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Keeping your dog healthy does not have to be at odds with keeping your blueberry bushes healthy. When it comes to blueberry bushes and dogs, understanding how canines react to blueberries and the bushes on which they grow, as well as the chemicals you might use around those plants, is critical. Blueberry bushes generally grow in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones, from 3 through 8.
Blueberry bushes need regular feeding with a 10-10-10 fertilizer that contains ammonium sulfate or a potassium sulfate. Consider keeping your dog away from recently fertilized bushes, particularly if your fertilizer contains ammonium sulfate. The U.S. National Library of Medicine indicates that while ammonium sulfate has a low toxicity, a dog who comes in contact with large amounts of this compound may exhibit apathy, breathing problems and problems with mobility. A fertilizer with potassium sulfate is a safer choice as it is often used in dog food.
Blueberry bushes may suffer from any number of pest problems, from fungus to fruitworms. To ensure the greatest berry yield from your bushes, you might be tempted to use pesticides to control damage. You can use several different chemicals, but because many pesticides are toxic to dogs, look for nontoxic options to fight these blueberry problems. Keep your dog away from treated blueberry bushes and store garden chemicals somewhere your dog can't go.
Allergies in Dogs
Just like humans, dogs can have allergic reactions to certain foods, including blueberries. If your dog has access to blueberry bushes and starts to excessively lick or scratch, develops diarrhea or hot spots on the skin, begins to vomit or has skin or ear infections, it may be a sign of a blueberry allergy. Block off access to the blueberry bushes and see a veterinarian for testing and treatment.
Dog Urine and Blueberries
Canine urination patterns may harm your blueberry bushes, so it is best to train your dog to use another spot to "do his business." Female dogs tend to deposit a large amount of urine in a single spot. Because urine contains large amounts of nitrogen, this can damage blueberries. Blueberries exposed to excess nitrogen can display soft berries susceptible to rot, and your bushes may also have fast shoot and leaf growth with few berries.
- University of Illinois Extension: Blueberry
- The University of California Garden Web: Growing Berries in Your Backyard
- U.S. National Library of Medicine ToxNet: Ammonium Sulfate
- Petfoodindustry.com: Potassium Chloride: Popular Potassium Source for Petfoods
- North Carolina State University: Blueberry Pest Management
- University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources: Pesticide Poisoning in Pets
- Modern Dog: Food Allergies 101
- University of California: Lawns 'n' Dogs
- Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service: Fertilizing Small Fruits
- Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images | <urn:uuid:20b5d72c-1d14-4ce6-8a8d-4ac2b128e036> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://homeguides.sfgate.com/blueberry-bushes-dogs-39076.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929118 | 613 | 3.1875 | 3 |
The House of the Lararium was built in brick c. 120 AD, like the two previously discussed buildings (I,IX,1 and I,IX,2).
The ground floor is largely taken up by shops. These could be entered from the street and from a courtyard. Vestibules are present in the south and west facade. The lay-out has been compared to the oriental bazaar.
The courtyard has several noteworthy features. In the northwest part is a staircase. Somewhat to the right is a polychrome niche, called lararium by the excavators, i.e. a shrine of the household gods, the Lares Familiares. However, in this niche must have been one, fairly large statue of a deity. It is not an intimate shrine of the kind that is found so often in Pompeii. The niche could not be placed exactly opposite the southern entrance to the building, but it is as close to the axis as possible. It functions as a religious welcome to those who entered the shopping centre. A religious tie was created between those working in the building and their customers.
The vestibules and the courtyard had a black-and-white mosaic, later repaired with marble slabs. In front of the niche is a keyhole-shaped basin. In the northeast corner of the courtyard is a well. In the years 1802-1804 a marble well-head (puteal) was found on top (now in the Vatican).
On the rim is the inscription:
On the front is the inscription:
A well with the well-head was made after an admonition by Ceres and the Nymphs (presumably in a dream). It was financed by the presidents of the three subdivisions of the guild of the grain measurers (mensores frumentarii). It is difficult to imagine what the relation could have been between the presidents and the House of the Lararium. Presumably the well-head was re-used in the building. Originally it may have been in or near the guild-seat of the measurers (I,XIX,1-3), or on public ground. August 23 was a feast-day on which various deities were worshipped who protected against fires, such as Vulcanus and the Nymphs. Ceres is obviously related to the grain that was handled by the measurers.
Plan of the caseggiato. After SO I.
Drawing of the well-head.
Guattani 1805, p. XLVII. | <urn:uuid:7ab5b8b9-9528-48cd-9610-07ff4029f38f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ostia-antica.org/regio1/9/9-3.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98544 | 516 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Have you ever had to do a repetitive task in AutoCAD? Things like changing your snap settings to your preferred or adding layers to a drawing. If you answered yes then LISP could make a huge difference to your day-to-day CADDing. Now assuming that your familiar with AutoCAD you’ve probably at least heard of LISP, but learning it can sometimes be daunting. You open up the file and there all of this “stuff” in it; then you promptly close it. That is usually the first experience that everyone has with LISP so don’t feel alone, while you can make some really complicated routines with it you can also make some really nice and short time savers without learning everything there is to know about it. Now I can just imagine some of you going “ha, I have a CAD Manager that’s their job” but let’s face it, if you’re lucky enough to have one; a lot of places don’t, then they probably have a ton of other responsibilities their juggling around and might just not have the time to write something just for you.
Now for the LISP 101 you have been waiting for. First, all you need is Notepad. There is no compiling needed to write LISP. There are editors out there and even in AutoCAD but Notepad is a tried and true favorite of mine.
Secondly remember LISP is not magic, it cannot read your mind. If you don’t tell it to do something, it won’t do it even if it seems very obvious. Third do yourself a favor and kind of write the steps that you do when making a new layer or a new setting, this will make it easier to write the LISP. Finally and this is the most important save you work before test running any new LISP you make, sometimes even the most well thought out LISP will have a unforseen hickup in the testing stage, and you’d hate to lose your current drawing.
Note: AutoCAD LT does not support LISP, there are add-on’s that can allow it to but I haven’t tried them. Also there are other CAD software programs that support LISP like progeCAD and other intelliCAD based CAD products.
Now the fun stuff: the code and an explanation of what it actually does. The example is a super sort LISP that adds the command “ET” to the command line and that command sends an instruction to AutoCAD to invoke the “ddedit” command.
(defun C:ET (/)
First, notice the () around everything. If you open one then you need to close it as well. Now the “defun C:ET” tells AutoCAD that you want to define a new function (or overwrite one that already exists) and the Command will be “ET”. The “(/)” next to it is a place to put variables but were not going to get into that right now, but it’s good to get in the habit of it when you start. After that the (command “._ddedit”), this is saying that you want to use a command just like if you were typing in the command bar. We’re using “ddedit” here and the “._” before it makes sure that no other LISP has changed it on you. Lastly there is the ending “)” to close the LISP, now save you file with the .lsp extension and go into AutoCAD. In the command line type “APPLOAD”, this will allow you to load the LISP, browse to your file and load it. You can also add it to the startup suite if you want it loaded with every drawing. Now for this LISP make sure you have text in the drawing and then type “ET” into the command line and hit enter.
Congratulations you have just written and run your first LISP!
That wasn’t too hard, right? Let’s look into a little bit more complicated parts of LISP without getting off the 101 aspect of this.
SETQ: This allows you to set variables. For those who don’t know, variables let you store numbers or text for later use.
GETVAR & SETVAR: These two allow you to get and set system varibles, good stuff like your snap settings, dimscale, etc. Here is a good tip in your AutoCAD type "setvar" and enter the ? and * to list all your setting values. The help file also is a great source for this information.
GETPOINT: lets you have the user pick a point on the screen.
GETCORNER: This is a neat command, after using getpoint this will let you have a displayed rectangle that the user can see while selecting an additional point for a rectangle or selection set.
PRINC displays info on to the command line. Example: (princ "\nHello World")notice the "\n” it tells AutoCAD that you want a new line on the command line.
; Means ignore after symbol to LISP, it’s great for blocking out sections of code during debugging and documenting your code. On that note, do yourself a favor and document your code, it will help you figure out what you were trying to do later when you revisit it in a year or two.
So using all that we have learned so far we can write this:
(defun C:NREC (/ OLD_PLINE OLD_LAYER OLD_SNAP PT1 PT2)
;Get the settings of the drawing before you change them
(setq OLD_SNAP (getvar "OSMODE"))
(setq OLD_LAYER (getvar "clayer"))
;Now change your Osnap's, 0 on OSMODE turns the osnaps off
(setvar "OSMODE" 0)
;Here's a neat trick even if you have the layer have LISP create it again
;this ensures that you have it
(command "._-layer" "n" "Rectangle" "S" "Rectangle" "c" "31" "" "")
;Make the current color ByLayer
(setvar "cecolor" "BYLAYER")
;Get the two corners of the rectangle
(setq PT1 (getpoint "\nFirst corner point:"))
(setq PT2 (getcorner PT1 "\nOther corner point:"))
;Draw the rectangle
(command "rectangle" PT1 PT2)
;Now let's put the settings back to where we found them
(setvar "OSMODE" OLD_SNAP)
(setvar "clayer" OLD_LAYER)
So now you know the ropes of LISP. There is a bunch of info out there from sites like Afralisp, The Swamp and CADTutor just to name a few places where you can find more information on LISP as well as more advanced tutorials.
- DS -
~ Dan has been drafting everything from house plans to water mains with CADD for over ten years. Currently he drafting indoors, because it's hot outside. If you would like to reach Dan, please email him. ~ | <urn:uuid:1a898468-866c-4e74-aea9-70a97d5506c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kungfudrafter.com/frontpage/2011/4/14/how-to-lisp-for-the-non-programmer.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936222 | 1,585 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Letters to the Editor
Volume VII Number 2
January 14-20, 1999
Name It Joe Tausig Circle
Dear New Bay Times~Weekly:
Please allow me to weigh in with a few counter comments in regard to your editorial "In Annapolis, Circle Wagons for Unity" (January 7-13) discussing your views as to an appropriate name for the new West Street Circle in Annapolis.
As someone who lives within two blocks of the circle, I too have pondered names. If you go by a long-standing tradition in Annapolis, the best name would be one that relates geographically to it, i.e., State Circle and Church Circle.
If you depart from this standard, the next category you'd get to is famous people who would be honored by having the circle named after them. Usually, such people are dead. I am pushing the proposal to name the circle "Joe Tausig Circle." He's a genuine hero with many connections, including living in Annapolis. What's more, he's alive.
As perhaps the most junior officer board the Battleship USS Nevada at Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941, Joe Tausig responded quickly to the attack and with a skeleton crew got the ship underway in the face of the Japanese air assault. The ship was hit several times, afire but moving and fighting. Joe and his crew realized that damage was so severe that the Japanese pilots would try to sink her and block the main ship channel. So they beached her.
I have talked to over 50 Pearl Harbor survivors and almost everyone who was within sight of Ford Island recalls one thing. They recall the thrill and pride they felt as they saw the Nevada moving as a man o' war flying the Stars and Stripes.
While much of this was going on, Joe Tausig was lying in his own blood on the deck with a shattered leg. Yet he kept barking orders and getting things done.
That's a hero in my book and the kind of people we should be talking about to your generation, which doesn't remember the sacrifices made by the men and women of the World War II generation.
Oh, by the way. There's another reason why Joe Tausig is a hero in my eyes: He foxed the Navy for many years to stay on active duty serving well. He had lost a leg, but Navy's BuPers just never quite found out about it.
What we'd like in Annapolis is an open forum so that all names for the circle can be considered.
If anyone wants to help me get it named for Joe Tausig, they can call me at 410/280-9652.
-Tony Evans, Annapolis
Dear New Bay Times~Weekly:
On occasion, and fortunately not too often, your editorial displays a genuine lack of understanding of the political process. Such was the case in your editorial Dec. 17, "NBT's Guide to Political Pitfalls." I am referring, in particular, to your shallow and flawed assessment of a personnel matter in North Beach.
My decision to replace the Town's Code Enforcement Officer was not made in haste, nor do I repent that decision. You fail to take into account that new administrations, at every level of government, make changes in personnel at the beginning of their terms.
In this case the individual was not a "county" official and whether he was "popular" is certainly a debatable point. That he had ties to the old regime was indeed the case, but even a quick glance at the North Beach election returns would have disclosed the fate of that "regime."
Had you had the interest or courtesy to contact me about this (or any other matter), following the election, you could have avoided stumbling into the "pitfall" of inaccurate journalism so easily entered by way of careless research and unbalanced reporting. If this is a sample of your paper's advice to elected officials, thanks but no thanks!
-Mark R. Frazer, Mayor, Town of North Beach, Md.
Editor's note: Like the mayor, we call them as we see
| Issue 2 |
We welcome your letter and opinions.
We will edit when necessary.
Mail them to NBT at
P.O. Box 358, Deale Md 20751
Click here to email.
Please include your name, address and phone number for verification.
| Homepage |
| Back to Archives | | <urn:uuid:3e55e616-ad34-448a-9bbb-e332009b79e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bayweekly.com/old-site/year99/issue7_2/letters7_2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969103 | 915 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Reviewed by Mia C. (age 8)
In Kathryn Laskyís Dear America, Hope in My Heart, a 9 year old girl named Sofia, emigrates from Italy, to America. While at Ellis Island, Sofia gets detained, and separated from her family! When Sofia looks up at the Statue of Liberty, the sun goes into her eyes, and her eyes get red. The doctors think that she has trachoma. And thatís how Sofia ends up in the Ellis Island hospital. Youíll have to read the book to see if Sofia gets deported! I donít want to spoil the ending!
I was so happy and relieved when Sofia meets a friend at the hospital. That was my favorite part because it reminded me of when I met my best friend, Charlotte.
I loved reading this book, because it gave me a window into the hardships experienced by the immigrants coming to America in the 1900's. This book reminded me of the many immigrant books Mrs. Diglio read us in class.
Curious and anxious people will love this book because you never know what will happen next. I recommend this book to anyone who loves history, adventure and heartache. | <urn:uuid:f8e07868-418b-42a9-b094-4f45e5d432b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.spaghettibookclub.org/review.php?review_id=11211 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946445 | 248 | 2.171875 | 2 |
New Bill Designed To Extend Trademark Law To Ridiculous Extremes
from the is-this-really-so-difficult-to-understand dept
It would appear that today is trademark day, here at Techdirt. We've already had two different stories about organizations not understanding the purpose of trademarks. But how can you blame them when it appears some of our lawmakers don't seem to understand it either? Apparently, a new bill is making its way through the standard process that would change trademark law to make it a lot more difficult for people to use trademarks in any work of art. Once again (we hate to repeat it, but since there's so much misunderstanding, perhaps it's worthwhile): the purpose of trademark is to prevent misleading or confusing people. That is, I can't create a new cola and call it Coke. That would confuse people who might, legitimately, think I was associated with the large soft drink company. However, using a Coke bottle in a painting isn't going to confuse anyone, so there shouldn't be any question of trademark infringement. Unfortunately, this new bill would potentially make that actionable. Trademarks aren't supposed to mean you get full control over every use of the trademarked content. Just that you can prevent others from using it in a way that could confuse people into believing a connection or relationship that isn't there. | <urn:uuid:147f68eb-dc23-46df-aa74-d519068f4599> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20060202/2249224.shtml?threaded=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976276 | 280 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Touch stimulates growth-promoting substances
Healthcare providers have long known that babies who are touched a lot grow better, and now there is research to back up this observation. There seems to be a biological connection between stroking, massaging, and grooming infants and their growth. Touch stimulates growth-promoting hormones
and increases the enzymes that make the cells of the vital organs more responsive to the growth-promoting effects of these hormones. For example, premature infants in a "grower nursery," where they can gain needed weight, showed 47 percent more weight gain when they received extra touch.
Animal researchers have recognized the connection between a mother animal's licking her offspring and how well her babies grow. When newborn pups were deprived of their mother's frequent licking (equivalent to infant massage), the level of growth hormone decreased, and the pups stopped growing. Even injecting growth hormone into the untouched pups would not cause them to grow. Only when the mother animal's touching and licking were restarted did the pups resume their growth.
Researchers have found that human babies deprived of touch showed decreased growth hormone and developed a condition called psychosocial dwarfism; even more amazingly they also did not grow when given injections of growth hormone. Only when given human touch did these infants grow. This finding implies that touch causes something beneficial to occur at the cellular level that makes the cells respond to growth hormone. Yes, there is something magical about a parent's touch.
Touch promotes brain growth
Not only is touch good for the body, it's good for the mind. Studies show that newborns receiving extra touch display enhanced neurological development. Why this smart connection? Researchers believe that touch promotes the growth of myelin, the insulating material around nerves that makes nerve impulses travel faster.
Touch improves digestion
Babies receiving extra touch show enhanced secretion of digestive hormones. Researchers believe that this is another reason that touched infants grow better. It seems that touch makes the babies' digestive system more efficient. Babies with colic caused by the irritable colon syndrome may have less trouble in the colon when massaged frequently.
Touch improves behavior
Research shows babies receiving extra touch become better organized. They sleep better at night, fuss less during the day, and relate better to caregivers' interactions. Touch settles babies. Massage can be a wonderful tool for helping your baby go to sleep at night.
Touch promotes baby's self-esteem
Being on the receiving end of loving hands helps babies develop a feel for their body parts by learning which areas of the body are most sensitive and which need relaxing. Being touched gives value to a person, like an adult feeling "touched" by the remarks of a friend.
Touch helps parents
A daily massage helps you to get in touch with your whole baby, to read her body language, and to learn her cues. Giving your baby the right touch is just one more step up the ladder of learning about your baby. Infant massage is especially valuable for the parent and infant who had a slow start – for example, when separated by a medical complication. Massage helps parent and baby reconnect. For the slow-start mother who doesn't feel naturally "motherly" toward her newborn, massage is the extra spark to ignite the fire. Likewise for the slow-to-warm-up baby, massage helps break down the barrier so that the uncuddly baby begins to enjoy being touched – and the parents get used to touching their baby.
Several employed mothers in our practice use an evening infant massage as a tool to help them reconnect with their baby after being away for the day. This special touch enables them to tune into baby and tune out their work as they reenter home life.
For dads who are novices at caring for babies, massage is a hands-on course in baby handling. Also, it's important for baby to get used to dad's touch as well as mom's. Babies thrive on different strokes.
High-need babies have tense muscles that need help relaxing. Every baby needs lots of touching. High-need babies need more (of course!). There is no touch more soothing than that of skin on skin, although for some babies, skin- to-skin contact can actually be stimulating, so you have to proceed with caution. Infants who spend time in neonatal intensive care units after birth tend to have a high need for pleasant touch, since so much of the touching they experienced in the hospital was painful. Some very sensitive high-need babies – dubbed "uncuddly babies" – actually pull away from being touched because they find it threatening or overstimulating. In this case, a routine of careful, gentle touches can gradually accustom this baby to being handled and will help him eventually enjoy touching.
Special touches for special babies
Handicapped infants – and their parents – particularly benefit from infant massage. Studies show that massage helps motor-impaired infants better communicate their needs to the parents – a process called social cueing. Massage puts you in touch with your infant's body signals. | <urn:uuid:053a6681-4844-4fe1-b23e-b1e8b644f9e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/child-rearing-and-development/bringing-baby-home/infant-massage/touch-benefits | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959621 | 1,029 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Today's restaurant trends emphasizing light and healthful foods have made a dent in our fat intake by changing old eating habits. Nevertheless, we still love our fried foods, which explains why fryer manufacturers have kept sales up over the years. And to their credit, as energy consciousness has entered the scene, manufacturers are responding quickly with new redesigns and features.
Gas and electric fryers are available in a variety of sizes and styles. The most prevalent countertop units are electric, although some gas models are available. Most countertop models have a frying medium capacity of 15 to 40 pounds, with larger capacity models able to handle substantially more product with a faster temperature recovery. Many countertop fryers have a lift-out fry pot, which has the advantage of making a pot easy to clean, though it can be hard and even dangerous for some employees to handle when filtering.
Most high production frying, especially in high-volume applications, is done in floor-mounted models. These pieces of equipment hold from 35 to 80 pounds of frying medium and have gas requirements of 50,000 to 120,000 BTU or electric requirements from 8 to 22 KW. The high power and fuel requirements are necessary to ensure the needed production requirements while allowing as little fluctuation in oil temperature as possible, even when fully loaded with frozen food product.
Many fryers are designed with a cool zone, which allows food particles to collect at the bottom of the fryer where they will not cause much harm to the frying medium or taste transfer to the various products being cooked. Keeping food particles out of the heated area will help extend fry medium life. While cold zones are featured on some smaller models of gas and electric equipment, they are primarily available on larger floor-mounted models.
Recent improvements in fryers save energy, lengthen the life of the oil medium and reduce oil consumption. Today's frying mediums, in addition to being cholesterol -free, are specially formulated vegetable oil blends with additives to extend frying life and reduce oxidation.
Commercial deep-fat fryers are complex pieces of equipment designed to turn out load after load of perfectly fried foods. Energy efficiency is easy for electric fryers since the heating elements are immersed in the frying medium, giving the highest possible efficiency from the electric source. Gas fryers have traditionally been less than energy efficient until recently.
Gas fryers heat the medium either with a burner under the fry pot or by injecting the gas flame through tubes running through the fry pot. In recent years, manufacturers have introduced burners designed to transfer heat more effectively to the frying medium by using a variety of ceramic burners, various types of baffles in the burner tubes and other high-efficiency components. These improved burner designs distribute heat more evenly, extract more heat energy from the fuel and reduce heat waste.
Expect to pay a 15% premium or more for a high efficiency fryer. Are they worth the cost? If you expect to have your fryer five years or more and want to consider the energy savings over that period, an energy-efficient fryer is going to be a good value in most cases.
One development to take note of is the low-oil-volume fryer being introduced by several manufacturers. This fryer eliminates the traditional cold zone area and requires less oil to fill the frypot. The savings can be substantial. The other advantage is with less oil it can be heated more effectively with the same or a smaller- rated burner. The downside to the low volume fryer is that the oil must be filtered often to remove the sediment. Manufacturers are now working on continuous filtering fryers, which should be available by later this year.
Caring for your frying medium is as important as any factor in the making of deep fried foods. To get the greatest use from your frying medium, be sure to filter daily and skim out as much of the floating particles as possible throughout the day. Avoid salting foods over the fryer because salt will break down fats.
Foods should be as dry as possible before being fried because moisture breaks down fat. Excessive heat also will breakdown the fats in the frying medium. Experts recommend frying most foods at around 350-360°F and turning down the fryer thermostat to about 200°F during off-peak periods. Don't wait until foods begin to have an off flavor before changing the oil.
Filtering for countertop fryers can be as simple as pouring the contents of the frypot through a filtering cone and into a clean fry pot. Larger, sophisticated banks of fryers may have built-in systems that can filter the oil and return it to the fry pot without handling. Some manufacturers offer filtering systems that fit neatly within the underbody of the fryer, not requiring any additional floor space for the equipment.
There is a new world of fryers out there aimed at energy efficiency and productivity. Researching the options will help you get the longest life and best production out of your equipment and ultimately help you serve a consistently high quality product.
Dan Bendall is a principal of FoodStrategy, a Maryland-based consulting firm specializing in planning foodservice facilities. He is also a member of Foodservice Consultants Society International. He can be reached at 240-314-0660. | <urn:uuid:4c91bd3f-ba4e-4cb4-960f-285df50bc0af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://restaurant-hospitality.com/equipment/how_buy_fryer_1208 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953851 | 1,070 | 2.265625 | 2 |
Nutrition & bone health
Ten steps to better digestion
by Dr. Susan E. Brown, PhD
You’ve heard the old saying “you are what you eat.” At the Center for Better Bones, we take that old saying one step further: you are what you eat and absorb. You can eat the highest quality foods on the planet, but if your digestion is weak and you don’t absorb many of the nutrients in your food, you won’t receive their full benefits. Strengthening your digestion is a key step in the Program for Better Bones, so I have outlined 10 simple steps you can take to enhance digestion and promote nutrient absorption. These steps are simple and practical, offering a helpful blend of ancient Eastern wisdom and modern Western science.
1. Consume cooked foods instead of cold or raw foods.
As traditional Eastern medicine explains, food must be “burned” in the “fire” of digestion. Cold and raw foods must be “heated up” more than cooked foods and as such they dampen and weaken the fire of digestion. Persons with weak digestion would do well to eat no or little raw or cold food or drinks. This means favoring cooked vegetables and fruits over raw produce, and using hot soups, casseroles, or grain and bean dishes in place of sandwiches or snack-type meals. Avoid cooling the “fire” with cold drinks or ice water during meals.
2. Chew your food well and eat at a moderate pace.
Ideally, you should chew each mouthful some 30 times, breaking the food into small particles and allowing the salivary enzymes to begin their work digesting the food. We suggest putting the fork down between each mouthful and swallowing one bite before taking another as a way to slow down if you’re accustomed to “bolting” your food.
3. Eat in a peaceful and relaxed environment.
If you do a little comparative test, you will note that you feel better and your digestion is smoother when you eat in a quiet, peaceful environment. Avoid watching television, reading, working, or arguing with others when you eat. You will see the difference.
4. Eat simply.
Mixing many different types of foods taxes the digestive system. Experiment with simple meals of just two or three different foods.
5. Eat fruit between meals, not with meals, and favor cooked fruit.
Raw fruit dampens the digestive fire, especially during the winter when we are already cold. As such, those with weak digestion might find that eating raw fruit with meals causes intestinal gas and bloating. Cooked fruit is a fine dessert, and you can still use raw fruit for snacks — but know that even as an occasional snack, fruit might be a problem if your digestive fire is smoldering rather than blazing.
6. Drink hot water and hot herbal teas, particularly those that promote digestion.
Hot water is an excellent way to detoxify the body and build digestive strength. Simmering a few slices of ginger root in boiling water makes a ginger root tea that stimulates digestion. Ginger in food has the same effect, as does candied ginger root eaten after meals. Other herbs that promote good digestion and make excellent herbal teas are chamomile, peppermint, and cinnamon.
7. Eat freshly cooked foods.
Freshly cooked foods are the most nourishing and are free of molds or staleness. It’s better to eat a simple, freshly cooked meal than a complicated one made of leftovers.
8. Avoid overeating.
Excessive intake of food greatly burdens the entire digestive system. Ancient Ayurvedic medicine recommends consuming the amount of food that will fit into two cupped hands at any meal. Practice moving away from the table while you are still a bit hungry.
9. Sit still and relax a few minutes after eating.
Digestion is an amazing process — it turns tofu enchiladas into blood and tissue cells. Resting a few minutes after eating gets this very complicated process off to a good start by allowing your body’s resources to focus fully on the digestive engine.
10. If all else fails, seek professional help to determine the source of the problem.
If these simple self-help steps do not resolve your digestive problems, you should consider consulting both a physician and a nutritionist. A nutritionist can help you figure out if probiotics and other nutritional digestive aids would be useful. Your physician can investigate the possibility that a medical problem is affecting your digestion.
The Personal Program for Better Bones: the approach I recommend for naturally strong bones.
At the Center for Better Bones we promote an all-natural approach to bone regeneration
and repair that includes nutrition, diet, exercise, lifestyle guidance, and support.
The Personal Program for Better Bones is a convenient,
at-home version of this approach that was developed with Women to Women, one of America's premiere on-line women's
health websites. Working together, we've developed the most comprehensive approach
to bones health available today, and based on the 25 years of Dr. Brown's leading-edge
research in the field.
Questions about the Personal Program for Better Bones? Call toll-free at
Original Publication Date: 04/11/2000
Last Modified: 07/10/2012
Principal Author: Dr. Susan E. Brown, PhD | <urn:uuid:d45287ce-3ca0-451b-b145-f3e1fbdc351f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.betterbones.com/bonenutrition/betterdigestion.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93833 | 1,120 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Released February 17, 2005
AMHERST, MASS. — All milk served in the dining hall at Hampshire College is now purchased from nearby Cook Farm. On February 1, the local dairy farm dropped off 100 gallons of milk, including skim and chocolate milk, in the first of what are now regular campus deliveries.
A campus group comprised of students, faculty, administrators and dining hall staff has been meeting regularly throughout this academic year to talk about ways that Hampshire can support local farmers, as well as how to make environmentally sound purchasing decisions, and will continue to discuss these issues.
In addition to purchasing local milk -- from a farm close enough to campus that students can meet the cows when they visit Flayvors, the Cooks' popular ice cream stand and store -- the Hampshire dining hall also buys 20 shares of CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) food from the college's organic farm.
And, at any meal or occasion that calls for the use of disposable utensils, cups, plates and napkins, Hampshire now uses biodegradable products that can be composted on the college farm.
"Hampshire College's commitment to sustainability includes careful consideration of how decisions can be beneficial to both the campus community and to our surrounding community,” said President Gregory S. Prince, Jr. “Working with our neighbors in the broader community strengthens Hampshire. Purchasing from local farmers helps to support the local economy and preserve the surrounding agricultural way of life, and provides high quality, fresh food for our students.
"Students have been very engaged in the conversations around these issues, playing a leadership role, and have both learned from this process and helped to educate us about the advantages of supporting local agriculture."
Food service director Doug Martin said the dining hall will talk with some other local farmers about future purchases. The Cook Farm contract was a particularly good place to start as the farm's cows are fed hay and corn that is grown on Hampshire College pastures.
“I think this is a great opportunity for the college and local farmers to work together,” said Martin. “It makes sense that the dining commons use local products as much as possible.”
Martin said some food service providers on other campuses in the Five College system are also interested in the benefits of purchasing food locally and there have been discussions of possible cooperative purchasing, if all questions can be resolved.
He also said that the new system of using biodegradable paper products should save money on the Hampshire campus. He estimated that the dining commons spends around $30,000 a year on paper products, and that use of the biodegradable materials could reduce that figure by $5,000.
Hampshire has used biodegradable products to serve meals during its "green graduation" celebrations for several years with positive results.
Elaine Thomas, communications director, 413.559.5482, firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:5d2b6de1-68fd-4938-bbfa-119ebcb450bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hampshire.edu/news/7014.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957881 | 599 | 1.757813 | 2 |
McIlvaine Company has boosted its forecast for growth in the industrial valve industry over the next five years, citing higher anticipated revenues from the sales of smart valves, the market research company said on Thursday.
The current forecast is for 5 percent growth, but McIlvaine said it is revising this figure to 5.5% CAGR for the 2013-2017 period.
McIlvaine noted that the valve forecasts are defined to match the individual valve supplier revenues, so they include smart valve technology where it is sold by the valve supplier but not by an independent automation supplier.
The biggest growth will occur in Asia, including the Middle East and two BRIC countries (China and India), as the oil and gas sector is leading the way toward smart valves.
For sub-sea oil and gas, the use of intelligent control systems for valve trees is becoming a defining factor of intelligent well development, the research company said.
All electric subsea production control systems are replacing industry standard electro-hydraulic control systems, with the aim of making them more reliable, more responsive and more cost effective.
The oil and gas industry is moving toward valve technology with embedded processor and networking capability to work alongside sophisticated monitoring technology coordinated through a central control station.
The goal has been to link control valves to an extended data network, coordinating control valve operation with the increasingly detailed data available on flow rates and operating conditions.
Connecting valves to a network allows distributed control, which can enable operators to reconfigure piping and networking systems so that a field can continue producing even if there is a blockage in, or damage to, the pipeline network.
Another goal is to develop valves that consume less power to create systems that can be deployed in applications where conventional valves cannot be used due to the lack of power.
One manufacturer leading the way in smart valve development is Emerson Process Management, according to McIlvaine officials. The company's range of high-performance Fisher digital valves enabled the implementation of customized valve designs to cope with the pressure, flow capacity and temperature demands of the world's first twin-mega-train LNG plant.
Meanwhile, the Yokogawa Exaquantum/SSP provides continuously updated subsea valve information from FMC Technologies SSH (subsea historian). This timely information enables users to take appropriate action if problems are detected, avoiding lost production.
For more information on the report, visit McIlvaine's website. | <urn:uuid:104053d1-47be-458b-990a-2fbfbfb0854d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/Article/3143128/Rotating-Equipment/Global-valves-industry-poised-for-expansion-amid-demand-for-smart-valves.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928671 | 498 | 1.59375 | 2 |
J.H. Pashley (1874-1875)
J.H. Pashley was the appointed sheriff of Cass County at its start as a county. He was appointed as sheriff until the first official election, in which John Haggart became the first elected sheriff of Cass County.
John E. Haggart (1875-1887)
John Haggart was the first elected sheriff of Cass County. He came to Fargo in 1867 and settled upon one of the first claims entered in the Red River Valley. He was also the first city marshal of Fargo before becoming sheriff, of which he held the office of sheriff for twelve years. After his term as sheriff John Haggart was elected to the first state senate. The first bill introduced into the North Dakota Sate Legislature and the first to become law, was Senator Haggart’s senate bill #1, making a n appropriation for the Agricultural College at Fargo.
John D. Benton (1887-1889)
John D. Benton came to Fargo in 1878 where he opened a law office, with A.D. Thomas who later became a United States District Court Judge. He stayed with this firm until 1886, at that time he was elected Sheriff of Cass County. In 1887 North Dakota Governor Church appointed Benton as state treasurer, but Benton declined in order to complete his term as sheriff. After the expiration of his term as sheriff John Benton became the president of the Merchants State Bank and a senior member of the Benton & Amidon Law Firm.
Charles W. Smith (1889-1890)
Information is not available.
Daniel A McLaren (1891-1893)
Daniel A McLaren came to Cass County in 1883 and was a prominent farmer until he was elected sheriff of Cass County in 1890. McLaren served one term as sheriff and went on to become a county commissioner for six years. Daniel McLaren also swerved other various positions within the community such as, township treasurer, member of the township board of supervisors, and justice of the peace.
Oscar G. Barnes (1893-1897)
Oscar Barnes came to Fargo in 1882 and entered employment with the J.B. Weaver company. Later in 1886 he was appointed deputy sheriff under J.D. Benton, which served for six years. In 1892 he was elected to the position of sheriff, and remained there for two terms. After his service as sheriff Oscar Barnes went on to the county board of commissioners and eventually became the chairman.
Charles E. Wilson (1897-1901)
Charles Wilson served three consecutive terms as a city councilman for Fargo, and in 18j90 he was elected to the board of county commissioners and later became chairman. In 1896 he was elected sheriff of Cass County and served one term. Before and after his term as Sheriff Charles Wilson was very active in the furniture business.
Treadwell Twitchell (1901-1905)
Treadwell Twitchell’s prior occupation before being elected to the position as sheriff of Cass County, was as a prominent farmer in the Mapleton, ND area. He swerved as sheriff of Cass County from 1901=1905. Treadwell Twitchell also served as chairman of the Cass County committee and legislative committee chairman for the Republican Party. He served as a Lower House Representative in the North Dakota State Assembly for five terms, and one term as a senator in the same State Assembly.
William E. Hunt (1905-1909)
William "Billy" Hunt came to Fargo in 1881 as a sales representative of the St. Paul Harness Company. From 1905-1909 he served as sheriff of Cass County. William Hunt was the first Elk initiated in North Dakota, and the second ND exalted ruler of the Elk Lodge. William Hunt died on November 24, 1936.
Henry T. Boyle (1909-1913)
Henry Boyle spent four years as sheriff, to then lose to John Ross in the 1912 election. In a comeback attempt he lost the primary election for sheriff in 1924. Henry Boyle was also a well respected farmer in Cass County for many year4s.
John C. Ross (1913-1917)
John Ross was originally from the Leonard, ND area where he was a farmer and a well known auctioneer. He was elected sheriff in 1912 and served until 1917, which, at that time, his brother, Andrew Ross, was elected as the sheriff. John Ross retired to Magnolia Beach, Washington where he died.
Andrew M. Ross (1917-1921)
Andrew Ross, the younger brother of John Ross, also served as sheriff of Cass County. His term in office amazingly happened right after John Ross served four years as sheriff. Like his brother, Andrew Ross was also a farmer and an auctioneer. He retired to Arizona where he died in 1948.
Fred A. Kraemer (1921-1925)
Information is not available.
John C. Ross (1925-1929)
John Ross’s second term as sheriff began in 1925. He followed his brother and Fred Kraemer in the office of sheriff. Upon his completion of his second four years in the sheriff’s office, John Ross retired to Magnolia Beach, Washington where he passed away.
Mark Andrews (1929-1933)
Mark Andrews was called the "singing sheriff", because while on the campaign for office he would often end each speech with a singing performance. Before coming back to his native area of Cass County, he studied voice in New York and sang for the Metropolitan Opera. His son, Mark Andrews, Jr., became a representative and then senator for North Dakota. Mark Andrews, Sr. continued the farm started by his father. That same farm was operated by Mark Andrews, Jr. and now is being operated by Mark Andrews III.
Peter MacArthur (1933-1937)
Peter MacArthur served as sheriff for four years after serving as a deputy for eight years. He was shot and wounded by a fugitive that he chased into Moorhead, MN. A Moorhead policeman was killed by the same fugitive. Pete MacArthur was the manager of Fargo Eagles for 35 years before retiring. He was also the president of the Eagles for two terms.
Arnim E. Roethke (1937-1941)
Arnim Roethke was originally from Tower City, ND where he was a butcher, grocer, cattle buyer, and town marshall. In 1937 he came to Fargo after being elected to the office of Cass County Sheriff. Arnim Roethke passed away in 1958.
Frank A McKenzie (1941-1945)
Frank McKenzie, Jr. was Cass County Sheriff from 1941-1945, and a deputy for four years. He worked with the grain elevator and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, prior to this service with the sheriff’s department.
Roy T. Landbloom (1945-1949)
Roy Landbloom was a well-known farmer and businessman in Reed Township and Fargo. He was a Cass County Commissioner for six years, and in 1945 was elected sheriff of Cass County. He served as sheriff for four years. In 1949 he went into the insurance business with Western States Life Insurance Co. in Fargo and was with them until he died on April 13, 1963.
Arthur J. Narum (1949-1953)
Art Narum was born and raised in Cass County. He spent five years with the U.S. Army during World War II. He was known for his stand on honest and efficient law enforcement. His campaign slogan was "Give A Veteran A Chance".
Walter T. Quam (1953-1957)
Walt Quam served over 40 years with the Cass County Sheriff’s Department; ten years as sheriff and the remainder as deputy sheriff. He was elected to the office of sheriff two different times. The first term was in 1953-1957. The second term was 1961-1967.
Charles Y. Punton (1957-1960)
Chas. Punton was a highway patrolman prior to being elected sheriff in 1956. He won re-election in 1958 and was a candidate for a third term before his untimely death on May 25, 1961. He farmed for a short time and served in the motor transport corps in World War I. Chas. Punton was originally from Ayr, ND.
Walter Gullickson (1960-1961)
Walter Gullickson was appointed by the Cass County Commission to serve the unexpired term of Charles Punton. He did not run in the following election when Walter Quam was elected. He was first appointed deputy under Walter Quam, but then resigned to seek the office of sheriff. in the 1956 election, in which he did not receive the nomination in the primary election. Charles Punton re-appointed him in 1957 as a deputy.
Walter T. Quam (1961-1967)
This is the second period of time that Walt Quam served as Sheriff of Cass County. Walter and his wife were members of the Elks and the Eagles clubs and they were members of the First Lutheran Church of Fargo for over fifty years.
Lloyd S. Stensrud (1967-1970)
Lloyd Stensrud died on March 23, 1970 while in office. He had worked in law enforcement for 25 years, he became sheriff in 1966 after serving as Chief of Police in West Fargo for 10 years. He had been a Cass County deputy sheriff for 7 years prior to taking the West Fargo post. He began his career in 1945 as a part-time deputy in the Cass County Sheriff’s Department.
Jack H. Dailey 11(1970-1979)
Jack Dailey was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Lloyd Stensrud on March 24, 1970. He served as sheriff until 1979. Jack Dailey served with the sheriff’s department since June 1962. Before that he was Parts Manager for Russ Buick for 15 years. He did not seek re-election in the 1978 election, and presently resides in Fargo.
Donald J. Rudnick (1979-2007)
Don Rudnick started his law enforcement career as a policeman in Jamestown, ND from 1966-1969. In 1969 he moved to Cass County as one of the first district patrol deputies which were assigned to live in the smaller communities and patrol the area where they lived. After moving up through the ranks to detective and then to chief deputy, Don Rudnick ran for and won the office of sheriff. The longest serving Sheriff to date at 28 years. | <urn:uuid:3f17906c-33c3-454d-9ce2-34d81d37cb3e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.casscountynd.gov/county/depts/sheriff/Pages/PastSheriff's.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986963 | 2,207 | 2.359375 | 2 |
The Regionalization Advisory Commission was created by the Acts of 2009, Chapter 60: An Act Establishing a Regionalization Advisory Commission. The law was signed by the Governor in August 2009, tasking the Commission to submit its findings and recommendations for regionalizing local services no later than April 30, 2010.
Following the passage of this law, Lt. Governor Murray was named chair of the Commission and led a series of meetings with the goal of identifying best practices, challenges, and recommendations for regionalization a range of local services including: public health, housing, veterans’ services, elder services, public safety, municipal finance, public works and transportation, education, libraries, green communities, and information technology.
Under the Lt. Governor’s leadership, Regionalization Advisory Commission filed a full report on April 30, 2009 with the state legislature. Lt. Governor Murray then partnered with the Joint Committee on Municipal Affairs and the Massachusetts Association of Regional Planning Agencies on a series of forums to receive immediate feedback from municipalities on the findings of the report.
After the Regionalization Advisory Commission has sunset based on legislation, the Lt. Governor requested the Municipal Affairs Coordinating Cabinet’s Executive Order be amended to formally include the promotion of regionalizing local services as a part of the Cabinet’s mission. Through the work of the Lt. Governor and the Secretary of Administration and Finance, the Patrick-Murray Administration is implementing the state’s new Community Innovation Challenge Grants, which received an overwhelming response for regionalization projects by cities and towns. Grants for these projects will be awarded in late winter 2012. | <urn:uuid:2a007486-00f6-4206-99be-ba9d53ead178> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mass.gov/governor/administration/ltgov/lgcommittee/regionalcomm/about/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951834 | 323 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Articles about Your Garden's Landscape
Pruning Landscape Plants
If you've spent a lot of time and money on landscaping your yard -- planning, selecting, installing, now it's time to develop a plan for pruning these valuable plants, trees, and bushes.
Landscaping with a Plan
Learn the importance of setting a plan for your landscaping. You'll find out that you shouldn't even plant one flower without thinking of the rest of the yard.
Front Yard Impressions
Find out how to plan landscaping for your front yard that will meet your style and maintenance requirements.
A Tilted View: Landscaping Challenges
If you have slopes or other landscaping obstacles in your yard, check out this article to learn how to turn them into attractive, useful elements in your yard.
Here's an overview of the regular maintenance your lawn, trees and shrubs require. It's a great reminder of what needs to be done. | <urn:uuid:86cf4f8f-d4ad-40d4-aba7-9f12df819698> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.orchardsedge.com/articles/landscaping?referer=itemaccessories%3Ffor%3Dal-8481 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927681 | 199 | 2.15625 | 2 |
Muffler repairs are important since the exhaust system is kind of like the lungs of your car. It allows air to run through your engine and spits it back out. The way it does this can really affect the performance of your car. If you have a poor exhaust system chances are you will be getting poor gas mileage and may not even pass vehicle emissions test.
Before you go out and have the whole system replaced, find out what really needs to be changed. That’s the Casey Automotive approach in muffler repair services! There may be a hole that has rusted into a section or there may be a loose or broken bolt. Sometimes all you need is a quick fix to get your exhaust system back up and running. | <urn:uuid:0cdbe40c-fa61-46e4-bd53-231c67d53764> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://caseyautomotive.com/muffler-repair-palatine-il-60067-arlington-heights-il-60004-streamwood-il-60107 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955179 | 150 | 1.5 | 2 |
BELFAST, Northern Ireland, May 31 (UPI) -- Ceremonies in Belfast, Northern Ireland, were held to mark the 100th anniversary of the launching of the ill-fated ocean liner Titanic, authorities said.
The massive ship was launched in Belfast on May 31, 1911 from Harland & Wolff, then the largest shipyard in the world.
During the ceremonies, a flare was fired at 12:13 p.m. local time, the exact time of the launch a century ago, the BBC reported Tuesday.
A religious service was held on the site of the slipway from which Titanic was launched from the shipyard.
The congregation heard music from two choirs historically involved in the life of the shipyards, and observed a moment of silence in remembrance of the 1,517 people who died on the ship's disastrous maiden voyage.
Reverend Chris Bennett, who led the service, said he wanted celebration to be the mood of the event.
"For the last 100 years Titanic has often not been mentioned," he said. "It's been our shame, our secret.
"We've almost had a hundred-year moment of silence, so really we're trying to rediscover the pride today."
|Additional World News Stories|
ABUJA, Nigeria, May 25 (UPI) --The Nigerian army says it destroyed camps used by Islamist militants to coordinate attacks against communities in northeastern regions of the country.
JAKARTA, May 25 (UPI) --South Korean pop star Psy will perform in Indonesia at a concert celebrating diplomatic ties between the two countries, his management agency said Saturday.
LOS ANGELES, May 25 (UPI) --A hamburger brand known for its size and its status among celebrities, Fatburger, is about to go national, said the company, which was started in California. | <urn:uuid:8abdd353-db46-4c91-9ae5-493720827a28> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/05/31/Anniversary-of-Titanic-launch-celebrated/UPI-15371306857816/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973395 | 382 | 1.914063 | 2 |
Breaking down a wall of misunderstanding
Kashif Shahzada vs Madeleine Bunting
Excerpts from The Guardian Debate
They fall into a long tradition of western incomprehension at this holy book. In part this is because it is measured up against implicit assumptions about faith, sacred texts which are rooted – however distantly – in the familiar biblical tradition. My first tip to any western reader is forget characters, forget stories: the Bible may be full of them – Abraham, Isaac, Daniel, David, Joseph, Jesus, Mary – but the Qur’an is not. It is a detailed description of the nature of God alongside instructions for every aspect of human existence. To put it crudely, think self-help manual rather than an anthology of of short stories.
There are characters and stories in Islam – most obviously, the life of the prophet – but they are not in the Qur’an. They are in the sayings of the prophet (hadith) and his life story, both of which are much revered by Muslims.
There are other obviously intimidating characteristics. The book works on repetition, the structure is spiral rather than linear, and it takes a while to notice how material is repeated and juxtaposed to form different patterns – like a kaleidoscope. There are moments of poetry and rich imagery, but I still balked at the suggestion that this is the most beautifully written book of all time because it is the word of God.
But the incomprehension at this book runs even more deeply. Perhaps the hardest process of intercultural communication is in reading the sacred text of another culture; take a look at Buddhist scriptures, full of references to lotus flowers, and the enormity of the cultural leap required is also immediately apparent. It requires a teacher conversant with the etymology of the original language and the cultural traditions of the historical context to begin to make sense of them. And they have to be very patient with their audience who inevitably bring their own unspoken cultural assumptions with them. Another faith’s sacred text encapsulates a whole worldview – and that is the hardest thing for any outsider to grasp.
So it was a brave project for Ziauddin Sardar to take on. It was also honest of him to confess in his introduction, that neither was a he traditional scholar nor did he speak Arabic, the original language of the Qur’an. That prompted a fascinating exchange because as one contributor, Abdullah al-Hasan, made clear, he regarded Sardar as having no right or authority to explain his understanding of the Qur’an. Al-Hasan argued that without years of study in a recognised Islamic institution and a full training in classical Arabic, you could not venture to interpret this book. Sardar’s retort was sharp: to his mind, the Muslim world was crippled intellectually and politically by exactly this impasse over the Qur’an. Its interpretation was jealously guarded by a group of institutions with a mindset dating from the eighth century while millions of young Muslims with unprecedented access to education were cut off from debating and thinking about the book which determined so much of their lives.
The fallout from this global cultural war within Islam is that there are precious few Muslims who are familiar enough with a western mindset and confident of their Islamic credentials to explain their book. The nature of the Qur’an and how it is to be understood is the single biggest obstacle between the west and Islam. Muslims want the book to be given proper respect while westerners, at best, find it utterly baffling.
Sardar and those blogging have helped me understand several key things. The first is that the Qur’anic emphasis on pluralism is quite simply astonishing. The tolerance and respect for the monotheistic traditions of Judaism and Christianity was extraordinary for its day and in sharp contrast to the exclusive claims of both the Old and New Testaments. No wonder that modern translations of the Qur’an are busily re-writing or even cutting some of these verses – they would re-write the politics of the Middle East if they were taken literally.
Sardar argues that the Qur’an has to be reinterpreted for every generation. Every word of it may be timeless, eternal truth, he claims, but every verse must be analysed and scrutinised according to the times to yield the appropriate insight and wisdom; reason is a crucial tool with which to unlock the teachings of the Qur’an. It’s a defence of the Qur’an which provides for both the belief in the book as the literal word of God as well as a room for more liberal interpretations on issues such as homosexuality or the hijab. But it sometimes seemed like a high wire act as Sardar tried to explain certain verses.
Some of my concerns about the Qur’an remain, for example, the gender bias against women. I accept that Islam was well ahead of Christianity for centuries in terms of recognising women’s property rights and acknowledgment of women’s sexuality (such as the right to be sexually satisfied) but still the Qur’an seems to be framed in a patriarchal culture. This debate cropped up over a verse in which women were compared to fields; it seemed like a prescription for female passivity but our Muslim bloggers wouldn’t have it and the discussion rumbled on as they tried to explain to me the hidden wisdom of the analogy.
What it confirmed for me was that the Qur’an was a text of its time and reflected the cultural assumptions of seventh century Arabs. It also undoubtedly represents a breakthrough text in human ethical understanding – alongside those from other cultures. But for Muslims such a matter of fact assessment is inconceivable because it strikes at the heart of their belief that this is a book written by God for all time. I would hope one can agree to differ, but I now understand much better how very difficult that can be.
Madeline Bunting says that a cabinet minister and a senior economist had been horrified upon reading the Qur’an. What exactly was it that they found horrifying, she doesn’t say?
Was the minister uncomfortable with the exhortation to extend justice to all, even one’s own enemies (4:135, 5:8) that didn’t go down well with the a certain government policy of supporting dictatorial regimes and bombing civilian populations in foreign lands?
Or was it the injunction to ensure a just and equitable distribution of wealth, so that resources of the land “do not remain in the hands of only the wealthy among you…” (59:7), that horrified the senior economist, as it went against granting privileges to the rich at the expense of the poor? So what exactly was it?
She may be right in suggesting that many in the west (or even the east for that matter) are at loggerheads with Qur’anic values.
After all the Qur’an is calling them to change, to mend their ways, to give up racism and policies based around regional and national interests, to extend justice and equity to all, to keep a check on their personal and carnal pleasures and share their wealth with the unfortunate for the sake of God, all this is definitely what they don’t want to do.
So why wouldn’t they express their horror at such a text, which asks them to move out of their comfort zone. Why wouldn’t they treat it as a ‘summer read’, instead of a serious manual for life mandatory for a sincere quest for truth?
Ms Bunting is not correct in generalizing that there is a long tradition about western incomprehension of the Qur’an. I am sure she knows that there are many in the West who find the Qur’an perfectly comprehensible! I am not talking of immigrants or 2nd generation believers, but native, westerners, who have studied the book of their own accord and appreciate it on its own merit. E.g.
“Quran takes the responsibility of man prosperity alone. I hope it will not be too late that time which I can unite all the scholars of all the countries together and establish a monotone society based on principles of Quran only which will guide people to prosperity.” Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1721)
“Everything made so much sense. This is the beauty of the Qur’an; it asks you to reflect and reason… When I read the Qur’an further, it talked about prayer, kindness and charity. I was not a Muslim yet, but I felt the only answer for me was the Qur’an and Allah had sent it to me.” (Yusuf Islam [Cat Stevens], British pop star)
Does Ms Bunting consider such individuals as Westerners or does the ‘West’ consist only of those that she mentions?
She claims to balk at the suggestion that the Qur’an is the most beautifully written book of all time because it is the word of God. Well, if it is God’s handiwork, then it won’t be second best will it then? First believe that it is from God, then the appreciation to beauty will come naturally. But there are many non Muslim individuals, who although do not consider the Qur’an to be of divine origin, yet appreciate and wonder at its marvel.
She suggests that incomprehension at this book runs even more deeply and recommends qualifications in foreign culture and language for a better grasp of the text, but what will she say to the fact that many outsiders to the faith have very well grasped the essence of its message, and that too without the qualifications suggested by Ms Bunting. Is not the actual existence of such individuals and their growing number in the west a living rebuttal to the claim of Qur’an’s incomprehension??
She also makes the fantastic claim about omission of verses on tolerance:
“No wonder that modern translations of the Qur’an are busily re-writing or even cutting some of these verses – they would re-write the politics of the Middle East if they were taken literally.”
This is really news to me! What a strange comment. Which modern translation has omitted any verse or verses on tolerance or pluralism from the Book. Can Bunting give names / references of publishers? Such a fantastic claim warrants at least some evidence, but none is given! Her claim makes the impression as if some editing and cutting is being done in modern translations of the Qur’an, a phenomenon commonplace within the Judeo-Christian tradition whereby not just verses, but entire passages were omitted and deleted from the Bible! I believe, Ms Bunting owes it to her readers to supply at least any reference to omission of verses on tolerance with any modern Qur’an translation.
She expresses her concern about the Qur’an being in a frame of patriarchy but the culture and society in which Ms Bunting is resident at present, would she say that it is matriarchal? Regarding her understanding of the verse on fields, it is obvious that reading the verse in its entire context makes it abundantly clear that the subject matter relates to sexual encounter, and woman’s likeness to that of the field should be seen in sexual terms i.e. she is the source through which another human being comes into the world, just like a field is the source responsible for producing forth living organisms. It is highly unfortunate that Qur’anic reflection of this ever important and natural state for women is viewed by Bunting as a passive act, whereas it is actually active in every sense.
It is natural for women to bear children just like it is natural for a cultivated land to produce crop – whether anyone agrees or disagrees with this simple fact won’t change anything! Indeed the Qur’an is true in its statement that women are like a tilth, i.e. they have child bearing capacity. This is a fact, that can’t be denied at all.
She considers the Qur’an to be: “.. a text of its time”. Indeed the Qur’an is a text of its time, but its timeframe is not 7th century Arabia, but day one of human existence. Since ever humankind has existed or will exist, Qur’anic era is in place with its values providing the divine guiding light. The problem with most critics of the Qur’an is the very motivation with which they approach the book. What is the purpose? Why do they wish to study the text?
Is it to explore its truthfulness? Or is it to find a reflection of their own likes and dislikes? I think, the type of motivation one has, that type of results he or she will get in the end.
“..He causes many to err by it and many He leads aright by it! but He does not cause to err by it (any) except the transgressors…” 2:26 | <urn:uuid:35da542d-0a94-4775-9dd4-48dfae0e18b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kashifshahzada.com/2010/12/04/kashif-shahzada-vs-madeleine-bunting-breaking-down-a-wall-of-misunderstanding/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967927 | 2,679 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Theodore wondered why he was given such a long name. He liked ‚Ted.‚ It sounded more grown up for a seven year old.
When his mother was upset with him, she yelled, ‚TEDDY!‚
Today was Christmas Eve, but it didn‚t seem to be special anymore. After all, Ted was an only child. So getting a stack of presents was no big deal.
He already had every kind of gift. Stuffed animals were his favorite. The first one he received from mom and dad was a teddy bear.
That‚s all he wanted.
Then each birthday and Christmas he received stuffed toys in all shapes and sizes. Now his room was like a tumbling waterfall of stuffed toys.
It was funny seeing gifts all over the floor, on his dresser, hanging from the ceiling. And stacked up in his closet.
Stuffed bunnies, deer, bears, owls, and squirrels stared at each other like a sky full of stars.
Each day he tripped over his ‚Stuffies.‚ When Ted wanted to play a game he lined them up as bowling pins. Imagine a bowling alley right in his house.
Mom, dad and Theodore even played games of ‚toy-ball.‚ Instead of throwing snowballs, they threw stuffed animals at each other.
Another Christmas was coming quickly as a sleigh ride.
As usual, Ted would soon be opening a truckload of gifts. Some would be not only from his parents, but from aunts, uncles, even Santa. Not one would come from any of his friends, because he had none.
Theodore thought he had everything he needed. A mom, dad and lots of fancy clothes and toys. At school they said he was a spoiled little kid.
‚They‚re just envious,‚ his mom said.
But Ted wished he had one true friend. And not just come to visit and see the expensive gifts he received for Christmas. Or eat from all his boxes of candy
Today was passing so slowly. Would Santa bring something special?
‚Teddy,‚ his mom scolded. ‚The day before Christmas is supposed to be a happy time. Now please try to smile.‚
‚Yes,‚ his dad added. ‚Try to smile. Like this.‚ Then he made up all kinds of ridiculous faces. But he couldn‚t make his son laugh.
Huge snowflakes fell and lay in piles like a field of marshmallows.
But all Theodore could think of over the Christmas Holidays was the same old story. No friends, nothing to do, except open up a mountain of gifts, from under the tree. And probably get more stuffed animals.
Perhaps this year they‚ll only be different colors and sizes.
Christmas Eve supper was pork chops and potatoes, with a tiny pile of peas and corn. ‚Why do kids have to eat peas anyway?‚ he asked.
‚Well,‚ mom answered, ‚many children have no vegetables. Some have very little food and not even‚‚
‚‚Presents for Christmas!‚ Theodore interrupted rudely. It wasn‚t his fault dad had a good paying job. Or, that they lived in a huge house with a whole field of beautiful trees in their backyard.
‚But no one to come and play with me,‚ he said in a silent whisper.
Soon Theodore‚s yawning reminded him it was bedtime. His parents tucked him in, kissed him goodnight and left silently.
The night-light was like a friend that cast shadows on the wall.
Unable to sleep, Theodore pulled back his blankets and stepped onto the cold floor. He leaned on his windowsill and looked up at the stars. They were like fireflies in the night.
He remembered ‚blinking‚ fireflies the time his family camped this past summer. But tonight bright lights in the sky looked lonely, like him.
Then floppy snowflakes began to fall.
And something moved by the swings. ‚It‚looks like a little kitten,‚ Theodore said softly to himself. Now where did he come from?
The poor creature couldn‚t stay outside in this weather, he might freeze. Oh, a cat was the only pet he ever wanted. His parents always said, ‚No pets in this house. Their hair will get all over the furniture.‚
Theodore had to help. Everything was silent. His parents must be asleep.
He tiptoed downstairs, planning to let the kitten in. Maybe feed it some milk. Then let the cat out in the morning before mom and dad got up.
‚SSSH. Quiet,‚ He said to the creaking stairs. ‚You‚ll wake up the whole town,‚ he snickered.
As the door swung open, a huge draft of snow rushed at him. And meowing could barely be heard from under the swing set. Snow continued to pile up.
Theodore retreated to the closet and slipped on a pair of dad‚s winter boots. Now the boy‚s bare feet were warmer.
In the darkness, he could not find his jacket. So he ended up wrapping mom‚s coat around his shoulders. ‚Here I come, kitty,‚ he promised.
Each carefully placed foot left a deep space in the snow. It seemed as if the swing set was farther from the house than Theodore thought. But it was worth continuing on his rescue mission.
The kitten was unable to jump above the deepening snow. And was very happy someone cared enough to come get him in this terrible weather.
Picking up the little bundle, Theodore returned to the house. But it was not so simple since his tracks were now covered over. And he couldn‚t see properly since the wind blew snow fiercely at him.
The little kitten shook with cold. And Theodore felt chills race up and down his own arms. Finally he reached the door, only to find it wouldn‚t open.
‚Oh no, it must have locked behind me,‚ he moaned.
What to do now? The snow pelted him and the little kitten. He banged on the door, but no one heard. The wind was too loud for his parents to hear. Cold seemed to cover him like a snow bank.
From the corner of his eye, he saw a shape moving through the snowy night. Coming closer he could see it was someone dressed in a red suit. And he was sure he could hear, ‚Ho! Ho! Ho!‚ even in the wind.
Was it really Santa? Could it be he?
Ted felt himself being lifted, then carried. He held his rescued kitten close to his chest. It all seemed like a pleasant dream as his eyes closed.
Tingling in his feet and hands disappeared as warmth returned to his body. It moved from the hairs on his head to the tips of his little toes. And he sensed the same thing was happening to the little kitten.
The next thing he remembered was mom and dad shaking him.
‚Wake up Ted! Wake up!‚ his parents said.
He blinked his eyes, and saw the kitten in a cozy ball under his arm.
‚Where did you find him?‚ mom gasped.
‚May I keep him, please?‚ Theodore pleaded.
‚The kitten was supposed to be one of your Christmas presents,‚ dad said. ‚We felt badly he got away as we returned from the pet shop. And now he‚s here.‚
Huge hugs disturbed the kitten‚s sleep. But then he didn‚t mind. After all, he was sure this was to be his new home.
In a short while everyone sat in front of the tree. A mountain of gifts was waiting for Theodore. But they didn‚t seem very important right now. He looked at all the decorations, Christmas cards, and colored lights.
Then he took a deep breath and told them about what happened.
‚Thank you Santa,‚ was a special greeting from them to the Man in Red.
Then everyone got properly dressed for the winter day, since mom and dad really liked their son‚s idea. Theodore held his head high as he pulled his wagon full of presents, heading down the street.
He knocked on doors giving away each gift to a child. After all, Ted had everything he needed, a great mom and dad. And a kitten, he now called Lucky.
This was definitely the best Christmas ever!
* * *
¬ Richard & Esther Provencher
All messages for Richard or Esther can be sent directly to: email@example.com. They enjoy reading comments on their work. Readers are welcome to visit their website at: www.wsprog.com/rp/. Free downloads also available. They live in Truro, Nova Scotia. Canada. Blessings for your loved ones
Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com
If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be! TRUST JESUS NOW
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel. | <urn:uuid:47d475ad-cc11-4464-b77a-7fbc011d4f96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.faithwriters.com/reprint-article-details.php?article=24308 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986316 | 1,990 | 1.835938 | 2 |
GREAT LAKES DEPLOYMENT 2011
By LS Brandon Bourne
Credit: HMCS SASKATOON
Commanding Officer of HMCS SASKATOON LCdr Montgomery and Unit Public Affairs Representative LS Bourne present Saskatoon Mayor with a photo of the ship's company during the official call on the mayor.
HMCS Saskatoon reconnects with namesake city
What is in a Namesake?
Looking back, the Royal Canadian Navy has named ships after cities or communities as far back as when HMCS SHEARWATER was transferred to the RCN from the Royal Navy in 1915. Many citizens sent care packages of hand- made clothing and confectionary to sailors at sea during the Second World War. Naming ships after for cities and communities created fostered a relationship between the namesake city, citizens, and sailors. onboard the ship. Because ships are often renamed after previous serving ships, many cities have had the opportunity to be the namesake for more than one ship. Saskatoon has been the namesake for HMCS SASKATOON twice, first with K 158 the flower class corvette K158 in service between 1941-1945, and currently with MM 709 the Kingston Class MCDV MM 709 in service since 1998. HMCS SASKATOON's ties to the city extend previous to 1998 and her own commissioning. As a result many warships and their namesakes have histories of relationships made prior to their own commissioning. Both the city and the ship's company benefit from the namesake city-ship relationship. Today's sailors have the opportunity of occasionally visiting their namesake on an annual basis, often times participating in local festivals and events, and; local charities often benefit from volunteerism and monetary donations made on behalf of the ship's company. More importantly, the namesake city relationship provides a platform to bring the navy back to Canadians, especially those Canadians in non-coastal cities particularly those who don't live in Esquimalt..
SASKATOON visits namesake city during Saskatoon Fireworks Festival
For Labour Day weekend, the Command Team Captain and crew members of HMCS SASKATOON participated in a namesake city visit to the City of Saskatoon during the Saskatoon Fireworks Festival 1-4.. As this was the first visit back to Saskatoon in over 2 years, emphasis was focused on re-establishing the namesake city relationship through citizenry and public exposure. Because HMCS SASKATOON in extended readiness for the previous two years and did not conduct annual namesake city visits, emphasis was focused on re-establishing the namesake city relationship through citizenry and public exposure. Although only a portion of the ship's company was able to attend, each department and mess was well represented. The local Naval Reserve Division, HMCS UNICORN, assisted through with the coordination of the itinerary and acted as a local point of contact and hosted , hosting a BBQ meet and greet between units, and a charity pancake breakfast. HMCS SASKATOON at both a BBQ meet and greet, as well as a charity pancake breakfast.
HMCS SASKATOON took full advantage of the opportunity to cultivate redevelop the namesake city relationships and as a direct result, the itinerary was very busy. HMCS UNICORN representatives greeted the crew of SASKATOON at the airport and hosted a barbeque meet and greet. The following day commenced with an official call on the Mayor of Saskatoon, His Worship Don Atchison, and followed by four a flurry of local radio station interviews. The crew of SASKATOON had the pleasure of joining HMCS Unicorn of attending the at the University of Saskatchewan Huskies football team home game opener and CF appreciation night during which .many local CF units attended in uniform and were thanked. The crew of SASKATOON was afforded the extra honor of being led onto the field at half time and introduced by name. This CF appreciation game raised $25, 000 for the "Soldier-On" program, making a significant contribution to CF members and families.
Opportunity was taken to connect with representatives of the ship's charity "Hope Cancer Help Centre" and to help raise funds and donations towards their cause. Through involvement with the Saskatoon Fireworks festival, private donations and a donation from the ship, HMCS SASKATOON was able to provide close to one thousand dollars to assist the Cancer Help Centre meet the needs of individuals in Saskatoon. An emotional but rewarding experience, SASKATOON has the Hope Cancer Help Centre as their ship's charity and presented their donation during the pancake breakfast at HMCS UNICORN.
Select members of SASKATOON were given the opportunity to visit residents of the Veteran's Village at Sherbrook Care Centre-a long term care centre for veterans. Spending an afternoon sharing stories and photos with the resident veterans was yet another rewarding experience for both the crew members and veterans alike.
Another highlight of the visit was a trip to the Saskatoon Forestry Park and Zoo to adopt a new mascot for the ship. Dobi, a 4 year old male lion, currently held in a temporary exhibit at the Saskatoon Zoo was the ideal candidate. An idea originally initiated by LS Elijah Fraser, the "adopt a critter program" supports the Saskatoon Zoo Society. HMCS SASKATOON was able to symbolically adopt Dobi as their mascot and the crew was given a full tour of Dobi's habitat, feeding area and cage.
"The namesake visit was a great success in meeting the community, and forging relationship with both HMCS UNICORN and the city of Saskatoon", explains HMCS SASKATOON's Commanding Officer. "A great deal of effort was put into the planning and execution, but it was well worth it. SASKATOON is already looking forward to continuing to strengthen those community ties envisioned during those early years of the RCN."
THE NATIONAL BAND IN VANCOUVER FOR THE VANIER AND GREY CUPS
By LS Émilie Giroux, HMCS MONTCALM
Credit: Sgt Nathaniel Senff
The National Band combined with the Regular Force Naden Band, the Royal Canadian Navy's band on the West Coast.
On November 24, 43 members of the Naval Reserve flew from four different provinces to Vancouver for a most particular session of operational training: they played the National Anthem for the Vanier Cup 2011 game, then took part in a street parade the following morning for the Grey Cup 2011 Parade. On this occasion, the National Band combined with the Regular Force Naden Band, the Royal Canadian Navy's band on the West Coast. The 40 musicians, two cooks and the Staff Officer Bands, LCdr Glenn Falconi, hailed from Naval Reserve Divisions HMC Ships TECUMSEH, CHIPPAWA, STAR, YORK and MONTCALM.
For the Vanier Cup event the National Band played for almost 25 000 fans present for the game, and that total does not take into account all those who lined the streets for the Grey Cup Parade the following morning. In addition, the Band played a mini-concert in front of the famed Olympic Flame of the 2010 Games, with the legendary sight of the Rockies in the background, where again a considerable number of people from across the country were present, come to see the weekend games. Many conversations were had with the public, and many photos were taken.
The musicians greatly appreciated having the opportunity to assemble to play music for the population, all fired up for the events of the weekend. LS Karine Matte of HMCS MONTCALM said: "It was an incredible experience to travel to the West Coast and join the excellent musicians of the Reserve Bands, and to combine with the Naden Band. It was very inspiring; give me more: it's in part for events like this that I joined the Reserve." For his part, LS Luca Di Franco, a cook in HMCS STAR who had never before had such an experience, will remember it always: "It's nice to see and experience new things with different Divisions within the Navy."
The four-day trip required an enormous amount of work and the collaboration of all, but unfolded without a hitch; as said PO 2 Étienne Gendron of HMCS YORK, one of the senior hands there: "What I really liked during the Vancouver NROTS was the group cohesion and spirit of camaraderie that were evident throughout our brief but intense stay in British Columbia. All musicians lent a hand to ensure the event was a success."
Finally, it can be said of such an event that, though it requires an enormous amount of time and preparation, is an incredible opportunity for the members of the Naval Reserve, given the great visibility it provides and the connections it builds with the community. Certainly an experience to repeat next year. | <urn:uuid:8f919c00-3928-460d-bf96-66ca2c2f0e44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.navy.forces.gc.ca/navres/news_nouvelles/blitz_enRafale/index-eng.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967151 | 1,828 | 1.703125 | 2 |
|Shoelaces (also shoe laces or bootlaces) are thin cords fitted to shoes to prevent the shoe from slipping off by accident. The shoelace can be untied and loosened, permitting the shoe to open wide to admit the wearer's foot; it can then be tightened and knotted. Shoelaces did not become widely popular until the 20th century, previously shoes were slip-on, buckled or buttoned. Buttoned shoes used a special tool, a button hook, to close the buttons but this was slow and difficult.|
Shoe Lace Construction
Traditional shoelaces were made of cotton, jute, hemp or other materials commonly used in the manufacture of rope. Modern shoelaces often incorporate various synthetic fibers, which are generally more slippery and thus more prone to coming undone than those made from traditional fibers. However, synthetic shoelaces often look better and wear longer.
Shoelaces with a flat cross-section are generally easier to hold and stay tied more securely than those with a round cross-section. Very wide flat laces are often called "fat laces". Shoelaces can be coated, either in the factory or with aftermarket products, to increase friction and help them stay tied.
"Twirly" laces are elasticized laces coiled into a tight helix. The twirly laces can simply be pulled tight. When made for children, they come in a large variety of colours and textures. They are also useful for anyone, such as athletes, who have to tie and untie laces quickly.
The small plastic or metal sheath on the end of shoelaces that keeps the twine from unraveling is called an aglet (or aiglet).
Shoelaces can be tied in an almost infinite number of ways. The most common bow, however, is a variant on two half knots tied one on top of the other. A loop is used in the second knot, rather than the simple end of the string, in order to allow for quick untying.
A problem that arises is that two half knots can be tied together in two different ways (ignoring symmetrical configurations). One addition of a half knot to a half knot forms a square or reef knot, an altogether uninspiring knot for the knot aficionado, but a fairly effective one for the purpose of tying shoelaces. While a fairly insecure knot, it functions best when laid flat against a surface as it is on a shoe. The second combination of half knot to half knot gives a granny knot, a knot not good for tying shoes as it does not lay flat against a surface. It is terribly insecure, and most people who use it will find themselves retying their shoelaces many times a day.
Much discussion has appeared on shoelace tying websites discussing this issue and why it appears that the large majority of people (75% according to one website) are using the granny knot. Some have suggested that it may have to do with children watching their parents and mirroring them, but a total mirroring would produce, if the parent were tying a square knot, a mirror image square knot. A simpler explanation is that if one ties shoelaces first by tying a half knot and then by forming two loops and tying another (as opposed to some speedier technique), and if one consistently puts one hand over the other (left over right or right over left) one gets a granny knot. A square knot is the less intuitive knot and requires switching the top hand. First left over right and then right over left, or first right over left and then left over right. You can generally tell if you have produced the square or granny knot by the direction in which the loops lie. If they lie side to side, you have probably made a square knot. If they lie front to back, you have probably made a granny knot and should teach yourself the other.
Informal experiments seem to show that the need for retying shoelaces will drop dramatically with the square knot.
This refers to the process of running the shoelaces through the holes, eyelets or lugs to form the closure of the sides of the shoe. Mathematically, there is an almost infinite number of possible ways of lacing. The most common method, termed "Criss Cross Lacing", is also one of the strongest and most efficient, especially compared to other more decorative methods that are generally more difficult to tighten or loosen. One of the most popular decorative methods, termed "Checkerboard Lacing", is actually near impossible to tighten or loosen, thus the shoe is effectively considered to be a "slip-on". Various methods of "Straight Lacing" (also known as "Bar Lacing") are also very popular, especially on dress shoes where the sides of the shoe come together in the middle.
Shoe lacing methods are also chosen for their functional benefits. For example, being faster or easier to tighten or loosen, binding more tightly, being more comfortable, using up more lace or less lace, adjusting fit, preventing slippage.
Using standard shoes and standard shoelaces, a process patent was granted for lacing in a double-helix pattern "resulting in reduced friction and faster and easier tightening and loosening". Another process patent was issued for an alternative way of tying shoelaces.
There are many shoelace accessories. There are hooks to help lace shoelaces tightly. They are especially useful for skates where tight lacing is important. Shoelace covers protect the laces, especially in wrestling. Shoelace charms are decorative, as are coloured shoelaces. Some dress codes (e.g. high schools) will specifically exclude colour laces and charms. Lacelocks hold laces together, eliminating the need for tying. There are shoelace tags, with two holes through which the shoelace is passed. These are worn on the section of shoelace closest to the toes so that the image or writing on the tag is visible. | <urn:uuid:76f4c065-0f22-4531-a6c7-5e98d12c6dd7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.edinformatics.com/inventions_inventors/shoelaces.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956109 | 1,253 | 3.40625 | 3 |
For 21 days representing all the societal and environmental abuse of 21 centuries, San Antonio artist Carla Veliz beat, scraped, tore, kicked, stomped on and generally tormented a soft, innocent piece of silk. Then she spent another 21 days trying to undo the damage to create “XXI: Who We Are and Who We Could Become.”
The tortured and then revived 16-by-6-foot piece of silk is the centerpiece of Veliz’s Fotoseptiembre exhibit at Gallery Nord, which is also featuring the romantic figure and landscape photographs of Ramin Samandari.
A native of Piedras Negras, Veliz wanted to illustrate the stark contrast between the poverty of Mexico and the prosperity of the United States by showing all the abuse that humans inflict on the planet as well as acknowledging the beauty and joys that life has to offer. “I came up with the idea to purchase a large, raw piece of white silk because of its natural beauty and softness,” she says. “I associate innocence and something being pure and simple with silk.”
She documented the process of abusing and healing the silk in a colorful, lyrical, 21-minute video. She begins by hanging the silk on a tree and then stuffing it with brush. She cuts it with knives. And then she washes it in a metal tub.
Read the rest on Glasstire
Also check out new, improved guide to local arts on VisitSanAntonio.com
And a guide to the heart of the SA art scene in Where magazine | <urn:uuid:9bd839a1-d832-4053-9dbb-2eb50a0ab8a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://danrgoddard.com/?p=164 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931019 | 329 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Have you ever eaten ...?
Would you help me to know how to use "have " and "eat"?
#1 Have you ever eaten this dish?
#2 Have you ever had this dish?
I know both words are used interchangeably. Which word is preferable when "have " has been already used in the sentence ? Or does this make any difference when deciding which word to use?
Re: Have you ever eaten ...?
I would say that "had" would be used more readily than "eaten" as "Have you ever had + dish" normally implies having eaten it. So why would one need to say "eaten" ? In comparison, see how the true verb (cooked) works well below because the speaker needs to be specific about the action.
Originally Posted by Unregistered Lina
Have you ever cooked this dish?
*Have you ever had this dish? (Cannot directly mean cooked)
Last edited by M56; 13-Jan-2005 at 23:29.
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Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO | <urn:uuid:7405a78a-d424-42a7-92f7-9b7c78c4a25d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/ask-teacher/9751-have-you-ever-eaten.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943295 | 331 | 1.992188 | 2 |
Domestic flies, often called "Filth Flies," are not only a nuisance by their presence, but are important from a human and animal health standpoint. House flies may spread diseases such as conjunctivitis, poliomyelitis, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, anthrax, leprosy, cholera, diarrhea and dysentery. They may serve as intermediate hosts for parasitic tapeworms on poultry or parasitic roundworms on horses. Certain larvae of blow flies, bottle flies, screwworm flies and flesh flies may feed on dead as well as living tissue of mammals, causing blood poisoning and even death, especially in sheep. Stable flies bite painfully, sucking blood from humans and animals. False stable flies do not bite, but spread certain diseases, whereas the little house fly hovers in mid air in the middle of rooms.
Adults are about 1/6 to 1/4 inch long with reddish-brown eyes. Females are usually larger than males and have wider spacing between the eyes. They have two membranous wings; sponging or non-biting mouthparts; a dull gray body; and four narrow, black-lengthwise stripes on the thorax. Each female, during her three to four weeks of life, lays five to six batches of 75 to 100 small, white, oval eggs, largely in scattered garbage, that hatch in 12 to 24 hours into creamy white larvae. Larvae grow and pupate in four to seven days, and the last larval skin, which is hard and dark brown, is called a puparium. This stage lasts seven days, and can be the overwintering stage. The life cycle from egg to adult may be from 8 to 12 days in warm weather. A pair of flies beginning operation in April, if all were to live, would result in 191,010,000,000,000,000,000 (191 quintillion 10 quadrillion) flies by August. Allowing 1/8 cubic inch to a fly, this number would cover the earth 47 feet deep. Luckily, predators, parasites and other factors reduce fly populations. When feeding, house flies regurgitate some of their stomach contents on the food, which dissolves it. Then they suck it back into their stomach. They leave fecal deposits where they have walked. While walking and feeding on garbage, fecal material and food, flies may transfer disease organisms from both inside and outside their bodies. The flight range is from 2 to 20 miles.
Bottle and Blow Flies
Blow flies, sometimes known as green or blue bottle flies, are larger than common house flies. Some are characterized by metallic colors such as black (Phormia), blue (Calliphora) and green or copper (Phaenicia). Adults make a loud, droning buzz. Females lay eggs primarily on confined garbage. These flies are often attracted to dead animals, animal wounds, and feces-caked hair or wool on pets and farm animals. During warm autumn days, adults may gather on door and window screens and later enter homes for overwintering. Larvae are commonly found in garbage wastes and pet droppings. Larval development is completed in less than a week for green or copper blow flies and 10 to 20 days for black or blue blow flies. Larvae of screwworm flies may infest living flesh, especially at wound sites. Green bottle flies are seen on dog feces. The flight range is 3 to 10 miles.
Adults resemble overgrown house flies with three stripes on the thorax and a checkerboard pattern on their abdomen. Females deposit living maggots rather than eggs in decaying flesh of dead animals and excrement, especially dog stools. The life cycle is about eight days.
Black Garbage Fly
Adults are shiny black and about 2/3 the size of a house fly. Their life cycle is similar to the house fly. They may become abundant in piles of poultry and dairy cattle manure. The larvae are "beneficial" by preying on other fly larvae, especially the house fly. However, excessive numbers of adults may become annoying.
Drone Fly or Syrphid Fly
Adults are clothed in dense, short, yellow hairs giving the appearance of a large honey bee. Larvae, known as "Rattailed Maggots," develop in polluted water. The life cycle from egg to adult is about 30 days in the summer with the larval stages lasting about 18 days and the pupal stage about 10 days.
Adults resemble house flies except for the slender, pointed, sharp beak used to pierce skin and suck blood. Bites are painful. These flies may transmit anthrax and possibly infantile paralysis, leprosy, surra and swamp fever. Normally an outdoor fly, it attacks any warmblooded animal from rats to humans. Females lay four to five batches of eggs, each containing 100 to 150 eggs, in rotting straw; stable manure; moist, spilled feed; piles of lawn clippings; and piles of dead weeds washed along streams. The life cycle is about three weeks; both males and females suck blood.
False Stable Fly
Adults are similar to house flies, slightly larger and have a red mark on the back. They have sponging mouthparts, with females depositing eggs in animal manure, human excrement, tainted meals and decaying organic matter. Eggs develop into larvae that require 15 to 25 days to mature. Adults can transmit filth-related diseases.
Little House Fly
Adults are similar to house flies except they are smaller - 1/8 to 3/16 inch long. They have sponging mouthparts and feed on liquids. Male flies are usually seen in homes, where they hover in the middle of rooms. Females lay eggs in semiliquid organic matter such as animal and human excrement. The life cycle requires about 24 days. | <urn:uuid:ee6685d9-fc97-49ee-830c-18e507c51379> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bluestarbugs.com/fly_control.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951476 | 1,217 | 3.78125 | 4 |
Two horses within the last few days have died in Medina County after getting stuck in muddy ponds.
One 2,000 pound draft horse died after being trapped in a pond for several hours Saturday in Homerville.
The other horse was stuck in a dried-up pond near Spencer for 12 hours Monday before being pulled free by rescuers, but was unable to stand on one of its legs.
Stephanie Moore of the Medina County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals tells AkronNewsNow.com the dry summer conditions are responsible for their deaths.
"We think the drought has a lot to do with it, because the first scenario on Saturday, that was at one point a functioning watering hole for these animals," Moore explained.
According to Moore, the horse had to be put down today.
She says farmers and those with livestock can prevent their animals from being trapped by following a few simple tips.
"People need to provide accessible water so that the animals don't have to risk going in these types of ponds," Moore said.
"You can prevent an accidental death by keeping a track of your animals by counting them both day and night."
Farmers tell the Medina County SPCA ponds in the area are several feet below normal in some locations because of the lack of rain. | <urn:uuid:854730f4-31a8-440c-83c2-6c5d393398f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.akronnewsnow.com/news/local/item/45390-horses-die-in-medina-county-after-being-stuck-in-mud | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98074 | 265 | 1.859375 | 2 |
The PowerFlush Association's recommended procedures and practices for power flushing in the UK:
1) Central heating systems should be kept sludge and debris free at all time, if you have not had a power flush done, you will need to have one done to prevent future breakdown/s or leaks.
We found that up to 80% of all problems related to your central heating and hot water are either directly or indirectly related to sludge / lime scale build-up.
2 ) It is recommended by the PowerFlush Association that when central heating water sample is taken,two samples of at least 250ml should be taken, after the boiler and pump has been running for at least 30min. The first sample can be discarded and the second used to form an opinion of the central heating water’s quality. (Picture)
3) It is recommended by the PowerFlush Association that acid for power flushing only be used by exception; 80% of systems today have rubbers, aluminium and other metals in them that will damage / leak if you use strong acids incorrectly.
A good example is the silver towel-rail radiators used in bathrooms, they are made from aluminium.
We recommend that sludge remover be used as standard practice, strong acids by exception and only by trained professionals.
4 ) The PowerFlush Association recommends leaving sludge remover in as long as possible before you do the power flush (do not exceed the manufacturer's instructions). If it is not practical to add it days or weeks before the flush, it can be added when power flushing the system.
Leave it in the system with the boiler running as long as practical and definitely more than the minimum time specified by the manufacturer.
5 ) The PowerFlush Association recommends that the power flush machine should be connected to any radiator, external pump or pipes. We recommend not to connect the power flush machine to the pump fitted inside the boiler, unless you are qualified, experienced and trained to do so. It is very risky as leaks and short-circuits can happen very quickly and easily. Also, depending on the size and strength of the machine being used, connecting through the boiler pump can damage the diverter valve and other parts of the boiler, depending on the boiler type and condition.
6 ) The PowerFlush Association recommends that inhibitor be added after the power flush has been completed and that the dosage be calculated to be 50% more than the manufacturer recommended, to compensate for small leaks and evaporation especially in open vented systems.
7) The PowerFlush Association recommends that when connecting a power flush machine through a radiator into the system, the connections should be made directly onto the pipe work and NOT through the radiator valves / TRV. We call this a full bore connection. (picture)
The radiator valves have narrow openings that act like strainers and prevent the cleaning out of larger sludge and debris pieces (picture) from the system, which can cause the procedure to fail even though all other recommendations have been followed.
8 ) If you need a power flush and the problem you are experiencing is intermittent or no hot water on a combi boiler, the PowerFlush Association recommends that besides a power flush of the central heating system, the secondary (plate) heat exchanger should be removed, flushed / descaled separately. We recommend that this procedure should be charged separately from the power flus0h as not everyone needs or wants it done. In some cases the person carrying out this procedure needs to be Gas Safe registered because of the boiler's layout. If you are NOT registered to work on gas; the simply way to avoid breaking the gas regulation, is to "never remove the boiler cover".
When in doubt use someone that is both a registered member of The PowerFlush Association and the Gas Safe Register (we include the registration number in the company profile of our members).
The main reason for the physical removal of this heat exchanger is that it has two separate parts; one for hot water and one is for heating water. The only way to see on which of the two sides the problem really is and which side to flush or descale, is by its physical removal.
Alternatively, the secondary heat exchanger can also be replaced instead of flushing it out. Note: this procedure is only for combi boilers, which has two heat exchangers as standard.
9) The PowerFlush Association recommends that professionals should use power flush machines with sufficient strength to clean at least 35 radiators, on all domestic jobs. This will speed up the process and make it more effective, especially on system sizes of over 10 radiators, were static head, resistance and drop of flow is a problem.
10) The PowerFlush Association recommends that magnets should be used in conjunction with cleaning chemicals to remove metallic debris from the system water, if the system water is going to be re-circulated. If you are dumping 100% of the returning system water a magnetic filter can be omitted. | <urn:uuid:a2cab70f-b3b3-4009-bce0-9b2935419f7d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.powerflushassociation.com/recommended_procedures_and_practices_power_flushing_uk.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938836 | 1,022 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Eight different workshops will be run on the day with some being run twice to ensure you have every chance of attending your preferred sessions.
With the advent of digital technology anybody can become a publisher. The trick is knowing which one is the best for for you. This workshop looks at different low, or no-cost, platforms that can be the basis for community news hubs which are flexible, self moving and audience focussed.
This workshop is sponsored by NUJ Training Wales
Emma Meese (Media & Training Development Manager, Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies)
Simon Milner (Director of Policy at Facebook UK)
Dr. Claire Wardle (Director of Development and Integration, Storyful)
Harness the power of Social media and hear how it can be a journalist’s best friend. This session will offer tips on how to turn social platforms into newsgathering tools to source new stories, contributors and angles. Learn how to listen and engage with your audience, delivering quality content they can’t wait to read.
This workshop is sponsored by Capital Law
What must you know and cover to run a community new enterprise legally and ethically? This taster session will cover the underpinning legal requirements and knowledge and explore what additional tools and training might be needed. The first session will look at requirements for accreditation and the second at new areas of law emerging as result of expanding use of social media.
This session looks at the evidence we now have for what is happening globally and closer to home in the field of community and hyper local news and will work to identify the gaps that need to be filled. What are the emerging news ventures? Where are they? What are they covering and how and what is the potential for transforming the way news is gathered and consumed. Information covered will include brand new research findings from Cardiff University on content and sources.
Business models for growing and sustaining community news hubs are still developing. This session looks at different ways of raising revenue with practitioners sharing their experiences. We will start to explore innovative ways of supporting new enterprise and possible interactions with other media business’. Outcomes from this workshop will feed into the development of the Centre for community Journalism and into ideas for future projects.
A look at the opportunities offered by digital technologies to involve and engage communities in creating and sharing their own news and stories and raising the issues most important to them. Can we learn from what is happening globally so as to develop and sustain shared spaces for news and information created by and for communities?
Closer to home, can this be a spur to involving excluded communities in regeneration and enterprise and in engaging with public organizations over the decisions that will shape their environment and futures?
Dr. Andy Williams (Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies)
Dylan Iorwerth (Editor/Director “Golwg”)
Huw Marshall (Digital Manager S4C)
Professor Justin Lewis (Head of School, Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies)
This session looks at the current picture in Wales and will examines the opportunities for developing a vibrant and sustainable network of community news hubs enabled and supported by the Centre for Community Journalism and others. Building on the excellent innovation and practice already going on, participants will start to form the outline of tools, training, support and networks needed to provide the optimum environment for future sustainable development.
This will include digital development and delivery through the medium of English and Welsh and potential links to broadcasters and policy makers. Contributions made here will contribute to future action and to building the network.
Jan Schaffer is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and leads J-Lab, one of the USA's most successful incubators for news entrepreneurs. J-Lab has funded more than 90 news startups and collaborative pilot projects, awarded more than 250 prizes in journalism innovation, and engaged in groundbreaking research into civic and participatory journalism.
J-Lab's new report, "Networked Journalism: What Works," tracks a three-year effort to partner nine traditional news organizations with independent news startups in their communities. This workshop will share key insights into how to create local news and information hubs that engage and inform citizens.
When registering for the conference you will be asked which workshop you wish to attend from each of the three sessions. The schedule is below:
- How to set up HyperLocal platforms, open source sites and using multi platforms
- Using social media to gather news and build audience
- Law, ethics and accreditation in a digital age
- Research and Evidence
- Sustainability and business models
- Engaging and empowering communities
- Building a network in Wales
- Key Factors in making local news hubs successful
- Using social media to gather news and build audience (Repeated Session)
- Law, ethics and accreditation in a digital age (Repeated Session)
- Engaging and empowering communities (Repeated Session)
- Key Factors in making local news hubs successful (Repeated Session) | <urn:uuid:6fc5165d-c132-4c54-85fa-25f26218b8c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cardiff.ac.uk/jomec/conference/community_journalism_conference/sessions/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929359 | 1,018 | 1.625 | 2 |
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — The Agriculture Committee in the Vermont House has approved a bill calling for genetically modified foods to be specially labeled.
The bill lays out technical definitions for what constitutes genetic modification, and says food that has been subject to those techniques must bear a label saying so.
The legislation faces an uncertain future, and is expected to go next to the House Judiciary Committee, before being debated by the full House.
Supporters of the House bill say consumers want information about what's in their food.
The bill has drawn warnings from the attorney general's office that it's likely to be challenged in a lawsuit brought by industry. | <urn:uuid:73cef28c-63b8-417f-93e8-6425c05ecdf7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://washingtonexaminer.com/vt.-house-committee-approves-gmo-food-bill/article/feed/2076178 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962121 | 134 | 2.125 | 2 |
Type: Study (book)
Subject: Natural Gas
Natural gas is essential to the world economy. Gas now accounts for almost a quarter of OECD primary energy requirements and is expected to become the second most important fuel in the world in the next decade. Industrial and residential consumers increasingly rely on natural gas to keep their houses warm, their lights on and their factories running.
Meanwhile the gas industry itself has entered a new phase. Where gas used to be restricted to regional markets, it is now increasingly traded on a global scale. While gas production and transport requires long-term investment, now it is optimised on a short-term basis. Demand continues to grow, but local gas production has become much more expensive. How should we react? How will demand be satisfied? What changes are required to promote flexibility and trade? What are the implications for gas security, investment and interdependence? At stake is an opportunity to diversify supply and demand – but this goal is threatened by barriers to competition and investment.
The Natural Gas Market Review 2006 is the first of a new IEA publication series. It takes an unprecedented look at developments in natural gas to 2010, analysing not only the three IEA regions (Asia Pacific, North America and Europe) but also broader global trends, such as the interaction of pipeline gas with LNG which binds the regions together. The Review provides invaluable insights for understanding this dynamic market. | <urn:uuid:25aa6eba-d7a6-4cb9-b6ae-5e97cc68e7c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/name,3641,en.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944937 | 285 | 2.515625 | 3 |
I'm working on a shadow-mapping implementation for an OpenGLES 2.0 environment (Stage3D in Flash to be exact). This is how my current implementation works:
- Render the scene to backbuffer.
- Render depth map from the light's point of view.
- Render shadows on a texture from the camera's point of view.
- (Do blur and other effects to improve the shadow texture, not implemented yet)
- Render the shadow texture to the backbuffer with multiply.
Some pictures to help explaining. Note that the bunny is floating in the air on purpose.
Shadows rendered on a texture from the camera's view.
The final scene with shadow texture rendered on top with multiply.
The problem is the unshadowed pixels at the bottom of the bunny. Because the shadow texture is rendered with linear filter, the edge of the shadow loses its sharpness. This is mostly a good thing but not everywhere. I would like to do more filtering effects on the shadows but they would cause even bigger issues.
I haven't encountered this kind of problem in any tutorials or forums so either there is an obvious solution for this or there is something wrong with my approach. The question is, can I solve this somehow using my current approach? Or is there a bigger gap in my method? | <urn:uuid:d5736932-9712-4305-bd27-07677b6aa606> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/49940/shadow-artifacts-caused-by-filtering | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907182 | 270 | 1.632813 | 2 |
On December 28, 2010, the State filed a delinquency petition against A.A.Q. for trespass. A.A.Q. was also alleged to be a runaway under a separate cause number. On January 28, 2011, A.A.Q. and his parents met with an intern from the public defender’s office. That same day, at the initial hearing, A.A.Q., his mother, and his biological father, admitted that they had watched a video in the court house lobby concerning A.A.Q.’s constitutional rights, and none of them had any questions.
During the initial hearing, the following exchange occurred between the juvenile court judge, A.A.Q., and his parents:
THE COURT: [A.A.Q.] I need to make sure that you and your family understand the rights that exist for you in this court, that you know what the charges are that have been filed and that you understand a bit about court procedure. Each of you by now should have probably watched the video in the lobby a couple of times. Any questions [A.A.Q.] about what the Judge talked about: Okay, you need to answer out loud [in] the microphone.
THE COURT: Parents, questions at all?
FATHER: No, sir.
THE COURT: And [A.A.Q.] you’re asking or somebody is asking that I appoint a Public Defender, is that correct?
A.A.Q.: Um, I don’t know.
THE COURT: Parents are?
THE COURT: Alright, and you understand as parents that when we appoint a Public Defender it’s possible that later you could be required to pay back the county for the expense that is involved. You understand that?
MOTHER: Okay, um, are we admit or denial today?
THE COURT: Pardon me?
MOTHER: Um, I didn’t think we needed an attorney at all.
THE COURT: Well, that’s a choice you have to make. Somebody must have had you talk to Ms. Laux who is a public defender.
MS. LAUX: Well, it was—I had the Intern talking to them.
THE COURT: Okay. So you, can make a value judgment today to not have an attorney or you can make a value judgment to have an attorney and there are two options if you do want a lawyer, one it [sic] to hire a private attorney, other is to have the court appoint a public defender, a free attorney. However, when we appoint a “free attorney” it’s not totally free because the court could require parents to pay back the county for the cost of the public defender.
MOTHER: I understand.
THE COURT: And the father agrees?
FATHER: Um, yes, sir.
. . .
THE COURT: Okay, Ms. Laux we’ll show waiver of counsel. You agree with that choice by your mom?
THE COURT: Okay. Obviously, you can change your mind later.
THE COURT: Either hire a lawyer or—
THE COURT: Have the court appoint a public defender. Ms. Laux as a matter of preliminary information of the court, had there been some discussion with the Prosecutor on a plea offer?
MS. LAUX: Yes, they were willing to, if he admitted to the criminal trespass, that they would dismiss the runaway.
Tr. p. 3-6.
A.A.Q. then admitted to the criminal trespass charge in exchange for a plea deal with the State to dismiss the runaway allegation. The juvenile court dismissed the runaway allegation and released A.A.Q. to the custody of his mother, pending the final disposition of the case. At that time, A.A.Q. was ordered to comply with all academic requirements and home rules.
On March 1, 2011, the juvenile court conducted a status hearing, at which time the court learned that A.A.Q. did not appear for a pre-dispositional report meeting. It was also determined that there were problems with A.A.Q. at home and at school.
At A.A.Q.’s mother’s request, the juvenile court appointed a public defender for purposes of the dispositional hearing. Because of A.A.Q.’s misconduct, the juvenile court ordered him detained in the county juvenile facility pending disposition of the case.
. . . .
A.A.Q. argues that the delinquency finding must be set aside because there was not a valid waiver of the right to counsel. More particularly, A.A.Q. maintains that the trial court did not advise him of the hazards of proceeding pro se and the record fails to demonstrate that A.A.Q. and his parents understood their constitutional rights and knowingly and intelligently waived them.
. . . .
When examining the above exchange among the juvenile court, A.A.Q., and his parents, it certainly would have been the better practice to have advised A.A.Q. and his parents on the record of the various disadvantages of proceeding without counsel. Poynter v. State, 749 N.E.2d 1122, 1125-26 (Ind. 2001). And the juvenile court should and could have inquired more specifically into A.A.Q. and his parents’ understanding of the rights that they been advised of in the video presentation and might have better explained a parent’s potential obligation to reimburse the county for expenses involved with the appointment of counsel. See N.M., 791 N.E.2d at 806-07. 2
[2 As an aside, it has recently been reported that the juvenile court judge in Wayne Superior Court makes it a priority in every case to appoint an attorney for a juvenile as soon as the court learns that the child has been detained. Michael W. Hoskins, Improving a Child’s Access to Counsel, Indiana Lawyer, November 9-22, 2011, at 1, 20. Also, the Indiana State Bar Association has submitted a draft to the State’s judiciary rulemaking committee involving a juvenile’s right to counsel. That proposal puts in place a systematic requirement that youth have adequate attorney representation from the start of their experience in the juvenile justice system. The proposed rule provides for, among other things, the appointment of counsel before the detention hearing or initial hearing, whichever occurs first. And the child cannot waive the right to counsel without first engaging in a meaningful consultation with counsel. Id.
Such uniform procedures may, in some instances, expedite matters and save taxpayer dollars. And perhaps some of the right to counsel issues, like those presented today, might very well be avoided. Id. at 20. ]
However, we do look to the particular facts and circumstances surrounding the case, including the background, experience, and conduct of the accused to determine whether there has been an intelligent waiver of the right to counsel. Id. That said, the record in this case demonstrates that A.A.Q. and his parents had consulted with an intern at the public defender’s office before deciding to waive counsel at the initial hearing. Tr. p. 4. Moreover, it was the public defender who had secured a plea deal for A.A.Q. Id. Therefore, the record does, in fact, show that A.A.Q. was represented by counsel prior to, and at, the initial hearing. Put another way, it is apparent that counsel actually assisted A.A.Q. and his family in ultimately waiving his right to counsel at the initial hearing stage.
Finally, the record reflects that A.A.Q. and his parents had already determined that A.A.Q. would admit to the criminal trespass allegation in exchange for the dismissal of the runaway allegation. Id. at 5-6. Therefore, under these facts and circumstances, we can reasonably conclude that A.A.Q. and his parents knowingly and intelligently waived his right to counsel, to the extent that the public defender may not have officially entered an appearance and represented A.A.Q. at the initial hearing. Therefore, we decline to set aside the finding of delinquency on this basis.
KIRSCH, J., concurs.
BROWN, J., concurs in result. | <urn:uuid:d8ef50ef-3c86-486b-b885-aa608f236ebe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://indianacourts.us/blogs/caseclips/2011/12/08/aaq-v-state/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969594 | 1,749 | 1.59375 | 2 |
He’s not a superhero. He doesn’t have a cape, but a multi-colored scarf that is twice as long (and twice as useful). He doesn’t have a utility belt or weapons, but carries a sonic screwdriver. He doesn’t have any superpowers, but he fights for freedom and justice. He is the Doctor, an alien with two hearts, a ship that’s bigger on the inside than the outside that travels through time and space, and has a strange affinity for the human race.
Doctor Who started on the BBC in the UK 45 years ago. It is a children’s sci-fi TV series with action, adventure, aliens and monsters. It started as edu-tainment, but quickly became a family show. In the 1970′s it came to comics with a regular series that was serialized in a monthly magazine It is the beginning of this series that IDW Publishing has brought to the US as Doctor Who Classics.
Doctor Who Classics #1-10
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Age Rating: Everyone
The Doctor is a time traveling alien known as a Time Lord. In his spaceship called the TARDIS, he travels to different worlds, different times and even different dimensions. In this regeneration, he is tall and lanky, with a toothy grin, unruly, curly hair, and a gregarious personality. Where ever he goes, he always seems to find himself in trouble. In these first 10 issues, the Doctor goes up against a mechanized Holy Roman Empire, a world where emotions are outlawed, cute looking alien furballs that are anything but, alien werewolves, a criminal that can reshape reality, and ancient Chinese Shaolin monks, among other things.
But the Doctor never goes against these things alone. He has his robot dog K-9, and people he befriends, usually the people he is trying to help, to assist him. Occasionally he will take someone with him as his companion to share his adventures. The companion is the character the reader is meant to identify with, to draw them into the stories more. In these stories, that turns out to be a teenage girl from Northern England named Sharon, starting from the third story until the end of this run. Like most kids her age, she is full of curiosity and loves the adventures she has with the Doctor, danger and all.
Doctor Who Classics is science fiction at it’s best. The stories are still as relevant today as they were 30 years ago. The Doctor is a hero for all times and all ages. It’s a title kids and parents can read and enjoy together. I highly recommend it for any science fiction collection.
All images copyright © BBC and IDW Publishing | <urn:uuid:c70faea1-1893-4fee-b261-1ea71b4e2f98> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.slj.com/goodcomicsforkids/2008/11/27/review-doctor-who-classics-1-10/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975158 | 565 | 1.523438 | 2 |
It depends on what you mean by "fully owned by the buyer."
Software consists of at least two things
The media used to distribute software (excluding online downloadable installation techniques) are physical objects and can be owned and transferred just like any other physical things. These phyisical things an also be rented or restricted in their ownership, just like other physical things.
The code contained on the media (or distributed online or by loaned media) is not physical, but can be owned, transferred, rented or restricted in these transactions. Code is also covered by copyright or similar laws (depending on country), and there are additional rights and restrictions attached to it. These include
right to copy or prevent copying
right to distribute or prevent distributiing
right to modify or prevent modification
To answer your question it depends on what you mean when you say that the buyer owns the software. In almost all cases, buyers own the media of delivery. But ownership of the code varies greatly. Some of the common flavors are:
- Buyer owns the code completely and can do whatever she wants, including copying, distributing, modifying, etc. (this is a full transfer of copyright to buyer). The developer no longer has any rights in the code. This is probably not what you want. This could be called fully owned software
- Buyer owns a copy of the code completely and can do whatever she wants, including copying, distributing, modifying, etc. However, the software developer also still has the right to copy, sell, distribute modify, etc. (this is a full license of copyright to buyer). This is also probably not what you want. This could be called fully licensed software
- Buyer owns a copy of the software and may use the software however she chooses personally or within her organization, but is restricted in copying (maybe a backup copy is allowed). Redistribution of the one copy outside her home or organization and modification may or may not be allowed. This approach may be called software as product or shrinkwrap software as described in other answers. Note that shrink wrapped also implies that the software is standardized (not customized) and that the rights (the contract) are pre-bundled and not negotiated by the buyer.
- Buyer owns a copy of the software for use on only one machine, but is restricted in copying (maybe a backup copy is allowed). Redistribution of the one copy and modification may or may not be allowed. This can also be called software as product or shrink-wrapped software.
There are numerous variations on these themes.
SUPPLEMENT: To indicate that the licensed versions of these arrangements (2. through 4.) are unlimited in time (not a service-for-a-period), the term fully-paid or fully-paid-up is often added to the term license or software. | <urn:uuid:8ee8dfb1-d1b7-4104-ace4-7441ac39b134> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/80704/term-for-locally-installed-and-fully-owned-software/80707 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962592 | 580 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Woody –On the campaign trail, Mitt Romneypoints to his private sector experience as his chief qualification to be president.So we took a look at that experience, and put together a new site, RomneyEconomics.com, on it. Take a look for yourself here. Let me sum up how Romney economics works:Romney and his partners bought companies across the United States, often loading them up with debt in the process.Too often, they slashed pensions, benefits, and jobs, while paying themselves and their shareholders straight from the debt they’d accumulated.Because of that debt, several of these businesses went bankrupt, leaving workers without jobs, without pensions, and without health care — all while Romney and his partners walked away with millions.
Everyone understands that businesses rise and fall — and sometimes fail — and no one is challenging Romney’s right to run his business as he saw fit or questioning private equity as a whole.
But when a handful of people make a fortune by putting thousands out of work and bankrupting once-healthy businesses, it’s legitimate to question whether those are the values America needs in a president — and whether those are the values that will create an economy built to last, with a strong, secure middle class.
On the campaign trail, Mitt Romney claims that what he and his partners did is the very best of what capitalism can be. He claims to know how to create jobs based on that experience, but even his former partners admitted their business was never about creating jobs — it was about creating wealth for investors.
Just listen to the workers of GST Steel: Mitt Romney came in, ravaged it with debt, and it ended up filing for bankruptcy. 750 workers lost their jobs and health care, and Romney’s managers left their pension fund $44 million short. The 113-year-old steel mill closed its doors, and Romney’s company made a 150% profit on their initial investment.
As RomneyEconomics.com shows, stories like that happened time and time again. That approach, where a few people do very well no matter what the cost to others, is the last thing we need in a president.
Romney’s economics would be a disaster for the middle class. We can’t afford an economy where even when the company fails, the financial wizards walk away with millions, while the workers who have invested years growing the company are left holding the bag. That won’t make our economy — or our country — stronger.
As part of the Truth Team, it’s up to us to spread the truth behind Mitt Romney’s business record. We don’t need to spin it here, the facts speak for themselves.
So take a look around the site — check out the year-by-year statistics and hear from the workers and managers affected by Mitt Romney and his business partners. Then share these stories far and wide:
There’s too much at stake in this election not to.
- What happens if Mitt Romney becomes president? (goodolewoody.wordpress.com)
- Barack Obama Unleashes An Enormous Assault On Mitt Romney’s Time At Bain (businessinsider.com)
- Obama attacks Mitt business record in new battleground states ad (blogs.suntimes.com)
- Obama Campaign Slams Romney’s Jobs Record, Romney Responds [Video] (inquisitr.com)
- New Obama Campaign Ad: Romney’s Bain Capital ‘Sucked the Life out of Us’ (VIDEO) (blippitt.com)
- Romney to deliver major policy speech in Des Moines Tuesday (thegazette.com) | <urn:uuid:1838f86c-7273-40c2-b38e-004fb253552a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://goodolewoody.me/2012/05/14/check-out-this-website-from-barack-obamas-campaign/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955622 | 761 | 1.664063 | 2 |
|5 Reasons Why Learning IS Important
Question: I understand we forget 80 percent of everything we learn in three months’ time and a higher percentage is forgotten as time passes. Why, then, should we put children through the agony of learning? Why is mental exercise needed if the effort is so inefficient?
Answer: Your question reflects the viewpoint of old progressive education theorists. They wanted school curriculum to be nothing more than “life adjustment.” They placed low priority on intellectual discipline. Even some college professors have adopted this “no content” philosophy. They reason the material we learn today may be obsolete tomorrow, so why learn it? I strongly disagree with this approach to education. There are at least five reasons why learning is important, even if we forget much of what we’re taught:
(1) Teaching self-discipline is a very important component of the academic experience. Students learn to sit for long hours, follow directions, complete assignments, and use their mental faculties. Homework is relatively unimportant as an educational tool; it is a valuable instrument of discipline. Since adult life often requires self-sacrifice, sweat, and devotion to causes, school should help shape a child’s capacity to handle this future responsibility. Play is important in a child’s life, too. Youngsters should not work all the time. Home and school should provide a healthy balance between discipline and play.
(2) We are changed by what we learn, even if the facts are later forgotten. No college graduate could remember everything he learned in school, yet he is a very different person for having gone to college. Learning changes values, attitudes, and concepts, which don’t fade in time.
(3) Even if the learned material cannot be recalled, the individual knows the facts exist and where to find them. If we asked a complicated question of an uneducated man, he would likely give a definite, unqualified response. A person with an advanced degree would probably answer the same question more cautiously by saying, “Well, there are several ways to look at it....” He knows the matter is more complex than it appears, even if he doesn’t have the complete answer.
(4) We don’t forget 100 percent of what we learn. The most important facts lodge in our permanent memory. The human brain is capable of storing two billion bits of data in a lifetime; education is the process of filling that memory bank with useful information.
(5) Old learning makes new learning easier. Each mental exercise gives us more associative cues which to link future ideas and concepts. I wish there were an easier, more efficient process for shaping human minds than the slow, painful experience of education. But I’m afraid we must depend on this old-fashioned approach until a “learning pill” is developed. | <urn:uuid:81300d74-6c9c-4477-ad3a-7757c65e7726> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cornerstone-connection.com/featured_current.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957464 | 589 | 2.96875 | 3 |
The record cover was a blank slate in 1939, when Mr. Steinweiss was hired to design advertisements for Columbia Records. Most albums were unadorned, and on those occasions when art was used, it was not original. (Albums then were booklike packages containing multiple 78 r.p.m. discs.)
“The way records were sold was ridiculous,” Mr. Steinweiss said in a 1990 interview. “The covers were brown, tan or green paper. They were not attractive, and lacked sales appeal.” Despite concern about the added costs, he was given the approval to come up with original cover designs.’
He actually invented the cardboard LP sleeve, and got the patent, but had to give up his rights to his employer, Columbia Records. | <urn:uuid:8633d5ed-b405-4333-abd1-77d2b461ad2f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://boxofvision.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/alex-steinweiss-originator-of-artistic-album-covers-dies-at-94-from-ny-times/ | 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 | 0.985066 | 164 | 2.15625 | 2 |
Me and a mate were discussing the idea of setting up a wireless (wifi) bridge between our 2 houses. We are around 500-750m almost line of sight.
What i'm looking for is hardware that is capable of transmitting and receiving over that distance, and also how I would go about connecting our 2 networks together, effectively leaving a DHCP on either side, our own ADSL lines etc. but just have the bridge connecting us for LAN traffic only.
For the wireless side of things, I was thinking of something like this from gowifi, but unsure of the actual performance of these devices.
Also what would I need to connect between the networks? Currently I have a router Netgear WNDR3700 with DDWRT on it. My friend has a Linksys WRT54G(L?) with Tomato on it.
any help would be appreciated. | <urn:uuid:b9a1d90d-6bfd-4594-996a-218c9268418b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=66&TopicId=106945 | 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 | 0.975188 | 180 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Half Persian 4-1 is a dang sexy weave. Getting the hang of weaving it is tricky, but it's worth it. The hardest part of weaving Half Persian 4-1, in my opinion, is getting the initial ring positions correct. You have to do some flipping, twisting, and other spatial chicanery that can throw you for a loop the first few times. Take it slow at first, and for Pete's sake, be careful if you put it down before you get a good-sized patch. In fact, once you make a stable patch, it's handy to keep it around as a 'starter chain' and build future chains off that one. It's always easier to continue Half Persian 4-1 than it is to start it from scratch.
Half Persian 4-1 takes an AR of 5 and up. You can probably make it work with high 4.x, but to have enough room to comfortably work, go with 5 or higher. 22awg 1/8", 20awg 3/16", 18swg 1/4" and 16swg 5/16" work.
Metric sizes - approximately 0.6mm wire/3mm ID; 0.8mm wire/4.8mm ID; 1.2mm wire/6.4mm ID; and 1.6mm wire/8mm ID.
New rings are gold and old rings are steel.
Step 1a: Slide the middle bottom ring to the right and the rightmost ring to the left, as if they were changing places. The leftmost bottom ring should just hang out where it is.
Step 1b: Take the middle and rightmost ring (the rings you just slid) and carefully rotate them, as if you were unscrewing them. They should end up so that what started as the rightmost ring is now in the middle, and vice versa.
Step 2: Close a ring and put it on an open ring. Pass the open ring up through the first 2 bottom rings (leftmost and middle), and down through the third bottom ring (rightmost). Make sure it doesn't go through the top ring from the previous steps.
Step 3: Close another ring and put it on an open ring. Pass the open ring through the second and third bottom ring and down through the last bottom ring. Make sure it doesn't go through any of the top rings.
Step 4: Repeat Step 3 until the chain is the desired length.
Step 5: When you reach the end of the chain, add an open ring as usual. You don't need a closed ring for this last one. | <urn:uuid:00f91617-5a5b-4f2f-bb2f-42ae4a205347> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cgmaille.com/tutorials/hp4-1.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95659 | 540 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Applications are invited from individuals, multi-disciplinary teams or community groups for the 2012 annual prize, which has been increased to $100,000 USD for the winner and $25,000 USD for each of the two runners-up.
The primary objective of the prize is to find innovative solutions to environmental challenges. The solutions should be practical, combining good science, economic reality and political acceptability. The prize offers people from all backgrounds around the world the chance to help transform their environmental ideas into reality and also provides a network of connections and support.
An innovative cookstove, which provides improved air quality and a clean economic source of electricity inside the home, won the St Andrews Prize for the Environment in 2011. Clean energy company BioLite developed a cookstove that slashes emissions by up to 95 percent and also provides electricity for charging LED lights, mobile phones and other devices used in rural areas where open fires are prevalent. The funding from the prize will help them to further develop their programme by funding capital costs, hardware and administration expenses.
The prize is an environmental initiative by the University of St Andrews, in Scotland, and international energy company ConocoPhillips. Recognising significant contributions to environmental conservation since its launch in 1998, the prize has attracted more than 2,500 entries from all over the world on topics as diverse as sustainable development in the Amazon rainforest, urban re-generation, recycling, health and water issues, and renewable energy. Submissions for the prize are assessed by eminent trustees from science, industry, and the government.
Anyone wishing to enter the 2012 prize should submit a single page project summary of no more than 500 words by 31 October 2011. The shortlisted entries will be invited for a more substantial submission in January 2012 and the winners will be announced at a seminar at the University of St Andrews in April/May 2012.
Full details about the Prize, and how to enter are available from the website www.thestandrewsprize.com or from the St Andrews Prize for the Environment office at St Andrews University on Tel + 44 (0)1334 462161. Email entries to: email@example.com. The St Andrews Prize for the Environment can also be found on Facebook.
For further information, please contact Doug Allsop at:
Mearns & Gill
7 Carden Place
Tel +44 (0) 1224 646311 Fax +44 (0) 1224 631882
Email entries to: firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:1140c53d-7246-40ff-8851-567622049c5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thestandrewsprize.com/press/final-call-for-entries-2011.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940771 | 522 | 1.75 | 2 |
Cities and Towns in Middle East
page 1 of 2
Amadiyah (also known as Amedi) is a little town perched on top of a mountain plateau at 1185 m above sea level. Though the town is nice with a mosque and some colorful houses, it's nothing spectacular... but the views are. Go to the edge in any direction and you will have amazing views over the mountains that Kurdistan is so famous for. It's just sad that some of the viewpoints are also used as rubbish dumps. The town's dramatic location is best taken in from a distance along the main road.
We don't know of any hotels in Amadiyah, but there are some in the little village below and in Sulav.
For most travellers, Koya is little more than a place to swap taxis on the "safe road" from Erbil to Suly. This is such a shame as the place has so much more to offer. From quirky hill-top picnic areas surrounding ancient Christian shrines to a central Citadel keeping watch over the city, there is enough here to rival other tours spots. A big part of the charm is wandering the narrow streets of the old city, next to the bazar. But the absolute real hidden treasure is the ancient market itself. Though not as big as Suly's or as busy as Erbil's, it is the ancient Iraq many people miss out on. With gateways dating back to the 13th century and a magnificent caravansary in its unrestored splendour somewhere in the middle, the bazar of Koya is a chance for travellers to have a bit of history in an Iraq quickly being overtaken with modernity.
Dohuk is probably the first real Kurdish/Iraqi town (not counting the border town of Zakho) you come to when arriving from Turkey. It is a small city with a big and lively souq - and not so much more. The neighbourhoods on the hills in the east end of Kawa Rd. can be fun to wander through, getting lost in the maze of living quarters while greeting curious kids. The Money Exchange Centre on the west end of Kawa Rd. is, besides a good place to change money, another place to have a look at. Here street dealers sit at cardboard boxes stacked with big wads of money, a lot of money – a reminder that Iraq is not a budget destination.
Capital of Iraqi Kurdistan
Erbil (also spelled Arbil or Irbil) is a very spread-out city. The heart of the old part is the citadel that crowns the city from a hill. The old building stretches right to the edge of the hill and all the facades facing the city have been done up, but otherwise the citadel is pretty much left in ruins. Below the citadel entrance is the newly rebuilt city square with illuminated fountains and a clock tower. To the sides you find the real Erbil in shape of the covered souq to the west and the rowdy market street of Handren St. to the east. For a different experience, head for the Christian quarter at Ainkawa, a taxi ride away - the rows of liquor stores will indicate when you are there.
Though Erbil is the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Sulaymaniyah (also spelled Sulaimani) has a more modern city feel. The city center has a selection of cafes and shopping malls for the liberal minded girls and boys which the city seems so full of. The souq area in Sulaymaniyah is also more impressive than the one in Erbil with a fine covered part (nuts, shoes, clothes, lingerie, etc.) and a chaotic outdoor part (fruits, vegetables and meat). In the cooler evenings, do like the locals and drive up the hill outside town and enjoy the view over the city while the sun sets.
Acre Old Town
If looking for a mixture of history, religion and warfare, the fortified town of Akko (Acre) will suit all your needs. Dating back thousands of years, being a pillar of the Baha'i Faith and having nearly every major empire claiming rights to the place, Akko has been at the forefront of history since there was a history. Today, the UNESCO listed town is a pleasure to stroll around. An easy day-trip from Haifa or even Nazareth, the markets, fortifications, Khans and underground tunnels will have any visitor entertained for ages. On the outskirts of town is the temple of the most important person in the Baha'i faith. Although the gardens are not as impressive as the ones in Haifa, they still make for a lovely stroll.
Sidon town (Saida)
40km south of Beirut
Another appealing seaside town with an ancient history as a flourishing trading port. Today Sidon is the third largest city in Lebanon, but the reason to come here is the old quarter near the harbour. A confusing maze of twisting lanes and narrow passages with low hanging dodgy wirings. This is the real deal, not an open-air museum, which is very much alive with people, houses, souqs, mosques and even an old khan (rest place for caravans). Some parts are getting immaculate renovated, almost too sterile, but we are sure that the place won't loose all of its charismatic chaos.
Capital of Oman
Muscat is the only real city in Oman. It is accountable for a third of the country's population, but even 1 million people doesn't feel that big when it's spread out as Muscat is. Rather than one dense city, Muscat is made out of connecting towns, each with its own vibe. The walled old town of Muscat is where the Sultan's palace is. Mutrah is the picturesque area along the waterfront where you also find the covered market, the so-called souq. The corniche is particularly nice with great views over the harbour and on a backdrop of craggy mountains. Further inland you find the buzzing neighbourhood of Ruwi which is Muscat's "Little India". For a modern feel (read Starbucks and similar cafes), head to the area along the coast at Shatti al-Qurm. Muscat is a fine mix of new and old, without being as rich in history as Sanaa in Yemen nor as sparkling as the other oil-money-spoiled capitals in the region.
Aleppo is the iconic Middle Eastern bazaar city, with an amazing souq (market), an impressive citadel right in the middle, old Mercedes in the streets and friendly people. In its heydays, it was one of the most important trade centres on the Silk Route, but even today you can still shop-till-you-drop for local stuff like olive soap. Rise to the top of the tower in the citadel to get panoramic views of the town and visit a hammam (public bath) or some of the old traditional houses that are open for visitors. The new part of town attracts the young and rich, where they go double dating over tea and apple nargileh (water pipe) in a Starbuck's look-a-like café. A great city that you can keep exploring.
Try something different in Syria, go to the Mediterranean coast. As a modern and busy sea port, Lattakia has a different feel and look compared with places back in the lush mountains and the dry plain further east. The city's wealth is shown by tree-lined boulevards and flashy new apartment buildings kept by foreign maids. Small beaches punctuate the else rocky shore, which is sadly littered with the usual plastic rubbish, and the corniche offers shady cafes and beautiful view over the Mediterranean Sea - and construction sites. You can make the journey from Aleppo by train, a pleasant scenic ride without being too spectacular. Go there to get the full picture of Syria. | <urn:uuid:f8342464-3144-46ef-ba07-42b5c6098fe8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.globespots.com/places.php?continent=middle_east&subject=cities_and_towns | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951706 | 1,619 | 1.585938 | 2 |
New Targets May Hit Bull’s-Eye for Chip Makers
For Immediate Release: December 7, 2006
Contact: Mark Bello
The bull’s-eye solution to the semiconductor industry’s hunt for more exact means to measure the relative positions of ever-tinier devices squeezed by the millions onto silicon chips might be new types of targets, and not expensive new equipment, according to modeling studies done by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), with SEMATECH, the consortium of chip manufacturers.
If the counterintuitive findings hold up, the industry could continue to rely on the high-throughput optical equipment it now uses to align level after level of intricate circuitry patterns—even as the size of individual devices drops well below 50 nanometers (nm). This would spare chip makers of the challenge and extra cost of switching to more complex technology for so-called overlay measurements.
During chip production, instruments measure distances between selected lines on one target on one chip layer, and corresponding lines on another target on the layer immediately above. These measurements are used to determine the size of the offset between levels. A state-of-the-art microprocessor chip could have 28 levels, and the relative position of any two targets must be determined with a precision of only a nanometer or two. Because the dimensions of chip features are already dwarfed by the wavelength of visible light, many suspect that the industry’s bag of technological tricks for extending conventional optical measurement methods will be exhausted within the next few rounds of miniaturization.
“Alternative tools—such as atomic-force microscopes—would provide the required resolution, but they are slower and are not likely to be as cost effective as the rapid, non-destructive optical techniques already used for overlay measurements,” explains NIST physicist Richard Silver. Silver and colleagues explored improved designs for the targets, or benchmark reference patterns, used to check the precision and accuracy of overlay measurement equipment.
The target patterns investigated in the NIST modeling studies are the nanotechnology equivalent of slightly overlapping picket fences. Together, the two sets of densely arranged nanoscale lines and grooves create a hybrid target that strongly reflects light, creating an image measurable with a conventional optical microscope. The individual sets of lines are so dense that no individual optical image of the lines occurs, yet the combined superstructure results in the new unique optical pattern. The intensity patterns of the reflected light are unique to the combination, and the patterns are easily analyzed to determine the relative position of the lines that make up the pattern. In the modeling studies, feature sizes ranging from 10 nm to 50 nm were positioned as close as 100 nm apart, beyond the theorized limits of resolution.
As important, says Silver, the combined pattern greatly magnifies—by better than 40 times—the size of the overlay offset between layers. An article describing the pattern design and modeling results has been submitted to Optics Letters. Responding to immediate interest from the semiconductor industry, NIST is working with the partners to fabricate prototype targets with the new geometry. | <urn:uuid:e8fa8171-b8c9-40a5-b238-7ddde6f4b33d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nist.gov/pml/div683/targets_120706.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915384 | 630 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Photo by Toshiro Okuto
Grown by Toshijiro Okuto
Note the characteristic green tubular calyx on this species, out of which the red buds emerge like lipstick out of a tube. A. lobbianus has a similar habit, but with dark maroon tubes, and the hybrid of that species and this one is called A. 'Pullobia'. Photos of A. pulcher growing at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh can be seen here and here. | <urn:uuid:5264904e-561c-4477-8d36-d8ae62f3dc43> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gesneriads.ca/aeschy65.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906731 | 98 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Unsustainable trade in wildlife is one of the central threats to biodiversity as it concerns thousands of plant and animal species, and can push them close to extinction. This issue affects a wide range of live animals and plants as well as a vast array of products derived from them, including food, fur, leather goods, musical instruments, timber, tourist souvenirs, perfumes, and medicines.
How can CITES help?
Wildlife trade is big business, estimated to be worth billions of dollars annually. As wildlife and its products cross borders between countries, extra efforts and international cooperation are necessary to regulate it and safeguard certain species from over-exploitation.
CITES accords protection to more than
CITES was conceived in the spirit of such cooperation. It entered into force in 1975 and today has 177 Parties. It is both a conservation treaty and a trade treaty. It aims to ensure that international trade in wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival and further contribute to the current extinction crisis.
Decisions taken at CITES meetings have not only ecological impacts but also strong economic and social ones: commercially-important species such as fish, which are commonly traded both for consumption and for use in aquaria, are gaining an increasingly prominent place on the Parties’ agenda. CITES’ decisions are legally binding and are accompanied by enforcement measures and sanctions.
How does CITES work?
CITES grants varying degrees of protection to more than 33,000 species of traded animals and plants, through a system of permits and certificates. The species of concern are included in one of three lists, which are called Appendices.
|Appendix I includes species threatened with extinction. Trade in these plants and animals is permitted only in exceptional circumstances, such as for research.
Appendix II includes species not necessarily threatened with extinction, but for which trade must be controlled in order to avoid threats to their survival.
Appendix III lists species that are protected in at least one country, which has asked for assistance in controlling the trade.
How is CITES work related to the Convention on Biological Diversity?
Implementing decisions taken by the CITES Convention requires ensuring links to other relevant biodiversity conventions. The link with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is particularly strong. CITES helps to protect wild animals and plants threatened by global trade and safeguard their natural environments, which helps to fulfill the objectives of the CBD: conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources. The work of CITES is therefore essential to support achievement of the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity. In turn, the activities of the CBD also complement the work of CITES.
What is IUCN’s role with CITES?
IUCN was instrumental in creating CITES and it has attended and contributed to CITES meetings since the inception of the agreement. The Convention itself began as a result of a resolution that was passed at an IUCN meeting in Nairobi in 1963.
For every CITES conference, IUCN together with TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, prepares the Analyses of the Proposals to Amend the Appendices. These are objective assessments of whether the proposals to change the listing of species meet the necessary trade and biological criteria.
A strong delegation of IUCN experts will be present at this year’s CITES conference in Bangkok, Thailand, providing scientific information on species status and helping the Parties make well-informed decisions. IUCN acts as an advocate for species conservation and the potential role that CITES can play in helping to support this. | <urn:uuid:c04c52c1-1f06-48d0-8bce-82548ff17634> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://carl.lundin@iucn.org/news_homepage/events/cities/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947015 | 763 | 4.3125 | 4 |
The images of the books used for the video segments are copyright protected. You cannot use the images of the books unless you have permission from the publisher of the book. The images of the books used for the videos coincided with 3 factors of section 107 of the copyright law. “Fair Use” determined by a.) The purpose of and character of use is for nonprofit educational purposes; b.) The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyright work as a whole; c.) The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work. | <urn:uuid:91a8c4f4-cba8-4e89-9e7e-c907d35fa518> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sdpb.org/Buddy/Archive.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906431 | 119 | 1.789063 | 2 |
ESCANABA - As I read of another incident of murder in our neighboring state of Wisconsin due to domestic violence, I am so saddened by this tragedy and loss. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and the closer to home these incidences happen; the more I am compelled to get the word out on the definition of domestic violence, the warning signs, and where and how to get assistance getting away from an abusive situation. Domestic violence has become a major epidemic in society. It severely affects those involved as well as the children associated with these unions. Domestic violence is not limited to physical abuse alone, and some victims do not believe they are being abused because their partner has not physically abused them. Mental and emotional abuse can have just as devastating effects on victims and their children. It can happen in the form of threats, name calling, throwing objects, degrading comments, stalking, and controlling others in the home.
As hard as we work to combat this epidemic, this problem will never go away for a variety of reasons. Some examples of these reasons follow:
- Victims do not report the abuse because they are afraid of retaliation by the abuser
- Friends and family are not getting involved because they are afraid it will cause the situation to worsen for the victim
- Neighbors do not want to become involved because they feel it is none of their business
- Victims are afraid to leave the abuser, because they have become accustomed to the abuse within their 'comfort zone.' Leaving an abuser may mean uprooting the children from their home and belongings, moving to a different city, and having to go through the humiliating experience of testifying in court, all of which can be as scary for a victim to experience as enduring the abuse.
- Victims may not know where to turn for help.
- Many times, the victims go back to the violent relationship after they have left. They may blindly believe that working things out is better for their children.
- Victims ignore the warning signs of domestic violence early in the relationship.
Warning signs include the following:
- Abusers are controlling and are not happy when things do not go their way.
- They demand to have their partners' passwords to email accounts, text messages, and social media accounts, such as Facebook and MySpace, and go through their messages frequently.
- Abusers are jealous and become angry with their partners if they talk to other people of the opposite sex and will accuse them of flirting with them and cheating.
- Abusers like to control what types of clothes their partners wear.
- They isolate their partners and try to limit the time they spend with their friends and extended family members.
- Abusers do not take responsibility for their actions. They blame everyone else for their abusive actions and are narcissistic.
- They damage their partners' belongings.
- Abusers degrade and belittle their partners by calling them names, making hurtful comments about their physical appearance, and telling them they are worthless and stupid.
- Many abusers will also sexually abuse their partners by coercing them to have sex when they don't want to and refusing to use birth control during sex.
- Abusers stalk their partners and check on their whereabouts. Sometimes, they will appear at their partners' jobs for no particular reason except to harass and intimidate them.
- Abusers are extremely critical. There are few things that their partners can do that are 'good enough' for them.
- They are aggressive towards animals and children.
- Abusers treat their partners as objects they own, rather than a person with feelings.
- Abusers do not consider their partners' opinions to be equally important.
- They humiliate their partners in front of other people.
The Alliance Against Violence and Abuse, Inc. (AAVA), located in Delta, Menominee, and Schoolcraft counties, is a non-profit agency designed for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. AAVA works diligently to prevent domestic violence through education and awareness, and provide a safe place, safety planning, and many other services to those who have become victims of domestic violence. According to Michigan Incident Crime Reporting (MICR), there were over 95,000 reports of domestic violence in Michigan during 2011; 101 of these incidences were fatal. This does not include those who are reporting injuries from domestic violence as accidental rather than intentional or not reporting domestic violence at all. The staggering numbers of incidences would hopefully cause those who know of anyone living in a domestic violence situation to get them some help.
If you are a victim of domestic violence, the only safe solution is to leave the abuser and not go back. If you know someone who is a victim of domestic violence, please encourage them to get help. If you personally witness domestic violence occurring around you, contact the police and report what you saw. Contact the AAVA crisis line at 906-789-1166 or 1-800-682-1649 if you need more information.
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Tamie Cunningham is the Alliance Against Violence and Abuse executive director | <urn:uuid:02109101-b6da-4c6d-b873-2ee876b32da4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailypress.net/page/content.detail/id/539086.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974853 | 1,028 | 2.96875 | 3 |
By Pete Kotz
By Michael Musto
By Michael Musto
By Capt. James Van Thach told to Jonathan Wei
By Kera Bolonik
By Michael Musto
By Nick Pinto
By Steve Weinstein
Louis Farrakhan, the controversial leader of the Nation of Islam, who is suffering from prostate cancer, may be dying. But it is not the cancer that is killing him, according to members of the Minister's Ruling council. Farrakhan, they charge, was poisoned in an assassination attempt by the U.S. government.
If Farrakhan, 65, dies and it subsequently is determined that poisoning was not the cause of death he would be the third prominent African American activist to succumb to prostate cancer in less than two years. Kwame Ture, the 1960s activist who popularized the phrase "Black Power," died on November 15 in his adopted homeland of Guinea, in West Africa.
He was 57. Shortly before he died, Ture blamed his death on "an FBI-induced cancer."
Ture's death came on the heels of the passing of Eldridge Cleaver, the fiery former Black Panther information minister, whose prison book Soul on Ice became the seminal work of the Black Power movement. He was 62.
One of the country's most visible African American leaders, Farrakhan has canceled all of his public appearances and faded from view as the Nation carries out an investigation into the alleged murder plot.
"The Minister says he knows who, he knows where, and he knows why; he just doesn't know what [was used to] poison him," says a Muslim insider with strong ties to the NOI's National Board of Laborers, which was set up by Farrakhan to run the organization during his absence. The source demanded anonymity.
He described how, on a visit to New York City in January, Farrakhan rapidly turned from an energetic leader into a man who would fall asleep at any place and time of the day, could not focus his attention for more than a few seconds, and appeared to be totally withdrawn from reality.
Last Wednesday night, shortly after Farrakhan, under tight security, was spirited out of Chicago's Hyde Park, where the NOI's palace is located, the board issued an alert to regional leaders, informing them that Farrakhan would be "gone for four months," the source says.
The Minister's whereabouts have become the main topic of conversation among concerned followers. In Harlem, a Farrakhan loyalist told the Voice that Farrakhan has considered returning to Libya, where he was treated for prostate cancer last year by the personal physicians of Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy.
On February 26, after seven weeks out of public view, Farrakhan resurfaced at the NOI's annual Saviours' Day celebration in Chicago. His disappearance had been the talk of the Nation, prompting rumors that he was seriously ill with complications from radiation treatment for the cancer, and that he was dying.
Although he looked gaunt, Farrakhan gave the impression of being in excellent health, and in good form. "[T]hose of you who thought you would come out here to see a weak, fragile, decrepit Farrakhan, I want you to look at this," said the tanned and nattily attired Farrakhan, gesturing and thumping his chest amid wild cheers. "I am here and I'm strong," he declared, "and I will look down on all of my enemies for he [NOI late spiritual leader Elijah Muhammad] promised me . . . 'I [will] make all your enemies your footstool.' "
While some speculated that an assassination attempt might have originated from within his own Nation, Farrakhan fingered the usual suspect. "And if you doubt that I am from God and God is with me, and in me," he thundered, "then I say to the government of America, 'Lose no stone; do everything you can to destroy me and watch my God, Allah, destroy you, and ALL of my enemies!"
Rumors of the murder plot and Farrakhan's failing health heightened fears that an all-out power struggle not seen since the breakup of the Nation of Islam following the death of Elijah Muhammad in 1975 would erupt between hard-liners and moderates in the event of Farrakhan's death (see "The Pretenders").
Although Farrakhan has advocated that the National Board of Laborers should run the Nation in his absence, that body would be led by a point man of his choosing. Some say that such a role should be bequeathed to the supreme captain of the Fruit of Islam, the Nation's elite guard.
"If something should happen to the Minister, the person who immediately takes charge of the Nation of Islam if it works right is the supreme captain," says a NOI constitutional scholar who asked not to be identified. Others predict that the supreme captain eventually would break with the board and seize power himself in "a bloody or bloodless" military-style coup.
A recent uproar in the FOI over the possible recruitment of whites into the black separatist theocracy triggered speculation that Farrakhan was about to lose power.
According to an insider, Farrakhan had called a special Laborers meeting in which he planned to announce that he was considering allowing whites to join the Nation, but also would decree that his black disciples must not marry their white brothers or sisters. Usually, when testing reaction to controversial shifts in policy, the supreme captain and his lieutenants would rally to the Minister's side in a show of support.
Find everything you're looking for in your city
Find the best happy hour deals in your city
Get today's exclusive deals at savings of anywhere from 50-90%
Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city | <urn:uuid:886f09e8-3386-4355-a621-e104cd5c9bfd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.villagevoice.com/1999-03-16/news/in-the-shadow-of-death/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977669 | 1,210 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Custom 3D and 2.5D Packaging
Custom 3D packaging is a revolutionary way to get “More than Moore” out of semiconductors, connecting different silicon die together in the same package without needing to combine everything into one monolithic piece of silicon. eSilicon is a leader in this field and can help with all aspects of your 2.5D or 3D-IC project.
3D-IC is of interest to the majority of the industry, especially to companies whose volumes (or the certainty of achieving them) make it tough to justify a high NRE — typically several million dollars in a leading-edge technology node. 3D chips also offer the opportunity to combine heterogeneous technologies — for example, using 28nm for a standard microprocessor-based subsystem (which can be re-used in multiple designs), while using a more mature 65nm process with a much lower NRE for the customized portion of the logic, and 130nm for a mixed-signal function.
There are different needs and reasons for the interest in 3D in different application areas. For example, the mobile space is driven mostly by the potential benefits of reduced power and space. The communications infrastructure and networking space, however, is driven by yield improvement and the ability to insert more memory than would be possible using monolithic devices. Increasingly, companies in this space are also interested in the lower-power benefits. Mobile devices need thin architectures and have very thin package requirements. On the other hand, larger networking devices require thicker 3D-ICs or interposers in order to handle the flatness needed for larger die and side-by-side architectures of the devices.
Although full 3D-IC is forecasted to be ready in 2013, the so-called 2.5D approach using silicon interposers has been ready for prototyping since late 2010. A 2.5D-based product uses a piece of passive silicon called an interposer to act like a miniature PCB, onto which other chips are placed (Figure 3). As the interposer consists solely of passive silicon, it is matched in thermal expansion and hence reduces the mechanical stress on the active pieces of silicon. This is expected to have beneficial long-term reliability effects for the active circuitry. eSilicon’s approach uses a standardized form of interposer and builds “Tiles” of active silicon on top.
eSilicon 3D-IC Concept
The Tiles that form the basis of the 2.5D approach can include functions such as:
- Microprocessor sub-systems
- High-performance PHY functions
- High-performance analog functions such as analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and digital-to-analog converters (DACs)
eSilicon 2.5D Concept
eSilicon is connected to all levels of the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain: fabs, test and assembly companies, EDA companies and design houses. If you are interested in doing your first 2.5D or 3D project, we can help you make the right decisions. eSilicon will manage the entire supply chain using the fabs and assembly and test houses that are ready for 2.5D and 3D-ICs. eSilicon is already active in 2.5D and expects to be an early adopter of production-ready 3D technology. | <urn:uuid:13b57c84-a422-429b-ab42-df5a6ee46b62> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.silicondesignsolutions.com/what/value-added-services | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913513 | 700 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Chalk up more back-to-school savings by shopping online
(BPT) - As the end of summer nears, the flashing red lights of yellow school buses will caution drivers to stop as students board. College students will pull out of driveways with cars filled to the brim with dorm room supplies. And the school bells will echo across the playground, signaling the start and end of classroom learning.
Of course, before school starts in the fall, parents will tackle the task of back-to-school shopping. The "must-buy" list often doesn't change much from year to year. Students of all ages and schooling levels will need pencils, notebooks, new clothes, backpacks and folders. As you develop a shopping list for your children this year, consider making the back-to-school shopping experience a bit easier by staying home, shopping online and saving money. Use these tips for better back-to-school savings.
* Regular school supplies like pencils, pens, rulers and notebooks are best found via big box retailers. But often in the stores, the back-to-school aisles look as if a whirlwind trashed the place. Instead, calmly sit at home with your list in front of you and order the supplies your children need via the retailers' websites. In addition, use cash back sites like Ebates.com
, to find extra savings, both on shopping list items and shipping costs. By having all the supplies delivered to your home, you'll have saved yourself the time and stress of taking the children to the store.
* Shop the back-to-school sales online. Many retailers will designate a day, week or even month promoting their back-to-school discounts, and some states will designate a tax-free shopping day for school items and clothing. Take advantage of these savings, and look for "buy one, get one free" offers (very helpful if you have more than one child heading back to school) or free shipping coupon codes to add even more savings.
* Some online coupon sites like Ebates.com offer cash back on your purchases. For example, when shopping for school supplies online, visit your favorite retail stores through Ebates.com, make your purchases and receive cash back rewards based on a percentage of your purchase. Plus, the back-to-school shopping season will bring increased cash back from dozens of popular stores, so take a little time to compare the best cash back rates with each store's coupon codes and discounts to make the most of any available savings.
* College students often qualify for student discounts when using a valid student ID. Electronics like laptop computers and smartphones are typically the biggest budget items on a college student's back-to-school shopping list. Search for seasonal discounts and coupon codes at computer and mobile brand online stores, like HP, Dell, AT&T and Verizon, where additional savings can be gleaned with a student ID. Also, use FatWallet.com as a resource for detailed student and teacher discount guides in the FatWallet blog and check their hot deals forum for the latest back-to-school deals.
Staying home and accomplishing the entire shopping list for your student's back-to-school supplies without having to drive all over town will leave everyone in your family a bit happier and better prepared for the first day of school. Plus, the extra savings you can find while shopping online will help your budget. | <urn:uuid:2b70065e-aef4-46c1-8039-6b3997e10aff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news-star.com/section/?template=araArchiveDetails&CategoryID=209&article=8060090506&archive=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950023 | 698 | 1.71875 | 2 |
The National Psyche
Despite the country's social and economic woes, Brazilians take much pride in their country. The gorgeous landscape is a favorite topic, and although every Brazilian has a different notion of where to find paradise on earth, it will almost certainly be located within the country's borders. Soccer is another source of pride - less the national pastime than a countrywide narcotic to which every Brazilian seems to be addicted.
Famed for their Carnaval, Brazilians love to celebrate, and parties happen year round. But it isn't all samba and beaches in the land of the tropics. At times, Brazilians suffer from saudade, a nostalgic, often deeply melancholic longing for something. The idea appears in many works by Jobim, Moraes and other great songwriters, and it manifests itself in many forms - from the dull ache of homesickness to the deep regret over past mistakes.
When Brazilians aren't dancing the samba or drowning in sorrow, they're often helping each other out. Kindness is both commonplace and expected, and even a casual introduction can lead to deeper friendships. This altruism comes in handy in a country noted for its bureaucracy and long lines. There's the official way of doing things, then there's the jeitinho, or the little way around it, and a little kindness - and a few friends - can go a long way. One need only have patience, something Brazilians seem to have no shortage of.
Although Brazil has the world's eighth largest economy, with abundant resources and developed infrastructure, the standard of living varies wildly. More than for its GDP, Brazil is known for having one of the world's widest income gaps between rich and poor.
Since the mass urban migration in the mid- 19th century, the poorest have lived in favelas (urban slums) that surround every city. Many dwellings consist of little more than a few boards pounded together, and access to clean water, sewage, schools and healthcare are luxuries few favelas enjoy. Drug lords rule the streets, and crime is rampant.
The rich often live just a stone's throw away, sometimes separated by nothing more than a highway. Many live in modern fortresses, with security walls and armed guards, enjoying a lifestyle not unlike the upper classes in Europe and America .
Carnaval brings the two together - albeit in different ways. The favelas take center stage, parading through the streets, while the rich enjoy the spectacle; and everyone wracks up a few sins before Lent brings it all to a close.
In Brazil the diversity of the landscape matches that of the people inhabiting it. Officially, 55% of the population is white, 6% black, 38% mixed and 1% other, but the numbers little represent the many shades and types of Brazil 's rich melting pot. Indians, Portuguese, Africans (brought to Brazil as slaves), and their mixed-blood offspring made up the population until the late 19th century. Since then there have been waves of immigration by Italians, Spaniards, Germans, Japanese, Russians, Lebanese and others.
Immigration is only part of the picture when considering Brazil 's diversity. Brazilians are more prone to mention regional types when speaking of the racial collage. Caboclos, who are descendents of the Indians, live along the rivers in the Amazon region and keep alive the traditions and stories of their ancestors. Gauchos (herdsmen) populate Rio Grande do Sul, speak a Spanish-inflected Portuguese and can't quite shake the reputation for being rough-edged cowboys. By contrast, Baianos, descendents of the first Africans in Brazil , are stereotyped for being the most extroverted and celebratory of Brazilians. And let's not forget Cariocas (residents of Rio ), Paulistanos (who inhabit Rio 's rival city, Sao Paolo), Mineiros (who come from the colonial towns of Minas Gerais), and Sertanejos (denizens of the droughtstricken sertdo). These groups represent but a handful of the many types that make up the kindhearted (but complicated, mind you) Brazilian soul. | <urn:uuid:af10fa6c-43ea-4b63-8dab-ba9b3d57977a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.visa4you.net/brazil-culture.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954076 | 866 | 2.53125 | 3 |
For People With Parkinson's
The words “you have Parkinson’s” have changed your life. For some of you, it is fresh, raw and startling news—often poorly told. Others may have grown more accustomed over the years. Some of you have loving support of friends and family. Others may feel very alone. For everyone who hears those words, life is forever changed.
Parkinson’s is an extremely individual syndrome. And you have a great deal of power to decide how your life will unfold. Yes, it is still possible to live your best life. The information on these pages is intended to arm you with knowledge, understanding, and power. This portal will help you take an active role in educating yourself and give you the tools to live to the fullest with Parkinson's.
PD 101: Read more to understand the symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and how to live well with the disease.
PD Library: Gain access to a comprehensive listing of articles, checklists, books, DVDs, videos, webcasts and web sites to help you learn more about PD.
Local Resources: Search for a health care professional, center, chapter or support group in your area.
Discussion Forums: Get connected with professionals and other people diagnosed with PD.
Personal Stories: Learn how others continue to live well with this experience.
Parkinson's Superstars: Read about people who make a difference in the Parkinson's community.
On the Blog: Stay up-to-date with the latest in PD research, "What's Hot in PD?"
Clinical Trials: Interested in participating in a PD research study? | <urn:uuid:f5d19ca4-c109-4ea6-a578-9598a9588048> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://parkinson.org/patients.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94156 | 333 | 2.140625 | 2 |
High-Tech Jobs On The Rise
High-Tech Sector More Resilient During Recession And Recovery
Looking for a sector to target for 2013? Job growth in the technology sector is outpacing employment increases in the rest of the economy. That's according to a recently-released study, which revealed that since the dot-com bust hit bottom in 2004, employment in the high-tech sector has risen three times faster than the private sector as a whole. The tech sector has also proved more resilient during the recession and recovery, the study showed.
Commissioned by the tech start-up lobbyist Engine Advoacy and conducted by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, the report found that the high-tech job expansion was experienced across the nation, not just in technology hot spots like Silicon Valley. While 98% of U.S. counties had at least one high-tech business in 2011, the Greensboro-High Point area in Guilford County, NC, had the most rapid high-tech job growth – 36%. Meanwhile, Delaware posted 13% high-tech job growth since 2004, making it the state with the greatest technology-related employment rise.
Thanks in part to wages that are 17%-27% higher than peers in other fields, each high-tech job creates 4.3 positions in the wider community, the report says. By comparison, the average manufacturing job creates 1.4 jobs in the broader community. Going forward, demand for high-tech jobs is expected to be stronger than demand for jobs across the American economy through at least 2020. High-tech industries are projected to grow by 16.2% over the nine-year period, compared to 13.1% for the rest of U.S. | <urn:uuid:7cb5ea49-0f37-4686-b5cf-519125fb4305> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.asipublications.com/Counselor/News/content.aspx?id=454 | 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 | 0.961665 | 350 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Microsoft embraces open-source Git for development tools
- — 30 January, 2013 17:41
Once vehemently opposed to open-source software, Microsoft has warmed to the development model over the years and will now take the unusual step of incorporating an open-source program developed by Linus Torvalds into its own development tools.
Microsoft is integrating the widely used Git, a distributed revision control and source code management (SCM) system, into its Visual Studio IDE (integrated developer environment) and Team Foundation Server (TFS), two of the company's main tools for enterprise developers.
"TFS is a very popular tool in the enterprise, and Git has grown up in the open-source community," said Brian Harry, a Microsoft technical fellow and the TFS product unit manager. "By embracing Git, we want to bridge that gap, so it can be a great tool for both the open-source community and for the enterprise."
TFS is software for managing the application development lifecycle, including requirements management, project management, configuration management, testing and deployment. Microsoft also offers a hosted version of TFS, called Team Foundation Service.
TFS already has a built-in SCM to document and store changes in an evolving code base. But given that development teams are increasingly scattered across different locations, Microsoft wanted to offer a distributed SCM, in which developers can work on local copies of the code, and synchronize their changes to others on the project.
Instead of building a distributed SCM from scratch, Microsoft decided to deploy one already in wide use. "Git was the right answer for us," Harry said.
Microsoft has already recognized the growing popularity of Git among its users. Last year, it released the Git TFS Bridge, which allowed developers to use Git on a local machine, while pushing changes to TFS.
Torvalds started work on Git in 2005 after a licensing disagreement over BitKeeper, the commercial code repository that was used to manage the Linux codebase.
Torvalds designed Git specifically to manage software projects as large as the Linux kernel, which currently has more than 15 million lines of code, is updated every two to three months, and is built collaboratively by thousands of developers worldwide.
Torvalds and his team built the software as a globally distributed repository that would not slow in response times as the code base grows.
The incorporation of Git in TFS will be "a true adoption of Git. It is not 'Microsoft Git,'" Harry said. The company will be using libgit2, the most widely deployed version of Git, written in C.
When creating a new project, users of TFS will now have the choice to use either Git, which will be included in the TFS software package, or TFS' own centralized version control system.
"Our goal with TFS is to let users have both the best centralized version control system, and the best distributed version control system," Harry said.
TFS can execute a range of functions with a Git repository, such as automated builds, testing and work tracking. Over time, Git will have feature parity with the centralized TFS repository, and will also have tie-ins to Active Directory and other Microsoft enterprise security and auditing tools.
The Team Foundation Service will also offer a hosted version of Git for customers to use, starting Wednesday.
Microsoft is dedicating engineering hours to help further develop libgit2. It'll work with GitHub and other community programmers who devote time to the software.
Some of the work that Microsoft engineers will do will be around making the Windows version more usable. Harry admitted that the Windows version of Git has trailed behind the Mac OS and Unix versions, in terms of ease of use. "We will help rectify that," Harry said.
In addition to including Git with TFS, Microsoft is also linking Git with its Visual Studio IDE. The company has released a plug-in that will allow users to commit finished code directly to any Git repository. The Git Community Technology Preview (CTP) plug-in works with Visual Studio 12, and Microsoft plans to support Git natively in the next version of the IDE .
Visual Studio can communicate with a Git deployment on TFS, to one on the Team Foundation Service, to the GitHub hosted service, or to any other Git deployment, Harry said.
In effect, Visual Studio can become the primary interface for Git, for developers. "I can connect, clone a repository, and open the project in Visual Studio, edit files and commit," Harry said.
Developers will also be able to see the code changes committed to Git, review the changes made to the code, switch to another branch of code and merge code into the project's mainline.
"Git has had an issue of getting pretty darn complicated," Harry said. "We've been trying to codify the most common patterns of using Git, to create a simple workflow in Visual Studio that makes Git approachable." | <urn:uuid:01c70c6f-be92-4baf-86fc-03b1e321d5e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/452353/microsoft_embraces_open-source_git_development_tools/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947164 | 1,019 | 1.984375 | 2 |
I spent the day participating in a media tour of Sderot and other Israeli towns close to the border with Gaza.
The day included a security briefing, several Code Red (Tzeva Adom) alerts, an unexpected view of the immediate aftermath of a rocket which landed in Sderot, a play by children at a local kibbutz and an analysis of the military situation with Col. Richard Kemp.
Here a brief account of my day via updates on Twitter and Facebook.
We then went to Sapir College, near Sderot. All classes were cancelled due to rocket fire.
We were listening to a presentation by an academic expert on the psychological trauma caused by terrorism when the Code Red alert sounded.
The rocket landed in a neighborhood nearby, so our guides took us to the site of the blast.
Fortunately, there were no injuries.
A boy whose home was right next to where the rocket landed displayed a bit of bravado and claimed a souvenir.
A minute later there was another Code Red and we were able to get to a bomb shelter in a home near where we were standing.
Sderot residents have 15 seconds to get to safety once they hear the alert.
This was a tiny glimpse into the intolerable situation which residents of Israeli towns within close range of Gaza must deal with constantly.
We then toured Kibbutz Alumim and saw the children perform a play dramatizing how they deal with the constant threat of rocket fire, entitled ‘Code Red’.
We then listened to a military assessment of Israel’s current operation by Col. Richard Kemp, former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, who explained the extraordinary efforts of the IDF to avoid civilian casualties – resulting in a civilian to combatant ratio in Cast Lead, and Pillar of Defense, far superior to recent NATO operations.
At presentation by col Richard Kemp at sapir college now. Kemp said IDF goes to unprecedented lengths to minimize civilian casualties.
Adam Levick (@adamlevick) November 20, 2012
At presentation by col Richard Kemp at sapir college now. Kemp said IDF goes to unprecedented lengths to minimize civilian casualties.—
Finally, we took a brief detour to get a glimpse at an Israeli tank stationed near the Gaza border. | <urn:uuid:2bc87bef-142f-42ab-8db8-8f7827f5edf9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cifwatch.com/2012/11/20/a-glimpse-of-life-near-the-gaza-border-israelunderfire/?like=1&_wpnonce=425f013316 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961226 | 466 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Yesterday I talked about how deciding to do something; and actually doing something are two very different things. We all know that the road paved with good intentions leads nowhere that we'd like to end up; regretting not having taken action as well.
If you have not yet done so already, you can still start today by kicking off National Preparedness Month, and joining the National Preparedness Coalition, and making a Pledge to Prepare. You can join the Coalition here:
Today we are going to talk briefly about developing a Family Emergency Plan. Before an emergency happens, sit down together and decide how you will get in contact with each other, what you will do if you cannot contact each other, and where you will go and what you will do in an emergency.
The keys to developing a Family Emergency Plan are to:
(1) Develop the plan together.
(2) Write the Plan down, and make sure everyone in the family has a copy of the plan or in the case of children, the plan can be accessed for them by caregivers, school staff, or other responsible adults.
(3) Make sure that the plan is reviewed and updated regularly; at least once per year, and National Preparedness Month could be a good time do that.
You can access a Family Emergency Plan template here:
As this week unfolds, we'll walk through some aspects of a Family Emergency Plan and why they are important, as well as ways that you might customize this plan to better meet your family needs.
For now; stay safe, and tomorrow we'll talk about steps to take as you get ready to begin to develop your Family Emergency Plan. | <urn:uuid:3a73d546-8023-4e0c-8665-74f763288dda> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://glenview.patch.com/groups/robert-dunnes-blog/p/bp--30-ways-in-30-days-to-become-better-prepared-for-641105eb75 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964483 | 339 | 2.625 | 3 |
Corrosion means the breaking down of essential properties in a material due to chemical reactions with its surroundings. In the most common use of the word, this means a loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen. Weakening of iron due to oxidation of the iron atoms is a well-known example of electrochemical corrosion. This is commonly known as rust. This type of damage usually affects metallic materials, and typically produces oxide(s) and/or salt(s) of the original metal.
Corrosion can be concentrated locally to form a pit or crack, or it can extend across a wide area to produce general deterioration. While some efforts to reduce corrosion merely redirect the damage into less visible, less predictable forms, controlled corrosion treatments such as passivation and chromate-conversion will increase a material's corrosion resistance.
In deaerators provided in Thermal power stations of utilities, the maxmum possible corrossive gases, particularly Oxygen and carbon-di-oxide are removed, chemically as well as by deaeration. The manufacturers generally guarantee, that if operated properly, that dissolved gases in the deaerated water will not exceed 7 ppb by weight (0.005 cm³/L).
|This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).| | <urn:uuid:ed71dcc8-4d49-4d9d-b02e-da53448ae600> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://engineering.wikia.com/wiki/Corrosion | 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 | 0.922396 | 265 | 3.546875 | 4 |
Earth Day, Conspiracy, & World Government
On April 22, 2012, the 43rd Earth Day was celebrated. On the same day, Vladimir Lenin celebrated (posthumously, of course) his 142nd birthday, meaning he was born exactly 100 years prior to the first Earth Day. As far as I can tell, this is a coincidence. But some people aren’t so sure. Indeed, some people fear that climate change is a hoax fabricated – or at least exaggerated – by researchers in support of a subversive ploy to impose a costly and oppressive global government, whether through a strengthened United Nations or some other structure.
I can say firsthand that the environmental movement – or at least academic environmental research – is not a conspiracy. If it was, I’d be part of it. I even associate with the infamous Michael Mann, a climate scientist playing a central role in public debates about the research. There are simply too many people involved in environmental research, with too many divergent views and outspoken personalities, for there to be any grand conspiracy.
That said, I do find the conspiracy theories to be very understandable. Environmentalists often are (quite reasonably) calling for stronger global governance, so that the world can coordinate and cooperate to address its global environmental challenges. While many local and national initiatives are helping protect the environment, without a global regime, polluters may be able to simply shift their activities to locations with fewer protections. Indeed, as the Rio+20 event approaches, we’re seeing new calls for enhanced global environmental governance come from, among others, my environmental research colleagues.
Furthermore, protecting the environment does indeed involve people worldwide changing their behaviors and even their ways of life. Likewise, environmental policies generally revolve around influencing our modes of transportation, our choices of appliances, and even our food. The human behaviors needed to protect the environment are not particularly oppressive. Indeed, many are things we’d want to do anyways. But they’re often a big change from what we’re currently doing.
I also find it commendable that the conspiracy theories are publicly articulated. A healthy democracy can openly question its own leadership. And as unlikely as these conspiracies may be, the stakes are high enough that they’re worth at least some serious attention. I see no reason to dismiss them out of hand, though in the present case, it seems clear that we should not believe them.
Just because environmentalism is not a sinister conspiracy, it does not necessarily follow that we should promote global government for our global environmental problems. There is one important caveat, one that is not widely appreciated by any side of this debate. In short, a global government might begin benevolent, but it could turn sour, even becoming the oppressive disaster that the conspiracy theorists fear. And if it does, there would be no other government out there to keep it in check.
It’s worth noting that there have been several major oppressive governments throughout world history, resulting in some of the biggest disasters ever. Fortunately, a historical trend has been that other, more open societies have eventually out-competed them, leading to the oppression to decline. But if that oppressive government is a global government, then there is no chance for another society to out-compete it.
Maybe we will form some sort of global governance system through Rio+20 and other environmental protection efforts. If we do, I expect that it would be done with the best of intentions, and that it would be quite helpful for our very real environmental challenges. Instead, if we do end up with an oppressive global government, it would probably follow from an initial, benevolent global government. That possibility should give us at least some pause at Rio+20 and beyond.
The core question for me is whether global governance is worth the risk. Do the benefits of getting the world to cooperate on environmental problems outweigh the possible costs of the government becoming oppressive? My guess is that the answer is yes, we are better off with stronger global governance. But the answer is not at all obvious, and merits careful consideration. The fate of the planet may be at stake. | <urn:uuid:ae107ee5-2070-47c1-a5c1-f120779e9d93> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://futurechallenges.org/local/earth-day-conspiracy-world-government/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963653 | 839 | 1.890625 | 2 |
In early July 1864, the men of Butler's Brigade who were without horses were sent to Stoney Creek, VA, and formed into a battalion of three companies, one for each regiment of the brigade (4th SC Cavalry into Company A, 5th SC Cavalry into Company B, and 6th SC Cavalry into Company C). These men fought with the brigade as dismounted troops until their horses were recuperated for active service, or they could procure new mounts. The strength and composition of the battalion fluctuated as men were able to rejoin their original companies, and newly dismounted men were assigned. The battalion was briefly commanded by B2LT John T. Foster of Co. B, and subsequently by CPT Alfred B. MULLIGAN of Co. B, and CPT John C. Edwards of Co. A. Since it was an informal organization, no muster rolls were kept, and no records of its service seem to have survived, other than the post-war recollections of PVT James G. Holmes, Co. F, 6th SC Cavalry, who served as the battalion's adjutant.
|Bethune, John C.||1LT||H||Served 13 Oct-27 Oct 1864|
|Larisey, John Earle||1LT||C||Served 4 Nov 1864-?|
|Foster, John T.||B2LT||B||Served a/o 31 Aug 1864-?|
|McCants, John||B2LT||G||Served a/o 31 Oct 1864-?|
|Rice, M. J.||B2LT||I||Served 31 Aug 1864-?|
|Dowling, William H.||SGT/Actg. CPT||B||Served Jul-Aug 1864|
Record of Events.
Record of Events.
Late Jun 1864. Men with unfit horses sent to Dover's Mill on James River, 20 miles above Richmond, VA. Late Jun 1864. Men with unfit horses sent to Dover's Mill on James River, 20 miles above Richmond, VA. Early Jul 1864: Men and horses sent by railroad to Stoney Creek, 10 miles below Petersburg, VA. 23 Aug 1864. Company participates in engagement at Gravelly Run, VA. 29 Sep 1864. Company participates in engagement on north side of James River, VA. 27 Oct 1864. Company participates in engagement at Burgess' Mill, VA. 1 Dec 1864. Company participates in engagement at Stoney Creek, VA. 19 Jan 1865. Battalion disbanded and men ordered back to their companies in preparation for return to South Carolina. 17 Feb 1865. Battalion reorganized during evacuation of Columbia, SC, and sent to Charlotte, NC. Early Mar 1865. Men remounted at Charlotte, NC. Battalion disbanded and men ordered back to their companies
If you have any information about these troops or these units, please contact | <urn:uuid:433d43e5-6b4d-41ee-88d6-2f9c73d262e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sciway3.net/sc-rangers/5th_cav_dnb.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95808 | 618 | 2.609375 | 3 |
By Robin Rhee
If you believe that money talks and is the root of all evil and that to err is human, then it should not come as a surprise that crimes happen now and then, here and there, since there is always a segment of the population which believes that laws are made to be broken and their social status/power put them above the law.
Various illegal acts may be called corruption, a scandal, racket, rip-off, scheme, scam, swindle, offense or violation ― among others. Perhaps there are so many names because the seriousness of crimes differs widely.
When crimes occur with frequency and permeate society from top to bottom, it's time to take a closer look.
Successive presidents have vowed to rid Korea of corruption, yet slush funds and borrowed name accounts continue to make news. Presidential staff members and senior officials have been accused of various offenses, including bribery. Election fraud and illegal surveillance are of particular concern.
Money envelopes and bottles of expensive liquor wrapped in cash were allegedly delivered to buy certain results. Perhaps they bought a political nomination, an academic appointment or insider knowledge. I wonder. Do they still pack apple boxes with cash?
Some say that insider information fuels land speculation, stock market trading and manipulation.
Rumors have long circulated that bribes and kickbacks are figured into the overall costs of large contracts.
Knock-off clothing, watches and electronics can be purchased on the street but it's a serious matter when atomic plant operators are accused of using knock-off parts and receiving kickbacks from local suppliers. Are some distributors also selling fake gas?
One might think that academia would be a bastion of honesty but it seems that's not the case. Colleges have been accused of misusing funds. Students have cheated on tests and plagiarized their papers. Researchers have fabricated their results. Some graduates have lied about their academic records. Theses and dissertations can be bought. It is even possible to set up installment payment schedules.
Parents of elementary school students are known to ply teachers with expensive gifts and delicious lunches with the tacit understanding that their children will receive extra attention and get extra privileges.
How do cultural relics get smuggled out of Korea and how do ``dead baby" capsules get smuggled in?
Recently police have been accused of accepting bribes from hostess bars and massage parlors.
Professional sports teams are being investigated after score fixing were alleged.
Isn't it deplorable that more than 500 childcare facilities have allegedly embezzled government subsidies?
Crime isn't always dark and ugly however. Sometimes it can be downright hilarious. Stories about dumb criminals in the U.S. provide more than a few laughs. Every year one or two lame brains try to gain illegal access to a business through the chimney. Unlike Santa Claus they get stuck and have to wait for the police to rescue them.
Some thieves drop or accidentally leave their wallets at the crime scene which assures a swift arrest.
And it doesn't take a lot of street smarts to know that using a bicycle to flee a crime scene is not a wise move.
I think the case of the Korean diplomat and the diamond mine would make a great novel and/or movie.
And somehow just thinking about a group of Buddhist monks drinking and gambling makes me smile.
Korea is once again gearing up for a presidential election. It is expected that candidates will promise to root out corruption. Based upon past results, perhaps that is the funniest story of all.
The writer is a former weekly columnist for The Korea Times and currently resides in Centerville, Ohio. Her email address is RRKORAM@aol.com. | <urn:uuid:28f42fb7-385b-40e9-963f-512f382bc867> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2012/06/161_112745.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968719 | 750 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Hudson Hill Bayview Apartments for Rent(hide neighborhood information)
Hudson Hill/Bayview is a small neighborhood in West Savannah, just south of the Savannah River and Hutchinson Island. The neighborhood boundaries are Lathrop Avenue on the west, north, and east, and the Georgia 25 Connector on the south. This is a mixed-use area, with heavy industrial use due to the proximity of the neighborhood to the river and shipyards. The southwest corner of the Hudson Hill/Bayview neighborhood is residential. Cleland Street, Muten Avenue, Mundy Street, Rankin Street, Hagood Street, Fox Street, and Krenson Street comprise the residential area. Mature trees offer plenty of shade in this residential portion of the neighborhood.
Two small churches serve the neighborhood: Grace Full Gospel Church and Royal Church of Christ. Several other churches are just across the Georgia 25 Connector in West Savannah, among them Resurrection of our Lord Catholic Church, Newborn Church, Jerusalem Baptist Church, Solomon Temple Church of God, and the United House of Prayer. Hudson Hill/Bayview children attend Barstow Elementary School or Gadsden Elementary School.
Residents and visitors enjoy the proximity to 10 museums, among them the Mercer Williams House, the Andrew Low House, the Savannah History Museum, the SCAD Museum of Art, and the Telfair Museum. The Mercer House was designed for General Hugh W. Mercer and was completed after the Civil War. The Telfair Museum is the oldest public art museum in the south. Other nearby cultural attractions include City Market, a four-block-long open-air marketplace, and the Historic Savannah Theatre, serving the community since 1818.
The neighborhood lies adjacent to Mary Calder Golf Course to the northwest. Further to the south, the Star Castle Family Entertainment Center offers family entertainment opportunities such as roller skating and laser tag. | <urn:uuid:4c15b246-b8a4-4764-9ad5-7e6488e34d67> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.apartmentfinder.com/Georgia/Savannah/Hudson-Hill-Bayview-Neighborhood-Apartments | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954915 | 383 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Giles Booth wanted to build an internet printer, which is commonly used to print out tweets and do other automated outputs.
I wanted to build a little internet printer, spewing out weather and tweets and the like. When I was testing my thermal printer, however, I got bored reading sample text and replaced it with a short poem. And that gave me an idea: why not make a self-contained box that just prints a random poem when you press a button?
He built his poem-printing device out of an Arduino, Go Free Range thermal printer, and a big button! | <urn:uuid:5354eef5-e672-4ea3-b5c3-2d590ea51883> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.makezine.com/2012/12/18/thermal-printer-outputs-poems/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93869 | 120 | 1.867188 | 2 |
BEIJING, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- China has released a report it says details its policies and efforts made in the past year to face up to the challenges of global climate change.
The report, titled "China's Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change (2012)," was released in advance of the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held from Nov. 26 to Dec. 7 in Doha, Qatar.
It outlines actions taken by the Chinese government to mitigate and adapt to climate change and documents measures to promote the building of low-carbon communities and advance international negotiation and cooperation on climate issues, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
During the 2006-2010 period, the aggregate energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product dropped 19.1 percent from 2005, equivalent to a reduction of 1.46 billion tons of CO2 emissions, the report said.
China said it aims to reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by a further 16 percent and CO2 emissions per unit of GDP by 17 percent by 2015. | <urn:uuid:f8209b83-ba23-4aef-99ad-c9f5986bb42f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.upiasia.com/Science-Technology/2012/11/21/China-releases-climate-change-report/UPI-90821353546549/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941891 | 213 | 2.5625 | 3 |
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
EEOC Says Atsalis Brothers Painting Fired Worker Over Complaint About Racial Slur
DETROIT – A Clinton Township, Mich., industrial painting company illegally retaliated against a journeyman painter by terminating him for complaining about a supervisor’s use of the “N-word,” the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it filed today.
According to the EEOC’s suit, Case No. 2:11CV11296, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Atsalis Brothers Painting Company refused to call Rodney Trice back to work in retaliation for his complaints about a white supervisor’s repeated use of the racial slur. Trice said that the word was used repeatedly on the job site.
Retaliation against an employee for complaining about racial harassment violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC filed suit after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process. The EEOC seeks injunctive relief to prevent the company from engaging in any further retaliatory employment practices, as well as monetary relief for Trice.
“Employees have a statutory right to complain about racial harassment without fear of reprisal,” said Laurie Young, regional attorney of the EEOC’s Indianapolis District Office, whose jurisdiction includes Michigan. “Employers are only making a bad situation worse when they punish their workers for opposing discriminatory behavior in the workplace.”
The EEOC is responsible for enforcing federal laws against employment discrimination. Further information is available at www.eeoc.gov. | <urn:uuid:e621c9d9-818c-42bb-8c96-7946d5643b30> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www1.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/3-31-11c.cfm?renderforprint=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929267 | 347 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Time up for Oracle's HTML5 killer?
Message to Ellison: no more JavaFX reboots
Changing times, terrible tools
Central to the new architecture is the Scene Graph, which is comparable to the browser DOM; even to the extent that CSS styles can be used to apply styles and layout rules. In fact CSS support is a particular strength in this new release.
There's a set of modern new components that look pleasing in their default configuration, so you won't sweat to make your app not look horrible (a criticism that was commonly levelled against earlier versions of Swing). Naturally, the components look nothing like the underlying OS, but then nothing does these days (least of all the OS itself, paradoxically), so that's really not a problem.
Also new is a browser component that renders HTML using WebKit - a welcome addition.
The oddball JavaFXScript, which had all the grace of a drunken gazelle in JavaFX 1.0, has been dropped in favour of pure Java combined with a Flex-alike declarative "layouting" language, FXML. The idea is to split the UI definition from the behaviour, and to make GUI tooling support easier.
FXML is a first step in the right direction, but it has a long journey ahead. Community developers are stepping up to supply the missing pieces such as Dependency Injection (DI), which will make unit testing far easier, but this stuff should be there out of the box. Same goes for linking the spanky new components up with data sources. Oracle can thank their lucky stars for a patient and enthusiastic community.
No help: Code completion in NetBeans' FXML editor
The examples - a separate download from the main SDK - are kind of nice, but are not on par with Adobe's Tour De Flex, and font rendering is rough. Bizarrely, given the amount of noise behind the new FXML, the source for the examples is almost all in Java: very little FXML to be seen.
Initially, Oracle is only supporting the latest beta of old-men's-club IDE, NetBeans. Oracle's strange infatuation with NetBeans at the expense of Eclipse and IntelliJ might hinder JavaFX's adoption.
The decision appears even odder when you consider that Composer, NetBeans' visual GUI designer, is taking an extended pit-stop while it's being rewritten. This means we're back in the surreal position of having Java's premiere GUI platform without a GUI editor.
It's a clear sign that Oracle still doesn't get that application development is all about providing quality tools, much less about the platform. The editor can't be an afterthought: it has to be the centre of their universe, with all development efforts spreading out from it.
JavaFX programs can still be developed in your IDE of choice: just link in the external jfxrt.jar like any other library. But you just won't get the linked-up editor support that you'd reasonably expect. For a more integrated experience, do check out Austrian developer Tom Schindl's flowering Eclipse plug-in, e(fx)clipse (although if I'm honest, Schindl's proprietary DSL, FXGraph, may limit its appeal).
Code completion in NetBeans' FXML editor is nonexistent. That "No suggestions" popup follows you around like a crap genie.
Refactoring support is also lacking. Here’s an FXML element describing a column in a table:
<TableColumn text="Instrument" fx:id="instrumentCol" />
You can link this to a Java field via the @FXML annotation:
@FXML TableColumn instrumentCol;
But if you use Ctrl+R to rename the field then you'd also expect the element's fx:id attribute to be renamed. No such luck. To make matters worse, there's no compile-time safety. The botched refactoring would not be caught by the compiler; instead at runtime you get a cryptic NullPointerException, which beginner developers are going to love. If the mismatch is between the Java field and the data class's corresponding property, there's not even an error: the code just fails silently and doesn't populate the table cell.
Lucky then that JavaFX has such amazing, comprehensive support for a unit testing safety net? Ah. Yes.
The lack of documentation on unit or acceptance testing suggests that it's not even an afterthought, but that Oracle hasn't even thought about it. There's no easy way to instantiate a partial Scene Graph for isolated testing. Sure it may be possible, but it isn't easy. In an age where developers are increasingly savvy to the need for unit tests, this stark avoidance of the subject by Oracle is perplexing to say the least.
Next page: Time to build | <urn:uuid:cef8ece0-7685-4e6c-babf-4ab7acab4a28> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/28/javafx_2_point_0_part_three/page2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924515 | 1,004 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Recent Articles >> Featured Topics
Lead4Life, Inc. Mentoring Program: Needs a few good men
Lead4Life, Inc. Mentoring Program
Needs a few good men
By Jennifer LB Leese
In 2008, after thousands of hours were dedicated to fulfill the mission of non-profit organizations, Jennifer Gauthier decided to begin Lead4Life, Inc., Washington County Diversion Program Mentoring Initiative. Inspired with a vision and determination to help the underserved, Ms. Gauthier set about to secure funding to make Lead4Life, Inc. a reality. Her passion was to help youth and adults in the criminal justice system become productive members of society.
Ms. Gauthier has had her share of life challenges including involvement with the juvenile justice system. Her motivation was to not only make positive changes within her own life but to reach out to others as well. Ms. Gauthier's culminating life experience, to date, is the motivation behind the development of Lead4Life, Inc.
The Lead4Life, Inc. provides individuals with strength-based programs with the hopes of empowering them to improve their quality of life. "We promote empowerment through direct services, advocacy, and education to enhance one's ability to make healthy choices," says Angela St.Clair, program manager.
Youth served are first time non-violent offenders who would benefit from case management in order to prevent involvement in the juvenile justice system.
"Our program uses an intervention strategy, so it's very much putting the work in, in advance." At the intake, the case manager develops a contract with the youth and parent(s) that will outline the specific tasks that the youth is to complete within a 30-day time frame. Both youth and parents' signatures are required on the contract.
"Our mentors are screened heavily," St.Clair explains. "They go through a screening process which includes a criminal background check, motor vehicle check, a personal in-home interview, and personal reference checks."
All of our mentors and mentees, along with their parents, receive two hours of orientation training. They also receive additional in-service training through the course of their relationship. There are fun monthly activities, which encourage relationship development and monthly case management from the program supports the matches.
"There are very specified subsets on teenage and youth population that are underserved - autistic youth, mentally handicapped youths - who really need mentors," St.Clair said. The goal of the mentoring program is to assist youth in a variety of positive decision making such as increasing school attendance, rejecting of negative peer pressure, and diverting youth from future contact with the Department of Juvenile Services.
Currently Lead4Life is in serious need of more male role models for boys ranging from twelve to fifteen years of age. "We're looking for men who enjoy seeing young men prosper, for men who have learned from their past mistakes, men who are good fathers, good brothers," St.Clair said. "We don't want kids on the waiting list for too long, because they'll starting wondering why they aren't being chosen.
"It is time to give back. These children need role models - the boys need a man to show them how to be a man. There's a lot of negative reaction toward men who come into their lives later in life because they didn't have a male figure in their lives while growing up. Now [unfortunately,] they then come across as aggressive.
Going to a baseball game, looking around a museum, spending a summer afternoon at a recreation park, or going to see a movie, are things that most of us don't give a second thought to, but these simple everyday exposures are something that many kids in our community are missing. "This mainly happens because these children are so confined to their own neighborhoods," St.Clair said. "Lots of things factor into why - transportation, comfort levels, no self-confidence to be able to go explore new avenues...that's what we try to offer kids."
Prepare spaghetti, show a fourteen year old how to change oil in the car, play football or basketball, get your nails done - do whatever you want. The mentors are there to help bring out the potential in your child, much like an uncle or big brother would.
"It's true, when a child has a role model, they have better respect for others. They want to be respected and not stereotyped...they want to be pushed to be a better person.
"We're hoping to keep kids out of trouble, in school, and show them positive avenues. Anything you can teach a kid increases their brain power."
Of course, more time is always appreciated and works wonders for your mentee, but one hour a week for one year is required from every mentor. If you feel this isn't for you...then maybe you know someone it would.
Mentors can be anyone - students who are interested in human service fields, ex-offenders who can share their experiences, professionals who want a personal connection with an at-risk youth or those who want to plant a seed and watch it grow.
If you're interested in hearing more call them at 301-791-7314, visit them on Facebook (Lead4Life-Inc-Washington-County-Diversion-Program-Mentoring-Initiative) or stop by the office at 44 North Potomac Street, 3rd Floor, Hagerstown. | <urn:uuid:995c3249-1812-4275-b196-9ea8734e0442> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.picketnews.com/articleDetail.asp?cID=1&id=14997 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96698 | 1,128 | 1.5 | 2 |
Little feet making big splashes.
With the pools still closed in the area Deep Run Creek it's the next big thing.
The Bassford brothers, seven, four and two get to explore, and throw rocks like little boys do.
But the best part is just stomping
A cool thing on a hot day.
"I was just trying to think of something refreshing to do the pools are closed and the creek came to mind...they just love it look at them....they're our boys I can't think of a better combination of than the outdoors a creek and boys." Heather Brassford, the boy’s mom says.
The creek is definitely better than being out on a ball field.
The heat on the field in the midday sun is well over 100 and that's the grass part.
A few folks were out running and jogging but by this evening the area will be full of soccer and lacrosse leagues.
There's also baseball going on.
Caroline Mahle's daughter Campbell is a slugger and wouldn't miss her game for anything.
Not even the heat.
So Caroline like most of the baseball moms and dads are loading up on things to keep their younglings cool.
"We have extra water bottles Gatorade we bring water mister bottles washrags that are cold and frozen in freezers."
"When they're not out in the field or batting we bring them to the side our coaches are fabulous for Towsontown they are proactive they go out and check on the kids they don't wait for the kids to come out of the field saying they're tired." Mahle says.
There are plenty of things you know like sunscreen and water breaks and a few things you don't know.
For more helpful tips Cal and Bill Ripken have some great advice for coaches and parents to help keep young athletes cool.
See more of the Ripkens' tips by clicking here .
Copyright 2011 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Obesity is a disease. That's the word from the American Medical Association.
If doctors and patients used prescription drugs more wisely, they could save the U.S. health care system at least $213 billion a year, by reducing medication overuse, underuse and other flaws in care that cause complications and longer, more-expensive treatments, researchers conclude.
How would you like to get an IV just to make you feel better?
It's a new wellness concept that's gaining popularity. | <urn:uuid:7a9e5a32-a462-4085-aeaf-2be7c9920b1f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/news/health/childrens_health/how-to-keep-kids-hydrated-during-athletic-events | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967999 | 529 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Friday afternoon Berta and I took off with the camper to Lake Pleasant, located 30 miles north of Phoenix. Managed by the Maricopa county Parks and Recreation Department, this area offers diving, fishing, hiking, camping and boating opportunities.
Lake Pleasant, a small part
The lake was originally created in the 1920s with the building of the Waddel Dam on the Agua Fria River. In 1992 the construction of a larger dam tripled the size of the lake. Lake Pleasant is Arizona’s second largest lake with 50 miles of shoreline.
Hillside above Lake Pleasant studded with Sagauro cactus
The lake is surrounded by Sonoran desert, the most complex of any desert type because of its diversity of species.
Globe Mallow and Brittlebush
This diversity is partly attributed to geologic history.
This geologic area of Arizona is known as the Basin and Range. After spending billions of years mostly under ocean waters a massive uplift to the north and east caused the land to stretch and allowed volcanic intrusions to build several mountain ranges. Erosion filled valleys and today we only see the tips of the mountains.
Chalcedony Desert Rose
Quartz is found in veins and pockets. Chalcedony is quartz that formed at or near the earth’s surface or in a pocket with no pressure creating the Desert Rose.
P and Berta looking at rocks
Three wild burros
A heard of 280 burros roam the adjacent public lands. Left behind by prospectors in the 1860s, they don’t pay any attention to human made land boundaries. We had seen burro dung around camp and heard their echoing cry.
Had to leave Saturday afternoon to pick up a friend from the airport shuttle. But can’t wait for the next campout. | <urn:uuid:c3c292ac-5808-476d-ae2c-c311f2563e4a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://geogypsy.blogspot.com/2009/03/lake-pleasant-campout.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95037 | 378 | 2.296875 | 2 |
WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 18, 2006) -- Jim Greenwood, president and CEO of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), issued the following statement on H.R. 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which was passed in the U.S. Senate today by a vote of 63-37. The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 810 by a vote of 238-194 on May 24, 2005.
“I commend the Senate for the passage of the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act and thank Majority Leader Bill Frist as well as the original cosponsors of the Senate companion to H.R. 810, Senators Arlen Specter, Tom Harkin, Orrin Hatch, Dianne Feinstein, Gordon Smith and Ted Kennedy, for their leadership and support of this critical legislation.
“While embryonic stem cell research is still at an early stage, the nation’s top scientists agree that this technology has the greatest potential to provide new, groundbreaking therapies for diabetes, heart disease, spinal cord injuries and a host of other disabling and deadly conditions. We must do all we can to accelerate the research and explore all avenues of therapeutic possibilities to their fullest. This bill allows important research to advance and creates an ethical framework that will ensure it is done appropriately.
“The bipartisan passage of the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act by both the House and Senate reflects the strong support of the vast majority of Americans for this very promising research.”
H.R. 810 would expand the limited number of stem cell lines currently available for federally-funded research by allowing individuals to donate excess embryos from in-vitro fertilization clinics which would otherwise be discarded as medical waste. Individuals who choose to donate these excess embryos would have to give written consent and would not receive any monetary compensation for the donation.
BIO represents more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in 31 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products. | <urn:uuid:c7c216a0-62be-4a60-a012-7f4232131636> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bio.org/media/press-release/bio-commends-senate-passage-stem-cell-research-enhancement-act-0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934614 | 435 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Center > Children and divorce
Children and Divorce
show that one in two marriages will end in divorce. Very often,
divorce is the best solution for a failing marriage, but that does not
mean that it is not difficult for all involved. While a divorce is going
to impact children involved no matter what, here are some tips to help
you lessen that impact:
• Tell them – many parents are afraid
to upset their children by informing them of their decision to divorce
or separate. However, oftentimes, children realize that something
is wrong, and if they are not told directly, they may come to the
wrong conclusions. For many reasons, it is important to let your children
know of the decision, no matter how young they are. (However, you
should only tell them once you are certain you will divorce).
• Set aside time – do not tell your children
right before they are off to school! Tell them when they will have
time to grasp the information and ‘mourn’ before they
must deal with the realities of life. Comfort them.
• Together – once you have decided to
divorce, tell your children together.
• Blame – make sure that the children
know that the divorce is not their fault. Also, be sure to not assign
blame to one parent or the other.
• Simplicity – tell your children in
the most simple and straight-forward way possible. Make sure they
understand what is going on, and make sure that they understand that
you are not going to get back together.
• Upsetting – don’t pretend that
the divorce will be easy. Let your children know that it is going
to be difficult for everyone.
• Tell them you love them – make sure
they know how much you love them and how you will both always be their
parents, even if you have split.
• Expectations – give your children an
idea of what they can expect in the future (there is no need to go
into great detail, though).
• Ask if they have any questions.
• Never talk poorly about your ex-spouse –
you should not discuss the faults of your ex. For your children’s
sake, do not be bitter.
• Watch for signs of depression, etc. –
if necessary, get professional help for your children (and/or for | <urn:uuid:f251d311-8fee-4ed8-aa5e-b813edf178ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://familysupportamerica.org/content/policy/adv_index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951721 | 506 | 2.875 | 3 |
Thursday, August 26, 2010
OneExtraLap - Social Quizzing
OneExtraLap is a site dedicated to the idea of creating a quiz, making it social, and then turning that quiz into a competition. It allows you to create and take compelling and content rich quizzes while competing with friends and earning points and badges. Sign up is easy. Username, Password, and Email address.
Each quiz is limited to 9 questions, but each question can have up to 9 answers, so you could also turn your quiz into a survey. You can also tag your quizzes making it easy for students to find them online and take them. I think a site like this could really take off if they created a way to create teacher accounts. It would be a great way to create competition online for your students and provide another way for your to assess your students. It is still in its infancy, but I think the site shows some promise of being useful and neat. | <urn:uuid:47678d5b-f666-491e-b8e4-d43f813d6902> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.edutechintegration.net/2010/08/oneextralap-social-quizzing.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970788 | 197 | 2.09375 | 2 |
As the haze continues to worsen in north eastern China, local media had reported that Bejing and 32 other cities had suffered from “hazardous” air this weekend. The Los Angeles skyline has often been known to display a brownish skyline which is in part due to reasons similar to the cause of pollution in Bejing, like car traffic. Residents of Bejing were advised for the fourth straight day to stay indoors because of the levels of toxic particles in the air. Many parts of the city were covered so heavily to the point where roughly 700 flights were canceled at the Bejing airport, some highways were also closed down.
Levels of pollution are the worst in recorded history. The U.S. Embassy in Bejing reported the city’s air quality-index to read about 775, where a rating of 300 is considered “extremely rare” here in the United States. Hospitals in Bejing have reported up to 30% increases in the number of patients reporting breathing problems. Higher concentrations of particulate matter (PM) are associated with emergency room visits making the air quality a serious health concern for not only the residents of China, but the entire world.
These events contribute to a dim future for the Earth’s atmosphere and all human beings since particulate matter is capable of penetrating the lungs and impairing respiratory function, which is why Chinese people are commonly seen wearing face masks in photographs. Smog is not any one city’s problem. Though the poor air quality has secluded itself into a particular area at the present time, be mindful that the globe’s air can never be segregated.
To address this factor, 76 United Nations (UN) members had signed a “legally binding agreement” obliging industrially developed nations to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases. The Kyoto Protocol was enacted in 2005 with the hope that the stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations would be possible. Unfortunately, China was not one of the countries to sign the treaty. The United States also has declined to ratify the treaty. | <urn:uuid:a09b0e84-ff07-4076-9454-d622402c22c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.examiner.com/article/air-pollution-china-is-at-a-record-high?cid=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974835 | 418 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Consumers Demanding Convenience of Online Bill Payments
The main criteria for choosing a bank used to be its proximity to home. Now customers are looking carefully at the quality of a bank's online bill-paying service before they choose.
“Paying bills online is in the mainstream, and for the first time online banking and bill pay has moved into the top three factors considered by consumers when choosing a bank," said Matt Lewis, executive vice president and general manager of CheckFree's Electronic Commerce Division.
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CheckFree Corporation, the electronic commerce services provider, conducted its twice-a-year survey of 2,083 consumers. It found that at least one bill is paid online by 56 percent of U.S. households with online capabilities. The company also said the volume of payments made at a consumer's consolidated bill pay account, usually offered at no charge by a bank, brokerage or credit union, increased 24 percent from June 2004 to March 2005.
In fact, consumers who received their bills electronically, at the same site where they pay multiple bills, are the happiest customers, with 60 percent saying they are “very satisfied” with online banking.
Credit and debit card payments are expected to increase for utilities, cable companies, banks and other companies that set up websites for customers, called biller-direct sites, according to a separate survey of 21 billers that account for 9 percent of all consumer bill payments.
New York-based research firm Aite Group LLC said biller-direct sites will see the share of transactions coming from credit and debit cards jump to 16.5 percent in 2005 from 14.3 percent last year, Digital Transactions News reported.
Billers pay discount fees for card transactions, but consumer pressure and competition with other billers, is forcing them to accept the cards.
Gwenn Bezard, research director at Aite, said some consumers may be strapped for cash and therefore like using credit cards to help make ends meet. "Billers don't like it when consumers pay with a credit card, but they don't want to lose customers to competitors if the competitors accept cards," he said.
The report also said that consolidated bill-paying sites will now face increasing pressure to allow credit and debit cards to avoid losing payments to biller-direct sites.
"The infrastructure set up for consolidator bill payments was not set up for credit and debit card payments," Bezard said. In addition, most banks are hesitant to permit payments on cards issued by competing banks, he said.
Online purchasing is also growing in popularity. Visa reports that online spending using Visa payment cards increased 23.4 percent year-over-year to $2.4 billion for the week ending Nov. 13. Visa processed 28.5 million transactions, representing an increase of 17.6 percent from the same period in 2004.
Fraud is always a concern for consumers paying bills or making purchases online. Computer crimes that target businesses, however, are at their lowest level ever, said Robert Richardson, editorial director for the Computer Security Institute (CSI) in Philadelphia, according to TechNewsWorld. The average loss per cybercrime incident in 2005 was about $250,000, versus $500,000 in 2004 and more than $3 million in 2001, he said during a Nov. 12 Webcast on the annual CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey.
He added that more than 80 percent of the total cybercrime losses of $130.1 million this year were due to viruses, unauthorized access to computer systems and theft of proprietary information.
"Even though in many ways we've gotten a much better handle on how to handle your everyday virus attack, nevertheless, that's still the top pain point for the respondents to this survey," Richardson said. | <urn:uuid:357a9c13-8d19-4efc-ab16-c12604b91592> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.accountingweb.com/topic/cfo/consumers-demanding-convenience-online-bill-payments | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953591 | 894 | 1.523438 | 2 |
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Wed December 21, 2011
Library shuttering deals a devastating blow to one Detroit community
Four branches of the Detroit Public Library system will shut their doors for good this week.
Library officials say it’s just a reflection of fiscal reality. But that’s cold comfort to Detroiters who will lose their neighborhood branches.
One of those branches is the Monteith library, on the city’s far east side. Residents there say their library is one of the last community institutions they have left—and shuttering it will be a devastating blow.
“A safe haven” for kids
The Monteith library looks more like a church than a library.
Its stone exterior and stained glass window panels evoke a Gothic cathedral. Inside, you can spot lots of the little ornate details that you find so often in 1920s Detroit architecture.
When Monteith opened in 1926, it served a thriving east side neighborhood that was assimilating a diverse array of immigrant families. But the neighborhood slowly began to empty out in the mid-century—a process of decay that’s only accelerated ever since. Now, the Monteith library is remarkable not only because it’s a beautiful building, but a beautiful building in one of the city’s most devastated communities.
“It’s like the Alamo, the last thing standing,” says Jay Henderson, who’s with the group Friends of the Monteith Library.
“And if we don’t win this one, what else is there? The community center is gone, lots of the houses is gone, but this library still stands tall.”
Henderson says the library is far “more than a building” in this community—it’s a “refuge” and a “safe haven,” especially for kids.
A space for community
Monteith’s spacious upstairs used to be the children’s room. Today, the space hosts a number of community activities. The East Side Tutoring program helps kids with their homework. And twice a week, mats get rolled out on the floor for martial arts practice.
On a recent weekend afternoon, Sensei Kevin Bolton and two teenage black belts put about a dozen younger kids through their paces in a karate class.
Ivy Hadley brings her three kids from across town for the free classes. She’s furious that these activities will be displaced—and maybe cancelled—when the library closes.
“How are the kids gonna stay out of trouble when you’re taking things from them?” asks Hadley, visibly frustrated. “You gotta occupy their minds, you know? I try my best to occupy the minds of my kids, so they stay out of trouble.”
Leroy Lewis, a high school senior who grew up in the neighborhood, says he used Monteith for just that purpose.
“I would come use the computers for school projects,” Lewis says. “I would check out books, magazines…when I was bored or whatever, I would read a lot.”
Downstairs, Monteith hums with quiet activity. The computer terminals are almost all occupied, something staff members say is typical. For many people in impoverished neighborhoods like this one, the library is the only place where many can get access to a computer.
But like in all libraries, there are the folks who just like to come here and read. And it’s easy to see why people would like doing that in this stately old library.
Closing would be “dismal”
While the building IS old, Monteith looks like it’s in good shape. That’s partly because the Junior League of Detroit has made some major investments in the building. It did a lot of restoration work, and bought the library new computers and furniture.
Friends of the Monteith’s Jay Henderson thinks that’s another good reason to keep the library open. “If you have a group willing to make that kind of commitment, why would you take it away?” he says. “Unless there’s some agenda that we don’t know [about].”
But Detroit library officials say there’s no agenda—just a $9.2 million budget gap that will only keep growing as revenues keep declining. The Richard, Mark Twain and Lincoln branches are also slated to close this week.
This week, library backers, including Friends of the Monteith, went to a Library Commission meeting and pleaded for a reprieve to rustle up more funds to keep the building open.
Library Commissioner Jonathan Kinloch thinks those efforts are well-intentioned, but come too late.
“We cannot operate based upon maybes right now,” Kinloch says. “The city of Detroit, and particularly the library’s finances, are flying off of a cliff. So we have to make sound business decisions.”
Kinloch and the Commission stood firm, and for now, plans are for the doors to close forever. The immediate plans for the buildings are to board them up. The contents will be inventoried, and distributed to surrounding schools and libraries over the next few months.
And that’s crushing to people like Davina Brooks, who often brings her eight children to Monteith.
“If they turn their backs on it…there’s nothing else,” says Brooks. “That’s the last thing. The grocery stores have closed, the schools have closed…where are they to go?”
Brooks says it will be “dismal” to see the beautiful, historic building her kids have come to know as a window on the world to become “just another boarded up, vacant building in Detroit.”
Detroit library to conserve essentials | <urn:uuid:47fced06-3eb6-4a58-b985-937d11efb24f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.michiganradio.org/post/library-shuttering-deals-devastating-blow-one-detroit-community | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953352 | 1,246 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Dora Bas Rivka Silver O'H
You Don't Have Anything Better to Do?
Micah says woe to those who lie in bed, plotting all their evil, then perform it in the morning. They have to power to just take whatever they want, so their plans are effectively already a "done deal." G-d says that He'll plan evil for the nation who does this; they will not be able to get out of it.
When the evil G-d has planned comes to pass, there will be mourning in the form of a parable. (Radak says this refers to false prophets, who will intentionally obscure their meanings to conceal that their words do not come true.) The people will say, "We've been robbed! Our land has been given to the enemy! How can we get G-d to give us back our inheritance?" Therefore, don't let anyone divide hereditary property. (If false prophets are saying this, then the meaning is that they are hypocrites, mourning over a destruction that they caused. Their own lines will be cut off, so there will be no one to inherit from them.)
Micah tells the real prophets not to preach to the people, since all they do is mock G-d's words. (The Radak says that the people are telling the prophets not to bother preaching, since they don't intend to listen.) Is that a proper thing for them to say? Has G-d somehow lost the ability to do good for them? (Of course not!) G-d's not the one who mistreated the poor innocents! The actions of the people are what put Him on the opposite side! They're the ones who will make men's wives into widows and cause their children not to inherit what G-d gave them. Go into exile because G-d didn't give you the land in order to act this way! You contaminate the land with your evil!
The people would gladly accept the words of an obviously-false prophet who told them to party. G-d will exile the people, but He will ultimately gather them back like a shepherd gathers his sheep. Someone will go before them to break down the barriers and straighten the road before them. (The prophet Malachi says it will be Eliyahu - Elijah - see Malachi 3:23, "Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of G-d arrives.") Their king will go before them, with G-d in the lead. (Alternatively, these last few verses refer to the exile and the king is Tzidkiyahu, who tried to escape through a breach in the walls and G-d preceded them into exile by withdrawing His presence, as we saw in the Book of Ezekiel.) | <urn:uuid:da39aa14-4767-4725-88b0-18b05555e94d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ou.org/index.php/torah/article/micah_chapter_2/zmanim-tab | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972063 | 571 | 2.046875 | 2 |
SOUTH BASS ISLAND, Ohio — Waterfront accommodations on a rocky bluff overlooking Lake Erie, incredible views of the lake and postcard sunsets every evening, waves crashing onto the beach below, a soothing breeze, and a comforting umbrella of shade provided by mature hardwoods — all this for $28 a night.
This is the place where a multimillion-dollar campsite can be had for about the cost of a decent bottle of wine, or a reasonable steak dinner. This is where the luxury and opulence of a bygone era have been replaced by just the most basic of amenities.
South Bass Island State Park sits on the property that was once home to the Hotel Victory, a massive resort built to provide every comfort for its well-heeled and aristocratic clientele. The Victory was five-star before such a rating existed.
The hotel and its grounds covered only a quarter of the 100-acre site on a precipice that dominated the island’s western shore. The stunning piece of Queen Anne-style architecture had more than 800 guest rooms, an auditorium that could seat 700, and a dining room where close to 1,000 could be served.
The Hotel Victory’s real charm was built into its accoutrements — a staff of hundreds, wine cellars, a greenhouse, numerous shops, an in-house dentist, tailor, and manicurist, a barbershop, a livery, and an ice cream parlor. Guests arrived on the island by steamship, many of them fleeing the intense humidity and insects of summers in the South, and rode a dedicated trolley line from downtown to the grand lodge, where the moderating impact of the lake kept them cool and the Hotel Victory surrounded them with luxury and priceless vistas. Many of the political powerbrokers of the time stayed at the hotel.
"It is hard to imagine there being a more beautiful place to camp anywhere in this part of the country," said Susie Cooper of the Lake Erie Islands Historical Society in the village of Put-in-Bay, where artifacts from the hotel are displayed.
But the Victory, which was built by Toledo developer James Tillotson and completed in 1896, struggled financially and was consumed in August, 1919, by the largest structure fire the Lake Erie islands have ever seen. The hotel had changed ownership several times, and legend has it the fire was likely intentionally started to bail out investors.
Julene Market, a sixth-generation islander, recalled her grandmother telling her about how the Hotel Victory blaze went on for days, and how the young women working outside on nearby properties had to cover their heads in wet towels to protect themselves from the ash and embers carried by the wind.
The hotel was not rebuilt, and eventually 33 prime acres of Lake Erie waterfront property on the original site of the Victory were acquired by the state and converted into a park. Today the campground has 125 nonelectric campsites and 10 full-service sites. Flush toilets, showers, picnic tables, and a fishing pier are the extent of the amenities.
In the center of the campground you find the sole remaining vestiges of the Hotel Victory and the era of opulence. The stone ruins of the structure that surrounded the large, bronze statue of Lady Victory are visible behind one showerhouse, while the decaying foundation of the swimming pool sits below the original site of the hotel.
Island Realtor Corky McIlrath-Flint said it would be tough to place a value on the campground property, because no comparable piece of real estate exists, but the waterfront, beach, limestone bluffs, trees, views, and rich history would all compound any assessment.
"A site like that is very, very rare, so an estimate of $20 to $30 million would be just an educated guess as to its value," she said. "One thing for certain is that the campground on South Bass is an absolute diamond — it has to be the crown jewel of such parks in Ohio."
Contact Blade outdoors editor Matt Markey at: email@example.com or 419-724-6068. | <urn:uuid:590e8fdd-a0a3-4635-94af-c9d828cfca98> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.toledoblade.com/A-E/2012/06/24/South-Bass-Island-s-last-resort.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960554 | 855 | 1.953125 | 2 |
When she’s excited, Iris wags her whole body. Even the nylon tunnel can’t contain her delight. The black Lab disappears into the tunnel, and her joy becomes sound: slap, slap, slap, tail on tube. You’d never know it’s dark in there. Rusty, a smiling yellow Lab, and Ruger, a German Shepherd whose smile is hidden by the large toy in his mouth, can’t wait for whatever comes next. That turns out to be the arrival of Falco and his owner, Jason Rogers.
It’s a sunny but cool morning in Upper Lake, Calif., gateway to Mendocino National Forest, where California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) K-9 program supervisor Lynette Shimek is hosting a monthly training session. Finding a mussel in a boat bilge takes practice, especially when daily work in the field has revolved around other tasks—say, deer poaching.
A warden’s work can be unpredictable. To keep the dogs on their toes, the group often switches locations, but Shimek’s rural property, complete with barn and fields, is the base camp. All around, mysterious props hint of hard work disguised as serious fun: tunnels, ramps and wooden pallets; jars, balls, tugs, pails and climbing rigs. “You want to first teach them that it’s fun,” Shimek says.
No need to tell the dogs they are here to save the planet. Let them enjoy the scents of nature, the breeze with its hints of bear and deer. Or was it elk? These dogs know the difference.
How It Works
“I think any dog can be taught anything,” Shimek says. “It’s a matter of communicating with them.” That’s no small task when it comes to scent detection. A dog’s brain is closely hitched to the 220 million olfactory receptor cells in their noses. Humans, on the other hand, have about 5 million receptors, and this can make it a challenge for a person to understand how strong a dog’s sense of smell actually is, and how to harness it.
Shimek explains it this way. “A person sheds 40,000 skin cells [groups of which are called rafts] per minute. On each raft are odors. Each is individual to the person, and everyone has different types of sweat glands that give different odors. Then, think of all the different things you put on your skin daily—shampoos, soaps, deodorants, creams. There are compounds within odors.” And the odors themselves have a life, influenced by wind speed, temperature, time of day and terrain.
Training doesn’t end with graduation. DFG’s certification standards require 16 hours of monthly maintenance training, and both agility and nose work are part of the practice session.
Hidden on Shimek’s property are animal scents encased in jars. For deer, hide material is often used, tucked into wooden pallets and a series of lockers. Odors travel, and working with lockers helps the dogs learn to pinpoint the source. More broadly, a search will entail what Shimek calls a “scent picture.” For example, one spent casing differs from 20 spent casings. A Seattle Police Department K-9 training document describes how a dog can decipher that hidden world. A person walking through an area, for example, leaves two types of evidence that make up the ground scent picture: airborne rafts and other debris that fall to the ground, and the disturbance of the earth from their steps. Each footfall alters the ground, prompting changes in soil chemistry and bacteria, which alerts the dog to a change from the surrounding area.
Once the dog locks onto a scent, he or she alerts the handler. In a passive alert, the dog remains quiet and indicates the find by sitting, standing or staring. An active alert, also called an aggressive alert, involves barking or scratching. If the odor is on ground, the dog lies down; if it’s somewhere above chest level, the dog sits. The dogs must discriminate among competing smells, and there are no rewards—treat, toy or a pat—for alerting on the wrong scent. “We don’t pay them for residual odors,” Shimek notes.
The teams also work on different kinds of footing to meet the challenges encountered in the field. Ramps and stairs teach them to be aware of their feet. People can see their feet and watch each step; dogs can’t. Obstacles—things the dogs go up, over, under and through—are also put to use. “Everything is in building blocks,” Shimek says. With tubes, for example, they start with straight ones and add culverts as the dog gains confidence. “When Iris goes in, we listen for the tail,” Shimek observes. Thump, thump, thump: she’s doing fine. As she exits, they watch her behavior. Smiling? Stressed?
Iris is also watching her handler, according to Shimek. “Dogs are masters of body language. They read the handler when the handler has no idea.” Her secret for turning out successful teams? Positive reinforcement, behavioral modification and building trust between handler and dog. She believes that when a dog fails to learn, it is always the handler’s fault. Even as the person is training the dog, “the dog is teaching the handler how they learn.”
DFG’s K-9 program has two types of trained dogs, both certified to detect specific odors. Dual-purpose teams locate people, apprehend suspects, and perform tracking or trailing duties. Detection teams focus on odors and evidence; illegally taken wildlife, invasive species, firearms, spent casings, and more. The dogs may be trained to track, but not contact suspects. Depending on their locations, teams are taught to detect bear, bear gallbladders, deer, fish, elk, abalone, waterfowl and squirrel. A minimum of five scents must be mastered to pass the academy.
An Urgent Problem
DFG’s K-9 program began in 2007. The agency estimates that one well-trained dog can save roughly 800 personnel hours per year. With 20 trained dogs on duty, they’re well on their way to meeting their 24-dog goal. Shimek’s current scent dog, a black Lab named Lance, certified with her in May, as did five other teams. Nearly 50 out of 58 counties in California have added K-9 support.
A shortage of wardens lends urgency to the K-9 program. In California, for example, there are 200 wardens for every 180,000 people, according to the HSUS. This is, they say, the lowest ratio “in any state or province in North America, and a number that has remained virtually unchanged since the 1950s.” In the documentary Endangered Species: California Fish & Game Wardens, filmmakers James and Andrew Swan spotlight the result of that shortage: organized crime has become involved in poaching, and a wildlife black market that generates more than $100 million annually has been created.
Poachers—who hunt in the off-season; take more fish or game than allowed; or illegally sell abalone, sturgeon, bears and many other species—put enormous pressure on wildlife. So do pollution, habitat destruction and the insidious practice of introducing non-native fish like northern pike and white bass into California's lakes and rivers.
In April 2011, HSUS created the California Anti-Poaching Action Network. Their objective is to address the warden shortage by mobilizing groups of community-based volunteers to closely follow poaching cases in their counties and encourage prosecutors and judges to deal with poachers in a meaningful way.
Habitats Under Siege
Poaching is not the only problem, however. The West’s rich variety of environments creates endless opportunities for invasive plants and animals, “alien species whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm, or harm to human health,” as defined by the National Invasive Species Council. The U.S. Geological Survey is also concerned about the effects of these interlopers, pointing out that exotic species “have altered physical processes related to fire and hydrology in a manner favoring their further expansion.”
Quagga and zebra mussels, hitchhikers that travel from the Baltic Sea to the U.S. in ships’ ballasts, are the top two offenders on the list of threats posed by invasive species. These rapidly reproducing mussels clog water-delivery pipes and devastate waterways. “Our department is the only state agency in the nation that is training dogs to detect mussels,” Shimek says. That training began in 2008, when Shimek took stock of the looming threat. So far, the state’s boat-inspection program has yet to put the dogs to work in any systematic way, relying instead on human inspectors. Still, the dogs are getting ready for deployment. In fact, K-9 invasive-species detection is a whole new arm of conservation.
The Friendly Factor
From the standpoint of agencies whose employees carry firearms, dogs are also helpful when it comes to public perception. Dogs’ popularity was among the justifications offered by Colonel Dabney Watts for adding a K-9 program to Virginia’s Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. The idea had been kicked around over the years but never got going, and Watts believed he had solid evidence of its usefulness with everything from agency branding to reducing employee hours in the field. “We sent a survey to 18 states” with K-9 programs, he told colleagues in an April 2011 presentation, “and got 14 very positive responses.”
Today, 24 wildlife agencies in the U.S. have K-9 units, Watts said. Their time has come. “There will be other uses for these dogs, non-traditional ones,” in the future, he added.
The nation’s first wildlife K-9 program began in New York in 1978 with the Department of Environmental Conservation K-9 program, and soon caught on in other states. At first, additional police dogs were assigned to the wildlife beat; then in the 1980s, sporting breeds were introduced, which, according to Watts, “helped gain widespread public acceptance for the use of dogs by wildlife agencies.”
About 35 percent of the work is public relations, he estimates—one reason Virginia chose three Labs for its program. The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, which started its K-9 program in 2002, also uses even-tempered Labrador Retrievers.
In 2011, Idaho joined California and Kansas when the Idaho Department of Fish and Game added Pepper to its workforce. The Lab will help track poachers, assist in search and rescue, and promote conservation efforts by visiting schools and other groups. The program, which consists of only one team, is considered a trial. After five years, it will be evaluated to see how well it worked. If it succeeds, more Scent Detection K9 teams will be authorized for use throughout the state.
How do you train a fish and wildlife dog when you’re launching the first such program in the state? Like Virginia and Kansas, Idaho sent their dog and handler to Indiana, where the state’s Department of Natural Resources hosted a free training academy. Merely attending, however, is no guarantee of success. Of the three dogs Virginia sent, two flunked out in the first 10 days. Luckily, Kansas, with its well-seasoned K-9 program, brought backup dogs.
Come One, Come All
Though the work may be similar from state to state, there are also regional differences. Florida is rich in biodiversity—and wildlife crime—but not every state crawls with alligators. In southern California, dogs help conduct surveys of desert tortoises. One thing all wildlife agencies share is the desire for people-oriented dogs, fully socialized with humans and animals alike. Hence, most are companion dogs, pets of wardens who later join the K-9 team. For example, Ruger was Warden Bob Pera’s wife’s dog until the Shepherd decided he needed a job. “He started going to work with me every day,” Pera says.
When it comes to breed, the field is wide open. Mixed breeds are welcome and “pre-owned” dogs of every sort can find a job if they’ve got the knack. When DFG is planning to offer a detection academy, a request is put out to see who’s interested. Shimek then travels to interview candidates, and find out if they have a dog. Once they graduate from the six-week academy, the department purchases the warden’s dog for a dollar.
Several recent graduates were rescue dogs. They need not be spayed or neutered, though Shimek advocates sterilization. A series of tests is used to check for suitability for the work. “We want endurance and hunting drive,” she says, along with sociability and trainability. One test involves throwing a ball in a field or hiding balls in trees and seeing how long the dog will search for it. Highly focused canines do best.
As every trainer knows, shelters are filled with dogs with such intense drive; in fact, that drive is one of the reasons people abandon or relinquish their dogs.
Rusty and Jin are perfect examples. Rusty, a neutered male Lab mix who works in California’s El Dorado, Amador and Alpine counties, was once a shelter dog. When Warden Erick Elliot adopted him, he was uncontrollable. It’s hard to imagine that earlier dog in the energetic bounce of the happy animal with the toy in his mouth who circles Elliot, or fearlessly scales a set of metal stairs at Shimek’s canine playground. All he needed was someone to believe in and guide him. In the field, Rusty has located deer and bear carcasses, enabling Elliot to pinpoint exact kill sites.
When Shimek says, “It’s the dogs themselves who have taught me the most,” the first to come to mind is a female named Jin. “The worst dog I ever had the privilege of working with became one of the best detection dogs,” she says.
Jin had been through three homes in her first year of life, and wasn’t house trained. Plucked from a shelter by another warden, who brought her to Shimek, Jin taught Shimek valuable lessons. Such as: “dogs should never be punished for anything they do out of fear.” To rehabilitate her, Shimek had to essentially step back in time and begin working with her at the most basic level.
The first task was simply saving the emaciated creature. “When I got her, she was almost dead,” Shimek recalls. It took eight months to straighten out her digestive system. As gaunt as she was in 2008, Jin fought a leash (which she seemed to regard as a monster attached to her neck), jumped on everyone and barked constantly. One year and 15 pounds later, Jin passed her first detection test and now works in San Joaquin and Calaveras counties, with a handler who adores her.
As forces like climate change and habitat loss reshape the nation's wildlands, the job of Fish and Game dogs will continue to evolve. Scientists are exploring ways to tap their talents to meet the challenge, because each dog, regardless of their particular abilities or the obstacles they've overcome to pass the academy, comes equipped with a valuable natural resource. That is, a nose for nature.
Photographs by Derek Pell | <urn:uuid:26557b28-4f7e-4fe1-973d-44745dd5399c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thebark.com/print/4333?page=show | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957662 | 3,366 | 2.375 | 2 |
President Barack Obama continued his push for tougher gun legislation in the final weekly address of his first term in office Saturday.
"My administration has taken a series of actions right away, from strengthening our background check system, to helping schools hire more resource officers if they want them, to directing the Centers for Disease Control to study the best ways to reduce gun violence," the president said. "But the truth is, making a real and lasting difference also requires Congress to act."
Based on the recommendations of a task force led by Vice President Joe Biden, the president urged Congress to pass universal background checks and restore a ban on military-style assault weapons.
He also called for a 10-round clip limit and tougher penalties for those who privately sell guns to criminals. | <urn:uuid:03fd3c12-8b32-416c-89b2-a541000942c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ny1.com/printarticle.aspx?ArID=175713 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966011 | 153 | 1.5 | 2 |
COUNTY. The forty-sixth in order of formation, Casey County
was created on November 14, 1806, from Lincoln County, and
named in honor of Col. William Casey, a Revolutionary War
veteran from Virginia who explored the area in 1779. The 435-square-mile
county is bordered by Russell, Pulaski, Lincoln, Boyle, Marion,
Taylor, and Adair counties. LIBERTY, the county seat, was
incorporated in 1830.
Topography varies from dissected uplands to broad valleys
with flat-topped ridges. The headwaters of the Green River
and the Rolling Fork of the Salt River are the main water
sources. Casey's 1850 population of 5,863 included 634 slaves.
In 1870 the county produced 95,750 pounds of tobacco and 332,779
bushels of corn. In 1989, 71 percent of the land area was
in farms and half of those were in cultivation. Casey ranks
thirty-eighth among counties in agricultural receipts from
tobacco, corn, hay, livestock, and vegetables. The county's
30,000 apple trees produce one-sixth of the state's crop.
Early settlers arrived in 1779. Henry Quarles received a
Virginia land grant for 1,000 acres in 1784. Prior to 1800,
thirteen land grants for 3,022 acres were filed. While the
population grew slowly, numerous travelers followed two trails
across the county that connected Logan's Station at Stanford
with settlements on the Green and Barren rivers to the west.
The first county court met on May 4, 1807, and among other
business, fixed rates on liquor, meals, and lodging at several
taverns. Whiskey and brandy were eight cents and twelve cents
a half-pint, respectively; breakfast was seventeen cents and
dinner twenty-five cents; lodging was six cents a night.
One of the families who settled in the county around 1781
was that of Capt. Abraham Lincoln, the president's grandfather.
The Lincolns lived for two and a half years on eight hundred
acres on the Green River. The land was sold in 1803 to Christopher
Riffe for 400 pounds sterling by Mordecai Lincoln, Captain
Lincoln's heir. Another landowner, Enoch Burdett, accumulated
13,000 acres of timberland, and upon his death in 1875, his
holdings were sold to Eugene Zimmerman, a Cincinnati businessman.
Zimmerman employed three hundred at his mills. In 1879 he
built a wooden train track from Kings Mountain to Staffordsville,
and in 1884 he organized the CINCINNATI & GREEN RIVER
Railway Company. In 1891 when the timber resources were exhausted,
he liquidated his holdings. The timber boom and early railroad
had little lasting economic impact on the county.
While there are no records of Civil War skirmishes in the
county. Casey is credited with producing one-third of the
1st Kentucky Cavalry, recruited by Col. Frank Wolford and
Col. Silas Adams, to serve in the Union army. The 1st Cavalry
was active in the Battles of Mill Springs, Perryville, and
Lebanon. Tennessee. Adams served as state representative and
later in the 53d U.S. Congress (1893-95).
Lumber continues in the 1990s to be an important segment
of the economy, with five manufacturing firms producing wood
products. Eight firms manufacture metal farm gates. The largest
employer is Oshkosh B'Gosh, producer of children's clothing.
Tourism brought in $1 million in 1988. Crude oil production
totaled 4,599 barrels in 1989. The Casey County Apple Festival
each September features the baking of what is billed as the
world's largest apple pie. Casey County's primary transportation
route is U.S. 127.
Casey County's population was 12,930 in 1970; 14,818 in 1980;
and 14,211 in 1990.
See Gladys C. Thomas, Casey County, Kentucky 1806-1983
(Danville, Ky., 1983).
GLADYS C. THOMAS
From The Kentucky Encyclopedia, edited by John Kleber.
Copyright 1992. Reprinted with permission of The University
Press of Kentucky. | <urn:uuid:dfef8652-669c-4021-90c4-7b54d5dc8668> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://caseybank.com/caseycounty_history.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933275 | 934 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Twenty years after Chris McCandless died alone in an abandoned bus on the edge of the real Alaska wilderness, there are still those who don't get the fundamental lesson: The Alaska wilds do not deal kindly with those who fail to have their wits about them.
All McCandless had to do in 1992 was start a big, smoky fire next to the bus in which he was squatting less than 20 miles from the George Parks Highway, and a small army of firefighters would have descended to rescue him from the north side of Denali National Park and Preserve. But McCandless, who'd already proven himself unable to dry meat like the early Athabascan Indians did or find the tramway across the Teklanika River only about a half mile off the Stampede Road that had led him to the bus, didn't start a fire.
Instead he wrote a note, crawled into a sleeping bag, and died of starvation.
It took author Jon Krakauer to come along and lionize him years later with “Into the Wild,” a sad tale of youthful searching for the meaning of life felled by some poisonous seeds. The poisonous seeds part turned out to be bunk. McCandless wasn't killed by the seeds. He was killed by his own inability to find food or find a way out. And his youthful searching, well, if anyone read the book closely, it appeared more about mental illness than anything else:
Abandon your family for no reason. Ditch your car in the desert. Burn or bury your money for reasons unclear. Stop bathing because it's too much trouble. There are people just like McCandless living on the streets of Anchorage today.
But enough on that. Let's move on to the people who still don't get it. One of them, a writer named Pete Mason, seems to find McCandless's sad story inspirational. He wrote about it for The Huffington Post this week:
The thrill of adventure I gained from reading Into the Wild and seeing where (McCandless) traveled is inspirational. Wandering the country for more than two years with no phone, no car, no cigarettes, serves as a lesson that the material goods we all cherish and seek to obtain as status symbols are doing nothing but holding us back from doing what we are truly capable of doing.
"No cigarettes"? "No cigarettes serves as a lesson that the material goods we all cherish and seek to obtain as status symbols are doing nothing but holding us back from doing what we are truly capable of doing"?
And what exactly was McCandless doing? Nothing.
No matter. Mason seems fully taken in by Krakauer's book. Not McCandless's book, mind you, but Krakauer's book. Here's how Mason sees that book:
In another time, (McCandless) would be called an explorer, much like founder of the Sierra Club John Muir, who wrote in his book A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf of his 1867 walk from Indiana to Florida, all for the purpose of taking the walk. McCandless walked because he was looking for something greater than what he had found in the 20th century, while Muir walked as an explorer in a century when the country was not yet fully discovered. Muir went on to great things because he lived....
Muir went on to great things because he had a talent for observation and skill as a writer, not just because he lived. Muir compiled copious journals and wrote long letters during his journeys across the U.S. and Alaska, to which he traveled to -- and returned safely from -- when it was tough and dangerous to get here. Muir later used the information he collected to write books. He helped to document natural history.
What did McCandless do? He jotted a few lines of script down here and there as he aimlessly wandered the country. He left no substantive work. He barely left anything coherent. Here are the insightful notes from his Alaska diary:
Day 2: Fall through the ice day. Day 4: Magic bus day. Day 9: Weakness. Day 10: Snowed in. Day 13: Porcupine day.... Day 14: Misery. Day 31: Move bus. Grey bird. Ash bird. Squirrel. Gourmet duck! Day 43: MOOSE! Day 48: Maggots already. Smoking appears ineffective. Don't know, looks like disaster. I now wish I had never shot the moose. One of the greatest tragedies of my life. Day 68: Beaver Dam. Disaster. Day 69: Rained in, river looks impossible. Lonely, Scared. Day 74: Terminal man. Faster. Day 78: Missed wolf. Ate potato seeds and many berries coming. Day 94: Woodpecker. Fog. Extremely weak. Fault of potato seed. Much trouble just to stand up. Starving. Great jeopardy. ... Day 100: Death looms as serious threat, too weak to walk out, have literally become trapped in wild—no game. Day 101-103: [No written entries, just the days listed.] Day 104: Missed bear! Day 105: Five squirrel. Caribou. Day 107: Beautiful berries.
The words of McCandless's very last missive, a note fastened to the aforementioned bus:
Attention Possible Visitors. S.O.S. I NEED YOUR HELP. I AM INJURED, NEAR DEATH, AND TOO WEAK TO HIKE OUT OF HERE. I AM ALL ALONE. THIS IS NO JOKE. ("JOKE" underlined twice) IN THE NAME OF GOD, PLEASE REMAIN TO SAVE ME. I AM OUT COLLECTING BERRIES CLOSE BY AND SHALL RETURN THIS EVENING. THANK YOU. CHRIS MCCANDLESS.
Is there anywhere in these writings anything to lead an intelligent individual to believe that McCandless could have written more than a dozen books and heaven only knows how many articles as Muir did? Mason apparently thinks there is. It makes one wonder if Mason thinks.
"Mind you," Mason writes, "McCandless walked when he didn't hitch a ride, while Muir walked entirely. Adjusting for time and technology, (however), the journeys are much the same...."
Yes, and except for the fact that I haven't written "For Whom the Bell Tolls" or anything even remotely approaching it, Ernest Hemingway and I "are much the same." I have a beard; he had a beard. He was good with a shotgun; I am good with a shotgun. He drank too much; I drink too much. He wrote; I write. Etc.
What the hell has become of the young men of America that someone like Mason, an apparently educated person, writes like this.
"Christopher McCandless packed up what he needed and prepared to head out of the wilderness, only to be blocked by the now-raging Teklanika River," Mason concludes. "Even though McCandless took risks in his journey, he didn't do something that might kill himself like navigate a glacial river."
A.) McCandless didn't take "what he needed," which was part of the problem from the get-go. B.) McCandless was in no way "prepared" to be going into the wilderness or coming out. C.) If McCandless had shown the sense to take "risks in his journey," he might be alive today.
As Mason writes, McCandless "didn't do something that might kill himself like navigate a glacial river." No, McCandless did something sure to kill him. He retreated to the bus to await death or someone's arrival to rescue him, fully aware there was no reason for anyone to come looking. The intelligent thing to do in that situation was to take the gamble on the glacial river because while it "might" kill you, you might also survive. And then you've got a shot.
Mason is so beyond clueless here it is shocking.
Although the mistake of trying to be self-sufficient off the unspoiled land of Alaska while searching for some inner meaning to his life may seem far-fetched to some, and not a popular vacation destination for most, (McCandless) did find what he was looking for in the wild of Alaska, as well as on the rest of his trip.
What McCandless found in the "wild of Alaska" was death. It is quite possible, too, that death is what he sought. In that case, he found success. But he most certainly didn't find what Mason thinks he found:
The continuous journey, new each day, provided him something to look forward to with great pleasure each day. When he finally did die, he did so having lasted 118 days in the Alaskan wilderness before expiring.
"Great pleasure?" Read McCandless's sketchy diary entries again. "Disaster Day." "Lonely, Scared." "Extremely weak." "Starving." "Great Jeopardy." "Have literally become trapped in the wild -- no game."
Doesn't it sound like he was having a lovely time looking forward "with great pleasure to each day." I'm guessing Mason has never gone hungry, truly hungry. I have. I once spent 10 days lost in Alaska without food. It is an uncomfortable experience. You don't look forward to "great pleasure each day." You look forward only to find some berries or something else to put in your stomach.
But you can keep going. Alaska is not an impossible place to survive. The Athabascan Indians, who lived here before the likes of McCandless arrived, did it for thousands of years -- not just 118 days -- with the help of only primitive tools. City boys are obviously clueless about this part of American history and pre-history.
Mason writes that he learned something from McCandless. "I learned from his mistakes," he writes, "to journey with a guide, a map, the thing he lacked in his cross country quest."
By all means, Pete, if you ever come to Alaska by all means stick to the guide thing, because you're clearly out of your element in all of this. McCandless's problem wasn't that he lacked a map. He knew where he was. He was in a bus along the road he followed into the wilderness from the Parks Highway. The road led straight back to the highway. All he had to do was follow it. What he really lacked was a packraft with which to cross the Teklanika, or simply enough wilderness knowledge to allow him to figure out another way to get across.
It was a lack of knowledge -- a simple, old-fashioned lack of knowledge -- that, as Mason writes,"was his flaw and ultimately led to his downfall." Unfortunately, the rest of what is written makes no sense whatsoever. To quote Mason, parentheses mine:
But it proved to be the key thing that was needed to live a productive life. (He didn't live, he died.) Had he lived, (But he didn't.) it would have been something to know him, provided there was a book written from the viewpoint of his experiences, for he provided the framework for an independent life that was not short on excitement. (And you base this conclusion upon his previous great written works?) I imagine him leading an active life, (I imagine a life on other planets.) seeking out new quests to undertake and sharing his tales in the process. The latter does not seem to be in his character as we knew him through Into the Wild, but for an educated college graduate and traveler who kept a detailed journal in Alaska, it doesn't seem like much of a stretch.
McCandless kept "a detailed journal in Alaska"? Damn, why didn't Krakauer publish that? Why has it been kept hidden all these years? I reported on this story when it happened 20 years ago. All anyone could find then were the diary entries detailed above. Those can't possible be the "detailed journal" to which Mason refers.
Contact Craig Medred at craig(at)alaskadispatch.com
Alaska Dispatch encourages a diversity of opinion and community perspectives. The opinions expressed herein are those of the contributor and are not necessarily endorsed or condoned by Alaska Dispatch. To submit a piece for consideration, e-mail commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com | <urn:uuid:b3f43387-adaf-44d0-b7d2-4794040a65a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/chris-mccandless-example-20-years-later?page=0%2C1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979664 | 2,581 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Dublin 1, Part 3 – Charles St. Great, Summerhill & North Circular Road Areas
View D1 Part III – Summerhill, NCR & William St in a larger map
Sorry for the delay with getting this article posted folks, it has been a crazy few weeks and I had the great fortune of meeting and interviewing some lovely people in this area so I wanted to hold off until I had their input. Also apologies for the quality of the photography, it was a hot day and I cleverly carried my camera around in my pocket so the lens fogged up, live and learn! This article details the cottages remaining in the Great Charles Street, Summerhill and North Circular Road Areas.
Charles Street Great Area
In the Charles Street Great area, just off the North Circular Road, several cottages were built on the land of the Free Church sometime between 1837 and 1907. The church was originally known as Wesley Chapel and is now better known as Pavee Point. I will let Dublin City Libraries tell the story of the church:
The Free Church was built by the Methodists in 1800 and was initially known as ‘Wesley Chapel’. In 1816 a group called the Primitive Wesleyan Methodists split from the Methodist Church and the Wesley Church fell into their hands. However, the building was too large for their members who moved to a new location at Langrishe Place, Summerhill. The landlord Bennet Dugdale refused to allow it to be sold to Catholics and it was bought by the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin William Magee and reconsecrated in 1828. A ‘free church’ is one where no pew debts are paid and depends entirely on voluntary subscription. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Summerhill and its immediate environs was considered to be the best area of the city. The nineteenth century saw a gradual but constant migration of the upper classes from this area to the suburbs of Rathmines and Rathgar. By the 1900s the area was noted for its poverty. The last service was held at the ‘Free Church’ in 1988.
- History courtsy of Dublin City Libraries.
Charles Street Great
On the North side of Charles Street Great there is a terrace of 11 Georgian style cottages split by Emmet Street. They are single story over basement but as the road tends to slope down to the east the cottages begin to look more and more like houses with the basement area of the end of the terrace at road level. They feature a single large window to one side of the door and a semi-circular plain fanlight over the door with a cream/yellow brick accent in the details. Again on this street there is a blend of different styles with the first 5 cottages including decorative brickwork on the parapets and a twisted rope decorative plasterwork detail around the door (though this has been removed on some). The windows themselves are large sash style windows. On the other cottages there is less detail with uniform red coloured brick detailing around the windows and doors and a plain parapet.
From the c. 1867 map we can see that only about five of the cottages were built first yet it is strange that the five that were built do not seem to correspond with the five of a similar style on the street. Yet another little Dublin city cottage mystery!
Across the road are the traditional large three story over basement Georgian buildings but they do not seem to overshadow the terrace of cottages.
A similar terrace of cottages was built on Emmet Street with the same detailing around the windows and doors though there is a notable absense of parapets. The detailing under the guttering matches the Charles Street Great houses despite the roofs being flush with the outside wall. The front wall of first cottage has been altered with a mock stone effect render and the third has smooth render but the other cottages all retain their original facade. Perhaps the reason for the higher roof profile is that there is no basement in these cottages.
Again from the 1867 map we can see that five cottages were built first on the new Emmet Street that bisected the lands of the Methodist Church grounds to join up with the intersection of Fitzgibbon Street and the North Circular Road.
Hidden away between Fitzgibbon Place and Charles Street Great and just off Charles Lane is the charming little cul-de-sac of Tyrrell Place which overlooks the rear of the Methodist Church. Eight narrow two story cottages nestle on the Northern side of the street and have the appearance of being untouched by time or the outside world. Most of the cottages retain their original 12 panel Georgian sash windows and simple brick detailing over the windows and doors. There is one window to one side of the main door and a central window on the first floor. The guttering is unusually external with original cast iron pipes and connections.
Sherrard Street Lower Area
Williams Place Lower
These cottages have strangely narrower windows than usual with two to one side of the door. The first house also has an uncharacteristic hipped roof. They have a red decorative ridge detail with red tiles defining the edges of the hipped roof. In a style similar to those at Shamrock Cottages there is a line of redbrick running the length of the terrace at the top of the window level. While not entirely out of charachter with the typical Dublin City Cottages, the slightly differing details and their relative isolation from any other cottages makes them something of an anomolae so far. The 1907 map suggests that there was an entire terrace of these cottages running straight through to ‘Cottage Place’ but the site where the existing cottages are is empty on the 1837 map though the rest of the terrace remains complete. These cottages seem to have been built later which is most likely why they survived the cull of the mid 1900′s.
Summerhill & North Circular Road Areas
Thompsons Cottages would have been built some time between 1864 and 1907 and form a laneway joining Summerhill and Rutland Place North. They are less traditional in features with larger windows and most of them seem to be pebble dashed whether original or a fashion on the street. In honesty this street is just included because the name is Thompson’s cottages but in reality these appear to be houses that could have been built by any council in the past 50 years. Perhpas there is more to be told but I don’t have a lot of information about this street as yet.
This image really threw me off with the Richmond Cottages, from the image of the bombings the houses appear to be small two story cottages yet the houses that are there today are three bay houses. The mystery warrented another trip to Dublin 1 for some additional on the ground research and I was lucky enough to meet with the owner of one of the houses – Brian Tracy who was a mine of information about the area. The cottages as they stand – some three bay and some two bay – are 200 years old next year. His house was built in July 1813, the inhabitants of the street were originally mostly coach makers and dairy farmers. In fact – Eamon DeValera’s wife – Sinéad Ní Fhlannagáin grew up in number 6 Richmond Cottages.
I also spoke with the lovely Fanny White whose family used to own a farm at the end of Richmond Street and ran a dairy in the area. Fanny used to deliver milk all along the North Circular road and after leaving the farm she ran the local shop around the corner on Richmond Cottages until her retirement some 20 years ago. Pat Kenny and Derek Davis were some of her regular patrons as schoolboys from the nearby O’Connell’s schools. When I quizzed her about the misleading name of ‘Richmond Cottage’s she told me that there was a movement some time ago to have the name changed as it was misleading and from what I gather – demeaning to the stature of the street, but that the petition fell through. According to Mr. Tracy – ‘well they are cottages by comparison to the houses on Richmond Place” (Now the North Circular Road).
The Richmond Cottages area is split into two perpendicular roads and the road linking Richmond Street and Summerhill Parade is much more traditional and haphazard in appearance – of course this makes me love it even more. The street is very reminicant of an older Ireland. The first building you come across is an ususual two story dwelling with the entrance on the south eastern gable – a simple half door and a window overhead both painted in charming bottle green. I would love to know what the original use for this building would have been, I would guess at some kind of store or dairy. Across the street is Fanny White’s shop which was also a shebeen prior her family owning it so its history is long and varied.
The Cottages themselves start as three bay two story cottages with one window on either side of the main doorway which has a plain semi-circular fanlight. They have a plain, unadorned parapet, are built in brown stone with typical Georgian detailing over the windows and doors. As you continue twards the end of the street some of the cottages become two bay cottages with the window to one side of the door. There are also some differences in the detailing over the upstairs windows which is most likely due to differing builders and renovations.
The end of the cottages leads on to Richmond Parade and Richmond Crescent. Richmond Crescent is a terrace of just 9 cottages with a stone (possibly granite ?!?) lintel detail over the door and single upstairs window. They have small plain rectangular fanlights over the door and share a central chimney breast with their neighbour. They are redbrick construction with slate roofs and a (terracotta) ridge tile effect. There is an additional dwelling squeezed into the opposite corner of the street – the dwelling is in a similar style but it would be interesting to know if it was built at the same time as the rest of the buildings on the Crescent or if it was a later addition in the same style. This crescent was the latest part of the area to be built – they were built some time after 1907.
Richmond Parade is newer than the original Richmond Cottages but predates the 1907 maps and consists of a bit of a hodgepodge of styles. Some of the buildings resemble those of the smaller Richmond Cottages two bay’s and some are similar to those on Richmond Crescent with the stone lintels over the door and a single centered second story window. It is hard to tell how this part of the street would have been formed with such a varied mix of styles. I love the effect of the mix of old and new on this street with Croke Park forming the backdrop like an otherworldly being overseeing all.
One single solitary cottages stands alone on Richmond street. A single story over basement cottage, it looks quite forlorn standing alone without a buddy to lean on and reinforced as it is with metal defensive grids over the windows, a roller shutter door and war-like barbed wire over the walls. My guess is that this is no longer a residential dwelling.
St. Joseph’s Villas
Though these are most certainly not cottages by any stretch of the imagination, I am including this little street with just two houses on it because the street is stunningly traditional and unchanged from how it would have looked in the 1800′s. The cobbles are all original and in great shape except for where the council have made terrible remedial works. Even the foothpath has the original kerbing around it. I am assuming that this street led to the fields beyond and perhaps was the access to a farm at one point, though today it is a back alley for small local commerce and two houses that are again highly fortified to deal with the raiders of the 21st century.
Dublin 1 – current cottages round-up
So that is it for the roundup of the Dublin 1 City Cottages. If you have not read the other two articles on Dublin 1 – see at the bottom of this article for the links to take you there and please feel free to comment or suggest any improvements. The next article will be documenting the streets of cottages that are no longer in existence. There is very little information on those streets so I am hoping that people will come forward with stories of them and the people who lived in them as the article is published.
Please feel free to comment on any aspect of the project, if there is incorrect information I would be delighted to hear the correct version and amend the article. My hope is to actively promote community participation so I can gather as much information as possible. | <urn:uuid:409473cf-f132-4e79-b65a-afb47ece73b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cottageology.com/dublin-1-part-3-charles-st-great-summer-hill-areas/ | 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 | 0.969293 | 2,691 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Unity, New Hampshire
From Ancestry.com Wiki
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Unity is a town in Sullivan county, New Hampshire. It was formed in 1753 and has gone by the following other name/s: Buckingham. Its parent county/ies is/are Cheshire. For more information, contact the county at 13 Center Rd., Unity 03773. On the attached map, Unity is shown as 10 in Sullivan.
For information about the state of New Hampshire see New Hampshire Family History Research. | <urn:uuid:cffff3be-1105-47af-8679-64511a93c5a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ancestry.com/wiki/index.php?title=Unity,_New_Hampshire | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917689 | 136 | 1.976563 | 2 |
The APS booster lattice consists of 2 superperiods, 2 quadrants per superperiod with 10 FODO cells per quadrant. The magnets are arranged in five main families wired in series and powered by a single supply. There are 68 dipoles (BM), 40 focussing (QF) and 40 defocussing quadrupoles (QD) and 32 focussing (SF) and 32 defocussing (SD) sextupoles. Orbit correction is performed using 40 horizontal and 40 vertical correctors and 80 horizontal and vertical BPMs. Injection is on-axis using a single septum and kicker approximately 90 degrees in betatron phase advance apart. Extraction uses a single kicker and septum. The injection septum is located in the missing magnet region of the second superiod and the extraction septum is located in the straight section just after the first superperiod. Injection and extraction are performed ``on the fly'' which means that the magnetic fields increase linearly (no flat-tops or porches) during the single turn injection and extraction process. Four LEP style normal conducting cavities located in the straight sections are used to supply rf power in the booster.
The lattice design is the so called ``missing magnet'' lattice where one dipole at each end of the superperiod is omitted to match the dispersion in the straight sections to zero. This is only true for the original lattice design which has 132 nm emittance. Two other lattices were developed with lower emittance. Presently, the APS operates using the 92 nm emittance lattice for normal operations. The 92 nm lattice emittance is actually 65 nm due (measured to be 77 nm) (OAG-TN-2006-025), , due to the fact that the booster is run ``off-momentum''. Off-momentum operation is guaranteed by the increased rf frequency due to the shorter ``decker distorted'' storage ring. Running off-momentum has the effect of adding additional dipole bending in the quadrupoles and thereby increasing the horizontal damping partition number at the expense of the longitudinal damping partition number. (OAG-TN-2003-005), . The other two lattices have similarly reduced emittance compared to their on-momentum emittance. The major difference between the three lattices are the quadrupole strengths which set the tune and sextupole strengths which correct the natural chromaticities.
The links listed below give the full lattice definitions in MAD format for each booster lattice. The first three figures below show one superperiod of the booster for each lattice defined by its 7 GeV emittance. The fourth figure shows the magnet family current each 2 Hz cycle. Finally the fifth figure shows the booster as-built layout.
Figure 1: Twiss parameters for the 92 nm emittance lattice.
Figure 2: Twiss parameters for the 109 nm emittance lattice.
Figure 3: Twiss parameters for the 132 nm ``original design'' emittance lattice.
Figure 4: Booster magnet family currents each 2 Hz cycle for the 92 nm emittance lattice. Injection at 325 MeV is at approximately 17.5 ms and extraction at 7 GeV is at approximately 243.3 ms.
Figure 5: Booster layout showing the injection and extraction pulsed magnets and placement of the four 5-cell LEP style normal conducting cavities. | <urn:uuid:e743512d-e598-4949-86f9-7d69c08acde5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aps.anl.gov/Accelerator_Systems_Division/Accelerator_Operations_Physics/BoosterParameters/node2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91166 | 716 | 2.125 | 2 |
The other day we tried a nearby restaurant that recently opened. The manager greeted us when we entered and then he walked to the back and chewed out the waitress in plain sight. We stood there embarrassed, trying to figure out if we needed to be seated or order at the register. The waitress ran right past me with big tears in her eyes. Later, after we sat down, I heard the manager in the kitchen yelling “I’m not being mean; I’m a good teacher and coach! Nobody wants direction anymore”. I wrote it on a napkin so I wouldn’t forget his exact words.
The Ohio State Leadership Studies of the 1950s identified two main factors or leadership behaviors – initiating structure and consideration. This restaurant incident is an example of initiating structure – a manager defining actions and how tasks should be accomplished. Consideration refers to interpersonal and relationship behaviors such as being friendly, approachable, treating others as equals, and showing concern for people’s welfare. It was not demonstrated.
In terms of emotional intelligence, one of the most popular leadership concepts today, this manager seems low in social skills (i.e., managing relationships to achieve desired outcomes) as well as empathy (i.e., understanding other’s feelings). These are two of the five original dimensions of EQ identified by Daniel Goleman.
A long history of leadership research exists. I see the various theories, models and frameworks building on each other, providing different perspectives, and serving as mirror pieces in the kaleidoscope for analyzing it. The value is that defining the behavior is a good first step to improving the behavior. It is handy to know a variety of ways to conceptualize leadership because situations differ and one size does not fit all.
Would love to hear your thoughts on leadership and its development. | <urn:uuid:fc421bb6-3cca-4176-bc11-f12c3773704f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cultivatecc.com/tag/professional-development/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959287 | 373 | 2.375 | 2 |
Jane Levere, Contributor
I write about travel, the arts and entertainment.
Though hard to reach, ceilings have long been the beneficiary of artistic design. There’s the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the ceiling of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, and the dome of the Library of Congress, just to name a handful of more famous examples. But it’s not just palaces and government buildings that are giving special attention to the surfaces overhead. Such splendor can also be found in private homes.
“More effort is being given to the ceiling,” says Elizabeth Franklin, chief executive of The Franklin Report, an online guide to home and lifestyle services. “Ceilings have become a place for artistic expression. They are creating interest in rooms.”
Brian J. McCarthy, a New York decorator, once placed the reproduction of a painting by 18th century Venetian artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo on the two-story-high entryway ceiling of a home near the north shore of Long Island, New York. McCarthy had another Tiepolo painting copied on canvas in France and then applied to the ceiling of a Regence-inspired dining room of an Atlanta townhouse. Proving ceiling schemes aren’t just an afterthought, McCarthy says his clients are increasingly approaching interior design with a 360-degree mentality. “I collaborate with the architect and it gives me the opportunity to get involved with the ceiling” says McCarthy. “There’s an awareness of physical space being important, that it needs to be considered with everything else.”
To invigorate the living room of a Manhattan apartment, McCarthy applied 22-karat gold-leaf squares to the ceiling, creating luminosity. For another project, he used Venetian plaster on a chocolate brown living room ceiling in a Locust Valley, N.Y. home.“Many people would be afraid to do a dark ceiling, because they fear it will darken the room or make the ceiling feel low, but we find it does just the opposite,” McCarthy says, since “it actually draws your eye upwards and to the corners of the room, and also reinforces the architecture of the space.” And that’s good news for home owners and designers looking for a new way to freshen up a space. For room décor to succeed, adds Franklin, “You need to have one or three items of intense interest, preferably three, like three legs of a stool. The ceiling now has become one of them.”
But affixing Baroque paintings and gold leaf isn’t the only way to spruce up a drab ceiling. London-based dRMM Architects took ceilings to new heights with the design of a one-of-a-kind private home in Suffolk, England. Residents of the home—which is made up of three buildings: a glazed house, office/studio and garage—can change the look overhead with the push of a button. It may sound like science fiction but the technology is pretty straightforward. The home has an exterior casing, set on a track system and powered by car batteries, that slides across the site, covering or exposing the buildings as desired. This 20-ton, movable shell is made of steel, wood and insulation and glides along recessed railway tracks. What’s more, the unique architecture enables control over heating and cooling loads by designating which areas are covered and exposed throughout different seasons.
More on Forbes.com | <urn:uuid:59fbe2f2-b6e8-4540-a331-4582a0536611> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forbes.com/sites/janelevere/2012/06/08/homes-with-incredible-ceilings/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944784 | 733 | 1.9375 | 2 |
About this title:
This is a critical collection of essays on the origin and nature of the idea of liberty. The authors explore the development of English ideas of liberty and the relationship those ideas hold to modern conceptions of rule of law. The essays address early medieval developments, encompassing such seminal issues as the common-law mind of the sixteenth century under the Tudor monarchs, the struggle for power and authority between the Stuart kings and Parliament in the seventeenth century, and the role of the ancient constitution in the momentous legal and constitutional debate that occurred between the Glorious Revolution and the American Declaration of Independence.
About Liberty Fund:
Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.
The copyright to this edition, in both print and electronic forms, is held by Liberty Fund, Inc. except for the translations into English of Fortescue made by S.B. Chrimes which is held by Cambridge University Press 1942.
Fair use statement:
This material is put online to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. Unless otherwise stated in the Copyright Information section above, this material may be used freely for educational and academic purposes. It may not be used in any way for profit. | <urn:uuid:c97bf9c0-054a-46af-8e7e-be7562baf2eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=2180&Itemid=27 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911352 | 263 | 2.625 | 3 |
The colors are deeply saturated, having approximated with near perfection the intense hue of a rose and, in so doing, performed a sort of abstraction of the figure itself. These roses are fleshy and voluptuous, as though they were sexual organs, stigmata, or both.
To understand this current work however, one needs to understand its precedents. Morphesis has literally loomed large in Los Angeles for years, as southbound motorists on the 101 freeway in downtown Los Angeles will recognize his face from a portrait that muralist Kent Twitchell painted for the 1984 Olympics—a tribute that underscores the esteem in which Morphesis has been held for decades in Los Angeles. In fact, concurrent with his GARBOUSHIAN GALLERY solo exhibition, Morphesis’ work will be included in L.A. Raw: Abject Expressionism in Los Angeles 1945-1980, the Pacific Standard Time exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of California Art.
Morphesis’ works from the late 1970s and 1980s were heavy, muscular paintings which appeared to simultaneously reveal and conceal symbolic information—from religious iconography such as skulls, the Crucifixion, and pietà, to images of mythological heroism and hubris. Imagine the subject matter of a Velasquez or Caravaggio rendered with the methods of Pollock or Rauschenberg. The work was both physically and metaphysically weighty.
Into the 1990s, the aggressive works gave way to flatter surfaces and tighter imagery. In this work, Morphesis’ technical acumen was evident as action began to give way to meditation.
With Time and Desire, the different creative conventions Morphesis has developed over the years merge. Amidst his liberal application of paint and his overt symbolism, there is a refined, almost classical sense of grace with which Morphesis treats the rose subject. He explains, “My work has always been about time—about both its coming and going. There is a lifetime of work in these paintings.”
ABOUT JIM MORPHESIS
Jim Morphesis’ paintings have been shown in nearly two hundred national and international exhibitions since the early 1970s, and are in the permanent collections of more than 25 museums, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Morphesis has been recognized with awards that include: the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Modern and Contemporary Art Council, New Talent Purchase Award, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant for Painting and Sculpture and a First Prize at the Fourth Florence International Biennial of Contemporary Art. Born in Philadelphia, Morphesis received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Tyler School of Art of Temple University in 1970, and earned his Master of Fine Arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts in 1972. He lives and works in Los Angeles.
TIME AND DESIRE remains on view at GARBOUSHIAN GALLERY from January 28 – March 10, 2012. An opening reception is on January 28, 2012, from 6 to 8 pm. An artist talk with Howard N. Fox (Curator Emeritus, Los Angeles County Museum of Art) will take place during the run of the exhibition; date to be announced. | <urn:uuid:9ac2df2e-5174-4f04-b6c4-bdb6fb5217af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.garboushian.com/exhibitions/time_and_desire.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966982 | 681 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Our page banner is a detail of an African owl mask from the Bwa people of Burkina Faso.
Photo: (Creative Commons) © Roman Bonnefoy
There are two main forces that influence the style of an African tribal mask:
1. The traditional style that is dictated by the social and religious beliefs of the community.
2. The individual vision of the carver.
African tribal artists do not try to create a perfect representation of their subject. Although some realistic portraits are made, others celebrate more abstract qualities like nobility, beauty, courage, mischief and humour.
They create an idealized version, emphasizing those elements that they consider most important:
COMPOSITION - Formal symmetrical arrangements of line, shape and form in figures and masks evoke integrity and dignity.
TEXTURE - Skilled craftsmanship, fine detail and quality of finish are of great importance to the African tribal artist. Highly polished surfaces which represent a youthful healthy skin reflect the idea of beauty and virtue, while rough dirty surfaces suggest fear and evil. Many African carvings portray the idealized human figure in its prime, brimming with health, strength, and celebrating fertility or virility.
SHAPE - African masks take on many forms. They can be oval, circular, rectangular, elongated, heart-shaped, animal or human, or any combination of these.
The simplification and abstraction of visual elements in the art of the African Mask emphasize its expressive power. When we look at EXPRESSIONIST ART of the 20th century, we tend to think of it as a European style. One look at elements of African art shows you where this visual vocabulary was born. | <urn:uuid:a54a9e74-06c4-42e9-bcca-2d85556059bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artyfactory.com/africanmasks/information/african-mask-styles.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914087 | 342 | 3.171875 | 3 |
The overall objective of the call is to co-finance the operation of a prize awarding mechanism for innovative applications based on the EU GNSS technology (EGNOS and Galileo) that will promote industrial innovation and the uptake of high-technologies across Europe.
The EU grant intends to co-finance the operation of a prize awarding mechanism for innovative applications developed by companies and entrepreneurs and based on the EU GNSS technologies (EGNOS and GALILEO) that will promote industrial innovation and the uptake of high-technologies across Europe.
The grant shall be used by the beneficiary(ies) organization to fund an EU-wide prize-awarding scheme by complementing resources made available by other public or private organizations rewarding the development of specific GNSS applications. The grant aims also to improve the quality of submitted ideas as well as the number of prize applications from all EU Member states and other countries.
This prize award scheme intends to foster the emergence of new applications based on both GALILEO and EGNOS and also to support the EU GNSS industry. | <urn:uuid:5603cca1-763d-4f92-8f41-150f14975b72> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=4653&tpa=0&tk=&lang=fr | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942593 | 218 | 1.539063 | 2 |
By ALICIA MUNDY and JANE ZHANG
(See Corrections & Amplifications item below.)
WASHINGTON -- The president's choice for U.S. surgeon general, Regina Benjamin, puts a primary-care physician in a prominent role as the administration pushes to reorient the health-care system toward prevention and primary care.
Dr. Benjamin, 52 years old, who has been part of the center studying health-care disparities at the National Institutes of Health, is expected to be a proponent of delivering more health care and medicine to the poor, minorities and rural areas.
In her own family, Dr. Benjamin mentioned the loss of family members to smoking-related lung cancer, an HIV-related illness and diabetes. She pointed to these deaths as one of the reasons for her commitment to improve primary-care medicine in treating preventable diseases.
"While I cannot change my family's past, I can be a voice in the movement to improve our nation's health care and our nation's health for the future," Dr. Benjamin said when President Barack Obama introduced her Monday at the White House Rose Garden. "My hope, if confirmed as surgeon general, is to be America's doctor, America's family physician."
The administration and major groups representing doctors are discussing health-overhaul plans that could result in the government diverting some federal funds to primary care and away from specialty surgeries and diagnostic tests, according to representatives of physician societies and industry lobbyists.
Dr. Benjamin emerged several years ago as a critic of government regulations that complicate general practitioners' ability to treat uninsured patients or those covered by Medicaid, the federal and state health-care program for the poor. In a speech to the American Hospital Association in 2005, she blasted medical and government bureaucracy, saying that once in private practice, she learned that medicine "wasn't just sewing up shark bites."
"I had to deal with the land sharks, the regulators, the reviewers, the red tape, dispensers and what I call the hammerheads, the lawyers," she said.
But she also nodded to the financial realities of providing health care, saying if "you can't keep your doors open you can't continue to serve people." And she said health-care workers needed to avoid burnout. "As health-care workers we always tell everybody else what to do but we don't do it," she said.
Dr. Benjamin, who received a MacArthur "genius" grant in 2008, has spent two decades serving rural Alabama. Her clinic is in the 2,500-person town of Bayou La Batre. After Hurricane Katrina, she expanded her work to other parts of the state.
Corrections & Amplifications
Regina Benjamin, the nominee for U.S. surgeon general, operates a medical clinic in Bayou La Batre, Ala., which was incorrectly identified as La Batra in a previous version of this article .Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A2 | <urn:uuid:d86655eb-2328-493e-8954-d4e367ea4362> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124762083795242617.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960468 | 604 | 1.789063 | 2 |
processing of tissue for ELISA - (Oct/06/2008 )
I would like to develop an ELISA for an intracellular protein (in enterocytes).
Is there anyone who has a protocol for the processing of tissue for this purpose?
The protein is membrane associated.
I think immunocytochemistry may be more suitable.
Since the protein is intracellular (if it isn't a trans-membrane protein) I think ELISA might work better. You could probably sonicate the cells, centrifuge and pellet cell debris. Ultra-centrifuge the supernatant to pellet the protein fraction. Resuspend, dilute and run an ELISA.
Just a suggestion though. Might want a second opinion, and someone with a more detailed protocol.
I believe you are talking about developing an entire assay...making the abs to the specific protein and then using the ab to develop an elisa. Your question pertained to isolating the protein first...Do you already have antibodies/antisera or positive controls?
Can you elaborate? | <urn:uuid:3c30a54b-d5b8-40cf-9b8b-d44af4203729> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.protocol-online.org/biology-forums/posts/40125.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918073 | 223 | 1.59375 | 2 |
This homage to Disney’s Alice in Wonderland is one of the nicest cartoon tattoos I’ve ever seen. A larger version of the pic above can be found HERE. The artist Holly Azzara has a post on her blog about the process of creating the tattoo. I’d like to see Disney’s legal team try to get rid of this example of “copyright infringement.”
Sanjay Patel’s Ramayana: Divine Loophole is a retelling of the classic Hindu myth with the addition of cheerfully stylized cartoon graphics that reflect the colorful spirit of Indian culture. The graphics are so overwhelming that reading it almost seems secondary; I’ve looked at the book plenty in the past few weeks but haven’t read past the intro yet.
Sanjay, who works at Pixar by day, has previously dabbled with Hindu culture in The Little Book of Hindu Deities. There’s another animation connection too: he was inspired to illustrate the story after watching Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues, which is also based on the tale. The book, published by my pals at Chronicle Books, is available for just under $20 at Amazon.com.
The Getty Conservation Institute and Disney’s Animation Research Library (ARL) division are partnering to study why the plastic in certain cels deteriorates more quickly than others and to find ways of slowing down the deterioration process. The study is expected to take three years to complete. Like the Tim Burton exhibit currently at MoMA, this is another encouraging example of animation artwork receiving serious consideration from an art institute. According to the LA Times which broke the story:
The Getty said the initial phase of research will involve an assessment of the best methods for the identification of the actual plastics used in the cels, and for monitoring the condition of cels made with cellulose nitrate and acetate. Scientists at the Getty will also examine the physical and thermal properties of the plastics. The new collaboration is part of the Getty’s “Preservation of Plastics” project that was initiated to study signs of deterioration in plastic objects in museum collections.
Another take-away from the article is that Disney’s ARL houses 65 million pieces of Disney art. Granted, the drawings and cels add up quickly in animation, but wow, that’s still a whole lot of artwork!
This one is quite delightful. It’s a new stop-motion music video for Latin American Grammy winners, Jesse & Joy. The video was conceived and directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada (currently a student at Chapman University’s Dodge College) and was shot over a month in a house-turned studio in L.A. by a dedicated (“and painfully underpaid”) group of young artists for Warner Music Mexico. It’s made up of almost 3,000 still photographs with no post effects, featuring characters actually made of edible custom-made cookies. Cameron Clark, the director of animation, explains the process:
“I pre-animated the motion for every shot with After Effects and then used a combination of Dragon Stop Motion, a projector, and a small team of animators to basically trace the motion that I had created digitally. That way we got the smooth motion of digital animation with the charm of physical stop motion.”
A very cool making-of piece is posted here. But watch the video first:
Even after reading the description of their process, I’m a bit confused by how the interactivity worked, but I highly recommend checking out the finished piece, which is visually striking and quite inventive. What follows is an explanation of the project by the artists:
In the summer and fall of 2009 a multilayered canvas and animation was
created which could be influenced and followed by website visitors online 24 hours a day. Six weeks long and through actions like Introduce Object, Shirt ‘Em and Cameo Appearance website visitors could interact with leading character Selfcontrolfreak.
Each sent in gesture added a new animated interaction as they were painted layer-by-layer into the growing animating canvas by Baschz. Every new layer was photographed seperately and together with the other frames created the animating canvas, leaving the end canvas consisting of well over 100 different painted layers. The whole coming-of-art process could be followed live through a webcam and Twitter feed, on YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Fotolog, etc.
NY animator Tom Smolenski was looking for a good 6B pencil to animate with (in 2010 no less–what a masochist!) so he tested a bunch of pencils to find the best one (I’ve always been partial to Tombows myself). Much of it comes down to personal preference, but Tom’s list is good for getting a sense of what’s available. What are your favorite pencils?
I saw Yulia in Annecy last year, and now everybody can view it online at the filmmaker’s website AntoineArditti.com alongside a few of his other pieces. It’s a cute concept with an unexpected ending. According to Arditti, the film was first animated in CG, then printed onto paper and drawn with traditional tools. It was produced by Metronomic. | <urn:uuid:0f35027f-9ea7-49a7-b58f-cd502dd8eae9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cartoonbrew.com/date/2010/03/page/8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950132 | 1,112 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Whether you are a brand or an individual, Twitter can be the death of your reputation. While Twitter is a place for sharing opinions, news, feelings, etc., it takes just one errant tweet to send your social world into a rumble.
Take for example Voula Papachristou, a member of Greece’s Olympic team. Because of a single offensive tweet, Papachristou has been suspended from the Olympics.
Last year, a Chrysler employee confused the Chrysler Twitter account with his own, tweeting profanities from the Chrysler account about Detroit traffic. The employee needless to say, gained national attention and was subsequently terminated.
Long story short, if you/your company engage in social media already, or are considering implementing a strategy or campaign, it is essential to have a brand reputation management strategy in place. Yes, even personal accounts should understand the importance of reputation management.
While there is a long list of considerations out there, following are some basic questions/concerns to keep in mind when planning your Twitter strategy.
- Know your audience.
- Determine a voice and personality for your brand.
- Identify what types of information your brand will tweet.
- Confirm what topics your brand may or may not respond to.
- If your brand/company has risks associated with the product or services, how you will you respond in X scenario? (i.e. plant closings, product recalls, etc.)
And what if your Twitter account were to experience a crisis? Do you have a crisis communication plan in place? Here are a couple of key considerations:
- Monitor your account often. You can use social media monitoring tools or Google alerts to help stay ahead of the game.
- Establish a chain of command. Who is the first contact to reach out to in a time of crisis? Maybe it’s an advisory board, maybe it’s just one person calling the shots. Make sure to designate and have accurate up-to-date contact information.
- Act quickly. Twitter moves at the speed of light. This does not mean tweet back the first thing that comes to mind, but quickly alert your chain of command for a decision making process. It did not look favorable when Papachristou took two days to respond to outrage about her Twitter mishap.
- Listen to what people are saying. Make sure you understand multiple perspectives. This will help in crafting the appropriate response method and response itself.
Remember, Twitter is a communications tool; use it wisely. If your reputation matters to you – and it should – create a social media strategy that will help build, maintain and protect your reputation. | <urn:uuid:84889b03-6469-4b15-af7d-4c1461e4b539> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sweeneypr.com/managing-your-reputation-twitter/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926268 | 547 | 1.851563 | 2 |
BIOMED EXPO, a day-long event highlighting resources available in Michigan to biomedical entrepreneurs, will be held Oct. 26 at Eastern Michigan Universitys Convocation Center. The program is presented by the U-M, Michigan Economic Development Corp., Wayne State and Michigan State universities, and the Van Andel Institute in Grand Rapids.
The focus of the program, 8:30 a.m.5:30 p.m., is on all aspects of commercializing biomedical technology, including starting a company, funding, licensing, technology transfer and industry collaboration.
BIOMED EXPO was conceived by a task force of leaders from Michigan-based biomedical companies and universities and is part of the states Life Sciences Corridor that was created by Gov. John Engler in 1999 to fund life sciences research, development, collaboration and commercialization in Michigan.
The expo will feature speakers, workshops and exhibits in an interactive setting, encompassing the full range of resources necessary in the biomedical industry. Keynote speakers are Carl Feldbaum, president, Biotechnology Industry Organization, and W. Steven Burke Sr., senior vice president, North Carolina Biotechnology Center.
A variety of hands-on workshops, for which advance registration is requested but not required, will address the following issues:
A number of exhibitors will be on hand, representing the life sciences industry, academic and research institutions, venture capital companies, patent and general business attorneys, business consulting and services firms, not-for-profit business resources and university technology transfer offices.
For more information or to register for a workshop, visit the Web at www.biomedexpo.org or call (734) 930-9741. | <urn:uuid:d64a0cb4-21df-45cd-9a94-4b8d407d145b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ur.umich.edu/0001/Oct16_00/12.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905554 | 343 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Author: Siniscalchi, Glenn B
Date published: March 1, 2012
PERFECTING HUMAN ACTIONS: ST. THOMAS AQUINAS ON PARTICIPATION IN ETERNAL LAW. By John Rziha. Washington: Cathohc University of America, 2009. Pp. x + 300. $39.95.
One of the most significant debates in the history of philosophy is found in Plato's Euthyphro. Plato argues through his fictional character that the gods must be either arbitrary to command certain rules, or they must be subject to a moral standard that is higher than they. If the gods are arbitrary, then they have imposed a set of rules that could have been different - which suggests that they are whimsical and so cannot be trusted. If the gods must consult a higher standard of goodness before issuing their commands to humanity, then the gods are superfluous and have no significant role for human morality. Across the centuries atheists have been notorious for using Euthyphro's dilemma to dupe the theist.
In response to this perennial chaUenge Rzina argues tUat we spüt the horns of the dilemma by showing that God is the good. God is necessarily just, wise, and holy. Since creatures do not have being by nature, they must participate in God. Participation refers to sharing Ui a perfection (the proper actions of a creature) that something else has by nature (29-112). Chapter 3 explains how human participation in eternal law is both moved and governed by it (113-83). Though all created beings participate in God, persons participate in the eternal law in a special way: cognitively, having a limited but true knowledge of tbe eternal law (184-256). TUe first principles of morality, far from being capricious, perfectly embody God's perfection. Euthyphro's dilemma is only a challenge for the divine voluntarist, not for the traditional Thomist.
Aquinas's metaphysics of participation allows for a natural theology that begins with the first principles of morality but does not rely on tbe divine command theory for its overall formulation (see, for instance, the "Fourth Way" Ui the Summa theologiae). Since persons can only be good by participation, then goodness must eventually derive from something that is law by nature. Whenever something has perfection by participation, then ultimately that perfection must come from something that has that perfection by essence. The Ufe of moral goodness cannot be predicated of humans substantially (for not all persons are morally virtuous), but only by participation. Hence there must be something whose essence is goodness itself, that which is the cause of human virtue.
The book concludes with a discussion of how Aquinas's participation metaphysics is a better foundation for understanding morality than the anthropocentric project of the Enlightenment (257-86). While the distinction between divine command theory and natural law might seem unimportant to some theologians and moral philosophers, advocates of the natural law position are at a distinct advantage in reaching the atheist who merely appeals to human nature to determine what is objectively moral. R.'s book is therefore most welcome for providing a foundation by which moral theologians can include both God and human nature in search of the moral point of view. Because atheistic moral realists appeal merely to Uuman nature to determine what is objectively moral, they prematurely conclude that there is no need for God. At the other end of the extreme, divine command theorists hold that to retain moral objectivity, we must act in response to God's commands, which reside above and beyond human nature. Otherwise, they say, we are left with ethical relativism.
Following the lead of R.'s retrieval of human participation in eternal law, theologians should contend that both of these positions have significant insights, and that a via media should be taken. A reflection on human nature helps individuals know what is objectively moral, but this necessarily presupposes the existence of a Divine Lawgiver. Otherwise it would not make sense for the atheist to refer to a universal human nature as the basis for objective moraüty. In response to divine command theorists, Thomistic natural lawyers Insist that human nature is a necessary but not sufficient condition for morality. Thus R.: "Thomas's moral thought cannot be separated from his metaphysics, his theology of God, and his anthropology. The notion of participation in eternal law touches on aU of these subjects" (5).
R. makes an important contribution to the contemporary literature on Thomistic natural law and participation metaphysics. Not only is the book accessible for the educated nonspecialist, but it will also serve the seasoned scholar with a stirring treatment on the relationship between the existence of God and morality. R. succeeds in helping moral theologians have a more complete understanding of the philosophy Aquinas presumed in his vision of the person as a moral agent in relation to God.
St. Joseph's University, Philadelphia GLENN B. SINISCALCHI | <urn:uuid:e7206a4f-e4ab-4efe-9571-67b30fba0a27> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.readperiodicals.com/201203/2594690011.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941677 | 1,022 | 2.515625 | 3 |
The Money Programme
(Eric Idle sits at a desk between Michael Palin and John Cleese. He begins quietly but becomes increasingly agitated as he speaks.)
Idle: Good evening, and welcome to The Money Programme. Tonight on The Money Programme, we're going to look at money. Lots of it. On film, and in the studio. Some of it in nice piles, others in lovely clanky bits of loose change. Some of it neatly counted into fat little hundreds, delicate fivers stuffed into bulging wallets, nice crisp clean checks, pert pieces of copper coinage thrust deep into trouser pockets, romantic foreign money rolling against the thigh with rough familiarity, beautiful wayward curlicued banknotes, filigreed copper plating cheek by jowl with tumbly rubbing gently against the terse leather of beautifully balanced bank books!!
(He looks around in surprised realization that he's panting and screaming)
Idle: I'm sorry.
(adjusts tie, darts eyes around room)
Idle: But I love money.
All money. (growing excited again)
I've always wanted money.
To handle! To touch!
The smell of the rain-washed florin!
The lure of the lira!
The glitter and the glory of the guinea! (stands up )
The romance of the ruble! (stands on chair)
The feel of the franc! (stands on desk)
The heel of the deutschmark! (stomps foot)
The cold antiseptic sting of the Swiss franc!
And the sunburnt splendor of the Australian dollar! (slaps knee)
(sings the rest while dancing across desk; Michael and John just look at him blandly.)
I've got ninety thousand pounds in my pajamas.
I've got forty thousand French francs in my fridge.
I've got lots and lots of lira,
Now the deutschmark's getting dearer,
And my dollar bill could buy the Brooklyn Bridge.
(enter a chorus of 5 men in women's pilgrim costumes)
...nothing quite as wonderful as money!
There is nothing quite as beautiful as cash!
Some people say it's folly, but I'd rather have the lolly,
With money you can make a splash!
(chorus kneels and sings "money, money, money" through Idle's solos )
There is nothing quite as wonderful as money!
There is nothing like a newly minted pound!
Everyone must hanker for the butchness of a banker
It's the currency that makes the world go round!
(a harp is wheeled across the stage but not played)
You can keep your Marxist ways, for it's only just a phase...
Money, money, money makes the world go round!
(play money falls from above as chorus reaches a glorious crescendo)
Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money! Money
Continue to the next sketch... The Money Song | <urn:uuid:8b71c9ff-e695-4818-af17-188e5cdbe7e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://montypython.net/scripts/moneypro.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925333 | 642 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Salmon farming giant Marine Harvest is having an issue with a flesh-eating myxosporean parasite called Kudoa thyrsites. Kudoa causes post-mortem myoliquefaction (soft-flesh syndrome) in farmed salmon on sale in supermarkets and is causing a financial loss for Marine Harvest.
Costco’s manager admitted on the hidden camera that 1 out of every 200 fillets of farmed salmon on sale is infected with the parasite Kudoa. “Some are more mushy than others,” he said. “Some you pick up and they’re like paste. Once every couple of days we get a few like this.”
According to Marine Harvest's annual report they spent 12 million dollars last year to get rid of infected fish and provide refunds.
LINK (via: Super Heroes for Salmon)
If liquified parasitic salmon at your local BC Costco was not bad enough..... | <urn:uuid:32facfcb-a3fd-48dc-822a-99a9ac1e0887> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.moldychum.com/home-old/2012/7/21/parasite-ridden-salmon-sold-in-bc-stores.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930491 | 195 | 1.90625 | 2 |
Keeping the Agency in Order
It is the responsibility of every law enforcement officer to uphold the law and to see that it is upheld by their contemporaries. Looking the other way while blatant violations are going on makes the observer just as guilty as the perpetrator. Unlike the public that often has no legal obligation to come forward when they witness a crime, a law enforcement officer is sworn to do just that.
Keeping the agency honorable is done by first making certain that the agency is compliant with the law. Without casting stones at any particular individual or group of agents, making sure that the agency itself is playing by the rules is the first step. Sometimes what might be perceived as individual initiative is actually the way things are done by that agency, and there's no sense in casting stones if people are only following orders.
Larger agencies have entire divisions devoted to the internal affairs of that agency. The people who staff these units are often feared by their fellow officers and agents, but they serve the cause of justice by making sure that department members who enforce the law are themselves compliant with the law.
Defending fellow officers accused of wrongdoing is a knee-jerk response for most law enforcement employees. Allegations against agents from within an agency, and from the public at large, are commonplace. It is just as common for there to be no validity to the accusation, and it is commendable to defend a brother or sister officer all of the way. That is, until it is proven that the officer has crossed the legal line.
Policing the police is a tough assignment for those who draw that duty, but the load of the job is made easier by those who not only obey the rules, but who are willing to step forward and call out those who don't.
Few applicants that make it through the law enforcement hiring process are without the ability to understand and empathize with the pain and suffering of others. It is an essential quality for law enforcement officers. No agent is expected to be overly sympathetic, but being able to get inside the hearts and minds of those she deals with is expected. Understanding is the key; by demonstrating an ability to understand the plight of the people, the law enforcement agent is illustrating that she is meeting the ideal that the public expects of their representatives.
There are as many different ways to show empathy as there are law enforcement officials. Sometimes it is accomplished with a wink or a nod. No matter how it is accomplished, being able to convey an understanding of what people are feeling is one of the most valuable characteristics that a law enforcement officer can possess. | <urn:uuid:bca6ea1c-b69f-4d66-a5a8-f6241872f718> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.netplaces.com/law-enforcement-careers/keeping-the-agency-honorable/keeping-the-agency-in-order.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980379 | 519 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Basic car maintenance saves you money and helps reduce the risk of a breakdown. You only need to spend a few minutes each week to do these checks.
Basic safety checks
These basic safety checks are easy to do. It's a good idea to perform them regularly.
- Check all exterior lights are working. A good time to do this is when you park your car in the garage at night. Close the garage door, turn the ignition and lights on and check their reflection against the walls.
- Check that glass surfaces (including the mirrors) are clean and free from chips, cracks and scratches.
- Check that the windscreen wipers and washers operate efficiently.
- Check the wiper rubbers are secure and in good condition.
- Make sure the horn works.
- Test the handbrake to ensure it 'holds' the car on steep hills.
- Check the condition of the seat belts. Make sure the webbing is not worn, visibly damaged or sun bleached. Give the belt a sharp tug to make sure that it will lock.
- Check tyre pressures and tyre condition, including tread depth.
Check your engine oil weekly. The best time to check the engine oil level is when the car is warm and on level ground. Stop the engine and wait a few minutes for the oil to settle, remove the dipstick and wipe it clean. Push the dipstick all the way in, wait a second, and then withdraw it and check the level.
The oil should be between the two marks and not above the top mark or below the lower mark. Remember to push the dipstick fully in when refitting.
If required, oil may be added through the oil filler cap opening (generally found on the top of the engine). To avoid overfilling, add about half-a-litre at a time and recheck the level on the dipstick. Remember to refit the filler cap.
Use only oil of the correct viscosity and service rating as recommended by your vehicle's manufacturer or a reliable mechanic.
Manufacturers do not generally recommend the use of oil additives and anti-friction supplements.
If your vehicle has a dipstick for the automatic transmission (check your owner's handbook for its location), check the fluid weekly. You should check the oil level in accordance with the instructions in the car's owner's manual. Often this will be after the car has been driven for about 10 kilometres, so that the oil is hot.
The engine should normally be running (check your manufacturer's recommendation) and the vehicle should be on level ground. Put the car into Park and apply the handbrake.
Remove the dipstick, wipe it clean with a clean cloth or paper, and re-insert fully. Remove the dipstick again and check the fluid level. The fluid should be between the 'add' mark and the 'full' mark. Take care not to overfill.
If more fluid is required, add the recommended type of fluid through the dipstick tube. Allow about a minute for the oil to stabilise before re-testing the level with the dipstick.
Manual transmissions and automatic transmissions not equipped with a dipstick are more difficult to check. Your mechanic should perform fluid level checks on these transmissions.
Check the coolant level at least weekly. If your car is fitted with an expansion tank (a plastic coolant reservoir) check that the coolant level is at or slightly above the 'minimum' mark when the engine is cold, or somewhere between the half and 'maximum' marks with the engine at normal (hot) operating temperature.
It's also essential to regularly check the coolant level at the radiator when the engine is cold. It should be full.
If your car is not fitted with an expansion tank, check that the water is within about 25mm of the top of the filler neck when the engine is cold. For your own safety, do not open the cooling system when the engine is hot as you could receive serious burns.
If more coolant is required, the system should be topped up with a mixture of clean water and the recommended coolant/inhibitor.
Persistent coolant loss indicates a problem, which your mechanic should check immediately.
The level should be checked with the engine stopped, and after the car has been driven for a while, so that the fluid is warm.
Remove the power steering oil reservoir cap (which often has a small dipstick attached to it). The oil should be maintained at, or slightly below the 'HOT' mark. Use the correct oil type (usually auto transmission fluid) for top-ups. Check the car's handbook for reservoir location and oil type.
Brake and clutch fluid
On most modern cars you can see the brake and clutch fluid levels through the transparent plastic reservoirs fitted to the master cylinders. Otherwise, remove the cap and check the level inside the reservoir.
The level should be maintained between the maximum and minimum marks.
Do not open the reservoir unnecessarily as brake fluid absorbs moisture from the air. Avoid contaminating the fluid by wiping dirt away from the cap area before removing. Only top the reservoir up with new brake fluid of the correct grade. If constant topping up is required, it may indicate a leak. Have your mechanic check it immediately.
Brake fluid will damage paint work very quickly so wash spills off with plenty of clean water straight away.
A plastic reservoir for the washer fluid is almost always mounted in the engine compartment (check owner's manual for location). Fill the bottle with clean water and, if you want, a special windscreen detergent. Do not use household detergents for this purpose.
Make sure the terminals are clean and tight, and that the battery is fixed securely. The fluid level inside the battery should be maintained between the marked levels, or about 5mm to 10mm above the plates. If it needs topping up, use only distilled water. Do not smoke or use naked flames near a battery. The acid is corrosive, so take care to wash off acid contamination with plenty of clean water. | <urn:uuid:21ecbe5a-a479-429e-80b0-c510938434ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.racq.com.au/motoring/cars/car_advice/car_fact_sheets/routine_maintenance | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928895 | 1,253 | 2.125 | 2 |
About this blog
A blog dedicated to the examination of communications in election campaigns, with a focus on posters
Friday, February 12, 2010
Poland will elect its next president in October by direct vote to serve a five-year term, and the campaign has already begun. Although the president does not have much power, he or she can veto legislation.
Poland's election campaigns are much influenced by American political marketing practices and by its consultants. For example, Tomasz Nalecz of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SDPL), erected billboards that featured not only his portrait but also that of Barack Obama. Nalecz was placed in front of the country's presidential palace with its equestrian statue of Prince Józef Poniatowski, and Obama has the U.S. Capitol behind him. Both look out at the voters, smiling. According to Jan Cienski, the billboard is controversial because permission to use Obama's photograph was not obtained. Nalecz's campaign maintains, however, that the photo is in the public domain.
American political techniques have influenced parties of the right, as well. In 2006, for instance, the Law and Justice party, was known for the “spin-doktorzy” practices by its strategists, Adam Bielan and Michal Kaminski, who also copied ads from the Reagan campaign, according to Cienski.
Other American campaign strategies, such as using social-networking sites, have also been used. The SDPL, for example, has a Facebook group.
Posters have been used extensively in Polish political campaigns, including by Solidarity, which displayed large posters (some of which were torn down by police, according to the party), as well as banners, TV spots, radio programs, bumper stickers, buttons, leaflets, and newspapers in its campaigns. In a special Solidarity poster for the 1989 campaign, Gary Cooper (as the American sheriff in the film High Noon) was shown with a ballot in one hand, instead of a pistol, along with the message “It’s high noon, June 4, 1989.”
To read more about Polish politics and posters, going back to the thirteenth century, see my book, Posters, Propaganda, and Persuasion in Election Campaigns Around the World and Through History.
Next » « Previous | <urn:uuid:723fe57f-f7ea-4e87-98a2-22f71cd85ea5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ithaca.edu/rhp/programs/cmd/blogs/posters_and_election_propaganda/barack_obama_on_polish_campaign_billboard/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97594 | 491 | 2.15625 | 2 |
Kipling wrote these lines denouncing the British public’s priorities in 1902. They could apply to India in 2012: “Then ye returned to your trinkets; then ye contented your souls With the flannelled fools at the wicket or the muddied oafs at the goals.
Given to strong delusion, wholly
believing a lie, Ye saw that the land lay fenceless, and ye let the months go by…” Why did we let ourselves get distracted from Project India by bad religion, bad films and recently by some very bad cricket?
Because it’s not two-minute Top Ramen to clean up the centuries, so it was someone else’s dharma? But OCD-ing on spectator sports is surely for retirees who have earned the right to the rocking chair? I wish we’d watch less of cricket and other mind-destroying programmes that take away our energy and focus from Making India Happen. It made us inactive and sullen, like kids who surf too much.
But how can our life have dignity if our main buzz is to feed our face with post-WTO MNC snacks while we endlessly watch people throw, thwack and kick a ball or run around, run after, jump over and jump off everything that can be? Meanwhile the thieves are stealing our health, wealth and honour. It’s the new Opium War, abetted by the chomping blue billion. Anyone who protests is vilified as a jhola and admittedly, some jholas are impractical and/or self-righteous — like here? But at least they’re not watching cricket. They’re out there yelling and screaming to save Indians from becoming 19th century Chinese.
Why did we let the usual suspects hijack India when so many of us work so hard and pay our taxes, don’t do drugs, stay out of jail and feed the kauvva the first spoon of rice? Were we glued to our collective couch by braveheart Indian credos like “If you see a wicked person, go away”? I grew up with that and feel ashamed that one part of me was too timid or tired to fight more, while the other kept saying sorry to Bapu. He overturned the old Indian credo of ‘avoid action, evade responsibility’ to make us citizens with a free flag. To sell our birthright again for a mess of MNC pottage while inactive on our collective couch was ‘not cricket’ on our part. The mindset change ignited now could progress by unsentimentally reviewing our family habits.
Renuka Narayanan writes on religion and culture | <urn:uuid:bb7066fb-c198-4b6f-9804-69b02e1a975c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hindustantimes.com/viewssectionpage/ColumnsOthers/With-flannelled-fools-and-muddied-oafs/Article1-982520.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939518 | 559 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Team Leader, Student Outreach and Cham Oral History Project, Documentation Center of Cambodia, Phnom Penh
Sayana Ser was born in Cambodia in 1981, two years after the fall of dictator Pol Pot. Today, Ser works to help her country heal from that genocide. As part of that effort, Ser decided to translate The Diary of Anne Frank into her native language of Khmer.
Transcript also available in:
We like people to know that genocide did not only happen in Cambodia. It could happen everywhere in the world. So people should look beyond, should see further, should learn from others.
Sayana Ser was born in Cambodia in 1981, two years after the fall of dictator Pol Pot. She has no personal memory of the brutal regime, known as the Khmer Rouge, when nearly 2 million Cambodians were killed. But today, Ser works to help her country heal from that genocide. As part of that effort, Ser decided to translate The Diary of Anne Frank into her native language of Khmer.
Welcome to Voices on Antisemitism, a podcast series from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum made possible by generous support from the Oliver and Elizabeth Stanton Foundation. I'm your host, Aleisa Fishman. Every other week, we invite a guest to reflect about the many ways that antisemitism and hatred influence our world today. From Phnom Penh, Cambodia, here's Sayana Ser.
In 2002, I started to translate the Anne Frank diary because I think that it's important for the Cambodian people to use the book as a way to express their feelings and to learn from the book about other countries, about other genocide that happened in other places, not only in Cambodia.
We want to teach them about their own history and about the Holocaust, because I think if they know that genocide has happened in other places, they would not feel like they are the only ones that suffered. But also, they should feel that they have to try to learn from others to prevent genocide from happening again.
I have picked a passage that I like. [speaking in Khmer] She says that braveness and happiness is what the people need the most. I like that passage because some people live in despair, like the survivors of Cambodia. They live in depression because they lost their families and some have no courage to move on. And we want to give them the message of Anne Frank's diary and also want them to have courage.
When I was translating the book, I put myself like if I were Anne Frank, it must be very terrible to live in hiding. And because this book tells a lot of things, it's a way to understand about discrimination. And the book has encouraged a lot; some also started writing their own diaries. It's not a culture, Cambodian, writing your own diary, but the book can show the way for the reader to express their feelings. Not only that, I think the book is playing an important role for everybody, to learn about compassion, about humankind. And giving hope for the future, and the continuing and the moving on.
Voices on Antisemitism is a podcast series of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Join us every other week to hear a new perspective on the continuing threat of antisemitism in our world today.
We would appreciate your feedback on this series. Please visit our Web site, www.ushmm.org, and follow the prompts to the Voices on Antisemitism survey. At our Web site, you can also listen to Voices on Genocide Prevention, a podcast series on contemporary genocide. | <urn:uuid:1cc634dd-6125-4fe6-a23c-15602cd8650e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/antisemitism/voices/transcript/index.php?content=20090409 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963533 | 734 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Cat Bolten, 574-631-5099, Catherine.Bolten.email@example.com
What will become of the young people?
This is the question that has stayed with Catherine Bolten since the end of Sierra Leone’s civil war. The decade-long conflict (1991-2002), in which 50,000 people died, also left in its wake tens of thousands of young people who had been recruited as soldiers for both the rebel and government militias.
Last summer, Bolten, assistant professor of anthropology and peace studies, returned to Sierra Leone with a grant from Notre Dame’s Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts and the Ford Family Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity. Working with Joe Turay, Director of the Fatima Institute in Makeni, she conducted pilot research on how young people are faring in a post-war region marked by deep poverty, scarce food, poor education, no jobs, and high levels of intergenerational tension.
“After the war, there were many champions of the idea that education is the best way to reintegrate ‘war-affected youth,’” Bolten says. “Young ex-combatants and civilians left villages and farms in droves to go to school.” The problem, she says, is that Sierra Leone’s educational system was completely broken, and the promised jobs in government did not materialize. Now, “there’s a burgeoning population of undereducated, unemployed, and alienated young men — many of whom find they can only gain respect during war with a gun in their hands.”
Sierra Leone was once “the Athens of West Africa,” Bolten says, with universities that produced doctors, lawyers, and other professionals and an agricultural system that allowed the country to feed itself. Today, however, young people with little education feel they are “too developed” to accept menial labor, especially in agriculture.
“They equate education with dignity and reject the practices of their elders,” she says, “while their elders — who still remember well the emboldened youth during the war — actively fear them.” This intergenerational tension, a sense of betrayal, and smoldering resentment make the situation ripe for repression and potential conflict, Bolten says.
Her research project, “Living With Dignity: Youth and Education in Sierra Leone,” is part of a larger effort to study and devise ways to make education and development practices more responsive to the needs of young people in post-conflict settings.
Bolten has been studying the conflict in Sierra Leone since 2003 while she was earning her Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Michigan. She joined Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute and Department of Anthropology in 2009. She has consulted with the United Nations World Food Programme and Physicians for Social Responsibility and conducted fieldwork on ethnobotany, eco-tourism, and development. Bolten’s articles have appeared in The Journal of Modern African Studies and The Journal of Political Ecology. Her forthcoming book I Did it to Save My Life: Morality and Survival in Sierra Leone will be published by the University of California Press in 2012. | <urn:uuid:3605dd1a-504f-4785-847b-2de752fbc570> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kroc.nd.edu/news-events/news/scholar-studying-youth-and-education-post-war-sierra-leone-1147 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96246 | 674 | 2.984375 | 3 |