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Rockets Of The Future?
Chances are you own a smart phone or some kind of electronic device with capabilities that would stun even an Apple engineer from ten years ago. We’ve come to expect that technology advances at a mind-boggling pace, but just how far has rocket technology advanced in say, the past three decades? Rockets of the Future?Not much.
The rockets that sent men to the moon were powered by chemical combustion, which in its most powerful form ignites hydrogen with oxygen. The space shuttle main engine, essentially the state of the art for rocket propulsion, uses the same chemicals.
No doubt, these rockets do their job well for what we ask of them. Send astronauts to the International Space Station? No problem. Send astronauts to the Moon? Sure. But, suppose we wanted to dream a little bit bigger, and actually explore the rest of the solar system and beyond. How far can these chemical rockets send us?
Not very far. It turns out, through the quirky laws of Newtonian mechanics, that the exhaust velocity of a rocket is one of the most important parameters in determining how far it can send a payload. Chemical rockets have fundamental energy limits which give them a maximum exhaust velocity that is too low for most piloted missions with destinations further than the moon. (Keep in mind we’re talking about the huge spaceships that would be required to transport people — chemical rockets can handle the smaller robotic probes.)
We live in an exciting time in which NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope churns out discoveries of new exoplanets — whole other worlds — on a daily basis. Just last month, scientists working with Kepler confirmed that they located a planet orbiting within the ‘habitable zone’ of its host star — a special region where an Earth-like planet could maintain liquid water on its surface.
You may be tempted to ask how long it would take for us to send a spacecraft over to one of those exoplanets and take a closer look. To answer that question, consider Voyager 1, one of humanity’s fastest spacecraft, and certainly the farthest space probe from Earth. If we were to suddenly re-aim Voyager 1 towards one of these new solar systems, it would take over 70,000 years to reach even the closest of stars.
While interstellar missions may seem like the stuff of science fiction, the technology needed to enable them is currently an active area of research, and novel propulsion systems typically focus on highly energetic reactions as a means to liberate more energy per unit mass of propellant.
Common areas of research include fission rockets, fusion rockets and even antimatter rockets. Project Icarus, for example, is an international group of volunteer scientists and engineers dedicated to working out the challenges of interstellar voyages.
According to Richard Obousy, senior scientist for Icarus, “the technology roadmap to antimatter, or even fusion rockets could easily be decades in the making, but there is one technology that we have available today that represents the critical first step in the long road to the stars, namely fission.”
The fission rocket being referred to here is the Nuclear Thermal Rocket, or NTR. An NTR uses nuclear fission as an energy source instead of chemical combustion, and uses just hydrogen as a propellant, allowing it to achieve a very high exhaust velocity and high thrust. That’s the kind of mind-boggling technology upgrade that means piloted missions to deep space, which are beyond the pale for chemical rockets, suddenly become very feasible.
Beginning this month, Icarus Interstellar Inc., the managing company for Project Icarus, is teaming up with General Propulsion Sciences, a small propulsion research company based in Washington D.C., for a new effort to pursue the development of NTRs and other fission-based space technologies.
The program, called Project Bifrost, recognizes fission as a crucial stepping-stone technology towards the next generation of space travel, and will take steps to advance the technological maturity of NTRs. In the coming decades, sending humans to Mars is considered by many to be the Holy Grail for space exploration, a mission which NTRs are ideally suited for.
Brad Appel of General Propulsion Sciences frames the situation in more familiar terms: “To look at it another way, imagine you are planning a road trip from New York to Los Angeles and back. Except, there are no gas stations along the way — you need to pack all of the fuel along with you. Using a chemical rocket to send humans to Mars would be like making the road trip in a cement truck. You might barely make it, but it would be one enormous, inefficient, and expensive voyage. Using an NTR, however, would be more akin to taking a Prius. It’ll make it there comfortably, and it can go a lot further too.”
Priorities in NASA’s current space program emphasize developing capabilities to take humans beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO). And while there are agreements in place between NASA and private companies such as SpaceX to deliver cargo and potentially American astronauts to the International Space Station, few outside of the U.S. Government are privately exploring nuclear space technologies for their inevitable use in the future of space exploration.
Private industry has the flexibility to pursue international partnerships, as companies like Rocketdyne and Aerojet have done in the past for propulsion subcontracting work with Russia.
Recently, Tabitha Smith, research lead for Project Bifrost and chief strategic officer of General Propulsion Sciences was invited to Moscow to become more familiarized with U.S.-Russian business partnerships, and to collaborate with NTR and rocket propulsion colleagues under the auspices of the newly created Russian agency Rossotrudnichestvo — an initiative started by President Medvedev to cultivate Silicon Valley-like entrepreneurship and international projects in Russia.
International cooperation is seen as a vital part of future large-scale space projects in the space community at large, as it encourages transparency, expedites completion times, and splits costs.
It’s worth noting that as with many technologies in space exploration, the 1960′s were the golden age for NTRs. Between 1955 and 1973, the US Government spent $1.4 billion in an NTR program called Rover/NERVA, anticipating it would be used after Apollo was completed. Although it was ultimately canceled before a flight could be achieved, the program was tremendously successful in proving that NTRs work. The knowledge gained from NERVA remains as a vital resource for future NTR development.
This spring, while we mark the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s famous speech to Congress in which he challenged the nation to go to the moon, perhaps it would be useful to reflect upon what he said immediately after declaring that goal: “Secondly, an additional 23 million dollars … will accelerate the development of the Rover nuclear rocket. This gives promise of some day providing a means for even more exciting and ambitious exploration of space, perhaps beyond the moon, perhaps to the very end of the solar system itself.” Source: Discovery Science
Project Bifrost is an ambitious study examining emerging space technologies that could lay the foundation for future interstellar flights and investigates the utility of fission for future space missions.
Project Bifrost was initiated by Research Lead Tabitha Smith (Strategic Officer of General Propulsion Science) and Brad Appel (Program Manager of Nuclear Propulsion at General Propulsion Science), working in collaboration with Icarus Interstellar Inc.a nonprofit foundation dedicated to achieving interstellar flight by the year 2100.
- How Interstellar Space Travel Works (Infographic) (space.com)
- How Will Humans Get to Alpha Centauri? [Space] (io9.com) | <urn:uuid:3b950fd1-3cee-4ea5-872a-8ab525d48f67> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.davidreneke.com/rockets-of-the-future/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941755 | 1,596 | 3.921875 | 4 |
Musicians have written songs about it, directors have filmed movies about it. It’s no doubt that New York is one of the most must-see places in the world. The greatness of this city might overwhelm you, so stock up on a little know-how and get to know the places to visit in New York.
The State of New York
If suspension bridges have always caught your imagination, then you are sure to fall in love with the Brooklyn Bridge of New York. Out of the several leading areas to see in New York, the shopaholic in you will enjoy the best shopping areas in all of the of state. A good New York concierge can get you almost anything immediately, except maybe an audience with the Pope. There are plenty of trains traveling to this city and hence it is known as the suburbs of New York. Additionally, cheap flights to New York come in great numbers. In the big apple, you will find great restaurants and bars, the hottest nightclubs, as well as, celebrity spots and famous New York landmarks.
A Global City
New York is a leading global city that has a great influence over global finance, commerce, art, fashion and entertainment. It is really a city made immortal in many classic silver screen epics. It offers cultural attractions, museums, parks, lots and kinds of shops and restaurants. The town is famous for its beaches, more importantly the city is famous as a destination for gays and lesbians. There’s a lot more places to go to, such as the Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Brooklyn Bridge and the other islands – Roosevelt, Governors, Randall’s and City Island. The city profile includes so many glamorous and glorious things with a touch of decency and delicacy that influences all the visitors and travelers traveling to United Sates for tourism purpose.
Time of Your Life
You never forget your very first time here. The city is home to world famous attractions such as the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, the Museum of Modern Art, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Chrysler Building and much more. The routes in Boston are quite complicated and alike. Hence it can be a bit difficult for first time travelers. If you want to be surrounded mostly by tourists, there are plenty of bars and restaurants on Time Square and Theater District. Touring Grand Central Station, Times Square, Broadway and Fifth Avenue are, of course, free. Quite similarly those travelers who are traveling from London also enjoy a memorable time in this beautiful place with shining city streets and a glamorous nightlife.
New Clothes, New York
However, let’s ruffle the hornet’s nest and try to bring out the major crowd pullers in New York for people on cheap family holidays. Shopping is a major reason why tourists flock to the city. The clothes might be designed in other cities, but they are not really a hit unless they can make it in New York. The region also covers six different states like Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire & Vermont. New York probably has the most diverse and intense nightlife in the country.
It is one of the tallest buildings in the world. This intimidating structure derives its name from the Empire State of New York. The Empire State Building is actually undoubtedly one among THE places to visit within New York. The state of New York has always been a gateway for immigration to the United States. New England is a northeastern region situated in the United States of America. Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, MET Museum, Times Square, Fifth Avenue, Broadway, the NYC Waterfalls, Central Park & Zoo, and Grand Central Station. If we talk about some grand cities of United States, New York will be at top of them claiming the largest city in America with an overall estimated population of above 18 million.
The region invites thousands of visitors every year from all across the world and is known for different outdoor games and activities for tourists of all age groups. The country can be considered as a habitat of mixed culture. It is a combination of diverse values as thousands of different nationals all across the world are residing at the same time at many different cities of this ultra modern destination. Some of the best and most expensive shopping places in the world are located right in SoHo district. Amongst the world’s skyscrapers the Empire State Building is one of the most immediately recognizable.
The Place to Be
The place is famous for its multi-ethnic culinary delights and extensive retail therapy. Film places in New York basically don’t have any much better than this. The amenities, the service, the food and the access to some of the most famous places in the world they offer are second to none. Vermont is a place that can be enjoyed by all tourists and travelers since this place is famous for outdoor sports activities such as biking, hiking, skiing and camping. Almost every block in Manhattan has at least one restaurant or a bar. Therefore there is no problem to find a place to eat, have a drink or just hang out and meet people. When people all over the world are asked which cities they’d like to visit someday, New York is always top of the list. | <urn:uuid:89ffd86b-c921-4600-b140-06a4f3a0a38b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.councilofbrooklynneighborhoods.org/category/family-life/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955039 | 1,069 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Rheumatoid arthritis raises risk for shingles
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are at increased risk of herpes zoster, or shingles, a painful skin condition caused by a reactivation of the chickenpox virus, according to research on more than 160,000 individuals with RA.
Medications used to treat RA appear to increase vulnerability to shingles, Dr. Allison L. Smitten, from the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and colleagues report in the medical journal, Arthritis Care and Research.
It is "biologically plausible" that having RA may result in an increased risk of shingles due to the dysregulation of the immune system in patients with RA, they write.
By studying the US PharMetrics claims database for the period 1998-2002, which included 122,000 RA patients and one million randomly selected controls, the researchers found that the rate of shingles was significantly higher in RA patients than in controls -- 9.83 versus 3.71 per 1,000 "person-years." This translates into a 91 percent higher adjusted risk of shingles in patients with RA relative to those without RA.
A look at the UK General Practice Research Database for the period 1990-2001, which included 38,000 RA patients and 500,000 randomly selected controls, revealed rates of shingles of 10.6 per 1,000 person-years in patients with RA versus only 4.1 per 1,000 person-years, in controls - a 65 percent increased risk in the setting of RA.
Smitten and colleagues also found evidence that a variety of anti-RA drugs were associated with greater likelihood of developing shingles.
They were unable to tell if the medications themselves increased risk, or if they were simply markers for more severe disease that made patients more susceptible to reactivation of the chickenpox virus.
"Given that many of the drugs used to treat RA have been associated with substantial benefit in terms of disease improvement and quality of life, any increase in the risk of herpes zoster must be considered in the context of the benefits expected from the medications," Smitten and her associates conclude.
SOURCE: Arthritis Care and Research, December 15, 2008. | <urn:uuid:486c1946-8f61-4e96-a019-f4c37c25423e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/29696 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944712 | 463 | 2.53125 | 3 |
The Pit and the Pendulum
|"The Pit and the Pendulum"|
|Author||Edgar Allan Poe|
|Published in||The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843|
|Publisher||Carey & Hart|
"The Pit and the Pendulum" is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe and first published in 1842 in the literary annual The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843. The story is about the torments endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, though Poe skews historical facts. The narrator of the story describes his experience of being tortured. The story is especially effective at inspiring fear in the reader because of its heavy focus on the senses, such as sound, emphasizing its reality, unlike many of Poe's stories which are aided by the supernatural. The traditional elements established in popular horror tales at the time are followed, but critical reception has been mixed. The tale has been adapted to film several times.
The story takes place during the Spanish Inquisition. At the beginning of the story an unnamed narrator is brought to trial before various sinister judges. Poe provides no explanation of why he is there or for what he has been arrested. Before him are seven tall white candles on a table, and, as they melt, his hopes of survival also diminish. He is condemned to death and finds himself in a pitch black compartment. At first the prisoner thinks that he is locked in a tomb, but he discovers that he is in a cell. He decides to explore the cell by placing a hem from his robe against a wall so he can count the paces around the room; however, he faints before being able to measure the whole perimeter.
When the prisoner awakens he discovers food and water nearby. He gets back up and tries to measure the prison again, finding that the perimeter measures one hundred steps. While crossing the room he slips on the hem of his robe. He discovers that if he had not tripped he would have walked into a deep pit with water at the bottom in the center of the cell.
After losing consciousness again the narrator discovers that the prison is slightly illuminated and that he is bound to a wooden board by ropes. He looks up in horror to see a painted picture of Father Time on the ceiling; hanging from the figure is a gigantic scythe-like pendulum swinging slowly back and forth. The pendulum is inexorably sliding downwards and will eventually kill him. However the condemned man is able to attract rats to his bonds with meat left for him to eat and they start chewing through the ropes. As the pendulum reaches a point inches above his heart, the prisoner breaks free of the ropes and watches as the pendulum is drawn back to the ceiling.
He then sees that the walls have become red-hot and begun moving inwards, driving him into the center of the room and towards the brink of the pit. As he gazes into the pit, he decides that no fate could be worse than falling into it. It is implied by the text that the narrator fears what he sees at the bottom of the pit, or perhaps is frightened by its depth. The exact cause of his fear is not clearly stated. However, as the narrator moves back from the pit, he sees that the red-hot walls are leaving him with no foothold. As the prisoner begins to fall into the pit, he hears human voices. The walls rush back and an arm catches him. The French Army has taken Toledo and the Inquisition is in the hands of its enemies.
Historical Authenticity
Poe makes no attempt to describe accurately the operations of the Spanish Inquisition, and takes considerable dramatic license with the broader history premised in this story. The rescuers are led by Napoleon's General Lasalle (who was not, however, in command of the French occupation of Toledo) and this places the action during the Peninsular War, centuries after the height of the Spanish Inquisition and at a time when it had lost much of its power. The elaborate tortures of this story have no historic parallels in the activity of the Spanish Inquisition in any century, let alone the nineteenth. The Inquisition was, however, abolished during the period of French intervention (1808–13).
Poe places a Latin epigraph before the story, describing it as "a quatrain composed for the gates of a market to be erected upon the site of the Jacobin Club House at Paris". The epigraph was not Poe's invention; such an inscription had been reported, no later than 1803, as having been composed with the intention (possibly facetious) of having it placed on the site, and it had appeared, without attribution, as an item of trivia in the 1836 Southern Literary Messenger, a periodical to which Poe contributed. It does not appear, however, that the market was ever built as intended. Charles Baudelaire, a noted French writer who translated Poe's works into French and who was largely inspired by him, said that the building on the site of the Old Jacobin Club had no gates and, therefore, no inscription.
"The Pit and the Pendulum" is a study of the effect terror has on the narrator, starting with the opening line that suggests he is already suffering from death anxiety ("I was sick—sick unto death with that long agony") and, shortly thereafter, when he loses consciousness upon receiving the death sentence. Such anxiety is ironic to the reader, who knows of the narrator's implicit survival: the text refers to the black-robed judges having lips "whiter than the sheet upon which I trace these words", showing that he himself is writing the story after the events have happened. What makes the story particularly effective at evoking terror is in its lack of supernatural elements; the action taking place is real and not imagined. The "reality" of the story is enhanced through Poe's focus on sensation: the dungeon is airless and unlit, the narrator is subject to thirst and starvation, he is swarmed by rats, the closing walls are red-hot metal and, of course, the razor-sharp pendulum threatens to slice into the narrator. The narrator experiences the blade mostly through sound as it "hissed" while swinging. Poe further emphasizes this with words like "surcingle", "cessation", "crescent", "scimitar", and various forms of literary consonance.
Poe was following an established model of terror writing of his day, often seen in Blackwood's Magazine (a formula he mocks in "A Predicament"). Those stories, however, often focused on chance occurrences or personal vengeance as a source of terror. Poe may have been inspired to focus on the purposeful impersonal torture in part by Juan Antonio Llorente's History of the Spanish Inquisition, first published in 1817. It has also been suggested that Poe's "pit" was inspired by a translation of the Koran (Poe had referenced the Koran also in "Al Aaraaf" and "Israfel") by George Sale. Poe was familiar with Sale, and even mentioned him by name in a note in his story "The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade". Sale's translation was a part of commentary and, in one of those notes, refers to an allegedly common form of torture and execution by "throwing [people] into a glowing pit of fire, whence he had the opprobrious appellation of the Lord of the Pit." In the Koran itself, in Sura (Chapter) 85, "The Celestial Signs", a passage reads: "...cursed were the contrivers of the pit, of fire supplied with the fuel... and they afflicted them for no other reason, but because they believed in the mighty, the glorious God." Poe is also considered to have been influenced by William Mudford's The Iron Shroud, a short story about an iron torture chamber which shrinks through mechanical action and eventually crushes the victim inside. Poe apparently got the idea for the shrinking chamber in the "Pit and the Pendulum" after Mudford's story was published in Blackwood's magazine in 1830.
Publication and response
"The Pit and the Pendulum" was included in The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843, published by Carey & Hart. It was slightly revised for a republication in the May 17, 1845 issue of the Broadway Journal.
William Butler Yeats was generally critical of Poe, calling him "vulgar." Of "The Pit and the Pendulum" in particular he said, "[it does] not seem to me to have permanent literary value of any kind... Analyse the Pit and the Pendulum and you find an appeal to the nerves by tawdry physical affrightments."
- Several film adaptations of the story have been produced, including the early French language film Le Puits et le pendule in 1909 by Henri Desfontaines. The first English language adaptation was in 1913, directed by Alice Guy-Blaché.
- The 1961 film The Pit and the Pendulum directed by Roger Corman starring Vincent Price and Barbara Steele, like the other installments in the Corman/Price "Poe Cycle", bears minimal resemblance to the Poe story: the torture apparatus of the title makes its appearance only in the final 10 minutes of the film. A novelization of the film was written by Lee Sheridan adapted from Richard Matheson's screenplay in 1961 and published by Lancer Books in paperback.
An episode from the animated cartoon series, "Perils of Penelope Pitstop", which is entitled, "London Town Treachery", the hooded Claw has captured Penelope and uses a pun based on Poe's "Pit and the Pendulum", and retitled it as "Pitstop and the Pendulum", which does have a pendulum that swings lower and lower before it attempts to kill Penelope Pitstop.
- In 1983, Czech Surrealist Jan Švankmajer directed a 15-minute short film called The Pendulum, the Pit and Hope, based on this story and the short story "A Torture by Hope" by Villiers de l'Isle-Adam. It is a fairly faithful adaptation of both stories, featuring a unique first-person camera perspective and segments of Švankmajer's trademark stop-motion and cut-out animation (in an otherwise live action film). Most of the art design was done by his wife, Eva Švankmajerová
- In 1991 a film version of the story, directed by Stuart Gordon and starring Lance Henriksen, was released. The plot was altered to a love story set in Spain in 1492.
- In 2006 an award-winning stop-motion animated adaptation of the story was produced under the 'Ray Harryhausen Presents' banner.
- The 2009 horror film directed by David DeCoteau bears little resemblance to the original story but, like the 1961 version, utilizes the large swinging pendulum in the penultimate scene. The film follows a group of university students who visit a hypnotherapy institute lorded over by a sinister hypnotist who wants to use the students to experiment with the possibility of breaking the pain threshold.
- Google Books
- Google Books
- Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. New York: Checkmark Books, 2001. ISBN 0-8160-4161-X p. 188-9
- Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. p. 359. ISBN 0-8018-5730-9
- Kennedy, J. Gerald. Poe, Death, and the Life of Writing. Yale University Press, 1987. p. 53. ISBN 0-300-03773-2
- Kennedy, J. Gerald. Poe, Death, and the Life of Writing. Yale University Press, 1987. p. 32. ISBN 0-300-03773-2
- Fisher, Benjamin F. "Poe and the Gothic Tradition" as collected in The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe, Kevin J. Hayes, ed. Cambridge, UK: Oxford University Press, 2002. p. 84 ISBN 0-521-79727-6
- Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. New York: Harper Perennial, 1991. p. 204 ISBN 0-06-092331-8
- Alterton, Margaret. "An Additional Source for Poe's 'The Pit and the Pendulum'" from Modern Language Notes, Vol. 48, No. 6 (Jun., 1933), p. 349
- Murtuza, Athar. "An Arabian Source for Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum" from Poe Studies, vol. V, no. 2, December 1972, p. 52
- The Iron Shroud from Project Gutenberg
- Online Biography of William Mudford from the Dictionary of Literary Biography hosted by BookRags p. 2
- Oxford Journals Critique of William Mudford Notes and Queries July 31, 1943 p. 83
- Title The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, and Related Tales The world's classics Oxford World's Classics Author Edgar Allan Poe Editor J. Gerald Kennedy Edition reissue, illustrated Publisher Oxford University Press, 1998 ISBN 0-19-283771-0, ISBN 978-0-19-283771-4 Length 336 pages Quote: "Explanatory Note #254: Poe apparently got the idea for his shrinking chamber from an 1830 Blackwood's story titled the 'Iron Shroud'"
- Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. New York: Checkmark Books, 2001. ISBN 0-8160-4161-X p. 188
- Meyers, Jeffrey. Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy. New York: Cooper Square Press, 1992. ISBN 0-8154-1038-7 p. 274
- Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. New York: Checkmark Books, 2001. ISBN 0-8160-4161-X p. 189
|Wikisource has original text related to this article:|
- The Pit and the Pendulum Animated short film on bravofact.com
- The Pit and the Pendulum Interactive Online Comic adaptation with Hidden Hyperlinks
- Full text on PoeStories.com with hyperlinked vocabulary words.
- Free audio recording of "The Pit and the Pendulum" from Librivox
- Pit and the Pendulum - Fully searchable text of Edgar Allan Poe's story.
- The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2 at Project Gutenberg
- Apocalyptic Imagery and the Fragmentation of the Psyche: "The Pit and the Pendulum"
- The Sources of Poe's the Pit and the Pendulum
- An Additional Source for Poe's the Pit and the Pendulum | <urn:uuid:5a296e15-7109-48b1-8e16-fb129f68adb2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pit_and_the_Pendulum | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944647 | 3,098 | 3.25 | 3 |
Avoid Allergen Exposure
Health Tip: Avoid Outdoor Allergens
Here are some suggestions
(HealthDay News) -- The great outdoors is rife with allergens that make your eyes itchy, red and watery.
The University of Maryland Medical Center suggests how to help protect against outdoor allergens:
- Get a head start on allergy season by taking your allergy medications a week or two before the season starts.
- If you plan to hike or camp, avoid scheduling trips during times of high pollen counts (May and June for grasses, September and October for ragweed).
- Stay away from hay and barns, and avoid activities such as raking leaves and mowing the grass.
- Wear sunglasses to help keep pollen out of the eyes.
- When you come back indoors, shower and wash your hair to remove pollen.
- Close doors and windows during pollen seasons.
Check Your Symptoms
Search for Treatments
Find a Doctor
Search for Drugs | <urn:uuid:80b49804-8dd9-467a-93e6-3c7e821adb0f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthline.com/healthday/health-tip-avoid-outdoor-allergens | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923344 | 201 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Fr. Tolton Catholic High School welcomes applications from qualified candidates at any time. Any available positions will be described on this page.
Catholic Schools are noted for their excellent academic achievement, environment conducive to teaching and learning, and values education. They exist primarily to participate in the educational mission of the Catholic Church. Their goal is to develop the total person, stressing a deeper appreciation of the gift of faith. Professional, dedicated teachers contribute to the attainment of this goal by supporting a school environment which:
- provides and supports sound academic learning;
- fosters a sense of faith community;
- integrates Gospel values;
- encourages a commitment to service.
Teachers in the Catholic Schools of the Diocese of Jefferson City are expected to:
- give witness to gospel values by fostering prayer, community, service and Christian living;
- recognize each student’s God-given potential;
- commit to personal, professional and spiritual growth;
- participate in curriculum development;
- perform professionally with accountability;
- be certified in the state of Missouri. | <urn:uuid:9e63f751-229e-4ce9-aa94-1a1c25f84faf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.toltoncatholic.org/employment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929837 | 216 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Analyst Insight by Utku Tansel, Global Head of Toys and Games Research
In just a few years, Asia Pacific is forecast to surpass North America to become the largest traditional toys and games market with a 28% share of global value sales.
In 2011, the region was also one of the most dynamic globally, recording around 9% value growth in comparison with just 4% globally. Rising disposable incomes, new product launches, the increasing penetration of organised retailing in rural areas and second-tier cities as well as strong demographic fundamentals have all contributed to the region's outstanding performance in recent years.
Accounting for over 17% of global value sales combined, Japan and China were the second and third biggest traditional toys and games markets in the world in 2011. However, these two markets are very different, characterised by a number of distinct attributes.
Over the last few years, China's toys and games market has experienced solid growth due to the combined effects of overseas and domestic demand. Disposable incomes in China have been growing faster than GDP growth, making toys more affordable for parents and children. Moreover, China is experiencing the impact of the baby boom of the 1980s, with this generation now starting to push China into an unprecedented consumption surge. Due to its unique one-child policy, the number of children in China is lower than it would otherwise have been, but parents born in the 1980s appear to be willing to spend heavily on their only child, a factor which has dramatically increased demand for toys. In 2012, China is projected to overtake Japan to become the second largest traditional toys and games market globally.
While being a much more saturated market than China, the Japanese population is also ageing rapidly. The Japanese population peaked at 128 million in 2008 but has continued to decline since. Manufacturers are increasingly having to expand their target audience to cover adults and elderly consumers in order to compensate for declining sales of toys for children. If the government fails to make a concerted effort to increase the birth rate, toy sales will continue to suffer, with the market forecast to stagnate in the future. Despite all of these drawbacks, however, Japan remains a very important toy market both globally and regionally. In 2011, value sales of traditional toys and games exceeded US$7.2 billion for the first time thanks to modest growth of 3%.
Which markets to target?
Thanks to phenomenal growth in China, Thailand and India, Asia Pacific is projected to be the most dynamic region for traditional toys and games sales in actual terms, adding a whopping US$7.2 billion to global sales over the next five years.
Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore were the leaders in terms of per capita spend among 0-14-year-olds in 2011, all recording more than US$150 per child. Click to tweet! This also highlights the huge contrast between the countries in the region. In 2011, in Japan, the top country in the region, toy spend per child stood at US$433 in comparison to just US$1 in India.
China is already the third largest traditional toys and games market globally , and the low current rate of spend per child suggests that it has considerable growth potential. Its 215 million 0-14-year-old population offers great opportunities in terms of traditional toys and games sales. In actual terms, China will add a further US$5.3 billion to global traditional toy sales by 2016.
Thailand is projected to be the second most dynamic country in the region with a 12% CAGR over 2011-2016, translating into US$240 million in actual sales. Urbanisation, demand for recreational activities and the greater recognition of the involvement of traditional toys and games in children's physical and mental development will underlie future growth. The strong presence of the online channel will bolster cutting-edge innovation alongside the continuous expansion of other distribution channels. However, toy manufacturers and distributors face the dilemma of fierce competition due to the fast-growing number of brands, including private label ranges imported by retailers.
Due to its massive size, Japan's stagnant 0.8% CAGR over 2011-2016 is forecast to translate into sales of US$305 million, making it one of the most dynamic markets in the region in actual terms. With the current population trends, it is likely that more toys will emerge targeting adults. The 45-54-year old and over 65-year-old brackets are forecast to be the only age groups to register increases during the next 10 years, and toymakers will scramble to attract them to their brands early. It is possible that in a few years' time, Japan could become the first country where toys targeting adults will outsell toys targeting children.
Republished with permission from Euromonitor Market Research Blog, originally posted on 12 July 2012 | <urn:uuid:6e929302-ac50-434a-9b6b-74a83e51617b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marketresearchworld.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4926&Itemid=77 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958738 | 970 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Don’t the four-week old Occupy Wall Street protesters deserve any attention from our nation’s top leaders?
Thus far, only President Obama has made reference in his public speeches to the complaints, disparate as they may seem, of this growing number of discontented people who have launched rallies in at least 19 major cities.
Surely, it’s time for the nation’s leaders to meet with the Occupy Wall Street protesters and publicly address their grievances. The country’s decision makers, most notably those in Congress, can’t simply watch idly by and wish them away, as they appear to be doing.
The first thing President Obama could do is urge the protesters to form an advance group composed of their leaders or spokespersons so the White House can arrange for him to publicly address the increasingly restless Occupy Wall Street crowd and respond specifically to their concerns.
One of the major problems that most Americans feel is their utter sense of frustration and helplessness in the face of the mounting oppressive problems that the gasping economy and rudderless leadership in Congress have engendered. So this expanding public outcry shouldn’t be surprising at all.
Those who want to minimize the Occupy Wall Street protesters, including New York City Mayor Bloomberg, aren’t convinced about what the protest is all about, or its relevance. But their message is clear.
“The message — and the solutions — should be obvious to anyone who has been paying attention since the economy went into a recession that continues to sock the middle class while the rich have recovered and prospered,” says The New York Times in an editorial on Sunday Oct. 9, 2011. “The problem is that nobody in Washington has been listening.”
At this point, protest is the message, notes The Times: “Income inequality is grinding down that middle class, increasing the ranks of the poor, and threatening to create a permanent underclass of able, willing but jobless people.”
Indeed, the huge number of young people enthusiastically participating in the protests reflect this disturbing prospect.
“On one level, the protesters most of them young, are giving voice to a generation of lost opportunity,” notes The Times.
One of the loudest message from the protesters is that the nation’s top leaders, especially those who have been elected to draft and pass helpful and sensible legislation to advance an economic recovery and provide gainful employment, have not been doing their job.
President Obama has asked Congress to approve his multibillion-dollar jobs bill specifically designed to stimulate the economy and create new jobs. Clearly, Congressional leaders should face up to that question and explain what they intend do with it, or at least come up with an alternative jobs plan. | <urn:uuid:f4a59e7e-9ac2-4f37-9f3b-e052a270dcad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forbes.com/sites/genemarcial/2011/10/10/obama-congressional-leaders-must-meet-with-occupy-wall-street-leaders/?commentId=comment_blogAndPostId/blog/comment/1453-1111-55 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955622 | 569 | 1.882813 | 2 |
By Carol W. Greider
2:27 PM EST, December 22, 2011
You win some, you lose some. That appears to be the current state of affairs with federal funding for research. Congress recently passed legislation providing a modest increase in funding to the National Institutes of Health, which funds research at the Johns Hopkins University and other universities, academic medical centers, small businesses, and independent research institutions across the U.S. That's the good news.
The bad news is that this increase doesn't make up for the $300 million-plus cut the NIH received in the last budget go-round; much less does it keep pace with the increasing cost of conducting medical research. As we reflect on a year that brought scientific breakthroughs that will ultimately improve the treatment and prevention of disease, we must pay heed to the extraordinary challenges facing scientists, particularly young scientists. They have always aspired to making world-class contributions, but as they very well know, their chances of success in the U.S. today are fading by the week.
Our nation's elected leaders are not championing science — or even talking about it, during presidential debates or on the floor of the Congress — even as other nations are stepping up their determination to match and exceed the U.S. in discovery. It takes years to realize the multiple benefits of science; without adequate, sustained funding for research, the careers of many bright, young scientists may come to a screeching halt.
Federal funding for biomedical sciences plays a critical role in training the next generation of scientists. Research dollars from the NIH and National Science Foundation, Department of Energy and other agencies do more than just pay for test tubes and microscopes. Most of the budget of a research lab goes directly toward the training of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Critical thinking and a strong curiosity for finding that "needle in the haystack" are skills that must be acquired to support creative, outside-the-box initiatives. Our trainees leave federally supported labs to apply their new skills at research institutions and in industry, and in doing so sustain America's world leadership in science and innovation.
In my own lab, I support young researchers who study a very broad area of biology, from the fundamental molecular structure of telomeres, or chromosome ends, to the role of telomeres in mediating human disease. It was this connection of fundamental chromosome biology to diseases such as cancer and age-related degenerative processes that led to my Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2009. My own early training fostered the habits of mind and ingenuity that led to award-winning discovery. It is essential, if we want to continue to reap the benefits of science, to commit as a nation to preparing more young people for extraordinary careers in science.
How is that possible in this economic climate?
According to the NIH's Office of Extramural Research, the agency funded just 17.4 percent of research grant applications in the last fiscal year, a historic low. If we continue on this path, young investigators may well take their brain power to other countries where research and development is now a growing, not shrinking, share of the gross domestic product. This should raise concerns here at home — and indeed, a recent Research!America poll shows approximately 80 percent of Americans believe the U.S. is losing its global competitive edge in science, technology and innovation. Given public concern about stalled economic growth, and the slowdown in innovation and its resultant benefits, why haven't our elected leaders stepped up?
Students and postdoctoral fellows largely depend on the support of the public sector to finance the training and research that will make them world-renowned scientists. They're worried about their future and their capacity to establish and sustain careers in a tough fiscal environment. This is the time for our elected leaders, and those who aspire to be, to become outspoken champions of research, calling for greatly enhanced investment in the next budget cycle, before the U.S. loses our competitive edge and with it more and more of our young talent pool.
Carol W. Greider, a 2009 Nobel laureate in physiology/medicine, is Daniel Nathans Professor and director of the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is a Baltimore resident. Her email is email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:f27374cf-9f32-4421-8a5f-5a74b42b3882> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.herald-mail.com/topic/bs-ed-scientists-20111222,0,3633365,print.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94965 | 882 | 2.140625 | 2 |
COTTAGE pies delivered to 47 schools in Lancashire have tested positive for horse DNA.
The product has now been withdrawn from kitchens while headteachers have been informed.
Officials at Lancashire County Council have said provisional results of the tests on a pre-prepared cottage pie from an external supplier were reported late on Thursday evening and have been passed on to the Food Standards Agency.
Lancashire’s is one of seven laboratories in the UK accredited to carry out the tests that have been requested by the Food Standards Agency.
The county council’s catering service submitted a range of beef products from its suppliers to be analysed by Lancashire County Scientific Services, in accordance with Food Standards Agency guidelines.
It is believed scientists uncovered equine DNA at 0.1 per cent concentration in samples.
County Coun Susie Charles, cabinet member for children and schools, said: “We share the concerns people have about what is clearly a major problem in food supplies across the UK and Europe.
“Because of those concerns we decided to seek extra assurance that our external suppliers were not providing any products containing horsemeat DNA, and one of the products has returned a positive result.
“Relatively few schools in Lancashire use this particular product but our priority is to provide absolute assurance that meals contain what the label says – having discovered this one doesn’t, we have no hesitation in removing it from menus.
“This does not appear to be a food safety issue but I’ve no doubt parents will agree we need to take a very firm line with suppliers and it is a credit to our officers that we have been able to quickly identify the problem and take the product off the menus.”
Lancashire County Council is refusing to name the schools involved, do you think their stance is correct or do parents have a right to know?
Leave your comments below.
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Weather for Lytham
Monday 20 May 2013
Temperature: 11 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: West
Temperature: 8 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: North west | <urn:uuid:a1c088ad-3c1c-44cb-ae49-266ebeca7bcc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lythamstannesexpress.co.uk/news/local/express-business/horse-meat-found-in-lancashire-school-meals-1-5417123 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950754 | 460 | 1.921875 | 2 |
In the face of the worst drought in decades, record high gasoline and diesel prices, and the fact that biofuels producers have yet to place a single gallon of cellulosic ethanol into U.S. fuel markets, a large number of Governors, members of Congress and stakeholders havecalled for either the repeal of the federal Renewable Fuel Standard or major reforms to the program. Support for an overhaul of the RFS program has come from all corners of the political debate, including Republican legislators (such as U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe, R-OK), Democratic legislators (like U.S. Senator Chris Coons, D-DE), refiners, agricultural stakeholders and even some environmental groups.
However, the fact that these environmental groups are publically calling for reforms to the RFS program does not stem from their concerns about fuel prices or recognition that government programs cannot force the creation or sales of products into markets when they are not ready for commercialization. Unfortunately, some of these groups are attempting to use the debate to replace one costly and inefficient program with one that is even worse – a national Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).
The National Low Carbon Fuel Standard Project is one of several environmental initiatives attempting to replace the RFS with an LCFS. The argument, according to the National LCFS Project and other environmental groups, is that the RFS has only succeeded in creating a market for increased use of corn-based ethanol. This is evident in the fact that the RFS has failed in its primary objective to encourage the development of advanced biofuel, including cellulosic ethanol which is currently not commercially viable. These groups argue that corn-based ethanol has a high lifecycle carbon-intensity due to the fact that the RFS forces us to take corn out of the world’s food markets, which will need to be replaced by corn grown outside the United States – resulting in the burning down of the Amazon rainforest, which acts as the world’s largest carbon sink. These groups conclude that rather than denying corn from the world’s food markets, we should force drivers to use “low carbon fuels” such as cellulosic ethanol, natural gas or electricity.
While the contours of the RFS repeal/reform debate are far from certain – any changes to the program will require legislation to get through a divided Congress and be signed by a President who supports the program (regardless of the outcome in November’s election) – there is no doubt that implementing a Low Carbon Fuel Standard would be very bad news for American drivers.
Designed as a cap-and-trade program for transportation fuels, an LCFS is designed to reduce the carbon intensity of the nation’s fuel pool through an aggressive program to force fuel switching from traditional fuels such as gasoline and diesel to “low carbon” fuels such as cellulosic ethanol, electricity or natural gas. Under a low carbon fuel standard, if a retailer cannot reduce the carbon intensity of the fuels that he is selling into a market through increased sales of low carbon fuels, he would have to buy credits from another entity that has earned them through such sales or stop selling traditional fuels into the market.
As discussed in several recent studies on LCFS, rationing traditional fuel supplies to meet the LCFS requirements will more than double gasoline prices and hammer the economy. One study, conducted by Charles Rivers Associates in 2010 found that a federal LCFS, such as the one pushed by the National LCFS Project, would raise gasoline prices by up to 180 percent over 10 years, eliminate up to 4.5 million jobs and reduce household purchasing power by up to $2,400 for the average family.
There is no question that the Renewable Fuel Standard has had many unintended consequences, which helps explain why we are entering into a significant national dialogue on the future of the program. However, replacing it with a Low Carbon Fuel Standard with its many intended consequences is hardly a step in the right direction for American drivers. | <urn:uuid:b2fc5b5e-2805-4b0b-86b5-0c70b870aa17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/10/14/Enviros-push-regulations-to-double-price-of-gas | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961046 | 815 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Not all acne is the same. Everybody has a specific skin type. The types of treatments
and products you choose should be consistent with your skin type. By using products
that are not made for your skin type you could make your acne even worse.
The content provided on this website is for informational purposes only and is not
a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions. Consult
a physician regarding the applicability of any information and recommendations with
respect to your health condition.
Reproduction or republication is strictly prohibited without prior written permission.
Sensitive skin can be painful, and it is tough to find acne products that work. Within
the sensitive skin type there are 4 subtypes: acne, rosacea, burning and stinging,
and contact dermatitis. All sensitive skin types have one common factor: inflammation.
It can be very difficult to find the most appropriate facial products if you have
sensitive skin. This is because most products that are designed for sensitive skin
do not stipulate which subtype it is best suited for. If you feel that you may have
any form of sensitive skin it may be best to contact a dermatologist to get their
opinion on the type of products that work best with your skin.
Home Acne Treatment for Sensitive Skin
With sensitive skin you have to be very careful not to use any type of harsh facial
cleansers or products as these can further irritate the skin. If you are unable to
find a gentle acne product that works for you, a homemade acne treatment may be your
best bet. Below are examples of homemade acne treatments. They are separated into
2 categories: mild and powerful. For those with sensitive skin, it is best to start
off with a more mild acne treatment to determine how your skin will react.
Mild Acne Treatments:
Mild homemade acne treatments use minimal ingredients to ensure that your skin does
not become more irritated and inflamed. One homemade remedy is to rub an ice cube
around your face, This will reduce inflammation and make acne less noticeable. Using
a simple oatmeal mask (ground oatmeal and water) also works well to soothe the skin.
Powerful Acne Treatments:
The homemade acne treatments that are slightly more powerful are still less irritating
to the skin than regular facial products. A great way to spot treat acne is to apply
the juice of ginger directly to the infected area. This treatment does not work immediately.
You will begin to see results after a couple of days. Another great acne treatment
is to combine rosewater and lemon juice and apply directly to your face. After several
minutes rinse with water.
Best Acne Treatment for Sensitive Skin
Those with sensitive skin will need to take extra precautions in order to reduce
inflammation and prevent the sensitive areas from worsening. If the inflammation
gets worse, it is acceptable to take a mild over-the-counter anti-inflammatory and
head to a trusted dermatologist.
The products with a base ingredient of benzoyl peroxide are effective in reducing
acne. However if you have sensitive skin then it might be best for you to try salicylic
acid based products rather than benzoyl peroxide based products. Salicylic acid is
a powerful treatment that banishes blemishes but is gentle enough for dry and sensitive
skin. However you need to keep in mind that both benzoyl peroxide and salicyclic
acid are still have the possibility of causing side effects on sensitive skin.
The best way to eliminate and prevent acne if you have sensitive skin is to use hypoallergenic
products. The great thing about hypoallergenic products is they do a great job cleansing
and moisturizing the skin without adding unneeded chemicals. Almost all facial products
can be found in hypoallergenic forms. It is best to apply the hypoallergenic cleanser
with your finger tips and rub in a gentle circular motion. Toners and moisturizers
can be used on a regular basis. It is best to stop all products if your skin worsens
and try one at a time to determine which treatment was causing the increase in inflammation. | <urn:uuid:c1f7ef91-8e9c-405f-90d7-a795bbc3a5be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.24acneskins.com/sensitive-skin.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920219 | 874 | 1.945313 | 2 |
It’s a common scenario in households across the country. The television is on as background noise while mom and dad are occupied elsewhere while Junior is playing on the floor with a puzzle or blocks. Suddenly, Junior lifts his head at the glimpse of a cheery cartoon character chomping on a themed cereal. He asks mami to pick some up on the next shopping trip – and that’s exactly what sugary cereal companies are bargaining for, in a new report that shows that cereal marketing is aimed more towards Hispanic youth more than any other ethnic or racial group.
The 2012 “Cereal FACTS” report, published by the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, has unearthed several startling facts regarding how Hispanic children have become the target of big brand advertising.
“There’s been a lot of attention in marketing press about the spending power of Hispanic and African-American audiences – it’s only been until recently that companies have tapped into it,” says lead author Jennifer Harris, PhD, MBA, an associate research scientist at Yale University. “And the bottom line is while cereal companies have made small changes in the nutritional content in their products over time, they are disproportionately aiming their advertising at the growing numbers of Hispanic children rather than non-Hispanic children.”
The Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity released its first “Cereal FACTS” report in 2009. Since then, companies responded by improving the overall nutritional quality for 13 of the 14 brands of cereal advertised to children. Even so, breakfast cereals remain one of the highest, yet hidden, sources of sugar available to children, with children regularly eating multiple servings of cereals that can contain as much as 20 grams of sugar per serving, says Dr. Harris.
The American Heart Association recommends that inactive to moderately active young children consume no more than 5 teaspoons, or 20 grams of added sugar per day.
“I think its great many of the cereal brands are adding whole grains and promising less sugar, but at the end of the day, these companies are deliberately targeting Latino children and their families,” says Cristina Rivera, a registered dietitian in private practice in New York. “And while children may relate to their favorite cartoon characters or favorite movies being endorsed by these cereals, parents need to learn what exactly is in those boxes to help guide their children’s dietary choices.”
Because obesity rates among Latino children far outpaces other ethnic groups, Rivera suggests that parents take extra care when selecting breakfast cereals. She recommends that parents opt for breakfast cereals with less than seven grams of sugar and three grams of fiber, explaining that the added fiber can help kids feel full without the added sugars. Click here to check out the Yale Rudd Venter for Food Policy & Obesity’s handy nutrition ranking of more than 300 popular breakfast cereals.
“Advertising and foods that aren’t necessarily good for you are always going to be there,” says Rivera. “But Latino parents need to be aware how even the choice of a breakfast cereal can affect their children in the long-term.”
“Portion control, knowing what’s on the label and encouraging the kids to play and stay active can help reduce the risk of obesity in our community, no matter how much advertisers spend.”
- Hispanic youth’s exposure to cereal marketing has significantly increased from 2008 to 2011. Spending on Spanish-language TV advertising for all cereals more than doubled (from $26 million to $65 million) and Hispanic children’s exposure to these ads tripled during the same time period. In contrast, there was a decrease in children’s exposure to cereal ads on English-language television.
- The total number of brands that advertised on Spanish-language television jumped from just 4 in 2008 to a total of 11 in 2011.
- In 2011, General Mills brands (Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Kix and Count Chocula, among others) accounted for approximately one-half of advertising spending on Spanish-language television. The company also accounted for one-half of exposure to cereal ads among all Hispanic age groups.
- Among Hispanic youth, preschoolers (ages 2-5 years) watched more cereal ads than any other age group across children and adolescents. Since 2008, Hispanic preschoolers’ exposure to cereal ads increased by 120%.
- The top five cereals most frequently advertised to children include: Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lucky Charms, Honey Nut Cheerios, Froot Loops and Reese’s Puffs. Seems like they have something in common with the top five cereals with the poorest nutritional rating: Pebbles, Reese’s Puffs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lucky Charms and Trix.
- Cinnamon Toast Crunch devoted the highest percentage of its television advertising budget to Spanish-language ads (29%). Mini Wheats had the lowest television ad market share, with just 6% of its budget going to Spanish-language ads.
- Hispanic youth (6-17 years) were more likely than non-Hispanic youth to visit child-targeted advertising game websites. In addition, child-targeted websites (especially General Mills sites) were more popular with Hispanic than non-Hispanic youth. | <urn:uuid:6a8b63a1-778c-4906-8eee-79149eef7d2b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nbclatino.com/2012/06/26/report-finds-that-sugary-cereals-marketed-to-hispanic-children-more-than-any-ethnic-group/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953149 | 1,096 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Whiskey is weird.
How many other products can you name that take four or more years to manufacture? We always talk about this, how the whiskey aging cycle challenges distillery production planners. The story of George Dickel No. 8 Brand Tennessee Whisky demonstrates what can go wrong.
In the early 1990s, United Distillers was a company with big plans. The spirits division of Guinness & Co., it had been built by acquisitions over the previous decade. It was an international company with major brands in the scotch whiskey and American whiskey categories, as well as gin, rum, and others.
Among its assets was George Dickel Tennessee Whiskey.
One of the company’s big plans was to take selected American whiskey brands and give them a big marketing push in Europe and Asia, where American whiskey was starting to grow as a category, unlike the U.S. market, where it was doing nothing. One of the brands selected was George Dickel.
As a Tennessee whiskey, Dickel is a unique product. Unlike United’s many bourbons (at the time), the George Dickel recipe is shared by no other brands. Because of the whiskey aging cycle, any long-term sales growth strategy has to be accompanied by steady production growth, so that when the marketing plan succeeds, you have enough product to sell. United started to make more Dickel, a lot more.
The effort to sell more Dickel overseas wasn’t a failure exactly, but it didn’t meet expectations either. Part of the problem was that the newly huge company was unwieldy and often lacked focus. Dickel was too far back in the portfolio to get the attention it needed. Because the whiskey made at Dickel could only really be used for the Dickel brand, the stocks built up, and because nobody was paying close enough attention, they just kept producing.
In 1997, Guinness merged with Grand Metropolitan to form Diageo. To accomplish the combination, the company assumed a lot of debt. It soon had to start selling assets to generate cash and also cut costs wherever it could. It decided what its core business would be and, by 1999, it had decided that American whiskey was not part of that picture. Early that year, it sold off all of its American whiskey assets except two brands, I. W. Harper and George Dickel. It also stopped production at the Dickel distillery.
In addition to the excess whiskey inventory, Dickel had some environmental issues in Tennessee, having to do with wastewater disposal. They weren’t a huge deal but would require a significant investment to fix. Because of that, the company couldn’t casually crank up the distillery for a few weeks each season, just to keep some current production in the pipeline. They had to stay completely dark and take their chances.
When they stopped Dickel production, they pretty much stopped marketing it too. That will tell you what the underlying strength of a brand is. Maybe that was their plan, maybe there was no plan beyond stopping the bleeding and making the brand profitable again. With the distillery closed and the marketing budget at zero, it wasn’t too hard to make the brand profitable in the short term.
At that time, now almost nine years ago, product availability seemed like the least of their problems.
In 2002, Diageo began to pay some attention to Dickel again. The brand got a marketing budget and started to make some noise. Either the marketing worked, or it was just time, you never know exactly, but Dickel sales suddenly picked up here, there, and everywhere. They got their environmental problems fixed and resumed production in fall of 2003.
The new marketing program featured the premium Dickel expression, known as No. 12, but the less expensive No. 8 continued to be the main seller. In about the middle of 2007, Dickel No. 8 drinkers began to notice bare shelves. In some cases there was a note on the shelf explaining that No. 8 was in short supply because of the 1999-2003 distillery shutdown. Ads in a few markets explained that the shortage was being caused by the shutdown, combined with “an incredible surge in demand for George Dickel No. 8."
No company gets itself into a situation like that on purpose, but when you find yourself with that kind of problem you try to make the best of it. One tactic has been to generate publicity about the shortage itself. Nothing makes people want something like telling them they can’t have it. Another has been to release a temporary stop-gap, a new product called Cascade Hollow Recipe, aged three years. The strange thing is, the Cascade Hollow label looks almost exactly like the No. 8 label and it is being sold for the same price. It’s obvious that many shoppers, grabbing for the familiar black label, will never notice it’s a different product, a fact no doubt anticipated by the brand’s management.
Since the company could easily have made the Cascade Hollow packaging look completely different, why make it virtually indistinguishable from the No. 8? The strategy, it appears, is to have it both ways. They’re being upfront with the people who are paying attention while hoping to slip one past the people who aren’t.
Here are some simple facts the people at Diageo aren’t talking about.
No Dickel product except the new Cascade Hollow carries an age statement. It has one because it is required to, by law, because it is less than four years old. Unofficial statements by distillery personnel have pegged the top-of-the-line Dickel Barrel Select product as containing whiskey 8 to 12 years old, the No. 12 as 8 to 10 years old, and the No. 8 as 4 to 6, but those ages are all unofficial. They are trying to match a taste profile, of course, and if the whiskey starts to taste a little younger they hope no one will notice. Having no age statement gives them a lot of flexibility. With no age statement, all you know for sure is that the whiskey is at least four years old.
Regardless of what age it actually is, the oldest and most mature whiskey they have is going into the more profitable No. 12 and Barrel Select expressions. Those are reporting no shortages.
On Monday, the Associated Press (AP) ran a story in which a Diageo vice-president acknowledged the “temporary” shortage and promised that No. 8 will return early in 2008.
What seems underway, then, is an effort to turn a problem into an opportunity, always a good idea. By next year, Dickel hopes to be in greater demand than ever thanks to publicity generated by the shortage. The AP story alone was picked up by thousands of print and electronic outlets. When No. 8 returns, the company will have a new entry-level product on the shelves and its best-seller, the No. 8 Brand, will reappear, maybe at a higher and more profitable price. Then maybe they will start to change the two labels to give the two products more separation. They’ll transition price-sensitive shoppers to the Cascade Hollow product and get a little more scratch from No. 8 loyalists.
Let’s hope for their sake that all this works out better than their last master plan. | <urn:uuid:6b2a1faf-9a0a-4249-b1ca-206ff58b60bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com/2007/12/whats-really-going-on-with-george.html?showComment=1311005532567 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973718 | 1,537 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Course Information: 3 credits. Students will learn the basics of substation design. Topics: Intro to Substation Design, Design Principles, Major Equipment, Transmission/Generation Substations, Distribution Substations, Control Houses, Physical Design, Specialty Topics.
Recent Student Evaluations:
Course Description/Objectives: In Week One, students will learn an overview of the distribution system and how substations fit into the overall grid. They will learn the information they need to begin designing a project. Students will learn where to obtain information regarding what type of substation is needed, what it will be used for and what components it will need. They will finish with a presentation providing a glossary for terms they will need to know.
In Week Two, students will learn the basic design principles of a substation design plan. They will learn to define a project and what information an engineer needs to create a project plan. They will study examples of real world substation design plans and learn how site, time and equipment issues can impact a design project.
Week Three covers major equipment of substation design. Students will begin to study more in depth issues in substation design, including voltage involved in a design and transformer specifics. They will be given a brief overview of safety enclosures, metering, and protection. Students will learn the distinctions between transmission and generation substations in Week Four. Students will learn the design aspects of each substation, how its purpose differs, and how that purpose impacts design. Students will also study the issues of reliability and security for these substations and view drawings of each type of substation.
In Week Five, Students will gain an introduction to Distribution Substations, their equipment, layout, bus layout and fencing. They will also learn about reliability issues related to distribution substations. They will be introduced to drawings for distribution substations. In Week Six, Students will learn about the function of control houses and their different building designs. They will also learn about permitting needed for control house design and what they will need to provide for the permitting process. Students will learn how to choose the control house equipment and the elements of AC & DC power systems. They will learn how the different systems impact substation design. Students will also learn about SCADA and safety and communication issues for control house design.
During Week Seven, students will study the civil engineering aspects of substation design. They will learn the tools and information needed regarding the site and foundation as well as basic structural design elements. Students will also cover grounding issues in the design plan. Week Eight will be dedicated to the final project and special topics of substation design. | <urn:uuid:67cd4563-7a53-43dd-a024-cafc6ac8c7a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gonzaga.edu/Academics/Colleges-and-Schools/School-of-Engineering-and-Applied-Science/Majors-Programs/Transmission-Distribution/Courses/TADP542SubstationDesign-print.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940382 | 532 | 3.609375 | 4 |
Let me see if I have this argument regarding “shared responsibility” regarding taxes correct.
First, I note the discussion has been changed from “fair share” to “shared responsibility.” Question however remains unchanged, what is a person’s “shared responsibility?” What’s the number? 15 percent, 30 percent, 50 percent, etc. What? Why not ask Warren Buffett?
Second, 87 percent of working Americans pay less than 15 percent in federal income taxes.
Third, regarding Mitt Romney, the new “poster boy” for the collectivism/redistribution crowd, and the 15 percent ($3.0 million) he paid in 2010, this point stands out.
I believe he also gave approximately 15 percent (another $3.0 million) to charities. My education suggests that adds up to 30 percent ($6.0 million). Shall we assume those beating the income inequality drum believe he should have given the entire 30 percent ($6.0 million) to the government because they need and can more effectively redistribute those monies? Really? Shall we assume the charities he elected to support put these monies under a mattress and provided no services/support to those in need?
Shall we assume his investments should have provided “capital” to companies who do not make profits, offer no earnings/returns?
Lastly, one very key point has come out of the dozen or so Republican debates. Both Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney have briefly articulated this point. They want to create environments which will allow middle income workers to have the liberties, freedoms, and opportunities to raise their incomes with jobs which utilize their education, training and work ethic.
It is important to understand we are not a “class” society. I don’t hear people referring to Mitt Romney as part of the ”upper class.” Rather he’s vilified because of his “income” and their mistaken belief that he doesn’t pay his “fair share,” “shared responsibility” or whatever the new/next catch phrase which has been “focus” tested. | <urn:uuid:0bdf7387-f3fa-4cd5-9821-b9b518909558> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cincinnati.com/blogs/letters/2012/01/26/why-vilify-romney-for-paying-taxe/ | 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 | 0.959508 | 450 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Here are four different ways chemists use to show a molecule of ammonia. In the colored molecule models, nitrogen atoms are blue and hydrogen atoms are white.
Click on image for full size
Windows to the Universe original artwork by Randy Russell.
Most things around us are made of groups of atoms bonded together into packages called molecules. The atoms in a molecule are held together because they share or exchange electrons.
Molecules are made from atoms of one or more elements. Some molecules are made of only one type of atom. For instance, two oxygen atoms bond together to form O2, the part of the air that we need to breath to survive. Other molecules are very large. Protein molecules, for example, often contain hundreds of atoms.
Even large molecules are so small that you would not be able to see one molecule of a substance. But when thousands of molecules are together, they might look like a glass of water, a tree in the forest, or your computer screen, depending on what types of molecules they are.
Even if a soccer ball is sitting still, the molecules within it are moving all the time. They may be too small to see, but molecules are always moving and they will move faster as temperature increases.
Shop Windows to the Universe Science Store!
The Fall 2010 issue of The Earth Scientist
, focuses on rocks and minerals, including articles on minerals and mining, the use of minerals in society, and rare earth minerals, and includes 3 posters!
You might also be interested in:
Everything you see around you is made of tiny particles called atoms. There are many different types of atoms, each with a special combination of protons , neutrons and electrons . These different types...more
Oxygen (O2) is a kind of gas. A lot of the air you breathe is oxygen. That's a good thing, since we need oxygen to stay alive! About 4/5ths of the air in Earth's atmosphere is nitrogen (N2). Almost all...more
Chemistry is the study of matter, energy, and their interactions. Chemists study the composition of substances, their properties, and how they react with each other under varying circumstances. Indeed,...more
The periodic table on the left separates elements into three groups: the metals (green in the table), nonmetals (orange), and metalloids (blue). Most elements are metals. They are usually shiny, very...more
Even though there are 92 elements that are naturally found, only eight of them are common in the rocks that make up the Earth’s outer layer, the crust. Together, these 8 elements make up more than 98%...more
Elements make up everything around us including the trees of a forest, your pets, and even YOU! If you looked at living things with a microscope, you would see that all life is made up of small compartments...more
The thermosphere is a layer of Earth's atmosphere. The thermosphere is directly above the mesosphere and below the exosphere. It extends from about 90 km (56 miles) to between 500 and 1,000 km (311 to...more | <urn:uuid:7b5a5cdd-21cd-4416-9c72-387ccffea16b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/geology/molecule.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937431 | 644 | 3.96875 | 4 |
Dolphins may be maths geniuses
Sonic masters Dolphins may use complex nonlinear maths when hunting, according to a new study that suggests they could be far more skilled than was ever thought possible before.
Inspiration for the new study, published in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society A, came after lead author Tim Leighton watched an episode of the Discovery Channel's Blue Planet series and saw dolphins blowing multiple tiny bubbles around prey as they hunted.
"I immediately got hooked, because I knew that no man-made sonar would be able to operate in such bubble water," says Leighton, a professor of ultrasonics and underwater acoustics at the University of Southampton.
"These dolphins were either 'blinding' their most spectacular sensory apparatus when hunting - which would be odd, though they still have sight to reply on - or they have a sonar that can do what human sonar cannot …Perhaps they have something amazing," he adds.
Leighton and colleagues Paul White and student Gim Hwa Chua set out to determine what the amazing ability might be.
They started by modelling the types of echolocation pulses that dolphins emit. The researchers processed them using nonlinear mathematics instead of the standard way of processing sonar returns. The technique worked, and could explain how dolphins achieve hunting success with bubbles.
The math involved is complex. Essentially it relies upon sending out pulses that vary in amplitude. The first may have a value of 1 while the second is 1/3 that amplitude.
"So, provided the dolphin remembers what the ratios of the two pulses were, and can multiply the second echo by that and add the echoes together, it can make the fish 'visible' to its sonar," says Leighton. "This is detection enhancement."
But that's not all. There must be a second stage to the hunt.
"Bubbles cause false alarms because they scatter strongly and a dolphin cannot afford to waste its energy chasing false alarms while the real fish escape," explains Leighton.
The second stage then involves subtracting the echoes from one another, ensuring the echo of the second pulse is first multiplied by three. The process, in short, therefore first entails making the fish visible to sonar by addition. The fish is then made invisible by subtraction to confirm it is a true target.
In order to confirm that dolphins use such nonlinear mathematical processing, some questions must still be answered. For example, for this technique to work, dolphins would have to use a frequency when they enter bubbly water that is sufficiently low, permitting them to hear frequencies that are twice as high in pitch.
"Until measurements are taken of wild dolphin sonar as they hunt in bubbly water, these questions will remain unanswered," says Leighton. "What we have shown is that it is not impossible to distinguish targets in bubbly water using the same sort of pulses that dolphins use."
Applications for humans
If replicated, the sonar model may prove to be a huge benefit to humans. It might be able to detect covert circuitry, such as bugging devices hidden in walls, stones or foliage. It could also dramatically improve detection of sea mines.
"Currently, the navy uses dolphins or divers feeling with their hands in such difficult conditions as near shore bubbly water, for example in the Gulf," he says.
In terms of dolphin math skills, prior studies conducted by the Dolphin Research Cetner in Florida have already determined that dolphins grasp various numerical concepts, such as recognising and representing numerical values on an ordinal scale.
Marine biologist Laela Sayigh of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution says, "In the wild, it would be very useful (for dolphins) to keep track of which areas were richer food sources."
While dolphins are among the animal kingdom's most intelligent animals, they are not likely the only maths champs.
Parrots, chimpanzees and even pigeons have been shown to have an advanced understanding of numerical concepts. The studies together indicate that maths ability is inborn in many species, with number sense, mathematical skills and verbal ability perhaps being separate talents in humans that we later learn to combine. | <urn:uuid:00e5783e-31b4-411d-9883-b47f5dca2b7e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/07/18/3548573.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957187 | 849 | 3.78125 | 4 |
Physical simulation is a term used to describe any virtual reality based simulation where the effect is intentionally largely physical - actually felt. This can be through haptic or tactile feedback, or by other measures of force feedback or direct neural stimulation.
Below, we offer a selection of links from our resource databases which may match this term.
Related Dictionary Entries for Physical Simulation:
Resources in our database matching the Term Physical Simulation:
It is always pleasant when a research simulation unveils data that can be used in all sorts of other simulations – in addition to it's expected result. A new simulation on the formation of stellar novas, and the shapes they take, has provided just that.
A war fought entirely by simulation, yet with physical consequences, and the dark side of virtual voices combine.
The film "The Matrix" Promoted a lot of philosophical musing on the nature of reality. One philosopher, Nick Bostrom, postulated 'the Simulation Argument', the belief that the world we live in, is in fact itself a simulation, and a complex scientific proof to support the idea.
Given the ability to mathematically replicate natural physical laws, and the ability to handle all variables in a given situation, the logical future of all research-simulation is the prediction of future events.
Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation. For those of us familiar with it, it's a possible panacea to cure simulation sickness, and rope the sense of balance of the user directly into the simulation. Unfortunately, it seems there is a fly in the mixture.
Even the most vigorous, modern crash test simulation, with all known variables accounted for, can be wrong. Sometimes these differences are unavoidable with the computational power limitations of the simulation computers, sometimes its another, unforeseen cause.
If the best way for an individual to live life, as is true for a fair segment of the population; if they desire happiness, and a life in which they are not judged for their physical shell, but for whom they are themselves, is to retreat from the physical, into the virtual, then this brings up certain challenges.
This resource list houses links to all simulation argument resources housed on this site, or linked in from elsewhere. Its purpose is to aid and simplify your research.
The proceedings of the second Modelling and Simulation conference IASTED (International Association of Science and TEchnology for Development) ran, back in 2002. This inch and a half thick paperback tome contains a 115 full papers from experts around the world.
It has taken a few years, even with the increased hubbub (and rightly so) about cyberbullying, where the internet is used to harass and bully an individual rather than physical bullying. But researchers are finally starting to take note that physical bullying and (current) cyberbullying are not the same thing. Both can be devastating, but the very different mediums mean that different methods must be used to tackle the two.
Industry News containing the Term Physical Simulation:
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Monday 4 June ? Thursday 7 June 2007
Brisbane Convention Centre
The major theme of SimTecT 2007 is "Simulation - Improving Capability and Competitiveness."
Simulation provides a key tool for designers,...
(Press Release) Sponsorships by the National Center for Simulation and the UCF Institute for Simulation and Training Highlight the Use of Geospatially-Enabled Simulators to Increase Homeland Security and Emergency Response Training and Prep...
Held December 5-8, 2004 at the Washington Hilton and Towers in Washington, D.C, WSC 04 blends cutting-edge research, innovative applications, exhibits from top companies in the simulation industry and international speakers from across the ...
The Huntsville Simulation Conference (HSC) is an annual conference located in Huntsville, Alabama with international participation.
25 October 2005 - The Advanced Research Center
26-27 October 2005 - The Huntsville Ma...
Molecular motion in proteins comes in three distinct classes, according to a collaboration by researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, in research reported in Physical Review ... | <urn:uuid:63bb985d-a5ad-4b8c-b554-19bdda731e3e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.virtualworldlets.net/Resources/Dictionary.php?Term=Physical%20Simulation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91583 | 844 | 2.609375 | 3 |
A deeply spiritual man, Hawkins has often been called the “poet” of modern dance. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts in classics from Harvard University in 1932, Hawkins began to study ballet and in 1934 made his debut in George Balanchine’s Serenade. After his short balletic career, he began his study of modern dance with Martha Graham. The two formed an intense artistic partnership that lasted twelve years. While working with Graham, Hawkins maintained his independent choreographic voice, frequently dealing with Native American imagery and masks, as well as the fusion of American and Asian cultures. Hawkins formed his own company in 1952, expanding opportunities for his unique vision through collaborative work with many composers and artists.
Company website: www.erickhawkinsdance.org | <urn:uuid:ac674e9d-2a90-4664-9849-4b94380629ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://depts.washington.edu/uwdance/cdc/archive/repertoire.php?t=chor&id=11 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979915 | 158 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Is The Coconut Water Craze All It's Cracked Up To Be?
Originally published on Mon June 18, 2012 12:48 pm
You've probably seen them in the grocery store — cans of coconut water with their come-hither photos of young, green coconuts, tops sheared off, a straw poking out, and blue and green boxes that evoke cool, tropical breezes. Some vendors even sell the real thing. Artist John Gordon Gauld enjoys fresh coconut water when he's thirsty after biking through New York City.
"Its fresh and quick," he says. "There's a lot more flavor when the coconut water comes from a fresh coconut" versus a box or container. But nationwide, boxes and even cans of the newly touted "natural" sports drink are now proliferating on supermarket shelves, in specialty food stores and yoga studios. U.S. coconut water sales doubled in 2011, and will reach an estimated $110 million in sales this year. And, according to market research, the demand is likely to continue.
But is it really any better for you than plain old water?
Coconut water contains two minerals that help balance fluids in the body, sodium and potassium. "The big deal about coconut water is that it packs a potassium punch," says Andrea Giancoli, registered dietitian and spokesperson for The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. It's a natural source, she adds.
Potassium is important for heart health, she says, regulating blood pressure and other body systems. But coconut water is "not magical," says Giancoli. People do not need to drink coconut water in order to be healthy, she says. "There's plenty of potassium in food and if you eat a healthy diet, you'll get all you need." Potassium rich foods include bananas, potatoes, kidney beans, lentils, spinach and papaya.
Nutritionist Monica Reinagel says when you get potassium from your normal diet, you get lots of other good stuff too, including "vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber." A shot of potassium is fine, says Reinagel but "I'd hate to see coconut water touted as the primary source of potassium," because there are lots of other sources that provide lots more benefit.
Now it's important to note: Coconut water is NOT like the coconut milk that comes from those hard brown and hairy coconuts. Mark Rampolla is founder and CEO of Zico, one of the most popular coconut water brands.
Coconuts are best when they're young, he says, about nine months old. "At that point, they're just filled with water," says Rampolla, who first came across the drink while volunteering for the Peace Corps in the early 1990s in Costa Rica. He was intrigued how local communities depended on coconut water to replenish and re-hydrate after illness or even childbirth. In fact, people in countries where coconuts grow have been drinking fresh coconut water for years.
As the coconut ages, that water morphs into the white coconut meat that's often pressed to produce coconut milk or oil. That's where the concern about dietary fat comes from. But this is water. There's no fat, says Rampolla, "and that water when you get it at the right time, it's at its peak of electrolytes and natural replenishment that people know and love."
But even if people love coconut water, Reinagel says, most of us just don't work out long enough or hard enough to seriously need it. Most people exercise for an hour or so, she says. "They really don't need an electrolyte replacement drink," she says, "all they need to rehydrate is water." And for those who really work out hard for 90 or more minutes, iron man types and marathoners, Reinagel says the mineral they need most is sodium and, actually, "coconut water is fairly low in sodium."
Bottom line: If you like the taste of coconut water and can afford it, enjoy, says Reinagel. But coconut water isn't cheap, running around $2 to $3 a serving, and it's no miracle drink.
LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:
While you're shopping for sunscreen, maybe coconut water is also on your summertime list. It's a relatively new product in the U.S. You can find it in boxes or cans, even in actual coconuts. It's marketed to active consumes who want a natural alternative to sports drinks.
In thid report, NPR's Patti Neighmond takes a look at the benefits of coconut water, and whether it's all it's cracked up to be.
PATTI NEIGHMOND, BYLINE: The appetite for coconut water in this country got its start in New York City.
JOHN GORDON GAULD: This is from a fresh coconut. And I don't buy a lot of the bottled kind.
NEIGHMOND: Graphic designer John Gordon Gauld bikes his way around town, and he gets thirsty.
GAULD: These guys in Chinatown, they chop it up and give it to you so it's fresh and quick.
NEIGHMOND: Fresh coconut is something of a tradition in New York's Chinatown. But it's pretty much everywhere in the city - not fresh, but in boxes and cans. Today, you can find it in supermarkets nationwide. It's quite popular with yogis and exercisers - like 26-year-old Lillian Tan, who enjoys it after a run.
LILLIAN TAN: It's refreshing, has the sugars I need, the electrolytes. I just like the taste of it. It's kind of nutty, refreshing, very light.
NEIGHMOND: Now, this isn't like the coconut milk that comes from those hard, brown and hairy coconuts. Mark Rampolla is founder and CEO of Zico, one of the most popular coconut water brands.
MARK RAMPOLLA: Those same coconuts, if you got them when they were younger - when they're immature - the color's probably either green or yellowish green. Those same coconuts, when you get them at about nine months of age, are filled with water.
NEIGHMOND: As the coconut ages, that water morphs into the white coconut meat that's often pressed to produce coconut milk or oil. That's where the concern about dietary fat comes from. But this is water; there's no fat.
RAMPOLLA: And that water, when you get it at the right time - it's when it's at its sort of peak level of electrolytes and the natural replenishment that people know and love.
NEIGHMOND: Coconuts are harvested from tropics worldwide - Thailand, Brazil, Latin America and Central America, where Rampolla worked as a Peace Corps volunteer, and first learned how community members used it to help with stomach ailments when people were sick and dehydrated. That's because coconut water contains two minerals that help balance fluids in the body: sodium and potassium.
Andrea Giancoli is a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
ANDREA GIANCOLI: It's one of the few foods - or beverages, if you will - in our food supply that naturally does contain a lot of potassium.
NEIGHMOND: And potassium is essential for many of the body's systems.
GIANCOLI: Potassium is very important for heart health. It's important to regulate our blood pressure, you know, fluid balance in the body, cell integrity. It's important in a lot of different chemical reactions that go on in the body.
NEIGHMOND: But Giancoli says it's always best to get needed potassium from food. Nutritionist Monica Reinagel agrees. When you get potassium from your normal diet, she says, you get lots of other good stuff, too.
MONICA REINAGEL: Other vitamins and minerals, antioxidants and fiber that you're not getting from the coconut water. So, you know, a shot of potassium is fine. It's certainly not going to do any harm. But I'd hate to see coconut water being touted as the primary source of potassium, because there are other sources that really will do a lot more benefit for you.
NEIGHMOND: Like bananas, potatoes, kidney beans, lentils, spinach and papaya. Lots of vegetables and fruits contain potassium. Reinagel says it's not difficult to get enough of it from a healthy diet.
As for rehydration, she says most of us don't work out long enough, or hard enough, to need serious rehydration.
REINAGEL: Most people, if they're just exercising for half an hour or an hour, really don't need an electrolyte replacement drink. All they need to rehydrate is water. And for those who really are perspiring very hard - you know, your Ironman triathletes, who do need electrolyte replacement - the mineral that they need most is sodium. And ironically, coconut water is actually, fairly low in sodium.
NEIGHMOND: So bottom line, if you like the taste of coconut water and can afford it, enjoy, says Reinagel. Coconut water isn't cheap. It runs about 2- to $3 a serving.
Patti Neighmond, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | <urn:uuid:182d3a1c-c315-4c86-85c2-c82bb4f3182e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wutc.org/post/coconut-water-craze-all-its-cracked-be | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960339 | 1,970 | 2.078125 | 2 |
When thou shalt be disposed to set me light,
And place my merit in the eye of scorn,
Upon thy side, against myself I'll fight,
And prove thee virtuous, though thou art forsworn.
With mine own weakness being best acquainted,
Upon thy part I can set down a story
Of faults concealed, wherein I am attainted;
That thou in losing me shalt win much glory:
And I by this will be a gainer too;
For bending all my loving thoughts on thee,
The injuries that to myself I do,
Doing thee vantage, double-vantage me.
Such is my love, to thee I so belong,
That for thy right, myself will bear all wrong.
This is another of those sonnets which look to the future, and it is placed at this juncture because, as with 49, the number is thought to be of some significance. 49 is one of the climacteric numbers, and 88, being 8 x 11, was no doubt also thought to have some critical significance. Perhaps double eight in itself (i.e two eights placed side by side), was symbolic of a union between humans, as the number 8 looks slightly like a human figure. HV claims that much ingenuity is expended in doubling words and phrases, culminating in 'vantage, double-vantage' in line 12. However it must be admitted that the repetitions are not all that obvious, although the entire sonnet does mimic 49 and repeats the arguments that are set out there. (The two sonnets are given at the bottom of this page).
The poet undertakes to defend the beloved when, in the fulness of time, he himself will be cast aside and denigrated as an object unworthy of love. Since he is so well acquainted with his own faults he can use that knowledge to justify the future desertion. What is more, since the youth's abandonment of him will seem like virtue and acquire him glory, the speaker will benefit too. For any benefit that accrues to the beloved is a benefit also to the one who loves him. Such is the contradictory nature of love that all wrong becomes right and all wrongs can be borne for the sake of the loved one, and become rights in themselves.
The 1609 Quarto Version
WHen thou ſhalt be diſpode to ſet me light,
And place my merrit in the eie of skorne,
Vpon thy ſide,againſt my ſelfe ile fight,
And proue thee virtuous,though thou art forſworne:
With mine owne weakeneſſe being beſt acquainted,
Vpon thy part I can ſet downe a ſtory
Of faults conceald,wherein I am attainted :
That thou in looſing me,ſhall win much glory:
And I by this wil be a gainer too,
For bending all my louing thoughts on thee,
The iniuries that to my ſelfe I doe,
Doing thee vantage,duble vantage me.
Such is my loue,to thee I ſo belong,
That for thy right,my ſelfe will beare all wrong. | <urn:uuid:33b4cc47-82bd-4912-b128-1758fc15be91> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/sonnet/sonnet.php?id=88 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948112 | 696 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Last Night’s Other Big Elections
There were actually three major elections centered around state and local government employee pensions and benefits last night.
And though the media blanketed the Wisconsin gubernatorial recall with coverage, you can be forgiven if you didn’t even know about the referenda in San Diego and San Jose, California. Voters in those two cities, respectively the 8th and 10th largest in the country, were asked whether to reform their city employee retirement plans, converting them from defined benefit pensions to defined contribution, 401(k)-style plans.
The reforms passed in both cities by 2-to-1 margins.
Why? Because residents of those cities learned, through bitter experience, that defined benefit pensions – especially for government employees – are unaffordable, and unfair.
They’re unaffordable because with longer life-expectancy and productivity increases in the economy, defined benefit plans assume fewer workers will be subsidizing more retirees not merely for their golden years, but their golden decades. It’s not a coincidence that defined benefit plans are all but extinct in the private sector – companies who didn’t switch to defined-contribution plans inevitably collapsed under the weight of their pension obligations. Today, the only sector of the economy where defined benefit plans remain common is government.
And that brings us to the unfairness of these plans. It is simply unjust for government employees to require private sector workers, who don’t have gold-plated retirement plans, to subsidize such plans for themselves. That is, it’s not fair for government employees to demand better benefits than their bosses, the actual taxpayers.
Worst of all, as these cities’ pensions costs have skyrocketed in recent years – San Jose’s pension payments have risen 236% since 2001, and San Diego’s have jumped 438% since 1999 – those costs have squeezed out actual government services. As the cities spent a growing slice of their tax revenue (roughly one of every four dollars) on bureaucrats’ pensions, they were forced to close libraries, neglect infrastructure repairs, and cut emergency services.
Neither city’s situation is unusual.
Government employee pensions are swallowing state and local budgets across the country. Illinois, for instance, already spends more money every year on its teachers retirement system than it does on actual schools. Many municipalities have or are considering filing bankruptcy to get out from under their pension debts. Total state and local unfunded pension liabilities are already estimated to be $3 trillion and growing.
The status quo cannot be sustained.
Citizens around the country must ask themselves once and for all if their governments work for them, or if they work for the government. San Diego and San Jose gave a resounding answer to that question last night. | <urn:uuid:6ecedfc1-9b43-4132-93b1-6b6e1957cdb1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.redstate.com/2012/06/06/last-night%E2%80%99s-other-big-elections/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95116 | 571 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Fighting crime in New York---and San Francisco
Impressed with Malcolm Gladwell's fine article on homelessness in a recent New Yorker, I read The Tipping Point, his best-selling book of several years ago. Chapter Four, "The Power of Context (Part One)," will be of particular interest to SF readers who are concerned about crime in the city. Gladwell deals with crime as if it's an epidemic that requires specific conditions before it can spread:
Epidemics are sensitive to the conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which they occur...This much, I think, is relatively straightforward. But the lesson of the Power of Context is that we are more than just sensitive to changes in context. We're exquisitely sensitive to them. And the kinds of contextual changes that are capable of tipping an epidemic are very different than we might ordinarily suspect.
Gladwell quotes Fixing Broken Windows, the book by George Kelling and Catherine Coles:
Muggers and robbers, whether opportunistic or professional, believe they reduce their chances of being caught or even identified if they operate on streets where potential victims are already intimidated by prevailing conditions. If the neighborhood cannot keep a bothersome panhandler from annoying passersby, the thief may reason, it is even less likely to call the police to identify a potential mugger or to interfere if the mugging actually takes place.
Gladwell's conclusion is that crime is not simply a matter of criminal behavior by individuals but, just as important, a function of social context: "The impetus to engage in a certain kind of behavior is not coming from a certain kind of person but from a feature of the environment."
He discusses New York's response to crime 20 years ago. First, the city's Transit Authority hired George Kelling as a consultant. Next, they hired a new subway director to wage an all-out war on graffiti (all of the 6000 cars in the city's fleet were covered with graffiti). Then William Bratton was made head of the city's transit police. His first move was to crack down on fare-beating: "He believed that, like graffiti, fare-beating could be a signal, a small expression of disorder that invited much more serious crimes. An estimated 170,000 people a day were entering the system, by one route or another, without paying a token."
As Bratton and the police nabbed fare-jumpers, they ran a check on all those arrested, finding that one out of seven had an outstanding warrant, and one out of twenty was carrying a weapon. Soon, as transit police continued to focus on misdemeanors and "minor" crimes, fare-jumpers and criminals and drunks began avoiding the transit system.
Rudy Guliani was elected Mayor of New York in 1994, and he immediately hired Bratton to head the city's police department. Bratton applied the principles he used in the city's transit system to the city at large:
"Previous police administration had been handcuffed by restrictions," Bratton says. "We took the handcuffs off. We stepped up enforcement of the laws against public drunkenness and public urnination and arrested repeat violators, including those who threw empty bottles on the street or were involved in even relatively minor damage to property...If you peed in the street, you were going to jail." When crime began to fall in the city---as quickly and dramatically as it had in the subways---Bratton and Giuliani pointed to the same cause. Minor, seemingly insignificant quality-of-life crimes, they said, were Tipping Points for violent crime.
At the very least, this explains why New York collects 53% of its transit revenue at the fare box, and San Francisco collects a mere 23%: You have to be serious about enforcing the law especially if, like Muni, you are losing $16 to $24 million a year in fare revenue.
What about crime in San Francisco? A city governed by liberals and progressives, San Francisco tends to make excuses for anti-social and criminal behavior. Progressives in particular like to pontificate about the "root causes" of homelessness, street drug dealing and gun violence, prescribing various programs in response. For the progressive mentality, there's always an "explanation"/excuse for every type of anti-social behavior. Graffiti, for example, is "unauthorized public art," not vandalism, and Critical Mass "promotes bicycle safety" by screwing up rush hour traffic for working people.
Why did homelessness and squalor on the streets of SF fester for years before the advent of Gavin Newsom and Care Not Cash? Because the official city ideology saw the homeless as victims, poor people who simply couldn't pay rent in pricey San Francisco, not tragic instances of psychological disorder and/or substance abuse. Instead of making gettng the homeless off the streets a priority, progressives launched a hundred well-intentioned "helping" programs, all of which in effect made it easier for people to continue to live and die on our streets.
Progressives are now taking a similarly blinkered approach to gun violence in SF. Their programmatic approach is probably doomed, since the ongoing outbreak of gun violence---mostly young black men shooting each other---is an epidemic in the Gladwellian sense. But it is an epidemic that is spreading for reasons that have nothing to do with after-school programs or the quality of policing in black neighborhoods. More cops on patrol are unlikely to stem an epidemic fueled by a national rap/hip-hop culture that validates gun violence for trivial reasons in a social context where guns are readily available. | <urn:uuid:a644a62b-3939-43f4-aa8e-6c8a885596c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://district5diary.blogspot.com/2006_03_15_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957928 | 1,156 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Forgive me, I am a newb. Currently taking a Intro to C Programming class. I just received Visual Studio 2008. To program C, do I choose C++ (other options being C# and Visual Basic) as one of the options to write and build my code in? Also, what is the difference between a .h (header) and regular .c file? Is it just where you put all your variables and such? | <urn:uuid:8fd8cb38-35df-41cc-bfdf-fb811c4d5d1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cboard.cprogramming.com/brief-history-cprogramming-com/111856-simple-stupid-questions-no-programming-printable-thread.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931762 | 89 | 2.421875 | 2 |
Rogue MP3 Trojan streaks across P2P networks
Worst viral outbreak in three years
Hundreds of thousands of examples of a new Trojan that poses as a media file have flooded onto P2P networks.
Since Friday 2 May more than half a million instances of the Trojan have been detected on consumer PCs, according to net security firm McAfee. The anti-virus firm reports the spread of the Downloader-UA.h Trojan as the most significant malware outbreak in the last three years.
The Trojan is being used to serve ads onto contaminated PCs as part of an apparent money-making scam.
McAfee reckons miscreants loaded hundreds of rigged MP3 and MPEG files onto popular file-swapping services such as Limewire and eDonkey. The files are all named differently (in multiple languages) and vary in size in order to make them appear like legitimate music or video files. Attempting to play one of the malicious files will trigger the download of an application named "PLAY_MP3.exe" that serves ads onto infected Windows PCs.
McAfee rates the threat "medium" risk. No other malware has received that risk rating since 2005. It advises consumers to adopt safe surfing practices, such as running up-to-date security software and taking care in downloading content from untrusted sources to avoid getting hit.
A blog posting by McAfee Avert Labs threat researcher Craig Schmugar, explaining the threat in greater detail, can be found here. ® | <urn:uuid:42a22490-32fb-4672-90f8-a7409f2d5e18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/07/mp3_trojan_blitz/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933627 | 305 | 1.992188 | 2 |
Five-Minute Film Festival: Film LiteracyFebruary 15, 2013 | Amy Erin Borovoy ...
Ah, the silver screen: we all love to escape into other times, other worlds, and other peoples' stories. While millions tune in to the Oscars with bated breath and bowls full of popcorn, I know there are some educators out there who are wondering how they can drum up that kind of excitement and engagement in their classroom. Gone are the days when all the students fell asleep as soon as the lights went dim -- movies and videos can be incredibly powerful teaching tools, if you know how to use them well.
Edutopia's founder George Lucas has argued that visual literacy is a skill as important as reading literacy -- but how do we make time for it in our already-strapped classroom hours? What resources are out there for learning the language of film? Alas, I don't have all the answers. But as a nod to the Academy Awards this month, I've created a playlist with resources to get you started on thinking about media and visual literacy and how to teach the language of film.
Video Playlist: Feature Films in the Classroom
Keep watching the player below to see the rest of the playlist, or view it on YouTube.
- Turner Classic Movies: Story Of Movies Excerpt (01:55)
Story of Movies offers three wonderful free film-based visual literacy units for middle school students, produced by Martin Scorsese's organization, The Film Foundation. See Edutopia's coverage of the Story of Movies here.
- THE ORIGINAL Scary Mary Poppins Recut Trailer (01:07)
Here's a quick, fun, and easy media literacy lesson: watch remixed movie trailers to see how our emotions are manipulated by film editing. In this one, Mary Poppins is reimagined as a horror film by editing the same footage differently. And don't miss The Shining as a romantic comedy.
- Film: 21st Century Literacy - Showreel (08:22)
A comprehensive overview of what film education means (with British accents!), from Film: 21st Century Literacy, an organization in the U.K. that provides curriculum materials and guidance to encourage teachers to use films and teach visual literacy in the classroom.
- This is the JBFC (01:38)
If you're in New York state, the Jacob Burns Film Center is an incredible and unique facility -- a hybrid of a movie theater complex, a media arts and literacy lab, and a film artists' residence.
- Visual Literacy in the Classroom (04:03)
The origins of this one are a little mysterious -- the description links to this blog and says it was made by students, for teachers, in a plea to teach more about visual language -- but it's a very thoughtful piece. I've only excerpted here, but it's worth watching the whole 14 minutes.
- Media Literacy Film Project (01:30)
These enterprising students made their own trailer parodies to deliver key content for a media literacy class. Though they made six trailer spoofs in this clip, I've only included their Twilight movie trailer that describes the history of film; click here for the actual Twilight tease for comparison.
- How to Use Classroom Films 1963 (01:56)
I couldn't resist a little clip from this rather slow-moving vintage 1963 reel on how to use filmstrips in your classroom. Ah, what a long way we have come from checking out spools of 16mm film from the AV center... or have we?
- AFI Screen Ed: Visual Literacy (01:28)
Although the American Film Institute's Screen Ed program is no longer around, its former associate director, film educator Frank Guttler, still teaches visual literacy workshops all over; you can find more information on his Lights, Camera, Learn! blog.
- Scripts, Screen Writing, and Film in the Classroom (05:55)
Jennie Cross, manager of learning resources from the Toronto International Film Festival, gives concrete ideas for the classroom from a workshop she gave on using screenwriting in school. Filmed at the Association for Media Literacy's annual conference.
More Resources for Film Literacy
Whether you use videos to explore and illuminate core content, or you're teaching about the art and methods of filmmaking and digital storytelling, or you're deconstructing media messages as a key part of learning to think critically, you can find dozens of ways to include the moving image in your classroom. We've also just published a great blog chock full of film literacy resources, "Oscar Week Special: Seven Teaching Resources on Film Literacy," so start there for one-stop shopping. And below, I've rounded up a few more links to check out if you're hungry for more resources around using film and video in education. See you at the movies!
- Story of Movies, from The Film Foundation
- Lights, Camera, Learn! blog
- "Film in the Classroom: A Guide for Teachers," from PBS Masterpiece Theater
- Film Education (UK-based literacy org)
- Media Lit Kit from the Center for Media Literacy
- Teach with Movies (350+ film-based lesson plans for small annual fee)
- "Movie Lesson Plan Ideas: Ways to Effectively Use Movies in Class," and "Pros and Cons of Using Movies in Class," by Melissa Kelly
- Film English (lessons plans for teaching ELLs with film)
- "Cover to Cover: Comparing Books to Movies," middle school lesson plan from ReadWriteThink
- "Cinematic Magic: Using Film in Class," by Melinda Barlow, National Education Association | <urn:uuid:edde4c61-f421-41f6-8f42-487a54af86dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.edutopia.org/blog/film-festival-visual-literacy?quicktabs_edutopia_blogs_sidebar_popular_list=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936006 | 1,182 | 3 | 3 |
Capital for Labor
Oct 04, 2011
The greatest dairy show on earth opens today in Madison, Wis., which is still arguably the heart of the U.S. dairy industry. It certainly will be the heart of the global industry these next five days.
World Dairy Expo has evolved from a cow-centric event to a much broader audience that encompasses all aspects of the dairy industry. While many visitors take a load off and take pleasure watching the bovine beauties strut their stuff in the Coliseum each day, the commercial exhibits are where business gets done for commercial producers.
This year, 130 new exhibitors will be offering their products and services for the first time. Plus, 120 international exhibitors from 28 countries will be on hand to round out the 800 exhibitors at the show.
Every one of these exhibitors offers products that help produce milk better, faster, cheaper—keys to surviving this now globally competitive industry. Dairy producers have been trading capital for labor for past century. But this year’s show will take that effort to a whole new level.
Dairy equipment companies such as DeLaval and Lely will be exhibiting refinements to their robotic milkers that take automated milking systems (AMS) to a step above existing systems. These innovations are being driven by acute labor shortages across the globe, where milking labor is difficult to find and horrendously expensive when it does walk through the door. U.S. producers are taking note, particularly as legal Hispanic labor is becoming increasingly difficult to document and mandatory E-Verify efforts ramp up.
DeLaval will be introducing its Automated Milking Rotary parlor, a 24-stall internal carousel that uses four robots to prep, attach and remove milking units. While the unit is designed for mid-sized dairies up to about 1,000 cows, you can bet DeLaval engineers are dreaming even bigger for large U.S. dairies.
Lely is introducing its Astronaut A4 individual stall robotic milker, which can measure milk temperature, color, conductivity, fat, protein, lactose and individual quarter somatic cell counts. Lely engineers say the A4’s low-obstacle design allows for smooth cow movement into and out of the stall to optimize cow flow and throughput. To date, Lely has installed more than 10,000 automated milking systems worldwide, and as proof to that claim, published sales materials in 15 languages. Lely is also hosting a virtual farm tour of one of its AMS on-farm installations this Thursday at noon.
These are just two examples of the kind of exciting dairy technology that will be exhibited at World Dairy Expo. Hopefully, you’ll be able to attend and "kick the tires" on this new equipment. If not, Dairy Today staff will be providing daily coverage of product announcements, dairy news and issues through this e-newsletter and at www.dairytoday.com.
To plan your trip, thumb through your August issue of Dairy Today, which includes the World Dairy Expo Official Program. Or scan our virtual edition here. If I don’t see you today around the show, I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Enjoy World Dairy Expo 2011! | <urn:uuid:43dc42da-f4a7-4d9c-9e9c-e06a904ca78a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.agweb.com/blog/Dairy_Talk_199/capital_for_labor/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952455 | 664 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Off to the charts. Sure enough, Rukl shows Rima Plinius just north of the crater, with one main trunk and two parallel lesser rimae (I only saw one line no matter how hard I looked).
Nothing running in a north/south direction at all, save for an indistinct dorsum that should have shown some breakage (but part of it was roughly in the right place. The rille was marked in the wrong place, but maybe close enough). Hmm.
Times Atlas comes out. Again, same features shown, just a bit more detail.
Logically, it would somehow be the main rima crossed by the wrinkle ridge, but it was close enough to the terminator that I would expect the ridge to show as they normally do, and the rille would be more dark than light.
I can't convince myself that what I saw was what is charted, as both my eyepiece impression and the crude sketch I made show it in utterly the wrong place.
I'm pretty sure it wasn't a lunar "crop cross," though.
Question: 2/3 of the way toward the south of the ridge, when it makes that pronounced S-bend, is the ridge not as tall from there south or is it that the S-bend makes the ridge more parallel to the sunlight and therefore there's just not as much shadow? It appears to me that the S-bend is a saddle point in the ridge.
On 4/14/98 at a little after midnight, sunset in Mare Serenitatis, right next to the Serpentine Ridge on the terminator the lit walls of dark Posidonius showed as a half-circle of light looping out from the bright part of the moon.
The light was so oblique that the north/south portions seemed almost like rilles, but they could be distinguished as dorsa fairly easily because they were (a) quite wide and obvious, and (b) I'm convinced if there were a rille that choice I'd know it by now!
|Chart 23||Moon-Lite Atlas for chart 24||Chart 25| | <urn:uuid:571d4595-4c2c-4d5a-8ab8-3f74d209c9fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shallowsky.com/moon/rukl24.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97912 | 441 | 2.34375 | 2 |
College of Arts and Sciences News
C-SPAN Bus to Visit Kent State on Friday, Feb. 15Posted Feb. 13, 2013
The C-SPAN Bus, an interactive multi-media learning center, will visit Kent State University on Friday, Feb. 15, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. The 45-foot bus will be located in the front of Kent State’s Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center and will be open for free tours for students, faculty, staff and the general public.
C-SPAN (Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network) is a private, non-profit company created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a public service.
The C-SPAN Bus brings the network’s coverage of public affairs to communities nationwide and teaches students how to follow events in Washington, D.C. Educators, media specialists, high school and middle school students, college students, legislators and voters are all welcomed aboard.
According to the network, the bus provides teachers a way to gain access to C-SPAN Classroom and its website, www.c-spanclassroom.org. Used by thousands of teachers nationwide, C-SPAN Classroom offers a vast library of video clips that can be downloaded, clipped and saved. Educators also will find lesson plans that can be used to teach a variety of civics lessons on current events and history. Topics include President Barack Obama’s Cabinet, polls, landmark Supreme Court cases and the Constitution.
With its liberal copyright policy and the network’s vast video archives, educators can easily access relevant primary source content to support the social studies topics they teach at absolutely no cost using C-SPAN Classroom.
“Through interactive computers, students and visitors will learn about C-SPAN resources, including our video library,” said Christina Whirl, marketing specialist for C-SPAN. “We’ll be on campus to promote ways that students and the community can utilize C-SPAN’s online archive for class assignments, projects or presentations.”
Visitors to the C-SPAN Bus can view several interactive demonstrations about the network’s programming and how to use C-SPAN Video Library - an archive featuring 190,000 hours of programming that dates back to 1986 - for assignments and projects.
For more information about the C-SPAN Bus, visit www.c-span.org/Community.
# # # | <urn:uuid:505a9297-b4d1-47d7-a259-2af8f3f5f3c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kent.edu/cas/news/newsdetail.cfm?newsitem=D5739E63-C40A-B9CE-76DC3416943AC46D | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90393 | 516 | 1.59375 | 2 |
This plant is native to areas in the lower elevations of India. This species is named after Swedish Naturalist Peter Forskal who is credited with its discovery. Coleus is a member of the Lamiaceae or Mint family and smells like camphor. It has been used for over 3,000 years in Ayurvedic Medicine. In ancient Sanskrit texts it is known as Makandi and was said to have been used for supporting healthy functioning heart and lungs, and a number of other functions in the body.
One of the most predominant active chemicals in Coleus is called Forskolin. A recent PubMed search yielded 17,256 studies on this plant compound. There are over 35 known biological activities for Forskolin alone. One of the most interesting, researched and prospectively helpful is its it’s ability to promote healthy cells through the enzyme Cyclic Adenosine Monophosphate (cAMP). This enzyme is a cellular messenger, you can think of it as the “intelligence” of the cell for when a cell is carrying out it’s function properly, high amounts of cAMP are found and when a cell is not functioning properly, low amounts are found. Low cAMP levels are found in hypersensitized mast cells and other unhealthy cells that will not “burn” their stored fat. Much research has been done on adrenergic beta receptors and Forskolin. One recent study reviewed the regional differences in adipose tissue metabolism in women when given Forskolin from Coleus Forskohlii root. Although much research has been done on the chemical Forskolin, the exact mechanism of the action of the root extract has yet to be determined.
Uses of Coleus
This information in our Herbal Reference Guide is intended only as a general reference for further exploration, and is not a replacement for professional health advice. This content does not provide dosage information, format recommendations, toxicity levels, or possible interactions with prescription drugs. Accordingly, this information should be used only under the direct supervision of a qualified health practitioner such as a naturopathic physician. | <urn:uuid:bdc7fe53-0cfe-462f-9d27-e6dc40fab2fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gaiaherbs.com/products/ingredient/69/Coleus | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94631 | 425 | 2.875 | 3 |
THE VINE AUGUST 30, 2010
Now this is a pretty striking about-face:
The world's most high-profile climate change sceptic is to declare that global warming is "undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today" and "a challenge humanity must confront", in an apparent U-turn that will give a huge boost to the embattled environmental lobby.
Bjørn Lomborg, the self-styled "sceptical environmentalist" once compared to Adolf Hitler by the UN's climate chief, is famous for attacking climate scientists, campaigners, the media and others for exaggerating the rate of global warming and its effects on humans, and the costly waste of policies to stop the problem.
But in a new book to be published next month, Lomborg will call for tens of billions of dollars a year to be invested in tackling climate change. "Investing $100bn annually would mean that we could essentially resolve the climate change problem by the end of this century," the book concludes.
What gives? Did Lomborg genuinely have a change of heart? Or is he just trying to figure out a new way to sell books? After all, now that the prospects for a global effort to tackle climate change look dim, the green position is ripe ground for self-styled contrarians. | <urn:uuid:d9c751a6-7182-497c-b5f7-0601a6b69771> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newrepublic.com/blog/the-vine/77322/the-skeptical-environmentalist-no-longer-skeptical | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948473 | 270 | 1.671875 | 2 |
The Importance of Parallelism
Gosling: What's Good for Google May Not Be Good for Java
Q: What do you think of Google's use of Java or the subset of Java they use?
A: They are odd. It's not like the petulant kid who doesn't want to play with others. It's like they've got their head in the clouds and they're now saying, "Oh, you mean there are other people out there that we might want to play with?"
It's really hard to tell what their intentions are with Android. They put this thing out there, and you've got lots of people picking it up. The big attraction seems to be the zero on the price tag. But everybody I've talked to who is building an Android phone or whatever, they're all going in and they're just hacking on it. And so all these Android phones are going to be incompatible.
One of the reasons that we charge license fees is because we've got organizations of people that do compatibility testing and actual negotiating amongst the different handset makers so that things like GPS APIs look the same. And what's going on in the Android world is there's kind of no adult in charge. And all these handset manufacturers are doing whatever they damn well please. Which means that it's just going to be randomness. It could be let a thousand flowers bloom, but it also could be a dog's breakfast. And I guess having been around the track a few times, it feels like it's going to be more of a dog's breakfast.
Q: At this JavaOne what would you say is the biggest piece or the biggest new thing?
A: We're getting to this point where everything is tied together. So with my myopic blinders on ... what I've spent most of my time on in the last few months has been the store [Sun's Java Store]. For me that's a pretty big deal. It's going to be a very different kind of store than people have seen before. The JavaFX stuff is doing way better than I ever hoped. I think when we first started the JavaFX thing we were wringing our hands about all kinds of weird devices and people thought we were kidding.
So things like the [Java-powered] LG television, the fact that that's actually a product that is shipping and in stores. ... Admittedly, it's only shipping in Korea because it's a cable TV set-top box for the Korean market. But it's got the cable TV set-top box standards ... and fairly beefy Java engines. And that device runs JavaFX wonderfully. That's a TV that I believe the guts of it will be showing up all over the place. ...
I think that a year or two ago people thought we were kidding about this stuff. And we were not. There's definitely going to be more of this stuff. The fact that we're able to do this at price points that work for the CE manufacturers is pretty amazing. And you add all of that together and it turns into this unbelievably huge marketplace. And with the store. The hard bits of the store are its processes for managing deployment. The store that you see today manages deployment to desktops. But in not too long you'll see it managing deployment to cell phones and cable TV set-top boxes, and all kinds of strange things. The cell phone stuff, we're probably not going to directly do it. That's the kind of thing we'd probably do in conjunction with the cell phone carriers.
The Java Innovation Leaders
Q: Where's the innovation going on in Java today?
A: It's all over the place inside Sun. People are doing cool things in any direction you want to look. The enterprise guys-the GlassFish group-they're totally on a tear these days. The OpenDS guys are being really successful. The OpenJDK guys are getting some real traction. Stuff like the Jigsaw modularity stuff is getting a lot of excitement.
Q: Is that [Jigsaw] complementary to OSGi or different?
A: I think it's kind of both. OSGi is this thing that kind of came from a different universe that's being used for modularity. And it's kind of huge and a bit of overkill. So we needed something that was a lot lighter weight.
Q: So it would have the same functionality as OSGi?
A: Yeah. But with none of the other stuff that was irrelevant.
Q: Well, I know Eclipse is big on OSGi, and a bunch of the enterprise Java players are pushing it.
A: And we even use it. But it doesn't play well in the smaller spaces. I guess it's just too overwhelming. If you start worrying about modularity in some of these other interesting places and you're like, OSGi's just too much fat.
Q: Where are we with the issue of what language comes next? People say the JVM [Java Virtual Machine] supports all of these languages and one of them is going to supersede Java at some point.
A: Maybe. I actually would like to think so. It would be weird that, for what life span human civilization has, Java stays in place and nobody comes up with something that takes over. That would be just wrong. But the important thing isn't really Java the language, it's the JVM-the integration hub. And the fact that we can have all kinds of languages that get along together. You can be writing JRuby code interacting with Scala code with great performance, and it works really, really smoothly. The JVM is the piece that actually matters.
Q: So are you more accepting of dynamic languages these days?
A: Well, I don't know whether "accepting" is the right word. At the right times and in the right places, I think they're great. If it's not too much of a performance penalty. Because most of them have made design decisions that cause them to be way too slow for the things that I normally do.
The Importance of Parallelism
Q: What are you guys doing in software to attack the issue of parallelism?
A: In Java itself there have been concurrency libraries, and they are being pretty successful. In the enterprise stuff, the frameworks have been really good at doing parallelism for people. With the enterprise stuff, the frameworks have actually been pretty good at doing a little magic parallelism for people. They write a sequential model and by magic it ends up parallel. But for things like doing scientific calculation on massively multithreaded machines, that's a really hard problem. So like the Fortress guys, Guy Steele [a Sun fellow working on programming language research] and friends, they've got this functional language that they tear apart and map to a multiprocessing. And that's really interesting. They're the only folks that I know of that are really tackling large-scale multithreaded systems for the nonenterprise issues.
Q: So it's not a tools problem? Or could tools help?
A: Well, tools could help if only we knew. Dealing with multithreaded programming has been a huge source of Ph.D. theses for like 30 years. And there just hasn't been a killer solution. So there are all kinds of stuff that we could do with tools. If you look inside NetBeans, there are all kinds of stuff for monitoring threads, monitoring the data behind them, monitoring blocks. And for hundreds of threads most of those things act really great. Once you get into the tens of thousands of threads, life gets hard.
Q: Another question that comes up is, When are we going to see continuations in Java?
A: I had hopes for last year. And all the stuff that Neil Gafter [a Microsoft engineer focusing on the future of Java as a hobby] was doing just blew up for ridiculous reasons. Josh Bloch's [chief Java architect at Google] opposition was pretty bizarre. And it's hard to know when we can take another stab at that without getting the same type of high-temperature community reaction.
Q: You said you're impressed with the adoption of JavaFX. Do you feel like you guys have the RIA thing licked?
A: I don't think it's licked. We've got a lot more to do. But I'm really comfortable with the vector that we're on. We took this tack of integrating with the Adobe tools and sort of feeding that into the chain. That's been remarkably successful. The artist crowd really likes that. We've got this new tool that we've been showing. And JavaFX itself, one of our hopes for that since the early days was that we would be able to figure out how to map it to fairly widely different devices. We kind of had this back of the envelope proof that it was doable. And we pretty much got it figured out and nailed.
Q: Will Java be a platform for cloud computing?
A: People have been doing cloud computing kind of stuff in Java from day zero. Cloudlike stuff has become a part of everything we do. Kenai is our developer cloud. And the integration with NetBeans actually has REST APIs, and that's some pretty snazzy stuff. We really only started to do that stuff in the last six months. We've got this long "wouldn't it be cool?" list for NetBeans and Kenai and the combination of them. | <urn:uuid:8576365a-ed81-4cf3-a62f-3f613d0bea74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eweek.com/print/c/a/Application-Development/Gosling-Whats-Good-for-Google-May-Not-be-Good-for-Java-254444/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977394 | 1,958 | 1.765625 | 2 |
But woe unto the one who fails to seal the deal.
Think about how much ridicule Michael Jordan risked when he struck the pose, his right hand frozen in salute even before his game-winning shot dropped in the closing seconds and sucked the life out of the Utah Jazz in Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals.
Or how about the iconic photo of Muhammad Ali standing over a fallen Sonny Liston? Before that fight 40 years ago, some people feared Liston might exact revenge for his loss in their first match by trying to kill his brash young opponent. But Ali dropped him and then, instead of heading for a neutral corner to pray that Liston wouldn’t get up, he stood there, right fist cocked defiantly and screamed, “Get up and fight, sucker!”
That’s what Jacobellis tried to do in the Olympic women’s snowboardcross Friday.
It’s known as showing off, showboating, throwing down, flaunting, taunting, hot-dogging and a dozen other names. In this case, Jacobellis’ final big-air bonanza was intended as a parting gift, something for all those people who sat, whistled and stomped their feet in a shivering grandstand for hours to remember her and her sport by.
It’s just that after failing to pull it off, Jacobellis wouldn’t admit even trying.
One moment, the 20-year-old star was on her way to a gold medal, well clear of her three rivals, taking off on the next-to-last jump in the sport’s first-ever Olympic final. And in the next moment, Jacobellis lay sprawled in the snow, one of those “this-can’t-be-happening!” moments that occur only once in a lifetime.
The question she answered over and over Friday, to nobody’s satisfaction ultimately but her own, is what happened in between.
“I was trying to, you know, keep my board under me, but after a while, you know, your legs get so tired. I just tried to grab it to keep my body stabilized. But,” Jacobellis added, finally gathering herself, “it didn’t work out.”
She went a little further a few hours later during a conference call — “I was having fun and that’s what snowboarding is,” Jacobellis said — but still wouldn’t fess up.
Attempting what’s called a “backside method” on that next-to-last jump, Jacobellis reached back to grab her board, tugged too hard and pulled it too far behind her. Upon landing, she caught an edge and tumbled, then scrambled back to her feet and made it to the finish line in just enough time to win a silver.
Looking on from just behind the finish line, Seth Westcott, the U.S. men’s team snowboardcrosser who won the gold just a day earlier, was wrestling with mixed emotions. His girlfriend just happens to be Switzerland’s Tanja Frieden, who sped past Jacobellis for the gold.
See Olympic athletes crash and tumble on snow and ice. | <urn:uuid:389e20dd-bf67-49ee-a7e1-e4036d343b34> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/11413882/ns/sports-winter_olympics/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964996 | 696 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Skills of a Kid Reporter
What I've learned will serve me all my life.
Being a Kid Reporter for Scholastic is an amazing experience! It’s also a big responsibility. But don’t freak out—it’s a lot of fun, too. You go to interviews, write stories and blogs, and learn important journalistic skills that will serve you your whole life.
My favorite thing to do was interview interesting people like author Juanita Havill and NBA referee Violet Palmer, the first woman referee in professional basketball. For both interviews (and every other one I’ve done), I had to do a lot of research beforehand to figure out the questions I wanted to ask.
During the interview, you have to listen carefully so you can ask additional questions based on what you are hearing. Your story is much better if you listen and learn while conducting your interview. I also had to prepare equipment for interviews, some of which were done in person and some over the phone. All of them were taped so I could get accurate quotes for my stories. (Remember to always ask the interviewee if it is OK to use a recorder.)
But interviews are just the beginning of assignments. After the interviews, I had to write the stories. That means deciding what parts of the interviews I want to quote and how to structure the story so that it has a good beginning, middle, and end. I also have to choose which pictures to send to my editor. In the case of my interview with Havill, I also wrote a review of her book, Grow: a Novel in Verse.
I like conducting interviews because it gives me a chance to meet people that I would otherwise never meet and to ask them questions that puzzle me. You can really get to know some interesting people, especially if you listen to what they are saying. How cool is that?
Talking about cool, one thing that happened after my story on Violet Palmer was that she mailed me an autographed picture of herself to my school. Now, as Kid Reporters, we are not allowed to ask for autographs. It’s unprofessional and in some cases, like on a red carpet or in a locker room, it’s not even allowed! But Ms. Palmer did this on her own. I didn't know about it in advance.
My vice principal gave me the envelope in front of everyone at school. I was so proud! To this day, her picture is framed and hanging on my bedroom wall. By interviewing people for Scholastic, I have improved my communication and writing skills, big time.
You can be a Kid Reporter, too. The application process is under way! Click HERE for information on how to submit your entry. And do it NOW! Deadline to mail in your entry is October 12.
PHOTO: Kid Reporter Maya Williams with an autographed picture of NBA referee Violet Palmer. (Photo Courtesy Maya Williams) | <urn:uuid:668ec754-7cbf-4e4e-85ce-45956ea597d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.scholastic.com/kidspress/2010/09/skills-of-a-kid-reporter.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973357 | 602 | 2.109375 | 2 |
The Challenge of Health Disparities
Posted on October 19, 2007
Improving access to services for African Americans requires commitment, states Charles F. Reynolds III (bio).
Now, there are some challenges that we face and will continue to face in this line of work. For an example, it is particularly challenging and particularly important to address disparities of access to mental health service research for older African American. This is a very important challenge because if you are old, if you are African American and if you are depressed, you have a much less chance of having your depression recognized and appropriately treated than if you are an older white American. This is an important disparity. The former Surgeon General David Satcher in his work was the best Surgeon General that we in mental health have ever had, really taught the field a great deal about the importance that culture counts. So as investigators we’re committed to helping reduce these terrible disparities.
We need to learn more about how people from different cultural groups, different socio-economic statuses in life, different racial and ethnic groups, how do they understand depression? Their understanding of depression may be very different from my understanding of depression as a biomedical research scientist. For example, an older black American may see depression not as an illness but largely, say, as a spiritual concern or a spiritual crisis. So how do I honor that belief? How do I honor that belief and engage such a person in effective treatment? What might be effective treatment for him or her as well as treatment that is true to the biomedical science base that we have in this field?
That’s an important challenge that we face. We can’t meet that challenge unless we’re willing to leave our laboratories and work with people in the community. Understand what they mean by depression. Understand what kinds of interventions would be acceptable to them. If we do that we can meet this challenge. | <urn:uuid:426686eb-2d4f-4cad-bf20-64fee7464f93> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.4researchers.org/articles/transcript/91 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956515 | 389 | 2.296875 | 2 |
By ARIEL C. SEBELLINO
SEVENTEEN-year-old B-Jay has not attended school for the last two years. Instead, B-Jay helps his father David in occasional carpentry works in some subdivisions in Cavite to augment the family’s income.
He dreams though of becoming a seafarer someday.
“Wala man ako choice (I didn’t have a choice after all.),” his father said. “Bilang panganay kailangan talaga niyang tumulong para mabuhay pamilya namin (As the eldest, he has to work for our family to survive).”
For his part, B-Jay said: “Okay lang naman sa akin mag-work to help my parents basta lang makapasok pa rin ako (It is okay for me to work to help my parents for as long as I can still go to school).”
B-Jay is among today’s 5.5 million Filipino working children under 18 years of age, documented in the latest survey on children of the National Statistics Office (NSO), which showed a 35 per cent increase from four million in 2001.
The NSO 2011 survey was presented during the recent World Day Against Child Labor, “Batang Malaya: Child Labour Free Philippines” campaign launch.
Working children refers to those who are allowed to work, but not in child labor or in any hazardous economic activity.
According to the survey, almost three million of the 5.5 million working children are in hazardous child labor, a 25 per cent increase from 2.4 million in 2001. Hazardous child labor was higher among boys with 66.8 per cent as compared to girls with 33.2 per cent.
Under the law, child labor is defined as any work or economic activity performed by a child that subjects him or her to any form of exploitation, or is harmful to health and safety, physical and mental, or psycho-social development.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) further defines the term child labor as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity.
“We have to get to the root of child labor which is linked with poverty and lack of decent and productive work,” Lawrence Jeff Johnson, director of the ILO Country Office for the Philippines, said. “While we strive to keep children in school and away from child labor, we need to ensure decent and productive work for parent and basic social protection for families.”
The NSO survey, funded by the ILO, is the first one that utilized its framework for statistical identification of working children, or children in employment, child labor, and hazardous child labor. The last surveys were in 1995 and 2001.
“It took us a decade to come up with the latest statistics because surveys are really very expensive,” NSO Administrator Carmelita Ericta said.
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) welcomed the results of the survey as it will provide the government a more accurate and more comprehensive picture of the child labor situation in the country, which the previous surveys failed to do.
It vowed to make every barangay of the country’s over 1,500 municipalities child labor-free to achieve the country’s goal of reducing by 75 percent all worst forms of child labor by 2015.
“We at the DOLE reiterate our pledge to do our utmost in making every barangay in the country with high child labor incidence child labor-free,” Labor Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz said. “We will meet the challenge head-on.”
Central Luzon (10.6 per cent), Bicol (10.2 per cent), Western Visayas (8.5 per cent), Northern Mindanao (8.2 per cent) and Central Visayas (7.3 per cent) are the regions that posted the highest incidence of hazardous child labor.
Hazardous child labor is defined as being likely to harm children’s health, safety or morals by its nature or circumstances. Children may be directly exposed to obvious work hazards such as sharp tools or poisonous chemicals.
Other hazards for child laborers may be less apparent, such as the risk of abuse or problems resulting from long hours of work. Hazardous work is considered as one of the worst forms of child labor.
Republic Act No. 9231, an act providing for the elimination of the worst forms of child labor and affording stronger protection for the working children, gives four broad categories of the worst forms of child labor, as follows:
1.All forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery such as sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forces or compulsory labor, including recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;
2. Using, procuring, offering or exposing of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography, or for pornographic performances;
3. Using, procuring or offering of a child for illegal or illicit activities, including the production and trafficking of dangerous drugs and volatile substances prohibited under existing laws; and
4. Work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is hazardous or likely to be harmful to the health, safety or morals of children.
The same Act provides penalties for violations such as imprisonment and fines. | <urn:uuid:8cd54ad4-2e64-43ad-88e2-07b3adcb8185> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://verafiles.org/filipino-working-children-reaches-5-5-million-nso-survey-shows/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947559 | 1,134 | 2.5 | 2 |
Emma Collins, a web writer who just edited a compendium of online education’s best MBA programs by MBAOnline, joins Virtual School Meanderings today to lend some insight to the growing trend of Internet-based learning. Cyber schools are becoming more and more popular, but they are not without their critics. This post should hopefully start a vibrant discussion about the future of education, both on and off-line. As is the tradition at Virtual School Meanderings, this will be the only entry today.
Since the Internet was first introduced to the public in the mid-1990s, online technology has played an ever-increasing role in public education. Today, blended coursework and virtual schools are replacing traditional teaching methods at a substantial rate, while education startups – led by tech-savvy “edupreneurs” – aim in many ways to “disrupt” conventional educational practices with web-based programs.
The field of online education has grown immensely in the last decade alone. According to a report by Innosight Institute titled “The Rise of Blended Learning,” approximately 45,000 public school students at the K-12 level took an online course in 2000. Nine years later, that number had risen to more than 3 million. Furthermore, experts predict that at least half of all high school classes will be taught online by 2019.
The online surge has also impacted the number of homeschooled children. The number of students who learned from home more than doubled between 1999 and 2009, and this is largely due to the growing number of exclusively web-based educational institutions. Elementary and high schools are not the only ones to record substantial growth in online course enrollments, either. According to US News & World Report, more than 6 million American college students enrolled in at least one online course in Fall 2010 – a 10.1 percent increase over the previous year.
The report’s authors note that online learning exhibits the traits of a “disruptive innovation,” which essentially transforms a particular sector by replacing “complicated, expensive, inaccessible, and centralized” services with alternatives that are more affordable, user-friendly, and – in many cases – customizable to meet the needs of a specific group (such as an individual classroom). Web-based learning began as a service for children who learned from home, attended financially deficient schools or otherwise had no other alternative for receiving an effective education. Today, school districts across the country have begun to use web technology to create a blended learning environment.
As the name suggests, blended learning supplements traditional classroom education with varying levels of supervised online coursework. These courses not only prepare students for the technology-saturated job market they will encounter as adults, but also mitigates some of the budgetary pressures facing schools today. The report suggests that, for these reasons, blended classrooms are the optimal solution for several problems that educators currently face. “Online learning has the potential to be a disruptive force that will transform the factory-like, monolithic structure that has dominated America’s schools into a new model that is student-centric, highly personalized for each learner, and more productive, as it delivers dramatically better results at the same or lower cost,” the report states.
Tom Clark, Co-editor of Virtual Schools: Planning for Success, agrees that blended coursework is effectively reshaping the country’s educational dynamic. In addition, he notes another growing trend: virtual schools. These institutions generally fall under three categories. State-run virtual schools, contrary to their name, are not degree-granting institutions; rather, they provide online services to K-12 students and assist school districts with the integration of technology into their standard curricula. Virtual charter schools, on the other hand, provide full-time, tuition-free distance learning opportunities (typically for K-8 students). State charter laws govern these programs. Finally, privately operated virtual schools – like traditional private institutions – charge tuition for full- or part-time online learning programs. While both virtual charter schools and private virtual schools may act as “schools of record,” school districts may also work with them to develop online programs in public classrooms.
As a growing number of school districts have implemented blended coursework in the nation’s classrooms, many critics have raised concerns over the effectiveness of web-based learning. However, Clark writes that many of these worries are unfounded. Contrary to popular misconception, he notes, online coursework is not unsupervised, and students are not isolated from teachers and peers. Rather, most online modules enable teachers to regularly communicate with students online – and many require face-to-face consultations throughout the course. Furthermore, most K-12 students who take online courses are only enrolled part-time or for particular classes, so they are still able to regularly attend high school; in this sense, online courses increase (not decrease) the number of teachers and peers with which a student is able to interact. Other critics have complained that digital coursework, when compared with traditional classroom learning, is too easy. However, Clark argues that most virtual schools operate in accordance with state education department regulations, and certified teachers lead the individual courses.
In addition to virtual schools, many educational startups have emerged in recent years to tackle specific concerns related to today’s learners by introducing elements of online technology. One example is Nearpod, a company that develops educational apps for iOS and Android devices that can be used in classrooms. Nearpod is the brainchild of edupreneur Felipe Sommer, who told EdTech Digest that educators may use the apps to perform a range of tasks, from checking attendance and monitoring grades to developing interactive lesson plans and engaging classes with multimedia. Another innovative edupreneur, Nic Borg, recently developed Edmodo – a customizable social networking tool that can be used exclusively in the classroom. “Our goal was to develop a space that allowed teachers, students and schools to connect in a more engaging way while keeping students safe and protected,” he told EdTech Digest, adding that Edmodo’s platform enables students and teachers to exchange information, access homework and perform other classroom functions in real-time. Companies like Nearpod and Edmodo that offer unique, technology-based services are helping today’s educators meet their classroom’s increasing digital demands — and ensuring their own long-term market viability in the process.
Between the growing number of blended classrooms and virtual schools in the U.S. and the ever-expanding edupreneur sector, technology stands to greatly disrupt the state of American education in the coming years. As this nationwide shift takes place, teachers and students will receive more opportunities to learn, interact and prepare for future success in the digital world.
Emma Collins is a web writer who just edited a compendium of online education’s best MBA programs by MBAOnline. As is the tradition at Virtual School Meanderings, this will be the only entry today. | <urn:uuid:8cf53e54-2010-4a6d-a77a-ffa8ae14d29e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://virtualschooling.wordpress.com/2012/12/04/guest-blogger-the-rise-of-blended-learning-and-the-new-opportunities-for-edupreneurs-and-mbas/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957489 | 1,434 | 2.734375 | 3 |
I contributed my article on the Finnish solar wind riding electric sail, which is nearing readiness for flight testing
Centauri Dreams talks more about the electric solar space sail.
Colony Worlds talks about the need for ants for space colonies. Bees could have problems with the different or lack of magnetic fields. Ants might be needed to take the place of Bees for pollination.
Ethan Siegel ponders what it would take to destroy the Universe. Using a particle accelerator with a radius that would span 10**14 kilometres (or from Earth to the nearest star system) might be able to do it)
Go to astroengines for a lot more. | <urn:uuid:010ce00c-2bac-4d5c-b0bf-a5f92e8a2c59> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/04/carnival-of-space-week-51.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931736 | 134 | 1.984375 | 2 |
How To Select Fruit Trees
( Originally Published Early 1900's )
Two of the important questions with the fruit grower today are: Where can I get the kind of fruit trees and select them to my own liking? Orlando Harrison of Worcester county, Maryland, declares there is but one answer to the questions : " Go yourself to the nursery and be convinced whether you are willing or not to place yourself in the hands of the nurseryman. If satisfied, make up your list of varieties so the nurseryman can tell you whether good or bad, or whether he grows these kinds. Many growers want at least ten times too many varieties and often worthless sorts for their locality, simply because they have noticed the variety well advertised. Confine yourself to few.
" Ask the nurseryman to explain his methods of growing from the seed or seedlings to maturity, and you will then not ask for cheap trees. A visit will convince you that no good nurseryman is sparing either money or effort today in producing the very best trees that can be grown. He must be up to date on practical and scientific problems per-Wiling to all nursery and orchard work, and to protect himself and you, you will find he is only too glad to impart this knowledge to his customers. A visit to the nursery will convince you.
"Some nurserymen employ the best scientific men for inspection work and fumigation, and for looking carefully into the matter of spraying with the proper materials and at the proper time. These men are assisted by the state entomologist on both scientific and practical points. A visit to the nursery will convince you if such men would pay you. Some nurserymen employ men well posted on varieties of fruit, but the best of all is the experimental farm on the nursery grounds. Eating the fruit will convince you.
" When you are ready to select a good tree you will leave the whole responsibility to the nursery-man and his men, and the only thing for you to do is to select the grade of tree. Convince your-self that his seed or seedlings are the best. See that the roots are not affected with knots or aphids.
Ask where the buds were cut from and about being true to name. By cutting a tree you can tell whether the heart is affected or not.
"Ask the nurseryman not to dig too early, and use great care in keeping the trees from the sun and wind. Don't be so rigid as to say the peaches must be 8-r6 of an inch caliper, and not less than 5 feet high, and the apples must be three-quarter-inch, and not less than 6 feet high, when some varieties will make twice the growth that others will. Too many orchardists insist that trees must be exact in size and shape. You should remember that trees are not molded, but grown, and as varied in sizes as your corn in the field. It is almost impossible to keep in sizes and varieties.
Many nurseries can show you something worth while any month in the year, if you will make the trip. Yet August and September is the best time to visit them. In January and February you find them grafting, March and April planting and shipping trees and digging shrubs and plants, May and June cultivating trees and picking strawberries, July to September picking peaches and early apples and budding trees in full force, October and November digging and shipping trees and picking apples and pears, December trenching trees and getting them ready for early spring. The nursery-man has a hard business to handle, and a visit to the nursery will convince you the price of fruit trees is far too low." | <urn:uuid:ec09cabe-3407-4425-8ffc-8a0d08ace427> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oldandsold.com/articles32n/horticulture-11.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973681 | 745 | 2.484375 | 2 |
NASA Plans For Proposed Jupiter Mission
Washington - NASA has issued its mission design requirements to three industry teams for a proposed mission to Jupiter and its three icy moons. The requirements are also the first product formulated by NASA's new Office of Exploration Systems in Washington.
The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter is a spacecraft with an ambitious proposed mission that would orbit three planet-sized moons of Jupiter -- Callisto, Ganymede and Europa -- that may harbor vast oceans beneath their icy surfaces. The mission would be powered by a nuclear reactor and launched sometime in the next decade. | <urn:uuid:e7f18a10-c03f-428e-951f-3e7c48c6c383> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.greatnewsnetwork.org/index.php/news/article/nasa_plans_for_proposed_jupiter_mission/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936517 | 117 | 2.546875 | 3 |
The Presidency of the Council of the EU rotates among Member States every six months. In the first half of 2012, Denmark will hold the Presidency for the 7th time and will thus guide the work among the Member States. When holding the rotating Presidency, the presiding Member State to some extent gets the chance to influence the EU agenda, provide impetus to the EU system and strengthen public support for the EU in the Member States.
The tasks of the EU Presidency
The Presidency has two main tasks:
The first is to plan and chair the meetings in the Council of the EU and underlying bodies. It is the responsibility of the Presidency to move the work of the Council forward and create results, to ensure cooperation among Member States and formulate compromise proposals that can gather support. To do this, the Presidency must act in its capacity of an honest and neutral broker.
Secondly, the Presidency represents the Council in its dealings with the other EU institutions, not least the Commission and the European Parliament. This entails, among other things, that the Presidency is the representative of the 27 Member States in negotiations with the Commission and the European Parliament.
Changes with the Lisbon Treaty
Since the last Danish Presidency in 2002, the Lisbon Treaty has entered into force and this has changed the role of the Presidency in a number of instances.
Firstly, the Treaty has established new institutional actors:
Herman Van Rompuy leads the work in the European Council and Catherine Ashton organises the work of EU foreign policy in the Council’s configuration for foreign affairs. Denmark will be in charge of all other council configurations and will work closely with both Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton.
Secondly, Denmark is now part of the so-called Trio Presidency (together with Poland and Cyprus), where three consecutive Presidencies work together to craft a political programme for an 18 months’ period in order to ensure a higher degree of consistency and coordination in the work of the EU.
Thirdly, the European Parliament now has a more influential role as co-legislator and the cooperation with the Parliament will be an important task during the Danish Presidency.
Apart for the Trio Presidency Programme, each rotating Presidency formulates its own work programme and priorities. As President of the Council, Denmark will in general be evaluated on whether we chair the work in an open and professional manner, whether we are a neutral and efficient broker that creates results, and whether we ensure close cooperation with the other EU institutions, the press, organisations/NGOs and the general public.
The organisation of the Danish EU Presidency
The Danish Presidency is undertaken by the entire Danish Government and all relevant ministries. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs coordinates the work of the Presidency, both in relation to the political programme and priorities for the Presidency, but also in areas such as logistics and communication – in close cooperation with the Prime Minister’s Office, other ministries and the Permanent Representation to the European Union, which plays a key role during the Presidency.
Danish embassies will also be involved in the Presidency. Besides contributing to the central coordination of activities, the individual ministries will themselves be responsible for undertaking their own activities during the Presidency.
Cooperation with other institutions and the new actors
The EU Presidency is a major task for a Member State. The coordination of activities and the cooperation with the permanent EU institutions, e.g. the European Parliament and the European Commission, are an undeviating and important task. The cooperation consists both of ongoing coordination and participation in negotiations on behalf of the Council of the EU. Being present in the various committees and plenary debates of the European Parliament will also constitute a considerable part of the cooperation.
Furthermore, there is close coordination between the Danish Presidency and the Permanent President of the European Council along with the High Representative for Foreign Affairs. The Presidency supports the two new actors and their work and can in some cases be requested to perform certain duties for the High Representative.
The Danish Presidency in 2002 and previous Presidencies
Denmark became a member of the European Union on 1 January 1973. Denmark has held the Presidency in the following periods: 1973 (second half), 1978 (first half), 1982 (second half), 1987 (second half), 1993 (first half) and latest in the second half of 2002.
The latest Presidency in 2002 was considered a great success not least due to the successful negotiations on EU enlargement which led to an agreement on admission of ten new Member States from mainly the Baltic region and Eastern Europe – the biggest enlargement in the history of the European Union. Other focus areas during the 2002 Presidency were the EU’s global responsibility, the Single Market, sustainable development and food safety in Europe. | <urn:uuid:1402ed0a-a32f-430b-96b5-c9456a87a6d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eu2012.dk/en/EU-and-the-Presidency/About-the-Presidency/Hvad-er-et-EU-formandskab | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944382 | 949 | 2.453125 | 2 |
(a) Information submitted in confidence shall be exempt from public inspection if it is determined that the disclosure of such information is not required by law.
(b) A party requesting an exemption from public inspection for information submitted in writing shall clearly mark each page “Submitted in Confidence” at the top, and shall submit a nonconfidential summary of the confidential information. Such person shall also provide a written explanation of why the material should be so protected.
(c) A request for exemption of any particular information may be denied if it is determined that such information is not entitled to exemption under law. In the event of such a denial, the information will be returned to the person who submitted it, with a statement of the reasons for the denial.
Title 15 published on 2012-01-01
no entries appear in the Federal Register after this date.
This is a list of United States Code sections, Statutes at Large, Public Laws, and Presidential Documents, which provide rulemaking authority for this CFR Part. | <urn:uuid:9fcea738-1b84-4145-be4e-6163e1528de6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/15/2007.7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903372 | 209 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Typical spider mite webbing
Spider mite populations are a particular problem in the glasshouse environment. These tiny arachnids, measuring less than 1 mm in size, feed on the underside of plant leaves causing mechanical injury that is characterised by the appearance of yellow or white flecking, bronzing and scorching of leaves and leading to plant stress, or in the worst cases plant death can occur. The use of insecticides against spider mites often causes resistance and kills important natural spider mite predators. Spider mite control requires IPM strategies.
The most common glasshouse spider mite pest is Tetranychus urticae, commonly known as the glasshouse red spider mite or two-spotted spider mite, which commonly affects glasshouse crops of tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, beans and peppers. Another economically important spider mite pest is the red spider mite, Panonychus ulmi, also known as the European red mite, which resides on apple, pear and plum trees in almost all fruit-growing regions of the world.
Eden Research products have several advantages over existing management strategies:
An independent efficacy testing service provided by i2LResearch Ltd (Cardiff) is currently screening a number of different Eden products in bioassays against both the two-spotted spider mite (TSSM) T. urticae, and the fruit tree red spider mite (RSM) P. ulmi. Preliminary results indicated that Eden products H2Y-31 and 3GY-115 were highly effective against TSSMs when used at 500 ppm, and Eden products H2Y-11 and H2Y-13 showed good control against RSMs at the same dose rate (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Efficacy against spider mites: Eden products at 500 ppm
TSSM - Two-spotted spider mite (T. urticae)
RSM - Red fruit tree spider mite (P. ulmi)
Four different Eden products were tested against RSMs, and two products (H2Y 31 and 3GY 115) were used against TSSMs. The competitor product bifenthrin was used at the label rate.
Efficacy testing performed by i2LResearch Ltd, 2008
For further detailed information on Eden's products, please contact Eden at firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:a58002a3-49ba-4f93-9df5-6845ef6aa982> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.edenresearch.com/html/products/spider_mites.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934744 | 491 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Your Child's Health Care Team
Your child may meet many new people while he or she is at the hospital. Here is a list of who some of them are and what they do.
Consulting physician: A doctor who specializes in a particular area. This doctor may be asked by your hospitalist or primary doctor to help diagnose and treat your child.
Pediatric hospitalist: A pediatrician who works with children in the hospital, including the Pediatric Unit, the Emergency Department, Labor and Delivery and the newborn nursery. They work with your child's primary care provider.
Pediatrician: A doctor who is trained to give medical care to children.
Primary care provider: The doctor (or nurse practitioner) your child sees for checkups and sick visits. This may be your pediatrician.
- Care coordinator/discharge planner: A nurse who stays in regular contact with your insurance company and arranges and coordinates home care services.
- Certified Pediatric Nurse: A CPN is a nurse who has taken a certification test and has received professional recognition of specialty knowledge in the care of children.
- Nurse practitioner: A nurse with special training who works with a doctor and may oversee your child's care.
- Registered nurse: A nurse who is educated and licensed by the state to provide health care and teach about health, the body, medical terms and medications.
- Care partner: A person who helps nurses check things like temperature, blood pressure, height and weight.
- Child Life specialist: A person who helps children and their families cope with the health care experience by explaining what will happen and why in terms your child can understand. They may use play and other age-appropriate activities and education to help prepare your child for medical procedures.
- Dietitian: A person who specializes in nutrition. They evaluate a child's nutritional needs and help families plan for dietary changes.
- Health unit coordinator: A person who can answer your non-medical questions. A HUC can be found at your unit's front desk.
- Lactation consultant: A person who gives breastfeeding education and support to nursing mothers.
- Social worker: A person who is educated and licensed to help families deal with issues related to having a child who is sick or injured. They can help you with community referrals and financial resources that can provide your family with support and necessary services.
- Physical therapist: A therapist trained to improve a patient's movement, balance and coordination.
- Respiratory therapist: A therapist trained to evaluate and provide treatment to children with breathing problems.
- Speech therapist: A therapist trained to help children with speech and swallowing problems. | <urn:uuid:0907433c-43e6-40d3-b065-e9451021e26b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chw.org/display/PPF/DocID/45179/Nav/1/router.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95296 | 542 | 3.140625 | 3 |
According to a report in the Southern Medical Journal, grapefruit juice is a well-documented inhibitor of a specific enzyme (CYP3A4 isoenzyme) involved in the metabolism of over 50% of commonly prescribed drugs.
Americans consume grapefruit juice in large quantities, with 14% of the population drinking grapefruit juice weekly.
The report documented an unusual case of verapamil (a blood pressure drug) toxicity in a 42-year-old female.
The New York Times claims the 42-year-old was barely responding when her husband brought her to the emergency room.
“Her heart rate was slowing, and her blood pressure was falling. Doctors had to insert a breathing tube, and then a pacemaker, to revive her.”
“The culprit was grapefruit juice,” said Dr. Unni Pillai, a nephrologist in St. Louis, Mo., who treated the woman several years ago and later published a case report.
“She loved grapefruit juice, and she had such a bad migraine, with nausea and vomiting, that she could not tolerate anything else.”
As New York Times writer Roni Caryn Ranin points out, the previous week, she survived mainly on grapefruit juice.
“Then she took verapamil, one of dozens of drugs whose potency is dramatically increased if taken with grapefruit, and in her case, the interaction was life-threatening.”
Ranin notes that under normal circumstances, the drugs are metabolized in the gastrointestinal tract, and relatively little is absorbed, because an enzyme (CYP3A4) deactivates them.
“But grapefruit contains natural chemicals called furanocoumarins, that inhibit the enzyme, and without it the gut absorbs much more of a drug and blood levels rise dramatically.”
Dr. David Bailey, a Canadian researcher who first described this interaction more than two decades ago, released an updated list of medications affected by grapefruit.
Bailey says there are now 85 such drugs on the market, including common cholesterol-lowering drugs, new anticancer agents, and some synthetic opiates and psychiatric drugs, as well as certain immunosuppressant medications taken by organ transplant patients, some AIDS medications, and some birth control pills and estrogen treatments.
“What drove us to write this paper was the number of new drugs that have come out in the last four years,” said Dr. Bailey, a clinical pharmacologist at the Lawson Health Research Institute, who first discovered the interaction by accident in the 1990s.
Dr. Bailey believes many cases are missed because doctors don’t think to ask if patients are consuming grapefruit or grapefruit juice.
“The bottom line is that even if the frequency is low, the consequences can be dire,” he said. “Why do we have to have a body count before we make changes?”
For 43 of the 85 drugs now on the list, consumption with grapefruit can be life-threatening, Dr. Bailey said. Taken with grapefruit, other drugs like fentanyl, oxycodone and methadone can cause fatal respiratory depression.
Advice from experts for grapefruit lovers:
¶ If you take oral medication of any kind, check the list to see if it interacts with grapefruit. Make sure you understand the potential side effects of an interaction; if they are life-threatening or could cause permanent injury, avoid grapefruit altogether. Some drugs, such as clopidogrel, may be less effective when taken with grapefruit.
¶ If you take one of the listed drugs a regular basis, keep in mind that you may want to avoid grapefruit, as well as pomelo, lime and marmalade. Be on the lookout for symptoms that could be side effects of the drug. If you are on statins, this could be unusual muscle soreness.
¶ It is not enough to avoid taking your medicine at the same time as grapefruit. You must avoid consuming grapefruit the whole period that you are on the medication.
¶ In general, it is a good idea to avoid sudden dramatic changes in diet and extreme diets that rely on a narrow group of foods. If you can’t live without grapefruit, ask your doctor if there’s an alternative drug for you.
December 20th, 2012 | <urn:uuid:c9ff5b22-e1aa-4940-a4d3-e49b7722380f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.friendseat.com/why-eating-grapefruit-can-kill-you/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949549 | 907 | 2.34375 | 2 |
ESET Advises on Facebook Worms: Beware of Yimfoca and Fbphotofake
BRATISLAVA - Recently, Facebook users were exposed to a slew of worms, including Win32/Yimfoca.AA and Win32/Fbphotofake. Win32/Yimfoca.AA has even ranked in the ThreatSense.Net Top Ten in many European countries, including Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, for the last few weeks.
According to Marek Polesensky, Malware Researcher at ESET, the Yimfoca worm uses Facebook chat to attack, while Fbphotofake is a social engineering worm which distributes itself and other malware through spam Facebook messages. Polesensky adds: “Yimfoca serves as a backdoor that can be controlled remotely and can also spread through other IM software like Skype, MSN or Yahoo Messenger.” Additionally, Yimfoca can also download and run other malicious software posted online - including fake anti-virus software, change security settings or deactivate the Windows firewall. Fbphotofake worm foremostly distributes Facebook spam. Users are advised to be careful and not to open suspicious and unknown attachments, or click on dubious links.
Instant Messaging worm Win32/Yimfoca.AA
Facebook worm Win32/Fbphotofake
Related to the recent malware attacks, David Harley, ESET Senior Research Fellow, has pointed out that Facebook messaging is increasingly exploited for Nigerian letter scams. “It is standard Advance Fee Fraud, with a little extra oomph in terms of emotional blackmail,” says Harley. He advises users to “be always sure about the identity of the sender and about the IM or Facebook message content.” Randy Abrams, Director of Technical Education at ESET North America notes that “a part of the problem is that the Facebook culture is anti-security and that is a very tough obstacle for their security professionals.”
Latest Facebook threats:
- The Win32/Yimfoca.AA worm has been spreading for the last few months, reaching Top Ten in several European countries according to ThreatSense.Net.
- Fbphotofake distributes Facebook spam. In case of both worms be careful and do not open suspicious and unknown attachments, or click on dubious links.
- Nigerian letter scams are being spread via Facebook messages as well.
ThreatSense.Net® is ESET’s in-the-cloud malware collection system utilizing data from users of ESET solutions worldwide. This continual streaming of information provides ESET Virus Lab specialists with a real-time accurate snapshot of the nature and scope of global infiltrations. Careful analysis of the threats, attack vectors and patterns serves ESET to fine-tune all heuristic and signature updates ̶ to protect its users against tomorrow’s threats.
Founded in 1992, ESET is a global provider of security solutions for the home and business segment. The industry leader in proactive malware detection, ESET NOD32 Antivirus holds the world record for the number of Virus Bulletin "VB100 Awards," never to have missed a single “In-the-Wild” worm or virus since the inception of testing in 1998.
ESET has headquarters in Bratislava, Slovakia, regional centers in San Diego, USA; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Prague, Czech Republic; Singapore and malware research centers in Bratislava; San Diego; Prague; Krakow, Poland; Montreal, Canada and Moscow, Russia. ESET has extensive partner network in more than 180 countries. The company is continuously named by Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in the region of Europe, Middle East and Africa. | <urn:uuid:309ad308-a4fa-48e6-840e-0f1e2a7b108b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eset.com/me/about/press/articles/article/eset-advises-on-latest-facebook-malware/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903609 | 789 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Haliburton County Food Net
The Haliburton County FoodNet believes that all residents of Haliburton County should be able to access food in a way that upholds basic human dignity and that the food is safe, nutritionally adequate, personally acceptable and culturally appropriate.
Everyone has the right to be well nourished and have access to healthy food to promote and maintain good health. A sustainable food system that maximizes self-reliance and social justice is necessary to reach this goal.
In summary, FoodNet works together as a not for profit community networking to ensure all residents of Haliburton County have access to food and do not go hungry.
The Haliburton County Food Net includes representation from:
For more information about FoodNet, to get involved or to donate,
705-457-1391 ext. 238 or email email@example.com | <urn:uuid:a915c03c-e3ae-437f-b3bb-e35af657c0c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fyihaliburton.com/foodnet.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923956 | 185 | 1.96875 | 2 |
LAS VEGAS -- In his first out-of-state trip since taking office in January, California Gov. Jerry Brown said Tuesday that he plans to forge ahead with aggressive renewable energy policies amid growing evidence of climate change.
"Climate change has become more obvious, and we see great opportunity in investing in wind, solar and energy efficiency, or 'negawatts,'" Brown told a gathering here of 700 clean energy advocates. "This is like the computer industry when it first started. It starts small and it keeps growing. We're not going to ever not need energy."
Brown was one of several high-profile speakers at the fourth annual National Clean Energy Summit, hosted by Nevada Sen. Harry Reid and the Center for American Progress think tank.
Many of the speakers, from U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu to Vice President Joe Biden, urged the nation to continue to invest in science education, research and development, and stable tax incentives for cleantech startups or risk losing the highly competitive cleantech race to countries like China and Germany.
"Our country has a choice -- what kind of country are we going to be?" asked Biden, who recently returned from a 10-day trip to China and Mongolia. "Are we going to rise to the challenges, like our grandfathers and grandmothers did? Or are we going to be a follower? It's sad that we're having this debate -- in the past America has always led."
Biden cautioned that "if we don't lead,
But with federal stimulus funding winding down and budget battles looming in Washington, the future of clean energy investment looks bleak. Many advocates want Congress to pass a national Clean Energy Standard, which would require a specified amount of the nation's electricity to come from renewable power by a certain date.
California already has the most aggressive renewable standard in the nation: 33 percent by 2020, a goal that utilities like PG&E and Southern California Edison are well on their way to meeting.
"Last year we permitted 5,000 megawatts of wind and solar, and we have applications for 70,000 megawatts," said Brown. "The 33 percent goal has stimulated real investment. The entrepreneurs that made the computer revolution are the same people investing in renewable energy. Google (GOOG) is investing. These companies will grow."
While Washington is paralyzed by bipartisan feuding, Western states are increasingly collaborating on key issues, from how to site new transmission lines to how to ship renewable energy up and down the West coast.
"As Western governors, we're working more closely together than any other part of the country," said Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire. "We're building an electric vehicle highway from Canada through California, and our Pacific Coast Collaborative is working to create clean jobs. We'd be very naive to sit back and do nothing with the excuse that we're in a recession."
In an interview with the Mercury News before his public remarks, Brown said he would continue to talk about the realities of climate change even as many politicians in Washington try to avoid that conversation.
"Climate change will create floods, droughts, forest fires of greater intensity and regularity, and with far greater devastation," he said, asserting that many of the people who once denied that tobacco was harmful are now well-financed "climate deniers."
"Climate denial propaganda is very powerful, but California is standing against it," Brown said. "Part of my job is to advance the truth of science."
Contact Dana Hull at 408-920-2706. | <urn:uuid:a3719f33-0668-4260-a837-d6c17f6ab5f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_18790164?source=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965431 | 722 | 2.015625 | 2 |
One Species' Genome Found Within Another
THURSDAY Aug. 30, 2007 --The discovery of an entire genome from one species inside another adds a twist to the study of evolution, new research suggests.
Writing in the Aug. 30 issue of Science, the U.S. researchers theorized that including large amounts of genetic code from another species may allow the host species to develop new cellular functions more rapidly.
"The chance that a chunk of DNA of this magnitude is totally neutral, I think, is pretty small, so the implication is that it has imparted some selective advantage to the host," principal investigator Jack Werren said in a prepared statement. "The question is, are these foreign genes providing new functions for the host? This is something we need to figure out."
In their study, the scientists found the entire genome of the parasite Wolbachia inside a fruit fly (Drosophila ananassae ). Wolbachia is a common parasite that invades cells in the reproductive organs of its insect hosts. As a result, Wolbachia genes are occasionally passed on to the next generation through sperm and eggs.
Scientists have long known that bacteria DNA may be accidentally -- although rarely -- moved into a host's cells as the cells go through normal repair and maintenance routines. As a result, genes that appear to be remnants of bacteria are discarded when scientists sequence a species' genes.
However, the research team from the University of Rochester and the J. Craig Venter Institute wrote that this discovery implies that transferring genetic code between species and then to the offspring of the new species is more common than previously thought.
Wolbachia is found in the majority of invertebrates worldwide. The Rochester team studied the impact of Wolbachia genes in fruit flies by treating the flies with antibiotics so that they no longer carried the parasite. They then analyzed the flies' genetic codes and found that genetic code from the parasite was fused to the flies' genetic code, as if they were one and the same. Further, the DNA from the parasite was then passed on to the next generation of fruit flies just like any other gene, the researchers said.
Wolbachia do not invade mammal or human cells.
The next step for the researchers is to find out if the Wolbachia DNA benefit the fruit fly in some way.
To learn more about gene sequencing, visit the Genome News Network.
Posted: August 2007 | <urn:uuid:4abf88c7-b992-46c3-ab7b-19e2208698a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.drugs.com/news/one-species-genome-found-within-another-9158.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936504 | 497 | 3.71875 | 4 |
Lucknow, Aug 26 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh, where over 2,000 people die of unnatural causes every month, has undertaken an ambitious project to upgrade and modernise its post-mortem centres, most of which are in shambles and lack basic facilities.
Uttar Pradesh has 75 districts but autopsy centres are in only 65 as the other 10 are newly-created and share facilities with the districts they were carved out of. At present, the bodies of all those who die unnatural deaths are dumped in these centres and a senior official said this situation needed to be rectified.
The autopsy centres “need immediate and humane intervention. It has been decided that post-mortem houses will be upgraded and modernised and new ones will be constructed where the existing structures are weak and dilapidated,” Home Secretary Kamal Saxena told IANS.
In 2009, over 42,000 post-mortems were conducted in the state. In 2010, the figure was 45,000.
The government has already released Rs.47.84 lakh while another Rs.1.2 crore has been earmarked to be spent on autopsy centres. Orders have been issued to make proper arrangements for conducting autopsies, standardisation of equipment and purchase of freezers.
With almost 80 percent of autopsy houses lacking seating arrangements for the deceased’s family members, the home department has asked for the erection of special shades to keep the families out of the rain and sun.
The entire post-mortem procedure has also been revised to include a new format of medical examination performa, on-spot inspection form and DNA sample collection form.
Officials say this has been necessitated for the “fast changing modus operandi of criminals and the host of new crimes”.
The Urban Development and Housing Department has been asked to earmark land in districts which do not have autopsy centres by Sept 30. Special parking lots will be created to accommodate hearses and vehicles of the bereaved families, an official said.
Orders have also been issued to ensure adequate power and water at these centres.
The home department has also begun an “extensive and exhaustive” exercise to provide funding for equipment like generators, inverters, ice-equipments, refrigeration and embalmment.
Approach roads to the post-mortem centres will also be built. The new centres will be 40 to 50 feet away from the main roads.
Work on refurbishing post-mortem centres in Auraiya, Pratapgarh, Kannauj, Farrukhabad, Rampur and 10 other districts would be completed by December 2012. Work will begin soon on new centres in Kanpur, Mainpuri and 18 other districts.
The government is also willing to help in establishing, on need-based requests, autopsy centres at government and private medical colleges, an official said.
(Mohit Dubey can be contacted at email@example.com)
The Daily News Post India (tdnpost) | <urn:uuid:2a0ab352-c5d0-494e-9919-1cb797188411> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tdnpost.com/lifestyle/health/up-to-upgrade-and-modernise-autopsy-centres-78438.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964168 | 622 | 1.914063 | 2 |
305. (M. 2d.) Job Parker was indicted for breaking and entering the dwelling house of Margaret Gibbons , on the 13th of March, about the hour of twelve in the night, and stealing a linen gown and petticoat, value 4 s. a red and white gown and petticoat, value 4 s. a pair of stays, value 4 s. three linen shifts, value 5 s. a cloth apron, value 1 s. a muslin apron, value 1 s. a sattin cloak, four silver pins, set with stones, a gold ring, a pair of ear-rings, a black silk handkerchief, a white linen gown, and a dimothy petticoat, the property of Mary Ann Gibbons , in the dwelling house of the said Margaret . ++
The witnesses were examined apart at the request of the prisoner.
Mary Ann Gibbons . I am daughter to Margaret Gibbons , in Baker's Row, Cold Bath Fields . My mother's house was broke open the 13th of March ; I discovered it between twelve and one in the night. I heard somebody walk about the room over me; I lay in the room under that room which was broke. I called out. I lay in the kitchen. I called to the watch; when the watchman came, there was nobody in the house. I heard somebody jump out at a window. I went up stairs with the watchman, and found the window shutter broke open in the parlour, in the ground-floor; the fastening that the bolt goes into of the window was wrenched off: three locks of the drawers were broke, and the things in the indictment were missing; a linen gown and petticoat, a red and white linen gown and petticoat, a pair of stays, three linen shifts, a cloth apron, a muslin apron, a blue sattin cloak, four silver pins, set with stones, a gold ring, a pair of gold ear-rings, a pair of green ear-rings, a black sprig, a black silk handkerchief, a white linnen gown, and a dimothy petticoat, my property. Part of the goods are here; I know nothing who took them. I was in the parlour about eleven in the evening; then the window-shutter was safe, and the things in the drawers.
Joseph Shaw . I am one of the patrol belonging to St. Ann's lower liberty. I believe it was about half past one o'clock that night, I was standing in Union-court, speaking to a watchman. The prisoner came past, and two companions with him; he had this bundle under his right arm. I seized him by the collar, and called for assistance. The watchman hit him on his head, and knocked his hat off: he hit again, and hit my hand; I said, Hold your hand. The prisoner dropped his bundle; one of the men behind him pointed a pistol at me, and said he would fire if I did not let him go. I said, You may fire away. He turned round and fired at one of the watchman; the pistol flashed in the pan, but did not go off. Then a watchman took hold of the other side of the prisoner's collar, and we brought him to the watch-house; the other two got away. One of my fellow-servants picked up the bundle, and brought it after us. As we were carrying the prisoner to the watch-house, he sumbled at his right side coat-pocket. He dropped a piece of iron. I called to a watchman to see in that place if he did not find a piece of iron. He picked up a chissel within a yard of the place where I told him. The prisoner was searched: there was a piece of candle, and a snuff box, he called it, but it was a tinder-box. (Produced in court.)
- Crocker. I am a watchman. I was standing in Union-court, talking to Shaw; that is better than half a mile from the prosecutrix's house. The prisoner came by with a bundle,John Dunstan took up the bundle. Going to the watch-house, near a grocer's shop, we heard some iron fall from the prisoner. We did not stand to look for it then; but we went back to the place, and found a large chissel.
John Dunstan . I was at the end of Cross-street, about half an hour after one. The prisoner came by with a bundle under his arm, and two men followed him. He gave exactly the same account as the other evidences.
Mr. Barrow. I was the officer of the night. This bundle was brought by the watchman with the prisoner, to the watch-house. Producing a purple and white linen gown, a red and white linen gown and petticoat, a muslin handkerchief, a blue sattin cardinal. ( Deposed to by Mary Ann Gibbons, as her property, part of the things that were lost.)
I was at my father's house at one o'clock, and never departed from it till past one. Coming along through Union-court, I heard the cry, Stop thief! and somebody fired a pistol. I was so affrighted, whether the watchman knocked me down, or whether I fell down, I don't know. I never had the bundle. One of the men rushed by me: I heard something fall against my leg.
He called James Tulip , who had known him between two and three years; Mary Warren , and Laurence Eade , fourteen years; Jane Backet , thirteen; Thomas Mead , fourteen or fifteen; and William Riley , about five years; who said he was a screw-maker , and they knew no harm of him.
Guilty Death . | <urn:uuid:ddcf4070-0a74-4616-8bf8-6d1f1e987d7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?div=t17700425-62 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981742 | 1,238 | 1.523438 | 2 |
October 03, 2006: From the News Desk of Travel Radio Expert and host of the nationally syndicated radio travel show, "Travel WITH Stephanie Abrams!" :
"Passport Requirements, WHTI UPDATE"
On Sept. 29, Congress passed language to extend the deadline for the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI). Here's what the extension means for passport requirements for U.S. citizens:
WHAT'S THE SAME ...
Deadline: Jan. 8, 2007
U.S. citizens will be required to have a valid passport for exiting and reentering the United States starting Jan. 8, 2007 for all air travel.
WHAT'S CHANGED ...
Sea and Land Border Entry Ports
Passport/PASS Card Deadline: June 1, 2009
U.S. citizens traveling by sea and land within the Western Hemisphere _ Caribbean, Bermuda, Canada and Mexico _ will be required to have a valid U.S. passport or a yet-to-be-determined, new economical travel document known as a Passport Card on or before June l, 2009.
IMPORTANT TO NOTE: Congress stipulated that the Departments of State and Homeland Security must meet seven criteria in developing and implementing the PASS card for sea and land ports of entry. If the seven criteria are met within the 17 month extension period, the implementation of WHTI becomes effective three months after the criteria is approved, or by June 1, 2009; whichever is earlier. In other words, the June 1, 2009 implementation date for WHTI may be moved back if the agencies can comply with the seven specifications set out by the Congress in the extension legislation.
U.S. Department of State_s Office of Passport Services reports
that 70 million U.S. citizens now have passports. U.S. Passport
Services is receiving 225,000-250,000 passport applications
a week, which is up 60 percent from two years ago. The current
turn around period for obtaining a U.S. passport remains at
four to six weeks. ASTA continues to urge all U.S. citizens
to apply for a U.S. passport, which will ease travelers confusion
on what document is required and when.
See the Members Only side of ASTAnet for the most current information. www.astanet.com/members | <urn:uuid:d5fbe4b3-8005-4ef7-8b86-867c0df9e8bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sabrams.com/news/travelNews/2006/10/2006_10_03_usPassportChange.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902822 | 486 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Call this one "Tiger Lily."
Here’s the REAL Tiger Lily, even though millions of people call various other spotted orange ones by the same name. Want to get it straight? Well, this tough, easy-to-grow beauty is the real thing: With large, down-facing flowers & recurved petals, it’s the big one on a tall stalk up to 5 ft.  with glossy green leaves and brown mini-bulbs (bulbils) forming in the leaf axils. No other lily is a tiger lily.  The name began for obvious reasons, and even the Latin name cooperated–the name of this wild one, that’s native to the Far East, was always Lilium tigrinum. In more recent years, the botanical authorities changed it to L. lancifolium, but even many experts continue to use the familiar “tigrinum”, and of course the common name goes on an on.Â
Forever, the common name “Tiger Lily” has been applied to other lilies. For example, the beautiful, tall wild Canada Lily, L. canadense, is often called Tiger Lily since it’s orange–but look closely,  and you’ll see it’s totally diffferent. (Small downward-facing bell-shaped flowers arranged in a circle around the stem like a chandelier. See at bottom. )Â
And even the Old Roadside Daylily, Hemerocallis fulva, now common in all 50 states (left)–the one that lit up your grandmothr’s garden, is called “Tiger Lily” by mistaken gardeners. Now, most people know that daylilies aren’t true lilies at all, and send up lots of stems from a grass-like plant, not growing the tall single stalk of the true lilies.  Still, it seems almost any orange lilylike flower is fated to be called “Tiger Lily” by some.  And who cares? Like so many things in botany and gardening, it’s the growing that counts. People continue to grow the flowers they  like and call them whatever they please.
Meanwhile, the old true Tiger Lily is a still a part of the diet in much of the Orient–the cooked buds being a staple of old recipes. And they’re still champions in the garden, too–super-hardy in cold, growing in shade or sun, and pleasing eveyone everywhere when they when they open those magnificent blooms in midsummer.
Three other lilies often mistaken for the true Tiger Lily:
This is the magnificent Leopard Lily, L. pardalinum, which is native to our own Pacific coast. Note the golden centers, making it very different from the real tiger.
Below (left) is the beautiful Canada Lily, commonly found growing in its native habitat which is wet woods all over the northern east and midwest. With a central stem up to 10 feet, the down-facing flowers are only about 3″ long–far from the true tiger lily bloom which can reach 8″ across.
And at right, probably the most common lily mistakenly called “Tiger”  This is “Enchantment”, the world-famous Asiatic Hybrid so loved by florists and gardeners. The stalks are only about 3 ft. tall, and take a good look–the flowers are upward-facing–great in the garden and especially good in floral arrangements. This is one of the least expensive lilies today, so don’t be surprised to see it in arrangements from your florist. But don’t call it “Tiger Lily.” | <urn:uuid:82bed5e4-e2fb-4127-a05e-6da09a978efa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.americanmeadows.com/2009/05/11/call-this-one-tiger-lily/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921453 | 839 | 2.46875 | 2 |
As of the writing of this column, it has claimed the lives of 48 New Yorkers. Greater than 110 homes in Breezy Point burnt down. Flooding dominated. The Manhattan skyline went dim. Countless people across communities not only lost power, but became homeless. Historic fixtures such as the Rockaway Beach, Long Beach, and Atlantic City boardwalks blew away.
These are only a few of the tragedies the hurricane cast. One characteristic that has not perished, however, is our good-natured spirit as felt on the streets of Forest Hills and other communities. When times seem bleakest, the greater potential of humanity is realized as good deeds are carried out and miracles shed light.
To assist communities devastated by Hurricane Sandy, the Forest Hills Chamber of Commerce approached a number of its local business members last week. The chamber proposed the idea of shop owners establishing collection points, where the public can deliver non-perishable food, water, clothing, and supplies.
On a daily basis, neighborhood residents are fulfilling great deeds by compiling possessions from their homes and purchasing supplies, and businesses are taking their donations to facilities offering those items to communities in dire need.
“We are proud to participate in this cause,” said David Broderick, whose wife Ingrid owns Emily Sugar Shop at 72-01 Austin St.
The shop also distributed over $5,000 worth of candy on Halloween, when emotions were overshadowed by the hurricane.
Michael Shtadtlender, a Forest Hills resident for the last eight years, and his wife delivered bags consisting of canned foods, toiletries, and clothes.
“It’s good to help our neighbors,” he said. “I hope families will be comforted through these tough times.”
Throughout the afternoon, Thank Heaven, a children’s boutique at 72-18 Austin Street, was enriched by locals delivering donations, which led to an exchange of heartwarming community-based stories with owner Ariena Thomsen.
In response to her Facebook page posting, she witnessed at least 200 people delivering donations in the initial three days.
“I packed my minivan a few times, and I am bringing the donations to a veterans center in Beach Channel and a drop-off center on 125th Street in Rockaway,” she said. “I named my shop Thank Heaven eight years ago, since I am thankful for my life and my kids. I learned we live in a beautiful world, where most people are trying to do the right thing, and this renews my confidence in humanity.”
A two-year Forest Hills resident named Kimberly contributed three bags of cleaning supplies and a blanket.
“Forest Hills has been fortunate to have electricity, but now I can finally help all those in desperate need of assistance,” she said.
Mrs. Spariosu of Ridgewood explained,
“A lot of Americans are on anti-depressants, but just seeing America’s generosity is a pill of happiness,” said Mrs. Spariosu of Ridgewood. “This month is Thanksgiving, and we need to be thankful for what we have.”
“I emptied out my drawers and closets with t-shirts, blouses, suits, and dresses, and now I will donate boots and baby clothes,” said Kristine Quattrone, a 14-year resident of Forest Hills and owner of Café Quattrone in Long Island City. “This is a good reason to go through my apartment, and donate to our communities as much as possible.”
Thank Heaven is accepting donations from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.
Across the street, patrons of the 52-year-old Irish Cottage at 108-07 72nd Avenue were conversing at the bar about hurricane relief. Twenty-year Forest Hills resident Christopher Fox had lunch with his friend Paddy Smyth of Rockaway. Smyth explained how Rockaway endured a lot.
“Rockaway lost a lot of firefighters on 9/11, and then American Airlines Flight 587 crashed on top of homes two months later,” he said. In response to Hurricane Sandy, he stated, “I am grateful other communities are assisting us, and even political parties are being put aside.”
“America is full of communities, and we tend to forget that,” Fox added.
Not in affiliation with the Forest Hills Chamber of Commerce, the Irish Cottage’s McNulty family is accepting donations of items including clothes, blankets, canned foods, and gift cards for Target and Home Depot.
Organizations dispersing these donations include the Knights of Columbus and Jewish War Veterans. Patrons admired how firefighters have assisted them in the transport of goods.
Native Forest Hills resident Amee Lettich, owner of Aimee Salon at 71-62 Austin Street, circulated mass emails and posted to Facebook soliciting donations. On Saturday afternoon, her window display was stacked with neatly labeled bags containing coats, sweaters, blankets, canned food, baby formula and food, diapers, and water.
“Some of my friends lost everything, and I am trying my best to help those hit harder than we were,” Lettich stated. “For items received between last night and today, I made a few trips with my truck to Long Beach and Island Park, and tomorrow I am driving to Staten Island. I will continue as long as people donate.”
Venturing away from Austin Street, Forest Hills Jewish Center at 106-06 Queens Boulevard is accepting donations, as well as The Church-In-The-Gardens at 50 Ascan Avenue, and Minuteman Press at 102-07 Queens Boulevard.
Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz established the Councilmember Koslowitz Storm Relief Collection, which operates Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The public can submit non-perishable food, water, batteries, blankets, and clothing and coats in good condition to her 17th floor office at 118-35 Queens Boulevard.
As businesses are accepting donations, friends and family are opening their homes to accommodate those in need. Tara Passik of Rockaway mentioned the kindness of her Forest Hills friends.
“Seven members of my family have been staying in a one-bedroom apartment since Friday,” she said. In Rockaway, her family saw looters, dark stairwells, and feared being attacked.
“I called FEMA twice and they hung up, but today we filed a claim,” she said. “Who knows if we are going to have assistance and a home to come back to? It felt like a third world country where we lost our sense of security, but our family banded together closer than ever.”
More homes, businesses, and organizations will follow in the footsteps of this donation initiative, which will contribute a lasting impression upon greatly affected communities. Times change and potentially weather patterns, but “Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself” never withers. | <urn:uuid:d5eabe2f-ff95-4a47-8ac6-cf542fa38848> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://queensledger.com/view/full_story/20747214/article-Forest-Hills-donates-to-hurricane-relief-initiatives | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962579 | 1,467 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Man To Jump From Space
Every one of us knows someone who seeks adventure. Someone who, in some way, is always “pushing the envelope.” It could be bungee jumping from a bridge, driving fast, kayaking Class 5 rapids, riding a zip line over the Royal Gorge, you get the idea.
Felix Baumgartner is taking this all to new heights with his plan to jump from 23 miles up. He’s already made a jump from 71-thousand plus feet. The whole story is amazing. | <urn:uuid:0f6742c4-7789-412e-bc59-61273be035b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kyssfm.com/man-to-jump-from-space/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95895 | 114 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Do you ever yearn for the good old days of the Cold War when the war dance between "us and them" had become so choreographed, so predictable?
Back then, we knew all the moves: The superpowers kept world order with their walls, curtains and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The rules were simple, easily understood even by school kids doing nuclear drills: Cross the line and get fried, and what's left will glow for 250,000 years.
And for the taxpayers, who paid the freight for all the Cold War toys and boys, the cost was constant, kind of like a car payment -- about 18 cents of every tax dollar went to the Pentagon.
Now, with the Cold War over, we're still making that same Pentagon payment and soon the ante's getting kicked up.
But just what is the Pentagon defending against these days?
Well, there's the war with Iraq -- which makes no sense at all unless it's to keep our war machine running hot by testing new megabuck missiles and systems. A new war, declared last August by Bill Clinton against terrorism, is about to cost billions of bucks annually as well. Then there's the budding war in Kosovo, where members of our mercenary Army, Military Professional Resources Inc., CEOed by a former U.S. Army chief of staff, are laying the foundation for a costly military misadventure against Serbia which has about as much chance of succeeding as our failed operations in Somalia and Haiti.
The Three Generals: General Dynamics, General Electric and General Motors, and all their weapon-making cohorts, are thrilled, of course, by all these costly sorties. Witness how the prices of defense stocks have skyrocketed since the Cold War ended. And they'll climb higher. Clinton's just agreed to add another $107 billion to the Pentagon budget, which Republican hawks already are complaining isn't enough.
Back when the Cold War ended, the weapon makers worried that the American people would switch off the tube and ask a few hard questions.
Like why is the Pentagon still buying Cold War gear such as attack subs or spending a trillion bucks on new fighters designed to fight the defunct Sovs? Why are our forces spread around the world in more than 150 countries? And the bottom-line question: Why are we-the-taxpayers still pumping all that dough into the Pentagon when there's no serious external threat to the U.S.A.?
In the 1930s, a romping, stomping Marine general asked similar questions. He even coined the label War is a Racket, in a book bearing that name.
Smedley Butler wasn't just a hero who'd been awarded two congressional Medals of Honor but a man of unusual street smarts and rare moral courage.
Butler believed the war racket could only be stopped by taking the profit out of war.
He recommended that all defense workers -- from the CEOs who make millions of bucks a year to the lowly defense plant janitors and all the bankers, generals and admirals, politicians and government officials -- be paid "a total monthly income not to exceed that paid to the soldiers in the trenches."
Butler also advocated that a vote be held to determine if a war should be declared. "A plebiscite not of all voters but merely of those who would be called upon to do the fighting and the dying."
He wanted only those who would risk their lives to decide whether the nation should go to war. Not the well-heeled industrialists or the professional politicians whose real allegiance is not to protecting our warriors or our citizens, but rather to their defense contractors and thus their pork. Or, for that matter, the switched-off citizens who can't get enough of the Bill & Monica Show.
Incidentally, anyone know who voted for all the Clinton wars since 1992? Congress hasn't. I haven't. Have you?
The third leg of the general's platform was that our military should stay home. He reckoned if it weren't flexing its military muscle around the globe, a lot of wars wouldn't happen. So he concluded that our Army "should never leave the territorial limits of our nation."
Butler's concepts should be revisited. "No profit from war'' and "no foreign entanglements'' are also in line with the thinking of our Founding Fathers. | <urn:uuid:529cd715-af11-4cce-be0f-ae376d321a1a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1999-02-04/news/9902030863_1_cold-war-new-war-war-dance | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968978 | 889 | 1.585938 | 2 |
In March 1647, with the shipwreck of the Dutch ship Nieuwe Haarlem, began the Dutch
settlement in the zone, the shipwreck victims, built a small fort named "Sand Fort
of the Cape of Good Hope".
They stayed for nearly one year at the Cape, finally they were rescued by a fleet
of 12 ships under the command of W.G. de Jong, on one of these ships was also Jan
After their return in Holland a part of the shipwrecked tryed to persuade the Dutch
East India Company to open a trading center at the Cape.
In 1652, a Dutch expedition
of 90 Calvinist settlers, under the command of Jan Van Riebeeck, founded the first
permanent settlement near the Cape of Good Hope.
They arrived, on 6 April 1652, on board of five ships, the Reijer, the Oliphant,
the Goede Hoop, the Walvisch end the Dromedaris in the bay of today's Cape Town.
Approximately 16 km from Avontuur the Route 62 goes through Haarlem with its missionary
During 1856, this town was given to the European people, but in 1860 it was given
to the Berlin missionary society.
This new station was called Anhalt-Schmidt in memory of Friedrich Prietsch, the first
missionary from Anhalt in Germany | <urn:uuid:e4219f32-5c2b-42e5-9cb4-d5a95b0e4e9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.haarlemharlem.com/pagina36.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954419 | 295 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Some runners find treadmill running boring and tedious. They argue that there's nothing to look at, that the indoor air is stale and that real runners do it outdoors.
Perhaps. But treadmill running has its converts and its benefits. In fact, the predictability of treadmill running may also be its greatest virtue. The reliable roll of the belt, the comfortable indoor temperature and the safety and security of a well-lit surface certainly beat icy roads, arctic blasts and dark, treacherous footing.
Plus, "predictable" doesn't have to mean boring. With a little imagination, you can design treadmill workouts more variable and more precise than those you do on a road or track. Lastly, a modern, motorized treadmill lets you control pace and hills, and you can use this control to create workouts specifically targeted to improving your running.
Below are four treadmill workouts that will make you a stronger, faster runner. Each of them takes less than an hour, so they're easy to fit into your schedule. When running these treadmill workouts, keep two points in mind: (1) don't do more than two of the workouts per week (the rest of the time, just run easily); and (2) set your treadmill's elevation at 1 degree. This compensates for the lack of air resistance in treadmill running and makes your speeds roughly equivalent to similar speeds outdoors.
1. The Speed Demon
Run easily for 10 minutes, then set the treadmill at a speed about 20 seconds per mile faster than your best recent 5-K pace. Run three 3-minute repeats at this speed, alternating with 3 minutes of very slow jogging. After completing a set of three repeats and recovery jogs, rest for 5 minutes by jogging. Then run a second set of three repeats and recovery jogs. When finished, run easily for 5 minutes to cool down.
2. The Progression
Begin with a 10-minute warmup, and then set your treadmill at a speed about 15 seconds per mile faster than your best recent 5-K pace (this new pace becomes your 5-K goal pace). For your first treadmill workout at this pace, run continuously for 5 minutes. Finish the workout with 10 to 20 minutes of easy cool-down running. For each of the next 10 weeks, run the same workout but increase the time you spend at your goal pace by 1 minute per week. At the end of 10 weeks, you should be able to run a 5-K race at your goal pace.
3. Indoor Hills
Warm up for 10 minutes, then set the treadmill at your approximate marathon pace. (If you've never run a marathon, estimate your marathon time by multiplying your typical 10-K time by 4.65.) With the treadmill elevated 1 degree, run for 2 minutes at marathon pace, then elevate the incline to 2 degrees and run for 2 minutes. Next return to 1 degree for 2 minutes, but then climb to 3 degrees for 2 minutes.
Continue in this manner, raising the grade on every other 2-minute repeat until you've reached 7 degrees (the inclination pattern is 1-2-1-3-1-4-1-5-1-6-1-7). If you feel exhausted before you reach 7 degrees, stop, and don't let it worry you. Try the workout several more times and you'll develop the ability to handle the hills. Finish the workout by running an easy 8- to 10-minute cooldown.
4. The Broderick Crawford
This workout gets its name from its "10-4" pattern, a familiar phrase to fans of the old Highway Patrol TV series. Begin by warming up for 10 minutes, then run for 10 minutes at your current 10-K race pace. Jog very easily for 4 minutes to recover, then surge again for 10 minutes at your 10-K tempo. Recover for 4 minutes, and complete the workout with 10 minutes of easy cool-down running.
By regularly running treadmill workouts like these, you can develop a better sense of pace, increase your running economy and learn to deal with hills more efficiently. Best of all, come spring, you'll be ready to set some new PRs. | <urn:uuid:b92183c2-9351-4059-81b9-9a56477ea1ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fitbie.msn.com/treadmill-workouts?quicktabs_82=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94085 | 858 | 1.71875 | 2 |
The British left behind many legacies when they quit India. The most perceived is, of course, the pervasive presence of the English language in the average Indian's life, which, has largely contributed to the country being catapulted as a significant player on the global scene.
I am indeed thankful for the many other subtleties that are not always mainstream. Being married to a Parsi, these little things are brought much more often to my notice. Parsis were the most anglicized during the British Raj and perhaps, even maligned for their adoption of many English traditions. But, they are a lot more clued into the Queen's culture than most Indians. Besides being originally Persian also helps!
One of the little things that I am glad was a fallout of colonization, is tea with pastries. Bakeries are a true delight to me and the smell of fresh, baking bread and pastries is the best ever mood booster! And, I love the fact that the bakeries have savory and sweet treats for the so inclined.
Tea, as you all know, is my favorite time of the day. Since I was a kid, I have loved having something warm with my tea. At home, mum would make a simple snack, like upma or more exotic stuff on weekends, like masala vadai. And, some days, when she stepped out for errands she would stop by a bakery and pick up fresh Puffs!! Those were my absolute favorites!
Chicken or Egg puffs;spicy stuffing encased in flaky pastry. Hard to ask for more pleasure in life! In India, making pastry isn't that easy but here it's a simple joy, especially with frozen pastry sheets so easily available. I made these puffs on a cold day recently with leftover chicken curry, spicy, aromatic and warming. The curry itself makes for a great main course with rice or roti...
Chicken Curry Puffs
2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 egg yolk whisked with 1 tsp milk for egg wash
(you won't need all of it for the puffs but you can make a meal of it with rice/bread/roti)
1/2 kg boneless chicken thighs
1 large onion, diced fine
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3/4 cup whole milk yogurt
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp garam masala or curry powder
2 T fresh cilantro, chopped
salt per taste
Cut the chicken into bit size pieces and marinate in the spice mix, salt and yogurt. Refrigerate for an hour.
Saute onion and garlic in oil until soft. Add the chicken and saute uncovered for five minutes. Cover and cook stirring occasionally, until the meat is cooked through. If there is a lot of water, cook uncovered till the sauce/gravy is thickened.
Sprinkle with cilantro and serve with rice/roti or use as stuffing
Roll out the pastry to one inch wider on each side. Cut 3 inch circles of the puff pastry. Place a bit of filling in the center. Brush the edges with egg wash and cover with another circle of pastry. Crimp the edges with a fork.
Bake at 400 F for 15-20 minutes until puffed and golden brown. Cool for a few minutes but serve warm. Store in an airtight container. They are yummy cold too :D | <urn:uuid:e4931e81-71de-427e-a658-f49ba456d8cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forkspoonnknife.com/2011/01/chicken-curry-puffs.html?showComment=1295909340324 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957637 | 713 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Welcome to FSI: Fraud Scene Investigator, an online interactive investor education program that teaches and empowers students how to detect and stop a million-dollar investment fraud and put the mysterious con man, “Mr. X,” behind bars. Through this free resource, students will learn how to research companies and understand the warning signs of fraudulent investment pitches.
To take your first steps on the road to
becoming an FSI, click the badge (left).
Resource Guide for Teachers
NASAA is pleased to offer a guide to provide additional resources for teachers, including pre- and post-program student assessment surveys, definitions of investment terms, quizzes, and additional materials to support class discussions on how to research a company, what to look for in a prospectus, and how to read a balance sheet. Download the FSI Guide for Teachers.
Newspaper Association of America
NASAA’s partner in youth investor education, the Newspaper Association of America Foundation, has compiled a great list of resources, including the new FSI board game. Check it out here.
Your Opinion Counts!
Teachers: Let us know what you think about the FSI Program and how we can make it even better. Complete the online feedback form.
The FYI on FSI | <urn:uuid:5aa86ebe-0cb2-44bc-9860-b1324a751d67> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nasaa.org/2059/fsi/?pfstyle=wp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912073 | 264 | 1.9375 | 2 |
A Channel Six News investigation finds that we may not be as safe as we sometimes like to believe.
When most people hear that a convicted criminal has been ordered to wear an electronic monitoring device, we may think this will greatly restrict the person's movement. But even the most aggressive monitoring devices can often allow for a lot of freedom outside of jail.
Twenty-five-year-olds Steven Tubbs and Andrew Mason are accused of invading a northwest Omaha on Labor Day.
Tubbs is allegedly leveled a shotgun at a young couple and their infant child.
Both were picked up by authorities.
Tubbs was being monitored at the time of the crime.
He was wearing an ankle GPS detection system.
A representative with the company that manufactures the device said they are extremely accurate at placing a person in a given location.
The device sends information once every minute through satellite technology and is recorded into a data base.
There is also an alert system that notifies the tracker if the wearer goes outside a given area.
Tubbs was not under house arrest or tethered, so to speak, to a specific area. The GPS device recorded where Tubbs was, but not what his activities were.
As long as he's still in the Omaha area, no one would know there was a problem.
"If we had any belief that somebody was going to commit a crime they'd be back in prison before that crime could be committed," Nebraska Department of Corrections Director bob Houston said.
He said very few of the 115 parolees statewide wearing GPS monitoring devices have a restricted area.
Houston said the devices give parolees unaccompanied supervision so they can try to fit back in to society.
"It's really intended to monitor the supervision of that individual to make certain they are going to work that they are looking for jobs that they are going to their treatment programs that they are doing the things that they and their parole officer agreed to,". Houston said.
But for some reason, Steven Tubbs decided to break that agreement,
And while the monitoring device didn't prevent him from allegedly committing a crime, it made it easier for authorities to round him up.
Tubbs was granted parole in May, 2011. He was serving a five to nine year sentence for robbery, use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony and for terroristic threats.
We're told Tubbs was "on track" while incarcerated and was properly supervised after being paroled.
Data collected from GPS monitoring devices in previous cases have been used in court to determine where a suspect was when a crime was committed.
Steven Tubbs is being held in the Douglas County Corrections Center on a half million dollar bond.
Designed by Gray Digital Media | <urn:uuid:a5060f6b-1c04-4612-a862-fad7b5387170> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/Home_Invasion_Suspect_Wore_129491978.html?site=mobile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9835 | 557 | 1.9375 | 2 |
Effective mechanisms must be in place which permit the termination of cases which cannot be sustained during the trial process. For example, summary judgment must be made available and consistently applied when a plaintiff has failed to establish fundamental components of proof. Such strict proof burdens could be established through modest changes in the law. If the earlier discussed writing requirement were imposed for wrongful discharge cases, for example, this would at least permit summary judgment in those cases where the plaintiff is unable to even produce a piece of paper to support his contractual claim.
More issues could also be set aside for judicial determination, as opposed to jury determination. When the Michigan Legislature partially restored the workers' compensation exclusive remedy, it designated the judge as the determiner of whether an act was an intentional tort. Similar designation of issues as questions of law, as opposed to fact, could be statutorily established elsewhere, permitting the resolution of such questions before the expensive and unpredictable process of jury trial takes hold. As was discussed earlier in this study, employers are often compelled to settle even the most flimsy cases in order to avoid the costs associated with trial. By making access to trial less automatic, this particularly unfair impact of litigation would become less severe. Fewer cases would be filed merely for their nominal settlement damages, and more employers might be willing to stand up for their rights through tile stage when the judge makes his legal determination. | <urn:uuid:84e102d9-7d09-419b-9463-55c44789ecfc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mackinac.org/6280 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974701 | 277 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Jacob Whetstone: Landlord, Writer, Chaos Merchant and Baron of London's Bohemia
“Sod The Tower and The Rock, bloody ravens and monkeys. No, the day the cats leave The Wheatsheaf is the day the barrels run dry, it’ll be the end! Or at least it will be for you, Thomas, I can't stand you sober!“ (1) John Betjeman British Poet Laureate, 1906 –1984
187? - 1947
From the day Jacob Whetstone rolled up his sleeves, as publican of the Northumberland Arms, he exerted a charismatic and warping presence upon London’s Bohemia. Amidst the cigar smoke, sawdust, grime and theft Whetstone stood above it all, the clearest head within his crafted chaos; the whores, debtors, artists and ex-pats swarming around him until the bell rang; “Time Gentlemen, please”. Vorticism, The Bloomsbury Group and Modernism all owe Whetstone a debt for his hospitality.
In his tenures at The Northumberland Arms, The Marquis of Granby and The Wheatsheaf Whetstone lived and crafted a myth that is now inextricably woven into his and Soho’s history, a problem deepened by the scarcity of photographs. In references, he is rendered an English gentleman, grinning beneath his waxed handlebar moustache, but carrying a physical presence and a breadth to his shoulders that belayed any suggestion of aristocracy or weakness, the smile beneath calculating eyes. A virtuoso Publican, wherever he worked, the artistic life of London thronged.
The square kilometer known as Fitzrovia lying between Oxford Street, Gower Street, Great Portland Street and Euston Road is currently a wealthy region of continental restaurants and business bars in Regency buildings at the heart of North London. Before gentrification in the 1960’s, the southern area of this patch, from Goodge Street to Oxford Street was the northern, cosier and moodier, end of that legendary den of iniquity, Soho; London’s twin to Greenwich Village and Montparnasse. If you wished to drink with men of letters, hear the thickest of lies and watch the crowds stumble past the prostitutes of Goodge Street, there was nowhere better in The Empire.
In the mid 1870s Jacob Whetstone was born to Quaker parents on the outskirts of Birmingham. Subject to the fierce educational and religious regime of his people he balked young, and made his way down to the capital in the last decade of the Nineteenth Century. He ended up working as a bar steward, less than a mile from Whitehall, where a legion of clerks were administrating an empire that covered a fifth of the globe.
The Developing Man at The Lion
In 1847 The Red Lion of Soho had been host to a forum of propagandists, where in smoke filled rooms with beer at hand they discussed a framework for their burgeoning movement, two key attendees, Frederich Engels and Karl Marx, produced a summarizing document, The Communist Manifesto that was carried in hand as revolutions swept Europe the following year. But The Red Lion aged well, and by Jacob’s day the bar still retained a throughput of nonconformist pilgrims. Here, Jacob, as a bar steward, began to affiliate with the artistic types that would dominate his life, but it was also here that he met the subversives that kept the money flowing and the tills ringing, Great Windmill Street was a home for more than one burlesque house.
Conscription to support the Boer War lent Jacob an excuse to flee the country at the dawn of the 20th century. It is extremely unlikely that he met Gavrilo Princip as a child or ate dinner with his family. Travelling gave Jacob a blank canvas on which to paint his own history; It's told that he went to Italy, Spain, France and The Balkans, what is certain is that he developed significant contacts with Publicans in Paris and Berlin that would do him long service.
Management:- The Northumberland Arms, The Marquis of Granby and The Wheatsheaf
“The Northumberland Arms is a decaying Gentlemen’s Club; fabricated from cast iron, burgundy and oak panelling so worn the whiskey has seeped into its grain. The bizarre thing is, before Whetstone arrived, I'm sure it was all quite new" - George Bernard Shaw (2)
Strong beer, colourful company, a piano to rattle out a tune, or more if a composer happened to fall behind it, and a barman who could hold a conversation about your take on the modern novel. The reasons to visit Whetstone were legion, and he lent perk after perk to "his charges". W.B. Yeats, Aliester Crowley and George Bernard Shaw were soon rolling out the door at closing, dropping by for a beer and an argument. Artists drifted across the Channel from Europe’s capitals with Whetstone's address and enough money for a bed and an ale.
Over time the Edwardians evolved into the Modernists, Ezra Pound encouraged Jacob to submit a piece (3) or two (4) to his Little Review, T.S. Eliot developed a taste for gin and tonic; Virginia Woolf is said to have considered Whetstone a repulsive degenerate, but her friends from Keynes to E.M. Forster wandered by from across Tottenham Court Road. Nathan Whetstone (nephew, 1900-1936) was the key that turned his bars into a legend; businesslike, with a knack for converting a Whetstone idea into money. When an aspiring author ran out of food, had a deadline, a furious publisher and rent arrears… Well, the upstairs of The Marquis happened to have a little spare room and an old stool; a cot was thrown together with a typewriter; cats were evicted and a door was locked from the outside. In 3 days a bedraggled writer emerged with a work in hand, Jacob was guaranteed a cut of the payment and Room 26 was born.
Room 26 at The Marquis seeded works, not necessarily writers, artists and poets best, but ones that kept them solvent. It came with a catch: Whetstone wanted a guest appearance. Dubliners, The Man Within, The Swag, The Spy and The Soldier all feature suspiciously charismatic moustachioed barmen; it became a Soho motif to hide Jacob in there. Then Whetstone would take a cut when the money rolled in; it usually helped pay off the tab.
Then the day arrived when a few creditors were on a writer’s back, and he couldn’t give out his hotel room for fear of The Bailiffs. An idea was hatched to give postal addresses to Room 26, and pay Jacob when the money came in. Julian Maclaren-Ross is being chased by the MPs? All mail to Room 26 at The Wheatsheaf.
Papa Kleinfeld at The Fitzroy Tavern had a friendly rivalry for the Bohemian clientèle; and they kept each other innovating through the 20’s. But by 1930 the atmosphere was becoming terser. When Jacob moved to The Wheatsheaf in ‘32, Orwell and an increasingly political crowd came along; darkness began to set in. Before long Nathan was taking visits and meetings at the notoriously anarchistic Café Espagne on Old Compton Street, and soon he vanished south, permanently. The International Brigade drained away a good proportion of Soho's masculine talent, lending their weight to resist Franco.
The Wheatsheaf survived The War mostly intact, The Blitz and the odd V-1 Doodlebug requiring the occasional repaint to the Mock Tudor edifice at the front, or the replacement of shattered windows; The black oak beams would warp, dust and cat hair would shake down into people's pints, but nothing actually hit. The wartime generation; Dylan Thomas, Rayner Heppenstall, Julian Maclaren-Ross, BBC scriptwriters and magazine writers, dragged out their 2 pints a night ration over a whole afternoon and evening. Then drifted over to eat ration-evading "meat" across the road at the Coffee An'. Julian Maclaren Ross, with cane, teddy bear overcoat, suit and sunglasses took up near permanent residence at the end of the Saloon bar; holding forth to all who passed, honing his "anecdotes" for publication. Rationing fuelled the black market, and the black market thrived in Soho, sending dusty money into The Wheatsheafs till.
But Jacob was becoming increasingly hunched and tired, Soho had been more than an occupation. He died of pneumonia ; 14th September 1947.
The Post Office Tower was planned and arrived, Fitzrovia began its decline into banality. A winebar here, an imitation continental cafe there, the rich flavour lost in an environment that could be cut and pasted from Leeds, Lyon, Frankfurt or Milan... Mundane.
Whetstone always had a couple of kittens in the bar from his early days at The Arms, they kept the alcoholics on their toes and would attack anyone who went past drunk and out the other side if they were foolish enough to tread on them. The Blitz left London swimming in strays, and in '42 it is said that the The Wheatsheaf had at least 6 vicious felines wandering around the Tudor woodwork, a threat to all ankles, a tangle of cat hair.
Behind the bar of The Marquis sat a screw cap jar, legend holds contained Prescription Oral Morphine. Disguised behind a strong double brandy it would knock an unruly drunk down before violence began; friends awoke in Room 26, rakes awoke on the pavement. A story(5) that was perpetuated by Papa Klienfeld of The Fitzroy Tavern, holds that a promising young painter, Peter Vansen vanished after his first night at The Marquis; a dosage gone wrong.
"In '42 Maclaren-Ross, myself and Dylan were enjoying a long afternoon session with Nina Hammett (said by Picasso to have the best tits in Europe) in the Saloon bar, when in walks the aristocratic Mrs. Hume, who was besotted with Dylan. Dylan proceeds to dive behind the bar and leaves Julian and me to justify his absence. After a moment Thomas's hand snakes up to grab the pint he's left on the lean-to; and I can't stop grinning.
Fifteen minutes later and Julian is back in full story flow, everything is good, but Jeffrey Hume OBE storms in, in tweeds with an old shotgun and a suspicious mind. All hell breaks loose as he demands an explanation from Dylan. In the chaos, Maclaren-Ross is foolish enough to whack his shotgun with that cane he always carries and the damn thing goes off, leaving a hole in the pine pannelling. Before anyone has got over the sheer noise of the shell, Whetstone has smacked Hume round the back of the head with the sockfull of sand he keeps behind the bar and everything is over. Whetstone looks at us like death himself, and after we carry Hume upstairs and lock him in Room 26, we all get barred...
It lasted about a week, and i'm pretty sure Whetstone flogged the shotgun to pay to replace the panelling." (6) Rayner Heppenstall
Recollections of Dylan: various authors, Hodder 1955
"Fable of smoke and concrete" - Jacob Whetstone: Little Review 17, January 1914
"Vermillia" - Jacob Whetstone: Little Review 29, March 1916
Recollections of Dylan: various authors, Hodder 1955 | <urn:uuid:8fdfc84b-dbf2-4dc3-a53b-15188000a744> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://everything2.com/title/Jacob+Whetstone | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959387 | 2,491 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., called on his Democratic opponent, Elizabeth Warren, to release all records related to claims she made during her career as a law professor that she is Native American.
Some are accusing the blond-haired, blue-eyed Warren of identifying herself as a minority to win coveted jobs, including her position as a law professor at Harvard University. At the time she was hired, Harvard had been criticized for its lack of minority faculty and identified her as one of its Native American professors.
Warren initially said she had not called herself Native American but has since disclosed that she listed herself for 11 years as a minority in a law directory used by universities looking to hire professors.
"Her changing stories, contradictions and refusal to answer legitimate questions have cast doubt on her credibility and called into question the diversity practices at Harvard," Brown said in the statement. "The best way to satisfy these questions is for Elizabeth Warren to authorize the release of her law school applications and all personnel files from the various universities where she has taught."
Brown and Warren are fighting one of the closest Senate battles this year and were statistically tied among Bay State voters in the most recent poll.
Warren said she identified herself as Native American to meet people like herself and one genealogist said Warren's great, great, great grandmother was identified as Cherokee, which would make Warren 1/32nd Native American. | <urn:uuid:2115ccbf-22bf-4017-be53-3af422ccbe0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://washingtonexaminer.com/sen.-brown-assails-warren-over-heritage-claims/article/1277581 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98823 | 281 | 1.976563 | 2 |
$15.00 A Comparative Analysis of the Juvenile Court and the Adult Court
Write a 1,000- to 1,500-word paper comparing and contrasting Juvenile Court with Adult Court. Include the following in your paper:
o An overview of the juvenile justice system
o A point by point comparison between juvenile and adult courts
o The implications for the youthful offender of the trend toward increasing the use of waivers or remanding juveniles to adult court for processing
o The societal implications of abolishing juvenile court
Format your paper according to APA standards and include a minimum of three professional references. | <urn:uuid:3398eb66-1b54-4f64-98db-9fddba69074a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.studentoffortune.com/question/456439/A-Comparative-Analysis-of-the-Juvenile-Court-and-the-Adult-Court | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90288 | 123 | 2.3125 | 2 |
Using the Second Life online universe as a teaching and marketing tool. by Zeke Wright ’07
Second Life is no computer game. It’s a “metaverse,” or alternate universe. It exists online, and its population is growing daily. There is no predetermined way to play, and you don’t win or lose. Users do enjoy a... | <urn:uuid:789a612b-7601-42c9-9324-8411eb1e3c3d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ithaca.edu/icview/stories/tags/second_life/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911025 | 78 | 1.945313 | 2 |
Making a phone list for SkypeOut calls
But one of the things I'd hoped to do was export my 1000+ contacts in Outlook to Skype to make SkypeOut calls easily. The problem is that Skype doesn't have an easy way to import SkypeOut contacts. You can scan Outlook for a list of people who may have Skype accounts on their PC, but Skype won't import their telephone numbers.
Completely by accident I discovered a workaround today. Someone sent an organizational telephone list to my Gmail account today. Rather than download the word document, I opened it as an HTML document in Firefox. And lo and behold, I was presented with a long list of phone numbers, each with a button next to them for quick dialing via SkypeOut.
Here's how it works. Skype 3.0 beta for Windows includes a nifty new feature that will scan web pages in Internet Explorer or Firefox, looking for phone numbers. If you're looking up a restaurant, for example, Skype will see the phone number on the page and let you click an icon in your web browser to dial and make reservations.
Well, it also happens to work if you happen to get a phone number in your email, or if you open an excel spreadsheet in an online spreadsheet program on the web. So if you want to export your contacts from Outlook to a spreadsheet and upload it to a web service like Google Documents, you'll have 1-click access to all of your contacts. In practice, this didn't work too well for me, as my exported contacts took up a huge amount of space and look unwieldy in spreadsheet form.
But you can create your own list of quick-click SkypeOut contacts just by creating an HTML document with all of your contacts and creating a bookmark in your web browser. | <urn:uuid:48c4652d-fdef-4f96-b05b-9d89d7656e00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2006/12/07/making-a-phone-list-for-skypeout-calls/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934676 | 362 | 1.75 | 2 |
The diagnostic boundary between Major Depressive Disorder and Bipolar II Disorder is one of the most difficult and also one of the most important in psychiatry. Difficult (and inherently at least somewhat arbitrary) because the distinction rests completely on how one defines a hypomanic episode. Important because the choice of diagnosis determines very different treatment approaches that are likely to lead to radically different outcomes and side effects.
DSM-5 is considering a further expansion of Bipolar Disorder—but unfortunately has not done a careful calculation of its risks and benefits. To remedy this deficit, I invited the assessment of Professor Mark Zimmerman of Brown University. He has collected and analyzed systematic data on a very large number of patients and has thoughtfully reviewed the available literature. Dr Zimmerman writes:
Critics of DSM-IV worry that its requirement of at least four days to define a hypomanic episode is too long and suggest lowering it to two days—so as to pick up individuals currently excluded from the bipolar diagnosis. Their claim is based on clinical and epidemiological findings suggesting that people with subthreshold levels of bipolar pathology differ from unipolar depression in comorbidity, personality, family history, and longitudinal course.
Expanding the diagnostic criteria for bipolar disorder carries with it the potential benefit of picking up true bipolar patients who are currently missed. Advocates of lowering the duration threshold emphasize the costs of missed diagnoses—under-prescription of mood stabilizing medications, an increased risk of rapid cycling, and increased costs of care.
But a more balanced approach toward the question of where to set the diagnostic threshold also recognizes the adverse consequences of false positive diagnoses—especially the over-treatment with unneeded medications and consequent exposure to weight gain and its medical risks.
Keep in mind that in clinical practice patients are followed over time and clinicians do not rigidly adhere to the DSM-IV diagnostic rules. While under-diagnosis due to insufficient duration is a theoretical possibility, it is likely that patients with subthreshold hypomanic episodes will, during the course of treatment, ultimately be diagnosed with bipolar disorder and treated accordingly.
False negative diagnoses are thus much easier to correct than false positive diagnoses, which tend to be long lasting and difficult to undo. It is always more difficult to take away the bipolar diagnosis once it is made than to add the bipolar diagnosis once a new hypomanic episode occurs. The patient with a false positive diagnosis of bipolar disorder who is doing well on a mood stabilizer is unlikely ever to have the mood stabilizer discontinued or the diagnosis corrected—even if the medicine is totally unnecessary and is causing harmful weight gain. The absence of recurrent hypomanic episodes is incorrectly viewed as treatment success.
Any lowering of the bipolar threshold should be supported by strong evidence from prospective follow-up studies that individuals with subthreshold bipolarity are really at high risk for developing bipolar disorder. The four available studies indicate that although subthreshold bipolarity is a risk factor for the future emergence of bipolar disorder, the vast majority of individuals do not develop bipolar disorder during the 10 to 20 years of follow-up. These findings provide no real support for reducing the duration requirement.
The strongest evidence to support expanding the definition of bipolar disorder would of course be the demonstration that mood stabilizers are helpful in subthreshold presentations. But there is not a single controlled study of the efficacy of mood stabilizers in this situation. It makes no sense to reduce the bipolar threshold in the absence of controlled research establishing that this will improve treatment efficacy, especially since we know that the change will add a large side effect burden.
There is already a substantial false positive problem with the existing DSM-IV criteria that require four days duration for hypomania. Lowering the threshold for hypomanic episodes even further will likely increase the over-diagnosis and over-treatment of bipolar disorder. Most disturbing, there are no studies of the potential impact the shorter duration requirement would have on diagnosis and outcome in real-world clinical practice.
It must also be noted that it is often extremely difficult to diagnose a true hypomanic episode. This is particularly the case when substance use is part of the picture. And someone who is depressed a lot may confuse periods of normal mood with being high. Also transient episodes of emotional lability in borderline personality disorder may be confused with hypomanic episodes.
Shortening the duration to only two days will make the elusive diagnosis of a hypomanic episode even less reliable.
It is best to be cautious and to have much stronger evidence before making a change that will have unknown and possibly very harmful consequences.
Thank you, Dr Zimmerman, for providing this well thought out and thorough risk/benefit analysis.
Across the board, DSM-5 proposals consistently fail on 4 counts: (1) their exclusive emphasis on eliminating missed diagnosis with a concomitant lack of concern about false positive over-diagnosis; (2) their neglect of risks when considering benefits; (3) their indifference to historical expectations regarding reliability, and, (4) the lack of empirical support for suggestions that can have profound real life consequences.
There has been a doubling in the ratio of bipolar to unipolar depression since DSM-IV. Some of this growth was the anticipated result of our introducing Bipolar II as a new diagnosis in DSM-IV. Some was caused by massive drug company marketing with resulting loose diagnostic and prescription habits—especially in primary care practice.
DSM-5 should be promoting more careful diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder, not a further reckless expansion. | <urn:uuid:672c13b8-6a75-4f6d-9ef9-35ec5fda16b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/bipolar-disorder/content/article/10168/2051732 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946771 | 1,115 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Linking outcomes assessment to grading could build faculty support (essay)
- A high school teacher alerts professors to the limitations of a generation of No Children Left Behind
- Study raises questions about common tools to assess learning in college
- International educators debate mass vs. elite higher education
- Essay on how professors can deal with assessment
- Why assessment isn't about certainty (essay)
During a recent conversation about the value of comprehensive student learning assessment, one faculty member asked, “Why should we invest time, money, and effort to do something that we are essentially already doing every time we assign grades to student work?”
Most educational assessment zealots would respond by launching into a long explanation of the differences between tracking content acquisition and assessing skill development, the challenges of comparing general skill development across disciplines, the importance of demonstrating gains on student learning outcomes across an entire institution, blah blah blah (since these are my peeps, I can call it that). But from the perspective of an exhausted professor who has been furiously slogging through a pile of underwhelming final papers, I think the concern over a substantial increase in faculty workload is more than reasonable.
Why would an institution or anyone within it choose to be redundant?
If a college wants to know whether its students are learning a particular set of knowledge, skills, and dispositions, it makes good sense to track the degree to which that is happening. But we make a grave mistake when we require additional processes and responsibilities from those “in the trenches” without thinking carefully about the potential for diminishing returns in the face of added workload (especially if that work appears to be frivolous or redundant). So it would seem to me that any conversation about assessing student learning should emphasize the importance of efficiency so that faculty and staff can continue to fulfill all the other roles expected of them.
This brings me back to what I perceive to be an odd disconnect between grading and outcomes assessment on most campuses. It seems to me that if grading and assessment are both intent on measuring learning, then there ought to be a way to bring them closer together. Moreover, if we want assessment to be truly sustainable (i.e., not kill our faculty), then we need to find ways to link, if not unify, these two practices.
What might this look like? For starters, it would require conceptualizing content learned in a course as the delivery mechanism for skill and disposition development. Traditionally, I think we’ve envisioned this relationship in reverse order – that skills and dispositions are merely the means for demonstrating content acquisition – with content acquisition becoming the primary focus of grading. In this context, skills and dispositions become a sort of vaguely mysterious redheaded stepchild (with apologies to stepchildren, redheads, and the vaguely mysterious). More importantly, if we are now focusing on skills and dispositions, this traditional context necessitates an additional process of assessing student learning.
However, if we reconceptualize our approach so that content becomes the raw material with which we develop skills and dispositions, we could directly apply our grading practices in the same way. One would assign a proportion of the overall grade to the necessary content acquisition, and the rest of the overall grade (apportioned as the course might require) to the development of the various skills and dispositions intended for that course. In addition to articulating which skills and dispositions each course would develop and the progress thresholds expected of students in each course, this means that we would have to be much more explicit about the degree to which a given course is intended to foster improvement in students (such as a freshman-level writing course) as opposed to a course designed for students to demonstrate competence (such as a senior-level capstone in accounting procedures). At an even more granular level, instructors might define individual assignments within a given course to be graded for improvement earlier in the term with other assignments graded for competence later in the term.
I recognize that this proposal flies in the face of some deeply rooted beliefs about academic freedom that faculty, as experts in their field, should be allowed to teach and grade as they see fit. When courses were about attaining a specific slice of content, every course was an island. Seventeenth-century British literature? Check. The sociology of crime? Check. Cell biology? Check.
In this environment, it’s entirely plausible that faculty grading practices would be as different as the topography of each island. But if courses are expected to function collectively to develop a set of skills and/or dispositions (e.g., complex reasoning, oral and written communication, intercultural competence), then what happens in each course is irrevocably tied to what happens in previous and subsequent courses. And it follows that the “what” and “how” of grading would be a critical element in creating a smooth transition for students between courses.
Now it would be naïve of me to suggest that making such a fundamental shift in the way that a faculty thinks about the relationship between courses, curriculums, learning and grading is somehow easy. Agreeing to a single set of institutionwide student learning outcomes can be exceedingly difficult, and for many institutions, embedding the building blocks of a set of institutional outcomes into the design and deliver of individual courses may well seem a bridge too far.
However, any institution that has participated in reaccreditation since the Spellings Commission in 2006 knows that identifying institutional learning outcomes and assessing students’ gains on those outcomes is no longer optional. So the question is no longer whether institutions can choose to engage in assessment; the question is whether student learning, and the assessment of it, becomes an imposition that squeezes out other important faculty and staff responsibilities or if there is a way to coopt the purposes of learning outcomes assessment into a process that already exists.
In the end it seems to me that we already have all of the mechanisms in place to embed robust learning outcomes assessment into our work without adding any new processes or responsibilities to our workload. However, to make this happen we need to 1) embrace all of the implications of focusing on the development of skills and dispositions while shifting content acquisition from an end to a means to a greater end, and 2) accept that the educational endeavor in which we are all engaged is a fundamentally collaborative one and that our chances of success are best when we focus our individual expertise toward our collective mission of learning. | <urn:uuid:1a38ad1f-b502-4c0f-8349-35d2d62abc7e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/12/04/linking-outcomes-assessment-grading-could-build-faculty-support-essay | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955545 | 1,307 | 1.5 | 2 |
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As one of the Nazi’s most sought-after underground leaders, John Henry Weidner lived in constant risk of arrest and imprisonment for his rescue work as leader of the Dutch-Paris Escape Line. Despite the danger, Weidner kept a full file of correspondence, receipts, copies of fake transit visas and other “illegal” documents at his apartment. When Weidner emigrated to the US after the war, he brought these files with him.
In 2009, Janet Holmes Carper, of Cornish, Maine began translating letters that went back and forth between members of the Weidner family before and during the war. The letters, many written with code names, reveal the stresses and affections of a family struggling to remain cohesive under Nazi occupation. Code names became necessary to hide the identiities of John Weidner and his sister Gabrielle who assisted Weidner in rescue work. Gabrielle was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to a prison camp in Poland where she died.
Weidner, a Dutch citizen, spoke and wrote in French. His parents wrote to him in Dutch. A sister wrote in Italian. In addition to Carper’s translations of the letters in French, letters in Dutch were translated by Anthony Sluis of Toms River, New Jersey. Taped interviews of Annette Hipleh Weidner were translated from Italian by Anna Rein of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.
Carper’s book, The Weidners in Wartime: Daily Life and Heroism. Family Correspondence During World War II, is now being offered to publishers. | <urn:uuid:03d95b11-9aeb-415a-8a15-3859523cfc73> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://weidnerfoundation.org/en/index.php/archives/weidner_family_letters_book_completed/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962948 | 356 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Augusta is a pretty holiday resort situated along the south west coast of Western Australia, just north of Cape Leeuwin.
There are a number of sea cruises which you can take from Augusta and Cape Leeuwin. The most popular are the whale watching and dolphin spotting cruises, where you can travel out towards Flinders Island and get to see Bottlenose Dolphins, Humpback Whales, New Zealand Fur Seals and Southern Right Whales.
You can also join fishing charters or travel along the pretty Blackwood River.
There is an interesting museum which tells the history of the area, and the Mathew Flinders Memorial, commemorating his mapping of Australia's coastline. There is a lighthouse on Cape Leeuwin, which is another great place to visit as it gives fantastic views out across the rugged coastline and surrounding oceans.
Augusta Historical Museum is 'rated by many visitors as the best small museum they have ever seen'. A number of displays reveal aspects from the history of the district, featuring recent events such as the headline grabbing 1986 Whale Rescue to information from the 1830's and the third white settlement in Western Australia.
There is a small admission charge with opening hours between 10am - 12pm most days and 2pm - 4pm during summer.
There is a hostel and a few holiday parks and resorts around Augusta, with more basic camping within the nearby Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park.
It is a beautiful place to stay, where you can relax and just listen to the crashing of the waves.
The first Europeans to see the area were the Dutch in 1622 who named the nearby Cape "Landt van de Leeuwin" or Land of the Lioness. Flinders renamed it in 1801 as Cape Leeuwin.Augusta was named after the daughter of King George III, Princess Augusta Sophia. | <urn:uuid:d11046a1-58e2-4504-a6f6-59cb08006900> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.australianexplorer.com/augusta.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955791 | 379 | 1.734375 | 2 |
High School Success
Please click the below links for helpful information on study tips, test taking tips, organization, and time management skills.
Focus on Learning
In High School it is important to utilize all of your resources.
First begin with your classroom teachers. Utilize their tutoring sessions during their scheduled times. Ask your teachers for their suggestions on other ways you can receive help in a subject. They may suggest online resources that coincide with the textbook you are using in class.
Once you have exhausted this resource please go to BETA club tutoring after school in Ms. Bell's room (E411) on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You will be paired with an upper classmen who knows the information regarding your subject and can help you thoroughly understand the concept.
Other sources of tutoring are your peers, private tutoring, and web resources.
Many websites have resources where students can receive tutoring related to course content online.
Please click the below link for a list of current high school tutors in Cabarrus County Schools. | <urn:uuid:2a45a1f1-bb96-43aa-b2a9-4bdf42a6db84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ccsweb.cabarrus.k12.nc.us/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=109796&linkid=nav-menu-container-4-457350 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915191 | 214 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Muslims in America
There are between 6 and 7 million Muslims in America
today. In other words, Muslims outnumber some Christian denominations
and are equal to the number of Jews. Research done in the year
2000 by prominent American universities and Islamic foundations
show that the number of Muslims is increasing rapidly and that
Islam is growing stronger day by day.
The above graphic representation
shows the rising numbers of mosques in America.
The main theme of this research, known as the Mosque
Study Project, is the establishment of mosques in America.
The reason for this is that mosques occupy a very special place
in any statistical compilations done with regard to the American
Muslim community. Mosques in America are both houses of worship
and gathering places for talking with one another and launching
cultural activities to make Islam more widely known. Every mosque
establishes a relationship with the press to introduce Islam to
a wider audience, speaks with local politicians, visits schools
and churches, engages in interfaith dialogue and carries on other
such activities. Thus, research done on these mosques is one of
the most useful tools for gathering accurate and enlightening
information on this community's state.
According to this research, America now has about 1,209
mosques, most of which were constructed very recently. Thirty
percent of these mosques were built in the 1990s, and 32% were
built in the 1980s. Other statistics show that in 1994, the total
number of mosques in America was 962; in 2000, there was a 25%
increase in this number.
These data show a natural parallel
with the growing number of Muslims. For example, according to
determinations made in 1994, the number of Muslims attending mosque
services was 500,000; in 2000, this figure had increased to 2
million-an approximately 300% increase. A significant part of
this number is composed of people who converted to Islam. The
same research shows that about 30% of those worshippers are converts.
According to these data, about 20,000 Americans accept Islam every
The above figures are the result of research done before
9/11 and rely on data from the year 2000. In 2001, especially
after 9/11, these figures have increased several fold.
Above we see pictures of mosques
in various states.
This rapid growth of Islam in America is related in a
news article, "Islam Is Growing in America," on the American army
Internet site (www.defenselink.mil)
who believe in Islam, are everywhere in the United States. They
may be your doctor or drive your taxi. They may serve you in restaurants
or advise you in law. And they increasingly may be in the same
foxhole, manning the same position or working on the same aircraft
as you … In the United States, Islam is the fastest growing religion
indication of Islam's rapid growth in America is the increasing
number of schools offering an Islamic education. A New York
Times report on New York's Islamic schools tells of the students'
intense interest. (Right) San Diego's Muslims, as well as
many others in America, were faced with a barrage of questions
after 9/11. This appeared in a report entitled "Muslims bridge
religious gaps by teaching more about faith."
||(Above) A report on the Worldnet Daily
Internet site states that after 9/11, students joined special
educational programs to learn more about Islam. They were
required to memorize Qur'anic verses and study Islamic history.
(Middle) A report in The Oregonian, entitled "New Focus: Exploring
Islam and Its Traditions," gives general information about
American Muslims and Islam. (Below) In the above edition of
the New York Times, a report entitled "Ramadan Enters New
York City School Life" tells about the special Ramadan arrangements
made in New York district schools for Muslim students.
A New York Times article, "Islam Attracts
Converts by the Thousands," contains interviews with converts,
analyzes Islam's rapid rise in America, and states:
With some 6 million
adherents in the United States, Islam is said to be the nation's
fastest-growing religion, fueled by immigration, high birth rates
and widespread conversion. One expert estimates that 25,000 people
a year become Muslims in this country; some clerics say they have
seen conversion rates quadruple since Sept. 11.46
An ABC News segment, "Islam: Rising
Tide in America," reported that some sociologists predict that
within 15 years there will be more Muslims than Jews in America.47
First chart we see the ethnic distribution
of American Muslims. The great majority of America's Muslim
population is South-Central Asian.Second chart on the right
shows the rising mosque attendance rates by American Muslims.
There has been a 77% increase. The fact sheet below, prepared
by the U.S. Department of State, includes the main figures
about Muslim life in America.
The continually rising influence
of Islam has provided better opportunities for Muslims living
in America. One place where this growth and development is most
noticeable is in Dearborn, Michigan. An article in the Detroit
News about the spread of Islam, particularly in Dearborn,
mentioned the city's growing number of mosques. But, according
to the article, this is not the only sign of Islam's rising influence;
the effects of this growth can be seen in restaurants, shopping
centers, and hospitals. For the first time in Michigan, in a McDonald's
restaurant, meals are available using meat cut according to Islamic
law. Prominent supermarkets in Dearborn have begun to sell "halal"
meat. Oakwood Hospital officials have started to adjust the hospital's
meal service especially for Muslim patients. Moreover, throughout
the month of Ramadan, the cafeteria's service hours are arranged
to suit Muslims.48
Like Dearborn, Muslims in Chicago
are also quickly gaining influence. Here, the Muslim community
is distinguished by its high level of education and prosperity.
Research conducted in the 1990s demonstrated that 16% of the Muslim
community's members were medical doctors, 33% were engineers,
44% had doctorate degrees, 84% had at least a bachelor's degree,
and only 2% had less than a high school education. Moreover, Muslims'
contributions to Chicago were highlighted. For example, the architect
of the John Hancock Center and the Sears Tower was a Muslim: Dr.
Fazlur Rahman. There is hardly a hospital without a Muslim doctor
on its staff and there is hardly an engineering or electronic
equipment manufacturer without Muslim engineers.49
(Above) A Florida Times report,
"Finding Faith in Islam," tells about the converts' thoughts
and ideas. A Seattle Times article entitled "Mosque overflows
with faithful" reports that Seattle Muslims are crowding
into their mosques. (Below) A report on the American Ministry
of Defense's Internet site, entitled "Islam Growing in America,"
gives an account of the Muslims' increasing influence in
American social life and introduces basic Islamic values.
Growing in America," American Forces Information Service, October
46. The New York Times, October 22, 2001.
47. Barr Seitz, "Islam Rising Tide in America,"
48. The Detroit News, March 21, 2001.
49. Islam in Chicago, Islam for Today, October | <urn:uuid:b25cbf5c-9114-4527-90e0-f1ccdd74c9a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.riseofislam.com/islam_in_america_03.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938842 | 1,568 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Title/Author: The Dead Guy Interviews by MIchael A. Stusser.
Publisher: Penguin Books.
Favorite character: Harry Houdini, Edgar Allen Poe, Mae West, William Shakespeare.
All in all: A fun, interesting and eye opening book.
If you could interview a famous person from history who would it be? Author Michael Stusser didn’t have to choose. He reached into his imagination and created what he thought a sit down with some of the world’s most famous and notorious people would be like. Each interview was only a few pages and they were easy to read, fun and humorous. I also learned quite a bit of interesting tidbits about these figures, not to mention history. The biggest surprise to me was Genghis Khan. Although he was a fierce warrior he also outlawed kidnapping, torture and abolished the sale of women. It is easy to see that Stusser researched these figures well yet also humanized them which brought them to life. If history was taught this way instead of dry narrative text, I think I would have done much better in school.
I hope the author does more of these. My suggestion: Horror movie icons.
5 out of 5 stars. | <urn:uuid:113f6f10-95c2-439e-8159-e584563b0c04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.midnytereader.com/2010/10/dead-guy-interviews.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977694 | 254 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The 200 commitments has an extremely simple, but critical goal:
To raise as a community the $1,000,000 needed to take the work of The SMA Gene Therapy program from Nationwide Children’s Hospital/Ohio State University out of the Lab and into the SMA Patient Population
This revolutionary research has the potential to cure Spinal Muscular Atrophy, as well as various other Neurological diseases. The earlier we can get into the SMA patient population, the greater the chances of rescuing the remaining motor neurons. The longer we wait, the greater the motor neuron loss in our SMA patient population. The time is NOW to stop the progression of the disease. Based on initial non-binding talks with the Food and Drug Administration there is a realistic timeline of what is necessary to ensure this program reaches human clinical trials. This program can reach Phase 1 in 12 months if the funding gap is closed. Based on Pre Pre IND talks with the FDA and the studies they have deemed necessary roughly $1,000,000 is needed.
We are asking for 200 commitments, every commitment is $5,000. We need 200 commitments within the next 12 months- for a total of $1,000,000 – with 100% of the proceeds going directly to fund Dr. Kaspar and the Gene Therapy program at Nationwide Children’s Hospital/OSU.
How you raise the money is up to you. Whether it is a run, a triathlon, a bake sale, a bowling event, a gala, a spaghetti fundraiser, the list of possibilities is endless. Make it fun, get your community involved. Do you know a company that is willing to sponsor a commitment? We will post all corporate sponsors on the front page for the entirety of this campaign! Can you raise $10,000? That would be amazing and would deduct 2 commitments from the goal! We welcome any and all other SMA organizations to join on board!
$1,000,000 seems like such a daunting task but it is a goal that is a achievable……. it will just take teamwork. We are not afraid of taking on a challenge so daunting……. we may not succeed, however we will try as hard as we can to make this trial a reality. Are you ready to become 1 of THE 200?
What is SMA? | <urn:uuid:4e1a44ea-a123-4724-a64b-c08b30876c83> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.the200forsma.com/?page_id=54 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951524 | 476 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Born in Another Time
If you are ever curious about the nuances and challenges of local policy-making and governance, look no further than the U.S public education system. When you consider the statistics and actors – nearly 14,000 school districts, 95,000 principals and more than 90,000 school board members – it is no wonder that public schools see higher levels of success when local leaders come together to collaborate and develop solutions.
The National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) represents the state boards of education that govern and design education policy at the state level. These bodies set the tone, agenda, and overall vision for their state. One area in which their leadership is urgently needed: education technology. To that end, NASBE recently commissioned a study group, whose core composition consisted of 18-20 state board members, that produced Born in Another Time: Ensuring Educational Technology Meets the Needs of Students Today – and Tomorrow. This report puts forth a vision for education technology in our nation’s public schools, along with key recommendations on how to get there. In essence, it takes a big, bold vision for 21st century learners and distills it into a professional implementation guide.
The vision examines three key topics: the voice and needs of today’s students, the use of technology in meeting the needs of today’s students, and education technology infrastructure. The report notes that, “for this generation, there is no divide between ‘technology’ and their daily lives.” Given the hyper-connected world we live in, “there is the imperative…that all students be digitally literate, which will require educators to meet students in the technological world where they now live in order to bring them a new place.” The report makes three recommendations with regard to the needs of today’s students: address digital citizenship and literacy, design instruction to take advantage of how each student learns, and create policies that allocate resources based on data, student needs and student, parent and stakeholder voices.
First, the focus on digital citizenship and digital literacy seeks to help students critically assess material, content and resources on the Internet. Despite being digital natives, children are not born with an understanding of how to effectively and responsibly use online resources and content. For example, online interactions can result in cases of cyber-bullying thanks to the anonymity that social networking sites offer to students. Learning to be a respectful and intelligent digital citizen necessitates guidance and instruction.
Secondly, today’s students expect a more customized learning experience, due in part to ease with which online experience can be customized – filtering Tweets, selecting which blogs to follow or which news sources to read. But while student engagement is now more dependent on individualized instruction, through technology educators are better able to engage students with different interests and strengths.
Finally, policies in place should allocate resources based on the voices of parents, students and other stakeholders as well as data and student needs. These audiences should be assisted in understanding the complexities of education policy as well as the local district and school needs; their feedback is by association the most accurate and useful when it comes to providing possible solutions.
The second section of the report focuses on educators and their ability to teach in a 21st century learning environment. The ability of any school to deliver on the promise of education technology rests on the preparedness of all its educators, from teachers to administrators, specialists and support staff. The report focuses on five areas where state policies can help make a difference: defining today’s vision of a ‘connected educator;’ establishing a state vision for technology and education in standards; improvements in educator preparation; improvements in professional learning opportunities; and increased flexibility around time, place, and pace for learning. Among the key questions for states to consider:
- How are educators, administrators, and other support personnel incorporated into the state’s plan for education technology?
- To what extent are educator effectiveness and teacher/student technology use incorporated into the states’ requirements and policies for educator evaluations, technology standards, and educator professional learning systems?
- What barriers exist that make it more difficult for teachers within and across districts to collaborate with each other on shared practices?
Some of the report’s recommendations in this area encourage state boards to examine existing policies while others speak to what the state board must ensure to build this vision for educators and their digital capacity. Among their recommendations: state boards should consider which policies allow or inhibit the ability for online, virtual or blending learning opportunities for students or teachers. They should also examine what opportunities, incentives and barriers are in place that inhibit or enhance the ability of districts to partner with each other, or across state lines, to share resources. State boards should ensure teacher candidates have the skills and content knowledge to teach students in a 21st century learning environment and provide personalized instruction. .
Finally, the report covers technology infrastructure, noting the vast differences from state to state when it comes to preparedness for technology of the future. State policy-makers should assess their state’s current capacity to integrate technology, develop data systems that provide timely and meaningful information to all stakeholders, navigate the transition to digital instructional materials and support blending and online learning options.
The need for equity in access to education technology is pressing, especially as states work to implement the Common Core State Standards, which use computer adaptive tests. Another key area in addressing equity relates to broadband access and adequate bandwidth. In the shift to online resources and digital materials, schools will need to increase bandwidth to ensure all students and educators have access to the 21st century learning environment.
Additionally, collecting accurate timely data is important both in ensuring that the needs of each student are being met and in reflecting a teacher’s contribution to the child’s learning in an era of accountability and oversight. Finally, a rapid push to digital materials will be a cost saver for schools and ensure that students are not learning from old out-of-date textbooks.
For these concerns, and others, the report makes three recommendations around technology infrastructure: ensure every student has adequate access to a computing device and Internet at school and home, with sufficient human capital in schools to support their effective use; have an up-to-date technology plan and policy that are reviewed on a pre-determined timeline; and address the interoperability of devices, software and data at the state and district level.
As a proverb cited in the report says: “Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time.” For state board members and others, this report offers insights into addressing the challenges and opportunities inherent to our continuing technological revolution.
Click here to browse dozens of Public School Insights interviews with extraordinary education advocates, including:
- 2013 Digital Principal Ryan Imbriale
- Best Selling Author Dan Ariely
- Family Engagement Expert Dr. Maria C. Paredes
The views expressed in this website's interviews do not necessarily represent those of the Learning First Alliance or its members.
Excellence is the Standard
At Pierce County High School in rural southeast Georgia, the graduation rate has gone up 31% in seven years. Teachers describe their collaboration as the unifying factor that drives the school’s improvement. Learn more...
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- Why I Teach | <urn:uuid:145a29c7-2cf9-4bdb-b19c-81ac1d3154eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.learningfirst.org/born-another-time | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938006 | 1,748 | 2.796875 | 3 |
In 1917, “Back Home Again in Indiana” hit gold when it was included on the second recording by a New Orleans combo credited with the creation of jazz.
Somewhere beneath the jumbo balloons and shy of the Rockettes’ high kicks, an Indiana institution will find its place in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Every spring a new generation of students around the county gets exposed to an Indianapolis-based brand name.
Two staples of twentieth-century American culture share a common progenitor. Ironically, the father of the Indy 500--and Miami Beach--rolled in on two wheels.
In college towns across Indiana, spring colors include the bright jerseys of determined-looking bike riders thronging the streets. An annual spring cycling event on the Indiana University-Bloomington campus that began as a fundraiser for working college students has gained national renown thanks to the beloved 1979 film Breaking Away . Inspired by the Indianapolis 500 [...]
Women drivers had a slow on-ramp into the racing world of the Indy 500. Janet Guthrie blazed the trail in 1977, changing the traditional invitation, “Gentlemen, start your engines,” to something more inclusive.
The Indianapolis 500 Mile Race is one of the largest single-day sporting events on earth. It was the brainchild of four local businessmen, Carl Fisher, James Allison, Frank Wheeler and Arthur Newby. They purchased 328 acres of farmland five miles northwest of downtown Indianapolis in the hopes of furnishing a superior proving-ground for the industry’s latest models. | <urn:uuid:1ef16197-2c34-46ee-98ac-5c9ded5369e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://indianapublicmedia.org/momentofindianahistory/tag/indy-500/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922199 | 319 | 1.90625 | 2 |
Cornell Creative Machines Lab
Nick Cheney at Cornell has developed a way for robots to evolve within days.
By Marshall Honorof
NEW YORK — Robots are simply more efficient than humans at certain tasks. They already excel at building cars, exploring distant planets and hunting for explosives, but it turns out that robots might also evolve much faster than their flesh-and-blood counterparts.
Nick Cheney, a Ph.D. student at Cornell University, presented his research at an Inside Cornell lecture on May 21. Cheney has developed a method by which complex computer simulations in a specific virtual environment — robots, by his definition — can evolve from selective pressures, just like animals in nature, but on a timescale of days instead of countless generations.
To demonstrate the technology, Cheney showed how a series of diverse but effective robots spontaneously evolved from a single, inefficient ancestor. He programmed a virtual environment with only one parameter: robots that moved faster would be able to produce more offspring. Therefore, the only selective pressure was speed (in the wild, Cheney compared this behavior to running from predators).
"Nature is amazing in how it designs things," Cheney said. "We want robots to interact with their environments as naturally as animals do." Cheney considers natural selection — the process by which biological organisms survive, reproduce and change over time to better suit their environments — to be a natural algorithm, extremely similar to what engineers use to optimize robots over time.
Cheney's initial robot, a shambling, cubic progenitor, was not much to look at. It barely stumbled along a straight line in no particular hurry. However, small mutations occurred in its offspring, and the fastest specimens bred with each other. As subsequent generations evolved, reproduced and died, the robots took on much more diverse appearances and began to speed across the screen.
The robots did not resemble traditional animals in any meaningful sense. Although they had come a long way since their initial boxy shape, they were still collections of small squares rather than sleek, curved specimens.
One robot resembled an accordion, constricting and stretching out as it made its way across the screen. Another, which looked like a wave about to crash, walked on three small points, almost falling over itself before finding its balance every few steps. Others walked on two distant legs, or maintained balance through rotating, top-mounted appendages. [See also: 10 Incredible 3-D Printed Products]
"These robots walk in ways we would never have thought of," Cheney said. Letting robots evolve without human oversight eliminates many of the preconceived ideas and biases that humans bring to the table by default. "We start from randomness, which is the way life started for us. Most of the random ones are pretty bad, but every once in a while you get lucky, and one will be better than the others."
Although these robots are confined to virtual space for the moment, that won't be the case forever. Thanks to the advent of 3-D printing, Cheney envisions a future where his robots could be powered by air, pressure-sensitive materials, electricity or even muscle, tissue and bone like real animals. Recent developments in 3-D printing have produced biologically viable heart cells, liver cells and even skull pieces.
"What we could explore with this is virtually limitless, which is what excites me most about it," Cheney said. Rapidly evolving robots with specific parameters could create everything from a better vacuum cleaner to complex search-and-rescue robots, but Cheney stresses that this is not the beginning of an adversarial relationship between humanity and its creation.
"In the future, we'll have more of a collaboration than a competition," he said. "Working together will be more fruitful than trying to take over the world."
- All-Natural 3-D Printers: Salt and Wood Can Be Used
- Top 7 Useful Robots You Can Buy Right Now
- 2013 Best 3-D Printer Reviews and Comparisons
Copyright 2013 TechNewsDaily, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:e0bfaaa4-c791-44dd-8f9b-bea6275ec062> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://science.nbcnews.com/robots | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959504 | 834 | 4.09375 | 4 |
Wow, didn’t that first term of school go quickly?
There I was waiting for school to start and complaining of the long induction process and boom – it’s Christmas, the girls can read and recognise letters and have even started the add one concept.
They have weekly PE lessons, weekly trips to the library [...]
When I was going through the remainder of last year’s wrapping paper and checking to see if there were any cards leftover I came across a bag full of old Christmas cards that had been forgotten to take to a recycling unit.
Later once our tree was up and [...]
I must admit to great excitement in the house when it is our turn to have a number puppy for the night.
Today’s post is based on Number puppy 6, a puppy with a penchant for the number 6, the colour purple and the hexagon shape. Number puppy 6 is one of ten puppies [...]
Music engages practically all areas of the brain.
Research by Schlaug et al (1995) showed that music learning before the age of 7 boosted the connection between the two sides of the brain.
Music learning tends to produce more intelligent and creative children.
Moosicology is the first and only home education package for [...]
What a great school the girls are in! All parents have been invited to three workshops last week to enable us to help our children get to grips with the learning system our school are using with our children and I am so pleased they are encouraging parents to take part and help them [...]
The other day I went for my first meeting at the infant school where the girl’s will be starting in September, a very exciting time and an extremely important one too. I recently shared with you my thoughts on keeping twins together or not but whilst I sat listening to the Head Mistress [...]
Almost four years have passed since our twins came into the world and we’ve already chosen (and been accepted) at their first school. We have our first meeting on the 21st June where we’ll be told about the induction process, uniform and various other bits of information that make up the schools [...]
It’s weird that the girls were only 3 in the summer and yet we’re already looking into the start of their school career. Next September they will go into Reception class and we have until January 14th to choose our first, second and third choices.
I went on a visit [...]
Having been made redundant in the first trimester of my pregnancy I had no job to return to once my maternity leave was up. Having twins made looking for a new job impossible so the decision was made for me to stay home with the girls and enjoy their growing years being on hand [...] | <urn:uuid:0c1147a1-6be1-4847-a33d-eb2d44a01810> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://marisworld.co.uk/index.php/category/twins/education-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974059 | 560 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Humantiy and how we give up to early
Sometimes I think of how people are these days and it just makes me sad and angry because off how others are treating one another, what is the purpose its only going to hurt them in the end. But people how are like that do not realize that they are going down a dark and lonely road nothing but their regret and guilt to hold on too, will turn their heart into cole and turns your soul cold.
People who like to bring pain and suffering upon others their soul is already gone and which means that it would be harder to make them feel and understand and sometimes you can't save them because they already decided to give their soul to the underworld.
I wonder why the bull shit around me does not turn my heart into cole, it's confuseing for me because I do hate others I may not like how they are acting and their adduits, however it's not in me to hate but disslike how that person is acting in that moment, because they could lighten up bit.
Sometimes others need direction but not sure on how to go about it in a posstive way, normally they behave inproper as a result to beating others up, killing or mugging others, also can be a cry for help, but most of us just turn the other cheek instead of trying to help them get better and be apart off humanity once again, however sometimes it's us who give up too early because if we really tryed with everything that we have I bet we can make progress with some people who are very disturbed. Know most of you out there who reads this might think my the crazy one. However I am just trying to say that why give up on humanity all together if we work hard they someone people they could change their view of life however we have have faith and hope for that person to change their way of living. | <urn:uuid:87a456c1-0370-4c7c-9c9e-21136d91ce2f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.korn.com/users/bZB78Dih/blogs/1741961 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986467 | 385 | 1.601563 | 2 |
What had happened was that former President "Teddy" Roosevelt who was running again for President on the Progressive Party ticket, was shot on October 14, 1912, as he was about to give a speech in Milwaukee.
The editorial continued, "In commenting upon the murderous assault upon Colonel Roosevelt, President Taft makes a very timely and pertinent observation that the laws against carrying concealed weapons should be made more rigorous, as a preventive of such crimes. Not only this, but the indiscriminate sale of deadly weapons to persons for whose sanity and responsibility and good intentions there is no avouchment, should be prohibited by law."
Roosevelt was about to leave the Gilpatrick Hotel in Milwaukee to deliver a speech in the Auditorium. As he entered his car, he was shot at close range with a .38 caliber revolver by one John Schrank. The bullet entered his chest.
Associates grabbed and held Schrank. Roosevelt is reported to have said to the astonished crowd, "My good friends. I'm not hurt. I am going on to the hall to speak. Good luck."
Roosevelt was driven to the Auditorium and delivered his hour-long speech before a large crowd. There was blood on his script when he removed it from his pocket. It was later determined that the bullet had been
The bullet was never removed.
The poorly-dressed John Schrank had been looking for Roosevelt at the hotel before the shooting. Shrank was found to be insane and spent the rest of his life in a mental institution.
Roosevelt lost the election to Woodrow Wilson.
The Star editorial concluded: "The high-tempered and the weak-minded have a standing temptation to take human life when they have a pistol or other deadly weapon in their possession. It should be possible to stamp out much crime by striking at the root - by making it practically impossible for the dangerous person to have and hold a deadly weapon."
Sid Gally is a Pasadena Museum of History volunteer. | <urn:uuid:2dd4dde9-be1e-4e0f-81f2-477b31fa41b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/rss/ci_22322122?source=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985959 | 408 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Atherton, California (PRWEB) November 12, 2012
TruthMarket, a division of Truth Seal Corp., today announced that Dr. Devra Lee Davis is using the TruthMarket platform to launch a campaign disputing the mobile phone industry’s claims that cell phones have been proven safe for humans. TruthMarket was selected because its online platform enables grassroots challenges to political, commercial and science misrepresentations. The first person who can deliver verifiable proof that cell phones do no harm when used for more than 30 minutes a day for at least 5 years can win $5,000.
Dr. Davis charges that the use of cell phones by millions of people on a daily basis constitutes one of the largest de facto uncontrolled experiments ever on human subjects without their being fully informed of potential risks. “Pulsed digital signals from these devices radiate into the head and frequent exposure carries health risks,” notes Davis. She adds that “independent studies show exposure to cellphone radiation can more than double cancer risk for regular users, damage sperm, impair DNA's repair capability, and produce other signs of cell damage. Moreover, strong evidence that fetuses, children and teens are particularly vulnerable has prompted the American Academy of Pediatrics to send a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) asking for a review of the exposure limits.”
In July, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a Report calling for an update of cellphone exposure limits, recommending the FCC “formally reassess and, if appropriate, change its current RF energy exposure limit and mobile phone testing requirements related to likely usage configurations.” On page 40 of the report the FCC replied that “…the Commission’s staff … arrived at the same conclusion [and the] document is ... under consideration by the Commission …”
Given the mounting evidence disputing cell phone radiation safety, an Expert Forum featuring noted medical and scientific authorities in this field is being held at the National Press Club in Washington DC on November 12th from 9 – 11 am.
Davis maintains that “If they were really safe, phone manufacturers and telecommunications carriers would have offered convincing data by now.” To win the $5,000 bounty, a campaign challenger must provide verifiable evidence that cell phones do no harm when used for more than 30 minutes a day for at least 5 years. Details on the required proof are provided on the TruthMarket website.
About Devra Lee Davis, M.P.H., Ph.D.
Devra Lee Davis, M.P.H., Ph.D., an internationally recognized authority on environmental health and disease prevention, is the Founding Director of the Center for Environmental Oncology and founder of the Environmental Health Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to researching avoidable environmental health threats. A former professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health at University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Davis is a winner of the Carnegie Science Medal and a well-regarded lecturer. She has authored / co-authored nearly 200 publications, and her research has appeared in major scientific journals. Her book, When Smoke Ran Like Water, was a National Book Award finalist in 2002, and her book, The Secret History of the War on Cancer, is a must read on how public relations strategies have undermined public health. Dr. Davis’ recent book, Disconnect, about cell phone radiation and your health was selected by TIME magazine as a top pick, has received broad multi-media coverage on FOX, CNN, BBC, and CBC, and is influencing policy changes in Israel, France, Finland, the Netherlands, India, Russia, and Canada.
TruthMarket is a division of Truth Seal, a California Corporation. TruthMarket is designed to be a popular online platform that enables everyone to campaign for truth in public dialogue. The primary objective is to increase truth and trust throughout the public information space – online and offline – by publicly exposing false claims and highlighting true claims. TruthMarket’s ultimate goal is to predispose all public dialogue toward truth telling
Marketplace for Truth Telling, TruthMarket and TruthSeal are trademarks of Truth Seal Corp. | <urn:uuid:7020c668-db7f-42f7-9956-f680b0670378> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/11/prweb10121066.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935838 | 843 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Another Sick Cory - Very different symptoms
If you read my earlier thread, i had some peppered corydoras which passed away rather suddenly due to some kind of bacterial issue. The symptoms of the first cories to get sick were lethargy, sitting at the bottom of the tank with whitish spots forming at base of fins and fin erosion.
This new case, so far, is only affecting one fish, but it is another peppered cory. The only potential similarity is the posterior dorsal fin is missing, but no white discoloration and the whole fin is gone, like it was bitten off, and no other damage to other fins. Also the right pectoral fin is paralyzed, and the fish is spending a lot of time at the top of the tank, swimming rather erratically. Also the area around the gil slit and the pectoral fins on both sides is very enflamed with pinkish reddish color. That same reddish blood color extends down the body in what looks like bruising, down the bottom belly of the length of the fish. I have tried to take about 20 pictures and I have not captured much.
I will not be replacing any corydoras after this one, but I am very curious as to the diagnosis. I will continue to try and take photos and post if I get any good shots.
How long has your tank been cycled and what are your current water parameters?
Bottom feeders are the first to experience problems and should be introduced into a completely cycled tank only. Ammonia levels are higher at the bottom of the tank.
Sounds like fin rot to me.
Tank completed cycle a week or two ago.
I just tested the water an hour ago. All is well.
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 10ppm
I always try to test close to the mouth of the power filter since its intake tube sits close to the gravel.
Sounds like there might be some aggression going on, maybe from the tiger barbs or the rainbow shark.
If it's called tourist season why can't I shoot them?
Brutal honesty will be shown on this screen.
I think my fish is adjusting well to the four gallon, He's laying on his side attempting to go to sleep on the bottom of the gravel.
Tolerance is a great thing to have, so is the ability to shut up.
No flash, left side of body, missing posterial dorsal and inflamation around pectoral is visible.
Used flash to try and capture detail, left side of fish, this is the side that is paralyzed.
The fish died overnight, and this is the underside of the fish. You can see the pink and red inflamation throughout the body and blood under the scales in a few spots along the body.
Anybody know what this is?
No expert but that looks like some type of aggression has occured.
Knowledge is fun(damental)
A 75 gal with eight Discus, fake plants, and a lot of wood also with sand substrate. Clean up crew is fifteen Sterba's Corys. Filters: canister w/UV, in-tank algae scrubber that removes phosphates and nitrates! Also, a highly dangerous commercial nitrate removal unit from hell
For Stocking Questions see: http://aqadvisor.com/AqAdvisor.php?
For Fishless cycling:http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aqua...ead.php?t=5640
Hi ddavis! Great pictures! Usually when you see those spots of red on the body, either as streaks or pinpoint spots, it is an indication of septicemia and a sign of a greatly weakened fish. I hope all of your cory problems are over with this last death.
what else was in the tank with the cory?
besides being beaten up, it also looks slightly emaciated, so
there might be something in the tank preventing it to get enough food.
The list of tank mates is in my signature.
I didnt notice immaciation, but it was only about 48 hours from the pet store, so it could have been a pre-existing condition. So far so good on the other cories.
I have also been informed that due to the size of the substrate, that food particles are getting trapped and that the cory could have been the victim of poisoning due to spoiled food. | <urn:uuid:d920a13a-0dcf-41d0-b5a8-25c36d4852f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=100480 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954756 | 929 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Prof. Leo Daniel
This course is offered for graduate students who are interested in the interdisciplinary study of bio-inspired structures. The intent is to introduce students to newly inspired modern advanced structures and their applications. It aims to link traditional advanced composites to bio-inspired structures and to discuss their generic properties. A link between materials design, strength and structural behavior at different levels (material, element, structural and system levels) is made. For each level, various concepts will be introduced. The importance of structural, dynamic, thermodynamic and kinetic theories related to such processing is highlighted. The pedagogy is based on active learning and a balance of guest lectures and hands-on activities. | <urn:uuid:c49a3997-4e4f-4459-b37b-3c95ed3f0a6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/aeronautics-and-astronautics/16-982-bio-inspired-structures-spring-2009/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929506 | 138 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Look through the classifieds on BoatTrader.com and one thing becomes clear. Big boats burn diesel. Small boats burn gasoline. Why is that?
Yes, I know diesels have the torque needed to push big boats, regardless of whether they’re displacement or planing hulls, but there are significant advantages to using diesels in small boats, fuel efficiency chief among them.
At its annual dealer meeting a couple of years back, Donzi had its 22 Classic in the water for demo rides. The cool thing was that it didn’t have a fire-breathing, rumpity-rump big block under the hatch. It had a small six-cylinder Yanmar diesel in it, with an Arneson surface drive.
I had to drive it. So we hopped in and took it out. Sure, big-block-powered 22 Classics are quicker. Even small-block-powered 22s are more lively. But, they weren’t that much faster. With the little diesel, we got it up to about 65 mph, which is plenty fast in a Donzi 22 Classic.
But here’s something else that sold me. While every other demonstrator boat on the docks had to be refueled at least once a day, the 22 Classic with the diesel never once visited the fuel dock. It was brilliant.
You’d think it would be a case of ”build them, and they will come,” but the little diesels just haven’t seemed to catch on in small runabouts. As the nature of the energy industry changes, the automotive and marine industries will change along with it, so I remain hopeful that we’ll soon see small diesels in the runabout market.
Who knows, maybe recreational boaters will one day get to burn used vegetable oil or even algae-derived fuels. Not only are they renewable, but the fuel-efficiency advantages of diesel engines will still be in place, which means they’ll go farther on a tank of fuel. That’s an idea we can all get behind. | <urn:uuid:6708cbf9-96eb-4340-add5-73408f2e5359> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.boattrader.com/2012/12/what-about-diesel-for-smaller-boats.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963484 | 436 | 1.523438 | 2 |
PHOTOS & VIDEOS
Halloween HistoryOctober 22, 2012
How did Halloween begin? The holiday traces back to the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain. The ancient Celts from Britain and Ireland observed the start of the new year on November 1, All Souls Day. The day marked the end of summer and the harvest. Folks came to believe that on October 31, the worlds of the living and dead overlapped before the start of the new year. October 31 became All Hallows Eve, a time where the ghosts of the dead could return to destroy the harvest that was stored for winter. People set bonfires on hilltops to ward off the evil spirits before the start of the winter season. Look through this slideshow to learn how more Halloween traditions began.
The origin of trick-or-treating may have also come from Celtic tradition. Poor children in Britain and Ireland went door-to-door on All Hallows Eve and received food in exchange for the promise of praying for the giver’s dead relatives on All Saints Day. This practice was known as “going-a-souling.” While that may be the start of it, that tradition didn’t make its way to America. Here, trick-or-treating may have started with children trading songs for treats in the 1910s, according to old newspaper texts. The tradition didn’t really take off until after World War II, when popular children’s magazines started discussing it and the idea entered popular culture, including radio shows and cartoons.
There are many legends surrounding the Jack’-o’-Lantern and where he got his name. However, the tradition began with folks believing that carving scary faces onto turnips would frighten away evil spirits. The tradition turned to pumpkins in America because pumpkins were more plentiful—and much easier to carve.
During the Samhain festival, some people wore masks and other disguises to avoid being recognized by evil spirits. But the rise of costumes as a major part of Halloween actually took off in the United States as Halloween became a consumer holiday. Initial reports of mass-produced costumes date to as early as the 1930s. They really took off with the rise of trick-or-treating.
Witches, and Ghosts, and Skeletons, Oh My!
The ideas of death and fearing spirits that surrounded All Hallows Eve gave rise to the skeleton and ghost imagery. As for the fascination with witches, it appears that the European interest in witches was brought to America. It joined with the Native American beliefs in evil spirits, which both fit with the spooky themes of October 31. That association gave witches and black cats—the Celtic priests had convinced people that black cats were humans gone bad—a rise in popular culture as symbols of Halloween.
The idea of having Haunted Houses was created simply as a way to make money. Playing off the obvious themes of Halloween, the first haunted houses were fundraising efforts led by the Junior Chamber International (Jaycees) clubs and have continued as fundraising and commercial operations. Boo! | <urn:uuid:24eabf14-37c2-4eef-8c6d-fd1d42e1787d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.timeforkids.com/photos-video/slideshow/halloween-history/17296/3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974674 | 633 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Chemistry deals with phenomena that affect nearly every aspect of our lives and environment. A liberal education in this scientific and technological age should include some exposure to the theories, laws, applications, and potential of this science.
The chemistry curriculum is sufficiently flexible to allow students with career interests in areas such as the health professions, law, business, and education to design a major program suitable to their goals. Students interested in careers in chemistry or biochemistry will find sufficient chemistry electives to provide a strong background for work in graduate school, industry, or other positions requiring a strong foundation in chemistry. A major in biological chemistry has been developed in conjunction with the biology department, and is described in a separate section of the Catalog. The department and its curriculum are approved by the American Chemical Society (ACS), and an ACS-certified major is offered. | <urn:uuid:4d3458c2-b92d-4235-aa96-da55d3f854cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bates.edu/chemistry/?dept=CHEM | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961009 | 170 | 2.453125 | 2 |
Date of Award
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Professor D.A. Thompson
Trapping of 30 keV ion-implanted helium by the radiation-produced damage in hot isostatic pressed beryllium foils of 99.5 wt% purity has been investigated by a series of ion implantation/thermal desorption experiments. Different experimental regimes were designed to obtain some fundamental insight into the behaviour of helium in beryllium. The helium release was related to the surface morphology changes observed on the desorbed surfaces by scanning eIectron microscopy.
The nature of helium trapping in beryllium has been found to strongly depend on the implantation parameters as well as on the thermal treatment of the implanted samples. Desorption peaks have been analyzed in terms of the dissociation of simple helium-vacancy trapping centres and/or helium release from microbubbles that nucleate and grow during the annealing of the implanted samples.
Linear-ramp annealing following room-temperature 30 keV He⁺ implantation in beryllium to a total fluence in the range of 10²⁰ to 10²¹ /m² has produced two desorption stages above 890 K and below 830 K, respectively. The high temperature desorption peak was analyzed in terms of a first-order dissociation mechanism with an activation energy that depends on the relative occupation of the trapping site. The low temperature peak corresponds to a higher-order helium-vacancy cluster that begins to fill once the deeper trapping site approaches saturation. A third trapping site, with higher dissociation energy, has been inferred from the fact that a sizeable fraction of the implanted helium has not been released after heating up to 75% of the melting temperature.
Some samples have been heated by a stepped anneal regime, for two hours at 573 or 773 K, that allows reconfiguration of the trapped helium before being desorbed. The release spectra and the desorbed surface morphology show that the nature of helium trapping has changed to a more stable form of helium bubbles. A model is proposed to account for the helium bubble nucleation and growth by a migration and coalescence mechanism. Linearly ramped thermal desorption after high temperature implantations at 600 and 773 K reveals the formation of more stable trapping sites. The helium release has been related to the formation of holes on the surface and the desorption was inferred to result from microbubble growth by thermal vacancy assisted mechanism.
Some of the samples have been deliberately corroded to investigate the effect of the surface contamination on the helium release. The desorption curves show the formation of an additional broad desorption peak at temperatures higher than 950 K. This is associated with a relative drop in the population of the primary and secondary desorption peaks and implies that the corroded surface contains additional trapping sites that delay the release of the helium detrapped from the bulk.
Zakaria, Yahya Mounir, "Thermal Desorption Analysis of Helium Trapping in Ion-Implanted Beryllium" (1996). Open Access Dissertations and Theses. Paper 2371. | <urn:uuid:39f52780-bb5d-4c15-bdc5-d8c45eb57e53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://digitalcommons.mcmaster.ca/opendissertations/2371/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900241 | 662 | 1.90625 | 2 |
Author: Henry David Thoreau (219.136.75.---)
Date: 12-01-05 22:11
The former post was removed as it was off topic. We will be migrating to registration-only forums at jollyrogerwest.com Great Books forums and booksliterature.com Great Books forums. These are Great Books sites, and we prefer posts such as:
After I wrote this sonnet there appeared to me a miraculous vision in which I saw things that made me
resolve to say no more about this blessed one until I should be capable of writing about her in a nobler
way. -Dante on his inspiration for The Divine Comedy, after falling short of Beatrice's splendor in the
I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it must be enforced at gunpoint
The thought of being President frightens me and I do not think I want the
Then let not winter's ragged hand deface,
In thee thy summer, ere thou be distill'd:
Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place
With beauty's treasure ere it be self-kill'd.
That use is not forbidden usury,
Which happies those that pay the willing loan;
That's for thy self to breed another thee,
Or ten times happier, be it ten for one;
Ten times thy self were happier than thou art,
If ten of thine ten times refigur'd thee:
Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart,
Leaving thee living in posterity?
Be not self-will'd, for thou art much too fair
To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir. | <urn:uuid:69007392-8b67-48dc-b1b9-c322d0a2ca2a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.killdevilhill.com/ravenchat/read.php?f=56&i=1794&t=1794 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929628 | 354 | 1.65625 | 2 |
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ACE CAFE & ROCK `N´ ROLL
Britain, particularly from 1956 to 1963, like much of the world, went crazy with the eruption of Rock 'n' Roll. Many UK teenagers identified with the new Rock 'n' Roll sounds, sounds that initially could only be heard on jukeboxes in transport cafes and coffee bars, though when a fair came your way, you knew you were in for a good time as every ride and sideshow would have Rock 'n' Roll, blasting out nice and loud.
This first wave of Rock 'n' Roll music gave youngsters a spontaneous worldwide voice - the voice of wild rebellion. This led to the adoption of specific styles of dress, behaviour and conduct. It was not uncommon that those meeting at places such as the Ace Cafe London, with its jukebox, were then motivated and inspired to create their own sounds. The sound of British Rock 'n' Roll. The British boys made good, and gave the enthusiastic audiences what they wanted and loved, live Rock 'n' Roll.
Rock 'n' Roll venues and clubs were opening, jukeboxes were being installed as fast as possible, with sales of tea and coffee booming! The energy of the new British stars such as Terry Dene, Wee Willie Harris, Marty Wilde, Tony Crombie, Billy Fury, Cliff Richard and many others, found a groundswell of support and identity from places like the Ace Cafe, which most would visit or call in at whilst on tour, and there listen on the jukeboxes to their own music.
Times changed as the sixties progressed, with the advent of The Beatles and the Mersey sound. It appeared to some that Tommy Steele, Marty Wilde etc. had semi retired.
Nevertheless, bands from the Ace Cafe, such as Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, provided a focal point for British Rock 'n' Roll, at a time when U.S. artists such as Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent appeared to have a greater following in Britain, rather than over there! With Gene Vincent insisting, we are told, on visiting the Ace, which was by then not only a well established meeting place for Rockers but also a stop off for touring bands.
With the rise of Carnaby Street, the Rock 'n' Roll sound so redolent of the fifties and sixties, could by now only be heard in a few places. One of course being the Ace Cafe, which sadly closed with the sixties in 1969.
During the 1970`s things began to look better for Rock 'n' Roll.
The Mersey bubble had burst, and it was obvious that Rock n´ roll was here to stay.
Groups like The Wild Angels, Hell Raisers, The Rock `n´ Roll All Stars, Impalas and ex Cafe man, Graham Fenton´s Houseshakers and later Matchbox, all added to this rejuvenation.
However, Rock 'n' Roll did not get that much radio airtime, and in 1976 a massive London march of Teddy Boys and Rockers demanded "More Rock 'n' Roll on radio".
By the late seventies things really began to take off again, with clubs seemingly opening everywhere.
With the 1980´s more new groups appeared on the Rock 'n' Roll circuit, many involving the new rockin´ teenagers who were looking for that elusive, powerful sound called Rock 'n' Roll.
Today we can clearly see that the Rock 'n' Roll scene is still very much with us, there being a tremendous variety, as never before, of sounds being released on CD and in that historic format, vinyl. With numerous record labels the world over, which together with the increasing number of Rock n´ Roll "Festivals", "Weekenders" and gigs to choose from, all underlining the importance and relevance of authentic original venues like the Ace Cafe.
You can see and feel the powerful energy of the Rock 'n' Roll spirit at the Ace Cafe Reunions - we´re working to unleash that spirit trapped in the Ace Cafe London. Beware!
Hail Hail Rock 'n' Roll
Thanks for the kind assistance of Mick Hill from "Rock You Sinners" - The mag for British Rock 'n' Roll. | <urn:uuid:9511cdeb-fcfa-4aef-ae5c-30b8f6d4c4f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ace-cafe-london.com/Music.aspx?view2=list&date2=01/04/2012%2000:00:00&m=04&y=2012 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963415 | 963 | 1.75 | 2 |
An Ohio man completely regenerated a severed finger in only four weeks by applying a powder developed by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh.
The finger appears to have grown back completely, including the nerves, nail and even fingerprint. Spievak says that he has "complete feeling [and] movement."
The dust Spievak used was developed by Stephen Badylak and colleagues, who produce it by scraping cells out of the lining of a pig's bladder, then immersing the rest of the bladder tissue in acid. The last remnants of cells are then cleaned out, and the processed bladder is dried into a powder. According to Badylak, this powder signals cells to regrow tissue, rather than scarring as they normally would. | <urn:uuid:52f4e261-65e5-4eda-8317-70cd328789c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tvnewslies.org/tvnl/index.php/news/science/4937-breakthrough-powder-regrows-lost-fingers-.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973266 | 150 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Drawing is a extraordinary pastime, and drawing cartoons can be a fun hobby for anybody, at any type of age! You can draw animations anywhere – on the bus, in the train, waiting at the airport terminal, sitting in the specialist’s office. It’s fabulous to carry a modest sketchbook by having you, however you can also draw cartoons on practically any sort of scrap of paper you identify. There’s no need to start a ” work of art.” You may merely break out your best-loved pencil and start.
When you would undoubtedly prefer to study precisely how to draw step by step you are able to take an craft program. You need to find out there are a bunch of courses that you are able to select from and also they expand from novices right via to courses for people that make up a natural talent yet are just liking to sharpen their skillsets and continue their capabilities. Based on how major you are by having your art vocation, you may pick a longer term course that will certainly gain you a degree in art or normally you have the ability to take basic courses that may help you in strengthening and establishing your own design for your own explanations.
First inquire yourself certainly not simply just what you would like to draw but additionally why accomplish you prefer to draw it? Exactly what is the concept you’re trying to offer the standee? Realizing the notion you’re using to put across to your people is a crucial first step. As an example, envisage that you prefer to draw an image of a dog and ask yourself why? Is it to indicate how desirable he is? Is it to show precisely how skillful a hunter they is? To demonstrate exactly how unsafe they is? Is it in reminiscence of him? Having understood what to connect the coming step is to consider how you are able to utilize the elements and approaches to make known it. You can easily use viewpoint, dark and also obscurities, colours, make-up, provide various information, make use of diverse illustration procedures etc.
You are able to discover the web is an superior equipment in your pursuit to find out precisely how to draw step by step. The internet will definitely be able to offer downloadable video clip tutorials to help with revealing you actual approaches on precisely how to portray certain things. Need to you arrange to learn how to draw a tiger you pay a visit to a video site such as YouTube as well as search for ” Just how To Draw A Tiger.” It is right now you are going to uncover a amount of video clips demonstrating how to draw tigers. You can hunt for whatever it is you would like to learn exactly how to draw step by step – it’s an outstanding tool. There are extra movie internet sites offered like YouTube, making the web a much required part of your drawing education.
There are lots of cartoon producers you can utilize to develop funny animation personalities, customized cartoons of your friends or include a sketch effect to a cartoon image; a few of them are free of cost. It is remarkably straightforward. You just have to fill a high-resolution photo as well as your caricature is just a press away. Such programs are commonly utilized to develop welcoming cards, a number of types of announcements and of course to illustrate books and also tabloids. Caricatures look exceptional on T-shirts, flagons and also various other kinds of gifts; many people use them to greatly improve the look of their websites as well as make them special.
copic sketch markers cheap And then, were going to start working now on the next action. | <urn:uuid:f6aa6c38-f842-489a-bea1-5078b4ad3793> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://globalpublicvoice.com/how-to-draw-individuals-some-concepts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967648 | 740 | 2.140625 | 2 |
In Greek mythology, Jason was leader of the Argonauts, who fetched the golden fleece. It became a common Hellenistic name and was even used by Greek-speaking Jews as the equivalent of Hebrew Joshua. A Jewish high priest called Jason is mentioned in 2 Macc. 4: 7 ff., and in Acts 17: 5–9 a Jason was Paul's host in Thessalonica, and perhaps was with him at Corinth (Rom. 16: 21). | <urn:uuid:66e99c35-6200-4e89-b53c-322e1b3bd60d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oxfordbiblicalstudies.com/print/opr/t94/e983 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.993289 | 96 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Until 2365, within the Federation it was widely believed that the Iconians were a myth. They were widely known in archaeological circles as ancient "demons of air and darkness" who were able to appear at will anywhere, travelling without benefit of spacecraft. On Stardate 42597.17 Captain Donald Varley of the Galaxy class USS Yamato was given an artefact thought to be Iconian when visiting an archaeological site. He was able to translate symbols on the artefact and after correcting for 200,000 years of stellar drift he was able to determine that the location of Iconia itself was in the Romulan Neutral Zone, close to Romulan space.
Varley proceeded into the Zone and encountered an active piece of Iconian technology around Stardate 42607.95. The device scanned his ship, whereupon the Yamato began to suffer various computer malfunctions. Immobilized, Varley called Captain Picard for assistance. Unfortunately, shortly after Picard arrived the Yamato began an emergency dump of its antimatter stocks. The dump was then halted and the containment fields dropped while sufficient antimatter was still present to cause a catastrophic explosion.
The Enterprise itself then began to experience similar computer malfunctions. It was determined that the Yamato had contracted a form of computer virus from the Iconian probe, which had communicated itself to the Enterprise via the communications system when the ship had transmitted its log entries. The Enterprise was able to destroy another probe before it could cause further contamination.
On Iconia itself Picard discovered the source of many of the legends concerning the Iconians; the Iconian gateway. The gate appeared as an oblong panel in the air with various destinations displayed in it. To reach a destination one simply stepped through at the proper time, crossing light years in a moment.
Picard was able to use the gateway to escape the planet after setting the generator equipment to self destruct so as to prevent it from falling into Romulan hands. The ship was able to clear out the Iconian program by conducting a complete shutdown and reboot of all computer systems and escaped from the area without further incident.1
A second Iconian gateway was discovered in the Gamma Quadrant by a force of rebel Jem'Hadar, who planned to use it to break away from the Founders and overthrow the Dominion. A joint Federation / Dominion assault force raided the location of the gate, which was protected by neutronium armour impenetrable to conventional weapons and a dampening field which rendered phasers inoperable. They joint force were able to fight their way to the gate and plant explosives to destroy it.
To date no further trace of functional Iconian technology has been discovered.2 | <urn:uuid:afd2bff2-0016-42d5-9746-634215882127> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ditl.org/pagscitech.php?ScitechID=25&ListID=Ships&ListOption=otherak | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972572 | 538 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Thank you for reading the Carson Courier! For additional information, please visit my website at http://www.carson.house.gov
In this week’s Carson Courier:
Opposing Child and Senior Nutrition Cuts
This week, I voted against the Republican-backed Agriculture Appropriations bill because it cuts $680 million from food and nutrition programs that assist millions of low-and middle-income families. One might think that, given rising food prices, if there is any issue that should garner bi-partisan support, it would be ensuring that children and seniors get proper nutrition.
Regrettably, only 19 Republicans joined me and the other House Democrats in opposing these cuts. Republicans chose to sever the lifeline to essential food for up to 350,000 low-income women and children (some 6,600 of whom are Hoosiers) and cut $30 million from senior food assistance programs next year. Yet, they remain unapologetic about overwhelmingly voting in favor of extending tax breaks to millionaires and subsidies to oil companies already earning record profits.
As long as I am in Congress, I will fight to ensure our most vulnerable citizens do not go hungry.
For more information click here.
Every June 19, we celebrate Juneteenth, the oldest, nationally-celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers brought news to slaves in Galveston, Texas that the Civil War was over and that they were now free. Juneteenth is a meaningful occasion for African-Americans to reflect on the monumental figures who brought about freedom, as well as the equally-inspiring pioneers who have combated the lingering injustices thereafter. I wish you all a joyous celebration with friends.
Honoring Fatherhood on Father’s Day
Being your representative in Congress is an incredible honor, but no job is as satisfying or essential as my job as a father. Studies have shown that children whose fathers are uninvolved perform more poorly in school, are more likely to use drugs, and have a greater number of emotional and behavioral problems. Sadly, one in three children in America today lives apart from their biological fathers. If we are to provide greater educational opportunities and put our youth on the path to greater success, we have to promote responsible fatherhood to stop the cycle of mothers going it alone. It is for these reasons that I proudly continue supporting legislation that my grandmother championed while in Congress that would encourage fathers to be more active in raising their children. This legislation, “the Julia Carson Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Families Act,” was named inhonor of the Congresswoman.
Thank you for reading the Carson Courier. Please do not hesitate to contact me with your thoughts and concerns. For more information, visit my website at http://www.carson.house.gov, my Congressional Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/
TAX ASSISTANCE INFORMATION | <urn:uuid:e691b8e8-fb1a-4400-a49f-4bce84c039bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.carson.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=780&Itemid=108 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950337 | 599 | 1.59375 | 2 |
How to run a 100 Square Super Bowl Pool
Print the square grid from above.
Take the grid around to family, friends, and co-workers, having each participant place their name in the square or squares of their choice. If you think you will be unable to fill the entire grid check out our 25 square grid and .
Once all the squares are full it is time to set up the drawing. This can be done in many ways, listed below are 2 examples. After determining the drawing method, draw the numbers one at a time placing the numbers from left to right starting with the first gray square box in the top row, continue across the top row until the numbers are gone. After that is complete you will redraw the numbers, this time placing the drawn numbers in the gray square boxes in the left column, starting at the top.
Example 1: Write the numbers 0-9 on pieces of paper and place them in a hat.
Example 2: Get a deck of cards A through 10, the ace represents a one, the 10 represents a 0, 2-9 are face value
Now is time for the fun!! Begin watching the game, at the end of each quarter match the last digit of each teams score with the grid.
Example: At the end of the first quarter the AFC team has 17 and the NFC team has 14. Go to the AFC top row of numbers and find the number 7(last digit of 17) then go to the NFC left column of numbers and find the number 4(last digit of 14) find where these two numbers intersect on the grid and the name in that square wins the first quarter. You will follow this step for all four quarters. Be sure to discuss what is going to be done in case of an overtime, some people will just ignore the overtime score, some people will substitute the overtime score for the 4th quarter, and others will declare 5 winners. Once again to avoid problems make sure all of this is discussed before the game begins. | <urn:uuid:f1e3777d-96ac-4d44-9b05-6a32257c4d2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.printyourbrackets.com/superbowldirections100squares.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918432 | 408 | 2.578125 | 3 |
CLEARWATER - Rachel Mackedon's cell phone is ringing off the hook. The Puerto Rico native is fielding calls from family members who are abuzz about Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina becoming the first Latino Pope, taking the name Pope Francis I.
"We were joking and excited because I am Hispanic," said Mackedon. "We have never had a Pope from this part of the world but very happy. God knows what he is doing."
Mackedon explained the importance of religion in the Hispanic culture calling it a cornerstone. She even serves as a secretary in the office at St. Cecelia's Church in Clearwater where the congregation is predominantly Hispanic.
The Catholic Church's fastest growth comes from Latin America. Latin America is also home to the largest percentage of Catholic's worldwide. The next largest followers of the religion come from Europe.
"It was really exciting," said Jasmine, an assistant youth minister at St. Cecelia's. "I guess no one was really expecting it. Knowing that he is from Argentina, it is really good. I think it will be really good for all those in Latin America."
ABC Action News will bring you more updates on this developing story when they are available.
Copyright 2013 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:70645690-ebc8-49cf-8b94-b3e79af2f033> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/region_pinellas/st-cecelia-parishioners-are-predominantly-hispanic-and-are-excited-about-latin-pope | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970195 | 281 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Sewage is good for something.
Discharging Kenner's treated sewage into the LaBranche wetlands could fertilize the swamp, protect against hurricanes and save Kenner millions of dollars.
"It is a win-win situation," said Prat Reddy, Kenner's deputy chief administrative officer for public works.
As part of an overhaul of its aging sewerage system, Kenner is considering discharging treated sewage into 2,800 acres of the LaBranche Wetlands in St. Charles Parish.
Consultants have finished a study on the feasibility of wetlands discharge, and design of a plan is underway, Reddy said. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will have to sign off on the project.
Treated sewage acts as fertilizer that could nourish plants and trees in the vanishing LaBranche wetlands, said Joel Lindsey, who with John Day owns Comite Resources, a Zachary company that is the subcontracter on the project.
Before Louisianians capped off the Mississippi River with levees, the river overflowed its banks every spring, fertilizing the wetlands and trees. "We're establishing that natural process that went on many years ago," Lindsey said.
Kenner's wastewater treatment plant would have to remove toxins, pathogens and bacteria from the sewage before it could be diverted into the wetlands. But the remaining phosphorus and nitrates in treated sewage are similar to what is in "a bag of fertilizer that you would put in your garden," Lindsey said.
If Kenner starts discharging the sewage into the wetlands, the state and EPA will require constant monitoring to ensure the correct amount of nutrients go into the wetlands, Lindsey said.
The current system of sewer lines is old and filled with cracks and becomes overloaded in heavy rains.
Designing a system to divert sewage into the wetlands will cost roughly $4.6 million, Reddy said, less than a third of the cost of the alternative: building a three-mile-long, 36-inch line to discharge sewage into the Mississippi River. Constructing a line to the river could cost $15 or $16 million, or maybe more, Reddy said.
Kenner's entire sewerage overhaul will likely cost about $30 million, Reddy estimated. Kenner Mayor Ed Muniz plans to finance most of the work with a low-interest loan from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. But Reddy said he is seeking some money for the wetlands work from a couple different federal sources dedicated for coastal restoration or "green" projects.
Discharging into the wetlands could save Kenner some of the money it costs to pump sewage from the treatment plant three miles to the Mississippi River, Reddy said. Under the current system, all of Kenner's treated wastewater is pumped through a 48-inch force main into the river. Kenner proposes putting up to 17 million gallons per day of wastewater into the wetlands, located only about 300 feet from the treatment plant. Any treated sewage above 17 million gallons would continue to go into the river.
Kenner's system treats 10-1/2 million gallons per day of wastewater in dry weather and 48 to 50 million gallons in wet weather, Reddy said.
And if Kenner starts discharging its treated sewage in the wetlands, it wouldn't be the first government in Louisiana to do so.
Kenner would join Mandeville, St. Charles Parish, Breaux Bridge, Thibodaux and Amelia, said Lindsey of areas where the programs have been triumphant. "Our monitoring studies indicate it's been very successful not only in terms of assimilating the nutrients into the wetlands but we're seeing growth of the trees," he said.
Mary Sparacello can be reached at email@example.com or 504.467.1726. | <urn:uuid:2ba9b767-eafe-48af-ae00-e3c8b8069db1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/plan_to_dump_some_of_the_citys.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952046 | 776 | 2.65625 | 3 |
The choking off of access to essential online technology is punishing a people already subject to relentless oppression by an increasingly totalitarian system. It also signifies the larger problem of the overzealous application of supposedly "smart" sanctions that extends them far beyond their intended targets and dumbs down their effects in flagrantly counterproductive ways.
Entries in Tehran Bureau (28)
Despite the fact that most led lives fairly isolated from Iranian society and had few if any Iranian friends, many of the former students of the Tehran American School developed life-long ties to the country. "I feel exiled from what I consider my second home," says T. Lilly Littlewater.
What they miss about Iran is not all that different from what any Iranian in the diaspora misses. They miss eating labu, roasted beets, sold on the side of the road. They miss the mountains, hiking and camping. They miss bread cooked over open flames in ancient ovens. They miss their friends and the community they formed together.
The Internet gave the power to publish practically anything and everything without state control. With all the problems with censorship in Iran, it was a tremendous opportunity to exercise freedom of speech.
I believe some people are chosen in a historic way to be trumpets. Generally, their fate is to be shattered and shunned, followed by a self-destruction caused by anguish descending from their mental no-where-lands. I believe humans were not born for thinking; rather, humans are afflicted with thinking. Those who carry on mundane daily lives and who stay in this state are more natural and closer to the instinctive human-animal of my mind. So we should look at being sheeplike in positivist terms. Right or wrong, good or bad is not relevant. It is about being or not being.
Many times I have tried to stop writing poetry and composing songs to rid myself of this illness so that like many others I can fall into a level where life has fewer dangers and headaches.
The current crisis is shaking some of the basic foundations of social order. The society as a whole, particularly the youth have no confidence in government, law and in clerical institutions. This loss of confidence translates into social behaviors such as disregard for the law, disrespect of cultural norms etc. which will further irritate Iranians with long-term consequences.
The lot of women day laborers in Iran, with its patriarchal social structure and straitened economic conditions, is not a happy one. These women, around two million of them, are virtually helpless when it comes to the defense of their rights. In a situation where the supply of labor outstrips demand, Iranian women's historically subordinate role makes many virtual slaves to their jobs.
1) the main companions of the central figure, Amir Mansour Khosravi, involved in all crimes such as forging and using documents, exchanging lines of credits, establishing fraudulent companies, transferring money, and buying property; br>
2) companions of Amir Khosravi active in the cases; br>
3) people who acted for Amir Khosravi as brokers; br>
4) management of companies who demanded faked lines of credit; br>
5) employees of the Amir Mansur Investment Group involved in embezzlement, receiving large payments to handle illegal affairs; br>
6) members of management and credit and supervisory departments of banks, who neglected their duties or dissipated funds as government employees. p>
Khosravi said he had spent 6 1/2 months in prison but had had only two hours to talk to his lawyer. The lawyer said he had had no chance to read the complaint.
Khosravi, according to the report, admitted that he had paid a $3 million bribe to Mahmoud Reza Khavari, the former head of Bank Melli who has fled to Canada, but added that he did not want to commit treason.
Almost everybody I talk to is under financial pressure. Many contractors are owed money by the governmental organizations, but not the ones that are part of the "khodi" [us] crowd. The war fears have subsided somewhat, but people are still very stressed out. A business owner tells me that workers who voted for Ahmadinejad back in 2005 are now all outspoken critics of the regime. Some who are young enough to be drafted in the event of a war say they will refuse to pick up a gun.
The first sign of trouble appeared in the gold market. There has always been a strong demand for gold and gold coinage in Iran, as Iranians have traditionally saved in the precious metal. "I never lose money buying gold," said Simin, a 50-year-old retired teacher and mother of four grown children. "Even during the war, I registered for Bahar-e Azadi coins [the Islamic Republic's official gold coins]. They are easy to hide and easy to trade. When I need cash, all I need to do is go into the first jewelry store and sell them at market price." Few became alarmed as gold prices began to increase in Tehran; after all, the gold market was on the upswing globally. According to an economist at the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), "Gold was rising everywhere, and it was only natural to see prices increasing in Tehran. Although sometimes the price of gold in Tehran was more expensive than its price in the global market, sometimes it was lower."
Our analysis at EA is that the currency crisis in Iran is driven by structural problems, mismanagement, mis-timed subsidy cuts and interest rate policies, and inflationary pressures. We do not see a plan by the Ahmadinejad Government, let alone a conspiracy, for the sudden fall of the Iranian rial.
That is not to say, however, that elements within the regime will give up a profit from the events. Those speculating against the rial --- has allegedly included officials in the Revolutionary Guards, in the Ahmadinejad camp, and in other areas of the Government --- have made a handsome sum by exploiting the gap between the "official" and "open-market" rates. And if economic crisis offers political advantage, should that be passed up?
"A Correspondent" for Tehran Bureau, while paying lip service to "fundamental structural problems" such as an excess of cash in the Iranian system, goes much farther. He/she sees a plot by the President and his inner circle to solve an immediate budgetary issue --- even if there are higher costs down the road --- while seeking a winning position in March's Parliamentary elections. | <urn:uuid:a361c09f-f486-4fc2-87a8-825610999c76> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/tag/tehran-bureau | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975813 | 1,343 | 1.789063 | 2 |