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12/23/2010 – Rev. Robert A. Sirico -
That the eternal God should deign to co-mingle in time and space with humanity does tell us something, not about the ‘smallness’ of God, but about the inestimable dignity of the human person who is created in the image of the Lord of History. Thus it tells us about the importance of human history to eternity; of the relation of the visible world to the invisible one; and of the way the mortal life we each live here and now determines our immortal destiny. [...]
Some years ago I found myself at a fashionable dinner party in Los Angeles where the lamb was roasted to perfection, and the deep, rich red Australian wine complimented it to a tee. The conversation around the dinner table was likewise high-minded and it did not take this largely secular gathering very long to turn their attention to the Christian sitting in their midst. With all the graciousness and condescension she could muster, my dining companion turned to me and said, “I am not a believer, of course, but I have long admired your Church’s care for the poor and suffering and the generosity and effectiveness of your social agencies who tend to human needs without regard to the belief or non-belief of the recipient.”
Had she stopped there I would have humbly received her acknowledgment and we might have moved on to the dessert in the same spirit of conviviality we had begun. It was when she smiled, drew a breath and said, “Yet — ” that I knew all had not been said that needed saying from her perspective.
“Yet,” she continued, “how is it that Christianity, whose priests invented the scientific method, and who built the institutions of the hospital and university, can hold to the idea of such a small God?”
The pugnacious New Yorker in me wanted to reply to the effect that, “Well even a small God is bigger than no god.” But I knew that would not go down well, and that the issue was not about “size” after all, but about meaning and, ultimately, Truth.
Feeling something like I imagined Flannery O’Connor did when confronted with collapsed-Catholic Mary McCarthy’s observation about the Eucharist as a impressive symbol, O’Connor retorted, “Well, if it’s just a symbol, I say to hell with it.”
Instead I swirled my shiraz and asked, “Whatever do you mean?”
She responded: “Well, all this stuff about God being born as a baby. This business about the ineffable inhabiting time and space. It just seems so small, so concrete, so … improbable.”
The lady had it right, or more precisely, she had it half right. The doctrine of the Incarnation is indeed a scandal, not to say improbable, to the modern mind that does not yet grasp the immensity of the concept or the enormity of its impact on all that would follow from it throughout history from that first Christmas to this one.
That the eternal God should deign to co-mingle in time and space with humanity does tell us something, not about the ‘smallness’ of God, but about the inestimable dignity of the human person who is created in the image of the Lord of History. Thus it tells us about the importance of human history to eternity; of the relation of the visible world to the invisible one; and of the way the mortal life we each live here and now determines our immortal destiny.
This season, which pulsates with nostalgia, memory, sadness as well as with a deep and abiding sense of profound joy and human meaning – and does it all at once – is a season prompted by the very Incarnation of God’s Love, a love that goes beyond words, but rather is a Word – the Logos – that became flesh.
It is for this very reason that the Christian faith which emerges from this proclamation about God’s entrance into the human condition, could build institutions and cultures aimed at concretely reverencing each and every human person from the very first moment of their existence in the womb, in all their vulnerability and potential, without regard to their ethnicity or some other accidental factor. It is the belief stipulated in that memorable passage from Ecclesiastes (3:11): “He has … set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
This idea can easily be dismissed by armchair sociologists and village atheists as the ranting of a Christian who presumes his message of the enfleshment of God to be true and therefore universally appealing.
But more than appealing it is compelling. As it was to my non-believing dinner companion who, in admiring the social consequences of institutional Christianity (from the university education she received that enabled her to articulate her critique in the first place, to the transforming of personal almsgiving into the massive worldwide network of social care and education, and even to the moral and justifiable denunciations against Christians for their failures to live up to the demands of the Gospel) she was in some inchoate way acknowledging the core idea of Christmas: that in the fullness of time, Heaven came down to earth to reveal man to himself and invite him to the simple, discrete yet world-changing concept of love.
Full article here: Acton Institute (originally posted on 12/22/2010) | <urn:uuid:f49a5f40-07e1-4708-b415-198ade8055d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/blog/2010/12/the-%E2%80%98small%E2%80%99-god-who-brought-heaven-down-to-earth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963849 | 1,161 | 2.09375 | 2 |
So it was with considerable surprise that I saw this piece from the Baltimore Sun:
"An internal review, begun last May at the behest of federal investigators and in response to a patient complaint, has turned up 369 patients with stents that appear to have been implanted in their arteries unnecessarily, CEO Jeffrey K. Norman said in an interview yesterday. Patients began receiving letters alerting them to the finding early last month, and more notifications are expected as the review continues.As bad as this might seem, realize that during angiogram procedures there are technicians and nurses that are responsible for prepping the room, administering meds and monitoring the patient. No physician works in isolation and everyone can see the monitors. Face it, the difference between a 95% blockage and a 10% blockage in a coronary artery is not subtle.
"We take our interaction and the care of our patients with the utmost seriousness, and so we wanted to alert patients and their physicians to what we found," said Norman.
In several cases reviewed by The Baltimore Sun, patients who received coronary stents at St. Joseph - purportedly to open a clogged artery to correct a severe blockage - have since learned they had only minor blockage, if any. One 69-year-old man was told his artery had a 95 percent blockage, yet the new review suggests something closer to 10 percent, which is considered insignificant. A 55-year-old woman who agreed to receive a stent after being told she had a 90 percent blockage has since learned she had virtually no problem and that she never suffered from the heart diagnosis that has consumed her life for the past 18 months."
So, yes, the doctor's actions in this case are unconscionable and should be met with swift action, but when something like this is allowed to occur it's much more than the fault of a single doctor.
This was a system problem. | <urn:uuid:8c9502fc-6cb6-4d84-b1b6-e82d64ff131d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://drwes.blogspot.com/2010/01/where-were-techs-and-nurses.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982825 | 388 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Personnel: Cubmaster, Den Leader, and Den Chief, Bobcat candidates and parents
Setting: Cubmaster calls the Den leader forward.
Cubmaster: Do we have any boys who desire to join our pack?
Den Leader: (comes forward) Akela, I have a boy who has shown his desire to join our pack.
Cubmaster: How has he shown his desire?
Den Leader: He has studied the Bobcat requirements and understands the purpose of Cub Scouting.
Cubmaster: Does he come alone?
Den Leader: No, his parents wish to join the pack also.
Cubmaster: Fine, bring him up. (Den Chief escorts new Bobcat candidate and his parents to the front.) What is your name?
I understand you wish to become a member of our pack.
Do you know the Law of the Pack?
Are you prepared to try to follow the Cub Scout ideals and obey the law?
Are you prepared to work hard and to advance in rank? Are you willing to do your best?
Good. You are about to start on the Cub Scout trail. Please repeat with me the Law of the Pack. (Cubmaster and boy repeats law.)
(To parents) Cub Scouting is a family pro-gram. Parents have certain responsibilities too. They are expected to help their son advance in rank. They are expected to attend pack meetings with their son, and help at other times when called upon. Are you willing to do these things to help your son achieve the goals and fun that will be his in Cub Scouting?
(To boy and parents) You are starting the Cub Scout trail which leads to the great game of Scouting. May each of you be happy in our pack. (Cubmaster shakes hands with boy and parents.)
(pinning on Bobcat pin) I am pinning on this Bobcat pin upside down. After you have done your first good turn which is approved by your parents, you may turn it right side up. Welcome to our pack.
This ceremony should have an Indian motif to make them more dramatic. The more costumes, feathers, etc. used the better. With modification, this ceremony can be used as a continuous event or separated into parts as the occasion calls for. | <urn:uuid:441a456f-907c-4a71-a155-26b16e9370c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://insanescouter.org/p/1174/175/Bobcat_Induction.html?r=other_clinks | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960963 | 463 | 1.828125 | 2 |
This press release is available in German.
Using the world's most powerful X-ray free-electron laser, an international team of researchers, including scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, has obtained new insight into the structure of a medicinally important protein that may serve as a blueprint for the development of drugs to fight sleeping sickness. Science magazine have chosen the experimental study as one of the top ten scientific breakthroughs of the year.
Sleeping sickness is caused by the unicellular organism Trypanosoma brucei that is transmitted by tsetse flies. The disease kills about 30,000 people word-wide each year. The currently available drugs against the disease are of limited efficacy and can have severe side effects. Moreover, resistance against them is increasing. A promising drug target is the protein Cathepsin B whose enzymatic activity is vital for the parasite's survival. Inhibitors of Cathepsin B need to be highly specific against the trypanosomal variant because it resembles the human form. The featured work provides detailed insight into the structure of trypanosomal Cathepsin B in a natively inhibited form that might serve as a blueprint for the rational design of drugs. The biologically important form of the protein was obtained by a trick: instead of crystallizing the protein in plastic trays in the lab, it was crystallized in vivo in the cells that produced the protein. This approach provides natively modified proteins, but the crystals obtained are tiny.
The use of the X-ray free-electron laser (FEL) at Stanford was essential for the work. Protein structures are typically determined by exposing crystals of the protein to X-rays. Unfortunately, many of the most interesting proteins, such a membrane proteins, do not form crystals of sufficient size for analysis by conventional X-ray sources. Measurements using very tiny crystals have now become feasible thanks to the extreme intensity of FELs whose ultrashort pulse durations outrun most radiation damage effects. It is these properties that allowed structure analysis of the tiny in-vivo grown Cathepsin B crystals. Using a model system, the Heidelberg researchers and their international colleagues had previously validated this new approach using FELs as a tool for structure analysis, an important step in the method development that published in February 2012 in Science. The current featured research demonstrates for the first time FEL use to obtain new biologically important information. The international team shows in detail how the structures of typanosomal and human Cathepsin B differ and how the naturally occurring native inhibitor binds . This may provide new ideas for designing drugs against sleeping sickness.
The team included researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg, the Center of Free-Electron Laser Science at Deutschen Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, the Arizona State University, the Universities of Hamburg, Lübeck, Tübingen, Uppsala and Göteborg, the SLAC National Accelerator Center (USA), the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (USA) and the Max Planck Advanced Study Group at the Hamburg Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL).
Lars Redecke et al.
Natively Inhibited Trypanosoma brucei Cathepsin B Structure Determined by Using an X-ray Laser
Science Express, November 29, 2012, DOI: 10.1126/science.1229663
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system. | <urn:uuid:53fd3458-c3c1-4614-b2f8-ce2d6774d449> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/m-fss122112.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916561 | 760 | 3.4375 | 3 |
The Supreme Court will attempt on Monday to untangle the political mess in Texas created by a voting rights controversy.
The case could have important political consequences, and highlights a lurking issue regarding the continued viability of a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, the landmark legislation passed in 1965 to protect minorities from discriminatory voting practices.
At issue are two very different sets of redistricting maps drawn up to take into account new census numbers for the state: Texas has grown by 4.3 million people since the previous census, and minorities make up the majority of the growth. Because of the population growth, Texas was awarded four additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Last spring the Republican-dominated Texas legislature passed one set of redistricting maps. But Democrats and minority rights groups immediately criticized them, arguing they did not reflect the growth of minority representation.
Texas, a state with a history of past discrimination in voting, is subject to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires the state to get approval or "preclearance" from the Department of Justice or a federal court in Washington, D.C., for any election-related changes.
As such, a Washington, D.C., court is currently reviewing the Texas maps. Because the court realized that the redistricting issue would not get resolved before the next election, it asked a panel of three Texas judges to draw up a set of interim maps.
Those interim maps are at the heart of the Supreme Court challenge. Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott asked the high court to block the court-drawn maps, which he said favored Democrats, arguing that the Texas court did not give enough deference to the legislature's maps.
The Supreme Court agreed to temporarily block the interim maps and expedite a review of the redistricting issue.
In court papers, Paul D. Clement, an attorney representing Texas, argued that the Texas court improperly ordered "sweeping changes" to the legislature-enacted maps and "made numerous highly controversial policy judgments."
"Even though the vast majority of districts for the Texas House had not even been challenged by DOJ in the preclearance proceeding or by the plaintiffs in this case, the majority's interim plan redrew the boundaries of 128 of the 150 House districts," Clement wrote.
He argued that the Supreme Court should allow the maps drawn by the legislature, not those drawn by the Texas court, to be used temporarily in the upcoming election while the preclearance procedure runs its course.
The Obama administration disagreed. It argued that if the Supreme Court were to allow even the temporary use of the legislature-drawn maps it would undermine Section 5's mandate that requires the state to obtain preclearance before enforcing voting changes.
Stanford Law School professor Pamela S. Karlan, who serves as counsel for the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, agreed, saying, "To allow an unprecleared plan to go in effect when it has been challenged long before an election cycle would be a major retreat from the way Section 5 has operated until now."
Although the constitutionality of Section 5 is not presented in this case, election law experts said the court would soon have to face that much more explosive question. | <urn:uuid:455ee194-f1ec-4462-b8aa-81c48a043812> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/texas-case-change-voting-rights-act/story?id=15299193 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951853 | 646 | 2.515625 | 3 |
CSEET 2010: Day 3 - Workshops
Notes from workshops held on day 3 of CSEET 2010...
Cloud created by:
Arosha K Bandara
11 March 2010
Notes from workshops held on day 3 of CSEET 2010
Workshop on Using Games to Teach Software Engineering Concepts
Gil Taran (iCarnegie, CMU), Emily Navarro (UC Irvine)
Games are not simulations, because they have an element of fun. Not many Software Engineering educators are using games. However, we probably should because people learn differently and games are one way of supporting this.
How to design games
Games design is hard, and benefits from an agile approach. It is a real craft that requires significant investment of resources. The best games don't need instructions on what to do and what the expected learning outcomes are. People can play the game in different ways but still achieve the same learning outcomes.
What literature is available to Software Engineering educators on how to design effective learning games? Not much.
Games can use a variety of media - board games, card games, paper games, video games, etc. Even the simplest games can be used to teach a variety of concepts / practices that are relevant to software engineers. The concepts include:
- Team working / communication / collaboration
- Estimation skills
- Risk assessment skills
- Decision making with incomplete information
- ... and more.
- North American Simulation and Gaming Association: http://www.nasaga.org/
- SimSE: www.ics.uci.edu/~emilyo/SimSE/
Arosha K Bandara
19:38 on 11 March 2010 (Edited 02:32 on 12 March 2010)
Business Case Studies Using Narrative Approach with MANGA Text
Hideo Yamamoto, Akiko Orita, Takao Terano and colleagues
This workshop demonstrated the use of comic strips to describe business case studies that can be used by students engaging in a variety of software engineering activities.
The activities range from those related to requirements engineering, such as stakeholder identification, work context specification, requirements elicitation; to those relating to other aspects such as change management and risk management.
Case study development involves a domain expert first specifying the scenario, which includes both a main plot line, sub plot and additional non-verbal cues (e.g., body language of characters, artefacts embedded in the work environment, etc.). Additionally, the domain expert might provide photographic examples of the working environment of the characters (e.g., an office where programmers work, or a factory). This information is provided as a brief to a professional comic book artist who provides some initial sketches and story boards. These are reviewed and refined iteratively and the final versions are inked up and printed for use by the students.
Positives is that students are able to access the case study material more easily. Additionally, the visual representation allows inclusion of non-verbal clues that could not be easily included in a textual description of the scenario. Also, as described above the scenarios can be reused for a variety of learning objectives.
Main negative is the amount of effort involved in producing the Manga Comic strip. There are currently four stories developed, although the layout of the storyboards are such that they strip has to be read from right-to-left (as per Japanese reading order) which makes it a little difficult to read when translated to English.
Arosha K Bandara
02:47 on 12 March 2010 | <urn:uuid:e6122319-6cf9-4a69-b7e6-d855800c6cb9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/3088 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93551 | 717 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Ginormous hair. It's the first thing you notice when you look at Phi Lambda Chi pledge-class pics from the mid-'80s. Big, crunchy waves and gravity-defying bangs
. But while they all sported the hair, the Greek letters, and the frosted lip gloss, each woman in these photos had her own distinct financial personality. "We start forming our ideas about money at a very, very young age, but college is the first time you're in charge, the first time those ideas really express themselves," says personal finance expert Carmen Wong Ulrich, author of The Real Cost of Living
Among these Phi Lamb sisters from the State University of New York, Geneseo, you'll find a budding frugalista, a big spender, and every money mentality in between. They're Sharon, Jonna, Sue, Nicole, and Melissa. All 44 now, they've experienced marriages and divorces, had children, forged careers, worked hard at home and outside of it. And while their financial personalities may have been formed during the age of Aqua Net, they continue to evolve as their lives and the economy constantly change. Today, nearly 25 years since graduation, Sue lives, as she says, "paycheck to paycheck," while Sharon owns a thriving business. Nicole, who's bounced back from bankruptcy, is going back to school; Jonna says she's financially stable. And Melissa and her husband have a combined net worth of seven figures.
These friends all started in similar financial circumstances no trust funds, no head starts from parents so how'd they end up in such different places? Can they improve their money habits, guide each other, and all live large or at least comfortably from now on? We sent in the experts to find the takeaway for them, and for the rest of us. | <urn:uuid:57f321fc-753f-465d-bf75-4b8c9220ee5d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.redbookmag.com/money-career/tips-advice/secrets-to-making-more-money?link=rel&dom=yah_life&src=syn&con=blog_redbook&mag=rbk | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96943 | 376 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Kuala Lumpur (The Star/ANN) - The hairdressing industry in Malaysia, which generates about 10 billion ringgit (US$3.21 billion) a year, is in need of some help.
According to Malaysian Hairdressing Association (MHA) president Billy Lim, it is harder for a hairdresser to get a bank loan to open a hair salon than it is to get a loan to buy a car.
It costs about 50,000 ringgit to open a nice salon, including buying the equipment, hair products, furniture and doing up the interior dcor, he says.
But hairdressers, particularly those who are just starting out, have to struggle because banks will not accept their equipment and furniture as assets or collateral and hence will not give them a loan to set up shop.
"Fishermen and farmers have it easier than us because the Government gives them funding," claims Lim.
"If we can't get bank loans, then we hope the government will look into our industry and offer us development loans or grants because we are doing a service for the people," he adds.
While there are a number of hairdressers in the country who have made their name and are doing well, he says, the other 90% or so need help.
Two months ago, Lim says, he wrote a three-page letter to the Prime Minister outlining the problems facing the hair-dressing industry and proposing solutions that the Government could do to help.
Hoping for a positive response, he hand-delivered the letter to the Prime Minister's office in Putrajaya, he says.
He adds that the Prime Minister's senior private secretary, Muhammad Ammir Haron, wrote back to say that the letter had been forwarded to the International Trade and Industry Ministry. Lim says he is still waiting for a favourable response.
Pointing to the HairWorld Championships of Beauty, which is like an Olympics for the world's top hairdressers, Lim believes Malaysian hairdressers are good enough to compete in it and win a medal or two for the country. (The hairdressers compete every two years for their respective countries in different categories of hair styling.)
But what is holding them back right now is the cost, he explains. "If we go, we represent the country yet we have to fork out our own money for the flight, accommodation and fees to compete.
"And those from the smaller salons might need to even close their outlets for a few days in order to go."
This year's HairWorld is being held in early October in Milan, Italy.
Jimmy Choo or Zang Toi made it big in shoes and fashion design respectively, primarily because they ventured abroad, Lim points out.
"So our hairdressers need to participate in these international platforms to be recognised and make their name," he says, hoping for Government support and funds (like it provides for sports tournaments) to help the best in the industry participate in HairWorld and other international competitions.
Lim estimates that the local hairdressing industry as a whole, including cutting and styling services, products, equipment, advertising, modelling and entertainment events, generate about 10 billion ringgit a year in revenue.
On a more personal level, Lim thinks Malaysians are not paying enough attention to their hair.
"They think nothing of paying 2.20 ringgit for a cup of coffee and drink a cup a day which comes up to 66 ringgit a month. They pay 30 ringgit a week for petrol for their car but they are reluctant to pay 35 ringgit a month on average for a hair cut," he says.
"Hair is so important. We wear it all the time even when we sleep yet people want to pay the least money for it, " he says.
For him, (unlike plastic surgery) people can do "harmless surgery" with hair where they can cut it, shape it, perm it, straighten it, colour it and all sorts of other things to change and enhance the way they look.
Most people in developed countries, he says, are well groomed and he would love for Malaysians to look just as good.
He points out that in developed countries, men go for hair cuts every three weeks but here they do it once every one-and-a-half month.
As for women in developed nations, he says they visit the hair salon every month, and some even go every two weeks or so, but in Malaysia, the fairer sex visits the salon on average once every two months.
"People pay more for the clothes they wear than their haircut but you really need to go to the hair salon more often than you go shopping because you should look well groomed, and hair is your one and only'."
To illustrate his point, he says: "With clothes, if you don't like it, you can always throw it out and buy another; but not with hair."
A decent cut by a junior stylist costs on average 35 ringgit while one by a senior stylist ranges from 60 ringgit to 100 ringgit or more, depending on the experience.
But Lim stresses that this is a very small amount to pay to "dress your hair".
"The more you pay, the better quality you get, " he says, adding that he can easily spot one of those 12-ringgit-in-15 minute hair cut because of just how poorly it is done.
Qualification-wise, Lim who has been in the hair industry for 28 years, says it is easy enough to become a hair dresser.
It takes only six to eight months of training and then a whole lot of practice to gain and build on the skills and expertise.
And in two to three years (though some learn a lot faster) with frequent practice, he reckons a person can become a good hair dresser.
In his book, a hairdresser needs to have done at least 100 hair cuts before he or she becomes very good at it.
"You need to know how to use the tools, the products and understand hair, its texture, thickness, density, colour and length to do a good job."
According to the MHA's estimates, there are 40,000 hair dres sers in the country.
For Lim, there should be more, at least double that number, because hair dressers are currently working 10 to 12 hours a day and those in the smaller hair salons can't afford to take leave or a day off.
One problem the industry faces is people looking down at hair dressing as a profession, he says.
"This is usually because those who venture into hairdressing are mostly school dropouts, those without higher education, divorcees and other problem cases," he says.
We want the Government to encourage all kind s of people to join the trade, as hair dressing is a good professional career, he says.
"We are of service to everybody." But even customers who appreciate good hairdressing when asked if they would encourage their children to take it up say they prefer their kids to be highly educated and "professionals", he laments.
"So it's good for me but it's not good enough for you. That's sad."
Lim reckons only 0.3% of those involved in the industry are university graduates who a re in it because of their interest.
Another problem affecting the local hair industry is that about 30% of trained hairdressers tend to seek greener pastures abroad, leaving Malaysia to practise in countries like Singapore, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Holland, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, New Zealand and the United States.
Talking about pay, an average junior hair stylist can earn 1,200 ringgit per month which, Lim admits, is lower than what some foreign workers make. But they do get a percentage of each hair cut they do.
Senior stylists get about 6,000 ringgit to 10,000 ringgit or more, depending on where they work and how sought after they are.
"Celebrity hair stylists, the brand ambassador hair stylists and well-known ones earn very much more than that," he says, adding that a number of hairdressers who have made it are rich, own expensive houses, drive luxury cars and spend tonnes (of money) on branded goods.
"They are private so it's hard to estimate how much they earn," he says, adding that a good hairdresser should be not only good in hair-do skills but also in business skills to sell and promote their services.
* US$1 = 3.11 ringgit | <urn:uuid:260d469b-0bf1-4ca3-bd98-3cf1667c32c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://my.news.yahoo.com/unkind-cut-hairdressers-065005569.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97129 | 1,794 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Special Collections Subject Guides
Special Collections by Subject Heading
Special Collections materials and resource guides to assist researchers with multiple subjects. To help researchers more easily find what they need, we grouped by topic our manuscript collections, relevant library websites, pathfinders, and bibliographies. These guides supplement our clippings file and on-line catalog.
Disclaimer: The pathfinders, documents that serves as map and guide to bibliographic research on specific topics, included on these pages were compiled by Appalachian Studies 5000 "Appalachian Research and Bibliography" graduate students from 1997 to present. These pathfinders, like the students who produced them, vary in quality: some are excellent and others, while not as complete or as skillfully prepared, are still useful to the novice researcher. The pathfinders also serve as introduction to more exhaustive bibliographies covering the same topics. The bibliographies are on file in the W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection. Because these pathfinders are the intellectual property of former students, they are not updated except to remove links to defunct websites.
- Appalachian Studies Selected Bibliography
- History and Development of the Appalachian Regional Commission
Ethnicity and Race
See also African-Americans and Cherokees
Feuds: See Crime
Subject Guides J through Z
Melungeons: See Ethnicity and Race | <urn:uuid:cf41b14b-8056-4cfe-864a-9d4b31377e4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://collections.library.appstate.edu/collections/sc/subject/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913606 | 276 | 2.5625 | 3 |
June 11, 2012
- 99 Copyrights and Intellectual Property
- 99I Copyrights
- 99I(J) Infringement
- 99I(J)1 What Constitutes Infringement
- 99k67.1 k. Motion Pictures and Other Audiovisual Works.
No substantial similarity existed between motion picture produced by plaintiff and one produced by defendant; although both films involved unknown alien arriving on earth, alien characters in both motion pictures were portrayed differently, aliens’ relationships with lead protagonists in each film was dissimilar, settings of two films was not substantially similar, aliens’ disposition toward earth people differed dramatically in both films, and spaceship which rescued aliens from earth in each film was not substantially similar.
Wavelength Film Co. v. Columbia Pictures Indus., Inc., 631 F. Supp. 305 (N.D. Ill. 1986) | <urn:uuid:3402d21d-f545-428f-8478-5697a80369e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.westlawinsider.com/headnote-of-the-day/different-aliens/?wpmp_switcher=desktop | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938511 | 180 | 1.789063 | 2 |
“I’m singing in the rain, I’m singing in the rain, what a wonderful feeling, I’m happy again!”
Before Shabbat, the Heavens opened with a symphony of thunder and lightning, and the great blessing of rain washed over the Land of Israel in answer to our prayers. Like I do every year with the very first rain, I hurried outside and danced in joy, laughing happily as the raindrops splashed on my face.
“Raindrops keep falling on my head… da da da da da da da da da da da… nothings worrying me!”
Back in the house, I opened the door to the terrace so I could hear the splattering of rain on the aluminum roof. What a wonderful sound! “What a glorious feeling! I’m happy again!” The clatter of raindrops sounded like the clinging of coins in a beggar’s cup. “Rain, rain, don’t go away – stay with us another day!”
When lightening lit up the sky and thunder shook the heavens, I recited their special blessings with exuberant joy. What a privilege to be in the Holy Land when it rains! It’s like every drop is a kiss from Hashem, assuring us that He loves us.
Yesterday, driving to Tel Aviv, it was pouring. I sang all the way! What a blessing to be stuck in a long traffic jam in Israel because of the rain! For nearly 2000 years, we’ve prayed to come home to Israel, and now that Hashem, in His infinite kindness, has allowed us to rebuild our Land, what a joy that we have long traffic jams! It’s a sign that the country is booming! Would Moshe Rabanu have complained to sit in a traffic jam in Israel? Would Rashi have grumbled? No way!
I can’t help comparing our great joy in Israel over the rain to the recent devastating rains in New York. There it was a disaster. You want to know why? Look at this, from the Torah giant, the “Ohr Somayach,” Rabbi Meir Simcha HaCohen from Dvinsk, from his famous commentary on the Torah, the “Meshech Chochmah,”
“If a Jew thinks that Berlin (New York) is Jerusalem, then a raging storm-wind will uproot him by his trunk – a hurricane will arise and spread its roaring waves, and it will swallow and destroy, and flood forth without pity” (Meshech Chochmah, Pg. 171).
In the same light, the Torah giant, Rabbi Yaacov Emden, writes in the Introduction to his famous siddur, “The Beit Yaacov,”
“When it seems to us, in our present peaceful existence outside of the Land of Israel, that we have found another Eretz Yisrael and Jerusalem, this is to me the deepest, most obvious, most outstanding, and direct cause of all of the awesome, frightening, monstrous, unimaginable destructions that we have experienced in the Diaspora.”
In the meantime, I’m yours truly, just singing and dancing in the rain.
About the Author: Tzvi Fishman was awarded the Israel Ministry of Education Prize for Creativity and Jewish Culture for his novel "Tevye in the Promised Land." For the past several years, he has written a popular and controversial blog at Arutz 7. A wide selection of his books are available at Amazon. The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of The Jewish Press
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You must log in to post a comment. | <urn:uuid:811afb10-77c6-4197-826f-ff8afb5d3d4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishpress.com/blogs/felafel-on-rye/over-here-my-rain-is-happy/2012/11/12/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941584 | 807 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Caffeinated coffee linked to lower risk of some oral cancers
A new multi-institute American Cancer Society study finds a strong inverse association between caffeinated coffee intake and oral/pharyngeal cancer mortality. The authors say people who drank more than four cups of caffeinated coffee per day were at about half the risk of death of these often fatal cancers compared to those who only occasionally or who never drank coffee. The study is published online in the American Journal of Epidemiology. The authors say more research is needed to elucidate the biologic mechanisms that could be at work. The team included researchers from Emory University (home of the Winship Cancer Institute) and New York University (home of the NYU Cancer Institute).
Among the research institutions NCI funds across the United States, it currently designates 67 as Cancer Centers. Largely based in research universities, these facilities are home to many of the NCI-supported scientists who conduct a wide range of intense, laboratory research into cancer’s origins and development. The Cancer Centers Program also focuses on trans-disciplinary research, including population science and clinical research. The centers’ research results are often at the forefront of studies in the cancer field. | <urn:uuid:f7cbeaad-053a-4a6e-839c-1c7e84b1f959> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cancer.gov/newscenter/cancerresearchnews/2012/CaffeinatedCoffeeOralCancers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950393 | 244 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Getting on the board
Let them explain.
A couple of years ago, Kate Childs Graham’s mother bought her this crazy board game, with tiny little cardinals and a Monopoly-like interface. The game is called “Vatican: Unlock the Secrets of How Men Become Pope.”
“She knew I was such a Catholic nerd,” Graham says. So she got this game, only she never had a good reason to play it.
When Benedict became the first pope to resign in 600 years, it seemed like a good reason.
There are no men playing on this night, so the newly elected pope is going to be a woman. Specifically, it is going to be a 20- or 30-something woman from a super-progressive movement, such as Call to Action or the Women’s Ordination Conference — an organization working for gender equality in the Catholic Church — both of which are represented here. Specifically, a Jewish rabbi would have a better chance of becoming pope than anyone at Graham’s house, but no matter, the chili is excellent, and there’s wine.
“Four Katherines in one room,” says Erin Hanna, after the introductions have been made. Four Katherines, two Erins and a Margaret. “Only at a pope party!”
It’s been a really busy week for Hanna and her co-worker Kate Conmy, also here at the party. “We’ve been figuring out,” Hanna says, “how to get pink smoke to Rome.”
Hanna is the executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference. The pink smoke is meant to parallel the black smoke and white smoke piped out by the Vatican during the papal election process — and to remind the world that women cannot be priests, much less popes. However, pink smoke bombs cannot be FedExed to Italy, because they are flammable.
“It turns out you have to go to this special dangerous-goods FedEx,” Hanna explains. “The whole place is practically bubble-wrapped.”
It was going to take weeks and cost hundreds of dollars to get the pink smoke across the ocean, so now they just might have to do without.
Catholic and gay
“I was driving to work when I first heard the pope had resigned, and I literally swerved my car.” Before the pope party, Graham — short hair, glasses, 28 — talks a little about her faith.
She loves being Catholic. She was raised Catholic. She went to Catholic University. She and her partner, Ariana, were married by an ex-nun, and their toddler, Asher, was baptized in a Catholic church.
Still, it’s a struggle and a cognitive disconnect to love something so deeply that sometimes seems not to love her back. She was devastated when the bishops of Maryland — her adopted home state — banded together last fall to oppose same-sex marriage. | <urn:uuid:5d68c2e2-0d6c-45bc-9e5b-161647e586fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/left-out-of-official-catholic-conclave-these-ladies-play-the-pope-game/2013/03/01/26b6ec86-827b-11e2-b99e-6baf4ebe42df_story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980984 | 635 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Called Chimney, the lamps are hand-thrown and kiln-fired, made of clay from the region in Wales where they are produced.
The inside of each shade is glazed in white.
More about Benjamin Hubert on Dezeen:
See all our stories about London Design Festival 2009 in our special category.
Here's some more information from Hubert:
Chimney is a collection of hand thrown, kiln fired clay pendant lamps.
They are produced in a pottery studio in Wales and utilise the natural clay of the region.
Using traditional hand thrown techniques each lamp has its own unique character with a textured exterior finish in contrast to a gloss white glazed interior.
Chimney Lights are designed by Benjamin Hubert Studio and manufactured by Viaduct.
The multi award winning Benjamin Hubert Studio was established in 2007 and works with a range of international design brands to develop products that have an inherent timeless quality and user benefit.
The studio works across furniture, lighting and product sectors with a functionally led, austere aesthetic.
Benjamin employs a material and process driven design approach and has explored various innovative material/production techniques.
Large h 280mm Ø 320mm
Small h 330mm Ø 210mm
Hand thrown, kiln fired clay in natural burnt orange finish with a gloss white glazed interior. | <urn:uuid:f5cd3983-8d41-451a-ba5a-0d40cd420e46> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dezeen.com/2009/09/19/chimney-by-benjamin-hubert-for-viaduct/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909342 | 282 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Maine’s third largest lake, Chesuncook Lake is best known as a starting point for whitewater rafting on the Penobscot River and for the famed landlocked salmon fishery in the West Branch of the Penobscot, below Ripogenus Dam. However, Chesuncook Lake itself offers outstanding landlocked salmon angling in a wilderness setting characteristic of northern Maine. While brook trout and lake trout are present, landlocked salmon and white perch are the most often sought-after fish species.
The lake occupies 26,200 acres and was originally formed by the construction of Ripogenus Dam which was built primarily for water storage and hydro power and as a means to send pulp wood to downstream paper mills. With maximum water depths of 150 feet, it remains today as an important salmon fishery and one of the The Maine Highlands Region’s primary wilderness vacation destinations.
The southwestern portion of the lake is also known as Caribou Lake which is one of the most popular portions of the lake for landlocked salmon anglers. The main body of water is large and anglers should consider larger boats rather than canoes or kayaks.
Primary public boat access is located off the Golden Road that connects Greenville and Moosehead Lake to Ripogenus Dam. Numerous wilderness campsites are located throughout the lakeshores. Those not familiar with wilderness angling or camping may wish to acquire the services of a Registered Maine Guide.
The extreme northeastern portion of the lake where Umbazooksus Stream enters Chesuncook is noted for huge white perch. Anglers may choose to reach this portion of the lake via the Chamberlain Bridge at the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. | <urn:uuid:98667db3-ffc6-425d-ba17-3c66f9e31b39> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.visitmaine.com/attractions/outdoor_recreation_sports_adventure/fishing/river_country/lakes_ponds/chesuncook_lake/?slidebar=close | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953276 | 346 | 2.125 | 2 |
A meteorite is simply an object that has entered another bodies atmosphere (in this case planet Earth) and survived travelling through the atmosphere to impact the ground. An asteroid never impacts another bodies atmosphere, and has no atmosphere itself. An asteroid can range in size from small to very large, and even have their own moon/s.
Edit - to simplify the difference, they are both basically the same thing, both originating from space, they are separated only by location, an asteroid stays in space, a meteorite is what hits the ground.
Edited by Sky Scanner, 17 February 2013 - 09:31 PM. | <urn:uuid:9b33c5a3-d0d3-447d-92a8-bb0d4bafb0d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?s=f9540f608f512e10047979a7c6811bef&showtopic=243092&st=15&p=4668220 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967199 | 125 | 2.75 | 3 |
The leader of the left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, has slammed the government’s failure to adapt infrastructure to minimize loss of life in flooding – although the reaction of the center-right opposition National Action Party has been more muted. The real problem for the ruling party, which faces its toughest test yet at the polls next year, may be the poverty that the flooding will amplify. "Even if the government had been more efficient in getting the flood-hit areas cleaned up, it’s going to be a lot more difficult to compensate for the loss of livestock and crops that threatens the livelihood of already impoverished people," says Buchanan. "Restoring any sort of normal life in those areas is a huge challenge, and the resulting discontent may make things difficult for the ruling party in the next election."
Bad weather forecast for Mexico’s Pacific coast could signal a period of even stormier conditions for the country's ruling party. As they braced for Tropical Storm Irwin’s arrival, Mexicans in different parts of the country took to the streets Monday to protest the government’s handling of recent flooding that killed at least 300 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless. "Mexicans are traditionally extremely respectful of their president, in part because of the country’s authoritarian history," says TIME Latin America bureau reporter Ron Buchanan. "But President Zedillo has been subjected to some harsh criticism, and has even experienced some unpleasantness on the streets as he’s gone around flood-hit areas." | <urn:uuid:3bad74c6-672a-4ccb-95aa-edecba0849c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,32302,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955179 | 313 | 1.828125 | 2 |
OIL'S WELL?: It is still unclear whether or not marine and coastal ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico are healthy two years after BP's offshore drilling rig exploded 40 miles off the Louisiana coast, eventually releasing 205.8 million gallons of oil into the water column. Image: U.S. Coast Guard
Dear EarthTalk: I’ve seen a lot of warm and fuzzy TV ads, some sponsored by BP Oil, urging me to vacation in the Gulf of Mexico. But are things really “back to normal?”—Paul Shea, Dublin, Ohio
The Gulf of Mexico may be open for business and eager to attract tourists, but it’s still unclear whether or not marine and coastal ecosystems there are healthy two years after BP’s offshore drilling rig exploded 40 miles off the Louisiana coast, eventually releasing 205.8 million gallons of oil into the water column.
Five months after the April 2010 disaster the Obama administration released a detailed recovery plan, calling for spending up to $21 billion—most which would come from BP’s civil penalties—on clean-up and long-term ecosystem restoration. With much of this work—designed to complement the restorative powers of Mother Nature—well underway, some observers are pleased with the results so far.
“The natural recovery is far greater than what anybody hoped when it happened,” says James Morris, a University of South Carolina biologist and a member of the National Research Council committee tasked by Congress to assess the effects of the spill on the Gulf's ecosystem. “The fears of most people—that there would be a catastrophic collapse of the ecosystem in the Gulf—never materialized.”
“The fisheries have come back like gangbusters,” Morris reports. “One of the interesting findings was that after the oil spill, bait fish populations collapsed, and predator populations boomed. The reason was that there was no fishing pressure on the top predators because people stopped fishing after the spill. So the predator fish populations rebounded, and they grazed down their prey.”
Not everyone shares such a rosy view. The international environmental group Greenpeace reports: “Throughout the food chain, warning signs are accumulating. Dolphins are sick and dying. Important forage fish are plagued with gill and developmental damage. Deepwater species like snapper have been stricken with lesions and their reefs are losing biodiversity. Coastal communities are struggling with changes to the fisheries they rely upon. Hard-hit oyster reefs aren’t coming back and sport fish like speckled trout have disappeared from some of their traditional haunts.”
Still other observers argue that two years is not enough time to tell whether the region’s ecosystems will be severely damaged long term. “We really don’t know the effects the Deepwater Horizon spill had in the deep sea because we know little about the ecosystem processes there,” reports Gary Cherr, director of UC Davis’ Bodega Marine Laboratory and a lead author on a recently released paper published in the journal Bioscience. Cherr and his fellow researchers, including leading oceanographers, ecotoxicologists, and ecologists, conclude that scientists need more time to study how to contain damage from such accidents, especially given the trend to seek new sources of oil in off-shore regions around the U.S. and beyond.
“The deep sea is not a dead zone. It’s not a desert. There’s a lot of life down there,” adds Cherr. “Unfortunately it’s not until a disaster happens that we try to piece together the impacts. That’s difficult to do when you don’t have a complete—or even partial—understanding of the ecosystem.”
EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine ( www.emagazine.com). Send questions to: email@example.com. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe. Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial. | <urn:uuid:0f1ab11e-c12e-46b5-9fe1-953d024cc9a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=gulf-of-mexico-two-years-after-bp-disaster | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937993 | 852 | 3.171875 | 3 |
10/2/2012 10:34 AM
Dual Credit allows students to earn high school and college credit for the same course simultaneously. These courses may be taught on the high school or college campus, or online. Students may be asked to pay a tuition fee in order to enroll (this will vary according to school and district policy).
In Dual Credit, a student is enrolled in a course which allows him/her to earn high school credit and college credit simultaneously. This course may be taught on a college campus or on a high school campus, but it will be in conjunction with a college or university.
Dual Enrollment is very similar to Dual Credit. However, with dual enrollment, the student will actually be enrolled in both high school and college. Therefore, the classes are nearly always taught on the college campus and the student will often be taking multiple college courses.
A Middle College or an Early College is a high school located on a college campus that targets students whose demographics are traditionally underrepresented on college campuses. It will typically have a small enrollment and will focus on advising for college readiness. These schools often provide students the opportunity to take courses for both high school and college credit. | <urn:uuid:3b63e324-f9d8-44ca-9af5-00bc8845d831> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://education.ky.gov/educational/AL/dc/Pages/default.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97572 | 239 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Neurotoxins in meat and fish may be contributing to brain damage (including memory loss and dementia) as well as muscle tremors. Fetuses, infants, and children are particularly at risk, but adults should also avoid foods containing mercury (see also here) present in fish, other animal products, and products containing high fructose corn syrup (see comparisons to amalgam fillings and vaccines). Other potential neurotoxins include copper found in meats, arsenic found in chicken, and acrylamide found in certain fried foods such as french fries. Neurotoxins have been found in the Ayervedic supplements, spirulina, blue-green algae (but not chlorella), fish, and fish oil. Flame-retardant chemicals are also found in retail U.S meat supply. Tofu preserved with formaldehyde may also be toxic. At the same time, ginger and apple juice may be protective against Alzheimer’s disease.
Topic summary contributed by Elizabeth Stolle.
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Watch videos about neurotoxins
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Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death
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Amnesic Seafood Poisoning
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April 11, 2011
Dietary Theory of Alzheimer’s
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April 9, 2011
Drug Residues in Meat
The U.S. Inspector General cites the USDA for failing to safeguard the meat supply from drug residues. | <urn:uuid:4fbf52ab-527d-499e-bde1-118ea1e62dc1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nutritionfacts.org/topics/neurotoxins/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915283 | 504 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Barbara Reid from the Children's Hearings Training Unit told the
Education and Culture Committee
providing advocacy for children at hearings would be a "huge step forward in protecting children".
The committee was continuing its inquiry into decision making on whether children should be taken into care on 15 January 2013.
The inquiry focuses on the decision-making processes involved in determining whether a child should be removed from the family home and taken into care and whether these decision-making processes are working for children and their families.
At the moment there are 16,000 looked-after children in Scotland.
Ms Reid said children have the right to take someone with them to a hearing but this was still not happening.
Bernadette Monaghan from Children's Hearings Scotland told MSPs when the
Children's Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011
came into force in June 2013 they were aiming for a "much more consistent approach", after the committee raised previous witnesses' concerns about varied approaches to hearings across local authorities.
Hugh McNaughtan from the Children's Panel Chairmen's Group and Malcolm Schaffer from the Scottish Children's Reporter also gave evidence. | <urn:uuid:6d92f2d3-5af0-475b-9f7d-335b5fcf38b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/scotland/newsid_9785000/9785325.stm | 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 | 0.970974 | 234 | 2.078125 | 2 |
The ultimate goal of any job interview, from the perspective of an employer, is to determine whether the candidate is qualified for the position or not. However, one thing that companies must bear in mind is that the interview process is not one sided aspect, as applicants will often interview the companies as well.
Campus interviews are distinct from traditional interviews due to the time and effort that is needed on the part of the applicants, the recruitment team, and the search staff. In a campus interview, prospecting companies will be expected to do more than merely interview a group of applicants on a one-to-one basis. Instead, the company will also be expected to visit the campus, take care of the accommodations, seminars, meals, and other activities that are related to recruitment. The biggest difference between a standard job interview and a campus interview is that campus interviews require much more planning and time.
On the typical college campus, there may be hundreds or even thousands of students that make good potential employees for a firm. Due to this large volume of applicants, the recruitment process must be well organized and efficient to recruit the best prospects.
Planning a Campus Interview
A campus interview cannot be established until the Dean has given approval to the search staff for the recommendation of serious applicants. A recruitment document will be given to the Dean, and these documents will generally contain the names of the students who are the most qualified.
The search staff will generally contact the student first, and at this point the search staff and student will set up a date for the appointment. Depending on the college or university, this process is sometimes carried out by the department staff.
There are often expenses for the candidate that will need to be reimbursed, and these are the post travel expenses, the direct payment, and the payment for the data record. A form will need to be filled out for each of these three expenses, and candidates are expected to complete these forms before their arrival to the interview. The travel expenses form can be completed after they have made their trip.
Communicating with the Candidate
During a campus interview, it is very important for both candidates, companies, and educational institutions to make sure the process is organized. The best way to do this is to document all the information related to the interview, and this can be done in the form of letters or email which are provided to the candidate.
Typical items that should be included in these letters are dates and times, expectations for seminars, information related to transportation or hotels, reimbursement details, parking information, etc. Driving instructions may need to be included as well.
In order for campus interviews to function properly, it is critically important for both educational institutions and companies to work together seamlessly. Colleges and universities should send companies information packets which include information on the campus and college community. Other things that can be included in these information packets are general info on the campus, issues related to relocation and dual careers, family policies, and anything else that can be helpful to firms. Campus interviews cannot operate smoothly when companies and colleges do not have proper communication channels.
Because of the large number of students who may be involved in a campus interview, it is critical for companies and educational institutions to coordinate available transportation. Some forms of transportation that are typically used for campus interviews include rental cars, student host pick ups, airport shuttles, taxis, or limos. Of course, applicants who have their own vehicles may drive them as well. Transportation is connected to parking, and the issue of parking is not something that should be left up to chance.
Both companies and colleges must hold events at venues which can accomodate a sizeable number of candidates. The general rule of thumb is that it is better to have too much space than to have too little space. Campus interviews are best held on week days during off tourist seasons. | <urn:uuid:609e577c-0c55-4b6d-b5e2-ba58e5d62aa4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.learn.geekinterview.com/career/campus-interview/campus-interview-aspects.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962446 | 777 | 1.804688 | 2 |
It’s bigger than a hot air balloon, it’s bigger than a helicopter,
and it’s bigger than an airplane…but wait, it is an airplane. It must be the new A380 Airbus.
The A380 Airbus is the largest plane ever built. Check this out:
From one wingtip to the other wingtip it is 261 feet 8
inches or 80 meters!
From the front nose to the back of the tail it is 239 feet 3
inches or 73 meters!
Its height from the ground is 79 feet 7
inches or 24 meters!
Its weight without passengers is 606,000 pounds or 274,877 kilograms!
Its number of landing wheels is 20!
Now that’s massive! Its hard to believe it can fly! But it does fly, and you may be surprised to learn that it can go over 10,000 miles
or 16,093 kilometers without refueling.
In the beginning of 2005, the A380 Airbus made its first flight. It will start regular service for passengers in March, 2006. The A380 Airbus can have up to 555 passengers. That is a hundred more than the next largest plane, the Boeing 747. The A380 Airbus has two levels that passengers can go on. Two staircases in the plane allow passengers to go up and down between the levels. Luggage will be stored in a third level on the bottom side of the airplane.
The A380 Airbus is causing some airports to make changes. Runways are normally 150 feet
wide (46 meters), but that is a little too small for the A380 Airbus. Airports are going to need to widen their runways to 200 feet
or 61 meters if they want the A380 Airbus to land there. About 60 airports have already started to do this. The airport in Los Angeles, California is going to spend over 50 million dollars to make changes.
The A380 Airbus took ten years to develop. The company that built it spent over 13 billion dollars on it.
One airline, Virgin Atlantic, wants to put a casino on their A380 Airbus. Can you believe that?
"AirbusA380 Information" 22 January 2005 <http://www.aircraft=info.net/aircraft/jet_aircraft/airbus/A380/>.
Knox, Noelle. "A380 makes massive debut" USA Today. 22 January 2005 <http://www.usatoday.com/money/biztravel/2005-01-16-a380-usat_x.htm?POE=MONISVA>. | <urn:uuid:3b42efb2-77d0-45d7-a5f7-db44f122d5ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://library.thinkquest.org/04oct/00450/a380airbus.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916649 | 536 | 2.421875 | 2 |
Fekkak Mamdouh is the co-author, with Rinku Sen, of The Accidental American: Immigration and Citizenship in the Age of Globalization. He’s also the cofounder of the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York and codirector of the Restaurant Opportunities Center United, the country’s first national restaurant worker organization. Until September 11, 2001, he was a headwaiter and beloved union leader at Windows on the World, a restaurant in the World Trade Towers. Mamdouh grew up poor in Morrocco, and then emigrated to Saudi Arabia as a young adult, where he worked for the Saudi Royal Family. He first came to the United States as a paid companion to a Saudi prince, then overstayed his visa and remained here permanently, changing his status from illegal to legal through marriage.
In this PBC video he talks about his life, his organizing work, and what being American means to him.
Learn more about The Accidental American here. And don’t miss this PBC video interview with co-author Rinku Sen. | <urn:uuid:d1eb7948-c63c-40f9-acac-c0b90dc9652c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://colorlines.com/archives/2009/06/immigration_race_and_the_resta_1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968358 | 231 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Lesson Plans and Worksheets
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Physics Teacher Resources
Find teacher approved Physics educational resource ideas and activities
This wonderful recap of powerful figures in scientific history includes pictures, important dates, and the information about their inventions or impact. Atomic structure and the photoelectric effect are introduced. The first slide gives some helpful learning objectives and activating questions. Use this at the beginning of your quantum physics unit.
Present information about Max Planck and quantum physics while practicing reading comprehension. Class members read a short text and then use a dictionary and an acronym finder to complete the 4 reading comprehension questions about Max Planck and quantum physics. This is not the most innovative resource, but it does provide complicated text to read. Check for errors.
Fourth graders expand their knowledge about the physical properties of matter and how those properties can be changed. Students are given multiple opportunities, using first-hand experiences and familiar objects in different contexts, to identify characteristics of a physical change.
This is a stellar overview of everything light and quantum! There are 30 multiple choice questions, none of them requiring any mathematical computation. There are a few diagrams to analyze: light rays striking reflective and refractive materials, spectral lines, and more. You can use this comprehensive set of conceptual questions as an exam.
Students read about matter by creating an in-class diagram. In this chemical lesson, students identify the properties of solids and liquids and discuss ways they can transform chemically and physically. Students define a list of vocabulary terms and create a diagram based on a chemical and physical change.
A great unit! There is a lot of content that is personal so make sure you have created a safe zone in your classroom before doing this lesson. It will have much more meaning if your learners share their life with others in the class. It's good to know that other classmates feel the same way and have had some of the same thoughts and experiences. | <urn:uuid:de6a3104-71a1-4b12-bc44-506b08b5d1be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lessonplanet.com/lesson-plans/physics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907695 | 390 | 4.5 | 4 |
How is my neighbour?
We want to work together to start a movement led by the church of serving our communities and asking our neighbours ‘How are you?’ and responding to them with action that will address the local need and transform the community.
Across our communities trust is eroding, stress is increasing and inequality is on the up. How do we love our neighbours when we don’t know who or how they are? This day is designed to be the start of a conversation about how Christians can act creatively to increase the ‘livability’ of our communities.
The day will include:
- Plenary session on a theology of Livable communities and rediscovering shalom in the 21st Century.
- Inspiring presentations on models of intervention to increase wellbeing in our communities.
- A 60 minute taster of Livability’s new Happiness Course for community groups
- An exciting and interactive exhibition of organizations with resources to help your work
- Creative networking opportunities throughout the day
- Tools for you to take away and utilise in your own context
The above photos are from our last event – on the left, Nat Gillett does live art throughout the talks. On the right, Paul Burstow MP talks about the governments role in promoting wellbeing.
This is for you…
If you are passionate about your community and interested in asking “how is my neighbour?”. If you need practical ideas, people to be inspired by and are interested in better articulating your involvement in building a healthy community please join us.
Our training days are generally run by the community mission team however on occasion we do have an outside facilitator (or we do work with outside facilitators). Dates are available on this page however if you would like us to run a bespoke version of the course in your locality please get in touch.
Tell me more:
Across our communities trust is eroding, stress is increasing and inequality is on the up. Across the UK more people are reporting a reduction in their economic, health, social and spiritual wellbeing. This is made even worse as global corporations tell us that happiness means consuming more and sharing less. However, our children are the unhappiest in Europe.
Livability has spent over 160 years working to improve life for disabled individuals and disadvantaged communities. We recognise we need to act creatively to increase the ‘livability’ of our neighbourhoods. We believe this can come from anyone, but also that Christians have a unique motivation and credibility to contribute towards building whole, safe, inclusive and flourishing communities by demonstrating the compassion of Christ..
As a nation we are richer and better connected than ever. With ‘friends’ easily accessible on the web our neighbourhoods trust is eroding, stress is increasing and inequality is on the increase. How do we love our neighbours when we don’t know who or how they are? 5 million people aged over 60 say they now consider the television to be their only source of company. | <urn:uuid:84ff8ee7-cadc-439c-af0e-738d5b399860> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.livability.org.uk/church/training-events/neighbour-developing-livable-communities/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962235 | 616 | 1.515625 | 2 |
soda water in the
The Grow Room forums; would using soda water be beneficial for plants? since it has co2 dissolved into the water. just wondering. ...
would using soda water be beneficial for plants? since it has co2 dissolved into the water. just wondering.
You can use carbonated water.No soda though just plain jane carbonated water you can foilage feed with it light misting be careful thought as plants use it during lights on and misting with lights on can be dangerous to the plant and you.Raise the lights when you do it and dont let mist hit a hot bulb or it will exploded.
the gas is bad! dont breathe it or you could get drain bamage
Able To Roll A Joint
Able to roll a joint
carbonated water O.o
Is Aquafina carbonated? I would imagine not eh? Well were do i get carbonated water and just how effective IS this method?
Spraying soda water on a plant isn't nearly as effective as just making sure you have good ventilation in your grow space.
The CO2 in a litre of soda water, about 5 grams worth, if efficiently conducted to the plant, would supply it for few hours depending on plant size.
Serious application of CO2 requires either combustion type gas generators for large 'warehouse' or glasshouse size ops or in smaller ops, a tank of CO2 with a regulator, in a well-sealed room with a gas/exhaust blower controller, requiring airconditioning in most cases as well. Accurate delivery of CO2 and total atmospheric control in the op are essential for best effect.
I never saw carbonated water give off gas dude.
Originally Posted by sk3tch3
If you shake a bottle of carbonated water it will pressurize and eventually explode if the bottle cannot take its pressure it developed in that process. We make soda water at my work and we mix it from a tank of Co2.
Yes it does let Gas out from what ive seen. Id like to experiment with this a little more.
Might be due to the fact that CO2 is colourless, odorless and tasteless (@ STP).
Originally Posted by videoman40
Plastic soft drink bottles are designed to withstand a pressure of 10 atmospheres (~150psi). CO2 in soft drink usually only exerts a force of about 2 atmospheres before the cap is removed, no matter how much you shake the bottle.
Originally Posted by custodio214
how the fuck do you guys know so much about plastic bottles???
I need to go to college ha!
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First 100 Days: Obama's Promises Broken
By Angie Drobnic Holan
Published on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 4:36 p.m.
Editor's Note: Yesterday we examined
Obama's Promises Kept
. Today, we focus on the ones he's broken.
As the 100-day mark of his presidency approaches, President Barack Obama has broken six promises, according to a PolitiFact analysis. That's a small portion of the 514 promises we're tracking, but the six represent some of Obama's key campaign themes.
Three are about taxes, two about transparency and ethics, and one deals with international diplomacy. We asked the White House press office for comments on them, but they have only made a statement about one, on the comment period for pending legislation.
Here's a recap of the six broken promises and where they stand. You can find more details and sources by clicking each promise.
Transparency and ethics
No. 240: Tougher rules against revolving door for lobbyists and former officials . We realize Obama probably will argue that he kept this promise. Among his first acts in office, he signed an executive order banning former lobbyists from working on matters they had lobbied on during the previous two years. But the order also included a waiver clause that the administration could invoke whenever it deemed it necessary. There was also the less rigorous standard of "recusal," which the administration used to avoid issuing formal waivers. After looking at how waivers and recusals were handled over his first three months, we concluded the promise was broken.
No. 234: Allow five days of public comment before signing bills . Obama broke this promise on his 10th day in office when he signed his first piece of legislation, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. The law itself, which was intended to remedy some cases of pay discrimination, was retroactive, so there was no rush. But Obama still didn't wait five days to sign it. The White House said it intends to keep the promise after working out " implementation procedures." We're still waiting.
The tax promises
No. 24: End income tax for seniors making less than $50,000 . When Obama made this promise back in 2008, tax experts criticized it as poor policy. Seniors who rely primarily on Social Security already pay little or no taxes, they said, while other seniors have economic advantages — for example, pensions and paid-off homes — over younger Americans. This promise appears to have been quietly dropped. (We're poised to move the meter if it ever is revived.) We rated it Promise Broken after Obama failed to include it in either the economic stimulus or his 2010 budget outline. And Obama didn't mention it in his Tax Day speech.
No. 505: Create a $3,000 tax credit for companies that add jobs . Obama talked about this proposal late in the campaign as a remedy to the economic collapse, but it had little or no support in Congress. Lawmakers said the credit wasn't enough of an incentive, and tax policy analysts said it would be an administrative nightmare to implement. We rated it Promise Broken when it failed to make the economic stimulus package in February.
No. 508: Allow penalty-free hardship withdrawals from retirement accounts in 2008 and 2009 . This promise has gone nowhere. It has little or no support in Congress and it shows no signs of life. We rated it Promise Broken right before 2008 taxes came due.
The Armenian Genocide
No. 511: Recognize the Armenian genocide . Obama visited Turkey and was asked about the period between 1915 and 1923, when historians say the actions of the Ottoman Empire resulted in the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians. During the campaign, Obama said he considered that genocide and promised to recognize those events with that word. But when he got to Turkey, he declined to use the word, though in a bit of legalistic phrasing, he did say his views hadn't changed. We ruled that the essence of the promise was to use the word "genocide," and Obama took a pass. A few weeks later, he issued a proclamation on April 24, a day of memorial for the Armenian genocide. Again he said his views hadn't changed, but did not use the word "genocide."
In addition to the six ratings of Promise Broken, we've rated another three promises Stalled. These promises don't seem to be going anywhere at the moment, but we have reasons to think they may not be completely dead. Those are No. 293, Call for repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy ; No. 407, Limit subsidies for agribusiness ; and No. 446, Enact windfall profits tax for oil companies . We'll be monitoring these to see if and when the ratings need to be moved. Stay tuned.
Finally, Obama has earned seven ratings of Compromise, which means he agreed to settle for a portion of what he'd promised to achieve. Mostly, these are for promises where he either had to accept smaller initiatives than he had proposed, or the deal he struck didn't meet all the criteria he set out in his promises. For example, he proposed a tax credit of $500 for workers (Promise No. 32), but Congress only went along for $400. Same with No. 257, the American Opportunity Tax Credit : He wanted a tax credit for college students worth $4,000, but only got $2,500. He also accepted compromises with Congress for No. 5, Expand the earned income tax credit , and No. 3, Eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses and start-ups .
Among the other Compromise promises:
- No. 434: Set a three-month moratorium on foreclosures . Obama asked for voluntary foreclosure moratoria, but it wasn't a hard and fast three months.
- No. 512: Go "line by line" over earmarks to make sure money being spent wisely . We found that the economic stimulus bill was largely free of earmarks but an omnibus spending bill leftover from 2009 sure wasn't.
- No. 515: No family making less than $250,000 will see "any form of tax increase." We found his tax policies have so far largely kept this promise, but he approved a tax on cigarettes that could affect people of all incomes.
See individual promises for sources.
Researchers: Angie Drobnic Holan
Names in this article: Barack Obama
We want to hear your suggestions and comments.
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- Shop the PolitiFact store for T-shirts, hats and other PolitiFact swag | <urn:uuid:3226ab3a-0088-4de1-a973-d20537ab0763> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/apr/24/first-100-days-obamas-promises-broken/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969181 | 1,576 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Leann, 7, points at a deer while visiting Bays Mountain Park with brother Zachary, 12, and grandparents Jean and Harmon Reinus.
Just about everything at Bays Mountain Park and Planetarium is open year-round, said Fred Hilton, senior naturalist at the park, which is owned and operated by the city of Kingsport.
"Sometimes weather shuts us down, but we do have our own snow plow," Hilton said, "Generally, if you can get to the base of the mountain, unless something goes wrong with the snow plow, you can get to the top."
Bays Mountain has live animal exhibits, a nature center, planetarium, astronomical observatories, ropes courses and miles of hiking and biking trails. At 3,582 acres, it’s the largest city park in Tennessee. It also connects on the west end with Laurel Run Park in Hawkins County.
"People like to come up and look at the animals," Hilton said. "This is the closest thing to a zoo around."
Answering questions from a family beside the deer pen, Hilton encouraged 7-year-old Leann, who was visiting from Florida with her grandparents, to howl to the wolves. They howled together for a few seconds, and then - sure enough - the wolves howled back.
"Most people will never see a gray wolf up close," Hilton said. "Most people will never hear one howl. So this is kind of unique."
The animals - a collection that also includes bobcats, river otters, birds, fish and reptiles - are a big attraction at Bays Mountain, but so are the outdoor recreation opportunities.
"It’s a lot bigger than a lot of folks think," Hilton said of the park.
"We have 37 miles of hiking trails. You can mountain bike most of these trails, [and] there’s primitive overnight camping in the park for backpackers, so there’s a lot to do here other than just come up and look at the animal habitats or go to a planetarium program or walk around the nature center. That’s literally just about one one-hundredth of the park."
On a sunny day in February, families can be seen looking at the animals. There are runners jogging on the trails that run up the mountains and around the man-made lake that once served as Kingsport’s reservoir.
Winter can be an even better time than summer to enjoy outdoor recreation in the park, Hilton said, because the cool weather can be more comfortable and, with the leaves off the trees, there’s a better opportunity to see wildlife. The ropes courses remain open whenever the weather is favorable, he said, and the weather makes for better star-viewing opportunities than in the summer.
"The humidity tends to be lower, the sky’s clearer, and that’s why we do star viewing in March and April and October and November," he said. "The winter star viewing tends to be better viewing."
Amidst the miles of trails, the park contains several old houses, old barns, historic cemeteries, and the old Bays Mountain Firetower, which is a popular hiking destination. Near the nature center, there’s also a farmstead museum, which features antique equipment and tools.
Hilton said Bays Mountain’s nature focus is what sets it apart from other parks in the area, whose lakes are devoted to fishing and boating.
"Nature gets first priority here," he said, "and that’s the attraction."
The first part of the Bays Mountain property was bought by the city a century ago for the creation of a reservoir, which served the city from 1916 through 1944. In the mid-1960s, the discussion of what to do with the land became a public call to turn it into a park. The park formally opened in 1971, with the vision to keep it as a nature preserve and environmental education facility.
Long a resource for local schools, it now draws schoolchildren from four states - and is also a place where local residents can go to spend time in the woods.
"In about 20 minutes, they can be here from downtown, be on a trail, and not know they’re anywhere near a city," Hilton said. "It allows people to get out and reconnect with nature." | <urn:uuid:55b6a73e-1c59-48a3-b22e-fe8af537c3c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://timesnews.net/article/9057797/reconnect-with-nature-at-bays-mountain-park | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963227 | 910 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Celebrating Youth 2012-2013Celebrating Youth (CY) is an educational outreach program for young musicians, sponsored by the Santa Cruz Chamber Players. The program is open to 7th—12th grade instrumentalists and singers, aged 18 years and under, who are interested in learning to play ensemble chamber music. Students should be taking private lessons, and need to be nominated by their teachers in order to enroll. Auditions are required for new applicants. The CY program runs from October through May.
Now in its ninth year, this highly successful program provides:
- Expert coaching from the area’s finest music teachers
- An informative workshop on the intricacies of playing ensemble chamber music
- Tickets to two outstanding concerts
- Season ticket to all six of Santa Cruz Chamber Players’ concerts
- The experience of making music with peers and the opportunity to make new friends with similar interests
- Participation in chamber music competitions and outreach performances
- The fun and excitement of performing in a special Celebrating Youth concert as part of the Santa Cruz Chamber Players’ regular concert season
What people are saying about CY:
I love chamber music now, and I had so much fun and learned a lot by playing with other people. I’ve made friends and gotten to know people better because of CY. I’m so lucky to have participated in it, and it’s great that the program exists!
CY is a great program. It provides a nurturing environment, comprehensive training and opportunity to these young and talented musicians. They played wonderfully at the year-end concert.
The students seem ready to learn and are very excited to try new musical ideas and approaches. The ones I have worked with are so talented and it is a wonderful challenge to light their creative fires and inspire them to reach for even further musical achievements.
or call 831.479.1968 | <urn:uuid:1188e661-3d97-48c3-b196-385a1592b88d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scchamberplayers.org/youth-outreach.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965309 | 385 | 1.59375 | 2 |
It made me think about what we can do to help ourselves and our community to be more prepared for the snow and cold this winter. Looking at the long range forcasts more snow is predicted and possibly around Christmas.
So, I though it might be helpful as a forum to put together a guidance note/checklist which we can refer to, setting out what we think are the essentials we need and things we should be doing as individuals/families and as a community to cope with further bad weather.
I'll kick it off and if we have enough input - I'll put together a checklist at the end of next week.
The checklist/questions could consist of a number of categories:
Does my boiler need servicing?
Back up heating (oil radiators are very good value for money and relatively cost effective)
Have I bled my radiators to ensure maximum efficiency?
Do my pipes need lagging?
Draught proof windows and doors
Where are my stop cocks? - are they labelled?
Can I isolate my outside tap?
Do I have a supply of candles, matches, torches and spare batteries?
Do I have a battery operated radio?
Do I have coal, oil,logs etc..?
What essentials should I have in my cupboard?
Long life milk
Stock up freezer:
Bird seed etc...
Ensure fresh supply of water
Yaktrax for shoes and boots
My Street - micro Communities:
Find out who your neighbours are
Do you have any elderly neighbours?
Do they need help during weather like this
Set up street support system
Invest in snow shovel
Clear your bit of the pavement
Do you need grit boxes
Have the grit boxes been replenished
Provide updates on VN
What can we ask local authorities to do
What can they do?
Clear snow from outside shops
Ensure that the Triangle has enough grit boxes and they are full
I would add that the list may need to be refined or looked at in a different way. At the moment it is my initial brain dump. If we get to something we like the look of we could circulate it to all the local community and business groups who can then circulate it to their mailing lists? Just a thought.
Edited by charlie, 04 December 2010 - 11:36 AM. | <urn:uuid:037c08a6-c2b4-43a7-9f06-b4f9d833f488> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.virtualnorwood.com/forum/topic/9860-more-snow-and-cold-weather-predicted-this-winter/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933409 | 482 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Two of the big issues the world faces today are how to recover from the economic crunch and how to reverse global warming and deal with climate change. On Wednesday 15 July the UK government addressed both with a major policy statement reshaping its energy policy to reduce carbon emissions. It signals a bold effort to green the economy and create several hundred thousand new jobs. The biggest risk it faces is getting politically entangled – and in this regard, the media reaction was a worry.
Low carbon: time to do it
The UK has to follow not only EU directives on reducing carbon emissions but also its own law that requires an 80% cut in carbon emissions by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. In the carbon “budget” this translates to a 34% cut against 1990 levels by 2020. This is a pioneering piece of legislation that sets very standards for UK environmental policy. But as has been pointed out time and again, fine words and bold targets are laudable but now it is time to get a move and actually do it. That is what Wednesday’s policy statement is all about. Highlights include
- Electricity generation: 40% from low-carbon sources by 2020, 30% from renewable energy sources and 10% from nuclear and “clean coal”;
- Wind power: 6,000 onshore generators, 3-4,000 offshore;
- All new coal-fired power stations must be fitted with Carbon Capture & Storage technology;
- Government will take control of national electricity grid to force these changes through;
- £600 million to invest in green energy technology;
- Financial incentives for energy saving in industry, offices and at home;
- Low carbon transport: new government vehicles will have 40% lower carbon emissions by 2011, 4 years ahead of the EU target date;
- Low carbon housing: from 2016 all new houses will be zero carbon;
- 400,000 new green jobs.
This is not simply a positive set of initiatives and the white paper is more than simply a policy – a statement of principle and intention. These highlights are key points within a strategy for achieving the goals established by the Climate Change Act. These specific measures more than meet EU goals and future standards and although that is noteworthy and the government can rightly stress its role in being among the first and most ambitious on the low carbon economic pathway, that is not what is most impressive about them. It is the systematic, all-round nature of the white paper proposals that impresses most. They have been a long time coming – too long for many commentators and critics – but their quality indicates it is realistic to surmise that for perhaps a couple of years there has been a careful, detailed and comprehensive discussion within government to work out how to move from principle to practice.
So far, so good – but there are many reasons to pause, many buts. Fine words, but in moving from principle to practice is the practice feasible? And contrariwise, if practice is feasible, has principle been lost?
Because New Labour has since 1997 been so full of fine words and demanding targets about so many things, there is in many quarters to dismiss anything that the government now says as mere spin and posture. It’s an unfair and often mean-minded reaction that Labour understandably resents but cane only blame itself for. If in its time of weakness it finds it hard to get a fair hearing, that is the reaction it unwittingly courted with its arrogance and often outrageous spin during its years of pomp (cf Iraq to begin with but the charge list is longer than that – it is in fact very, very long).
Leaving to one side that reflexive dismissal of anything the government says, there are nonetheless serious reasons for wondering about the feasibility of the low-carbon energy policy it announced on Wednesday. I have two questions:
1. Can this government do it? There are two reasons why this is a good question to ask.
1.A First, there will be elections by mid-2010 at the latest and the widespread expectation is that Labour will lose. Things can change, of course, not least if the economy shows enough signs of bouncing back for enough people that they decide to opt for the devil they know. It’s also possible that some of the bolder policy initiatives Labour is unrolling now and may well bring out before the end of the year will keep enough of the left of centre vote loyal that, despite Iraq and bankers’ bonuses, that constituency holds its nose and decides to try and keep out the Conservatives who, after al, also supported the invasion of Iraq and big bonuses for bankers.
That said, most observers still believe the government is on its last legs. So any new policies and strategies launched now risk being non-credible. At best, it might be said they can only have a relatively short life. At worst, the government’s unpopularity and low general credibility must undermine the effectiveness of any initiative it launches, especially one that requires large-scale private investment along with change in the behaviour of (in principle) all individual citizens (see the 2nd question below as well).
1.B There are more detailed grounds for doubt and discussion in the terms of the strategy itself. Can the UK reduce emissions adequately while expanding its major international airport, Heathrow, with a third runway? Can the reduced emissions be achieved with as little pain as the white paper states and can the increase in household energy bills really be kept at bay until 2015 and then held to a mere 6% – an average of about £75-90 per household per year? Is enough money being put into investment in green energy and is a stable enough energy market being established so the big energy producing companies can plan their own strategic investment properly?
Each of these issues and others has doubtless been argued through in the preparation of the white paper. It is right and proper that they are argued through again in public political debate. If the government has done its sums and made its investment calculations and assumptions properly, the public scrutiny will only reinforce the government’s approach. But if flaws and dubious assumptions emerge, then we are back to underlying issue of government credibility.
2. Can any government do it? Of course, the issues under question 1B will be real for the next government, whatever its make-up, as well as the current one. Under David Cameron, the Conservatives have tried to make the environment ‘their’ issue and reacting to the white paper were reduced to the usual opposition complaint that the government has ‘stolen’ their policies. That’s not entirely true but it is not entirely untrue either. I always think that in the sentence, ‘The government has stolen our ideas,’ it would be much more effective as well as dignified politics to replace the word ‘stolen’ by ‘has been persuaded by’ – best said with a smile. But that’s by the by: the main point is that the accusation of policy theft reveals that there is broad consensus in this whole area, and the Liberal Democrats are broadly supportive as well. While a new government might well adjust some of the goals, targets and means, the big picture would probably not be much affected.
And here we come to the key question: do the British people really want it? And at what price do we want it? If household energy prices rise 6% and while the increase for industry is 17%, and if the latter figure means British industry loses out in various export markets, which costs jobs, will we accept that as the price of doing the right thing before others do it? It’s the unsettling nature of these questions that persuade the government to make the price sound as low and painless as possible. Because the policy is only going to get traction in public life and in the economy if majority opinion actively supports it and takes part in implementing it in the home and at the workplace and on the streets.
Leadership and consensus
This is where we require one of two things from our government and preferably both. On the one hand, there has to be political leadership. Opinion polls suggest that most people in Britain believe climate change is real and something must be done about it, and polls also suggest that there is very little willingness to pay a very high price. Furthermore, it is likely that the higher the price, the more urgent and sharp the scrutiny of policy effectiveness will be. As the Financial Times quoted an official from the Confederation of British Industry as saying, the increased cost of green energy for industry is acceptable on condition that carbon cuts are delivered in the most cost-effective way. In these circumstances a government has to set out its stall, win the battle of ideas and deliver the results.
On the other hand (and ideally, at the same time), there is a need for consensus. By this I don’t mean unanimity on every detail, but broad agreement on the main goals, clearly and consistently expressed. And when a government shows signs of metal fatigue like this one, perhaps the need for consensus is all the greater.
And this is what raised the biggest doubts in my mind when the policy came out. I have to interject here that I am on leave at the moment (which is why posts are coming more slowly than is my habit) so am only able to read reports and media coverage on-line. So I am not seeing the actual newspapers from the UK but only their web-sites. With that reservation what struck me was the difference in coverage and what concerns me is that there is a political colour to the difference.
While the Guardian led with the white paper and carried several news, analysis and opinion pieces, the Independent had it as a 2nd level story, though with strong, detailed reporting and the Financial Times had a heavyweight piece of analysis buried way off the front page. Times coverage was also buried – a hard-to-find article that headlined a £249 rise in domestic energy bills. The article seemed to find it hard to understand that this is the government’s calculation of the extra energy costs before accounting for the effects of improved home insulation. All in all, the Times article was a shoddy piece of attack journalism that omitted to report the main points of the white paper. While it’s OK to show the government no respect, the issue deserves more serious treatment than that. Not surprisingly the Mail likewise focused on the rise in household bills, introducing the idea of a “green stealth tax”.
The Telegraph also focused its headline on a 3rd level story on cost, but this time not the money but the invasion of the countryside by wind turbines was the issue. And the meat of the story did do more justice to the actual policy than the Times story managed. Oh, and so far as I could see, the Express didn’t cover the story at all.
The political pattern here is not hard to see. The most enthusiastic coverage from the most liberal papers, the most critical from the right.
Tellingly (and perhaps optimistically) the critical response from the right wing press is not on issues of principle but on the cost – it is a carping, sniping critique.
It may turn out to be an interesting test for David Cameron’s greening of the Conservatives to see how he reacts. In the meantime, however, more effort is clearly still needed to get across the argument that the challenge of climate change requires alteration in much of our default behaviour – in the economy, in the home, in travel, in politics and, I found out today, in the news media. | <urn:uuid:259f3646-6d02-4d9c-9e63-e539d8c2d3bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dansmithsblog.com/2009/07/16/the-new-uk-economic-greenprint-politics-and-how-the-media-reacted/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967543 | 2,365 | 2.5625 | 3 |
The three keys to long-term time management success:
1. Enter all time and schedule-related information in your Study Plan Central book.
2. Take the book with you everywhere you go.
3. Give the book regular, daily attention and write things down in it on a regular basis.
Have you ever had this experience? You miss an important meeting or appointment and later say to yourself, “I know I had that written down somewhere.” If you follow the system outlined in this chapter, your Study Plan Central book will remove that problem for you permanently.
You’ll find some sample time management forms on pages 21 to 23 that you can photocopy and incorporate into your Study Plan Central book.
First, you’ll find a Planning Calendar, which you should enlarge dramatically with your photocopiers and use to record all the time essentials of your academic projects and your daily life. And I mean everything. Start with your due date and work backwards, including all the intermediary steps related to your project you know about. Write down all your relevant work commitments. Write down all your personal commitments. It won’t take long, so why not invest a few minutes now? You’ll find an example of a filled-out Planning Calendar on page 21.
After the Planning Calendar, you’ll find a weekly Priority Task Sheet. This will help you arrange your tasks in order of importance which is, I assure you, not necessarily the order in which they show up! Intelligent use of your Priority Task Sheet every week is an absolute must if you are facing a last-minute study situation.
How do you use the sheet? Write down everything you want to get done over the next week. Then ask yourself, “If I can only get one or two things done this week, what would they be?” Write these down and mark them with an “H.” These are the urgent, high-priority items. Now ask yourself which of the things could conceivably wait until next week. These are the low-priority items; mark them with an “L.” (By the way, if you find yourself putting off something in this category week after week, take a moment to consider whether you should really be focusing on it at all!) Everything else is a middle-priority. Mark it with an ”M.” You’ll find an example of a completed Priority Task Sheet on page 22.
The last form you’ll be working with is the Daily Schedule. Before you enter anything onto this schedule of an academic or work-related nature, remember the essentials! You have to eat. You have to sleep. Once you’ve built these basics into your day, you’ll be ready to transfer the items from your Priority Task Sheet to your Daily Schedule. Put the items marked with an “H” first; whenever you can, put the most intimidating or difficult tasks first. (Give them your best shot, then get them out of the way!) Then enter as many “M” items as you can realistically fit into the day. Finally, enter any of the “L” items there’s enough room in the schedule to accommodate.
Solet’s say you have three hours free on Wednesday afternoon. As luck would have it, afternoons are your personal “prime time,” so you want to make the very most of this block of time. You schedule your “H”-priority research-gathering work for that slot, and you plan to start that sociology assignment, due next month, between breakfast and your 10 a.m. class. However you manage your day, be sure to update your Daily Schedule every single day! | <urn:uuid:f0e0b1e9-0e54-44ee-b7bc-f1820e17b21e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bpscjpsc.com/2011/09/05/hyap-article-3-tips-and-tricks-for-time-management/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949401 | 779 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Office Software Thread, Excel Formula Help in Technical; I am trying to extract the first Initial from a name and combine it with the surname.
So, in A1 ...
6th May 2010, 09:25 AM #1
Excel Formula Help
I am trying to extract the first Initial from a name and combine it with the surname.
So, in A1 i would have Briggs, in B1 would be Joe and in C1 would be J.Briggs, but how do i get the J fron B1?
A B C
1 Briggs Joe J.Briggs
I know how to bring them together using the Concanate formula.
Can anyone help?
IDG Tech News
6th May 2010, 09:26 AM #2
Last edited by vikpaw; 6th May 2010 at 09:43 AM.
6th May 2010, 09:39 AM #3
6th May 2010, 09:42 AM #4
welcome, and sometimes rather than use concatenate function, it's easier to use the ampersand (&) symbol e.g.
Last edited by vikpaw; 6th May 2010 at 10:27 AM.
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The rising influence of corporations on cleantech growth
Will corporations lead cleantech out of the "valley of death?"
Despite the enthusiastic support for cleantech from governments and large companies all over the world, the journey for a cleantech product from prototype to commercial scale remains so difficult that many in the industry have taken to calling it "the valley of death."
How will the industry escape this predicament? Part of the answer may be new financing and corporate partnership models that satisfy the funding requirements of a capital intensive industry as an acceptable level of risk for investors.
Corporations are being driven to implement a resource-efficiency agenda based on cleantch to improve operations and reduce costs, respond to climate change, achieve sustainability goals, generate revenue, decrease dependency on fossil fuels and comply with current and anticipated regulations. With such compelling motivation, will corporations lead the way in providing financing to bring clean technologies to commercial deployment?
Join the Colorado Cleantech Industry Association on July 8th for a detailed discussion of Ernst & Young's global report findings. The discussion will examine:
- What does deal activity look like for the first quarter of 2010?
- What indicators are present for M&A activity in the cleantech sector?
- Where is funding coming from? Where is it going?
- What trends will we see in the coming months?
- What are the large corporations looking for in their investments?
- Where do these global leaders stand on carbon pricing?
Leaders from Ernst & Young’s Assurance Services groups in Denver and Houston will lead the morning’s discussion.
- Lisa Shepard – Partner, Assurance Services
- Milan Hall – Senior Manager, Assurance Services
Date: July 8, 2010
Time: Registration begins at 7:30am, program from 8:00 - 9:30, network with your peers until 10:00am
Location: Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, 5th Floor
RSVP to email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:2fe415de-8652-4433-943b-6875e6d54dec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cleantechhub.org/news/the-rising-influence-of-corporations-on-cleantech-growth.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918179 | 416 | 1.75 | 2 |
Michelangelo Iannone from the Institute of Neurological Science, Italy, and colleagues from University Magna Graecia in Catanzaro, Italy, injected rats with a low dose (3mg/kg) or a high dose (6mg/kg) of MDMA or, in the control group, with saline. The rats were either left without acoustic stimulation or exposed to white noise - sound at a stable frequency that is used in many types of electronic music. The sound was played at 95dB, the maximum noise intensity permitted in nightclubs by Italian law. The electrocortical activity (EcoG spectrum) of the rats was monitored, using electrodes placed on their skull, from 60 minutes before administration of the drug and start of the music, to up to five days after the music was stopped.
Iannone et al.'s results show that low-dose MDMA did not modify the brain activity of the rats compared with saline, as long as no music was played. However, the EcoG total spectrum of the rats given a low dose of MDMA significantly decreased once loud music was played. The EcoG spectrum of rats in the control group was not modified by loud music. High-dose MDMA induced a reduction in brain activity, compared with both saline and low-dose MDMA. This reduction was enhanced once the loud music was turned on and lasted for up to five days after administration of the drug. In rats that had been given a high dose of MDMA but had not been exposed to music, brain activity returned to normal one day after administration of the drug.
Electrocortical effects of MDMA are potentiated by acoustic stimulation in rats
Michelangelo Iannone, Immacolata Vecchio, Stefania Bulotta, Donatella Paolino, Maria Cristina Zito, Santo Gratteri, Francesco S Costanzo and Domenicantonio Rotiroti
BMC Neuroscience 2006, 7:12 (16 February 2006) doi:10.1186/1471-2202-7-12
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 21 Feb 2009
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:8d6bed8f-35c8-4a51-aaa1-f355d135fbc0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://psychcentral.com/news/archives/2006-02/bc-lmw021006.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955745 | 451 | 2.203125 | 2 |
From NPR’s Day to Day story, If Your Neighbor Poses as Your Husband, Is it Rape?:
Massachusetts is the latest state to consider putting a new crime on the books: rape by fraud. Currently, a sex act only qualifies as rape if physical force is used. We talk to a woman who was tricked into having sex with her boyfriend’s brother, who pretended to be her boyfriend — and unable to convict him of rape because of this limited definition.
Under the new law, such forms of deception would be a crime. Some say the law goes too far, however, and could criminalize lies like, “Really, I’m divorced!”
* * * | <urn:uuid:0e967fba-2320-41a1-8fa6-7094d54251d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/tag/massachusetts/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967458 | 147 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Multiple Sclerosis: Protect Your Health with Routine Checkups
Even though multiple sclerosis (MS) is definitely enough for any one person to have to handle, it doesn’t protect you from other health problems. Although some people with MS report that they get fewer colds than they used to (maybe that overactive immune system is good for something after all!), you can expect to deal with all the usual things — colds, flu, and stomach bugs — along the way.
And most people with MS die from all the same stuff as everyone else — cancer, heart disease, and stroke. So, remember, you’re not off the hook when it comes to taking care of your health.
In addition to whatever care you’re getting for your MS, be sure to include a primary care physician or nurse on your team. It’s their job to give you a general tune-up on a periodic basis and refer you for the health screens that are recommended for your age group. Few neurologists provide this kind of care on a routine basis because they’re focusing their attention on your MS needs.
For ideas about what type of preventive care you personally need, check out the National MS Society’s brochures, Preventive Care Recommendations for Adults with MS: The Basic Facts and Dental Health: The Basic Facts. You can also request these brochures by calling (800) FIGHT-MS (800-344-4867).
If you want friendly e-mail reminders about your health screening tests, check out the website MyHealthReminer. And visit this website to stay current with the most up-to-date information about the safety of various types of vaccinations for people with MS.
Gynecological exams, mammograms, chest X-rays, colonoscopies, routine dental care, and other procedures may pose an accessibility challenge if you have mobility issues or use a mobility aid, such as a motorized scooter or wheelchair. So, when you make your appointment, check to make sure that the facility and testing equipment are fully accessible and that someone will be available to provide assistance if you need it.
Nothing is more frustrating than arriving for a scheduled appointment only to discover that you can’t get through a doorway, onto an examining table, or close to an X-ray machine. If you have trouble locating accessible facilities, call the National MS Society at (800) FIGHT-MS for recommendations in your area. | <urn:uuid:60235655-86ef-46a4-aa83-3b020e4da914> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/multiple-sclerosis-protect-your-health-with-routin.navId-811935.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942776 | 506 | 2.546875 | 3 |
For more than 50 years, scientists at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute have been listening for communications from far off planets. Now, funds are proving just as elusive as alien signals.
Jill Tarter, the director of SETI's research division in Mountain View, Calif., has spent more than 40 years looking to the stars. Tartar served as the model for Ellie Arroway, a character (played by actress Jodie Foster) in the movie Contact who picks up the unmistakable signature of extraterrestrial intelligence over her headphones.
In real life, of course, the search has been a lot quieter.
"I don't know whether anyone ever will find a signal," says Tarter, who is now in her 60s. "I certainly don't know whether I will."
A Turning Point
Back when Tarter started at the SETI Institute, the project received funding from NASA, but that support ended in 1993. Since then, she and others have spent almost as much time searching for money as they have searching for ET.
Then, three years ago, SETI marked what felt like a turning point: the opening of the Allen Telescope Array, a field of 20-foot-wide radio telescopes in California's rural Hat Creek Valley funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
Thanks to the Allen Telescope Array, which is jointly managed with the University of California, Berkeley, SETI Institute scientists could scan the skies full time, hoping a clear, tell-tale radio signal would stand out from the universe's background hiss.
"We're looking for signals that are compressed in frequency, because nature doesn't do that — technology does," Tarter explains.
The Longest Long Shot In Science
To understand SETI, you have to understand that humans are a very young species on a very young planet. And we've only had modern technology for the last couple hundred years. Tarter says that's a cosmic blip.
"Our galaxy is 10 billion years old, and most of the stars in our region of the galaxy are about a billion years older than our sun," she says.
In this broader scope of cosmic time, we humans are practically newborns.
"We don't know if there are other technologies than ours out there," Tarter says. "But if there are, we can be pretty sure they're older and more capable than we are."
Capable, she hopes, of beaming high-power radio waves that our telescopes could eventually pick up. But this is a long shot — perhaps the longest long shot in science.
"All of those arguments ultimately rest on big assumptions that tend to be very humanistic," says Caleb Scharf, Director of Astrobiology at Columbia University.
For instance, assumptions that another civilization would use radio signals at all, or would have any interest in finding us.
And then there's there problem of timing.
"Even if there are many, many technological civilizations in our galaxy, the chances of one of them [broadcasting a loud enough radio signal] right at this instance, right at the time that we have the right technology to listen to it — the odds seem to shrink a lot," Scharf says.
For ET, Look Here?
Recently, those odds got a modest boost when NASA's Kepler Telescope found signs of what it was looking for: dozens of possible planets that might be similar to Earth, orbiting distant stars like our sun.
"Some of these are potentially habitable planets," says Dimitar Sasselov, who directs Harvard's Origins of Life Initiative and is on the Kepler team. He says Kepler has given SETI something it never had before: targets.
"This is where we should be looking for the signals coming from other civilizations to start with," Sasselov says. "SETI is already in possession of this list."
But as of April, that list has been filed away indefinitely.
That's because California's budget is in crisis. Facing a $26 billion deficit, the state has made major cuts across the public university system. UC Berkeley says it can no longer afford to operate the Allen Array. The project is officially in "hibernation."
Swinging For The Fences
Jill Tarter says she's frustrated by the hold up. "Never before have we known such good potential targets at which to point our telescopes," she says. "And that's what we want to do."
Tarter wants to raise $5 million in private money to search the Kepler planets.
Columbia astrobiologist Scharf says he thinks that's a bargain. Sure, SETI's a long shot, but science needs long shots.
"I think that too often in modern science, we kind of narrow down the vision — what we want to look at — a little too much," Scharf says.
SETI, on the other hand, swings for the fences. The money may never pay off, Scharf says, but we'll never know unless we try.
"To me, the best argument for SETI is simply that we do not know," he says. "The only real solution is to look, and to look in as broad a way as you can."
Tarter, for her part, says she knows she probably won't find ET in her lifetime. Finding SETI a reliable source of funding? That would be achievement enough. Copyright 2011 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. | <urn:uuid:326d438d-6958-4ebf-a800-f51f72d89eb4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wbez.org/story/2011-05-16/if-et-phones-will-we-hear-seti-loses-key-funding-86612 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969326 | 1,130 | 2.90625 | 3 |
John D. Rockefeller, America’s first billionaire, said, “If your only goal is to become rich, you’ll never achieve it.”
Easy for him to say, but his point is well taken: If the only thing you care about is making money, no matter how much money you make it will never be enough.
Still, even though we all define and calculate success differently, most of us would like wealth to factor into our equations.
To find out how, check out the 400 Individual Tax Returns Reporting the Largest Adjusted Gross Incomes, an annual report issued by the IRS. Granted the IRS Statistics of Income division must be where fun goes to die, as my CPA friend Bill Zumwalt (who forwarded me the report) says. But if you want to get rich, there’s interesting data buried in all the charts and tables.
(The latest report is for 2009, which to you and me was a long time ago but to the government is really, really up to date.)
In 2009 it took $77.4 million in adjusted gross income to make the top 400. That might sound like a lot, but it’s down from $109.7 million in 2008 and significantly down from a record high of $138.8 million in 2007.
A mere $77.4 million only got you in, though; the average earnings were $202.4 million, a lot of money but well down from the $334.8 million average in 2007.
Where it gets interesting is how the top 400 made their money:
- Wages and salaries: 8.6%
- Interest: 6.6%
- Dividends: 13%
- Partnerships and corporations: 19.9%
- Capital gains: 45.8%
The top 400 averaged $92.6 million in capital gains income–16% of the total capital gains reported by all taxpayers. (Do the math and the whole 1% thing seems like an overestimate.)
- Working for a salary won’t make you rich.
- Neither will making only safe “income” investments.
- Neither will investing only in large companies.
- Owning a business or businesses, whether in part or partnership, could not only build a solid wealth foundation but could someday…
- Generate a huge financial windfall.
(MORE: The Greatest American Antihero)
The data clearly supports the last point. A total of over 3,800 taxpayers have made the top 400 since 1992, but only 27% appear more than once, and only 2% appear 10 or more times.
Clearly, getting rich–in monetary terms–is the result of investing in yourself and others, taking risks, doing a lot of small things right… and then doing one big thing really, really right.
And hopefully achieving other goals along the way–because then, even if you don’t get rich, you’ll still be wealthy.
Read more from Inc.com: | <urn:uuid:9ef5f7a0-e162-49d4-b7c9-2196b026bda3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://business.time.com/2012/07/05/how-the-rich-got-rich/?iid=biz-category-mostpop1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945456 | 630 | 2.375 | 2 |
Activists hail watershed moment in gay rights
Upcoming Boy Scout decision, court cases, Obama inauguration leave activists amazed
In the next few days, the Boy Scouts of America is expected to announce whether it plans to change its longstanding national policy against openly gay members.
Many parents of Scouts have voiced their concerns, saying homosexuality goes against the teachings of their faith. But many others find the ban on gays out of sync with the ideals of scouting -- and of the nation as a whole.
The Boy Scouts controversy perhaps illustrates where America stands on gay rights.
Divided, still. But many more Americans empathize with gay Americans today. Many of those who have been crusading for decades to win more rights now say they have reached a precipice.
Polls show the public has gradually become more accepting of same-sex marriage, for instance. More Americans favor it in 2013 than oppose, according to the Pew Research Center.
Veteran activists feel America has reached a watershed moment in its writing of gay rights history. Defeats now -- whether with the Boy Scouts or in upcoming Supreme Court decisions on same-sex marriage -- would break with the momentum that has been steadily building for many months.
"Watershed? No, it's a tidal wave," said Mark Segal, a longtime activist who is often called the dean of gay journalism -- he is publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News.
Segal and other activists liken their struggle for civil rights to the battles against sexism and racism, except their movement has yet to yield laws that afford them the full protections and rights given to women and racial minorities.
But they are hopeful, given the progress in recent months, that they will see the fruition of their struggles in their lifetime.
San Francisco activist Cleve Jones said in all his 40 years of work, he has never seen movement like this.
"2012 was an extraordinary year," he said. "We've begun 2013 with a remarkable and moving statement. The burst of progress has been sustained."
Big things are about to happen, he said, including the Supreme Court decisions.
He was confident the court would rule in favor of gay rights.
"The opposition is just melting away," Jones said about public opinion on homosexuality. "We have reached the hearts and minds of the American people."
There is, he said, no turning back the clock.
A nod to Stonewall
Segal was 18 when he left home in Philadelphia for New York. He moved there because he was gay and wanted to be in a more accepting environment.
It was a time when the American Psychiatric Association regarded homosexuality as a mental disorder. Some were subjected to lobotomies as cures. Being gay could result in a life sentence: 20 states had laws that deemed homosexuality a reason for imprisonment.
One June 28, 1969, one month after he arrived in the city, Segal found himself on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, the heart of the gay community.
It was illegal then for bars to serve alcohol to gay customers. It was illegal to be in drag, or for same-sex couples to dance together.
Segal was in the Stonewall Inn when the police raided it, like they often did.
Only that night, for the first time, the gay men in the bar stood up against police aggression. Their rebellion sparked days of riots and Stonewall became the signature start of America's gay rights movement.
Segal, 62, went on to become a prominent gay rights activist. Two weeks ago, on Inauguration Day, he heard President Barack Obama's speech at home on television.
"We the people, declare today that the most evident of truths --- that all of us are created equal -- is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall, just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone, to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth." Segal sat up, chills went down his back at the mention of Stonewall.
He'd been beaten, arrested, called the worst of names. Now the president was equating gay rights to women's rights, to civil rights. He was pledging to make things right.
It was thrilling, too, for Jones, 58. He worked with Harvey Milk, one of America's first openly gay politicians, who served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors until his assassination in 1978. Jones was also the man behind the AIDS Quilt, which documented the lives of thousands who perished in the epidemic.
"I am kind of beside myself. I have to pinch myself sometimes," he said. "I never thought I would live long enough to see this. Never. Ever."
He pointed to electoral victories in November in which voters in Washington, Maryland and Maine approved same-sex marriage. Six other states -- Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire and New York -- and the District of Columbia already recognized same-sex marriage. Gay couples can even marry now in the National Cathedral.
In Wisconsin, voters elected the country's first openly gay U.S. senator, Tammy Baldwin. Shortly after, Richard Blanco became the first openly gay poet to read at a presidential inauguration. The Boy Scouts of America said it was reconsidering its anti-gay policy. Fast food chain Chick-fil-A, under fire in July for its financial support of anti-gay groups, stopped making those donations. Marriott Corp., founded by Mormons, joined a coalition of big businesses in fighting the Defense of Marriage Act.
On Tuesday, Obama announced an immigration reform plan that includes protections for same-sex bi-national couples. The next day, the Internet was on fire with objections to anti-gay comments made by San Francisco 49ers player Chris Culver. Culver apologized in yet another example of how much more tolerant America has become of gay Americans.
All this comes after Obama publicly endorsed same-sex marriage in May. The year before, the U.S. military repealed its "don't ask, don't tell" policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly.
Jones credits much of the progress to Obama, anointed by Newsweek magazine as "the first gay president," after his endorsement of same-sex marriage.
Obama's election in 2008 was a milestone -- for black America and for gay America -- Jones said. But there was more to the story.
On the same day that Obama was elected in 2008, voters in California passed Proposition 8, which effectively banned same-sex marriages after the state's high court had ruled them legal.
"It was a slap in the face for younger generations," Jones said.
That was also a year that Sean Penn won an Oscar for his performance as Harvey Milk. Jones said he believes the passage of Prop 8 along with the celluloid version of Milk's story helped galvanize a new generation of people to campaign for gay rights.
He has been working to sustain the momentum. Critical, he said, are the same-sex marriage hearings in the Supreme Court in late March. Jones is helping plan a day of action on March 25, the anniversary of the arrival of civil rights marchers from Selma at the Alabama state capitol in Montgomery.
"How long? Not long, because no lie can live forever," the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said in Selma.
That's how Jones looks at today's LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) movement. "If someone had told me in 1972 I would be campaigning for joining the military or for marriage, I'd be laughing," he said. "Now I really believe I am going to see us win our political battle."
Progress, but not finished
Michael Shutt attended an "Out for Equality" ball during the inauguration festivities in Washington. Everyone, he said, was talking about the importance of the president's speech in terms of the movement. Just that people were talking about LGBT issues was a big step, Shutt felt.
He returned home to Atlanta to attend a five-day leadership conference of about 3,000 LGBT activists. Shutt, who is director of Emory University's LGBT Campus Life office, said one of his students was so moved that he cried through every session.
The mood this year was different.
Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which sponsored the "Creating Change" conference in Atlanta, said in her opening statement that for many years, participants have convened still feeling the sting of the ballot box. Other years, they came together to lift each other up in the face of legal losses and policy disappointments.
"This is not that year," she told the conference last week. "This year was the year when enough people stood together, joined together and said, 'Enough.'"
She mentioned progress in every sphere, a "watershed moment 40 years in the making." But she warned that much work remained to be done.
A loving gay couple can get married, have the wedding of their dreams, come home, put a picture on their desk of their honeymoon and then get fired, legally, for doing so.
"There are 29 states that lack any semblance of protections," she said. "LGBT people lack the very foundational protections that so many have sought in this country."
"We are so thankful for the progress we have made but now is not the time to rest," she said, "because there are so many people who are experiencing discrimination simply because of who they are and who they love."
Emory's Shutt said, for example, that much work still needs to be done with educating young people and providing ample support for LGBT students on college campuses.
Notre Dame announced in December that it will create services for LGBT students on campus, a huge step for a Catholic university. More than 220 colleges and universities have such services now, Shutt said. But there are more than 6,000 colleges in America.
"That gives you the scope of it," he said.
Shutt was born in 1973, the year that homosexuality was no longer regarded a mental disorder, the year that Lambda Legal and the Gay and Lesbian Task Force were founded. When he went to college at Michigan State University, the climate was not favorable for anyone to be openly gay.
Carey believes that one of Obama's biggest contributions through his public statements is that he has helped create a space for people who are supportive of LGBT people to stand up and say so. After Obama's remarks on same-sex marriage, she said, the NAACP and La Raza joined in his support.
"That made a difference," Carey said.
A brother who paved the way
Susan Browning-Chriss wishes her brother had been able to listen to Obama's embrace of gay rights in his inaugural address.
He would have been thrilled, she is sure, to know the nation had come far enough to have a president stand on the steps of the Capitol and pledge equality for gay Americans.
"That was opening a door that will lead us to a lot of good places," she said.
Her brother Michael Hardwick was arrested in 1986 for having consensual sex with a man in his Atlanta home under an archaic sodomy law. He challenged the law and for a while made the rounds on television talking about the case.
He became an accidental activist; an ex-boyfriend even called him the Joan of Arc of the gay world.
His lawyers thought surely the Supreme Court would rule in Hardwick's favor. It didn't.
A dozen years later, in 1998, Georgia repealed its sodomy law after the state's high court declared it unconstitutional. In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed its own ruling in the Hardwick case when it struck down a ''deviant sexual intercourse'' law in Texas.
Hardwick didn't live to see any of the legal progress.
Devastated by his legal defeat, he died in obscurity in 1991, when AIDS was ravaging the nation and two years before a movie about the illness, "Philadelphia," portrayed the disease to mainstream America.
Two decades later, his sister hailed him as a pioneer, a man who helped make things better for her own two children, who are both gay.
"I am sorry he is not alive to see all the changes," Browning-Chriss said.
Browning-Chriss is thankful for the path her brother helped pave and content that her daughter can live happily with her partner, even have children.
Every movement has people who are out front, Browning-Chriss said. She is proud her brother was one of those people in a movement that has come of age.
In a few days the Boy Scouts will probably make a decision on its national policy. It has indicated that it may very well pass membership decisions to the local level.
In the meantime, the battle lines have been drawn, as they have been for every other hurdle faced by gay rights proponents.
Opponents of gay membership have urged people to contact the Boy Scouts and let their opinions be known. Proponents have done the same.
No one is doubting the importance of this particular fight or the ones coming up in the nation's highest court, but many gay rights proponents are buoyed in their belief that a majority of America now stands with them in achieving equal rights for LGBT people. For the first time, they feel victory within reach.
Copyright 2013 by CNN NewSource. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:6cc56aaf-1818-4d22-82b1-9bbd2479748c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wcti12.com/news/national-news/Activists-hail-watershed-moment-in-gay-rights/-/13530322/18384398/-/view/print/-/qrj559/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98025 | 2,823 | 2.015625 | 2 |
U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) today applauded the decision by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to extend a slate of benefits to LGBT military families. Together, Shaheen and Gillibrand have been vocal advocates calling for the extension of benefits to LGBT servicemen and women and their families since the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell in 2011. Some of the extended benefits announced by Secretary Panetta this morning include access to family support initiatives and joint duty assignments. In January, the Senators co-signed a letter urging Secretary Panetta to bring the Defense Department benefits of LGBT service up to par with those heterosexual couples receive.
"Secretary Panetta's historic announcement this morning is an important and welcome step forward. All of the brave men and women who risk their lives to serve our country deserve the complete benefits the military has to offer," said Senator Shaheen. "But while I'm obviously pleased by this morning's announcement, I also recognize that much more remains to be done to ensure full and complete equality for LGBT families, starting with the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). LGBT Americans and families deserve equal treatment under the law and as long as the DOMA remains in place, important benefits will be unavailable to same-sex military couples. That is an unacceptable reality and I'm committed to doing all I can to see DOMA abolished."
"Today's announcement by Secretary Panetta that important benefits will be extended to same-sex partners of military service members is another significant step forward on the march to full equality for all of our men and women serving in uniform," said Senator Gillibrand. "Senator Shaheen and I have long advocated for these benefits to be extended and I thank Secretary Panetta for his commitment to working with us to implement these changes as quickly as feasible. But make no mistake, our work is far from done. We will continue the fight to repeal DOMA to ensure that every loving committed couple has the same benefits regardless of who they love."
Senators Shaheen and Gillibrand were both strong advocates for the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell and in its aftermath have called for the extension of benefits to same-sex couples serving in the military. | <urn:uuid:74259360-bdae-49e1-897c-915e1dc98c00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://votesmart.org/public-statement/763339/shaheen-gillibrand-applaud-dod-decision-to-extend-benefits-to-lgbt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963394 | 465 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Colon Cancer Medications
Colonoscopy Beats 'Camera Pill' at Catching Colon Cancer
But less invasive detection method still shows promise, scientists say
WEDNESDAY, July 15 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers had high hopes for a minimally invasive cancer-screening technique known as capsule endoscopy, but the "camera pill" appears to be less effective than standard colonoscopy at identifying precancerous polyps and cancer, new research from Belgium suggests.
Although able to identify many lesions and cancers, the relative underperformance of capsule endoscopy -- in which a patient swallows a tiny, battery-operated, excretable capsule fitted with a double-sided video camera -- suggests that for now the more invasive colonoscopy should remain the gold standard for colorectal cancer detection.
"Although this study shows encouraging results, the use of the colon capsule can not be recommended at this stage for colon screening," said study lead author Dr. Andre Van Gossum from the department of gastroenterology at Erasme University Hospital at the Free University of Brussels.
The findings were published in the July 16 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
The study involved more than 300 patients who were scheduled to undergo a colonoscopy at one of eight medical centers, because they either had a history of colon cancer (about one-third of the patients) or were suspected of having the disease (about two-thirds of the patients). The patients underwent capsule endoscopy and, after that, conventional colonoscopy.
Participants ranged in age from 22 to 84 (average age was nearly 59), and 55 percent were men.
The researchers determined that capsule endoscopy -- which does not require sedation -- is indeed a safe and less invasive technique for visualizing the colon.
Technically, the colon capsule functioned as intended in nearly 98 percent of patients, the team found. The pill was deemed easy-to-swallow, and none of the patients experienced any problems excreting the capsule. Nearly 93 percent did so within 10 hours of ingestion and before the pill's battery-life was exhausted. On average, travel time for capsule navigation through the full length of the gastrointestinal tract -- from mouth to anus -- was calculated at four hours.
Most side effects were observed as mild and passing, and related not to the pill ingestion itself but to the bowel-prep requirements. Described as more extensive than colonoscopy preps, this involves swallowing liquids designed to clean the colon and optimize pill movement and imaging.
The effectiveness of the colon capsule was directly related to how well the patients had cleaned their colons. Detection sensitivity was significantly worse among those patients with poor or fair colon cleanliness than those with good or excellent cleanliness.
Also, the pill procedure detected only 64 percent of polyps 6 millimeters in size or larger that were identified by standard colonoscopy. And with similarly sized advanced cancer, capsule screening captured just 73 percent of adenomas that were spotted by colonoscopy.
Of 19 confirmed cases of colon cancer uncovered through colonoscopies, just 14 were caught by the pill technique, the researchers noted.
The authors therefore concluded that capsule endoscopy is currently inferior to colonoscopy as a screening method, but they called for more research.
The noninvasive character of this technique has the potential to encourage more patients to get screened for colon cancer, Van Gossum said. In time, "technological improvements, as well as adapted protocol for colon preparation, could increase the sensitivity of this new method," he noted.
Dr. Felice Schnoll-Sussman, director of research with the Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City, said the capsule does have value, despite seemingly significant deficiencies in identifying both polyps and cancers.
"The results were still admirable in terms of what colon capsules were able to identify," she observed. "And although the prep for the capsule exam is more arduous than the prep for a colonoscopy, it seems that the experience was viewed as convenient, safe and tolerable."
"I think that in certain patient populations --those incapable of undergoing a colonoscopy because they are very difficult to sedate, or those that are just not willing to undergo a colonoscopy -- this may be an appropriate alternative," she said. "But patients will have to weigh the options, recognizing that the accuracy of colon capsule detection is lower."
For additional information and resources on capsule endoscopy, visit the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. | <urn:uuid:cb20b54c-b810-4a44-86e5-62519ac8b38c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthline.com/healthday/colonoscopy-beats-camera-pill-at-catching-colon-cancer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964179 | 956 | 2.46875 | 2 |
PERCEPTIONS: Sweet dreams
On Christmas Eve, the children are nestled all snug in their beds with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads. On New Year’s Eve, I join them.
The new year, 2013, will be my year. I will get in shape. I will master a second language. I will read War and Peace. I will be a better human being.
The dream of success is a five-star hotel where I can check in and lounge around as long as I please. The rooms are free and the luxuries are limited only by my imagination. I have spent way too much of my life checked into that hotel – or should I say, checked out.
The road to success is starkly different. The moment my feet touch the road to success, my dreams go up in a puff of smoke. I dream of eating healthier but the moment I deny myself a second donut I feel frustrated. I dream of being physically fit but exercise makes my muscles sore. I dream of learning Spanish but studying stresses my brain. Suddenly, “no gain” seems a small price to pay for “no pain.”
We consider the great people of history to be visionary dreamers. The truth is, dreamers are a dime a dozen. The people who make a difference in this world are the stone cold pragmatists, people who put their feet to the road and walk.
Alexander the Great did not just dream of a Greek world; he assembled an army. Mother Teresa did not just dream of helping the poor; she moved to the slums of Calcutta. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is famous, not just because it was a good speech, but because it was the road he traveled.
In the end, the dream of success is failure. The road to success is success. | <urn:uuid:ec376cfb-9341-4396-b2a6-c14d113be5c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/perceptions-122163-dreams-year.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965123 | 390 | 1.546875 | 2 |
It's a battleground down there — in the soil where plants and bacteria dwell.
Even though beneficial root bacteria come to the rescue when a plant is being attacked by pathogens, there's a dark side to the relationship between the plant and its white knight.
According to research reported by a University of Delaware scientific team in the September online edition of Plant Physiology, the most highly cited plant journal, a power struggle ensues as the plant and the "good" bacteria vie over who will control the plant's immune system.
"For the brief period when the beneficial soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis is associated with the plant, the bacterium hijacks the plant's immune system," says Harsh Bais, assistant professor of plant and soil sciences, whose laboratory group led the research at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute.
In studies of microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs), a hot area of plant research, the UD team found that B. subtilis produces a small antimicrobial protein that suppresses the root defense response momentarily in the lab plant Arabidopsis.
"It's the first time we've shown classically how suppression by a benign bacteria works," Bais says. "There are shades of gray — the bacteria that we view as beneficial don't always work toward helping plants."
In the past, Bais' lab has shown that plants under aerial attack send an SOS message, through secretions of the chemical compound malate, to recruit the beneficial B. subtilis to come help.
In more recent work, Bais and his collaborators showed that MAMP perception of pathogens at the leaf level could trigger a similar response in plants. Through an intraplant, long-distance signaling, from root to shoot, beneficial bacteria are recruited to forge a system-wide defense, boosting the plant's immune system, the team demonstrated. In that study, the Bais team also questioned the overall tradeoffs involved in plants that are associated with so-called beneficial microbes.
In the latest work, involving the testing of more than 1,000 plants, the researchers shed more light on the relationship. They show that B. subtilis uses a secreted peptide to suppress the immune response in plants. It is known that plants synthesize several antimicrobial compounds to ward off bacteria, Bais says.
The team also shows that when plant leaves were treated with a foliar MAMP — flagellin, a structural protein in the flagellum, the tail-like appendage that bacteria use like a propeller — it triggered the recruitment of beneficial bacteria to the plant roots.
"The ability of beneficial bacteria to suppress plant immunity may facilitate efficient colonization of rhizobacteria on the roots," Bais says. Rhizobacteria form an important symbiotic relationship with the plant, fostering its growth by converting nitrogen in the air into a nutrient form the plant can use.
"We don't know how long beneficial bacteria could suppress the plant immune response, but we do know there is a very strong warfare under way underground," Bais says, noting that his lab is continuing to explore these interesting questions. "We are just beginning to understand this interaction between plants and beneficial soil bacteria."
The lead author of the research article was Venkatachalam Lakshmanan, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences; Sherry Kitto, professor of plant and soil sciences; Jeffrey Caplan, associate director of UD's Bio-Imaging Center; Yu-Sung Wu, director of the Protein Production Facility; Daniel B. Kearns, associate professor in the Department of Biology at Indiana University; and Yi-Huang Hsueh , of the Graduate School of Biotechnology and Bioengineering at Yuan Ze University, Taiwan.
The research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system. | <urn:uuid:3bfb3480-4e0a-4d6c-84ba-dba053f07542> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-09/uod-hh092112.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944521 | 828 | 3.265625 | 3 |
If you are reading this blog post, you probably have heard the term “Cloud Computing“. But in the off chance that you haven’t, or perhaps you know of a colleague or co-worker that needs to get brought up to speed on the power of the cloud or what it can do for your company, I wanted to be sure that you knew about an upcoming webinar that we at GoGrid will be hosting called “Cloud Hosting 101“.
To be clear, this is NOT a webinar for those people who are well versed in the technical benefits of the cloud, nor how you can build N-tiered complex infrastructure with just a few mouse clicks. It is more about:
- getting a primer on the benefits of cloud computing for your business,
- how customers are using the GoGrid cloud to achieve success and,
- to learn how to get started with a cloud presence on GoGrid.
Date: Thursday, October 14, 2010
Time: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM (Pacific Time)
Presenters: Michael Sheehan (GoGrid Technology Evangelist) & Maria Gallegos (GoGrid Product Marketing Manager)
If you have questions that you would like us to answer on the webinar, be sure to submit them as a comment on this blog post. We hope that you or your co-workers can attend. Do note, we do have other webinars coming up over the next few months so be sure to check back.
Latest posts by Michael Sheehan (see all)
- Get Your Game On in the Cloud - June 11, 2013
- How Software Defined Networking Delivers Next-Generation Success - June 5, 2013
- James Gosling to Speak on Innovation at GoGrid Cloud Meetup on 5/22 - May 16, 2013 | <urn:uuid:ea45e60a-8471-4923-abf5-393d2c3aafdf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.gogrid.com/2010/10/11/webinar-cloud-hosting-101-october-14-2010/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944853 | 382 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Called “The Muneris Experience,” the program uses recreation elements to teach topics like bullying, respect, honesty, cooperation, patience, creativity and perseverance.
Assistant Recreation Director Elizabeth Cook said it focuses on communication.
“We use different challenges that require discussion to work through them,” Cook said. “We can modify the activities to tie in multiple elements that the students need to learn.”
The program, named for the Latin word for “service,” is catered to individual objectives. Character education labs can be crafted to fit groups from 20 to 200 people and focus on one or multiple education topics. Shocco staff can come to the school or host the labs on its campus.
The program, for grades 5 through 12, incorporates Alabama and 21st century teaching standards.
“Teachers are required to meet certain standards of character education in their classroom,” Cook said. “They have a list of objectives, and this program works directly with each word on the list. It’s an opportunity for teachers to reaffirm the skills the students are already learning in the classroom and also help students learn to be good citizens and work together to play a role in their community.”
The “helium hoop” objective is an example of an activity students perform. Each person must keep one finger on a hula hoop as the group lowers it to the ground. While it sounds easy enough, Cook said it requires a lot of discussion and teamwork.
“The hoop is so light that when everybody puts a finger on it, the natural reaction is to lift it up,” she said. “It automatically challenges them to think through it as a team. A lot of times they get frustrated, and want to quit, but that’s when they realize they have to communicate with each other effectively.”
Alabama School for the Deaf recently participated in The Muneris Experience and had “a wonderful experience,” said ASD Adjustment Specialist Tamera Hardaway.
Seventh through ninth-graders from ASD learned objectives like bullying, teamwork and leadership through a series of activities.
“Our kids really enjoyed the activities,” Hardaway said. “We surveyed them afterward, and they all said they learned a lot about themselves and about working with other people. One student even said they realized that they had been a bully at one point, and they learned ways to avoid that behavior. We’re hoping to do it again really soon.”
Cook said the program was added as a way to minister to people that might not typically visit Shocco.
“We are able to reach out and work with teachers and students that wouldn’t necessarily come to our campus,” she said. “Through our example, we hope they realize there is something different about us and there is more to our purpose.”
Cook said they try to create an experience that makes people want to visit Shocco for other activities.
While The Muneris Experience is only available to schools, Cook said Shocco’s adventure recreation program teaches valuable lessons as well.
“Adventure recreation is the same idea, but the Muneris program is catered specifically to the character education that schools have to teach,” she said. “We offer a lot of other recreation activities that incorporate team work and character traits through different scenarios and activities. The goal of all our recreation is to go beyond the activity and hopefully teach a lesson.”
To inquire about a session, contact Shocco at 256-761-1100. Various promotions are available.
Contact Emily Adams at firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:0d6c6150-acec-4a2a-842e-6c50ace32c64> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailyhome.com/view/full_story/18833404/article-Shocco-expands-ministry-with-character-education-labs?instance=1st_left | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968208 | 777 | 2.625 | 3 |
Sue Bland no. 1 on June 25, 1901. Photograph of the Sue Bland No.1 well in Red Fork, Indian Territory, 1901. Sue Davis Bland was the wife of Dr. Bland. The well was drilled on Sue Davis' land allotment by Dr. Bland and Dr. Clinton. The well produced 35 barrels of oil per day originally. Today's output is the minimum required to maintain the lease, 2 barrels per month.
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Preservation and archiving of this significant Tulsa treasure of photographs and artifacts was made possible through the Tulsa City-County Library and the Tulsa Historical Society, and the generosity of Tulsa World/Lorton Family, Chester Cadieux, the Rotary Club of Tulsa, and many other community-minded corporations, institutions, and individuals. | <urn:uuid:5cb58666-44ea-4524-b163-5952c9599ff8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cdm15020.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15020coll1/id/15913/rec/11 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936777 | 172 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Washington, DC — Although the goal of a December 31 peace agreement in Sudan has been missed, the government of Sudan and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement and Army (SPLM/A) have "proved" their seriousness by reaching agreement on wealth-sharing, Acting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Charles Snyder, told reporters Thursday.
He said "there's a real chance" negotiations can succeed "in the next several days." The most difficult remaining issue is the status of Abyei in West Kordofan, the Nuba Mountain region in Southern Kordofan and the Angasana of Blue Nile province, he said. But there have been "some serious advances."
The "level of attention and detail" that resulted in agreement on complex issues like wealth-sharing makes negotiations "take a little longer" than first thought, but at this point both sides "have to decide in the endgame what they're going to trade for what," he said.
"Am I optimistic about tomorrow? Not necessarily about tomorrow. Am I optimistic about the next 30 days? Absolutely. I think this agreement is at that point where it is inevitable."
On other issues, Snyder called Africa "an important front" in the global war on terrorism, "but it's not a crucial front." He said: "The old camel caravan route coming down from Libya all the way through Mauritania is an area of interest and an area of trouble which extremists can use, and we're paying attention to [it] in this global war."
Asked whether the recent travel warning issued on Nigeria reflected U.S. government concern about a link to global terrorism in that country or the domestic situation, he replied: "It's a little bit of both." He said a combination of factors, including "a terrorist dimension that has to do with a global problem" led American officials "to warn Americans that they need to be careful when they go to Nigeria."
Snyder denied that apparent slowness by the administration in pushing for an extension of the African Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa) is a reprisal for Africa's stance at Cancun last September, when world trade discussions broke down over disagreements between Washington, other Western governments and developing nations.
"What happened at Cancun is unfortunate in many ways," he said, "but AGOA legislation is not affected by that, trust me." Trade bills are always tough to negotiate, especially in an election year, so the State Department traditionally waits "until the 11th hour to spot what we like best," he said. Without elaborating, Snyder seemed to suggest that the Bush Administration feels that there is still some tinkering needed with the Agoa bills that have been introduced in House and Senate. "I'm hoping we will get legislation that we will openly support."
Snyder also said the Bush administration wants South African President Thabo Mbeki to put more pressure on Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe. "We've seen South Africa step up to the plate in Burundi," he said, where a peace agreement is close to resolution "in large part due to South Africa's energetic diplomacy." The U.S. government would like to see similar movement on the Zimbabwe issue, he said. "We're still hoping that President Mbeki will step up. With a tragedy unfolding like this, time is of the essence and we're hoping that he takes a reenergized look."
Speaking about President Bush's pledge of $15 billion over five years to fight HIV/Aids in Africa and the Caribbean, Snyder acknowledged that "$15 billion divided by 5 should be $3 billion a year" and that the $2.4 billion Congress approved for fiscal year 2004 "didn't quite get there." But, he said that "we've engaged that in a serious way" with "serious money -- more than anybody else is doing in this regard." | <urn:uuid:bb824410-1c09-4400-84fb-e5021c08f39d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allafrica.com/stories/200401160042.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966024 | 800 | 1.65625 | 2 |
By Mary Schofield
When students reach high school, it seems they are bombarded with a battery of tests. There are enough tests offered to make it very confusing and, to make matters worse, they are titled by letters, not names, and many of the names have changed over the years. So it is hard to identify the test and what it is for. This makes it hard to tell which ones would be worth taking and which could be skipped. In this article, we’ll look at a few of the most common exams:
SAT Reasoning Test – www.collegeboard.com
The SAT was originally named the Scholastic Aptitude Test, later renamed to the Scholastic Assessment Test, and finally renamed again to just SAT, with the letters standing for nothing. It was originally referred to as the S-A-T, not the “sat,” but with the name change to letters only, most people began calling it the “Sat” (rhymes with “cat.”) Most recently, it is called the SAT (“sat”) Reasoning Test.
The SAT Reasoning Test is a college aptitude test which is taken by high school juniors and seniors. It covers math, writing skills, and critical thinking and is supposed to show how likely students are to succeed in college. The score is thus used by colleges for determining eligibility for admission. Most colleges have a table which correlates the SAT score to the students’ grade point average (GPA) for high school. The higher the GPA, the lower the SAT score is to meet minimum admission eligibility requirements.
The current SAT Reasoning Test is 3 hours and 45 minutes long and is offered seven times from October to May in locations throughout the world. Students must register about a month prior to the date they want to take the exam, and must take the exam at an official SAT test site. The test fee is $43. [Editor's Note: The testing fee has changed to $45.] No school credit is typically given for the SAT Reasoning Test–not college credit, and not high school credit either.
SAT Subject Tests – www.collegeboard.com
The SAT Subject Tests were originally called Achievement Tests, then SAT II’s. Either name is still used, but most references now call this series of tests the “SAT Subject Tests.” There are twenty exams available, each an hour long. The tests are used to show prospective colleges the level of knowledge and ability that a student has reached in a particular subject area.
While many colleges which do require the SAT Reasoning Test don’t require the SAT Subject Tests, it’s a good idea for homeschool students attempting to gain admission to a “mainstream” university to take at least three of the subject tests to demonstrate their level of knowledge. The College Board recommends that students take the SAT Subject Tests as soon as possible after completing coursework in the subject to be tested. For foreign language subject tests, students should take the SAT Subject Test after completing two years of study of the language.
The SAT Subject Tests are generally offered on the same dates and at the same sites as the SAT Reasoning Test, but students can’t take both the SAT Reasoning Test and subject tests at the same sitting. Also, there is quite a bit of variation on which subject tests are available on particular test dates, so students will need to plan in advance to choose a test date which offers the exams they want to take. The subject tests cost about $20 each. No school credit is typically given for the SAT Subject Tests–not college credit, and not high school credit either. However, the scores on the SAT Subject Tests may be used to determine placement in college courses upon enrollment, for example, determining that a student who has scored well on a foreign language exam should be placed in an intermediate rather than introductory college course in that language.
PSAT/NMSQT – www.collegeboard.com
National Merit Scholarship Corporation website: www.nationalmerit.org
The PSAT/NMSQT stands for the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. It tests math, writing skills, and critical thinking skills. This test is generally taken by tenth or eleventh grade students who fall into one of two categories (or both). First, students who plan to take the SAT tests and use the scores for college admission purposes may want to take the PSAT/NMSQT in tenth or eleventh grade for practice. The test is similar to the SAT Reasoning Test and using the PSAT/NMSQT to identify weak areas can help students plan the next year or two of high school to improve. Second, students who wish to apply for scholarships should take the PSAT/NMSQT in eleventh grade. The test is used by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation to assess eleventh grade students. Scores on the test are used to determine National Merit Scholars.
The PSAT/NMSQT is offered once per year, in October. It is offered at local high schools, so homeschooled students must arrange to take the test at public high schools in their communities. [Editor's Note: In Virginia, some private schools and co-ops also make the PSAT available to homeschoolers; check the HEAV Update in the early fall or contact your local private school or support group for availability.] Because homeschooled students are given special test codes which allow the scores to be sent to their homes rather than to the school where they take the test, homeschooled students must sign up well in advance. The College Board recommends contacting the public high school where a student wishes to take the exam in June, four months prior to the test date.
The PSAT/NMSQT is two hours and ten minutes long. The test fee is $13. No school credit is typically given for the PSAT/NMSQT–not college credit, and not high school credit either.
ACT – www.actstudent.org
ACT originally stood for “American College Testing” program and the test was called the A-C-T, but the name has been changed to just “ACT” (rhymes with “fact.”) The ACT is a college aptitude test and, like the SAT, is used to determine the knowledge and skill level attained by high school students applying for college admission. The ACT is just under three hours long and tests English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science. There is an optional 30-minute writing test which, if taken, makes the total ACT about the same length as the SAT Reasoning Test.
Some colleges require applicants to take the ACT (with or without the writing component), others require the SAT Reasoning Test, and many require that students take one or the other, but leave the choice of which one up to the student. Since ACT and SAT tests differ, it’s likely that students will perform better on one that the other. Thus, students who are applying to colleges which accept either test, and where admission is very competitive, should probably take both tests and then submit the better score to the college.
The ACT is offered about six times per year at test centers throughout the world. The fee is $30, with an additional $14.50 for the optional writing portion. No school credit is typically given for the ACT–not college credit, and not high school credit either.
GED - www.acenet.edu
The General Educational Development Test, called the G-E-D, is a program of the American Council on Education (ACE), and is administered in every state, in Canada, and in the U.S. military, and in some foreign locations. The exam was originally offered in 1942 and was designed for World War II veterans to finish their high school education and transition back into civilian life. The current modern format of the test is designed to show that an individual has attained the academic knowledge, critical thinking skills, and “real-life” contexts as what would be expected after attending a four-year high school program. The GED is thus used to establish equivalency to a high school diploma. According to ACE, more than 65 percent of those who take the test do so to gain entry into postsecondary education, while 30 percent take the test for employment reasons–presumably to meet job requirements for a high school diploma.
The GED is given in five separate sections, covering reading (interpreting literature and the arts), writing skills, mathematics, science, and social studies respectively. Since it is used to demonstrate equivalence to a high school diploma, each state sets its own requirements related to who can take the exam and what score is required to pass. Some states require students to be 16 years old; others require students to be 18. However, some states with lower age requirements allow out-of-state students to test there, so it may be possible for a 16 year old who lives in a state which requires test takers to be 18 to take the exam in a neighboring state which allows 16 year olds to take it. Because of the variations, students must contact the governing authority in their own states (usually the state department of education) for specific information.
The test is offered at official GED testing centers only and warnings have recently been issued regarding entities who falsely claim to offer the GED online or via correspondence programs. The test is commonly offered several times a month and, since the total exam takes about 7 1/2 hours, the different parts may typically be taken on different days. While fees vary, expect to pay about $100. [Editor's Note: In Virginia, the fee is $45 ($35 for the test and $10 for the testing fee).]
No school credit is typically given for the GED–not college credit, and not high school credit either. However, since the test is used to show equivalency to a high school education, course requirements for high school graduation would effectively be waived and the student who passes the GED would be considered as equal to a high school graduate.
AP – www.collegeboard.com
The Advanced Placement Program (pronounced A-P) is administered by the College Board, and includes both courses and exams. This is a widely used program which was designed for high school students who are academically advanced–ready for college-level work while still in high school. Students who pass an AP test are generally awarded up to a year of college course credit. (The actual amount of credits varies and often depends upon whether the college follows the quarter system or the semester system.) As the AP system grew, many high schools began offering “AP courses” which are college-level courses that advanced high school students may take. Because the scores on the AP are tallied for each high school offering them, having lots of students do well is a plus for a high school’s own academic reputation. Thus, many high schools which offer the AP exam and preparation courses control who may take the AP exam. Very often, high schools will only allow students to sit for the AP exam if they have successfully completed the AP course offered by the school.
Even though many high schools don’t allow “outsiders” to sit for the AP exams at their school, there is a way around this. Since the College Board does not require students to complete a course in order to be eligible to take the exam, homeschooled students can ask the College Board to assign them a separate test site number. This will allow a student who takes an AP exam at the local high school to avoid having his score attributed to that high school. With the removal of the possibility of having an unknown student’s score affect the school’s pass record, they may be willing to allow outside students to sit for the exam. It also may help to offer to pay the proctor a fee for allowing the student to sit for the exam.
The AP exams are given nationwide on the same day in May, so students have to plan ahead. There are over 30 different AP exams, each two to three hours long, on a variety of subjects including Art History, Biology, Calculus, English Literature, foreign languages, etc. As already discussed, testing centers are typically public high schools. The fee for each exam is $84.
The AP has an excellent reputation and is probably the most widely accepted exam for obtaining college credit. The exams are rigorous and usually test the knowledge that a student would be expected to gain by attending a full-year course at college, although some exams are designed to test a semester’s worth of material, and these exams tend to be two hours long rather than three. College credit is generally awarded for passing an AP exam, however, each college sets its own requirements in this regard. Most colleges award a full semester or year of credit–typically three to six semester credits, depending on the individual AP exam taken–but some award fewer credits or even choose not to honor the AP exams at all. Therefore, students will need to check with the college they plan to attend to find out what is allowed.
In addition to earning college credits while still in high school, many students take AP exams to fortify their homeschool transcripts by showing, for example, that an “A” in Physics wasn’t just a gift from a sympathetic homeschool mom. Also, while high school credits aren’t usually given just for passing an AP test, a passing score can be a good indicator that the student has independently studied the subject well enough to earn a year’s worth of high school credit. Further, the high school credit will usually be listed awarded as “honors” level, meaning that grade point averages are boosted a full point (an “A” is equal to five grade points rather than the typical four.)
CLEP – www.collegeboard.com
The College-Level Exam Program, called the CLEP (rhymes with shlep) is another program by the College Board. Most CLEP exams are designed to test knowledge equivalent to what would be covered in a semester-long first or second year college course, although some test a full year’s worth of material. Thus colleges which grant credit based on passing a CLEP exam typically award the same number of credits for passing the exam that they would award for successfully taking a similar course. Available are over 30 exams in various college subject areas.
Colleges have their own “cut scores” on CLEP tests as they determine when to give credit or when to allow the test to stand as fulfillment of a course requirement, but without credit, thus allowing the student to have some flexibility in not repeating the study of material they already know but going on to substitute another course with “new” content. Some colleges also actually require tuition for the hours they are posting on a student’s transcript via CLEP testing–and this, too, varies greatly both in terms of a proportion of the credit hour fee vs. the whole fee and based upon whether the student is going to pay for substitution hours. The bottom line is that “one set of rules applies to all” simply is not the case.
Anyone can take a CLEP exam at any time; there is no age requirement. Each college sets its own requirements as far as granting credit by exam, how many credits per exam, and which exams will work. There is a wide variation and that changes from state to state and even among different regions of the country. Therefore, students must check with each college to find out what their policy is. For example, in California, it is quite common to have colleges allow up to 30 credits by exam, which is the equivalent of about one year of study. However, which exams are acceptable to the college varies. A lot of California’s colleges allow some CLEP exams but not others. This seems more common here than a straight yes or no to CLEPs.
CLEP exams are offered at test centers throughout the world, usually local colleges or private test center businesses. The tests exams are available any time the test center will schedule them, as opposed to being offered nationwide on a specific date. So students can generally contact a test center and schedule an exam at their convenience. Fees for the exams are $65 each, although test centers generally charge an additional fee for proctoring the exam.
In addition to earning college credits, homeschooled students are often awarded “honors level” credits in the subject for which they took and passed a CLEP exam. This is typically handled in exactly the same way as for AP exams.
Just as there is a variety of tests available, the acceptability of tests varies among states, regions, and schools. For college admissions, ACT seems to be more commonly used in the East and Midwest, while SAT is more common in the West. For high school equivalency, the GED is recognized nationwide, but eligibility requirements vary. For earning college credits, one generality that seems to hold true is that the APs are more widely accepted than the CLEPs, but again, each college sets its own testing requirements just as they set their own admissions requirements.
(c) 2008 Mary Schofield, author of The High School Handbook. | <urn:uuid:cb964d45-3aef-48d5-8d6c-d4814c4143fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://heav.org/testing/testing-in-va-an-overview-2/high-school-students-testing-testing-one-two-three/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968163 | 3,587 | 2.9375 | 3 |
by Matt Doeden
This book is a retelling of the Boston Tea Party as a graphic novel. The pictures and text make it very accessible to children of a wide variety of ages. The information given in this book is accurate and clear without an extreme amount of text.
At the end of the book, there is a glossary and resources to learn more. There is also a brief description of the events that led up to the Tea Party after the main text has ended. This is an excellent resource to make learning about the history of America fun! | <urn:uuid:da5e6823-302a-49d3-b246-5e7758b3b85e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://denverlibrary.org/review/boston-tea-party-2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955684 | 112 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Composer Mr. Sweet is angry. As he strikes a chord on his Steinway, “no one could hear him but he could hear the sound of the washing machine washing the clothes of his infernal family and in that entity he did not include himself.”
An unhappy household in New England is the setting for “See Now Then,” Jamaica Kincaid’s first novel in 10 years. Part domestic meditation, part philosophical examination, Kincaid’s work explores the collapse of a marriage from various family members’ points of view.
The majority of the book can, unfortunately, be read as a rant against Mr. Sweet. Comparisons to Kincaid’s own situation (her composer husband of 25 years left her for a much younger woman) are easy to make. While Mrs. Sweet “was unwavering, her devotion was without question, her love had no limits” there is nothing positive about Mr. Sweet, who fantasizes about killing his family and laments about how much he “hates” his wife: “She snores horribly; she smells of the past, for she is growing old and so am I … but young women like me and I do not like old women … she is very naive, she is very primitive.”
However when Mr. Sweet finally asks his wife for a divorce (arguably the only plot point in the text), the language opens up and there are some beautiful, engaging passages: “She sat in that unknowingness, that space invisible to the naked eye, and tried to sort out how she came to be herself … unraveling various parts of the garment that had been her own life.”
This shift in language could be part of an extended metaphor — Mrs. Sweet isn’t truly free until she breaks from her husband — but keeping this shift until the final chapter is terribly unsatisfying. Instead of ending on a note of hope for things to come in Mrs. Sweet’s new life, we are left wondering: what could have been? | <urn:uuid:bab6f14e-1bd6-47aa-81a5-718784376f5c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thegazette.com/2013/03/10/book-about-marriage-divorce-becomes-ugly-rant/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979566 | 430 | 2.125 | 2 |
NBN rollout claims misleading: Turnbull
The federal government is misleading Australians about the pace of the high-speed network's rollout, according to Malcolm Turnbull. Photo: Andrew Meares
Minister for Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy Stephen Conroy and the national broadband network (NBN) are misleading Australians about the pace of the high-speed network's rollout, opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull says.
"What the NBN does, and this is, I think, a deliberate effort to mislead people because it really does mislead people, is they use a metric that is used nowhere else in the industry that I have ever heard of," Mr Turnbull told ABC radio on Wednesday.
NBN Co repeated last week it was on track to meet its target of having work underway or completed for 758,000 homes and business by the year's end.
He said there were two metrics that were really relevant in measuring the progress of the rollout for the $37.4 billion project.
The most relevant one was where premises were actually connected and the other one was where the cable had passed a place, Mr Turnbull said.
NBN Co said last week around 7000 premises were on its fibre network and forecast 54,000 homes would be connected by June 2013.
Telcos such as BT in the UK and AT&T in the US sought to reduce the time spent and the cost of upgrading broadband services in building a fibre-to-the-node network (FTTN), he said.
The coalition's plan for a NBN involved a mix of technologies including fibre, pay-tv cable, copper, wireless technology and satellite services.
A FTTN network would have high-speed fibre cable from the exchange to the node, a cabinet on a street corner, where the rest of the connection would be a fixed copper line to the premises.
"The critical point is the reason why fibre-to-the-node is so much cheaper, and it is generally in developed countries comparable with our own. It is around a quarter of the cost and about a quarter of the time to build," Mr Turnbull said.
Mr Turnbull has been critical of Labor's plan, calling it too expensive and too slow to provide broadband across Australia.
NBN Co is charged to deliver fibre-optic cable to deliver broadband speeds of up to 100 megabits a second (Mbps) to 93 per cent of homes, schools and business by June 2021, with the rest provided by wireless networks and satellite services.
Download speeds under a proposed FTTN network would vary between 25 Mbps and 80 Mbps, depending on how close the premises was to the node's cabinet. | <urn:uuid:3706ad0d-6132-49b1-b69a-1160b5e1d3d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.watoday.com.au/it-pro/government-it/nbn-rollout-claims-misleading-turnbull-20121121-29qhp.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971351 | 538 | 1.789063 | 2 |
In his book Growing Up Brown: Memoirs of a Filipino American, Peter Jamero, former UW assistant professor of rehabilitation medicine and social work, recounts his early life in a farm labor camp in Livingston, Calif., and the path that took him to a career in academia and as an executive in health and human services programs in Sacramento, Washington, D.C., Seattle, and San Francisco.
What started out as a legacy piece for his children and grandchildren evolved into a memoir and sociopolitical analysis of the life and times of a second-generation Filipino American.
“When you get to be my age, 76, you think about leaving something for your kids. We have six kids; they were expressing a lot of interest in what I did during my life,” said Jamero. A friend of one of Jamero’s daughters brought some of his early work to the attention of UW Press.
“Editors there were interested. But they wanted something more than a travelogue and a series of birthdays. They urged me to write about how events shaped my life and to provide some analysis of how I dealt with parenting, discrimination, why I became an activist and an executive. I’m glad they did and I am appreciative.”
Filipinos came to the United States in the 1920s and 30s to fill the agricultural void after the exclusion of Japanese and Chinese workers, Jamero explained. The Philippines was a colony of the United States, so immigration was not a problem; Filipinos were nationals. They were a ready-made source of cheap labor.
Jamero’s parents ran a farm labor camp in central California. “Papa procured the work and was a contractor for these Filipino men. We had 80 to 100 men we housed and fed. My mother did the bookkeeping for the business and ran a general store. My dad was the cook. The kids helped with food preparation and disposal. We dug holes — for garbage, for outhouses.
“When I began the first grade I had to also learn English — I only spoke a Visayan dialect of the central Philippines.”
In high school, Jamero did well academically and socially and held a number of school offices. However, when he expressed an interest in going to college, he recalled being told, “Your kind belong in agriculture or the machine shop.”
“That was devastating for obvious reasons. I had to get over that,” said Jamero. Jamero joined the U.S. Navy at 17 and served in the Korean War. After the war, he took advantage of the G.I. Bill to pursue his dreams of attending college. He attended San Jose State University, majoring in pre-social work. He then received a scholarship to UCLA, where he earned a master’s degree in social work. Jamero later received a certificate in public affairs from Stanford University.
He became the first male and first Filipino to be employed as an adoptions worker in Sacramento County.
As his family grew, so did his career. “My first five kids were all born within six years. That was a big motivation to do well. I had to keep getting better jobs,” he said.
From his first job as an adoptions worker, Jamero went on to serve as division chief of the Aid to Needy Children program in Sacramento. He then went to Washington, D.C. as bureau chief of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; to Seattle where he served as regional representative for assistance payments, and to Olympia where he was the Washington State director of vocational rehabilitation under Governor Dan Evans. From 1979 to 1983 he served as assistant professor rehabilitation medicine and social work at the UW.
“While at the UW, I worked in social work on a project on disabilities for the School of Social Work and specialized on the vocational aspects of disabilities for the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. I supervised rehab counselors at UWMC and administered federally funded projects for the department.”
After leaving the UW, Jamero served as the first director of the new Department of Human Resources for King County, vice president at United Way of Seattle/King County, department director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, and executive director of the Asian American Recovery Services in San Francisco.
While pleased with his professional achievements, Jamero is particularly proud of his record of community and political activism on behalf of social justice and minority causes.
The true legacy Jamero said he wants to leave for his children and grandchildren can be summarized in his guiding principles:
“Know thyself. Know what it means to be a person of color — your history, struggles, successes, aspirations. Appreciate who came before you.
“Understand how to handle discrimination and racism. Never use discrimination and racism as convenient excuse for not achieving. However, know that even people who possess degrees and professional and social positions are not immune from having discriminatory attitudes and practices.
“Examine your failures.
“Value education as an equalizer that can open doors, but does not guarantee success. “You must work hard.
“Make sure that your values are clear.”
Growing Up Brown: Memoirs of a Filipino American, UW Press, is available at the University Bookstore. | <urn:uuid:011609ed-ac82-4f0f-bc7c-83d09adfedcf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washington.edu/news/2006/10/19/uw-press-publishes-memoir-of-former-social-work-faculty-member/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980835 | 1,118 | 2.140625 | 2 |
In 1906, George Corsan, an instructor at the Detroit YMCA, invented group swim lessons. Swimming provides a fun form of exercise for children and is an important tool in the fight against rising levels of youth obesity.
YMCAs, across the country, are the largest provider of swim lessons in the United States. The local YMCA Branch, the Betty Pullum Family YMCA, has been offering lessons in the Navarre Community since the summer of 1998.
Navarre residents Bill and Martha Pullum saw a need in the community to provide swim lessons in the late 90s, with the rising number of people drowning in the area. A YMCA was their answer to the problem. Until the YMCA was built with their lead gift of cash and land, they offered their own home pool for area kids to learn how to swim. Their leadership spurred other families to donate their pools for lessons, like the Whites and the Fixs.
“The safest thing that you can put next to a body of water is a child or adult who knows how to swim,” said YMCA Branch Director Dottie Thomas. “With all of the bodies of water we have in the area, it is so important to teach children and adults to swim. All of our instructors are YMCA trained or certified, as well as our pool lifeguards.”
For more on this story, see the May 19 edition of the Navarre Press or subscribe online. | <urn:uuid:7725767d-6859-4a58-a3f8-820c044219c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://navarrepress.com/news/sports/3462-swimming-lessons-could-save-a-life?reset-settings | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967888 | 306 | 2.703125 | 3 |
SHAMMAI (called also Shammai ha-Zaḳen [= "the Elder"]):
Scholar of the first century
Nevertheless Shammai was in no wise a misanthrope. He himself appears to have realized the disadvantages of his violent temper; hence he recommended a friendly attitude toward all. His motto was: "Make the study of the Law thy chief occupation; speak little, but accomplish much; and receive every man with a friendly countenance" (Ab. i. 15). He was modest even toward his pupils (B. B. 134b; comp. Weiss, "Dor," i. 163, note 1).
In his religious views Shammai was strict in the extreme. He wished to make his son, while still a child, conform to the law regarding fasting on the Day of Atonement; and he was dissuaded from his purpose only through the insistence of his friends (Yoma 77b). Once, when his daughter-in-law gave birth to a boy on the Feast of Tabernacles, he broke through the roof of the chamber in which she lay in order to make a sukkah of it, so that his new-born grandchild might fulfil the religious obligation of the festival (Suk. 28a). Some of his sayings also indicate his strictness in the fulfilment of religious duties (comp. Beẓah 16a).
In Sifre, Deut. § 203 (ed. Friedmann, 111b) it is said that Shammai commented exegetically upon three passages of Scripture. These three examples of his exegesis are: (1) the interpretation of Deut. xx. 20 (Tosef., 'Er. iii. 7); (2) that of II Sam. xii. 9 (Ḳid. 43a); and (3) either the interpretation of Lev. xi. 34, which is given anonymously in Sifra on the passage, but which is the basis for Shammai's halakah transmitted in 'Orlah ii. 5, or else the interpretation of Ex. xx. 8 ("Remember the Sabbath"), which is given in the Mekilta, Yitro, 7 (ed. Weiss, p. 76b) in the name of Eleazar b. Hananiah, but which must have originated with Shammai, with whose custom of preparing for the Sabbath (Beẓah l.c.) it accords.
Shammai founded a school of his own, which differed fundamentally from that of Hillel (see Bet Hillel and Bet Shammai); and many of Shammai's sayings are probably embodied in those handed down in the name of his school.
- Grätz, Gesch. iii. 213-214;
- Weiss, Dor, i. 163-164, 170-174;
- Bacher, Ag. Tan. i. 11-12;
- Frankel, Hodegetica in Mischnam, pp. 39-40, Leipsic, 1859. | <urn:uuid:4788af99-815e-4145-a5c8-7651987c1a97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13498-shammai | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970452 | 646 | 2.65625 | 3 |
The "best language" stereotype threat : A pilot study
This work should be seen as a pilot study of the effect that the common-sense based statement that one understands and learns best in their best language has on pupils in Swedish schools.A number of students have been given a mathematical test in the language they use for their normal school activities, and that is not their mother tongue. Some of them (approximately 50%) were led to believe this particular test to be language fair. Their average score on the test has then been compared to the average score on the same test of the remaining 50% students who considered the test a normal one. The difference in performance between the two subgroups has been interpreted with the help of the concept of stereotype threat.This pilot study showed a trace of the hypothesised best language stereotype threat in a specific group of students and will hopefully serve as a guide for a larger work that could prove (or falsify) the existence of the best language stereo-type threat with statistical certainty, extend its range of applicability to a wider group of students and establish its size as compared to other related factors. A final caveat: This study is focussed on (and relevant only for those) students that perform their school activities in a language different from their mother tongue but that are fully operational in the teaching language.
Source Type:Master's Thesis
Keywords:stereotype threat mother tongue mathematics performance second language
Date of Publication:06/19/2007 | <urn:uuid:1f6ea3df-3258-46bb-af30-f60c212e2afb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.openthesis.org/documents/best-language-stereotype-threat-pilot-425019.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954896 | 299 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Assemblies of God Statement of Fundamental Truths
The Statement of Fundamental Truths is a description of the 16 essential doctrines adhered to by the General Council of the Assemblies of God in the United States of America. These doctrines are heavily based on evangelical confessions of faith but differ by being clearly Pentecostal. Of the 16 articles, four are considered core beliefs "due to the key role they play in reaching the lost and building the believer and the church". They are the doctrines concerning salvation, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, divine healing, and the Second Coming of Christ. It was adopted in 1916 and has virtually remained unchanged.
Most of the statement reiterates basic tenets of evangelicalism while adding articles on "healing by the atonement" and tongues as "initial evidence" of baptism in the Holy Spirit. Article 12 concerns divine healing. The official church teaching is that Christ paid for all physical suffering with his atoning work and that as a consequence, when Christians get sick they can be supernaturally healed by the Holy Spirit. Article 9 reflects a non-Wesleyan/holiness perspective on sanctification. Articles 13-16 deal largely with the subject of eschatology. The Assemblies of God has a premillennial dispensationalist perspective on the future, including belief in the rapture and a literal earthly millennium. The following is a summary of the 16 Fundamental Truths:
- The Bible is inspired by God and is "the infallible, authoritative rule of faith and conduct".
- There is only one true God who exists as a Trinity.
- Jesus Christ is the Son of God and, as the second person of the Trinity, is God.
- Man was created good by God but was separated from God through original sin.
- Salvation "is received through repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ".
- There are two ordinances. Believer's baptism by immersion is a declaration to the world of the believer's faith in Christ. The Lord's Supper is a symbolic remembrance of Christ's suffering and death.
- Baptism in the Holy Spirit is a separate and subsequent experience following conversion. Spirit baptism brings empowerment to live an overcoming Christian life and to be an effective witness.
- Speaking in tongues is the initial physical evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
- Sanctification is "an act of separation from that which is evil, and of dedication unto God". It occurs when the believer identifies with, and has faith in, Christ in his death and resurrection. It is understood to be a process in that it requires continual yielding to the Holy Spirit.
- The Church's mission is to seek and save all who are lost in sin; the Church is the Body of Christ and consists of all people who accept Christ, regardless of Christian denomination.
- Divinely called and scripturally-ordained ministers serve the Church.
- Divine healing of the sick is provided for in the atonement.
- The "imminent and blessed hope" of the Church is its rapture preceding the bodily return of Christ to earth.
- The rapture of the Church will be followed by the visible return of Christ and his reign on earth for a thousand years.
- There will be a final judgment and eternal damnation for the "wicked dead".
- There will be future new heavens and a new earth "wherein dwelleth righteousness".
The Assemblies of God was founded in 1914; however, it was not until 1916 that it reluctantly created the Fundamental Truths in response to several doctrinal controversies. The first controversy, referred to as the Finished work controversy, arose from disagreement over the second blessing and the practical meaning of holiness. The second or "Oneness" controversy questioned the baptismal formula, the doctrine of the Trinity, and the understanding of the process of salvation. The third one was over whether speaking in tongues was the "initial physical evidence" of Holy Spirit baptism or not.
The outcome of these controversies, reflected in the Statement of Fundamental Truths, not only shaped the denomination but also shaped American Pentecostalism. The 4th General Council of 1916 took a strong stand against the Oneness teaching and upheld the position that speaking in tongues was the initial evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit. The Assemblies of God remains Trinitarian and continues to affirm the doctrine of initial evidence.
Statement on Sanctification
The position adopted in the Statement of Fundamental Truths regarding sanctification, however, was less clear. The men behind the formation of the Assemblies of God were Pentecostals who had come to the conclusion that holiness or sanctification was not a second blessing or a definite experience but instead a lifelong process. This idea of progressive sanctification was believed by many within the Assemblies of God; however, there were adherents who still held to the theology of the holiness movement.
The original language on sanctification in the Fundamental Truths was a compromise between Wesleyan and non-Wesleyan members which allowed the two doctrines to coexist. Under the heading "Entire Sanctification, The Goal For All Believers", it read, "Entire sanctification is the will of God for all believers, and should be earnestly pursued by walking in obedience to God's Word". The term "entire sanctification" is distinctly Wesleyan, but the statement actually called "for an ongoing, process of obedience in reliance on, and cooperation with the Holy Ghost".
In 1961, the General Council revised the statement significantly, giving it its current form. It eliminated some of the Wesleyan language, such as "entire". Stanley M. Horton, who served on the revision committee, stated that the committee "... felt that the word entire was ambiguous because we were using it with a different meaning than that promoted by holiness Pentecostals who taught a second definite work". While the current statement does represent the Assemblies of God's position more accurately, the denomination's teaching on sanctification remains ambiguous.
- Margaret M. Poloma and John C. Green, The Assemblies of God: Godly Love and the Revitalization of American Pentecostalism, (New York: New York University Press, 2010), p.7.
- Assemblies of God (USA), Our Core Doctrines, accessed December 21, 2010.
- Blumhofer, Edith L. (1993). Restoring the Faith: The Assemblies of God, Pentecostalism, and American Culture. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-06281-0. Page 124.
- Blumhofer, p. 125.
- Assemblies of God USA (1916). Minutes of the General Council of the Assemblies of God, p. 11. Accessed January 1, 2011.
- Dennis Leggett (1989), "The Assemblies of God Statement on Sanctification (A Brief Review by Calvin and Wesley)", Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies 11, no. 2: p. 115. | <urn:uuid:354ba95d-33d4-4f02-be83-734a60e58229> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assemblies_of_God_Statement_of_Fundamental_Truths | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929017 | 1,467 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Even as government prepares its response to Supreme Court's query on the rationale behind 27 per cent reservation for OBCs, one thing is clear: The Union cabinet took its decision on quota for OBCs without any clear justification on how the 27 per cent figure was reached.
The simple mathematical logic of 27 per cent reservation is, of course, derived from the fact that Supreme Court has capped the upper limit of quotas at 50 per cent. With SCs and STs already getting 22.5 per cent reservation, the maximum quota for OBCs is 27 per cent.
However, a blind application of the maximum permitted reservation for OBCs speaks very poorly of government policy. After the apex court's directive, government is now scrambling to get its facts straight by revisiting the Mandal Commission reports, state records and National Sample Survey data.
Government's lack of preparedness is also apparent from its proposal to invest a whopping Rs 8,000 crore in expanding the number of seats in higher education to ensure that those in the general category do not lose out.
It's obvious that government made this promise purely as a damage control measure after nationwide protests against OBC quota. The need of the hour is not such ad hoc measures but a coherent justification for quota for OBCs and a clear roadmap for future policy on reservation.
As the term OBC short for Other Backward Classes suggests, it is not an exclusively caste-based classification. Unlike SCs and STs, who by virtue of centuries of oppression were singled out in the Indian Constitution for reservation, there was no consensus on OBCs.
However, over the years, caste has increasingly become synonymous with class for the purpose of reservation. There is enough evidence to suggest that OBCs such as Yadavs in the north and Nadars in the south, to name a few, have benefited greatly from reservation and cannot be considered backward anymore.
They have become dominant groups in terms of political and economic clout. Conversely, those who for various reasons have not been able to profit from reservation continue to languish. The latter group is now referred to as the Most Backward Classes, resulting in a hierarchy within the OBCs.
The time is ripe for a rethink on the OBC category and the policy of equating caste with class. Several proposals have been thrown up in the last few weeks on how to fine-tune the reservation policy and ensure that it reaches those who really need it.
Hopefully, the government is listening. | <urn:uuid:48686c14-1b7a-41ea-b45f-a8647b7f49ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2006-06-14/edit-page/27812559_1_quota-obcs-mandal-commission | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971128 | 508 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Four Missionaries to the Lamanites
Gospel Art Picture Kit
The Lord directs the missionary work of His Church. He calls men and women to bring His gospel, sometimes under difficult conditions, to all His children throughout the earth.
In October 1830, just a few months after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, the elders of the Church had a strong desire to take the gospel to the Lamanite people. As a result of their prayers on this subject, Joseph Smith, after receiving revelation from the Lord, called Parley P. Pratt, Oliver Cowdery, Peter Whitmer Jr., and Ziba Peterson to “declare my gospel” and go “into the wilderness among the Lamanites” (D&C 32:1–2).
The four left Fayette, New York, on 18 October 1830 and traveled to the western borders of Missouri, preaching the gospel and leaving copies of the Book of Mormon along the way. The journey was very difficult; the missionaries walked about 1,500 miles, mostly during the winter through deep snow. Although the missionaries had limited success with the Lamanite people, they brought the gospel to many in the Kirtland, Ohio, area and converted several people who would play important roles in the future of the Church.
In October 1830 four men were called by the Lord to go on a mission to the Lamanites in New York, Ohio, and Missouri. They walked about 1,500 miles through snow and ice. The missionaries found Lamanites who were happy to hear about the gospel and their ancestors in the Book of Mormon. The missionaries also preached the gospel to other people in Ohio and Missouri who later became some of the leaders of the Church.
Artist, Robert T. Barrett
© 1997 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA^ Back to top | <urn:uuid:5bfbf837-a062-402e-ba61-78c4be5212b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=65dff48fa2d20110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=a9832ce2b446c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975135 | 387 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Well the problem somewhat lies in the archaic Communications Storage Act of 1986. I had a custody battle and did a lot of research about it, wanting to use some Facebook evidence. Basically, it's worded as to give direction as to early/mid 1990's message boards. I suppose the law never imagined anything like the current internet collecting information as it has. The many different ways information could be stored extends far beyond old BBS channels.
To an extent, there still is some protection of your privacy due to the DCS. But there is a huge gray area for other people (not companies) to exploit. I'll admit my skepticism against 'big brother' and that if someone has the power to do something...'good morals' won't exactly apply to stop them, especially in positions of power such as government or law enforcement.
It will be a sad day when we lose the internet as we know it. Whether it become channeled like a television, or completely controlled. I believe there will be a digital revolution eventually. Just as the physical revolutions in Egypt, Libya, Syria, and the US back in the 1700's. Right now they are starting to abuse their power. And as that escalates, I imagine people will start protecting themselves more. It's why I have no problem educating people on privacy, encryption, and just general habits to avert social engineering.
This is a very, very informative PDF if you have the interest and the time.
The SCA can be powerful, in both the right and wrong ways, unfortunately.
Phenom X6 1090T, XFX Radeon 695x 2GB, 16GB Corsair RAM, Coolermaster, Fatal1ty 750W PSU, Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3. Yeah, I keep it on a budget. | <urn:uuid:8e10b75a-923d-4419-824d-4492e8af7613> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/832958/ShowThread.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940384 | 369 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Shamanic Trance Postures for Divination
These postures are gateways to an altered state of consciousness, and visionary experiences. This body of knowledge originates from ancient civilisations and many indigenous cultures throughout the world. Rediscovered in the 1970's by the renowned anthropologist Felicitas Goodman, these postures are a piece of living history from our heritage of spiritual tradition.
It involves holding non-strenuous, but precise physical positions together with an accompanying rhythmic sound eg. Shamanic drumming or rattling. There are a number of specific postures for divinatory purposes, for example the Nupe people in sub-Saharan Africa, use these ritual postures, and in the one that their divinatory shamans work with gives the experience of detachment and a dispassionate persepective of the question.
An Exercise – Nupe Divination Posture
Once again meditate or focus on your question, as with this work it really helps if the question is sharp, no ‘ifs’, ‘shoulds’ , ‘but’ and so on, get your question as razor honed as possible.
Sit on the floor, leaning toward your left and supported by your left arm. Hold your left arm rigid, with your hand at a right angle to your body. Place your left hand at a spot three to five inches to the left of your body and just behind a straight line drawn along the back of your buttocks. Bend both legs at the knees with both feet pointing to the right, positioned so that your left foot is resting just to the left of your right knee. Place your right hand on your lower left leg, where the muscle indents about halfway down your calf. Move your head slightly to the left, so you are looking over your left knee, and close your eyes.
If possible listen to a shamanic drumming or rattling tape, as this will enhance the visionary potential and makes the experience smoother, and more powerful. Allow the visionary imagery , or just simple ‘knowing’ to take place, when you have a sense of an answer (even if you do not understand it rationally) just gently release yourself from the posture, and come back fully into the present. If an answer is not immediately understood, incubate it, play with it, draw or paint it, this is important as the answer is not always addressed to the rational mind. Being with the imagery or vision will often lead to a deep and profound revelation. | <urn:uuid:6b818959-285d-4ff0-b329-d9040fb833ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shamanswell.org/shaman/shamanic-trance-postures-divination | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937081 | 513 | 1.875 | 2 |
Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi, addressing a session on oil, economic change, and business in London today at the Middle East conference organized by the Royal Institute for International Affairs, declared that the Saudi economy, the largest in the region and 25th globally, represents one-fifth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the entire Middle East, including Turkey. Accordingly, the Kingdom has won investors’ confidence over the last five years; and the Saudi stock market now ranks 11th internationally in terms of the value of circulated bonds.
Minister Al-Naimi attributed the current invigoration of the Saudi economy to two important factors: first, higher oil prices and increased production over the past two years; and second, the economic reforms launched five years ago by Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz. These reforms were implemented in a climate of efficiency and transparency while government restrictions were reduced and opportunities for foreign investment increased.
On foreign investment, Minister Al-Naimi commented on the government’s restructuring of the investment sector to encourage the flow of foreign capital into the Kingdom, and the subsequent concessions for exploration and development of natural gas granted to international companies that would lead, he said, to expansion of the Kingdom’s petrochemicals industry. Saudi Arabia welcomes investment not only in natural gas, but in refining of crude oil, and in mining. Rabigh refinery is to be expanded into a comprehensive complex, and the mining sector is expected to grow as much as 10 percent annually. By the end of this decade, Saudi Arabia will be one of the top producers of fertilizers and aluminum.
As for oil, recent discoveries in Qatif and Abu-Safa have brought the Kingdom's production capacity to 11 million barrels a day: a figure that can be increased gradually to 12.5 million. Demand for Saudi oil is expected to continue over the coming years, and Saudi Arabia’s oil policy is to maintain a surplus production capacity of at least 1.5 million barrels per day to meet crises. In the long term, the Kingdom plans to increase its production capacity to 15 million barrels per day to reflect the demands of global consumption. | <urn:uuid:eeef42fa-6bf4-4c6e-bacb-5c727d1b2511> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.saudiembassy.net/archive/2004/news/page99.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947649 | 455 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Mohandas Gandhi famously articulated the idea of the “self-sufficient village,” in which poor villagers run their own lives and help each other reach a higher, more dignified standard of living. Through unconventional means, activist Nileema Mishra is trying to make this vision a reality in rural India.
Early in her career, Nileema veered away from the established activist model of competing for foreign donors and government grants. Instead she decided to leverage her community’s intrinsic strengths and try to solve its issues from within. Through her grassroots organization, Sister Nivedita Rural Science Center, Nileema organizes poor villagers into small self-help groups. Working together, these Indians acquire group loans and help each other save money, make smart financial decisions and elevate their incomes above the poverty line. So far, she’s worked with 20,000 people, from struggling farmers to budding female entrepreneurs, in rural India.
Nileema is a recipient of the 2011 Magsaysay Award, commonly considered Asia’s Nobel Prize. She tells us what low-income Indians need, and don’t need, to escape poverty. | <urn:uuid:b2e27b7c-4508-408c-a45d-074835b758fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wbez.org/print/93287 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943543 | 235 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Washington: Saturday December 18, 1852
A New Polar Expedition
A meeting of the Geographical and Historical Society of
New York was held Tuesday evening in the Chapel of the University, to hear
a paper which Dr. Kane, of the United States Navy, had engaged to read
on the "Access to the North Polar Sea, viewed in connexion with the search
after Sir John Franklin."
Hon. George Bancrift, who had been requested to preside
on the occasion, came forward and spoke as follows: Ladies and gentlemen,
I am very happy to meet this large audience on this interesting occasion.
We ask your sympathy and encouragement on an occasion of more then ordinary
interest. From what searches have been made for the discovery of Sir J.
Franklin, and the traces either of him or his party have been found, the
hope lingers that his escape may yet be accomplished. In this enterprise
many Americans - many from our own soil, endeared to our affections, and
others to our friendships - have come forward to take a prominent part
in making the new search; and not only this, but also to push forward discoveries
in the North Seas. Mr Peabody, in London, has nobly contributed a part,
and the Vice President of this Society has contributed his vessel, the
for the expedition; and the Secretary of the Navy has shown a disposition
to aid it as far as the law will permit him. He has not only permitted
Dr. Kane, who is well suited to the purpose, and who has travelled more
in the Arctic regions than any one on this continent, to go on this expedition,
but he has also supplied him with instructions that may materially aid
him. Tonight we are not brought here to hear a discourse that may amuse
or instruct us, but to take, as it were, a farewell of one who is about
to set out in that expedition. After a few more remarks complimenting Dr.
Kane, he introduced that gentleman to his audience.
Dr. Kane commenced his discourse with a review of the
previous dicoveries in the polar seas. Having given a minute geographical
description of these regions, he demonstrated in a clear and forcible manner
that the polar regions were not a continuous mass of ice, but an immense
basin enclosed with icy barriers. This opinion was not based upon actual
explorations, but, as the arguments in its favor are of immense consequence
and were before grouped together, he would take the liberty of presenting
them to the audience. With regard to its hydrographic extent, he was of
the opinion that it was probably as large as both the Atlantic and Indian
oceans. Having alluded to the immense sources of supply which the polar
basin must have, he argued that it also must have some outlet to empty
itself. There were three outlets, viz. Bering Straits, the Greenland Sea,
and a number of estuaries, at one point known as Baffin's and Hudson's
bays. Dr. Kane argued at considerable length in support of his theory,
and illustrated his remarks by a series of maps and charts prepared for
Having expressed the opinion that Belcher's expedition,
which had set out in the course of the present year, would not be attended
with success, he proceeded to lay before the audience the plan upon which
he had determined to carry on his explorations. Henry Grinnell, the first
president of this society, and at present its vice president, had placed
at his disposal the Advance, and the Secretary of the Navy had assigned
him the special duty of conducting the expedition. His plan of search is
based upon the probable extention of the land masses of Greenland to the
far north - a view yet to be verified by travel, but sustained by the analgies
of physical geography. Admitting such an extension, they would, he says,
having the following inducements for exploration and research.
1. Terra firma as the basis of our operations, obviating
the accidents characteristic of ice travel.
2. A due northern line, which, throwing aside the
influences of terrestrial radiation, would lead soonest to the open sea,
should such exist.
3 The benefit of the fan-like abutment of land on
the north face of Greenland, to check the ice in the course of its' southern
or equatorial drift, thus obviating the drawback of Parry in his attempt
to reach the Pole by the Spitzbergen sea.
4. Animal life to sustain traveling parties.
5. The co-operation of the esquimaux settlement
of Greenlanders having been found as high as Whale Sound, and probably
extending still further along the coast. The point I would endevor to attain
would be the highest attainable point of Baffin's Bay, from, if possible,
pursuing the sound known as Smith's Sound, advocated by Baron Wrangell
as the most eligible site for reaching the North Pole.
As a point of departure, this is two hundred and twenty
miles to the north of Beechy Island, the starting point of Sir Edward Belcher,
and seventy miles north of the utmost limits seen or recorded in Wellington
The party will consist of some thirty men, with a couple
of launches, sleds, dogs, and gutta percha boats. The provisions will be
pemmican - a preparation of dried meat packed
in cases, impregnable to the appetite of the polar bear. Dr. Kane, after
stating that his expedition will leave the United States in time to reach
the bay at the earliest season of navigation, says:
After reaching the settlement of Uppernavik, we take in
a supply of Esquimaux dogs, and a few picked men to take charge of the
sled. We then enter the ice of Melville Bay, and, if successful in its
penetration, hasten to Smith's Sound, forcing our vessel to the utmost
navigable point, and there securing her for the winter. The operations
of search, however, are not to be suspended. Active exercise is the best
safeguard against the scurvy; and, although the darkness of winter will
not be in our favor, I am convinced that, with the exception perhaps of
the solstitial period of maximum obscurity, we can push forward our provision
deposites by sled and launch, and thus prepare for the final efforts of
In this I am strengthened by the valuable opinion of my
friend, Mr. Murdaugh, late the sailing master of the Advance. He
has avocated this very Sound as a basis of land operations. And the recent
journey of William Kennedy, Commanding Lady Franklin's last expedition,
shows that the fall and winter should no longer be regarded as lost months.
The sleds, which consitute so important a feature
of our Expedition, and upon which not only our success but our safety will
depend, are to be conducted with extreme care. Each sled will carry the
blanket, bags, and furs of six men, together with a measured allowance
of pemmican. A light tent of Indian rubber cloth, of a new pattern, will
be added; but for our nightly halt the main dependence will be
the snow-house of the Esquimaux. It is almost incredible, in the
face of obstacles, to what extent a well-organized sled party can advance.
The relative importance of every ounce of weight can be calculated, and
the system of advanced depots of provisions organized admirably.
Alcohol or tallow is the only fuel, and the entire
cooking apparatus, which is more for thawing the snow for tea-water than
for heating food, can be carried in a little bag. Lieut. McClintock, of
Commander Austen's expedition, travelled thus 800 miles; the collective
journeys of the expedition equalled several thousand, and Baron Wrangell
made, by dogs, 1553 miles in 74 days, and this over a fast frozen ocean.
But the greatest sled journey upon record is that
of my friend, Mr. Kennedy, who accomplished nearly 1,400 miles, most of
it in mid-winter, without returning upon his track to avail himself of
deposited provisions. His only food, and we may here learn the practical
lesson of the traveller to avoid unnecessary baggage, was Pemmican, and
his only shelter the Snow House.
It is my intention to cover each sled with a gutta-percha
boat, a contrivance which the experience of the English has shown to be
perfectly portable. Thus equipped, we follow the tread of the coast, seeking
Once there, if such a reward awaits us, we launch
our little boats, and, bidding God speed us, embark upon its waters.
Dr. kane concluded by advocating the organization of scientific
band of explorers.
Dr. Hawks then addressed the meeting in a few remarks
upon the organization recommended by Dr. Kane, and submitted the following
Resolved, That the Society regard with grateful
interest the exertions of the Secretary of the Navy to advance the researches
of physical geography and its attendant sciences, and they specially tender
him their thanks for his liberality in lending the aid of his department
to the expedition designed for the Arctic seas.
These resolutions were unanimously adopted, and a committee
appointed accordingly; after which the meeting separated.
Back to Kane Expedition
Directory ||| Back to Expeditions Page
||| Back to Main Page | <urn:uuid:f5aa505e-dd3f-44b9-bd7d-3c8474dc8897> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arcticwebsite.com/KanePolarExpedition.html | 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 | 0.956531 | 2,043 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Fungus Lilies And Easter Gnats
(or something similar)
Easter lilies don't suffer from the types of high profile pest problems
of other crops. Not for them the plagues of thrips, whiteflies, leafminer
or mites that can make growers of other crops feel impotent in the face
of the onslaught. Yes, aphids enjoy Easter lilies as much as they like
many other crops, but their attacks are sporadic and usually controlled
without too much difficulty. Another problem can be bulb mites, although
growers often treat for those as a matter of course, early in the crop.
However, the most commonly occurring problems that growers have to face
with their lily crops are usually more difficult to see, and hidden beneath
the soil surface. Not only that, they are often inter-related. Fungus
gnats adults are small black flies, not often seen except on sticky cards,
or when populations get very high. They lay their eggs in the soil and
the worm-like larvae feed on organic matter including roots and root hairs,
and on any soil dwelling fungi. Which leads into the second major problem;
fungal root rots. Diseases such as Pythium root rot and Rhizoctonia can
result in heavy losses for growers, if the crop is not being closely monitored.
And the connection between fungus gnats and root rots? Fungus gnats are
attracted to plants with fungal root diseases, as a particularly suitable
egg-laying site. As the adults fly around the greenhouse, they can pick
up fungal spores and spread them to other plants. The larvae also feed
on fungal spores and can transmit them as they feed or when they become
adults. And the root wounds that are made by fungus gnat larvae as they
feed, make an excellent entry point for new infections.
So what comes first, the fungus gnats or the root rots? It probably doesn't
matter and it's certainly not worth laying awake at night trying to figure
it out. What is important is that both parts of this pest/disease complex
have to be addressed. Drenching a fungicide to control root rots will
not be the best use of your time if a rampant fungus gnat population is
not also controlled. And don't wait until the problem is out of control.
Set up a fungus gnat control program early in the crop and monitor root
growth on a regular basis to detect early signs of disease.
For fungus gnat control, the primary target is the larval population
below the soil surface (adults are notoriously hard to kill) and the issue
needs to be addressed early. Once the crop fills in (by late January or
early February) it can become very difficult to get access to the soil.
The program needs to be started when the bulbs are first planted.
There are a number of options. There are various pesticides that provide
excellent control of fungus gnats. Trumpet as a soil surface spray, or
the insect growth regulators Dimilin or Citation as drenches work very
well. They should be applied about a week after planting (because fungus
gnats love newly planted peat mix) and again if sticky card trapping indicates
the need. The real danger periods to be aware of include:
- the period immediately after first planting
- if bulbs are being pot cooled, then as soon as they are removed from
- and just before the crop fills in and it becomes difficult to drench
the growing medium
The other option is the use of biological control which can provide excellent
control of fungus gnats. It is critical to start early (Day 1 preferably)
before fungus gnats populations have a chance to build up. Once that happens
it can be much more difficult for the beneficials to play catch up.
There are a number of beneficial organisms that can be used. Two predators,
the mite Hypoaspis, and the rove beetle Atheta, live in the soil and actively
prey on the eggs and early stages of fungus gnat larvae. Either or both
of these should be applied when the bulbs are first planted. One application
is sufficient. Another useful biological is the nematode Steinernema feltiae
which is sold under a number of different trade names. It is drenched
into the soil in a similar fashion to pesticides. Likewise, the biological
insecticide Vectobac can be applied in the same manner. If you commonly
have fungus gnat problems in Easter lilies, then consider the following
- Don't wait until you see the fungus gnats
- Apply Hypoaspis and/or Atheta when the bulbs are planted
- Drench nematodes about 7-10 days after planting the crop and again
a couple of weeks later. If the crop is to be cooled, apply again when
it is removed from the cooler. A final application could be considered
just before the crop fills in to the point where it becomes difficult
- Monitor root health closely for any signs of disease
The last thing you want to be doing is fighting clouds of gnats in the
last few weeks of the crop. Plan early and follow through with your plan.
Figure 1. Fungus gnat larvae (note
the black head capsules) feeding on plant roots. | <urn:uuid:75829577-c579-44cc-807f-8e1e9d127a09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/hort/news/grower/2004/11gn04a1.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944928 | 1,129 | 2.796875 | 3 |
March 15, 2005
Parkinson's Law: The Law of Triviality
Last week I wrote a piece concerning Parkinson's Law and how it applies (or may not, up to you) to my favorite whipping boys: the Minnesota legislature. If you'll recall, Parkinson's law states: "Work expands so as to fill the time available for completion." However, that wasn't the only "law" that Parkinson wrote. Today we shall look at Parkinson's Law of Triviality and how it applies to my favorite topic of stadiums in Minnesota (and of course those morons in the state legislature). And please, once again, do not take this too seriously. I only write this because I found Parkinson's Law to be humorously accurate and I wanted to share it with you. Concerning the Law of Triviality Parkinson wrote:
People who understand high finance are of two kinds: those who have vast fortunes or their own and those who have nothing at all. To the actual millionaire a million dollars is something real and comprehensible. To the applied mathematician and the lecturer in economics (assuming both to be practically starving) a million dollars is at least as real as a thousand, they having never possessed either sum. But the world is full of people who fall between these two categories, knowing nothing of millions but well accustomed to think in thousands, and it is of these that finance committees are mostly comprised. The result is a phenomenon that has often been observed but never yet invesitgated. It might be termed the Law of Triviality. Briefly stated, it means that the time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved.
Again, according to the Law of Triviality the less an agenda item costs, the more time people at the meeting will want to spend on it. Parkinson goes on to discuss a fictional finance meeting where there are 11 items on the agenda: Item 9 concerns the building of an Atomic reactor for $10 million. Now, the members of the committee are a bit confused by this agenda item. No one knows exactly what an Atomic reactor is, or what it does, and the members certainly cannot comprehend the cost of $10 million and/or why an Atomic reactor costs so much (keep in mind this was written in 1957). The agenda item passes quickly with little discussion. Parkinson writes:
Allowing a few seconds for rustling of papers and unrolling diagrams, the time spent on Item Nine will have been just two minutes and a half. The meeting is going well. But some members feel uneasy about Item Nine. They wonder inwardly whether they have really been pulling their weight. It is too late to query that reactor scheme, but they would like to demonstrate, before the meeting ends, that they are alive to all that is going on.
Next on the agenda is Item number 10: the construction of a new staff bicycle shed. Ho ho! Now here is something everyone can understand. Who hasn't ridden a bicycle? Who hasn't been in a shed? The cost of the shed to be debated is listed at $2350. Parkinson goes on to say:
The debate is fairly launched. A sum of $2350 is well within everybody's comprehension. Everyone can visualize a bicycle shed. Discussion goes on, therefore, for forty-five minutes, with the possible result of saving some $300. Members at length sit back with a feeling of achievement.
Next on the agenda is Item 11: Refreshments supplied at meetings. And I think you know where this is going. The yearly sum of $57 launches such an acrimonious debate that no decision is made and the agenda item is pushed to the next meeting. Sigh. Raise your hand if you have a better understanding of how the Minnesota legislature works.
Last year, the Minnesota legislature was at the height of ineptness. Nothing of importance was accomplished as our hard-working legislators preferred to squabble about every little detail. The one newsworthy bill they were able to pass was a new law allowing the hunting of mourning doves. What is remarkable about this is how much time this relatively small and inexpensive "agenda item" took to finally pass. Proposals to reinstate a mourning dove hunting season in Minnesota had failed about two dozen times, dating back at least 30 years, and up until last year this issue was debated annually. My favorite quote from last year's debate came from Sen. Sandy Pappas who said that the bird was "really a back-yard songbird" and that there were plenty of birds to hunt without hunting doves. Plus, she added, "there's more meat in one Chicken McNugget than in one mourning dove." Ahhhhh!!! Hold on ... I've got to take a moment to compose myself ... too ... much ... stupidity ... OK, I'm all right.
What does all this have to do with stadiums? Well, as I was reading about the Law of Triviality I was struck with how it didn't really apply to stadiums at all. Stadiums are relatively expensive, which would suggest that the legislature would pass through the corresponding bill(s) quickly. However, stadiums also deal with a topic everyone can understand and visualize: hitting a stick with a ball, or chasing a man with a ball and tackling him. Nothing too complex in either of these sports, at least from the perspective of a typical Minnesota legislator. In other words, stadiums are expensive, but they are not incomprehensible.
Obviously, Parkinson's Law of Triviality won't suffice in this instance. How can we reconcile this? Allow me to give to you the Law of Expensive Triviality, written by me! I know! Get on with your bad self! Anyway, the Law of Expensive Triviality comes in two parts because it is my own law, and I can do whatever I want with it:
The Law of Expensive Triviality
- The more expensive a seemingly trivial item costs, the less likely it will be purchased.
- Moral indignation rises proportionally to the cost of an expensive trivial item.
To describe this further let's use the example of baseball. Again, from the perspective of a typical Minnesota legislator baseball is not hard to comprehend. It is a sport played by grown men (in the case of major league baseball) and probably many of the children and grandchildren of the legislators. See the ball, hit the ball, catch the ball. A typical legislator thinks to him or herself, "How much money do they want for this? I don't care how many people in the upper Midwest care deeply and passionately for baseball, how much money are they asking for? It will cost that much to see grown men act like children? No way."
This is where the second part of the law comes into play. Because our legislators have probably already mucked everything else up to the point where, again, nothing of importance is being accomplished, they use this opportunity to get really morally righteous. In other words, they start to grandstand. They say, "We shouldn't be paying for stadiums! It is wrong to spend this money on a game my grandchildren play! We should be spending this money on education!" Blah, blah, blah. The sad thing is no one ends up getting anything. Another year goes by without solving any problems. There is a lot of moral indignation, the legislators possibly feel a sense of achievement (we really stuck it to the old man again this year!), but the problem still remains.
Oh well. Like I said above don't take any of this too seriously. I probably can't read the back of a cereal box without thinking of how it applies to the stadium mess in Minnesota (Captain Crunch has a handle bar mustache ... Rollie Fingers has a handle bar mustache ... build a new Twins stadium now!). Anyway, if you are ever in a library I urge you to check out Parkinson's Law by C. Northcote Parkinson. Humourous and thought-provoking, it will give you a new perspective on how bureaucracy works from the meetings in your place of business to the committee meetings at the state capitol. Until next time ...
Posted by snackeru at March 15, 2005 7:34 AM | Stadiums
Easy. Don't call it a stadium. Call it a park. Call it the Minnesota Events and Althletics Park. Then they won't know it's a stadium It will confuse them. So then they'll vote for it in under two minutes. After all, you're going to rename it later for Mighty Dog Field or the like, so what does it matter what you call in in the proposition?
Posted by: Dianna at March 15, 2005 9:22 AM
Speaking of trivial issues please see the recent "important" issues the legistlature has been debating. Booster seats for all kids
Posted by: Jim in St. Paul at March 15, 2005 12:32 PM
Has anyone else had problems with post getting cut off in the preview post stage?
Posted by: Jim in St. Paul at March 15, 2005 12:34 PM
Jim, congratulations, you have found the first bug in my new design. At least the first one someone has reported to me. I have removed the Preview button until I can fix it.
Let me say, though, that we were thinking of the same thing this morning. This booster seat law for all kids 9 years old and under is the perfect example of what I am talking about in this post. It is trivial, to be sure, and everyone is arguing about it. The legislature at its finest.
Dianna, I like your idea to just say we are building a "park." We could even put a swing set in center field or something. It would be our signature, like Minute Maid Park's incline. I love it!
Posted by: Shane at March 15, 2005 12:47 PM
They better call a referendum on the booster seat law. That's the type of legislation that can get a rep voted out of office!
Posted by: Cheesehead Craig at March 15, 2005 2:32 PM
So true Craig! No one is going to want to do their jobs on this one. Too much at stake. Better give it to the public to make an uninformed decision ...
Posted by: Shane at March 15, 2005 4:09 PM
I think JOD actually put in a playground area for the kids when they remodeled, so why not? Spectator sports are a form of recreation so you put the legislation through under parks and recreation and explain how this will get 30,000 outside all on the same to day to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine.
Posted by: Dianna at March 15, 2005 4:59 PM
The other part of my post that got cut off concerned the legislators trying to pass a bill not allowing 21 year olds to drink until 8 am the next morning. Being in the beer business I always take afront at the "demonizing" of alcohol. I am well aware of the problems with alcohol abuse in society but I believe we need to teach our youth young regarding responsible drinking. Heck, in Belgium the give grade schoolers a low alcohol beer ( -Jiminstpaul
Posted by: Jiminstpaul at March 16, 2005 5:47 AM
I love this post. I've already added it to the meeting agenda for my team meetings at work. Focus!
It's a funny "law," but oh so true.
(PS - you need to work on your preview screens. Sorry if someone has already mentioned this.)
Posted by: bjhess at March 17, 2005 6:22 PM | <urn:uuid:c03a2c33-c16c-45e4-ad83-676e20d1df2f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.lib.umn.edu/snackeru/greet/2005/03/15/parkinsons_law_1.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972653 | 2,406 | 1.546875 | 2 |
The theme for the 2012 Teaching and Learning with Vision (TLV) conference is Link and Learn: Link with inspirational educators, and learn from them–and learn how to link students to others and valuable resources. The conference brings together the best and brightest minds (on the program and as delegates) and links attendees with them and their real-world experience. Keynote and featured speakers challenge and extend thinking. Case-study speakers are educators using new technologies to engage and extend their learners in ways that are not possible with traditional methods. The conference exhibition presents the latest technological innovations. Conference streams include:
- Mix it up: How are educators mixing and matching various technologies and learning activities?
- Learning spaces: What do desk-less learning spaces look like? How do students use them?
- Edgy escapades: Excitement and inspiration from the cutting edge!
- Virtual excursions: How are organizations providing education programs via video conference?
- Let’s get technical: What makes tech work? | <urn:uuid:f1448094-59c2-42b7-9aab-a50010770ac2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://getideas.org/events/teaching-and-learning-with-vision-conference/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935028 | 206 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Ninety-nine years ago a huge parade inched down Yosemite Avenue as it always did on the anniversary of our nation’s independence. Crowds lined the street to see the procession and then flocked to Courthouse Park to hear the music and orations.
It was there that they shared the news. On July 4, 1913, homeopathic physician, Dr. Howard L. James passed away. Madera had lost another of its Civil War soldiers.
Although he was retired, Dr. James was widely esteemed in Madera County, and his sudden death at his home on North D Street from some undisclosed intestinal ailment left the town stunned. He had taken ill the night before and spent his last hours in great pain, surrounded by his family.
On the next day after the Fourth of July parade, R.C. Jay and Son handled the funeral, which commenced from the home of his daughter, Mrs. R.L. Bennett, on North C Street. The body was escorted to the cemetery by the handful of local Civil War veterans that made up the dwindling ranks of the Madera chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic... | <urn:uuid:052e61f8-2707-4ba3-acac-77376fbc9997> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.maderatribune.com/columns/madera-said-goodbye-fourth-july | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982866 | 233 | 2.34375 | 2 |
We all want to find a peaceful journey in life. A peaceful journey includes an abundance of unconditional love and joy. It's easy to practice peacefulness when we're on vacation or in nature.
Challenges occur when we're surrounded by outside circumstances that seem chaotic or unloving, shaking up our peace both internally and externally. A peaceful journey is enhanced by embracing everything with love, acceptance, and compassion, especially during the chaos.
You can experience life as a "soap opera" lifestyle or a "peaceful path." I define a soap opera lifestyle as an emotional and mental attachment to unjust, unfair and unhappy situations creating drama and judgment. Soap opera lifestyle occurs during the observation stage, where you analyze a part in yourself, a situation or others where there is a lack of peace. You perceive the situation that has a lack of peace with judgment and react with internal beliefs that could lead to hate and anger. Your focus is on the outside world, attempting to change the situation and/or person. There is a tendency to want to fix, transform and improve the unjust, unfair or unhappy part in yourself and others in various situations. We can summarize the soap opera behavior as expecting results, which leads to trying to control the outcome, push time and overdoing. Trying to control the outcome, overdoing and expecting certain results leads to conditions with a time limit of when and how you want it. The results are disappointments, victimization and feeling stuck when the conditions are not met. Many common reasons for the soap opera behavior stem from a need for approval, acceptance or love, or possibly righteous and controlling beliefs. Our mind is like a computer: what we focus on expands and creates that reality.
The peaceful journey is an internal serendipity with circumstances that seem unloving, unjust and unfair. You know there is a positive reason for this circumstance, which leads to growth, wisdom and opportunities. Therefore, you don't overanalyze and you apply acceptance, enjoyment, appreciation, value, trust and faith with the unknown. You understand that if it's important to know the reason in time, you will know.
The peaceful journey begins with quieting the mind chatter, opening the heart and applying gratitude, appreciation and acceptance. You look inward first rather than attempt to change or fix the outside world. You let go of attempting to control situations or people and move into acceptance.
The steps for a peaceful journey are pretty simple, yet can be challenging. The peaceful journey begins when you hold self-love and acceptance. You value yourself and work so others will, too, and do loving things to increase self-love. When you see through the eyes of love and acceptance, you hold the light of awareness, peace, joy and abundance. There is acceptance and compassion for other living things from your divine heart.
Some helpful hints on staying on a peaceful journey include:
Attachments are when you emotionally personalize, perform physically addictive behaviors and mentally overanalyze. My book "Living Life as You Always Dreamed," has more on living the peaceful path and how to release attachments. May peace, joy, abundance and love be with you.
Angelica Rose is an essence specialist, author and certified hypnotist. She speaks in Grants Pass on Nov. 3. For information see heartofmotivation.webs.com or email firstname.lastname@example.org.
Send 600- to 700-word articles on all aspects of inner peace to email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:81a03ec7-3f6e-4203-9ee7-43e0e410b11c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailytidings.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121027/LIFE/210270304 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939936 | 714 | 1.960938 | 2 |
One of the original intentions behind the formation of RoboGames was David Calkins' strong belief that if robot builders and fans from all different markets and technologies got together then a lot of cross-pollination and idea exchange would naturally take place.
For example, this afternoon when I was talking robotics with Markus Primbs of CustoBots.com, he mentioned that he uses "tire condoms" to make his line follower robots more efficient.
That immediately drew my attention, and I asked him to explain in more detail. Hence the video clip above.
Speed, precision, control, and memory size turned out to be the key parameters for the 2010 All Japan Robotracer robot competition. The first three parameters weren't a big surprise. The competition rewards designs that push the limits of speed while being able to maneuver the course without error or the slightest drift. The fourth parameter, memory size, was a surprise to many competitors however. This year's Robotracer robot final course included so many features that several of the competitors ran out of feature memory before they could safely complete their runs.
Here's what one of the successful competitors looked like:
Unlike the Micromouse robot competitions, the Robotracer rules specifically disallow the use of any suction mechanism, like venturi fans, that would increase ground contact force and traction.
Since I lived outside the United States for over 20 years now, I really shouldn't be very surprised that robotics, especially robotics education and research, is truly international. It's not that unusual to see high performance robots on display from leading institutions in Japan, the United States, the UK, Germany, and France. But, there's also a tremendous amount of interesting work being done in other locations around the globe. And, robot competitions are being staged in the hundreds of countries over the world.
For example, Mert Öztoprak at Ankara University, Electronics Engineering, just send in this video featuring a very fast line follower robot with PID that he is preparing for some upcoming 2011 competitions:
’Getting the robots-eye view (Video)’ continues
Nothing excites kids of all ages more than robots, and when you couple that with the chance to set a new world record, and maybe get into the Guinness Book of World Records, there is bound to be a tremendous turn-out.
Last Saturday, the Kansas City Robotics Society (KCRS) and Science City turned Union Station into what they believe could be the worlds largest line follower robot course. Volunteers marked out a 400+ foot course using 1 inch wide tape. They also tested each robots speed so that they could be arranged on the course at the start with the fastest robots leading, to avoid any unexpected collisions.
’World Record Line Follower Robot Attempt (Video)’ continues
Robot Sightings: Dr. Robot tutorial, Sugiura is an Indian God, Jonas and the Stupid Robot, and more…
What's going on today in my crazy robot world?
- 20:16 Tsukumo Robot Kingdom is open for business again after a breif shutdown. tinyurl.com/6pd6gd
- 20:31 Indian robot builders join ROBO-ONE 14 & learn from Sugiura-san (Dynamizer): blog.acyut.com/?p=73. They call him "legendary" & "GOD".
- 20:37 Dr. Robot teaches us how to build a sumo robot from hell: tinyurl.com/6zqggt Definitely got to buy him a new shirt.
- 20:59 We love Star Wars, but isn't making R2D2 into a toilet paper holder going too far? tinyurl.com/54wjlu
- 21:10 With only 256 MB this robot USB memory stick is impractical. tinyurl.com/6y9j39 So, why do I want one?
- 21:22 Jonas challenges the BakaRobo (Stupid Robot) contest, and gets slapped in the process. tinyurl.com/5m44wc
- 21:29 Basquash! Yet another robot movie I'll be putting on my "must-see" list. tinyurl.com/5l72xc
- 21:45 ATR is mapping human brain patterns into visual images: tinyurl.com/5nlmbt
- 21:48 Sangatsu Usagi's great report on the 29th Micromouse Competition: tinyurl.com/6xzhfn
- 23:37 With auto companies in trouble, and Honda dropping F-1, will other research, like Honda's robot legs, survive? htinyurl.com/69ngeb
- 08:51 John published a good, though troubling, study on robot hobby trends (tinyurl.com/robothobbytrends). Let's hope it's only temporary.
- 09:05 The Vex robot system has taken off like wildfire (tinyurl.com/vex-robot-competitions). What makes it so popular with schools?
- 09:15 For robot fans that don't want to build from scratch, PicONE released a cool micromouse robot kit. tinyurl.com/54pw94
- 10:20 Thanks to a reminder from Martin, here's one of the best robot resources around www.robot.org.uk/ even if it doesn't have a RD link.
- 10:25 Robert's next RoboDance version will be out next Spring and will even control the kitchen sink! tinyurl.com/robodance-specs
- 12:12 The Kyosho MANOI robots aren't drawing much attention overseas, but here in Japan they are still hot stuff! tinyurl.com/kyosho-manoi
- 12:26 RT Corp has an under-1 kg. humanoid robot competition scheduled for January 18th starting at 2:00 pm. www.rt-shop.jp/blog/?p=126
- 12:49 140 year old head for a smoking robot automaton (tinyurl.com/smoking-robot-head). Pretty spooky - looks very "Stephen King" style.
- 13:20 Daniel Ruben Rojas sent us a video of this blazingly fast line-follower robot: tinyurl.com/blazing-line-follower-robot running at 80% | <urn:uuid:7681aed0-e65d-438e-b843-7789a4f63105> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.robots-dreams.com/line-trace | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90981 | 1,325 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Amidst much fanfare, President Obama shook hands with workers at the July 15, 2010 ground breaking ceremony for the LG Chem plant in Holland, Michigan, built with a $150 million grant from the Department of Energy as part of his 2009 "Stimulus" package. The plant, owned by a Korean company, was supposed to manufacture batteries to be used in electric Chevrolet Volt, the latest offering from the government owned General Motors corporation bailed out by President Obama with billions of taxpayers dollars.
To an enthralled crowd that included then Governor of Michigan Jennifer Granholm, executives of the Korean company that own the plant, and hundreds of hopeful factory workers, President Obama made a bold promise that day:
"This is a symbol of where Michigan is going, this is a symbol of where Holland is going, and this is a symbol of where America's going."
However, the Holland plant's performance hasn't lived up to the performance promised by President Obama on that windy Michigan day more than two years ago.
An investigative report by WOOD TV in Holland, Michigan revealed on Thursday that workers at the LG Chem plant haven't shipped a single battery yet because there's no demand. People just aren't buying Chevy Volts. Because they have no work to do at the plant, many of them are playing cards on the job:
Workers at LG Chem, a $300 million lithium-ion battery plant heavily funded by taxpayers, tell Target 8 that they have so little work to do that they spend hours playing cards and board games, reading magazines or watching movies.
They say it's been going on for months.
"There would be up to 40 of us that would just sit in there during the day," said former LG Chem employee Nicole Merryman, who said she quit in May.
"We were given assignments to go outside and clean; if we weren't cleaning outside, we were cleaning inside. If there was nothing for us to do, we would study in the cafeteria, or we would sit and play cards, sit and read magazines," said Merryman. "It's really sad that all these people are sitting there and doing nothing, and it's basically on taxpayer money."
Two current employees told Target 8 that the game-playing continues because, as much as they want to work, they still have nothing to do.
"There's a whole bunch of people, a whole bunch," filling their time with card games and board games," one of those current employees said.
"There's no work, no work at all. Zero work," another current employee said. "It is what it is. What do you do when there's no work?"
At the 2010 groundbreaking, President Obama seemed pleased to promote one of the few "Stimulus" projects he thought at the time was actually "shovel ready":
"Government can’t generate the jobs or growth we need by itself. But what government can do is lay a foundation for small businesses to expand and to hire. For entrepreneurs to open shops and test new products.For workers to get the training they need for the jobs of the 21st century...
"For years you’ve been hearing about manufacturing jobs disappearing overseas.You are leading the way to show how manufacturing jobs are coming right back here to the United States of America…
"The workers at this plant already slated to produce batteries for the new Chevy Volt learned the other day they’re also going to be supplying batteries for the new electric Ford Focus as soon as this operation gears up. That means by 2012 the batteries will be manufactured here in Holland Michigan."
But like most of the Obama administration's "Clean Energy" projects, none of the promises President Obama made about LG Chem's production plans came true. As a supplier of batteries for the electric powered Chevrolet Volt, LG Chem has learned that its customer -- government owned General Motors -- simply doesn't need its batteries because there is virtually no consumer demand for Chevy Volts.
It's 2012, and LG Chem has yet to ship its first battery for the Chevy Volt or any other electric car. | <urn:uuid:a0ed8878-d083-4148-a1b5-de5a0962ed61> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/10/21/A-Symbol-of-Where-America-is-Going-No-One-Buys-Chevy-Volts-So-Workers-Play-Cards-at-Stimulus-Backed-Plant | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979242 | 837 | 1.8125 | 2 |
The onslaught of rich, and often unhealthy, foods starts with Halloween and doesn’t seem to stop until the New Year. I don’t mean to be a spoilsport in terms of holidays. I enjoy them. It’s just that so many people ring in the New Year feeling bloated, overweight, sluggish, and frustrated by the extra pounds they put on, that I thought I’d offer a few tips on how to enjoy without the seemingly inevitable suffering.
Planning is one of the keys to success. When we go to a party hungry, we’ll eat everything in sight. By snacking on an apple and a few almonds or hummus and carrots beforehand, we can nibble (key word) and feel satisfied.
Another tip is to change things up a bit when it comes to the family feasts. Do you really need to stick with Aunt Sandy’s 1950s version of cranberry mold with all that sugar? Could you use fresh cranberries, orange and lemon zest, and some agave nectar instead?
Asking our family members what they feel they “can’t do without” versus what “they have never really liked either,” will ensure that everyone gets their favorite dish. Each member will feel special that their request has been honored and you can spread the responsibility as well as the joy around.
We also seem to exhaust ourselves between working and shopping and cleaning the house and preparing the food (sounds tiring just mentioning it). How can you make it simpler? For example, if all agree to buy just one gift instead of several, those January bills won’t seem so large. Gift bags save a lot of time as well. As a special gift to yourself, can you get help with the cleaning?
I have always loved decorating the tree at our house. I put on holiday music and fix some spiced cider, carefully plant each ornament on the tree and decorate until the room sparkles. What are your favorite traditions of the season? How can you make the routine seem special? What would you like to hand off to someone else this year?
Heading off fatigue is part of the trick to really enjoying the season. It means making choices about when to join in and when to say “no.” Sometimes, it means just stopping by, rather than feeling obligated to stay all evening at a gathering. When we gauge our energy and respect it, we can delight in the special moments that we might otherwise have missed.
By remembering that this is your time to enjoy the season in ways that are most fulfilling to you, you will be able to be more available to your loved ones. A wise woman once asked me what I thought my family would prefer–a harried, exhausted mother who has the dinner on, but isn’t able to carry on a decent conversation or a woman who took care of herself and was able to really engage in the special times with her family.
And if, despite your best efforts, you end up overdoing it a bit and find the scale inching upward, you can always contact a health and nutrition coach in January to get back on track. Happy Holidays!
For more information, visit http://www.yourhealthpotential.com | <urn:uuid:19dd3dc2-e6cc-4a4d-ab5d-ce430b64bab8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yourhealthpotential.com/blog/?tag=energy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96883 | 678 | 1.632813 | 2 |
• A Light in the Fog
Light in a Fog
Fog has a way of engulfing the visible rendering it invisible. Normally, a Lighthouse is useful at night when visibility is diminished. Then you add fog in the night and you have a hazardous condition for navigating any coastal waters. Lighthouses have been strategically constructed all along rugged coastlines to provide direction and warning of dangerous conditions for mariners at sea. Many a seaman has been helped by such a focused source of light that can provide just enough “glow in the haze” to provide some sense of direction. Of course, it shines even brighter when as the fog begins to lift.
Someone recently paid me this compliment regarding my coaching her in Children’s Ministry. “You were like a bright light in a fog for me?”
This caused me to think. Would it be possible that conditions would be such that a leader could feel so unprepared for Children’s Ministry? Could someone be so overwhelmed with a sense of duty that they could just loose their way—like a ship on a foggy night? Yes, I have seen it happen. Such was the case with my student.
She was not sure what to do, not being specifically trained or prepared for her new ministry, but fully trying, as best she could, not able to see clearly very far ahead. She was feeling really alone with none to help her. She seemed clueless, no clear vision of where she was going—she was in a fog.
Then there was this beam of focused light that peered through the haze, faint at first, but clearer, as distance got closer to the source.
Even the reflected light in the foggy haze brought some hope and direction. Then the fog lifted!
Now there was more clarity to her vision. She made some critical adjustments and navigated the rocky hazards. The shipwreck was averted in troubled waters.
With some new insights and skills, she resolved to chart a new course. She embarked on a whole new adventure, this time venturing into deeper waters, but with a plan.
What made the difference in her journey? It was the Lighthouse! That faithful focused beam of light was the turning point. Another ministry casualty was rescued!
“Imagine how a focused beam of coaching light can encourage a new direction with proven strategies to help one avert shipwreck.” | <urn:uuid:2160004e-cf7a-466d-9b18-e5600237744a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kidhelper.com/?p=2650 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979652 | 491 | 2.140625 | 2 |
This facility may be used for variables which the user wishes to inspect, but which play no part in the calculation. RHM1, in an example in section 4.2, was of this character.
Library case s603 can serve as an example. It concerns the heating of a solid block under various conditions of constraint.
The exact solutions are provided by In-Form statements here, wherein:
Whether the computed solutions are adequate can the be deduced by inspecting the RESULT file, of which a part is shown here.
This case is, incidentally, the In-Form equivalent of a much-earlier PLANT-using example, Case z118, where the PLANT-style formula for the exact solution can be seen, for comparison with the In-Form-style one.
There is an obvious similarity; but the advantage of the In-Form approach is, of course, that no new Fortran coding is required.
The contour plot shown here reveals that there is indeed a substantial region of uniform stagnation pressure, despite the coarseness of the grid.
This is easily contrived by means of an In-Form stored statement.
The following images show:
If however the logarithm of the concentration has been computed, its variation, being less extreme, is easier to display.
The STORED-command formula can be optionally followed by 'with condition', where condition is one of:
These may be understood by recalling that PHOENICS calculations are organised in nested iterative loops, whereby:
These 'with' conditions act as economy devices, enabling values to be updated only when needed. If no condition is supplied, In-Form takes ZSLFIN as its default.
Inspection of the Q1 for case 805 will show that 'with SWPFIN' was used.
5.2 Whole-field, for participation in the
Auxiliary variables may be stored whole-field, and computed within the main equation-solving loop, for many purposes, including those of acting as intermediaries in the calculation of sources or fluid properties.
* Temperature (STORED of T1 is H1/CP) * Heat capacity (STORED of CP is 4186.8*POL3(T1,.616,-.0040428,1.8333e-5,-2.38E-08))enable the stored-only temperature, T1, to be computed from the solved-for enthalpy.
Here it should be noted that the calculation of T1 makes use of CP, and that of CP makes use of T1. Divergence is a possibility in such cases; but it does not arise in this case because the dependence of CP on T1 is small. Inspection of the Q1 file shows that the so-calculated T1 is used extensively for further property calculations.
(STORED VAR FLIQ IS MAX(1.e-5,MIN(1.,(TEMP-:RG(1):)/(:RG(2):$ -:RG(1):)))) PATCH (iMUSHY,VOLUME,1,NX,1,NY,1,NZ,1,1) (SOURCE OF U1 AT iMUSHY IS (0-U1)*:RG(3):*(1-FLIQ)/FLIQ) (SOURCE OF V1 AT iMUSHY IS (0-V1)*:RG(3):*(1-FLIQ)/FLIQ)enable the liquid fraction to be deduced from the temperature during the casting of a metal alloy, and thereafter the momentum sinks to be computed.
(STORED of DM is 1.-AM-BM-CM-EM)deduces the concentration of a fifth not-solved-for concentration, DM, to be computed from the solved-for values of the four other components of a mixture.
This, it should be remarked, as a display-only action; for DM appears not to be used during the computation.
Other auxiliary variables which In-Form can create are:
The MAKE keyword is used for the allocation of memory for storage of real variables required by the user.
The complete format of the In-Form MAKE statement is:
If 'dimension' is more than 1 it should be equal to the number of cells in one slab NX*NY. Its default value is unity.
If an expression is used, it must involve only quantities such as NX, LSTEP, NTPRIN. which are known at the start of the calculation; for that is the moment at which the storage has to be allocated.
When a single real variable is to be declared, it suffices to specify only its name. Thus, the following In-Form statements are all equivalent:
Single variables declared in this way can subsequently be used in any In-Form statement.
The (MAKE statement is usually followed by one which uses the STORE1 keyword, the purpose of which is to show how the value of the variable is to be altered during the course of the computation. Its syntax can be deduced from the following examples.
Examples of the use of a single variable are:
An example of the use of MAKE for a real array is to be found In library case 786, which supersedes the earlier PLANT case z350:
Other relevant cases in the Input-File Library include:
779 and 783. | <urn:uuid:b1732b8f-9a4f-45a2-bedc-84d67e6b79ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cham.co.uk/phoenics/d_polis/d_enc/in-form5.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911799 | 1,121 | 1.867188 | 2 |
MASSENA – Standing at Alcoas Massena Operations, where Alcoa operates an integrated aluminum smelting/fabricating facility and a smelting/casthouse facility, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced that the first piece of legislation she introduced in the 113th Congress is a federal funding competition that encourages states and regional public-private partnerships to design and implement comprehensive strategies that spur growth for local manufacturing industries, particularly in the thriving fields of clean-tech and high-tech manufacturing, and that train workers with the skills that businesses need.
New York State has been crippled by manufacturing employment loss, with over 123,000 manufacturing jobs lost since 2005. In the north country, an estimated 3,470 manufacturing jobs were lost from 2005 to 2010, including more than 1,120 from St. Lawrence County.
To bolster more growth in New York manufacturing, Gillibrands bill, called the Made in America Manufacturing Act, would create a competitive program that awards states and regions with funding to support local manufacturers through low-interest loans to build new facilities and upgrade equipment, and access to capital and technical assistance to develop exporting opportunities and to connect innovative small suppliers with larger companies. Funding would also go towards job training and vocational education programs that partner businesses with colleges, local workforce centers and other skill providers to prepare workers for manufacturing jobs.
Its time to see Made In America again starting right here in New York, said Senator Gillibrand. I believe New Yorks great manufacturing communities are well positioned to compete for funding that would help carry out their innovative ideas to spark more growth in high-tech manufacturing sectors, jumpstart new businesses, and create good-paying jobs right here where we need them the most.
Alcoa appreciates the work that Senator Gillibrand is doing to improve the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers, said U.S. Primary Products President John D. Martin. Specifically, we in the north country support her effort to revitalize New Yorks manufacturing base, home of Alcoas-and the worlds-longest continually operating aluminum smelter.
We are thrilled that Senator Gillibrand has introduced this incredibly important legislation to help bolster manufacturing which is so critical to our region, and our country, commented William P. Murray, executive director of CITEC. Working with small- and medium-sized manufacturers across the seven counties of the north country region under the Dept. of Commerces Manufacturing Extension Partnership program, CITEC has witnessed the hits to manufacturing here but also the tremendous opportunities that exist to turn that tide with companies who want to grow through innovative new approaches, programs and products made right here in America and here in northern New York State.
Clarkson University Provost Charles E. Thorpe said, Through research innovation and workforce education, universities are natural partners to assist manufacturers in retooling, expanding, and transitioning their enterprises to succeed in the 21st century economy. We appreciate Senator Gillibrands introduction of the Made in America Manufacturing Act and her personal recognition of initiatives at Clarkson University that demonstrate a true commitment to American industry and renewing economic opportunities through advanced manufacturing, supply chain management and enterprise solutions. Before taking his post at Clarkson, Dr. Thorpe was a Fellow at the White House and assistant director for advanced manufacturing and robotics in the Office of Science and Technology Policy of the Executive Office of the President.
Tony Collins, president of Clarkson University and co-chair of the North Country Regional Economic Development Council also applauded the Senators manufacturing-based initiative by adding, Senator Gillibrands efforts support the Regional Councils Strategic Plan by meeting needs identified by many employers across the north country as well as open doors for new areas of investment.
In an effort to boost manufacturing, particularly in advanced manufacturing sectors such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, and aerospace, Senator Gillibrands first piece of legislation introduced in the new Congress would award up to $20 million in competitive funding for each statewide or regional manufacturing hub.
The Made in America Manufacturing Act would allow localities to use funding to:
Set up a revolving loan fund to help manufacturing businesses expand or establish new manufacturing operations. According to a Commerce Department report, the lack of available capital to manufacturers has especially restricted the ability of many small manufacturers to grow and compete. Without equipment upgrades and expansions, New Yorks manufacturing sector will continue to lose its competitive edge in the global economy.
In an effort to retool New York manufacturers to be more competitive and create new jobs, the revolving loan fund would provide manufacturers with direct access to low-interest loans that are below market rate to construct new facilities or to retool, retrofit or expand existing plants, including equipment, infrastructure or energy efficiency upgrades. The federal investment could also help leverage matching funds from the private sector and other non-federal sources.
Create job training programs to help address the skills gap faced by our manufacturers. By working with community colleges, vocational education programs and job training providers to tailor education and training programs to the skill needs of manufacturers, this program will focus on strategies that train workers for the jobs of the future, and creating more good-paying manufacturing jobs right here in the U.S.
According to a 2011 survey by the Manufacturing Institute, more than 600,000 manufacturing jobs went unfilled due to a shortage of skilled workers. A 2012 survey noted that one-third of small businesses struggled to recruit employees with the needed education and training. Gillibrands Made in America program would ensure federal funds are invested in job training partnerships to help directly meet the needs of local manufacturers.
Provide capital and technical assistance to boost exporting opportunities for manufacturers through supporting research and analysis of markets and countries with the greatest potential for expanding business as well as connecting innovative small manufacturers with larger companies as a supplier or to take advantage of government or private sector contracts.
New York organizations including CITEC, CenterState CEO, the Manufacturers Association of Central New York (MACNY), North Country Chamber of Commerce, the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, and High Tech Rochester support Gillibrands legislation. National groups such as AFL-CIO, United Steelworkers, and the American Small Manufacturers Coalition also support the bill.
Under Gillibrands bill, successful applicants would be required to form a partnership board of key stakeholders including county and local governments, small and large manufacturers, labor organizations, higher education institutions, workforce training centers, and local chambers of commerce to pool state or regional resources and develop a strategy to expand opportunities for local manufacturing, spur job creation, and close the skills gap that has slowed the growth of many manufacturers.
The Commerce and Labor Departments will evaluate applicants plans, also known as Manufacturing Enhancement Strategies, based on how the strategy will improve U.S. competitiveness and the expected economic return on investment, including job creation, cost savings by manufacturers, private investment that federal funding would help leverage, and how the proposal would address high unemployment and mass layoffs. Priority would be given to proposals that commit private sector and state or local matching funds and contributions on a one-to-one basis. The Departments would then work with winning localities to implement their plans. | <urn:uuid:dc1c18ee-3f1c-4735-98c2-d97124a5cf16> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ogd.com/article/20130222/NEWS09/702229741/1200 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952431 | 1,447 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Single-unit recordings in neurosurgical patients with autism
California Institute of Technology
Research to understand the biology behind autism is difficult in good part because it is hard to get certain kinds of data in humans. It is known that the brains of people with autism work differently, and it is known that they show some structural abnormalities as well. However, such relatively coarse data need to be complemented by detailed investigations of how single cells in the brain respond -- data typically limited to animal studies. The study builds on preliminary data showing this is possible in humans as well. Neurosurgical patients being monitored for epilepsy have electrodes implanted into their brains. Single neurons can be reported from these electrodes. A subset of these patients have autism, thus providing the unique opportunity to find out how single cells respond differently in the brains of people with autism. The fellow’s background in single-cell recordings from the brains of monkeys provides her with the technical skills to undertake this training and research. Her future career goal is to combine her medical background with this scientific training to pursue biomedical neuroscience research on autism. Training would consist of frequent meetings and presentations, together with one-on-one mentoring in social neuroscience, autism research, and human electrophysiology. The research would consist in recording the responses of cells in the amygdala to faces, both in neurosurgical patients without autism, and in neurosurgical patients who also meet research criteria for autism. The unique data acquired from this project has the potential to shed light on the detailed physiological mechanisms that underlie social cognition and face processing in autism. They would help elucidate the importance of a particular comorbidity (epilepsy) and would help to anchor specific subtypes of autism by direct reference to how cells in the brain respond. | <urn:uuid:639e7ac0-1ddd-494b-b524-0090c7c9fda5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.autismspeaks.org/neuroscience/grants/single-unit-recordings-neurosurgical-patients-autism | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954486 | 357 | 2.84375 | 3 |
pencil and charcoal pencil
16 x 8 1/2 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase
Lozowick's fascination with bridges reveals the technological optimism that swept across America after World War I. He also recognized the opportunity they offered for his own desire to combine abstraction and representation in his art: "There is no theoretical reason why the technical gains of abstraction cannot be used in the representation of an actual scene . . . If the graphic artist can avoid the danger of ornamental abstraction on the one hand and photographic realism on the other, if he can apply the force of new technical equipment to the wealth of new themes, no prospect for what he might accomplish would be too hopeful." | <urn:uuid:dfa42633-ed2b-4ed2-a517-96ba134fa018> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/highlights/artworks.cfm?id=GM&StartRow=46 | 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 | 0.922166 | 142 | 1.898438 | 2 |
Most of the excitement about user-generated content usually focuses around blogs, videos, reviews, social network profile pages, etc. However, microcontributions – extremely small interactions where the user participates in the community of a website – are also becoming a notable trend, and it’s a shame to over look them because they posses a lot of power. The onslaught of AJAXy rich internet applications, giving web pages the ability to accept input without refreshing, has allowed sites to cover new ground in this area.
There are an increasing number of good examples of microcontibutions. Netflix pioneered with its simple one-lick five-star ratings review of movies. All you have to do is “digg it” to vote on a news story which could make it to the top of that blockbuster site’s home page. During the registration process for Masthead portfolio company TripConnect (a social network for travel advice), users click on places that they’ve been or want to go, so that they can later on connect with likeminded individuals. And in the past couple weeks, I’ve seen a number of sites with the meme of pitting two things beside each other to determine which one is better (photos, art, people, karaoke performances). With a simple click of a button, people are engaging with a site, and a community.
Microcontributions are simple and elegant way to get people to connect, to defeat the resistance not to contribute at all. By reducing a user workflow into a series of incremental contributions rather than just a large one, sites which use this tactic can overcome the initial resistance to participate. Once a user is familiar with interacting with a site at a minimal level, s/he is more likely comfortable to expand that relationship. More importantly, in addition to becoming lead-ins to entice people to contribute larger portions of content, microcontributions also become content in and of themselves. Aggregated votes and clicks become interesting, and can be even central to engaging consumers with a facing web app. I think the lesson here is that when designing a social site, it’s important not to just concentrate on gathering content from creators, but also consider gathering microcontributions from participators who may not (always) be creators themselves. | <urn:uuid:e4b867bf-ec08-4979-81cd-e185f48181b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://genuinevc.com/archives/2006/12/04/small-contributions-are-a-big-deal.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946963 | 472 | 1.976563 | 2 |
|You are in: World: South Asia|
Tuesday, 2 October, 2001, 20:24 GMT 21:24 UK
Analysis: A tale of two women
By BBC News Online's David Chazan
Bangladeshi politics revolves around a vitriolic personal feud between two women - the outgoing prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, and her rival, Khaleda Zia.
With the latest results showing a convincing victory for Mrs Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) over Mrs Hasina's Awami League, the question is, will the loser accept defeat?
The election campaign was the most violent in Bangladesh's turbulent 30-year history, marked by a series of coups and counter-coups.
At least 140 people died in the run-up to voting.
Mrs Hasina was the first prime minister to serve out her full term of office in a country where political power has often been seized at gunpoint.
Mrs Hasina is reported to have said she will not accept the result of what she called a "rigged" election.
Celebrations in the BNP camp were muted - seen as a sign that Mrs Zia wanted to avoid antagonising her rival.
Instead, Mrs Zia called for political reconciliation and national unity, promising to eradicate corruption and increase living standards in one of the world's poorest countries.
The feud between the two rivals goes back at least a quarter of a century, stemming from Bangladesh's bloodstained past.
Insiders say Mrs Hasina believes that Mrs Zia's husband was partly to blame for the assassination of Mrs Hasina's father, former President Mujibur Rahman.
Mrs Zia's husband, a former military dictator, was also assassinated.
The two women have often hurled bitter personal insults at each other.
Such is the level of hostility and acrimony between them that Mrs Zia was once reported to have declared that she would celebrate her birthday on the anniversary of the assassination of Mrs Hasina's father, along with more than 20 of his close relatives.
Each accuses the other of inciting violence.
Rival party supporters have often fought pitched battles.
The caretaker government which supervised the election deployed more than 50,000 troops to keep the peace.
But diplomats and some Bangladeshi commentators fear that hostility between the two sides could now intensify and lead to more bloodshed.
"If the loser doesn't give in and concede defeat, you might see further violence," said a foreign diplomat.
"Bangladesh is highly polarised between the two main parties. That could now be a very dangerous thing," said the diplomat, who requested anonymity.
Military dictators held power in Bangladesh for many years.
But diplomats said a military takeover was now unlikely.
"Even if violence were to reach such a point that the army felt that it had to step in to restore order, you've got to remember that the military itself is divided too," a diplomat said.
The ideological differences between the parties are slight.
The Awami League is seen as more pro-Indian and left-leaning, while the BNP is viewed as more pro-Pakistani.
But the issues were largely obscured during the campaign, while the two leaders exchanged insults.
Mrs Zia said Sheikh Hasina had failed to enforce law and order.
Many commentators from different political camps say violent crime has increased in recent years.
Mrs Zia also criticised Mrs Hasina for not standing up to India.
A series of skirmishes on Bangladesh's border with India earlier this year cost the lives of troops and civilians from both countries.
Defending her record, Mrs Hasina said the Bangladeshi economy had grown by roughly 5% a year while she was in power.
She said that she had ended a tribal insurgency in the south-east, and resolved a dispute with India over the sharing of water from the River Ganges.
Sheikh Hasina says Bangladesh risks losing its secular identity because the BNP is allied with two hardline Muslim parties.
In Dhaka, posters with quotations from Osama Bin Laden competed for wall space with pictures of election candidates.
The American military build-up has often swallowed more space on the front pages of Bangladeshi newspapers than the election campaign.
Some commentators believe that the BNP and its allies benefited from fears of an impending American attack against Afghanistan.
23 Sep 01 | South Asia
Bangladesh rally bombed
19 Aug 01 | South Asia
Bangladesh poll in October
07 Sep 01 | South Asia
Bangladesh poll line-up complete
19 Jun 01 | South Asia
US condemns Bangladesh violence
17 Jun 01 | South Asia
Bangladesh hunts party office bombers
01 Apr 01 | South Asia
Violence hits Bangladesh
06 Aug 01 | Country profiles
Country profile: Bangladesh
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© MMIII | News Sources | Privacy | <urn:uuid:54505969-70bc-4f03-9ebe-b38fd9321894> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1575704.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962174 | 1,092 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Cannon School hosts event for middle-schoolers
CONCORD — A middle school student is a work in progress. A child’s growing need for independence, coupled with his or her still-developing sense of self-confidence can mean a potentially tumultuous time for children and parents alike.
Charlotte area parents and their rising fifth- through eighth-grade children are invited to learn more about how the distinct developmental needs of middle school students are given careful consideration at Cannon School. “Exploring Middle School” will take place Tuesday, Jan. 22, at 11:30 a.m. on Cannon’s campus at 5801 Poplar Tent Road.
Students will enjoy a pizza lunch with current Cannon middle school students. Interested parents and students will meet with Head of Middle School Dr. Matthew Rush and the middle school deans, guidance counselor and director of academic technology.
Parents are encouraged to pre-register at www.cannonschool.org/openhouse.
“This event will introduce parents and students to how Cannon’s middle school program is an exciting opportunity for children,” explains Rush. “By including fifth grade in the middle school as an important transition year and carefully considering the many factors that come into play in the world of preadolescents, our middle school community strives to balance the unique developmental needs of our students that run the gamut from intellectual, to physical, to emotional and social.” | <urn:uuid:bfd6b4b6-66a6-4c96-b751-3303af8b11c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.salisburypost.com/article/20130110/SP01/130119991/1006/cannon-school-hosts-event-for-middle-schoolers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95814 | 301 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Helping Your Loved One Cope With a Multiple Sclerosis Diagnosis
Find out how you can offer needed support during this stressful time.
"You have multiple sclerosis."
Those four words will change your loved one's life forever. And as the person's caregiver, it's only natural to feel distressed, especially as you witness your loved one struggling to cope with the news and resulting feelings of shock and fear.
Living with MS: Checking in Emotionally With Your Loved One
Life-changing news, such as an MS diagnosis, can trigger a range of emotions, including anger, denial, and sadness. Many people living with MS, in fact, struggle with depression throughout the course of the disease. As a caregiver, you will now need to know the signs of depression, and be alert if your loved one seems to be exhibiting symptoms. These can include:
- Sadness that doesn't seem to go away.
- Changes in sleep or eating habits.
- Talk that implies suicidal thoughts, such as saying that other people would be better off if they were not around.
- Loss of interest in people or activities they once enjoyed.
In the days and weeks that follow an MS diagnosis, you might want to check in regularly with your loved one to find out how he or she is feeling, not just about the news, but about life as a whole. Being available to talk or simply to do enjoyable things together, such as going to the movies or taking a walk, can be very helpful in reminding your loved one about the everyday pleasurable aspects of life.
If you do see signs of depression in your loved one, it may be time to talk to a doctor or therapist.
Educate Yourself About Living with MS
"Education is really critical," says Dorothy Northrop, MSW, vice president of research and clinical operations for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. "That's a caregiver's first job — really becoming smart and aware of what this disease is like." Learning about the symptoms of multiple sclerosis and what to expect will help you be sensitive to what someone living with MS is experiencing.
Northrop uses the example of fatigue or extreme tiredness, a hallmark of multiple sclerosis. "It's very hard for someone who does not have multiple sclerosis to totally understand what MS fatigue feels like," Northrop says. "A patient once told me she felt like a bicycle pump was attached to her body, sucking all the air out. If you don't understand that, you might think the person is just being a little lazy; you'd think, if they just tried a little more … but that's not helpful."
Use your new knowledge to be more empathetic about MS symptoms, but be cautious when sharing all this information with your loved one. Many people are overwhelmed with a new diagnosis and may not be ready to absorb lots of details about their disease, research breakthroughs, and treatment options.
Take Stock of Your Loved One's Coping Style
Even as Northrop advocates being educated and aware, she acknowledges that different people have different ways of coping with an MS diagnosis.
"The trouble is that people cope differently," she says. "Some cope by wanting to know everything they can, and others don't want to know — they just want to deal with today. Some want to talk to people; others don't want to talk to anyone. You have to kind of realize that everyone may react a different way and cope in a different way."
Knowing that your loved one uses a different coping strategy from yours will help you accept the person's choices and will reduce conflict and stress.
Living with MS: Who to Tell and When
One issue that often comes up is whether to tell people about the diagnosis. This is a good example of where your coping style and the choices your loved one makes might not be the same. If you are inclined to tell everyone around you about the MS diagnosis so that your loved one gets support, but your loved one would rather keep the news private for a while, this may lead to conflict.
Ultimately, who to tell — or not to tell — should be the decision of the person living with multiple sclerosis, Northrop says. As a caregiver, you can be available to help your loved one tell people who need to know, either by facilitating practice conversations or by going along for the actual conversations.
Getting a diagnosis of a chronic disease is never easy. But knowing that your loved ones are there with you, helping you to cope and adjust, can make all the difference. | <urn:uuid:826f88d8-df85-49b3-a494-cdb51a674a62> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.everydayhealth.com/multiple-sclerosis/coping-with-a-multiple-sclerosis-diagnosis.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971376 | 930 | 2.125 | 2 |
Between the tithe and taxi fare,
The hungry bite of lacking
Sinks its teeth to chew and tear,
The prey itís always tracking.
Mother in a rayon, discount dress,
Directs the cab across the street,
Holding hope her son will impress
His affluent peers; chaff to their wheat.
She knows too well the thresherís stroke,
Being shucked from the golden stalk,
Divided from Godís chosen folk,
Like cuttings that fall beside the walk.
Mother is pointed to the corner pew,
Ensconced among the unwanted few,
A handicapped boy, an elderly aunt,
Somebody's father who rocks and rants,
Just the crowd Christ would embrace,
Unwanted, unloved, outcast, and base.
Service has ended, and the flock has fled,
But for two members in prayer of shade,
Mother ruminates on the scriptures read,
While the diligent notes those around her had made,
Are placed in Bibles,that go back on the shelf,
Quickly forgotten in the gospel of self.
© 2003 Peter Andrew Nelson
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The opinions expressed by authors do not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com. | <urn:uuid:fab7c7c1-81ac-4f79-a184-cf2076619b19> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.faithwriters.com/article-details.php?id=6873 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91252 | 368 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Would you like a free CAS and graphing calculator program on your computer? Here’s a free add-in from Microsoft that will make Word and OneNote into top-notch mathematics programs.
Microsoft’s new Mathematics Add-in for Word 2007 and 2010 is a great tool to work with math in Office. It lets you create beautiful graphs and solve equations without purchasing an expensive math program. To get started, download the Microsoft Mathematics Add-in (link below), and install as normal. Make sure you’ve exited Word and OneNote before you begin the setup.
The Math add-in generates beautiful 3D graphs powered by DirectX, so you’ll be prompted to install the latest version of DirectX at the end of the installation.
Next time you open Word 2010 or 2007, you’ll notice a new Mathematics tab in the ribbon. Here you can insert equations, graphs and more right into your Word documents.
OneNote 2010 will have a similar Mathematics tab, though OneNote 2007 will not as it does not have the ribbon. OneNote works especially good for use with math since it uses a more free-form style of editing.
OneNote includes one very interesting feature: you can insert equations with digital ink. While editing a new equation, click Ink Equation to start writing the equation in on your touch screen.
This will open a new window where you can write out your equation on your touch screen or Wacom tablet. You can even write equations out with your mouse, though generally it would be much quicker to type them in! Notice that the app is automatically showing its interpretation of the written equation above. If it seems like it’s getting it wrong, keep writing; it often will autocorrect as you finish your equation.
Alternately, you can insert a variety of pre-built equations by clicking the down-arrow under the Equation button in either application. More equations are available from Office.com if you’d like to add to your gallery.
In Word, you’ll have access to a wide variety of equation editing tools that are built-in. OneNote includes similar tools, but they are slightly less full-featured.
Once you’ve got an equation entered you’d like to see, click the Graph button. Depending on the equation, you can plot the graph in 2D or 3D.
This will open the Graph addin where you can choose the zoom level, wireframe, animation, and more. This produces very nice complex graphs. Click Insert to add the graph to your document.
You can even use the Math addin to solve, integrate, or differentiate your equations.
Here we differentiated, then integrated it back. This is a simple example, but the Math plugin can handle much harder equations with no problem. This can be a great study aid for students, and is almost like a basic free Mathematica!
Here’s another equation where we solved for x. Works quite good.
The Math Add-in can handle rather complex equations, but when we tried to solve the Binominal Theorem for x, we received an error message. Still, we were amazed at how much this addon could do!
No matter what level of math you’re currently taking, the Math Add-in is a great tool to help you advance your math skills with software you already have. No need to purchase expensive graphing calculator programs; this simple addin from Microsoft can make Office into a nice CAS and graphing suite!
If you’d like to make Word a great tool for more educational and research work, check out the Chemistry Add-in for Word as well!
Matthew digs up tasty bytes about Windows, Virtualization, and the cloud, and serves them up for all to enjoy!
- Published 08/23/10 | <urn:uuid:2bf86643-bd33-40ca-9e14-ef2fe6fb1b6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/26364/solve-and-graph-equations-in-word-and-onenote/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919182 | 797 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Posted 1 year ago
This is a field clinometer made by Keuffel & Esser Co., New York in the 1920's or 1930's era. This tool was used by surveyors to measure slope. It is black painted brass and has a leveling bubble. The only other one I have seen is just the 4" x 4" square section. This one is mounted to a solid brass surface plate. UPDATE - Found this item listed in the 1913 K&E price list as product# 5805. Also listed in the 1921 K&E catalog.
The attached surface baseplate is from the item#5810 bubble level so I believe this was special made by a Keuffel & Esser machinist. | <urn:uuid:82884619-a9d5-46d9-8ee0-8a7eaabcbd23> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/54711-keuffel-and-esser-clinometer?in=user | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944725 | 147 | 2.28125 | 2 |
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by Rob Cox, August 21 2012
Gunite Pool Construction Phases
There are several phases of building an inground gunite pool, and each phase is built upon the previous phase accomplishments. In most cases, each of these phases will be performed by a different crew or group of guys. You can plan on having a lot of visits by different trade contractors, starting with Graders and Excavators.
Then comes the Steel and Plumbing guys, followed by Electricians. A Gunite crew will come in to "shoot" the pool before the Tile & Coping crew does their work. Finally, a plaster crew will come in to finish things up inside the pool. Pool decking is another crew, as is the fellows that connect all of your pool pumping, filtering and heating equipment together.
Having these phases performed by separate sub-contractors is not necessarily a bad thing, and a good project manager will coordinate with all, to avoid delays, and inspect their sub's work for quality, and correctness to plan. A builder that handles more of these phases "in house", with less reliance on sub-contractors, may provide a faster build, with fewer problems, but not always. In any case, you'll have a lot of visits from a lot of trucks. It can get messy for a while, so keep a stiff upper lip. You'll replant the grass, replace that tree and fence section and eventually it won't look like a war zone in Bosnia.
Each phase of construction can take from 1-7 days to complete. Here's a look at each pool construction phase.
Pool Design Phase:
Your pool designer will first consider such things as your lot size and topography, property line setbacks, easements and underground utilities. Your budget will be important, as well as what style and shape pool you had in mind. Unless you have it all figured out, your pool designer will pull out some photo books, or may drive you around to look at some local pools they have built.
Once the shape, style and size is nailed down, you and your designer may discuss water features or rock displays or planter beds. Do you want a spa attached to the pool? There are options for tile and coping, plaster and advanced features such as infinity edges, beach front entrances or shallow water benches or tanning areas. For the pool deck you will also have many choices to make on size, materials, texture and accents. The possibilities for pool design can seem endless, so this can begin to get a bit tiresome.
Then the pool equipment choices, also endless. Slide and dive equipment, ladders and rails, automatic pool cleaners. Many builders will have a pump, filter and heater manufacturer that they are aligned with, often either Hayward, Pentair or Jandy. You will also likely be offered salt chlorine generators, mineral sanitizer units, or ozonators. Want to control the equipment from remote locations? Controllers will manage lights, pumps, heater from inside the house, or even from your smartphone. Want an eco-friendly pool? Heat pumps or Solar pool heaters have zero emissions, Cartridge filters save water, LED pool lighting and Two-speed or Variable speed pumps will drastically reduce your energy consumption.
After all of these items are agreed to, the designer can begin drawing up the plans. After meeting with you again to confirm the choices, your designer submits the pans to obtain the necessary city or county permits. If you belong to a Homeowner's Association, they might have to sign off on this too.
Pool Excavation Phase:
This is where it really begins. The pool shape will be staked and painted in the yard. Fences and trees may have to be removed to allow access. Your grass will suffer where the traffic will be traversing from the street to the backyard.
Excavators or front end loaders are usually used to dig a pool, but some builders may use a skid-steer loader, especially on smaller pools. In just a few hours, they will have dug the rough shape of the pool. The dirt is usually transported off the property, but if you want to keep the dirt, to build up some area on your property, you can save some money this way - plus, it's your dirt!
Problems can occur if solid bedrock is hit or if underground springs or a high water table begin leaking into the excavated area. But this usually doesn't occur, and if there is a suspected chance of it, your builder should be able to warn you of it, and any expected extra cost if it does occur.
Steel and Plumbing Phase:
Now the actual pool construction starts. The hole is reinforced with steel rebar. Depending on where you live, the amount might vary. But in all cases this steel rebar acts as the skeleton for the pool and provides the structural support for the shell of the pool. The steel is set so that it is about 2-4 inches from the dirt wall. They bend it into position to wrap around steps and curves, following the shape of the dig.
After the steel guys or done, or sometimes before or during - the plumbers will skimmers, returns, cleaner lines, and drains are set into place. Electricians may be on-site at this time, connecting the bonding wire to the shell of the pool, and hanging the pool light niches into the wall, in preparation for the Gunite crew coming next.
This is when your pool begins to look like a pool. Gunite is concrete that is shot out of a "gun", pushed out with high velocity air. The material is pumped out of a hopper type truck, and shot behind and on top of the steel reinforcement bar. Finishers with trowels then carve and sculpt it into the exact finished shape of your pool.
After the gunite has been applied, it will need to dry before plastering. It takes several weeks for gunite to cure. Large rains and debris should be removed from the pool during this phase. You may see small cracks in the rough surface, don't worry - these will be covered in plaster. Large cracks, or crumbling areas may be cause for concern, let your builder know if you see any of this.
Your backyard should be pretty torn up by now. You might still have piles of dirt, and stakes sticking up everywhere. Deep wheel ruts in your beautiful Zoysia grass lawn, and you lost that apple tree that you loved so much. Looks like a bomb went off! Hang in there, after a few more phases of construction, you can tend to these disturbed areas.
Tile & Coping Phase:
As your gunite pool shell is curing is the best time to place perimeter tile and pool wall capstones (brick, precast concrete or milled flagstone). The perimeter pool tile allows you to maintain an easily cleanable surface at the water level. The pool coping stones provide a safety grip on the inside for easy grasping and assist in draining water away from the pool.
After the pool deck is added on, which could be done at this phase, you will want to caulk the expansion joint in between the pool deck and the rear of the coping stones. This expansion joint should be clear to the earth, check that the pool deck is not be touching the back of the pool wall in any areas. This allows the pool and deck to expand and contract separately. Caulking the joint keeps out freezing water and stops debris from clogging up the expansion joint.
The electrician installs an electrical breaker box, usually called a sub-panel, at the spot where the pool equipment (pump, filter, heater) will be set up. The sub-panel is usually a 100 amp box, and it will power the pump timeclock, pool lights, additional outside lighting and electrical outlet. A booster pump for a pool cleaner or a salt chlorine system can also be powered from the sub-panel.
The electrician will also connect the pool lights to junction boxes installed outside of the pool deck. Then, an electrical conduit is run from the junction boxes, back to the subpanel.
Your electrician should have also connected a bonding wire, which is a bare copper wire that is attached to the pool shell steel rebar. This wire connects all steel components of the pool shell and the pool equipment. It usually starts on the pool shell, connects to the ladder or slide leg sockets in the pool deck, connects to the underwater light niche, and then runs back to the equipment pad to connect to the pump, filter and heater.
The plumbing crew should be have most of the plumbing installed, and you may see them pressure testing the plumbing before backfilling the trenches. After a series of pressure and line tests your pool builder will move on to installing your equipment on the equipment pad. Most pool equipment sits outdoors, but many people will build a small wall or plant bushes to help hide the equipment. You can build a small shed or roofed structure around the equipment if you wish, but if you have a gas heater, you'll need to carefully and properly vent the heater to the outside.
The final phase is plastering your pool's surface. Pool plaster is your waterproof layer, protecting the pool shell and steel, and gives a smooth, luminescent layer that's easy to keep clean.
Watching a plaster crew in action is really something, they work fast, and a crew of 4-5 can have it done in 3-4 hours. They will leave the pool filling with water when they leave. It's best to fill as fast as you can without stopping, so add extra hoses to fill faster, if you can.
The plaster crew will leave you with important plaster start-up and care information. Follow these instructions carefully, coordinating with your pool builder so that it's clear who will be doing the plaster care during the first critical few weeks.
Pool Startup Phase:
Last minute cleanups or equipment installation happens during this phase. Your pool should look nearly complete at this point. Initial start-up and operation of the equipment should be performed by your pool builder, along with initial chemical balancing of the pool water.
After that, your builder should schedule an orientation with you, to help you understand your pool and equipment. Film it with a video camera so you can watch it a few times. Your pool chemistry may fluctuate and require daily checks and balances for a while, which will eventually stabilize.
Learn more about your pool and equipment by searching poolcenter.com for articles, blogs, videos, product specs and manuals and advice from other owners in our Pool Talk forum. You'll be a pool expert in no time!
If you would like to Guest Post on our Pool Blog ~ or for permission to repost our Pool Blog on
your website, please contact the author by the email link at the top of the page. Thank you | <urn:uuid:995b0162-da46-41a7-a8e6-acab41139dd7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.poolcenter.com/article.aspx?articleid=6309&setrating=3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949179 | 2,246 | 1.648438 | 2 |
NASA releases video of asteroid hurtling through space
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Tuesday afternoon released the first video of the 1,300-foot-wide asteroid that was scheduled to whiz 201,000 miles from Earth at 3:28 p.m. PST.
The giant space rock looks a bit like a rotating fuzz ball, but the video also reveals the crags and peaks of the asteroid as it flies through space.
The video was created from radar data collected Monday by the Deep Space Network antenna in the Mojave Desert outside Barstow, a giant 230-foot-wide dish that’s been blasting the asteroid with microwaves. JPL scientists are using the radio telescope again to track the rock.
JPL officials said, with the data gathered since Friday on the asteroid’s speed, trajectory and physical characteristics, they have been able to plot its course for the next 64 years. The asteroid will have another close encounter with Earth in 2075, and skim close to Venus in 2029 – but not collide with either.
“We know the orbit extremely well, said Robert S. McMillan, who leads the University of Arizona Spacewatch Project and discovered the asteroid in December 2005. “We know it’s not going to hit the Earth."
But, he warned, NASA and other scientists will have to keep an eye on the asteroid because its course after 2075 cannot be determined reliably – even with all the new research. | <urn:uuid:b7898ee3-0834-41be-9917-4a07c8658fa7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/11/nasa-releases-video-of-asteroid-hurlting-through-space.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948859 | 304 | 2.984375 | 3 |
GARDEN BEANS Kentucky Wonder (Pole)
Popular, heavy producing Pole Bean. Excellent for eating fresh, freezing or canning when pods are young. Makes a good shell bean when left to mature fully. Approximately 66 days to maturity.
Special Directions For Short Season Climates
SOWING: Plant outdoors in late spring after weather has warmed and all danger of frost has passed. Plant 4 to 6 seeds per pole in hills. Plant seeds on their side covering seed with 1 to 1 1/2 inches of fine soil firmed down.
SPACING: Provide 2 1/2 to 3 feet between hills. When planted in rows space rows 3 feet apart.
THINNING: Thin to 3 strongest plants per pole in hills, when they are about 4 inches tall. Thin to 4 to 6 inches apart in rows.
GERMINATION: 1 to 2 weeks depending upon soil and weather conditions. Keep soil moderately moist during germination.
Ed's Special Advice
Beans grow best in a sunny location, where the soil is warm, loamy and lightly fertilized. Cultivate shallow and frequently until flowers appear. Avoid disturbing plants after that time, as it could cause the blossoms to fall off. Support with poles, trellis, string or fence. Water deeply by soaking soil. Pick when young for best flavor and texture. | <urn:uuid:6b61dd40-3bfe-45ca-9e19-accdaf8652b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.humeseeds.com/beankwp.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930539 | 279 | 2.6875 | 3 |
El discurso de Bush
going, gone -- John Bolton
By Juana Carrasco Martín
talking about baseball, so this is not a home run. What's gone is (finally!)
John Bolton, the ambassador-designate to the United Nations, hand-picked by
George W. Bush during a Congressional recess because the legislators never gave
him a passing grade.
with the face of a growling dog has resigned, knowing that neither this
Congress, which ends its session this month, nor the one that takes over in
January were going to approve him.
hawk takes flight after the Republican defeat at the polls on Nov. 7, because
Donald Rumsfeld also turned in his letter of resignation. But many more hawks
remain in the Bushian nest.
leaves, carrying under his arm quite a number of failures, in addition to his
explosive statements inside the U.N. to defend the interests of the United
States against much of the planet, particularly the underdeveloped countries.
cannot forget that earlier he did a lot to discredit the world organization
(remember when he said that if ten floors of the U.N. building in New York
disappeared, "nothing would happen.")
too, the flood of votes in favor of the General Assembly resolution that
condemned, for the 15th consecutive time, the U.S. blockade against Cuba; his
inability, despite his arm-twisting, to impose Guatemala as Washington's
candidate to the Security Council, so as to block Venezuela's bid. And he
couldn't stall the administrative reform at the world body so it would serve
solely and exclusively to foment a world to Washington's liking.
exercising the United States' veto power, Bolton managed to contain a resolution
condemning Israel for its crimes against the Palestinian people in Beit Hanoun.
And when the resolution was brought before the General Assembly, it earned the
approval of a broad majority, demonstrating that, despite their wishes and
willfulness, the United States and Bolton couldn't always get away with their
the U.S. had exercised its veto before, also to stop another resolution against
the Israeli aggressions in occupied Palestinian lands. However, with
premeditation, Bolton called for an early solution to the war Israel unleashed
on Lebanon, de facto permitting the destruction of Lebanon's economy and
infrastructure, in addition to the mowing of hundreds of lives, mostly Lebanese
list could include several other instances that have lit fires in this convulsed
planet. As U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said, Bolton "did the job he was
expected to do." That is why the White House bemoaned, unashamedly: "He was a
successful ambassador at the U.N.," and added, weeping: "We are in mourning
because he was not rewarded and honored" for that.
tranquility" reigns in the steel-and-glass building by the East River in
Manhattan, the news agencies reported. Bolton -- whom many had described as a
bull in a china shop -- entered the U.N. by the rear door and left it the same | <urn:uuid:dd080769-2ed8-4d36-86bd-410179dd2853> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.progresoweekly.com/index.php?progreso=Juana_Carrasco_Martin_ant&otherweek=1166680800 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959748 | 678 | 1.609375 | 2 |
[Pvfs2-users] Question about behavior of locking (or lack of it) in
Craig.Tierney at noaa.gov
Thu Jan 3 13:19:22 EST 2008
I know that PVFS2 does not support locking and understand the
benefits of this design. However, I have a question about what
happens to file writes for contiguous, non-overlapping writes.
Lets say I have N clients, each writing M bytes. The offset
for each write is n*m. However, what if m*n is does not
fall on either a page or block boundary? Two processes are
going to want to touch the same page in memory (or on disk).
Although the byte ranges are different, is this behavior
Craig Tierney (craig.tierney at noaa.gov)
More information about the Pvfs2-users | <urn:uuid:5eb89e2c-f43f-4568-a708-c7229b454e83> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.beowulf-underground.org/pipermail/pvfs2-users/2008-January/002232.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915899 | 189 | 1.53125 | 2 |
click on any image below to see a larger version. Click here to read a description of Rabelais and this seres written by Timothy Hampton. Or click here to see a large continuous version
Gargantua in the Vineyard
Francois Rabelais (circa 1490 - 1553) and his satirical writings on the illustrious giants, Gargantua and Pantagruel, were the inspiration for this book of prints by Art Hazelwood.
Rabelais was a scholar of erudition,
a mocker of manners,
a defender of appetites,
an adherent of wine,
and a champion of laughter.
This visual interpretation was inspired by an episode in book I, chapter XXVII. Friar John, a monk of considerable thirst, is outraged by the invading army's destruction of the grape harvest. He grabs the staff of the cross from the altar and attacks the plundering army. The giant Gargantua and his allies join the battle and drive the enemies of wine, wit and wisdom from the vineyard.
Rabelais is not well known in the United States but is essential reading in France. His books were shocking in his day, leading to accusations of heresy. Rabelais seems an appropriate subject today in an age that takes itself so seriously. He laughed at much that was hypocritical in his age as in ours.
This continuous image book is made up of 10 separate prints joined together into one, as well as a cover image, title page and colophon. The image area measures 12" x 180" (inches). The entire book when spread out measures 18" x 288" (inches). When closed the book measures 18" x 18" (inches). It comes in a cloth covered slip case. It was Published in an edition of 25 at Eastside Editions, Sonoma, California. The prints were bound in an accordion fold format at Pettingell Bookbindery, Berkeley California. Two aquatint etching plates, one blue and one yellow were overprinted with a linoleum key block on 100% abaca paper made by hand by Simon Blattner and Roxane Gilbert at Eastside Editions.
$5,500. Some individual
Prints from this series are available.
|Eastside Editions||other books| | <urn:uuid:2e5eaf72-5a7c-41f0-b342-5b3d614e09e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.arthazelwood.com/prints/rabelais/Rabelais.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968673 | 474 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Please take a moment to express your sympathy, condolences, and support for the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, for the survivors and their families, and for the community of Newtown, Connecticut.
by Iyna Sufyan
Freedom of Palestine
The U.S. military must modernize its medical teaching methods and phase in the use human-based methods in place of live animals. Find out more about the alternative medical training procedures here: http://pcrm.org/media/blog/june2012/med-training-pcrm-congress-medical-simulation
Signing this petition represents your fight for the protection of our freedom of speech. If you believe that individuals of democratic nations have the right to speak the truth and that governments should not be able to conceal important documents from their citizens, then please sign today. It is
“Hot car” dog fatalities are needless and all-too-common. What many people don’t know is that even on moderately cool days, the temperature inside a car can be fatal. Even when its only 70 degrees outside, in just one hour, the temperature inside a car can soar to over 110 degrees. While humans cool | <urn:uuid:f2174cff-e39f-4c32-a818-dc71a2aca21a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.causes.com/profiles/111529379 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918573 | 250 | 1.664063 | 2 |
The Travails of the Rails
I became an avid train rider a few years ago, after ditching my car for environmental reasons. Today, I also have an economic incentive to travel by train. With gasoline costs skyrocketing, Amtrak has reached what could be a tipping point — it’s now cheaper than driving for anyone traveling alone.
The 80-mile train trip from my house in Oakland to my hometown of Stockton, CA costs $12. The same automobile trip costs $13.60 just for gas — not counting tolls, insurance, and all the other car expenses. Using the 2008 IRS car reimbursement of 50.5 cents per mile, the same 80-mile trip now costs $40.40 in a private car. Suddenly a $12 train ticket looks like a very good deal.
But, as a recent long-distance voyage taught me, reducing one’s carbon footprint via train is not so easy in the US.
It’s Friday night, and I find myself at the Union Station rail depot in Denver. This turn-of-the-century beauty beckons people with a glowing neon inducement to “Travel by Train.” The conference I’ve been attending has just wrapped up, and I decide to accept the sign’s invitation.
Feeling guilty about taking a carbon-spewing plane home to California, I buy a ticket for the next morning. This legendary train journey, known as the California Zephyr, travels through the Rockies, the loneliest parts of Utah and Nevada, and over the great Sierra Nevada to Sacramento and the Bay Area.
At 7 a.m., passengers in Denver line up for boarding. I pick a window seat to serve as my home for the next 36 hours.
Climbing out of Denver, the train makes wide, elegant switchbacks, gaining about 1,000 feet each level. Out the eastern-facing window, Denver sits on the plateau like Oz. From this elevation, you see the heartland gradually slope from the Mile High City to the flatlands of Kansas and beyond.
It’s February, and the snowbanks of the Rockies are impressive. In the high country, the train station is still the center of each town, as it has been for more than 100 years. Snowmass, Vail, and other winter wonder towns hum with ski and toboggan-toting families.
That night, we descend from the Western Rockies through a massive blizzard. Our train somehow finds the rails through an inch or two of snow. We stop for the occasional smoke break and to pick up passengers.
At Salt Lake City, the midnight stop, trains get no respect at all. This car-centric city has turned its back on the rail. The train station is a sad mobile home with a painted sign on it — shameful compared to Denver’s lovely Union Station.
As Day Two dawns, we pass through Elko, NV, where a group of riders waits at an uncovered station in a snowstorm. We are now four hours behind schedule due to the weather and having to give the right-of-way to freight trains. Every 30 minutes — or so it seems — our passenger train sits idle while loads of coal speed past on America’s privatized railroads.
Mid-Nevada, big trouble strikes. The conductor announces an eastbound train has been snowbound in the Sierra for 10 hours. One passenger later described the tedium on that train to the San Francisco Chronicle: “We were stuck for hours looking at the same trees. We asked if they could move the train up a couple hundred feet every hour, just so we could see some different trees. We were just hoping for some deer to come by. Even a squirrel.”
Hoping to avoid two Donner Party trains, the conductor announces that our train will terminate in Reno and return to Chicago. Amtrak will put everyone in a hotel for the night, and then send the passengers over the mountains by bus the next day.
I bail out, catch a flight over the Sierra, and arrive safely back in the Bay Area in less than 40 minutes.
The adventure was fun, but I’m not quite sure I would do it again. At least, not unless the US makes a major investment in long-distance passenger rail service. As the price of gas continues to increase, more people will need this service. And they will want the service to work well, which will require passenger trains to have their own set of tracks so they don’t have to play second fiddle to cargo trains.
Amtrak is an elegant, inexpensive, and ecological way to see the country. But it remains incredibly iffy. For travelers comfortable with ambiguity and without time constrains, it’s a journey that guarantees adventure.
But if you need to get somewhere on time, you might have to find yourself an easier ride.
Brian Smith, an avid bike commuter, is the Pacific/International Press Secretary for Earthjustice. | <urn:uuid:096f5dd9-147b-4590-b878-c64338e35128> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/the_travails_of_the_rails/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95431 | 1,039 | 1.671875 | 2 |
PM LEE defends Singapore's position in allowing the Myanmar junta leader General Tan Shwe to seek medical treatment by invoking doctors' Hippocratic Oath.
Lee said denying Burmese leaders medical treatment in Singapore would go "against human
"I mean, somebody is sick, he wants to come to Singapore, he needs treatment and you're
telling me that I shouldn't treat him because he's not a good man? It goes against the
Hippocratic Oath of doctors," he said.
Myanmar junta leader Tan Shwe, 74, stayed in a Singapore hospital in January amid
tight security for an undisclosed ailment. Myanmar Prime Minister Soe Win, 55, was in
Singapore at least twice this year to treat an illness reported to be leukaemia.
Whilst it sounds fine and dandy in a CNN interview, what is left out is more interesting. Giving medical treatment to a sick dictator sounds like a compassionate thing to do, but surely that does not include visas for their families to stay in our nice Orchard road hotels and shop in our shoppers' paradise as well.
According to Eric Ellis, Singapore's businesses especially government linked ones are the major suppliers to the military regime Myanmar. A widely held notion (but not officially disclosed matter) is that Singapore Technoloies and other Temasek companies have invested heavily in that military state.
Singapore, a friend indeed to Burma
But by providing Burma's pariah junta with crucial material and equipment mostly denied
by Western sanctions Singapore has helped keep the military government and its cronies
afloat for 20 years, indeed since the last time the generals killed the citizens they are
supposed to protect with industrial efficiency and brutality, as now.
Without the support from Singapore, Burma's junta would be greatly weakened
and perhaps even fail. But after two decades of profitable business with the generals and
their cronies, that is about the last thing Singapore Inc is likely to do. There's too much
money to be made.
From hotels, airlines, military equipment and training, crowd control equipment and
sophisticated telecommunications monitoring devices, Singapore is a crucial manager
and supplier to the junta, and Burma's economy.
Given our heavy investment in Myanmar. Singapore is of course against imposing sanctions on Myanmar (See http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=288647). Why would Singapore hold back in taking a moralistic stand against an aggresive regime that murders protesting monks? Maybe it is because Singapore is Myanmar's largest investor. And the largest investor in that country happens to be its government related group of companies.
Singapore Technologies also appear to be supplying lots of modern weaponry to Myanmar. I would not be too surprised if these are used on suppresing the monks and other protestors. I have this nauseous feeling when I stop to ponder the question of whether our Singapore-made Singapore Technologies' bullets are lodged into many bodies of monks in Myanmar.
Of course the truth behind the curtain that shields the Myanmar regime and the Singapore government has not been lifted. Perhaps it never will.
If the UN does in fact impose sanctions, i would like to know whether the Singapore government is willing to disclose how much Singapore funds would be 'trapped' inside Myanmar. And how much impairment charge major Singapore companies would have to disclose as attributable to this fiasco. But given the sensitive nature of this information, I would presume it would be unlikely that we will ever know.
Meanwhile on October 4th news report, our Minister Mentor (the one who mentored 2 capable leaders but still feels the responsibility to sit in Parliament years after stepping down) spoke of the need for Singapore to distinguish itself by setting even higher standards of governance. See http://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna/cgi-bin/search/search_7days.pl?status=&search=MM%20Lee&id=303871
It is interesting to see whether the open and transparent Singapore government will share with the world at large how much Singapore's stake in Myanmar is right now and what was exported to Myanmar from Singapore.
For a leader whose impeccable governance record includes having produced sons and daughter in law who dedicated themselves to the serving the nation, we owe an eternal gratitude. These wonderful leaders have shown the world what it meant to have real governance when there is great clarity and transparency.
There are no governance issues even though the country's Prime Minister and Minister of Finance is Hsien Loong, whose wife was appointed by a person who reports to Hsieng Loong to run the largest company in Singapore. And in turn she appointed her brother-in-law to run the largest telecommunication company in Singapore (a subsidiary company).
Our leaders have shown us that governance is more about substance than form. Even though the form may attract the pesky attraction of foreign critics, true blooded Singaporeans will see the beauty of getting the best person for the jobs.
Singapore governance, Singapore style. As Borat would say, "I like!".
Other interesting links | <urn:uuid:c38ca96f-2a7f-4a1d-aa87-c2c972a90f1e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://urbanrant.blogspot.com/2007/10/hippocratic-oath-of-doctors-or.html?showComment=1324673515045 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945307 | 1,052 | 1.851563 | 2 |
What is it about asking for help that is so hard? What more, what is it about help that is so hard to give? Father Damian Ference, recovering from knee surgery, shares some insights about what it means to help those in need—from someone who was.
My mom died a year before I was ordained. My dad is 87 and legally blind. And my only brother has a 2-year-old and a 3-year-old that keep him very busy. So when the Scientist asked me where I was going to recover from my knee surgery, I didn’t know what to tell him.
I considered recovering at the seminary, which is where I live, but the priests I live with told me that was a bad idea. There aren’t many people around here in the summer, the hallways are long, and the only way that I could receive visitors after hours would be if I made my way down to the first floor and let them in myself.
A few of my friends who are pastors invited me to recover in their rectories, which sounded like a good plan at first, but after thinking about it, I realized that all of their rectories had the guest rooms on the second or third floor. I liked the idea of living in a rectory again, but I didn’t like the thought of stairs nor did I want to be a burden to busy parish priests.
I was running out of options. I needed to find someone to take care of me. And I was getting desperate. Surgery was only a couple weeks away and I was running out of ideas. Then it hit me.
I remembered that line in the twelfth chapter of Exodus—if the family is too small for the Passover lamb, then they should join a larger family. This biblical inspiration gave me hope, and it also took away some of the fear and embarrassment that often comes with asking for help. I started thinking back to all those people from my first parish assignment that had told me, “Father, if you ever need anything, don’t be afraid to ask.”...
Father Damian Ference has learned that having knee surgery is not a "set it and forget it" lesson in quick fixes. Healing takes work, his work, and that can be tough stuff. Today, in the second of his "Lessons from Surgery" series, he shares what he's learned about spiritual healing through the rigors of physical therapy, and how his "scientist" got the ball rolling. But the heavy lifting? That's the patient's burden. Read the first installment here.
The Scientist brought a model of a knee in the examination room with him. Step by step he walked me through the operation. I was fascinated. When he finished, he asked if I had any questions. I did. I wanted to know how long the surgery would take, how long I would be on crutches, how long rehab would take, how long before I could drive, how long before I could walk, how long before I could run, and what kind of risks were involved with my surgery. He took his time and answered each question thoroughly. Two weeks later he sliced into my leg.
The surgery was scheduled for one hour, but the Scientist said that there was more damage to the knee than he was able to determine from the MRI, so it took him a little over two hours to complete the procedure. When I woke up, my left leg was wrapped in an ACE bandage and a fancy leg brace that works as an immobilizer. I ate a bowl of ice and two red popsicles, and then asked if I could go home—I told the nurse I was afraid to get a staph infection. She checked with the Scientist and he released me from the hospital that afternoon.
The surgery happened on Thursday. On Monday I began physical therapy. The Scientist, a nurse and a physical therapist were all in the examination room that day. The nurse took off the brace and bandage. The Scientist examined the incision and commented on the swelling—he said it looked like I’d been icing and elevating often, as instructed. Then he asked me to lift my left leg. I couldn’t. He smiled and explained that he had to cut into my quad muscle in order to flip my kneecap over for the microfracture surgery. He said the muscle would come back, but that it might take a few weeks. That’s when the physical therapist took over and introduced me to the exercises that I would have to do every day, three times a day...
One of the most confounding elements of Christianity is its take on suffering. Why would an all-loving God allow us to hurt? But those who have experienced suffering, who have come out the other side, have a better understanding of what it all means. Father Damian Ference is one such person. Read on to find out what a recent surgery taught him about the Father, his father and grace.
I knew there was something wrong with my knee when it hurt to genuflect. I waited a week to see if it would get better. It didn’t. I made an appointment with a knee specialist who, in the good spirit of Flannery O’Connor, I call “the scientist.” He took one look at my x-ray and told me that I had something called osteochondritis dissecans, which means that part of my knee bone had dried up and died.
The scientist said that when I was going through puberty, I would have banged my knee really hard on something and traumatized one of the growth plates in my knee bone in such a way that it never developed properly. He said I probably wouldn’t even remember the injury. This sounded right, as I was a very active boy, playing baseball, football, basketball, riding bikes and skateboards, and doing all the things that teenage boys do—and I remember banging my knees on a variety of surfaces.
As time passed, the knee got worse. Long bike rides through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, 5Ks, 10Ks, half-marathons, a full-marathon, an olympic triathalon, tennis, snowboarding, and the Insanity workout became too much for my knee to bear. It was Palm Sunday when I started replacing my genuflections at mass with profound bows... | <urn:uuid:02b6b98c-76d0-42d7-a06a-0731db3085fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wordonfire.org/WoF-Blog/WoF-Blog.aspx?tagid=2622 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989186 | 1,327 | 1.726563 | 2 |
WILMINGTON, Del., March 26, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Findings from research led by Christiana Care Health System's Mark J. Garcia, M.D., FSIR show that a treatment strategy that focuses on the removal of a patient's chronic clots in the legs, known as deep vein thrombosis, is superior to traditional treatment methods.
These novel findings demonstrate that people treated for chronic deep vein thrombosis can experience a reduction in disabling symptoms and an improved quality of life.
Dr. Garcia, who is the chief of vascular interventional radiology and medical director of the heart and vascular peripheral labs at Christiana Care, presented the findings today during the Society of Interventional Radiology's 37th Annual Scientific Meeting in San Francisco.
Dr. Garcia's abstract was one of only nine abstracts – out of 455 submitted worldwide – chosen by the Society for Interventional Radiology to highlight during its annual meeting.
Minimally-invasive interventional radiology techniques can successfully treat patients who are suffering from post-thrombotic syndrome, a constellation of chronic symptoms from pain and swelling to ulcers and gangrene that are due to deep vein thrombosis.
Traditional methods to treat chronic deep vein thrombosis include blood thinners and elastic compression stockings to medically manage the clots.
"People suffering from post-thrombotic syndrome have been told that no treatment options are available to remove the clots and help relieve the symptoms, but that no longer is true," said Dr. Garcia, who also serves as chair of SIR's Venous Service Line. "Interventional radiologists now have an opportunity to help individuals afflicted with the post-thrombotic disorder who are desperately seeking an improved quality of life. We are showing there is hope for these patients."
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that between 300,000 and 600,000 Americans develop deep vein thrombosis each year, which is the formation of a blood clot in a vein, commonly in the legs.
Dr. Garcia also co-moderated the meeting's opening session on Saturday, which focused on the treatment of deep venous diseases. That session was attended by more than 500 interventional radiologists from around the world.
For more information about the Society of Interventional Radiology, visit www.SIRweb.org.
For more information about Christiana Care, visit www.christianacare.org.
SOURCE Christiana Care Health System | <urn:uuid:7a6f380d-1f25-46e2-90d6-e709eccc041d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.istockanalyst.com/business/news/5746992/christiana-care-health-system-s-mark-garcia-m-d-identifies-successful-treatments-for-chronic-deep-vein-thrombosis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93957 | 527 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Commonly known as Siberian Ginseng, Eleuthero belongs to the family Araliaceae. Panax Quinquefolius is also from the same family, but it does not belong to the same genus. The root of this prickly shrub is the part used. It is a native of Siberia, Korea and China.
Rich in triterpenoid saponins, Eleuthero has been found to have monoamine oxidase inhibiting properties in laboratory tests on animals. It is an excellent adaptogen, benefiting the adrenal glands. It is valued due to its ability to help the body cope with stress, caused by either internal or external issues.
Although it is not stimulating nor sedating, Eleuthero often has such an effect when used by some people for the first time. This is due to its modulating effect on the adrenals, which in these cases are obviously dealing with the negative effects of one or more types of stress. Eleuthero helps the body rejuvenate both physically, as well as emotionally. It helps maintain and increase the immune system’s ability to fight invasive organisms. It is helpful to athletes to enhance performance and retain stamina, to people withdrawing from pharmaceutical or narcotic drugs as well for people using therapies such as radiation and chemo.
Eleuthero is ingested in a tea, infusion or a tincture. Its benefits are noticed immediately, but used over a period of time it is also incredibly beneficial to undo the negative effects of prolonged stress.
copyright Lata Chettri Kennedy 2003 | <urn:uuid:3276377f-59ce-4ea8-9d1f-5a1fa69f4074> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.flowerpower.net/eleuthero/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963092 | 316 | 2.484375 | 2 |
Maha Bodhi Temple
From The Dhamma Encyclopedia
The Maha Bodhi Temple marks the spot where the Buddha attained enlightenment. A Bodhi Tree is to the back of the temple and between the Bodhi Tree and the temple is the 'diamond throne' where the Buddha attained enlightenment. The temple is located in Bodh Gaya, India, coordinates: 24.6959° N, 84.9911° E
The Maha Bodhi temple may have originally been built by King Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE and rebuilt after warfare destruction in the 2nd century CE and subsequently repaired over the centuries up to the present time. The current structure was started around the 5th century CE and repaired and renovated at various times ever since. It is 52 meters high (171 feet). There are also gardens, lakes, and a 24 meter (80 feet) Buddha statue in Bodh Gaya.
It is reported that King Ashoka built 84,000 edicts, monuments, and stupas honoring his legacy and the Buddha's teachings. If it were not 84,000 it certainly would have been at least a large number. King Ashoka spent one full week just gazing at the Bodhi Tree in Bodh Gaya. It is also reported that King Ashoka made several pilgrimages to Bodh Gaya. Considering this, we can say with virtual certainty that the original Maha Bodhi Temple must have been built by King Ashoka. The design and placement of the original may be very similar so that we could credit Ashoka with the establishment of the Maha Bodhi Temple at about 250 BCE.
Further evidence for the temple dating to the time of Ashoka comes from historical information, including a terracotta plaque and relief carvings referencing Ashoka and the temple found dating to around 25 BCE. According to scholar-historians, the original design included the slender pyramid design with an open pavilion (Huntington, 1985).
A graphic and comprehensive description of the Maha Bodhi complex is left by Huen Tsang, a Chinese pilgrim who visited Bodh Gaya in 637 CE. About the Maha Bodhi Temple he says:
- "To the east of the Bodhi tree, there is a vihara about 160 or 170 feet high [48 to 52 meters]. Its lower foundation-wall is 20 or more paces in its face. The building is of blue bricks covered with chunam (burnt stone lime) all the niches in the different stones hold golden figures. The four sides of the building are covered with wonderful ornamental work : in one place figures of stringed pearls (garlands), in another, figures of heavenly rishis. The whole is surrounded by gilded copper amalaka fruit. The eastern face adjoins a storeyed pavilion, the projecting caves of which rise one over the other to the height of three distinct chambers; its projecting caves, its pillars, beams, doors, and windows are decorated with gold and silver ornamental work with pearls and gems let in to fill up interstices".
The four smaller pyramids at the corners were most likely meant to represent The Four Noble Truths and the 4 Brahma Viharas and the large slender pyramid in the middle representing The Eightfold Middle Path.
The Maha Bodhi Temple faces east, the direction Buddha was facing when he sat and meditated under the Bodhi Tree. The meaning of Maha Bodhi is Great Enlightenment. It is the holiest place in Buddhism, due to the fact that this is the place of enlightenment, the goal and purpose of the Dhamma.
Current date and time in Bodh Gaya, India
Maha Bodhi, the Buddha statue inside, the Bodhi Tree at the back
- The domain name: http://www.mahabodhitemple.com/ redirects to this page.
- The domain name: http://www.mahabodhitemple.org/ redirects to this page.
- See also: Maha Bodhi replicas
- The Complete Book of Buddha's Lists -- Explained. David N. Snyder, Ph.D., 2006.
- "Sowing the Seeds of the Lotus: A Journey to the Great Pilgrimage Sites of Buddhism, Part I" by John C. Huntington. Orientations, November 1985 pg 61.
- Art and the Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya
- Navel of the Earth by S. Dhammika, 2007 | <urn:uuid:abda4a0d-c6cb-4be0-a0c4-c93bd1375015> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dhammawiki.com/index.php?title=Maha_Bodhi_Temple | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940391 | 935 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Confederate States of America. Army. Mississippi Infantry Regiment, 11th. Company A
Letter from Richard C. Bridges to his sister describing the spread of smallpox in Goldsboro; insists on his family being vacinated; considers his wounded side to be improving; remarks on widespread hopes for an early peace.
Songs--United States--20th Century; Popular Music--United States
Cover: drawing of a mother holding her son, as she visualizes a battle scene; photo inset of the American Comedy Four, four Caucasians, one in blackface; text at the top reads ""A Mother's Plea for Peace"" | <urn:uuid:8baaf117-c64f-48cc-a16d-21d75da524dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://clio.lib.olemiss.edu/cdm/search/searchterm/Soldier | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944856 | 131 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Author: Andreas J. Köstenberger and Richard D. Patterson
Publisher: Kregel, 2011
Price: $46.99 (amz)
They characterize their approach as a “simple method” for biblical interpretation that involves “preparation, interpretation, and application” (p. 23). The theoretical foundation undergirding these practices is the “hermeneutical triad” of history, literature, and theology. This three-part focus lends itself to a “core proposal,” namely, that “for any passage of Scripture, you will want to study the historical setting, the literary context, and the theological message” (p. 23). These three areas “form the proper grid for biblical interpretation” (p. 23). The “interpretive task,” in other words, should reflect this “triadic structure” (p. 25). In Köstenberger and Patterson’s navigational metaphor, the hermeneutical triad functions as a “compass” on the “interpretive journey through the canonical landscape” (p. 29).
In this regard, a pedagogical strength of the book is that its structure reflects the hermeneutical triad’s emphasis on history, literature, and theology. After an introductory chapter, part one treats the “context of Scripture: History” (chap 2). Part two highlights the “focus of Scripture: Literature” by examining the areas of canon (chaps 3-4), genre (chaps 5-11), and language (chaps 12-14). This section on the literary features of the Bible forms the heart of the textbook (pp. 145-688). Part three touches on the hermeneutical “goal: theology” (chap 15). A chapter on application and proclamation concludes the content of the book.
Drawing on their extensive experience as seasoned professors, the authors have designed this volume for use in the classroom. To this end, they provide a helpful “personal note” to educators that outlines the way the book can be used during the course of a semester (pp. 23-29). They also include summaries, outlines, key words, study questions, and possible assignments for each chapter. Though most of the volume is written in a clear and straightforward style, there are a few areas where technical discussion becomes dense or difficult. For instance, in the space of about one page the terms ellipsis, zeugma, aposiopesis, brachylogy, hendiadys, and pleonasm are introduced with only minimal interaction (pp. 590-91).
In light of the volume’s clear macrostructure, a few structural issues stand out. For instance, the chapters on the canon of the Old and New Testament are structured in different ways. The discussion of the New Testament follows the major groupings of Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypse. The Old Testament section, though, is ordered around the themes of law, exodus, covenant, and Messiah. Though these thematic areas are clearly central in the Old Testament, ordering this material under the headings of Law, Prophets, and Writings (which is actually the chapter’s subtitle) might better parallel the chapter on the New Testament and launch naturally into the formal treatment of genre in the following section.
Further, chapter 16 perhaps attempts to cover too much ground. The homiletical emphasis of the “from study to sermon” section focuses on crafting a sermon based on the contours of the text. Because of the textual focus, the content of these sections might have been better integrated into the previously developed sections devoted to the various biblical genres.
The mentioning of time-sensitive online material also guarantees that this section will be quickly dated (e.g., the nature of Google books, Wikipedia, and the development of e-book technology). Moreover, professors who want to integrate a more robust history of interpretation into their course will need to supplement this volume. The authors do survey the major historical eras, but this treatment is brief (pp. 67-78) and designed to highlight the broad role of history, literature, and theology in these periods. A fuller account of the history of interpretation might have rounded out the “History” section of the book.
A related issue is the particularly prominent role that Köstenberger and Patterson give to historical background information as it relates to the interpretive task. Chapter two surveys the type of sources used in reconstructing the social/cultural world of the biblical events, and similar historical background material is highlighted throughout the volume. Because there is often a tendency among casual interpreters to overplay the importance of this type of information and to misapply its hermeneutical significance, a more developed discussion of the caution necessary in this area would have served readers well.
Köstenberger and Patterson seem to recognize this tendency as they occasionally sound this warning. For example, in their discussion of preaching wisdom literature, they mention that “importing foreign historical or background information is a mistake” (p. 767). They also briefly caution against the fallacy of appealing to “unknown or unlikely meanings or background material” (p. 635). However, there is only minimal discussion devoted to the way in which one might go about determining what exactly makes a given piece of background information “unknown or unlikely.” Because this hermeneutical issue is crucial and fraught with difficulties, professors will want to supplement these sections with another resource or at least further develop the brief “guidelines” Köstenberger and Patterson do provide (e.g., the abbreviated aside on p. 128).
A final point about this new approach is that it is not a “new approach” at all, as Köstenberger and Patterson themselves acknowledge (pp. 23-25). The authors adumbrate the way their triad relates to the other popular “geometric figures” utilized in hermeneutical theory (the hermeneutical circle and the hermeneutical spiral). Because the approach is not totally novel, however, it is able to incorporate a large swath of scholarship from recent areas of research (e.g., canonical theology, literary studies, and discourse analysis) as well as the key hermeneutical insights of previous historical epochs (e.g., the Patristic and Reformation period).
The triangular image is also helpful in highlighting the dialectical tension that should exist between these three areas of interpretation. Moreover, the section on genre is particularly well developed and, alongside the chapters on canon and language, provides a thorough and thoughtful introduction to the textual contours of the biblical literature.
Fully integrated into this volume is an emphasis on “special hermeneutics” and the divine qualities of Scripture. This feature works well within a confessional approach to the Scriptures and will resonate with Evangelical readers. The authors seek to grapple with the textual, linguistic, and historical issues unavoidably impinging on the interpretive task while tightly holding on to a high view of the texts they are interpreting. This particular feature of Köstenberger and Patterson’s “invitation to hermeneutics” is one I hope many interpreters will accept.
- Preview of Chapter One (PDF)
- Review also appears in Trinity Journal 34, no. 1 (Spring 2013): 123-25. | <urn:uuid:40e8deda-a98e-44f6-a28a-cec297ee97fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chedspellman.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913701 | 1,556 | 2.78125 | 3 |