, Wyo., to slide.
ITD crews closed the segment and are assessing the damage and determining the best emergency repairs. Last week they installed a drainpipe on the slope above the highway in an attempt to intercept surface water and redirect it away from the slide. They also widened the highway on the uphill side to provide a driving surface.
Additional geotechnical tests will be required before a permanent repair can be designed. The final repairs likely will involve drainage on the hill above the highway and some rock buttress on the slope below it.
Maintenance officials expect most of the surface runoff to be finished by mid-May, but permanent repairs might not be done until sometime this summer.
During the interim, the lane reduction will remain in effect and the speed limit is reduced to 25 mph in the slide area.
The slide and lane reduction are clearly marked, and motorists should have good visibility of oncoming traffic. Motorists are urged to use extreme caution while traveling on the highway, especially at night, and to observe the reduced speed limit. | <urn:uuid:2f511d50-1474-4854-b393-2cf60f5f0f62> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.itd.idaho.gov/transporter/2006/042806_Trans/042806_Idaho34.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943383 | 248 | 1.726563 | 2 |
The United States' nuclear deterrent will remain safe and reliable without nuclear testing as long as the government keeps its weapons up to date with
the so-called Stockpile Stewardship Program and fosters a scientific workforce capable of running the SSP, says a report from the U.S. National Academies released today. The
report investigated technical issues surrounding the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and also concluded that the treaty's monitoring
system, along with America's own intelligence resources, have made huge strides in recent years in their ability to detect clandestine tests that could
pose a military threat to the United States. The CTBT Organization's International Monitoring System (IMS) "has created a capability so that any
potential tester would have to be concerned about being detected," says Ellen D. Williams, committee chair and chief scientist of the oil company BP.
President Barack Obama said in a speech in Prague in the first months of his presidency that his Administration would aggressively
pursue U.S. ratification of the CTBT. The CTBT was created in 1996 and has now been signed by 182 nations, of which 157 have ratified it. But the
treaty only comes into full force when all 44 countries that had either nuclear weapons or reactors in 1996 have ratified it. Eight of those--including
the United States--still have not done so.
The U.S. Senate debated the treaty in 1999 but failed to endorse it. Opponents argued that the U.S. nuclear stockpile might grow
unreliable if it could not be tested; they also warned that verification technology wasn't strong enough to ensure that other countries were not
cheating and carrying out secret tests. If others continued developing and testing new weapons while the United States honored the ban, CTBT opponents
said, the U.S. would be at a military disadvantage.
The White House commissioned the National Academies in 2009 to review a 2002 study on this topic and investigate whether technical
capabilities have changed over the past decade in a way that might influence the debate over ratification. Williams said at a briefing at the National
Academies today that the SSP was still quite young in 2002, and since then there has been enormous progress. "They've overhauled and refurbished two
complete weapon classes," she says. Part of the program involves understanding the physics and chemistry of the materials that make up the weapons and
understanding how they decay and degrade. In some cases, replacement parts can be manufactured. "We understand these weapons today even better than we
did while testing," committee member Marvin Adams, a nuclear engineer at Texas A&M University in College Station, said at the briefing. "We've done
it. We've reset the clock on these weapons."
A large part of the program also involves developing computer simulations of the action of nuclear explosives. To test the validity of the simulations,
national laboratories have built facilities that can reproduce parts of a nuclear explosion without creating an actual blast. These facilities include
the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Microsystems and Engineering Sciences Applications facility (MESA) at
Sandia National Laboratories, and Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test Facility (DARHT) at Los Alamos National Laboratory. "It's very crucial for
researchers to establish a close coupling between [these facilities] and scientific computing so that they can test and stress the computer codes
essential to the health of the program," Williams says.
The committee's main concern was about the government's future commitment to this program and its workforce. "The technical ability to maintain the
stockpile exists; our concern is about the political will to maintain those capabilities," Williams says. Committee member Lynn Sykes of the
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University says, "There's one golden bullet: a high quality workforce. I can't stress that too strongly."
The committee also saw improvements in verification through CTBT Organization's IMS,
which was in its infancy in 2002. The IMS plan is to build a network of 337 monitoring stations across the entire globe-from Spitsbergen to Antarctica.
The network, about 80% complete now, is made up of seismic stations to detect underground tests, radionuclide detectors to sniff out radioactive
fission products in the air, and hydrophones and infrasound detectors to listen for acoustic signals in the oceans and atmosphere. Some techniques in
use now weren't even considered in 2002, including sensing radioactive xenon gas and a regional seismology method that detects shock waves traveling
along shallow paths through Earth's crust and upper mantle.
The committee did not take a position on whether the United States should ratify the CTBT, but it said the IMS is an important tool. "The technical
capability of the IMS is extremely valuable for our ability to monitor tests, and we should support that going forward," Williams says. The committee
was confident that the IMS could detect any test of 1 kiloton or greater; much smaller explosions are detectable in some parts of the world.
Surreptitious tests small enough to be concealed would only be useful for making weapons of the type that the U.S. already has in its armory. "Advances
achieved by evasive testing would not require the U.S. to resume testing to counter them," Williams said at the briefing.
Developing a new, threatening type of strategic weapon, the committee asserts, would require tests large enough to be easily detectable. In that
eventuality, the United States could invoke the CTBT's get-out clause: Signatories can withdraw from the treaty in situations of "supreme national
interest." And the United States could then quickly develop a deterrent weapon of its own, assuming it has maintained the workforce and technical
expertise to do so. | <urn:uuid:e9169e53-91df-4481-991e-28bbd8133947> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/03/no-technical-reason-to-avoid-a-t.html?rss=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957563 | 1,217 | 2.3125 | 2 |
(New York) – The Egyptian government’s announced modifications of the emergency law in place for almost three decades do not make renewal of the state of emergency any more acceptable, Human Rights Watch said today.
In an attempt to ward off criticism, the government repeated earlier claims that officials will restrict the application of the law to cases involving terrorism and drug-related crimes and said that it would no longer enforce certain measures, such as monitoring communications and confiscating property. The state of emergency was renewed on May 11, 2010, for two more years. The emergency law comes into force when a state of emergency is declared or extended.
“President Mubarak has again breached his promise of five years ago to end emergency rule,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The cosmetic changes announced this week don’t change the fact that the state of emergency perpetuates official lawlessness and contempt for basic civil and political rights.”
President Hosni Mubarak, during his 2005 election campaign, promised to replace the emergency law with new counter-terrorism legislation, but since then his government has renewed the emergency law three times, in May 2006, May 2008, and again this week. Egypt has been governed under emergency law almost continuously since 1967 and without interruption since Mubarak became president in October 1981 after the assassination of Anwar Sadat.
The law gives the executive – in practice the Interior Ministry – extensive powers to suspend basic rights by prohibiting demonstrations, censoring newspapers, monitoring personal communications, and detaining people indefinitely without charge. Egyptian defense lawyers and human rights groups say at least 5,000 people currently remain in long-term detention without charge or trial under the emergency law. Some have been in jail for more than a decade.
In a session before the People’s Assembly on May 11, Prime Minister Ahmad Nazif said that the government “commits itself before the representatives of the nation to not utilize the extraordinary measures made available under the emergency law except to confront the threat of terrorism and narcotics, and only to the extent necessary to confront these dangers.” He stated that the government would ensure that constitutional and international safeguards are provided and that the use of the emergency law is subject to judicial supervision. Renewal of the law was passed in an evening session in the People’s Assembly with 308 members of parliament voting in favor and 101 against. More than two-thirds of the parliament belong to the ruling National Democratic Party and can be counted on to support virtually any government initiative.
This is not the first time officials have claimed to restrict use of the emergency law to counter-terrorism and drug-related crimes. In February, Mostafa Hanafy, vice president of the Egyptian Council of State, told the United Nations Human Rights Council that the government had “made a commitment before parliament to use the emergency law only for terrorism and drug-related crimes and it has only implemented the rules of the emergency law in these cases.” In August 2009, President Mubarak told the US television host Charlie Rose that Egypt “confines [its] recourse to the emergency law, to terrorist crimes. Otherwise it is the rule of law under the normal laws.”
Despite these repeated claims, authorities have continued to use the emergency law to detain dissidents such as the blogger Hany Nazeer, who linked to his blog a controversial book that some in his village considered insulting to Islam. The government told Human Rights Watch that it imprisoned Nazeer “to protect [his] life in light of the anger and the strong uprising of the Muslims in Abu Tesht in Qena caused by his blog.” State Security Investigations has detained Mus’ad Abul Fagr, a novelist and rights defender who had been outspokenly critical of the violation of the rights of Sinai Bedouin, under successive emergency law orders since February 15, 2008. Other political prisoners include the student activist Tarek Khedr and several persons detained solely on the grounds that they are members of the banned opposition Muslim Brotherhood.
The restriction to counter-terrorism and drug-related crimes was this time included in the text of the law renewing the state of emergency. The state newspaper Al Ahram announced in the top story on its front page on May 11 that “for the first time a clear legal guarantee will be attached to the extension of the state of emergency, since in previous years there was only a political commitment from the prime minister to the People’s Assembly.” Human Rights Watch said if a verbal commitment from the government to the legislature was not enough to ensure compliance by state security, putting it in writing was unlikely to change things.
“If the Egyptian government is serious about sharply limiting its use of the emergency law it should immediately free people like Hani Nazeer and Mus’ad Abul Fagr,” Stork said.
The government also announced that there would be full judicial review of detention orders under the emergency law, but security forces have routinely disregarded court orders for the release of such detainees. The Interior Ministry has detained Nazeer under six successive emergency law orders for the past 19 months despite five court orders for his release, most recently on April 3. Abul Fagr remains in prison under a 13th emergency law order despite several court orders for his release.
“The cases of Nazeer and Abul Farag show how worthless government statements about judicial review really are,” Stork said. “Security officials don’t care about the law and have repeatedly ignored court orders for their release.”
A May 11 government news release also stated that the government would no longer “exercise the following extraordinary powers previously available under Paragraphs 2,3,4 & 6 of Article 3 of the Emergency Law, among them: The monitoring of all forms of communication; the monitoring, censoring, and confiscation of media and publications, and the ordering the closure of publishing houses & broadcasters; the confiscation of property; the regulation of the hours of operation of commercial activities and the evacuation and isolation of certain areas.”
But lawyers from the Hisham Mubarak Law Center and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights told Human Rights Watch that the authorities do not use these provisions of the emergency law so that this is a meaningless concession. The government instead uses other laws for these purposes, such as provisions under the Press Law and Penal code to censor publications.
Emergency law provisions that remain in place include Paragraph 1 of Article 3, which empowers the Interior Ministry to “arrest and detain suspected persons or those who endanger public order or security.” Provisions for arrest without warrant, detention without charge or trial, searching private homes without warrant, and banning demonstrations at will all remain in force. Human Rights Watch has repeatedly called for the government either to release or to charge with a criminal offense all of the estimated at least 5,000 people being detained without charge.
The official news release fails to note that amendments to Article 179 of the constitution in 2007 effectively waive constitutional guarantees of the rights to privacy and to due process in cases the government designates as terrorism-related, and grant security forces unfettered authority to detain persons, search homes and monitor communications without a judicial warrant.
“Actually ending Interior Ministry monitoring of communications without judicial warrant would be an important step,” Stork said. “The government should repeal the amendments to Article 179 of the constitution so that the same thing doesn’t happen if the government does pass a counter-terrorism law.”
Security officials frequently use the emergency law to justify crackdowns on demonstrations. On April 6, a group of young activists organized a demonstration to demand an end to 29 years of the state of emergency and constitutional changes to allow for open and inclusive presidential elections. The Interior Ministry refused permission for the demonstration. A group of around 70 demonstrators nevertheless managed to congregate briefly and peacefully chant slogans. Security officials arrested more than 100 demonstrators and persons they suspected of intending to join
the demonstration that day, detained them for at least 10 hours, and then brought 33 before the public prosecutor. The prosecutor charged them with “participating in a demonstration to overthrow the regime” and “participating in a group whose goal is to resist the basic principles upon which the regime is based, incite hatred against it, and show contempt for it.” The prosecutor then ordered their release. Security forces released all the protestors remaining in detention over the following days.
“Egyptians who wish to demonstrate peacefully know they will probably be arrested for a few hours or days, beaten up, and eventually released,” Stork said. “These incidents are never properly investigated, and security officers continue their violent repressions of demonstrations with impunity.”
The emergency law also allows for trials of civilians before military tribunals and special state security courts, which lack basic due process protections. Human Rights Watch has monitored a number of trials before state security courts. Judges in these courts routinely fail to investigate allegations of torture properly, dismiss confessions obtained under torture, and do not allow defendants adequate access to lawyers outside the courtroom. For instance, the ongoing trial of 25 defendants accused of membership in a terrorist organization in the so-called “Zeitoun Trial” has been marred by the incommunicado detention of the defendants, lack of access to counsel until the second session of the trial, and confessions allegedly obtained under torture.
The Human Rights Committee, the expert body that monitors state compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 2002 expressed concern that Egypt’s “military courts and State security courts have jurisdiction to try civilians accused of terrorism although there are no guarantees of those courts’ independence and their decisions are not subject to appeal before a higher court,” as required by the ICCPR.
“The government has come to rely on state security courts to ensure a decision in line with security agencies’ needs,” Stork said. “All ongoing trials before state security courts should immediately be transferred to regular criminal courts.”
In his speech before parliament on May 11, Prime Minister Nazif was clearly aware of Egypt’s international obligations. He said that “today the government restates [its] commitment to the representatives of the nation to lift the state of emergency as soon as a balanced law is adopted that does not permit the use of extraordinary investigation measures unless necessary to counter terrorism, and then only under complete supervision by the judiciary.”
During the Human Rights Council’s review of Egypt’s human rights record, the government repeatedly stated that it would end the state of emergency as soon as drafting of the counterterrorism law was completed. When Human Rights Watch met with Mufid Shehab, the
Minister of Legal Affairs and Parliamentary Councils, in December 2007, he said that the draft of the counterterrorism law was nearly complete. To date the government has not made public any draft of the counter-terrorism law.
“No law takes four years to draft,” Stork said, “There is clearly a lack of political will to end the state of emergency, which seems to suit those in charge of Egypt’s security services.”
As a party to the ICCPR, Egypt is obliged under article 9 to ensure that there is no arbitrary deprivation of liberty and to provide an effective remedy for violations. Under article 19, it is bound to protect freedom of expression. Limited derogations from these articles are allowed in a state of emergency, but the state of emergency in Egypt does not meet the applicable criteria under international law. In a report on his 2009 visit to Egypt, Martin Scheinin, UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, said that the emergency law that has been “almost continuously in force for more than 50 years in Egypt is not a state of exceptionality; it has become the norm, which must never be the purpose of a state of emergency.”
In its interpretation of Article 4 of the ICCPR, which sets out permissible derogations in times of emergency, the UN Human Rights Committee stated that“[m]easures derogating from the provisions of the Covenant must be of an exceptional and temporary nature” and be “limited to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation.” Egypt’s official National Council for Human Rights said in May 2008 that “nothing any longer justifies the extension of the state of emergency, all the more so as Egypt is experiencing a period of stability.” | <urn:uuid:bc48d788-21e8-4961-909c-100dd6dbc329> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sudhan.wordpress.com/category/egypt/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958365 | 2,597 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Zach Silva sat at a table inside The Kozy Kitchen restaurant and forked through a stack of chocolate chip pancakes.
He paused for a bit and twisted in his chair, reaching his right hand across to his left shirt sleeve and pulled it back to reveal a wide spray of dark purple marks that covered most of his left tricep.
There are more scars spread across his back, too, but Zach is less willing to show those wounds to anyone else.
The 23-year-old former Barrington High School graduate is a medic in the U.S. Army and his infantry unit was moving through a farming village near Kandahar, Afghanistan on May 9 when the first of two IEDs exploded. The blast injured soldiers and a translator.
Zach sprang into action, helping the wounded men and preparing them for an emergency helicopter evacuation. The unit received word that a Black Hawk was on its way and would touch down a short distance away.
“We hadn’t cleared that area,” Zach said of the landing location, “but we didn’t have a choice.”
Zach and his fellow soldiers transported the injured people to the chopper, and shortly after it departed, a second IED detonated — Zach said it wasn’t clear whether someone stepped on the improvised explosive device or if it had been triggered with a remote.
Shrapnel from the bomb tore into Zach’s arm and back and also injured a number of other soldiers.
“The bird was already out of the area, so we had to wait for another one. That took about a half-hour,” he said. After the second chopper transported those more seriously injured, Zach and the others walked back to the base.
Word of his Zach’s injuries eventually reached the Barrington home of Ron Silva. Zach’s dad said the first call he received about the combat incident didn’t offer much in the way of details, just alerting Mr. Silva to the fact that his son had been injured.
Ron waited for more information and eventually heard from an Army officer two days later, who told him the story of Zach’s efforts — “The sergeant said Zach saved a lot of lives that day,” he said. The experience left Mr. Silva rattled and concerned.
“Yeah, it does keep me up at night,” he said, during the recent interview at The Kozy Kitchen. He looked at his son and smiled.
Zach, sitting across the table from his father, grinned back.
“You sleep just fine,” he said.
The young soldier recently enjoyed a short respite at home, visiting with friends and family, eating some home-cooked meals, and thinking about the day he would return to Afghanistan.
“I miss my guys,” he said. “Is it like a team? It’s more like a family. You spend a lot of time with these guys. Even the guys you hate, you still love.”
Zach said he is the only medic assigned to a group of 30 soldiers and works with those men day-in and day-out as they run patrols and handle other assignments. He said some of his work is dealing with sick soldiers or other minor trauma. Then, on occasion, he’s called on to handle more serious injuries — the translator injured during the May 9 incident eventually died and another soldier lost both his legs.
The former Barrington High School football player said readjustment to civilian life is more difficult than he thought it would be — “Yeah, society, and not breathing in sand all the time,” — but added that his family has been extremely supportive. His grandfather, Ron Silva, Sr., served as a Marine and understands how combat affects people. He said he was extremely proud of his grandson.
Zach said one of the first things he did upon returning to Barrington on June 5 was stop by the Bayside YMCA pool. For years he worked as a lifeguard at the pool and couldn’t wait to take a dip — the day he stopped by a senior water aerobics class was in the pool, but that didn’t stop him from jumping in.
Zach graduated from Barrington High School in 2007 and initially attended Norwich University in Vermont. He stayed for two years, played football for the school’s team, and then left. He later enlisted with the Army, and trained to be a medic. “I knew I wanted to do something helping people,” he said.
His plan is to continue with his education while serving and when his commitment to the military is finished, begin a civilian career as a nurse or doctor.
His current tour in Afghanistan will be completed in late November; he plans to take classes full-time shortly thereafter. Until then, however, Zach is making the best of his situation and current career challenges. He said he gets along well with his fellow soldiers and spends most of his free time reading while at the base. He learned that relaxing at the base would be made a lot easier if he had a comfortable chair; he found a nice camping chair online, bought it and had it delivered directly to his base — “It’s a great chair. I don’t let anybody else use it.”
Zach made a special effort to thank all the people who have sent care packages to the troops. He said the snacks are highly coveted and are often used in place of the MREs — meals ready to eat. Zach said food at the base — breakfast and dinner are served — is usually pretty good, but filling the void between those two meals with an MRE is not the first choice for most soldiers. He said snacks are a better option.
Zach added the U.S. military’s work in Afghanistan is often very challenging. He said getting reliable information from Afghan civilians about the Taliban is not easy. He said civilians feel that they will endanger themselves from Taliban retaliation if they help the U.S., so instead do their best to ignore both sides.
“Some try to help, but not many,” he said.
Neighbors hold care package drive
People on Fireside Drive are holding a care package drive to collect items they will send to Zach Silva and other military personnel currently stationed in Afghanistan. The Thurstons, who live at 18 Fireside Drive, are collecting a variety of items up until July 13. Following are some of the items people can drop off at the Thurstons’ home:
- Food: Coffee (ground/filters), hot sauces (fast food packets), beef jerky, pistachios, peanuts, cocoa (with marshmallows), soups, chili, protein bars, candy, gum (hard candy or heat tolerant candy like Tootsie Rolls), drink mixes, dried fruit, tuna in cans or pouches.
- Toiletries: Baby wipes, disposal razors, shave cream, foot powder, baby powder, tooth paste, deodorant. (Travel size items): Eye wash, hand cleanser, combs, brushes, nail files, clippers, tooth brushes, nail files, shoe insoles, Band-Aids, gauze pads, first aid kits, Icy Hot, body wash, liquid soap, facial cleaner, tissues, hand lotion, nasal spray, sun block SPF 45, zinc, vitamin E, aloe, Tylenol, Motrin, Advil, or aspirin, vitamins
- Other: Socks, hand warmers, card and or letters, AA and AAA batteries, CDs, DVDs, pens, pencils, Chapstick, disposable cameras, international phone cards, insect repellent., playing cards.
No glass containers.Add to favorites | <urn:uuid:96aa7fd7-8387-47ce-bf98-e3aa3f8fd2c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eastbayri.com/news/barrington-man-injured-while-serving-in-afghanistan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979087 | 1,627 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Britain has announced plans to provide the country's banks with cheap funding in an effort to stimulate lending and resuscitate its ailing economy.
Finance Minister George Osborne and Bank of England boss Mervyn King told business leaders in London that they were working together on a "funding for lending" scheme, utilising the government's favourable borrowing rates.
"Today's exceptional circumstances create a case for a temporary bank funding scheme to bridge to calmer times," King told the audience at central London's Mansion House on Thursday.
The country's banks, which are hamstrung by high borrowing costs and increased capital buffers, will be able to receive cheap funding if they can prove they are lending out sufficient amounts to households and businesses.
It is hoped that the scheme, which is expected to be in place within a few weeks, will help clear the blockage in credit lines which has hampered the country's recovery from the 2008 financial crisis.
"A lack of credit is damaging businesses and costing jobs," Osborne told the audience.
"But in a period of financial stress, when private sector confidence is low, we can also use the credibility of the public sector balance sheet to support investment and the flow of credit now," he added.
"I can tell you today that the governor and I will take co-ordinated action on liquidity and on funding for new bank lending in order to inject new confidence into our financial system and support the flow of credit to where it is needed in the real economy.
"The government - with the help of the Bank of England - will not stand on the sidelines and do nothing as the storm gathers," he stressed.
The British government enjoys unusually low borrowing costs as investors see its bonds as a safe haven from the eurozone crisis.
They believe that Britain's ability to print its own money means it is unlikely to default, despite its high levels of indebtedness.
King also revealed the Bank of England would activate measures announced in December which it is hoped will provide liquidity of at least STG5 billion ($A7.85 billion) a month.
Osborne earlier published a key document outlining plans for costly structural reforms of Britain's banks in a bid to help avoid a repeat of the 2008 crisis.
"The government has today published a White Paper setting out proposals to fundamentally reform the structure of banking in the UK," the Treasury said in a statement.
The document, which precedes an act of legislation, would be open to consultation until September 6, it added.
Central to the changes are plans to "ring-fence" the retail operations of lenders such as HSBC, Barclays and state-rescued Royal Bank of Scotland and to require them to increase their capital reserves - all by 2019.
According to the White Paper, British banks should increase their capital buffers above levels decided under the international Basel III agreement.
Vickers last year estimated that the annual pre-tax cost to lenders of the reforms would total between STG4.0 billion and STG7.0 billion ($A6.28 billion-$A10.99 billion) a year.Analysts said the higher charges risked being passed on to clients.
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Select your state to see news for your area. | <urn:uuid:9e3636da-19dd-485c-9c42-7e36cf9fe4c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/business/a/-/world/13955469/uk-flags-bank-stimulation-plan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959084 | 709 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Spain's Culture Ministry says it has bought a previously unknown masterpiece by 16th-century Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder discovered recently by the Prado Museum.
A statement on the ministry's website Friday said the Prado's board of trustees had agreed to purchase "The Wine of Saint Martin's Day" for euro7 million ($9.8 million). The signed work was owned by private collectors.
The Prado announced last month that the painting was a Bruegel after months of study and restoration.
The painting, dated between 1565 and 1568, depicts a crowd scrambling madly to get a sample of the year's first vintage from a barrel.
The Prado has just one other Bruegel the Elder painting. Prior to the latest find there were just 40 signed Bruegels in existence.
The Associated Press | <urn:uuid:44310fff-d8da-42f1-b53c-7dec9bf27290> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2010/oct/22/spain-buys-previously-unknown-bruegel-masterpiece/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976932 | 175 | 2.125 | 2 |
Lawndale, North Carolina (CNN) -- It's before sunrise, and the janitor at Burns High School has already been down the length of a hallway, cleaning and sweeping classrooms before the day begins.
This particular janitor is painstakingly methodical, even as she administers a mental quiz on an upcoming test. Her name is Dawn Loggins, a straight-A senior at the very school she cleans.
On this day, she maneuvers a long-handled push broom between rows of desks. She stops to pick up a hardened, chewed piece of gum. "This annoys me, because there's a trash can right here," she says.
The worst, she says, is snuff cans in urinals. "It's just rude and pointless."
With her long, straight dark blonde hair and black-rimmed glasses, Dawn looks a bit like Avril Lavigne. But her life is a far cry from that of a privileged pop star.
She was homeless at the start of the school year, abandoned by her drug-abusing parents. The teachers and others in town pitched in -- donating clothes and providing medical and dental care. She got the janitorial job through a school workforce assistance program.
She's grateful for the work. But it's where she's going next, beyond the walls of Burns, that excites her most. She applied to four colleges within North Carolina and one dream university. She'll graduate soon before heading off, leaving her dust pan behind.
For now, there's still work to be done. She stops for a quick bite to eat in the custodial closet amid Pine-Sol and Clorox. She then darts to classes -- three advanced placement courses and an honors class.
Growing up without electricity
Dawn grew up in a ramshackle home with no electricity and no running water. She often went days, even weeks without showering. She and her brother Shane -- who was equally studious in his schoolwork -- would walk 20 minutes to a public park to fetch water.
"We would get water jugs and fill them up at the park, using the spigots in the bathroom. And we would use that to flush the toilet or cook with. Stuff like that," she says.
She confided in a staff member at school. She had trouble doing homework at nighttime because her home had no electricity and she couldn't afford candles. It was difficult to read in the dark.
"OK, we'll get you some candles. We'll take care of that," said Junie Barrett, Dawn's supervisor.
Another time, Barrett says, Dawn and her brother asked if they could use the school's washing machine to clean their clothes. "I said, 'Just leave them with me. We'll get them washed, dried,' " Barrett recalls.
"We let them use our shower facilities in the locker rooms because they had no running water. They had nothing to bathe in."
Burns High was their fourth high school since middle school, as they moved from town to town. Living the life of a rolling stone, the two had missed several months' worth of classwork when they first arrived two years ago, putting them well behind other students' progress.
Shane was outgoing, but Dawn always appeared more reserved.
Guidance counselor Robyn Putnam saw the potential in Dawn and Shane early on and enrolled them in online classes to get them caught up. The work paid off.
Abandoned by parents
Last summer, Dawn was invited to attend a prestigious six-week residential summer program, the Governor's School of North Carolina, at Meredith College in Raleigh, 200 miles east of Lawndale, to study natural science. It was a field Dawn had never studied before.
The program is reserved for the state's top students.
Putnam ferried Dawn to Raleigh to attend the elite program and took her shopping, making sure she had the clothes she needed. Other faculty members contributed funds, too.
Putnam worried Dawn's home situation could worsen while she was away. "We weren't even sure where her parents were at that time. And there was an eviction notice on the house," she says. "We kept telling her to get everything she could; we knew this was a possibility."
Dawn saw her parents for 30 minutes during the middle of the summer program during a short break. They talked about her school and how she was doing. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. "It was just a regular conversation," she says.
She wouldn't hear from them again for weeks.
As she prepared to leave the summer program, she kept calling her parents' phone, only to learn it had been disconnected. Putnam picked her up and brought her back to Lawndale.
"When I returned, my grandmother had been dropped off at a local homeless shelter, my brother had just left, and my parents had just gone," she says. "I found out later they had moved to Tennessee."
Her voice is steady, matter of fact. "I never expected my parents to just, like, leave."
Dawn was abandoned.
"I'm not mad at my parents. My mom and my stepdad both think that they did what was best for me," she says.
In fact, she used her parents' example to drive her. "I just realize that they have their own problems that they need to work through," she says. "They do love me; I know they love me. They just don't show it in a way that most people would see as normal."
Stability in Lawndale
For a while, Dawn lived on the odd couch at friends' homes, while she figured out what to do. Sometimes, she slept on the floor. The only thing that was clear was that she wanted to stay in Lawndale, where she was active in extracurricular activities, had a boyfriend and had a job.
Her classmates there didn't make fun of her, though she had been mercilessly mocked in middle school. "It was the worst. That's when I would come home crying because the teasing was so bad," Dawn recalled.
She had lived with her grandmother until she was 12 and attended junior high at a school about an hour away from Lawndale during that time.
"My grandma loved me, and she taught me a lot. She had lots of crafts around and watched History Channel with us. But ..."
Dawn's voice halts, then begins again a few seconds later. "She never really explained to me and my brother the importance of bathing regularly. And our house was really disgusting. We had cockroaches everywhere. And we had trash piled literally 2 feet high. We'd have to step over it to get anywhere in the house."
Dawn would go without showering two to three months at a time and wear the same dress to school for weeks straight. "When I was little, it seemed normal to me. I didn't realize that other families weren't living the same way that I was. And because of that I got teased, the kids would call me dirty."
In Lawndale, a town of about 600 in the Appalachian foothills of western North Carolina, things were different. Dawn felt comfortable.
With her parents gone, she processed the options with her guidance counselor.
She could move yet again to Tennessee to be with her mother, or she could be turned over to the Department of Social Services. Putnam feared what that might bring. "If Dawn were to go into the system, she could be uprooted again and moved around," she says.
Dawn would turn 18 during the second semester, Putnam knew, making her an adult by law. So Putnam asked Dawn: "What do you want to do? She said, 'I want to graduate from Burns. To be in the same school two years.' "
So the community and Burns staff became her family.
Sheryl Kolton, a custodian and bus driver for Burns Middle School, had met Dawn before and knew her but not well. She wasn't expecting the phone call she received. "The counselor at the high school just called me one day and asked me if Dawn could come live here," Kolton says.
A few days later, she and her husband, Norm, agreed.
Shooting for the stars
With a roof over her head and the contributions of Burns staff to supplement the Koltons' income needed to house and feed a growing teenager, Dawn was seemingly in a stable environment. She admits that having her parents out of the picture helped.
"Honestly it was kind of a relief," she says. "I mean, I have a place to stay, and I have a job, and I'm going to school."
As she began her senior year, Dawn turned her laser-beam focus to her future: college. She knew she wanted a different path than her parents.
"When I was younger, I was able to look at all the bad choices -- at the neglect, and the drug abuse, and everything that was happening -- and make a decision for myself that I was not going to end up like my parents, living from paycheck to paycheck."
A straight-A student, Dawn was president of the photography club. She also had started a community service program collecting thousands of letters for active military troops and was involved in National Honor Society and band club. Before she took her custodian job, she ran cross country.
She wasn't top of her class, and she didn't have a perfect GPA, but she was smart. On paper, she had always fared well.
"I was looking at her transcript, and one of the lowest grades on her transcript is a 94 and that was for a class called Success 101, and the irony of that is just really amazing," Putnam says with a laugh.
Dawn applied to four colleges within the state: the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; North Carolina State University; Davidson College; and Warren Wilson College. In December, she sent one final application off in the mail, to her reach-for-the-stars choice, Harvard.
No one from Burns High had been accepted to the elite Ivy League school.
"I thought about it and just figured, 'Why not?' "
She asked her history teacher, Larry Gardner, for a recommendation letter. "I don't know how many times I started that letter of recommendation," he recalls. "Because how do you articulate her story into two pages? How do you explain this is a young lady who deserves a chance but hasn't had the opportunities?"
But after a prayer for wisdom, the words flowed.
"Once again, words fail me as I attempt to write this letter of recommendation," Gardner began. "I can promise I've never written one like this before and will probably not write one like this again. Because most students who face challenges that are not even remotely as difficult as Dawn's give up. This young lady has, unlike most of us, known hunger. She's known abuse and neglect, she's known homelessness and filth. Yet she's risen above it all to become such an outstanding young lady."
Months passed. She was accepted to the four schools in North Carolina. Each time, the acceptance letter came as part of a thick package with fat brochures and congratulatory notes.
Days went by. Nothing from Harvard.
But on a sunny day earlier this year, she came inside after tending the garden. There was a letter from Harvard, the type of letter every high school senior dreads from a university -- a regular-sized envelope, the ominous sign of rejection.
Cautiously, she opened it: "Dear Ms. Loggins, I'm delighted to report that the admissions committee has asked me to inform you that you will be admitted to the Harvard College class of 2016. ... We send such an early positive indication only to outstanding applicants ..."
She gasped when she read those words.
Gardner had the same reaction when she handed him the note at school the next day. "I just looked up at her, and kind of teared up because this is a young lady who ... " he stops, his voice breaking.
"When I first met her and had her brother in class, they were living in a home without electricity, without running water, they were showering at a local park in a restroom after most of the people at the park had left. This is a young lady who's been through so much and for her to receive this letter -- pretty awesome."
Not only was Dawn accepted to Harvard, she got a full ride. She was offered tuition, room and board, as well as assistance finding an on-campus job.
The tiny town of Lawndale rallied around Dawn again. They raised money to get her to Boston so she could see the school in person in April.
"We in a sense had a collective responsibility to get her to Harvard," says Aaron Allen, Burns High principal. "Even though Harvard was going to pay for Dawn to go on her own, this is a girl who's had multiple moves, never flown, never ridden a subway, never really been outside small town USA, North Carolina foothills, and you're expecting her to go to Cambridge all by herself?"
Barrett, her custodial supervisor, traveled to Cambridge with her. "When we went up there, it was just like she was at home. She will succeed, and she will excel."
For Dawn, it wasn't a foregone conclusion that she would attend, but her inaugural visit solidified the decision. "I just could not picture myself anywhere else, at any other college."
Since Dawn's story has come out, she's attracted attention worldwide from well-wishers sending her everything from simple encouragement to monetary donations.
Dawn doesn't want the money. "When I get to college, I can work for what I need. And I know my future is going to be great."
She hopes to start a nonprofit organization to help other teens who've had obstacles in their educations, using the funds that have been sent to her. There are more than 200 students listed as homeless in Cleveland County, where Lawndale is located.
"There are so many kids whose futures aren't so sure, and they need help more than I do," she says. "I want them to be able to use my story as motivation. And I want the general public to realize that there are so many kids who need help."
The final pages of Dawn's high school chapter are nearing a close. She will walk across the stage today -- June 7 -- to accept her diploma. She has invited her parents but isn't sure they will be able to attend. "If they're not there, it would be for good reason."
But the one person she will look for in the crowd is her brother Shane.
"Throughout the years, no matter where I've been or been through, he's always been there for me," she says, with a rare ghost of a smile.
Shane will attend Berea College in Kentucky on a scholarship.
Dawn has learned the sort of lessons that can't be learned in school. "I love my parents. I disagree with the choices that they've made. But we all have to live with the consequences of our actions," she said.
She takes it all in stride. "If I had not had those experiences, I wouldn't be such a strong-willed or determined person."
She might just find Harvard to be easy. | <urn:uuid:28a8081d-7341-4a43-8457-cc6dc0dd9315> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnn.dk/2012/06/07/us/from-janitor-to-harvard/index.html?hpt=hp_t3 | 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 | 0.990484 | 3,214 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Must Have Supplies For The College Bound Student
Back to school season can be stressful on you and your college student, and more so if your kid is college bound, going to school. Worries like separation anxiety, the stress of being in a new environment and not being close to what is familiar can be a great concern for both the parents and the student who is going away to school, especially if the college they are attending is thousands of miles away.
Supplies For The College Bound Student…
Back to school supplies can be pricey and more so if your college bound student is entering the first year, but it doesn’t have to put a dent in your bank account. Instead of providing you with a generic list of essentials to bring to college, let’s take a look at some less popular things you may want to get before you head off to campus. Here are a few suggested items that will make your kid’s first year in college more streamlined and connected.
The Gadgets to Get
Regardless of their major, your child is going to need a laptop to write papers, do research for projects and possibly to run more advanced software or programs for various assignments. This is the perfect time of year to find great deals on laptops, eReaders and tablets. The definite must-have is a smartphone with apps for higher learning, like myHomework (iPhone, Free) a great app used for tracking homework assignments or EZ read (iPhone, Free) an app that brings all of the books featured in Sparknotes.com to your smartphone. Plus, you can be in touch with your college bound kid by phone, text message, email or Facebook message, anytime, anywhere.
One good idea is to research and sign up for a security service that will monitor your child’s valuable information. Lifelock explains the dangers of identity theft in todays youth; this security protection company understands how important it is to protect the information of your family and loved ones. An identity theft protection company like Lifelock will monitor your child’s credit and personal information, and if any part of their information is tampered with they will be informed immediately. Added security means added peace of mind while your student is away.
Bed, Bath and Bargains
Your student is going to need bedding, towels, dishes, and toilet paper to last all semester. Invest in a college survival kit. These packages often include pots and pans, toiletries, cleaning items, and other housing essentials. You can find some elaborate kits online or go all DIY and make on yourself.
Stay in the know on college bargains with bedding and housing accessories. Most department stores have sales on appliances and bedding items through the fall to make it easier on students in transition. Invest in some soft, but durable bed sheets as well as a toaster. This every day appliance is a lifesaver in anyone’s college dorm life.
Another great place to get bargains for your college bound student is on eBay. They sell new and used supplies, so don’t overlook them for some of the best deals on the internet when it comes to college dorm stuff.
Stick to the Plan
Now that you have an idea of what some of the essentials will be for your college bound student, make a dorm room list and research online to find out where the best deals are. Purchasing these items can help your student to be more confident and that will lead to the possibility of their success. If your kid has the tools to climb the ladder, then it will make their struggle in the first year easier and that will relieve some of your stress too.
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Despite speculation about a 'surge in shark sightings along the NSW coast', shark numbers have dropped by about 90 per cent worldwide, with several species now at risk of extinction.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature warns up to a third of sharks living in the open ocean are threatened with extinction.
"The recent shark sighting near Newcastle does not mean there are more shark numbers overall, they are just more likely to be seen during the warmer months of the year," Nature Conservation Council of NSW, Chief Executive Officer, Pepe Clarke said today.
"Sharks are more visible during Summer as the warm water from the East Australian Current extends down the coast and brings with it various marine species, including sharks. Warmer temperatures also entice more swimmers to our beaches, meaning sharks are more likely to be spotted by the increased aerial surveillance of beaches.
"The chance of a swimmer being attacked by a shark is very small. Humans are not part of a shark's natural diet, with no evidence any shark species will set out to intentionally bite or harm people.
"Over the past decade, Australian shark bite fatalities have averaged 1.3 per year, despite large increases in the number of people in the water. More than 1000 times more people are killed on Australia's roads each year, 1367 in 2010 alone.
"Thousands of sharks are killed off the Australian coast each year. These marine icons are susceptible to the impacts of fishing as they are slow growing, late to mature and produce few young.
"We mustn't let fear hold back efforts for government to put an end to shark fishing and protect shark populations at risk, including the critically endangered grey nurse shark," Mr Clarke said.
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