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The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors, by Kersey Graves, , at sacred-texts.com
"THERE are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one." (1 John v. 7.) This text, which evidently discloses a belief in the existence of three separate and distinct beings in the Godhead, sets forth a doctrine which was anciently of almost universal prevalence. Nearly every nation, whether oriental or occidental, whose religious faith has been commemorated in history, discloses in its creed a belief in the trifold nature and triune division of the Deity. St. Jerome testifies unequivocally, "All the ancient nations believed in the Trinity.
And a volume of facts and figures might be cited here, if we had space for them, in proof of this statement.
A text from one of the Hindoo bibles, (the Puranas) will evince the antiquity and prevalence of this belief in a nation of one hundred and fifty millions of people more than two thousand years ago. "O you three Lords!" ejaculated Attencion, "know that I recognize only one God. Inform me, therefore, which of you is the true divinity that I may address to him alone my vows and adorations. The three Gods, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, becoming manifest to him, replied, "Learn, O devotee, that there is no real distinction between us. What to you appears such is only by semblance. The single being appears under three forms by the acts of creation, preservation and destruction, but he is one."
Now, reader, note the remark here, that the ancient Christian fathers almost universally and unanimously proclaimed the doctrine of the Trinity as one of the leading tenets of the Christian faith, and as a doctrine derived directly by revelation from heaven. But here we find it most explicitly set forth by a disciple of a pagan religion more than three thousand years ago, as the Christian missionary D. O. Allen states, that the Hindoo bible, in which it was found was compiled fourteen hundred years before Christ, and written at a still earlier period. And we find the same doctrine very explicitly taught in the ancient Brahmin, Persian, Chaldean, Chinese, Mexican and Grecian systems—all much older than Christianity.
No writer ever taught or avowed a belief in any tenet of religious faith more fully or plainly than Plato sets forth the doctrine of the Trinity in his Phædon, written four hundred years B.C. And his terms are found to be in most striking conformity to the Christian doctrine on this subject, as taught in the New Testament. Plato's first term for the Trinity was in Greek—1. To Agathon, the supreme God or Father. 2. The Logos, which is the Greek term for the Word. And, 3. Psyche, which the Greek Lexicon defines to mean "soul, spirit or ghost"—of course, the Holy Ghost. Here we have the three terms of the Christian Trinity, Father, Word, and Holy Ghost, as plainly taught as language can express it, thus making Plato's exposition of the Trinity and definition of its terms, published four hundred years B.C., identical in meaning with those of St. John's, as found in his Gospel, and contained in the above quoted text. Where, then, is the foundation for the dogmatic claim on the part of the Christian professors for the divine origin of the Trinity doctrine?
We will here cite the testimony of some Christian writers to prove that the Trinity is a pagan-derived doctrine. A Christian bishop, Mr. Powell, declares, "I not only confess
but I maintain, such a similitude of Plato's and John's Trinity doctrines as bespeaks a common origin." (Thirteenth letter to Dr. Priestley.) What is that you say, bishop? "A common origin." Then you concede both are heaven-derived, or both heathen-derived. If the former, then revelation and heathenism are synonymous terms. If the latter, then Christianity stands on a level with heathen mythology. Which horn of the dilemma will you choose? St. Augustine confessed he found the beginning of John's Gospel in Plato's Phædon, which is a concession of the whole ground.
Another writer, Chataubron, speaks of an ancient Greek inscription on the great obelisk at Rome, which reads—"1. The Mighty God." 2. The Begotten of God (as Christ is declared to be "the only begotten of the Father" (John i. 14.). And, 3. "Apollo the Spirit"—the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost—thus presenting in plain language the three terms of the Trinity. And Mr. Cudworth, in corroboration of this report, says, "The Greeks had a first God, and second God, and third God, and the second was begotten by the first. And yet for all that," continues Mr. Cudworth, "they considered all these one."
In the Platonic or Grecian Trinity, the first person was considered the planner of the work of creation, the second person the creator, and the third person the ghost or spirit which moved upon the face of the waters, and infused life into the mighty deep at creation—the same Holy Ghost which descended from heaven to infuse life into the waters at Christ's baptism; thus, the resemblance is complete. Mr. Basnage quotes a Christian writer of the fifth century as declaring, "The Athenian sage Plato marvelously anticipated one of the most important and mysterious doctrines of the Christian religion"—meaning the Trinity—an important concession truly.
The oldest and probably the original form of the Trinity
is that found in the Brahmin and Hindoo systems—the terms of which are—1. Brahma, the Father or supreme God. 2. Vishnu, the incarnate Word and Creator. 3. Siva, the Spirit of God, i.e., the Holy Spirit or Ghost—each answering to corresponding terms of the Christian Trinity, and yet two thousand years older, according to Dr. Smith.
We have not allowable space for other facts and citations (as this work is designed as a mere epitome), although we have but entered upon the threshold of the evidence tending to prove that the Christian Trinity was born of heathen parents, that it is an offspring of heathen mythology, like other doctrines of the Christian faith, claimed by its disciples as the gift of divine revelation.
Here let it be noted as a curious chapter in sacred history that the numerous divine Trinities which have constituted a part of nearly every religious system ever propagated to the world were composed, in every case, of male Gods. No female has ever yet been admitted into the triad of Gods composing the orthodox Trinity. Every member of the Trinity in every case is a male, and an old bachelor—a doctrine most flagrantly at war with the principles of modern philosophy.
For this science teaches us that the endowment of a being with either male or female organs, presupposes the existence of the other sex; and that either sex, without the other would be a ludicrous anomaly, and a ludicrous distortion of nature unparalleled in the history of science. As sexual organs create an imperious desire for the other sex, no male or female could long enjoy full happiness in the absence of the other party. What an unhappy, lonesome place, therefore, the orthodox heaven must have been, during the eternity of the past, with no society but old bachelors! The Trinity was constituted of males simply because woman has always been considered a mere
cipher in society—a mere tool for man's convenience, an appendage to his wants. Hence, instead of having a place among the Gods she led the practical life of a servant and a menial, which accounts for her exclusion from the Trinity. But the time is coming when she will rule both heaven and earth with the omnipotent power of her love nature. Then we shall have no "war in heaven," and no fighting on earth. | <urn:uuid:0a7f30c2-826f-4a80-a0f5-e60424f5158d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sacred-texts.com/bib/cv/wscs/wscs29.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952883 | 1,679 | 2.25 | 2 |
Nelson Mandela, in hospital in Pretoria for "medical attention", was today visited by President Jacob Zuma who said that South Africa's anti-apartheid icon "looks well after a restful night".
The president has been reassured that Mandela is in the hands of a competent medical team at the
hospital in Pretoria, Mac Maharaj, presidential spokesperson said.
94-year-old Mandela, who was South Africa's first black President, was hospitalised yesterday "to undergo tests," President Jacob Zuma's office had said in a statement.
The Nobel peace prize laureate "is doing well and there is no cause for alarm," the statement said.
Local media reports said that the decision to move him was taken so quickly, some family members and his own foundation were initially unaware it had happened.
South Africans had been waiting for word on Mandela's condition amid messages of hope for a speedy recovery.
Prayers were held for the former leader at the Regina Mundi Catholic church in the Soweto area of Johannesburg, once the centre of protests and funerals during apartheid.
"As said before, former President Mandela will receive medical attention from time to time which is consistent with his age," Mac Maharaj was quoted as saying by News24.
In January 2011, Mandela was treated for a serious chest infection. A year later, he underwent a diagnostic procedure for an abdominal problem.
Mandela spent over two decades in prison under the white minority apartheid regime.
Mandela retired from public life in 2004 and has been rarely seen in public since.
He served as South Africa's first black president between 1994 and 1999, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. | <urn:uuid:20c9efaa-1726-41f2-ad6e-a9ad7cef7b84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/Africa/Mandela-in-hospital-Zuma-visits-him/Article1-970604.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988088 | 347 | 1.882813 | 2 |
GCISE has been been leading the fight to protect science education in Georgia.
GCISE was founded in response to the placement of warning stickers on Biology textbooks in Cobb County in 2002 that state:
This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered.
We successfully fought to have the word “evolution” returned to the state curriculum and to restore important concepts from the AAAS benchmarks such as the age of the Earth, plate tectonics, the Big-Bang Theory, and the effect of humans on the environment.
GCISE is assisting classroom teachers to present evolution and the scientific method accurately and objectively. | <urn:uuid:0c8d033c-be70-4696-9bcb-5c152e7d02d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2004/05/georgia-citizen.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952478 | 155 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Red Wine Does Not Prevent Tooth Decay
In November 2009, a study published in the Journal of Food Chemistry falsely claimed that red wine will prevent tooth decay.
Red wine prevents tooth decay as much as white sugar prevents tooth decay. Scientists (of course from Italy) conclude that red wine prevents tooth decay by looking at how red wine affects Streptococcus mutans in a petri dish.
When red wine was added to an experiment where bacteria were sticking to fake teeth, the bacteria Streptococcus mutans stopped sticking. Therefore the scientist wrongly concluded that red wine stops cavities.
More About Red Wine and Tooth Decay
Bacteria in the mouth do not cause cavities. The scientist makes the assumption that Streptococcus mutans causes cavities. Therefore anything that will kill it, from Coke, to raisins, to bleach, can be said then to cure cavities, as if food has no other effect on the body at all. Rinsing the mouth with alcohol does not stop tooth decay either. A lack of nutrition is the cause of physical degeneration. If you want to know more about the real causes of tooth decay and some false assumptions about it, check out my tooth decay facts and myths pages.
Personally I find that most red wines adversely affect my health. I know that sulfates and other additives in wine could be one reason why. It is possible, in an ideal case, that a wine would give nutrients and probiotics to the body and therefore prevent cavities.
I have not found wine of this quality produced commercially. It would require that most or all of the grape sugar be fermented and turned into alcohol or vitamins. I have come across one homemade bottle. I suggest that if you want good wine, learn how to make it at home, or expect to pay lots of money and do significant research to find vineyards who do not cut corners or use additives.
Other people have learned the secrets to stopping cavities with the published book Cure Tooth Decay | <urn:uuid:7b769942-538d-446c-a3df-cac5619acaea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.curetoothdecay.com/Tooth_Decay/red-wine-not-prevent-tooth-decay.htm | 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 | 0.961205 | 406 | 2.59375 | 3 |
The Tashkent International School, (TIS) an IB World school, is an independent, nonprofit, coeducational day school founded in 1994 to provide quality education in English from Pre-School through grade 12 for students of any nationality. The school year consists of 2 semesters, extending from late August to late January and from late January to mid-June. The school calendar includes 3 breaks, 1 week in October, 3 weeks from mid-December to the first week of January, and 1 week in March.
Organization: The School is operated under the governance of a parent-elected 9-member School Board. TIS is accredited by the Council of International Schools as well as the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and is the only school in Central Asia to hold this distinction. The School is also a member of the Central and Eastern European Schools Association and an authorized International Baccalaureate (IB) World School.
Curriculum: The school offers the full IB Curriculum; the Primary Years Program (PYP) to students in grades K-5; the Middle Years Program (MYP) for grades 6 to 10 and the Diploma Program (DP) to students in grades 11 to 12. Instruction is in English and takes advantage of small class sizes and the diverse educational backgrounds of the students. Courses include English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Physical Education, Art, Technology and Fine Arts. English as-a second language is also provided to grades 2-9. Russian is offered as a foreign language and to native speakers in grades 2-12. Other foreign languages offered in secondary school include French and Korean. The School offers a comprehensive after-school activities program which includes: the IB Diploma CAS Program, Model United Nations, community service, student council, speech and debate, SAT/ACT and college preparation, instrumental music training, several bands, art, chess club, and the major sports such as gymnastics, basketball, soccer, and volleyball. The School’s programs and its graduates are recognized to meet the highest standards of international education.
Faculty: In school year 2011-2012, there are 55 full-time faculty members, and 13 part-time faculty members. The School also employs 12 teachers’ aides.
Enrollment: At the beginning of 2011-2012 school year, enrollment was 423 (Pre-School-grade 12).
Facilities: The campus consists of a 3 story facility located on 13 wooden acres in the leafy suburbs of Tashkent. Facilities include 45 well-equipped classrooms, 12 offices, 2 library/multi-media centers, 3 fully-equipped science labs, a full size gymnasium, an indoor theatre, a multipurpose room, prep rooms, 4 computer laboratories, 2 music rooms, and 2 art rooms. There are computers in the classrooms and in the classrooms for students use. The entire campus has high speed Internet. Sports facilities include 3 volleyball/basketball courts, a track, a soccer field, field spaces for baseball/softball, as well as, general recreation areas and wooded, landscaped grounds surrounded by a 3.5m brick wall. The School operates a closed campus and has 24-hour security with full CCTV coverage of the grounds and gates. The school has also acquired a large house within the campus to provide facilities for IBDP students, together with an art studio. Due to continued expansion of the school there are also plans for the provision of a separate Elementary School building.
Finances: For 2011-2012, the School income is derived from tuition. Annual tuition rates are as follows: Pre-school: $4,990; Kindergarten-grade 5: $16,700; grades 6-10: $19,000; and grades 11-12: $20,700. The enrollment fee for new students is $1,000. English Language Learner (ELL) fee: $500. (All fees are quoted in U. S. dollars.) | <urn:uuid:2b0c8174-7642-4bce-a36e-30426b0df99e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.state.gov/m/a/os/1487.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967055 | 816 | 1.5625 | 2 |
It is important that strikers have an awareness and ability to be able to create space for themselves to receive the ball, protect it from defenders and distribute the ball to supporting players or combine with their fellow striker. It is a hard job, playing with your back to play, being under physical pressure from defenders and be able to play accurate, timed and weighted passes to supporting players, who are also being marked by the opposition players.There are a number of animated drills that can help you improve your players with this difficult skill:
There are many more drills that can help you coach your forwards distribution skills, these can be found in the Ball Control and Turning Section and shooting section of the drills menu.
The following practice is designed to improve the forwards ability to create space for themselves, protect the ball from a defender and provide an accurate, timed and weighted pass to supporting players. It is flexible practice and can be conditioned by adding or taking away defenders, by conditioning the forwards to a limited number of touches - 2 or 3. It is important that there is a variety of different passes into the forwards, different angles, pace and heights.
NAME: Improve forwards distribution skills
Key skills to coach:
Movement to create space
Get in the line of the ball
Control away from defender
Protect ball from the defender
Accurate, timed, weighted lay off pass
Movement after pass to get in the box for cross or to receive a through pass
Communication between players, both verbal and with hand signals and body language
Use half a pitch or an area suitable for age and ability
Play two strikers against two defenders, with two supporting midfield players and two wide players.
Use as many or as few defenders as you wish. The practice is designed to progress to a game situation of 8 v 8
Supply of balls and bibs
Full size goal
Ball is switched between servers. As ball is switched, strikers create space for themselves to receive the ball, by threatening the space behind the defenders. Midfielders check to ball, this will ceate a "bubble" of space for the ball to be passed into the forwards.
Progression # 1
One striker checks to receive the ball to feet, the other pulls wider to isolate their fellow striker so they are 1 v 1 with the defender. Forward to protect the ball from the defender. Midfield player supports the forward as the ball is passed from the server.
Ball is set back to midfield player who passes the ball wide, strikers make near and far post runs to attack the cross. Work both sides of the pitch and add extra defenders for greater realism.
Progression # 3
Ball is switched between the servers. Encourage strikers to make clever cross over and checking runs to bring the defenders together and leave the space down the side for the ball to be played into.
Progression # 4
Ball is passed into space for the striker to run onto. Striker needs to protect the ball from the defender and look for support from the wide player .
Progression # 5
Striker provides a well weighted, timed pass for the supporting wide player. Both strikers then make near and far post runs in the box for the cross
Progression # 6
Ball is switched between servers. As ball is switched, strikers create space for themselves to receive the ball, by threatening the space behind the defenders. Midfielders check to ball, this will create a "bubble" of space for the ball to be passed into the forwards.
Progression # 7
Strikers look to combine with each other. They should time their runs to the ball and try to get in a zig zag or saw tooth shape that will create angles to work off each other.
Progression # 8
First striker, looks to play a give and go with second striker. There are lots of different kinds of combination play between you can coach between the strikers. | <urn:uuid:9d8d4609-bbb6-40e2-b8fe-3669c9368d00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.grassrootscoaching.com/members/page.phtml?id=237&mid=232&lng=EN | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959789 | 800 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Elaine is an English teacher from the UK who has spent a good chunk of the last 10 years living and teaching abroad. After five months of travelling around South America with her boyfriend, she took a boat from Cartagena to Panama City in order to fly back to Europe (via New York for a quick shopping spree). Please enjoy this week-in-the-life of Elaine as she makes the journey from Columbia onwards!
Day One: Wednesday
I am aboard the Stahlratte, a former fishing boat that tours the Caribbean. We left Colombia yesterday to sail to Panama. There are 21 of us aboard and we sleep in a dormitory under the deck, our cabins separated by curtains. Last night the crossing was rough. According to Ludwig, our Captain, it wasn’t bad but to those of us with no experience of the sea it was daunting when waves reaching 4 metres swept up alongside the boat, tossing it around violently. Early this morning two monster waves crashed over the boat and through the hatch above our bed. Completely drenched and thinking that the boat was sinking we jumped up in panic. Up on deck the Captain and crew battled to keep control of the ship.
4.30am – Desperate for the toilet I clamber through the cabin in the dark, climb a ladder, cross the kitchen and find the bathroom. To flush the toilet you pump a handle 15 times; this is no easy task when you can barely sit on the toilet without falling off.
8am – We enjoy a breakfast feast of fresh fruit, bread, ham and cheese, laughing at each other as we try to keep hold of our plates which slide across the table.
2pm – We have been sailing straight for about 26 hours now and the sea is still rough. Along the way we have seen flying fish flitting between the swells of the monstrous waves. Now we approach idyllic tropical islands and dolphins play alongside the boat. Soon we will be able to drop anchor and visit the islands.
4pm – We have arrived at a tiny island covered with palm trees. The San Blas is an autonomous region inhabited by the Kuna. The Kuna cleared the mangrove trees and replaced them with coconut plantations which create the postcard scenes of palm tree fringed beaches that we have been sailing through. Ludwig warns us not to take the coconuts as the punishment for this is a fine and imprisonment. Sadly, there’ll be no coconut with our rum today.
6pm – We have been swimming and sunbathing in paradise for a few hours and now the crew are preparing an almighty BBQ for us to enjoy on the beach. We each make our own skewers and place them over the hot coals. We eat them as the sun goes down and then enjoy homemade rum punch. We sit around the fire late into the night and then head back to the boat to sleep.
Day Two: Thursday
1pm – Last night the sea was still and we slept soundly. We sit around the large table on the top deck to eat breakfast. I have never eaten breakfast with such a wonderful view before. Afterwards we go swimming, snorkelling or sunbathing. Some of the boys have been on the rope swing but the only girl brave enough to try is Lily, the daring Scot. Some attempt the crow’s nest but nobody makes it into the basket. I float around in the water filming the action on the waterproof camera. Lunch is salad and the most delicious garlic bread I have ever eaten. This afternoon we will do more swimming, snorkelling and sunbathing. It’s a hard life!
8pm – Everybody is looking pink after a day of swimming, but the sun has now set and we’re hungry. Dinner is late and a few of us consider mutiny, but when it comes it’s really good. Some of the boys go on the rope swing but the action is brought to an abrupt halt when a Swiss passenger fails to let go of the rope in time and crashes into the steel hull. Everybody holds their breath as he plunges into the sea, but soon he surfaces again. When he gets back on deck he has a large wound on his elbow. A crew member expertly patches him up but the rope swing is put away. Later we sit around the table enjoying Cuban Rum. There is plenty of laughter as we reflect on the last few days and everybody agrees that they have been perfect.
Day Three: Friday
6am – The boat begins chugging through the San Blas archipelago whilst most of us sleep off the rum from last night.
9am – Breakfast is another veritable feast but now we have to pack our bags and bring them on deck. Immigration comes aboard to stamp our passports, and a few local Kuna come aboard for a can of coke. They stand on deck laughing with Ludwig. We say our goodbyes and thank the crew for all their hard work.
2pm – After a boat ride with the Kuna, we jump in jeeps that will take us to Panama City. The journey takes three hours and passes through mountainous jungle until the skyscrapers of the city are visible in the distance.
4pm – We didn’t book ahead so it takes us a long time to find accommodation. Most hostels are full but we find a hotel in the old town. The place is shabby and more expensive than we’d like but we can’t walk around with our heavy backpacks anymore so we agree to take it. Today I loathe my backpack and can’t wait to reach a place where I can stay for a while. But then I think back to the past few days and remember that you can’t beat travelling.
9pm – After checking in we go looking for dinner. We walk from the old town along the sea wall to the new town. We are surprised by Panama’s incredible skyline, where impressive skyscrapers stand out against the tiny boats bobbing in the harbour. We walk around until we find a restaurant and have good Indian food. We have to walk back as we can’t remember the address of our hotel and our lack of Spanish prevents us from directing a taxi. Walking back takes over an hour but the walk alongside the sea wall is pleasant and we are joined by joggers, cyclists and roller-bladers.
Day Four: Saturday
8am – I am woken by a fellow guest playing ‘My Favourite Things’ on a saxophone in the next room. Outside the street is already alive with the sound of early-morning trading and a cockerel crows relentlessly.
11.30am – We look for a launderette but are unsuccessful. Instead we go to the shop to buy bread and cheese for lunch. Today will be a lazy day catching up on emails and blogging. A few rain showers make me feel less guilty about this.
8pm – We try to find the bar featured in the ‘Tailor of Panama’, the website says it opens at 4pm but at 5.35 it is still locked up. Instead we eat Tacos nearby. We end the day drinking ‘Zombie Virus’ wine on the rooftop terrace with a guy we met on the Stahlratte.
Day Five: Sunday
9am – It’s Sunday so the street is quiet, but some boys throw firecrackers and wake me up. The rain has gone and it’s a beautiful day.
2pm – We visit the famous Panama Canal; luckily there is a boat passing through as we arrive. It is interesting but you can’t really walk around or get close to the canal and it is really busy. The Visitor’s Centre and the documentary are interesting. We take some pictures and leave. The taxi driver overcharges us on the way home but it’s too hot to argue.
8pm – We eat dinner and spend the evening blogging and watching ‘Modern Family’.
Day Six: Monday
10am – It’s Chinese New Year today so we are woken up by firecrackers and dancing dragons outside on the street. As we leave for New York tomorrow we have to go to a mall to buy some warm weather clothes. In the mall I find a pair of jeans for $15 and a warm coat with a faux-fur lining for $60.
The evening’s activities include dinner and packing our backpacks ready for the airport tomorrow.
Day Seven: Tuesday
5am – A road closure forces hoards of chicken buses up our tiny road and the noise is immense, revving engines, grinding gears and incessant honking of the horn. The local dogs decide to join in. It seems I won’t be getting any more sleep this morning.
11am – We leave for the airport to get a flight to Miami and then on to New York.
5.30pm – Arriving in Miami is a straightforward process, although we are surprised to find that our bags are not in transit and we have to collect them from the conveyor belt in Miami. Short of time we find a Wendy’s for a quick meal. I have the apple pecan salad which is surprisingly good.
11pm – We arrive in New York’s La Guardia airport. On the descent I can see Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. Having never been to New York before I begin to feel really excited about what the next few days will bring. New York is cold; it’s hard to believe that only a week ago I was cruising in the Caribbean and that in less than a week I will be in Europe.
In light of my own recent experiences with sailing, I was fascinated to read about Elaine’s nautical voyage (and I hope you were too!) Elaine and her boyfriend have just settled for a while to live and look for work in Tenerife. If their plan is successful then they intend to travel to India as soon as possible. Feel free to follow their journey on Runaway Brit, or on Facebook or Twitter @runawaybrit. | <urn:uuid:6a22e74a-4576-435f-9d69-733c13ac53cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theprofessionalhobo.com/2012/02/a-week-in-the-life-of-elaine-runaway-brit/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963328 | 2,112 | 1.515625 | 2 |
"And Yet It Moves" is basically a mixture between a jump and run and a puzzle game, with the extra ability to rotate the world. The player can run left, right and jump, but can also turn the world clockwise and counterclockwise by 90 degrees. When this happens physics works the following way: as soon as rotation starts all objects get frozen and after rotation objects continue to move with their velocities (direction and speed) they had before. With this ability you can move objects and yourself but also need to keep orientation and watch out for dangerous situations. Don't worry though, you' re made out of paper so you can die as often as you want to.
The overall goal is to get through this collage of ripped paper. And if you are quick - and donīt die too often - you might get into the highscore list. | <urn:uuid:e8a78534-f209-4f0b-ae5b-53dbc17d1c21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.g4g.it/download/comment.php?dlid=1717 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977737 | 177 | 1.585938 | 2 |
All along river beds and lakes. These wastes can be utilised to grow and will begin this is just like the gardening your crops that many aquarists would be family food with leafy vegetables. It allows you to increase your knowledgeable in Diy stores.
I hope that this for a very very long to create your environmental friendly and are also being utilized it and delivered directly to the growth but there are some huge differences. How to grow one or two and the product? You will find their specific needs and the assistance originating pests and the plants grow healthy fresh food production. In this case you were to make. My recommend Aquaponics” with Master Gardeners and business system you will not sure what this particular of the world. Aquaponics is a great aquaponics is a fairly easily.
you are going to potable water;
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Aquaponics system and planting pots at the bottom of the plants grow and provide diversity trials showed that gets plenty of different ways out the negative aspects of each.Tags: DIY Aquaponics, step by step, Aquaponics system | <urn:uuid:efe42364-0783-461c-a0a7-2445aa22ff4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://aquaponicsblog.info/534/hydroponic-suppliers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946465 | 989 | 2.15625 | 2 |
This book put a name to a force that I feel lurking behind me every time I get behind a keyboard.
Godfrey Reggio's experimental documentaries about life with nary a word of dialogue get a royal upgrade.
Picturing the Cosmos offers a fascinating comparison of Romantic artwork with Hubble images.
Newspaper comic strips are meant to be taken seriously. Anybody who thinks otherwise isn't paying attention – and the joke's on them.
Wide-ranging and generic, Tillmans is too cool for school, and takes the fun out of boring photos.
This crowning achievement from TASCHEN features every painting and drawing known from the Master of the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci.
The Art of Nathan Sawaya is a very cool book which any lover of LEGO art should not miss.
Weiwei-isms is a pocket-sized reminder of what it is to be human and bear true witness to the world we live in.
If you already know how to draw and want to develop your skills further, this book is for you.
Danger! Women Artists at Work is a delightful walk through history offering an overdue education and appreciation of women artists, just in time for gift-giving. | <urn:uuid:c80f24c4-3aa1-45e8-a39a-03ce85886bca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogcritics.org/tag/art | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945201 | 251 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Pictures: Teus Luijendijk
Just after our discovery of a juvenile Emperor Penguin Aptenodytes forsteri at sea, some 190 nautical miles SW of South Georgia, 2 Cattle Egrets were found following the ship. Not much later, their number had grown to approximately 20 birds. And that was not it, yet. After nightfall we could see at least 80 individuals in the beams of the ship's headlights!
The next morning these numbers had gone down to about 20, and 13 more were recovered during the night from the ship's deck. These were taken into care and although they were very skinny, all birds were released the following morning at Gold Harbour, South Georgia. Immediately after release we counted 14 birds, so suspicions rose that 'ours' were not the only Cattle Egrets that had found their way to this island. This turned out to be true, as a total of at least 27 birds was later counted in this area.
Several of them fell victim to Brown Skuas Catharacta (antarctica) lonnbergi , and one could only wonder whether the rest had any chance of survival on this island, far away from the egrets' breeding grounds.....
Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis ; videograbs (20x).
Copyright ©Teus Luijendijk 2003 | <urn:uuid:e7607f83-91d5-4b67-9d11-9c7b6251ecb2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.warbler.phytoconsult.nl/AO/c_egret.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981752 | 279 | 3.234375 | 3 |
Ever since Obama redoubled his push to hike taxes on the rich, conservatives have been ridiculing Obama’s invocations of fairness, insisting that the rich are already paying a rising share of the overall tax burden, and accusing him of pushing for mass wealth redistribution in the quest for equality imposed from above. He has been labeled “a staunch believer in the redistributionist state,” a believer in “government-enforced equality,” and even a “socialist.”
So let’s look at how Obama’s tax policies would really impact the wealthy if they were enacted — and how those effects would fit into the bigger picture of income disparity in America.
One way to measure the impact of tax policies is to ask what impact they would have on the after-tax income of people at all income levels. This allows us to gauge just how “redistributionist” tax policies really are.
And guess what: When you do it this way, it shows that the notion that Obama’s tax proposals are redistributive in any large or meaningful way is just comical. Indeed, the big picture is that the impact that they would have on income inequality is virtually nonexistent.
I asked the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center to analyze how Obama’s policies would impact the after tax income of people at all levels, and to compare those results to people’s after tax income under previous tax regimes.
The Tax Policy Center graciously agreed to my request, and looked at what taxes people would pay in 2013 under various tax regimes, when the Obama proposals would take effect. The Center drew up the answers in graph form (editorial conclusions are mine; the numbers are theirs). Here’s the first result:
Here’s how the chart works. In each income group in the top 20 percent — measured here by “percentile” — the blue line represents Clinton-era tax rates; the red represents Bush-era tax rates; and the green represents tax rates under Obama’s first stimulus tax cuts.
The purple and light blue represent what after-tax income would look like for each percentile if Obama’s tax policies were enacted. The blue one includes new taxes from the health reform law that are set to take hold in 2013, and the purple one doesn’t include those taxes. Throughout, I’ll be referring to the one including the health law taxes — the light blue line — because that’s the most onerous scenario.
In other words, under the Tax Policy Center’s model, the purple and blue bars give us a rough sense of the after tax income in various income categories if Obama were to realize his policy goals. The model assumes all the following Obama proposals would get passed: Letting the Bush tax cuts mostly expire for the rich, limiting the value of itemized deductions and some exclusions to 28 percent, taxing carried interest at regular rates, and eliminating tax breaks for oil and gas companies and for corporate jets.
As you can see from the above graph, the big picture is that only the very wealthiest would see anything approaching a signficant change, and in the larger scheme of things, it wouldn’t be a signficant shift at all.
The 95th-99th percentile would drop from an average annual after tax income of $255,379 under Bush to $251,045 under Obama — slightly more than under Clinton, when it stood at $246,372. (All figures are adjusted for inflation, and you can read a table detailing the numbers right here.)
The top one percent would drop from an average of $1,240,975 under Bush to $1,143,598 under Obama’s policies. That change is dramatically dwarfed by the size of the remaining after tax income, which would still tower above every other income group, remaining four or more times higher.
The picture is even more pronounced when you step back and compare the top fifth in income to the other four lower quintiles:
As you can see, the top quintile actually ends up with slightly more after tax income ($198,147 a year) under Obama’s policies than under Clinton ($195,583 a year). And its after tax income drops only by roughly $6,000 from where it was under Bush ($204,011). And under Obama’s policies, the top quintile, would continue to dwarf the other four just as dramatically as it has in the past. (Detailed table here.)
Finally, the third chart shows clearly that only the top one percent and the top 0.1 percent would see their rates rise modestly under Obama’s policies from Clinton-era rates:
Under Clinton, the top 1 percent paid 33.4 percent; under Bush it paid 29.8 percent; and under Obama it would go back up to 35.3 percent, less than two points than under Clinton.
Meanwhile, under Clinton, the top 0.1 percent paid 36.9 percent; under Bush it paid 32.8 percent; and under Obama it would go back up to 39.7 percent. By contrast, every other group would be paying lower rates under Obama’s proposals than under Clinton. (A table detailing these numbers is right here.)
It’s true that the top 1 percent and the top 0.1 percent would be paying more. But the significance of those hikes shrivel dramatically when you consider how much better these folks have fared over time than everyone else has. The highest end hikes shrivel in the context of the towering size of their after-tax incomes — and the degree to which they dwarf those of everyone else, something that has increased dramatically in recent years.
Indeed, if Obama’s proposal is intended as a huge redistributionist scheme designed to level our society by bringing about government-imposed equality, then it can already been seen as a pretty massive failure.
Editor’s note: Later today, the Tax Policy Center will post a more detailed explanation of its methodology. And all numbers are subject to revision as calculations of this sort are extremely complex.
Update: I accidentally posted the wrong version of the third chart. I’ve replaced it with the right one. The numbers in the text were — and remain — accurate. | <urn:uuid:08a360d6-42f8-4030-8ee5-6e004f0e9f33> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/how-obamas-tax-hikes-will-really-impact-the-rich-in-three-easy-charts/2011/03/03/gIQAmbbLIL_blog.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958392 | 1,304 | 2.1875 | 2 |
157 Views, 3 Replies
12-23-2012 02:50 PM
Hey guys, i just found out today about this program and i already love it (my engineering homeworks will never be the same ) but i do have one problem about using it that i can't seem to be able to solve and i was hoping you have some more knowledge that i have. I wanna define a simple 2d frame that has an articulated node at some point and robot seems to be able to define only rigid nodes and i absolutely have no ideea how to do that. I'm not sure that's the correct terminology but here's a drawing that will illustrate better what i'm trying to say: [URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/39/fgeghth.pn
g/][IMG]http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/4577/fgeg ... Uploaded with [URL=http://imageshack.us]ImageShack.us[/URL]
Solved! Go to Solution. | <urn:uuid:be55816b-3435-46a0-9de1-3662d7a860cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-Robot-Structural/How-do-i-set-up-an-articulated-node-in-robot/m-p/3742255 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941983 | 220 | 2.0625 | 2 |
Download Your Copy Today A guide to understanding Great Lakes’ influences for all ages. Size:
5MB, Updated: 9/24/2010
Great Lakes literacy is an understanding of the Great Lakes’ influences on you and your influence on the Great Lakes.
The Great Lakes, bodies of fresh water with many features, are connected to each other and to the world ocean.
The Great Lakes are a dominant physical feature of North America and form part of the political boundary
between the United States and Canada.
The Great Lakes system includes five Great Lakes (Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario),
Lake St. Clair and the connecting channels, along with many harbors and bays. Each lake has distinctive basin
features, circulation and ecology.
The Great Lakes contain nearly 20 percent of the world’s fresh surface water and have a coastline longer
than the East coast of the United States. Most of North America’s fresh surface water (95%) is in the Great Lakes.
The Great Lakes, their respective watersheds and waterways, and the ocean are all connected. Within the Great Lakes
system, water flows from Lake Superior and Lake Michigan to Lake Huron, through Lake St. Clair into Lake Erie, over
Niagara Falls and into Lake Ontario before flowing through the St. Lawrence River into the ocean. Rivers and streams
transport nutrients, dissolved gases, salts and minerals, sediments and pollutants from watersheds into the Great Lakes.
The Great Lakes are an integral part of the water cycle and are connected to the region’s watersheds and water
systems. Changes in water systems affect the quality, quantity and movement of water, including retention time.
Water currents circulate within the Great Lakes and are powered by wind, waves, energy from the sun and water
density differences. The shape of a lakebed and its geographic orientation, the direction of the prevailing
winds, the shores and the structures along the shores influence the path of circulation. Circulation between the
lakes is driven by gravity.
Lake level is the height of the Great Lakes relative to sea level. Lake level changes are caused by
variations in precipitation, evaporation, runoff, and snow melt, as well as wind and waves. While tides are
typically not discernable in the Great Lakes, seiches are common in the Lakes.
The Great Lakes stratify in the summer and in winter under ice cover, forming distinct layers based on water
temperature differences. Turnover occurs in the spring and fall when cooler weather minimizes temperature differences
and the layers mix. Turnover is the main way that oxygen and nutrient-poor water in the deeper areas of the lakes
can be mixed with oxygen and nutrient-rich surface water.
Although the Great Lakes are large, they are finite and their resources are limited. | <urn:uuid:69ba8a39-62a9-497b-84f9-d92637b285f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.greatlakesliteracy.net/principles/1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924157 | 588 | 3.921875 | 4 |
HomeMy QualificationsAreas ServedWhat I InspectMy PromiseStandardsHomeownersRenovationHome SafetyHome BuyersHome SellersRealtors, Click HereContact FormLinks of InterestSearch Our SiteSite MapMore Resources
A.S.A.P. Property Inspections
Peace of Mind at an Affordable Price
Log Home Basics
Log homes may be site-built or pre-cut in a factory for delivery to the site. Some log home manufacturers can also customize their designs. Before designing or purchasing a manufactured log home, you need to consider the following for energy efficiency:
The R-Value of Wood
In a log home, the wood helps provide some insulation. Wood's thermal resistance or resistance to heat flow is measured by its R-value. The higher the R-value, the more thermal resistance.
The R-value for wood ranges between 1.41 per inch (2.54 cm) for most softwoods and 0.71 for most hardwoods. Ignoring the benefits of the thermal mass, a 6-inch (15.24 cm) thick log wall would have a clear-wall (a wall without windows or doors) R-value of just over 8.
Compared to a conventional wood stud wall [31 D2 inches (8.89 cm) insulation, sheathing, wallboard, a total of about R-14] the log wall is apparently a far inferior insulation system. Based only on this, log walls do not satisfy most building code energy standards. However, to what extent a log building interacts with its surroundings depends greatly on the climate. Because of the log's heat storage capability, its large mass may cause the walls to behave considerably better in some climates than in others. Logs act like "thermal batteries" and can, under the right circumstances, store heat during the day and gradually release it at night. This generally increases the apparent R-value of a log by 0.1 per inch of thickness in mild, sunny climates that have a substantial temperature swing from day to night. Such climates generally exist in the Earth's temperate zones between the 15th and 40th parallels.
Minimizing Air Leakage in Log Homes
Log homes are susceptible to developing air leaks. Air-dried logs are still about 15–20% water when the house is assembled or constructed. As the logs dry over the next few years, the logs shrink. The contraction and expansion of the logs open gaps between the logs, creating air leaks, which cause drafts and high heating requirements. To minimize air leakage, logs should be seasoned (dried in a protected space) for at least six months before construction begins. These are the best woods to use to avoid this problem, in order of effectiveness:
Since most manufacturers and experienced builders know of these shrinkage and resulting air leakage problems, many will kiln dry the logs prior to finish shaping and installation. Some also recommend using plastic gaskets and caulking compounds to seal gaps. These seals require regular inspection and resealing when necessary.
Controlling Moisture in Log Homes
Since trees absorb large amounts of water as they grow, the tree cells are also able to absorb water very readily after the wood has dried. For this reason, a log home is very hydroscopic—it can absorb water quickly. This promotes wood rot and insect infestation. It is strongly recommended that you protect the logs from any contact with any water or moisture. One moisture control method is to use only waterproofed and insecticide-treated logs. Reapply these treatments every few years for the life of the house. Generous roof overhangs, properly sized gutters and downspouts, and drainage plains around the house are also critical for moisture control.
Building Energy Code Compliance for Log Homes
Because log homes don't have conventional wood-stud walls and insulation, they often don't satisfy most building code energy standards—usually those involving required insulation R-values.
However, several states—including Pennsylvania, Maine, and South Carolina—have exempted log-walled homes from normal energy compliance regulations. Others, such as Washington, have approved "prescriptive packages" for various sizes of logs, but these may or may not make sense in terms of energy efficiency. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) 90.2 standard contains a thermal mass provision that may make it easier to get approval in those states that base their codes on this standard. To find out the log building code standards for your state, contact your city or county building code officials. Your state energy office may be able to provide information on energy codes recommended or enforced in your state.
Building & Restoration of Log Cabins
The foundation of a log cabin is made of stone pillars. The stones provide a sturdy base to support the cabin and act as a barrier between the cabin and the earth. The stones may settle over time and the foundation is carefully examined for damage or wear and subsequently repaired during restoration.
The walls are made of logs, placed either vertically or horizontally, depending on the style and size of the cabin. The logs are notched at the corners to allow them to fit together. Corner notching is a notable characteristic of log cabin construction because it provides stability by locking the log ends in place, enabling the logs to fit together in a secure manner. Many different methods of corner notching exist, ranging from simple "saddle" notching to the common "V" notching or "steeple" notching, which get their name from the shape of the notch cut into the wood. These notching methods are marked by a cut into the wood that allows another cut piece of wood to fit together like a puzzle piece. Another commonly used technique, "square" notching, differs in that the logs are secured with the addition of pegs or spikes.
The number of logs used per wall varies with the size of the cabin. The spaces between logs are usually filled with a combination of materials in a process known as "chinking" and "daubing." This process seals the exterior walls, protecting them from weather and animal damage.
Log cabin roofs are often gabled and are comprised of hand-split, wood shingles. The roofs often develop damage and leaks over the years and are commonly included in restoration.
Many log cabins have both a front and rear door. Due to the many times the doors are opened and closed over the years, the doors are often not in good working order and require repair during restoration. Both doors on the cabin can be comprised of boards that are hand-dressed, open inward and are fastened to the log structure with pegs.
The cabin features two windows, located on either side of the chimney. The windows hold glass panes, which most likely need to be replaced during the restoration of the cabin.
The cabin has a chimney that sank and deteriorated into many different pieces over the years. The chimney was rebuilt during cabin restoration.
Handcrafted log home
A home that is constructed of logs that are individually fit together.
Milled log home
Constructed of machine-lathed logs, and is also used to describe a log home built from a kit.
Insulated log home
Constructed with half-logs attached to a standard 2x6 frame structure.
The mixture used to fill the gaps between logs - can be natural materials or synthetic.
The normal loss of diameter in logs as they lose moisture.
The downward movement of log courses as the logs shrink.
The natural cracking of logs as they shrink.
Occur when two logs are placed end-to-end.
One layer of logs placed atop the entire foundation of the home.
Log wall exterior
The inspector shall inspect exterior surfaces of log walls, when such surfaces are visible, looking for:
Log wall interior
- presence of mold, mildew or fungus
- cracks located at tops of logs and facing up
- discoloration, graying, bleaching or staining of logs
- loose or missing caulking
- separation of joints
- condition of chinking, to include cracking, tears, holes, or separation of log courses
- condition of log ends
The inspector shall inspect interior surfaces of log walls, when such surfaces are visible, looking for:
Other exterior concerns
- separation between logs, including light or air penetration from outdoors
- separation between exterior log wall and interior partition walls
- separation between log walls and interior ceilings
In addition to the items specified in NACHI Standards of Practice 2.1 and 2.2, the inspector shall inspect:
Other interior concerns
- downspout extensions
- grading and water flow away from log walls
- vertical support posts under and on all porches
In addition to the items specified in NACHI Standards of Practice 2.4 and 2.6, the inspector shall inspect:
- Slip joints, adjustable sleeves, looped water supply lines, flexible hose sections, and flexible ductwork that are visible as part of the standard heating and plumbing inspections.
The inspector is not required to:
- inspect or predict the condition of the interiors of logs
- predict the life expectancy of logs
- climb onto log walls. However, the inspector may inspect log walls by use of a ladder, if this procedure may be done safely and without damaging the walls.
- inspect components of the porch support system, or of the plumbing or heating systems, that are not readily visible and accessible. | <urn:uuid:8b87b2f2-39f2-4e30-902e-c6a660efe37a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.asappi.net/?D=53 | 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 | 0.934278 | 1,969 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Paula K. Jones 434-856-8176
Oct. 30, 2012
FEW ROADS CLOSED DUE TO STORM
Downed trees reported at numerous locations
Few roads are closed in the Lynchburg District of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT); however, sporadic reports continue about downed trees. In addition, a wet blowing snow is falling at the higher levels of Amherst and Nelson Counties.
VDOT crews worked overnight across much of Virginia to clear debris and reopen roads and will continue to do so. Travel remains hazardous due to the wind and the danger of debris in roadways.
Residents should continue to monitor local news media for the latest weather information. Anyone who must drive on Tuesday should observe the following precautions:
- Watch for tree limbs and other debris in the roadway. Even small branches can damage a vehicle or cause the motorist to lose control.
- Assume all fallen power lines are electrified and dangerous. Never attempt to drive across or step over downed lines.
- If a traffic signal is out, treat the intersection as a four-way stop.
- Never drive around barricades. Remember, the road has been closed for your safety.
- Expect the unexpected. Reduce speed and be prepared to stop without warning.
For the latest information about road closures check VDOT’s traffic web site, www.511Virginia.org. Click on the red bar at top left for Hurricane Sandy road closures and advisories. Motorists can also call 511 from any telephone in Virginia for road and traffic conditions on all major highways in the state
Information in VDOT news releases was accurate at the time the release was published. For the most current information about projects or programs, please visit the project or program Web pages. You may find those by searching by keyword in the search Virginia DOT box above. | <urn:uuid:8c41e00a-cd49-4b1b-a6bc-d0a59e710822> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.virginiadot.org/newsroom/lynchburg/2012/few_roads_closed_due61512.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914392 | 384 | 1.84375 | 2 |
One of the most extraordinary books to come out of the Bosnian war was that by Chuck Sudetic, who worked for the New York Times. His story focused on the tragedy of Srebrenica. What sets Sudetic's book apart from others was the insight he gained thanks to the Čelik family, who were distant relations by marriage and who had ended up in Srebrenica. Patient detective work led him to talk to people across the region and the former frontlines thus giving it the strength of a book, which will endure. In this scene, which takes place just after the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995, thousands of Muslim men trying to trek across Serb-held territory to safety are lured down from the hills by Serbs at the village of Kravica on white UN armoured personnel carriers that they had captured. Kravica had been raided by the Srebrenica Muslims on Orthodox Christmas day in January 1993. Bratunac, close to Srebrenica had been Serb held during the war.
"Surrender," the megaphones blasted. "Your own commanders have betrayed you."
"Surrender. We will dress your wounds."
"We have your women and children here. We will kill them if you do not surrender."
"Surrender and you will be able to go wherever you wish."
Thousands of Muslim men descended the hillside and surrendered. On the roads below, they found Serbs atop the UN vehicles. Serb soldiers immediately shot some of them; others were forced into nearby fields, where their throats were slit. Several hundred prisoners were marched into the new warehouse of the of the farmer's co-op in Kravica; and after some Muslims overpowered and killed one of the Serb police guards and wounded another, the rest of the Serbs outside the warehouse opened up on the unarmed Muslims inside with machine guns and bombs. Other prisoners were marched and trucked to Bratunac, where they were cut down by machine guns. Prisoners were herded into the soccer field in the village of Nova Kasaba, where Paja had seen the man with the skin peeled from his face; their hands were bound behind their backs, and they sat on the grass in the sun. General Ratko Mladić appeared. "Nothing will happen to you," he said. But when he left, the men were marched away in groups, shot in cold blood, and dumped in mass graves.
Euphoria spread through Bratunac after the fall of Srebrenica. Mihailo Erić, the great-great-grandson of the Serb sharecropper who taught himself to read and fought against two empires to become the owner of the land he had worked as a sharecropper, was in town on the day the executions began. A few of Mihailo's friends approached him. They were excited. "Come on," they said. They told Mihailo to grab his gun. They told him to get on down to the soccer field in Bratunac. Military-age men from Kravica, including Mihailo's father, Zoran Erić, had been summoned to Bratunac for "obligatory work details." After two years of waiting, they said, their five minutes had finally come. If they dealt with the Muslims from Srebrenica now, they would never be back. Mihailo, who had gone to war at age seventeen and had his head torn open by a bullet refused to budge. "I don't shoot prisoners," he said. Then he went home.
Blood and Vengeance: One Family's Story of the War in Bosnia. Chuck Sudetic. 1998.
[pp. 157-8 / W. W. Norton] | <urn:uuid:8e0f0fea-b304-46c2-b171-25965d610e10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.esiweb.org/pdf/bridges/kosovo/index.php?lang=de&id=294&walk_ID=14 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989649 | 784 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Procedures used to maintain the optimum health of the dental structure, such as prophylaxis and fluoride treatment, sealants, space maintainers, etc. Our dental hygiene program will keep your gums healthy with regularly scheduled cleanings, customized to meet your needs oral hygiene instructions and regular checkups.
Regular Dental Checkup
In order to avoid lengthy procedures & maintain a healthy disease free mouth we recommend recare every 6 months. This allows us to detect early signs of disease & provide appropriate treatment, leading to a favorable prognosis.
Sealants protect the occlusal surfaces, inhibiting bacterial growth and providing a smooth surface that increases the probability that the surface will stay clean. The ultimate goal of sealants is penetrating into the pit and fissures of the tooth and sealing them from bacteria.
Indications for Use: Traditionally, sealants are thought of as a preventive measure for children and teenagers when they are in their “cavity prone years”. Patients who have xerostomia (decreased salivation), are undergoing orthodontic treatment, show evidence of incipient caries, or who are prone to caries should be evaluated as candidates for sealant placement. Primary molars also can benefit from the placement of sealants.
Space maintainers are appliances made to custom fit your child’s mouth to maintain the space intended for the permanent tooth when it decides to come in. They do this by “holding open” the empty space left by a lost tooth by preventing movement in the remaining teeth until the permanent tooth takes its natural position in the child’s mouth. This treatment is much more affordable and much easier on your child than to move them back later with orthodontic procedures. Think of space maintainers as insurance against braces.
Why are they important to children’s dental care?
Well, baby teeth usually stay in place until “pushed out” by a permanent tooth that takes its place. Unfortunately, some children lose baby teeth too early. A tooth may be knocked out accidentally or be removed due to severe disease. When this occurs, a space maintainer may be required to prevent future dental problems. Space maintainers encourage normal development of the jaw bones and muscles, and save space for the permanent teeth and help guide them into position.
How can losing a baby tooth too early cause problems for permanent teeth?
Well, teeth are strange in that regard. Teeth attempt to “fill” any space available to them. If your child loses a baby tooth to early, the remaining baby teeth may tilt, drift, or move up or down to fill the gap. When this happens, they fill the space intended for the permanent tooth, and the permanent tooth can come in crowded or crooked. And this condition, if left untreated, may require extensive (and expensive) orthodontic treatment (braces or even surgery).
Space maintainers require any special care?
Yes, they do, and you as a parent can help. Make sure your child avoids Hard/Sticky foods (suckers, caramels, gum, popcorn, etc.). Teeth should be brushed after each meal and clean the teeth with bands especially well. Once a day, a fluoride mouthwash should be used to help prevent decalcification of the teeth around the band and wire. Do not try to bend the wire for any reason with finger or tongue. Notify our office immediately if the bands come loose or the space maintainer is damaged in any way. If a tooth erupts under the wire this also needs to be checked.
What is fluoride?
The fluoride ion comes from the element fluorine. Fluoride, either applied topically to erupted teeth, or ingested orally (called systemic fluoride) during tooth development, helps to prevent tooth decay, strengthen tooth enamel, and reduce the harmful effects of plaque. Fluoride also makes the entire tooth structure more resistant to decay and promotes remineralization, which aids in repairing early decay before the damage is even visible.
Where is fluoride found?
Topical Fluoride is found in products containing strong concentrations of fluoride (i.e., toothpastes, mouth rinses), fluoridated varnishes and/or gels either topically applied by a dentist or other oral health professional, or prescribed as an at-home regimen (particularly for persons with a high risk of dental caries).
Systemic Fluoride can be ingested through public and private water supplies, soft drinks, teas, as dietary supplements, some bottled water supplies. Once ingested, systemic fluoride is absorbed via the gastrointestinal tract and distributed and deposited throughout the body via the blood supply.
What health risks are associated with fluoride uses?
In general, fluoride consumption is safe. Health risks associated with Fluoridation usually are limited to misuse and over concentration. To avoid misuse and over concentration: Avoid drinking overly fluoridated water – results of this may cause teeth to become discolored, and may cause the enamel of the teeth to look spotted, pitted, or stained (a condition known as dental fluorosis). Avoid swallowing toothpaste and other dental hygiene products.
Call the local water department and/or the health department to evaluate the fluoride level in your local drinking reservoir. Children are especially vulnerable to dental fluorosis as their developing teeth are more sensitive to higher fluoride levels. Consult a pediatric dentist or other oral health care professional if you notice changes in the condition of your child’s teeth. | <urn:uuid:99a10477-9a3e-4891-a948-9dad6458f9f7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hilltopfamilydental.com/our-services-2/preventive-care-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924542 | 1,134 | 2.90625 | 3 |
October 27, 2010
Martha Jefferson Hospital's Palliative Care Team consists of nurses, a doctor and a chaplain. The team works together to help patients deal with illness, conduct family counseling sessions and create treatment goals.
While hospice focuses on end of life care, palliative care is more long term.
"Somebody can be doing chemotherapy, they can be on dialysis, they can be someone with a long term illness [that] lasts eight or ten years and have terrible symptoms. Palliative care treats all of those symptoms," said Suzanne Hilton Smith, a chaplain.
The team wants patients to understand they are not alone when going through an illness and works to provide physical, spiritual, and/or emotional support.
Palliative care also benefits the families of patients.
"For a lot of families there are relationship struggles and spiritual struggles. There is spiritual despair," added Smith.
Dr. Martha Battle, who works in palliative care, says that for one husband, "It was just helpful for him to have someone to talk to about how frustrating it was, in terms of getting care for his wife when her symptoms were progressing."
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powered by Disqus | <urn:uuid:95ba46b6-1fdc-4603-8326-02361fc62afc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newsplex.com/community/healthwise/headlines/Healthwise_Palliative_Care_Team_105902843.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963752 | 390 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Image courtesy of Library of Congress
Less than one year after congressional passage of the Lend-Lease Act to aid Great Britain and other countries fighting the Axis Powers, the United States declared war against Japan, Germany, and Italy in December 1941.
On this date, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Lend-Lease Act—authorizing the President to sell, lease, or lend military hardware to any country he designated as vital to American national security. In December 1940, British leaders informed American officials that the war against the Axis Powers had nearly bankrupted the country. Great Britain no longer would be able to pay cash for arms as U.S. law required. In his January 6, 1941, annual message, Roosevelt asked Congress for the authority to supply arms to Great Britain and other nations: “We cannot, and we will not, tell them that they must surrender, merely because of present inability to pay for the weapons which we know they must have.” Congressional internationalists supported Roosevelt while isolationists, such as Hamilton Fish
of New York, Dewey Short
of Missouri, and Karl Mundt
of South Dakota, opposed Lend-Lease because they believed it ceded congressional prerogatives and might directly embroil the country in war. Representative James Wadsworth
of New York declared Roosevelt’s plan to be “startling. We have never been asked to consider anything like it. The powers proposed to give to him by congress are enormous.” After weeks of intense debate, including testimony against Lend-Lease by aviation hero Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the House voted 265 to 165 to approve the measure (H.R. 1776) on February 8, 1941. | <urn:uuid:a098a128-78ea-416d-9f74-e76fe604e60e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1901-1950/The-Lend-Lease-Act-of-1941/ | 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 | 0.961833 | 362 | 4.03125 | 4 |
2011 Annual Report
1a.Objectives (from AD-416)
The objective of this agreement is to build upon a long-term project designed to evaluate the impact of intervention strategies on Johne’s disease dynamics, milk and beef quality (particularly with respect to zoonotic bacterial pathogens), economics and sustainability through intensive longitudinal follow up of well-characterized research/demonstration dairy farms. Long-term goals are to validate intervention strategies to support best management practices (BMPs) and to optimize intervention and monitoring strategies given the constraints on time, labor and financial resources in modern dairy herds. In addition, a national resource bank (data and biological specimens on well-characterized animals) will be maintained for current and future monitoring and research on dairy cattle diseases. Emphasis will be on longitudinal data collection on endemic infectious diseases of public and animal health concern.
1b.Approach (from AD-416)
Pathogens are of increasing concern on dairy farms and in dairy products. The production of safe and wholesome food from U.S. farms requires control of the production process on the farm. Specific focus areas in this process are biosecurity, food safety and animal health. To be able to scientifically support regional process control programs there is a need for longitudinal research on commercial dairy farms throughout the United States. For several years, Cornell University, The Pennsylvania State University, The University of Vermont, and the University of Pennsylvania, which are all participants in the Regional Dairy Quality Management Alliance (RDQMA), have collaborated with the USDA’s Environmental Microbial Safety Laboratory to study the disease dynamics of endemic infectious diseases on three operating dairy farms. The goal is to identify sites that act as reservoirs for pathogenic microorganisms that affect animal health and/or decrease product quality because of their zoonotic nature. Serum, feces, bulk tank milk, and environmental samples (water, bird and rodent feces, feed, etc.) will be taken on the farm. In addition, tissue samples will be obtained from carcasses of culled animals. Samples will be distributed among the university and ARS researchers for analysis to determine the presence of Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (the causative agent of Johne’s disease in cattle) and for Salmonella enterica, Escherichia coli O157:H7 and other enteropathogenic forms of E. coli, and Listeria monocytogenes (human food-borne pathogens of concern in dairy products). This research is the first to attempt a comprehensive analysis of both Johne’s disease and food-borne pathogens on working dairy farms. We have gathered extensive baseline data for these organisms on three farms and have set the stage for investigation of the effect of interventions, in the form of BMPs, on animal health and product quality.
Through this agreement the cooperator provided access to samples from a dairy farm in New York and provided expertise in epidemiology for the entire project. Since the samples required for the study of the occurrence, maintenance, and persistence of Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, and pathogenic E. coli were identical to those required for the study of Mycobacterium avium Paratuberculosis (MAP), which was of interest to the cooperator, joint sampling was conducted. Milk, milk filters, and environmental samples from a dairy farm in New York were taken on schedule and distributed to laboratories for analysis. A database of all the data generated in several labs during the course of the project was maintained as agreed. Molecular analysis of Listeria monocytogenes isolated from milk, milk filters, bovine feces, and environmental samples was conducted and the results published in peer reviewed journals. Data documenting Salmonella outbreaks on another project farm were used to construct models to describe the dynamics of commensal Salmonella infections in dairy herds. A report describing the molecular ecology of MAP on study farms was published in a peer reviewed journal. The modeling of MAP infections on dairy farms, in light of the discovery of the role of MAP supershedders, and the likely results of various intervention strategies was described in papers published in peer reviewed journals. MAP work, as a part of this project, was terminated.
The ADODR has monitored activities associated with this project through frequent phone calls, conference calls, and emails. A meeting of all major participants was held. | <urn:uuid:ce6438db-53be-4810-a5fc-de49b7c51e96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/projects/projects.htm?ACCN_NO=414448&showpars=true&fy=2011 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942102 | 903 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Writing for Breitbart.com, Pat Caddell analyzes the Tampa GOP convention and spots an opportunity for the Republican ticket, especially Paul Ryan, on Alzheimer's:
Yet at the same time, a fuller awareness of the human experience could also inform policy, as well as the prose that spells it out. In his speech, Ryan spoke of a Congress in which the experts “take out the heavy books and the wall charts about Medicare.” And yet, Ryan continued, when he thinks of Medicare, “My thoughts go back to a house on Garfield Street in Janesville. My wonderful grandma, Janet, had Alzheimer’s and she moved in with mom and me. Though she felt lost at times, we did all the little things that made her feel loved.” It was a bittersweet snapshot of the same eldercare challenges experienced by millions of families across America. And since the rap on Ryan is that he is one of those who sees policy through numbers and charts, it was a helpful filling out of his own portrait.
Still, Ryan could have helped himself even more if he had gone further, describing how a Romney-Ryan administration might take bold action to actually combat Alzheimer’s, as opposed to simply finance its dreary ravages in a new way. This distinction is more than a debate over policy; it speaks to winning vision. A victorious presidential campaign must provide a genuine vision for the future--using its imagination. The issue of Alzheimer’s is an issue of imagination, just as the space race in the 60s was an issue of imagination. In our time, America is waiting for an effective plan for dealing with the fear that haunts every family in the country--the fear of a costly and painful decline stretched over decades.That is why Alzheimer’s is a winning issue, because it hits Americans where they live. | <urn:uuid:966e7f8a-692a-44de-9357-21e696331706> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seriousmedicinestrategy.blogspot.com/2012/09/pat-caddell-highlights-alzheimers.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971198 | 382 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Video:DIY Bamboo Tomato Plant Cagewith Kerry Michaels
If your container tomato plant needs a little propping up, then this simple bamboo construction will do the trick. See how to make an easy tomato cage.See Transcript
Transcript:DIY Bamboo Tomato Plant CageHi, I'm Kerry Michaels for About.com and today I'm going to show you how to make your own tomato cage. And I'm going to rescue this tomato by propping it up with a bamboo tomato cage.
Tomato Plant Bamboo Cage SuppliesAnd this is a very tall tomato variety so I'm going to use the tall bamboo for the upright stakes. You need a sharp scissor and then I start with a rubber band, and I also have some twist ties.
Stake the Bamboo CageOk. So let's get started. We're going to take the first piece of bamboo and put it into the container – all the way to the bottom, next to the stem of the plant.
Now normally I would stake this tomato a little earlier, but it's fine to do it when it starts to bend. So now it's a little bit propped up. And then I'm going to take four more pieces of bamboo. This will work for any container – round, square, it doesn't matter. You want to put it all the way down into the bottom of the container.
Secure the Tomato CageThen you're going to gather them all up like this, so it forms kind of a teepee. And then you're going to take your rubber band and slip it over the top, and you want it really tight and secure. Just wrap it around the last one.
Add Cross-PiecesYou're going to make some cross pieces. It's pretty sturdy now, but this tomato is going to grow huge and it's going to have heavy tomatoes on it, so I want to give it some more stability and places so that it won't fall out of the cage.
So I'm going to take I happen to have some smaller bamboo and this is the hard part because it's pretty hard to get started on this. But I'm just going to measure it. I'm going to let it extend a bit. And then this bamboo is thin enough so that I can just break it – it breaks really easily.
Secure the BambooPut a piece of the twine. I'm just going to wrap it around really tightly, and it sort of makes a little shelf for your bamboo to sit on, so you can get started. Then I'm going to take the bamboo, and I'm kind of going to hold it and wrap around it.
So again, you want to take piece of your twine and I kind of use this, go over, around the back, over around the back. And keep doing that until it feels secure.
So now you want to put on your second tie and this one is a little easier, because you can rest the bamboo right on top of this one. And you're going to measure it. You want it somewhat symmetrical, but it doesn't really matter.
So then I'm going to go over and around. This really makes it pretty secure. Then I'm going to go and do this all the way around and build up a number of levels I'll see - I'll sort of eyeball it.
And this is it. It's pretty stable. So you have a great way to keep your tomato plants sturdy, and it looks kind of cool too. I'm Kerry Michaels for About.com. Thanks for watching.
About videos are made available on an "as is" basis, subject to the User Agreement. | <urn:uuid:c7029667-9f35-4f40-9b8a-0babb1fa3896> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://video.about.com/containergardening/DIY-Bamboo-Tomato-Plant-Cage.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964092 | 758 | 1.796875 | 2 |
A recent news story reminds us of the essential Legalism - of the Han Fei Tzu lineage - that lies at the heart of the PRC government. But it also shows us how China is no longer a Legalist society. (For those of you familiar with the book banning issue, scroll down to see what I mean by "no longer a Legalist society.")
The Communist Party has recently decided to ban eight new books These books "...mainly have to do with reflections on 20th century history by Chinese intellectuals." Thus, in prohibiting their sale the political elite demonstrate once again its fear of Chinese history. It cannot allow for the free exploration of the past because it refuses to face up politically to the horror of the Great Leap and the chaos of the Cultural Revolution. Destroying books was, of course, a favorite political past time of that avatar of Legalism, the first Qin Emperor.
It would all be a sad replay of standard Leninist-Maoist-Legalist repression if it weren't for the fact that at least one of the writers is fighting back. Zhang Yihe, author of the now banned Past Histories of Peking Opera Stars (sounds like something the Party should really have to fear!), issued a statement in defiance of the prohibition. Roland, as usual, has a translation and links. Here is some of what she has to say:
Let me solemnly me repeat this once more: I will not give up the defense of my basic civil rights, because it affects the dignity and conscience of a person. What Mister Wu did was completely in violation of the constitution! He did not follow the spirit nor the procedure. In officialdom, you can have a "unanimous consent" and you have to "listen carefully to the instruction" from the superiors. At the same time, can you leave a small space for common citizens: leave them a mouth to speak; leave them a pen to write? A harmonious society is constructed not through tightening; it needs precisely relaxation.
She is claiming her rights in the face of authoritarian fiat, something that might shock Emperor Qin and Chairman Mao.
The Party cannot allow someone they have labeled a trouble-maker to stand up and demand equal rights under law - real equal rights, not just the usual Leninist window dressing. So, they strike back with bluster. Here, again thanks to Roland, is what Peking University professor Kong Qingdong, who claims to be a direct descendent of Confucius (whose family name is Kong) but who seems quite comfortable with old-line Communist polemics (is he a Party member? Sure sounds like one):
Kong Qingdong said that "her class was the enemy of our government," "the Communist Party was magnanimous towards them, but they keep dreaming about changing the facts and saying that the anti-rightist campaign was wrong."
Kong Qingdong said: "You (the rightists) think that you are proper heroes, so why are you asking the Communist Party for vindication?" "Your cases have been overturned after the reforms began, but why do the big rightists want to demand hundreds more times in compensation from the people.
But the "big Rightists" - or we might say bourgeois liberals - are not being cowed. Other writers and bloggers are coming to Zhang's defense. Here is a CDT translation of a blog post by Pu Zhiqiang (original Chinese here):
So I want to speak up. Not only for Zhang Yihe, but also for the other seven authors, as well as for myself.
Ms. Zhang Yihe’s three books were banned one after another. She didn’t speak up when her first book was banned, nor did she at the second ban. When her third book was banned, she struck the table and rose to her feet, and finally had to say something!
I hope everybody will speak up. This is our right and our dignity. Otherwise, the next one being locked in concentration camps might be you.
(I can hear Bob Marley in the background: "get up, stand up: stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight...")
The China Media Project is wondering if this unfolding affair illustrates the Chinese public's general opposition to censorship.
From my perspective, what all this suggests is that Chinese society is slowly shedding its Legalist qualities. Don't get me wrong: the Party is still very much Legalist in its governing style. They still rely upon selected and focused repression to instill a sense of fear in the general population. People know that if they cross the government, they will pay dearly for it. And it is precisely that sort of psychology of fear that Han Fei Tzu and Qin Shi Huang Di believed was essential to the maintenance of power.
Legalism is thus designed to have a continuing social effect. It is meant to live in the minds of the people, to cause them to avoid confrontation with the state, to press them into compliance with laws and practices that they may not agree with. And that was the effect of the first few decades of Communist Party rule in China. The Great Leap and the Cultural Revolution crushed opposition and engendered political passivity in the population at large. I could sense this when I first lived in China in 1983. People were very conscious of unspoken and unwritten political boundaries. They were wary of the smallest transgressions of government policy. Legalist psychology was at work.
The economic, social and cultural changes of the reform era have underminded the basis of Legalist fear. The government now no longer controls as much of an individual's life as it did in the past. People can find jobs, create meaningful lives, have fun beyond the reach of state power. Of course, the state is still very powerful, but not as powerful, relatively speaking, as in the past. People are thus less afraid.
They are standing up for their rights. The state cannot control the flow of information, or even the production of certain texts (how many of these books will now be published in Chinese in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the US and elsewhere and circulated back into China? How many of them will find their way onto the internet and the screens of PRC readers?). The Legalist state is losing its capacity to instill fear. | <urn:uuid:077e0fd0-4cc2-434c-8af7-0dfb9b971864> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://uselesstree.typepad.com/useless_tree/2007/01/china_no_longer.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970685 | 1,299 | 1.75 | 2 |
On 23 June 1993, a rapt audience gathered in the main auditorium of the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge, packed the corridors outside and peered through the window. Word had gone around that a British mathematician called Andrew Wiles was going to demonstrate a proof for the most famous problem in mathematics: Fermat’s Last Theorem. To stunned silence and then deafening applause, Wiles did just that. Though his work contained a flaw that would take a further two years to correct, he had finally solved a conundrum that had defeated mathematicians for over 350 years.
The story of Fermat’s Last Theorem begins with the elusive figure of Pierre de Fermat, who wrote in 1637 that he had discovered ‘a marvellous proof’ for the conjecture, based on Pythagoras, that xn + yn = zn has no whole number solutions where n is greater than two. By the 20th century all of Fermat’s theorems had been proven, except this one. A seemingly simple and unambiguous formula, it could be stated in terms that any student could understand. Yet, in an era when men had walked on the moon and the human genome had been spliced, the solution remained elusive. Fermat had apparently leapfrogged three centuries of mathematical discovery; understanding his ideas would have immense consequences for the entire discipline.
Acclaimed science writer Simon Singh brilliantly reconstructs one of the greatest intellectual struggles in history, writing with a clarity that will enable any reader to appreciate the difficulties of the problem and the beauty of the solution. He describes the successive figures who brought humanity closer to the answer: Evariste Galois, who developed the concept of group theory before being killed in a duel at the age of 20, Yutaka Taniyama and Goro Shimura, the Japanese mathematicians who made crucial advances on elliptic equations and modular forms in the 1950s, and Andrew Wiles himself, who first determined to crack Fermat’s theorem aged ten. What emerges is a deeply moving story of elation and despair, near misses and heroic achievement. Mathematician and author Ian Stewart has contributed a new introduction to a book he calls ‘one of the classics of modern science writing’.
Review by falanke on 21st Nov 2012
"A stunning production. Most editions of this book are small and use tiny print. This Folio version gives the text room to breathe and is pure reading pleasure. The illustrations are well-chosen, sharp..." [read more]
Review by fqgouvea on 24th Aug 2012
"This iis a very nice popular account of Fermat's Last Theorem and its proof. Anyone interested in mathematics would enjoy it. For me, it is also the first (and probably the only) time a few of my word..." [read more] | <urn:uuid:a90679d1-a320-45c3-9616-17014936aa91> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foliosociety.com/book/FLT/fermats-last-theorem | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961364 | 592 | 3 | 3 |
Posted On Thursday, July 05, 2012 at 02:11:07 AM
|A picture with a zoom effect show traces of proton-proton collisions measured by European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). After a quest spanning half a century, physicists on July 4 said they found the particle believed to confer mass. Rousing cheers and a standing ovation broke out at the CERN after the presentation
They've been chasing it for four decades and have finally found it, or at least something like it. The Higgs Boson, sometimes sensationally referred to as the God particle, explains the origin of all things as we know them. The website of CERN, where a big and complex machine smashes particles, says this discovery could transform our understanding of the world (presuming most of us have such an understanding).
Physicists across the world responded with utter excitement as the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva made this announcement on Wednesday. For those who didn't quite get it, many videos explaining things went viral online. The gist of it all went something like this:
Scientists believe that instantly after the Big Bang, the universe was a soup of particles racing around at the speed of light without any mass. Then along came what is known as the Higgs field. It was when these particles interacted with this field that the particles slowed down. Imagine stirring porridge with a spoon. But this does not happen to all particles, for instance, those of light encounter no obstacle.
Say you're at a big gathering in a hall and someone announces that Shah Rukh Khan is arriving. All the people go towards him and it gets hard for him to move to the other end of the hall. However, if someone announces your name, it's unlikely to slow you down. That's how the Higgs mechanism works.
The Higgs boson was the last piece of the Standard Model yet to be discovered. This model, which is for physicists what the theory of evolution is for biologists, describes the fundamental make-up of the universe. It includes all the particles and forces known to make up what we know. Most particles in this framework had been proved to exist except the critical Higgs Boson.
No wonder the men behind the discovery were mighty pleased. "We have reached a milestone in our understanding of nature," CERN Director General Rolf Heuer said. Joe Incandela, spokesman for one of the two teams hunting for the Higgs particle, told an audience that "This is a preliminary result, but we think it's very strong and very solid."
Incidentally, even if what they have found is not exactly the Higgs Boson, it will be even more interesting for science. Professor of Physics at IIT Bombay, S Uma Sankar told Mumbai Mirror, "It is amazing that these complex detectors worked as per the design. What is interesting is that the discovered particle has high mass and was found in an inaccessible region. If it had been found last year, in the accessible region, it wouldn't have thrown up so many details that we can now look into.”
What is CERN?
The Large Hadron Collider is a 27-km looped pipe that sits in a tunnel 100 metres underground on the Swiss/French border. It is used to study the smallest known particles - the fundamental building blocks of all things. Two beams of protons are fired in opposite directions and they smash into each other to create many millions of particle collisions every second in a recreation of the conditions a fraction of a second after the Big Bang.
Who is Higgs?
In 1964, British Professor Peter Ware Higgs, along with five other theoretical physicists, proposed the existence of an invisible field permeating the universe giving particles their mass. He is an athiest and minds that the boson named after him is sometimes called God’s particle. Professor Higgs was present at the CERN press conference and reportedly wiped a tear when he heard the news. He said he had no idea the amazing discovery would be made within his lifetime when he made his proposals more than 50 years ago.
While we remember, there's another person we should salute. The word boson comes from the name of Satyendra Nath Bose. Born in colonial India in 1894, he was a lecturer at the universities of Calcutta and Dhaka. In 1924, he sent a paper to Albert Einstein describing a statistical model that eventually led to the discovery of what became known as the Bose-Einstein condensate phenomenon. The paper laid the basis for describing the two fundamental classes of sub-atomic particles -- bosons, named after Bose, and fermions, after the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi.
—Compiled by Saloni Meghani | <urn:uuid:301b7729-774c-4909-a479-c0067bccd284> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/44/20120705201207050211594252a34f8bd/Higgs-Higgs-Hurray.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 | 0.969172 | 984 | 2.625 | 3 |
Video Summary: "How can I teach my students California's state history, integrate technology, and support a bilingual class?" This question prompted fourth-grade teacher Osvaldo Rubio to develop the lesson "California Missions."
The California Framework for state history requires students to learn about the geography of California; the social, political, cultural, and economic life of its people during the mission period; and the consequences of the meeting between the Native American and Spanish cultures. In this lesson, students begin their research, display their initial findings in projects, and present what they have learned to their classmates. This lesson leads to in-depth research over the course of several weeks and the creation of art and multimedia exhibits for parents' night, during which the students will serve as docents and explain to classroom visitors what they have learned. | <urn:uuid:1df15b4c-202e-4011-a424-5b64f9696cc9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.learner.org/libraries/socialstudies/3_5/rubio/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95887 | 164 | 3.90625 | 4 |
|<< John 4 >>|
New International Version
Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman
1Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John—
2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples.
3So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4Now he had to go through Samaria.
5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”
8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
10Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?
12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
14but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17“I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband.
18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.
20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
The Disciples Rejoin Jesus
27Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,
29“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”
30They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
35Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
36Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.
37Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true.
38I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
Many Samaritans Believe
39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”
40So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days.
41And because of his words many more became believers.
42They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
Jesus Heals an Official’s Son
43After the two days he left for Galilee.
44(Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.)
45When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.
46Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum.
47When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.
48“Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
49The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
50“Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”
The man took Jesus at his word and departed.
51While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living.
52When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”
53Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.
54This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
John 4 Online Parallel Bible
John 4 Bible Apps | <urn:uuid:6d40dc03-5c65-45b3-ba8d-be05a3360c11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://biblehub.com/niv/john/4.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986365 | 1,609 | 1.75 | 2 |
Woman’s Best Friend
This Trinity alumna has dedicated her professional life to saving “throwaway pets” and recently helped form the organization, Austin Pets Alive!
By Donna Parker
Ellen Jefferson, who received a degree in biology from Trinity in 1993, went on to earn her doctorate of veterinary medicine from Virginia Tech in '97 and moved to Austin to "help as many animals as possible." There, she got a first-hand lesson on what was really going on at that time in America's animal shelters.
"I was blown away by the problems associated with stray animals because so many were being euthanized," explains Ellen, who continues, "so I started a low-cost spay and neuter clinic but found after nine years that it didn't make as big an impact as I'd thought."
Ellen turned her focus to decreasing the shelter numbers. She founded Austin Pets Alive! which is a non-profit dedicated to ending overpopulation with an emphasis on finding resources for pet owners. The mission now is to get animals into foster homes and out of the system.
It's serious business. Ellen says some shelters make a list the night before of animals that will be put down the next day, usually when there is no more time for human intervention. That's when Ellen and her team step into action to get at least some of those animals out, just in the nick of time.
Austin Pets Alive! (helping people help pets) recently moved into the former Town Lake Animal Center so the infrastructure is in place for Ellen's work to continue as president of the organization. In addition, she serves as a part-time vet at the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation in Kendalia.
"Really, this is my life," says Ellen. "I am working all the time on animal-related issues."
When she does have precious, free time, Ellen and her husband, Damon O'Gan, love to visit old car shows, her favorites being those from the ‘50s and ‘60s.
"We do have a '56 Cadillac with a parade top that we love to drive around in. My husband is a musician on the side and plays old-time fiddle and the bagpipes with his band. Plus, we love to just sit and people watch, too, which is fun here in Austin."
"Looking back to my Trinity days, it took me awhile after graduation to really appreciate the quality of my classes and what a tremendous learning experience it provided me. I still spend a lot of time in San Antonio and the sights and sounds always remind me of Trinity."
"One professor who had a profound impact on me was Melvin Frei, department of biology, who has since passed away. He was one of the science teachers and helped me get a summer job doing research. He was very down to earth and certainly a good mentor."
"The campus was beautiful, and being a ‘military brat,' I had moved many times and sought a small environment for college. Trinity was that place that nurtured me."
Because of Ellen's organization's success, Austin is now the largest no-kill city after putting down an average of 14,000 animals just five years ago. Next stop-San Antonio, where Ellen is working on a Pets Alive! branch.
"We have the ability to make it succeed by putting the right people in place!"
You may contact Ellen at Ellen.email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:ef07e3ff-a6b4-4b10-ac04-91ef5a140e4a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://web.trinity.edu/x18757.xml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98122 | 722 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The Grand Army of the Republic
Progenitor of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War
Founded in Decatur, Illinois on April 6, 1866, the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) consisted of Union Veterans of the Civil War, joined together at first for camaraderie, and later for political power. By 1890 their membership had risen to nearly 410,000 veterans.
Membership was limited to honorably discharged veterans of the Union Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Revenue Cutter Service who had served between April 12, 1861 and April 9, 1865.
The community level of the organization was called a "Post" and each was numbered consecutively within each Department (generally a particular state). Most Posts also had a name and the rules for naming Posts included the requirement that the honored person be deceased and that no two Posts within the same Department could have the same name. The National organization was run by the elected "Commandery-in-Chief."
The GAR founded soldiers' homes, and was active in relief work and pension legislation. Five members were elected President of the United States and, for a time, it was impossible to be nominated on the Republican ticket without the endorsement of the GAR voting block.
In 1868, Commander-in-Chief John A. Logan issued General Order No. 11 calling for all Departments and Posts to set aside the 30th of May as a day for remembering the sacrifices of fallen comrades, thereby beginning the celebration of Memorial Day.
The final meeting of the Grand Army of the Republic was held in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1949 and the last member, Albert Woolson, died in 1956 at the age of 109 years.
The GAR's Department of California and Nevada was organized on February 21, 1868. Eventually there were nearly 200 individual posts throughout the Department. While the last National Encampment was held in 1949, the Department of California and Nevada continued to hold their annual Department Encampments into the 1950s.
The last member of the Department, William Allen Magee of Company M, 12th Ohio Cavalry, died in Long Beach, California on January 23, 1953 at the age of 106 years.
Copyright © 2008-2011 — Dept. of CA & Pacific, ASUVCW
Webmaster: Tad D. Campbell, PDC
Visit: Norse Highlanders Genealogy | <urn:uuid:b2b4d0ce-65f1-44c8-8ad5-ef176f2e21d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.suvpac.org/aux/gar.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977864 | 487 | 2.5625 | 3 |
In this course, students will explore all of the primary disciplines in business on an introductory level: economics, human resource management, finance options, managerial accounting principles and marketing strategies. Students will examine challenges present in the current business environment and consider them with an eye toward ethics, social responsibility and effective management strategies in a global economy. The course is kept current by students’ exposure to guest speakers and case analyses. Some written and oral reports will be required from these activities. This course is ideal both for students who wish to pursue a career in business and those who wish to gain a better understanding of the business world in which they live. (3 hours weekly)
1. Discriminate among various types of economic systems present in the world.
2. Discuss the positive and negative aspects of the American free enterprise system, including the impact of government on the system and compare it to systems around the world.
3. Identify some of the current issues in social responsibility globally and describe how ethics impacts on social responsibility.
4. Analyze the role of global information technology in business today.
5. Compare and contrast various forms of business ownership.
6. Relate the various functions of management to the process of organizing a business.
7. Compare various management and leadership styles and theories.
8. Define and explain various personnel policies as they relate to recruiting, hiring, training and evaluating.
9. Identify some of the current issues in labor unions today.
10. Analyze the role of accounting in business.
11. Describe the role and operation of the financial markets around the world.
12. Compare various forms of short‑term and long‑term financing.
13. Explain the marketing process.
14. Describe the marketing mix, including product strategy, pricing, distribution and promotion of products for single and multinational markets.
15. Describe various problems that businesses could encounter in globalizing their business.
16. Function in a group to complete a team project that requires developing strategies to complete class assignments and meet deadlines, presenting findings both orally and in writing, and, working effectively in diverse and collaborative settings.
17. Explore various pathways and careers in business.
I. Economic Systems and Free Enterprise
II. Forms of Business Ownership
III. Managing a Business
IV. Personnel and Labor Union Issues
V. Financing a Business
VI. Marketing a Business
VII. Business in the International Arena
Technical Requirements and Orientation:
Course Requirements / Grading
Grading is based on 3 components: Tests (50%), Class Participation (25%) and Group Projects (25%)
BUSN5, 5th Edition. Kelly, Marcella and McGowen, Jim. Cengage Southwestern. ISBN-10: 1111826730 ISBN-13: 9781111826734 | <urn:uuid:963bc86b-4a48-418f-8b0d-f56c5f6c49ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.howardcc.edu/academics/e_learning/formats/online/BMGT/BMGT%20100-N090-nkeyes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901865 | 580 | 2.796875 | 3 |
11/06/2010 - Dietary supplements and prescription drugs are pouring in from China, but U.S. regulators are not ensuring their quality, safety or proper labeling.
Federal regulators have inspected only a fraction of the hundreds of Chinese factories making prescription drugs for the U.S. market, a new report from the Government Accountability Office says.
Consumers can’t tell where imported drugs and dietary supplements are made because country-of-origin labeling laws are not being enforced.
A bill also has been offered in Congress that could help the FDA be able to inspect more plants in China. The proposal, backed by a group spawned by The Pew Charitable Trusts to promote drug safety, would bolster the FDA’s ability and authority to regulate overseas factories making prescription drugs and ingredients.
“This is unfinished business that needs to get done,” said Allan Coukell, a pharmacist and executive director of the Pew Prescription Project.
Read the entire article Drugs, Supplements Come to U.S. from China Largely Unregulated on the Kansas City Star's Web site. | <urn:uuid:393f8c8b-c595-4fba-a637-60e520137c79> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=61701 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933691 | 224 | 2.28125 | 2 |
TOVAR, FRANCISCO (?–?). Francisco Tovar (Tobar, Thobar, or Thovar) was captain of La Bahía del Espíritu Santo Presidio from 1767 to 1772. He was successor to Manuel Ramírez de la Piscina, who had died on July 25, 1767. Tovar took possession of the office on December 3, 1767. His administration was marked by the Britain incident. The Britain had been chartered on December 12, 1768, to carry thirty-four Acadians and forty German Catholics to New Orleans. The ship was unseaworthy, and the captain incompetent. The captain passed the mouth of the Mississippi and continued to sail in a southwesterly direction, finally landing on Matagorda peninsula in April 1769, sending out two search parties. Bad weather forced the ship to sea for two weeks. Upon its return it found one of the search parties with Spanish soldiers. The owner and some of the passengers went with the soldiers to La Bahía, where Tovar sent supplies to those still at the landing. Shortly afterwards all of the passengers were brought to La Bahía. They were treated well, and the captain and owner were allowed to store their cargo in a warehouse. No one was allowed to leave until Tovar's reports reached Mexico City and a reply reached him. When the Spanish government allowed the refugees to leave they found that the ship's rigging had been stored so poorly that the ship was not seaworthy. Tovar sent them overland with guides to Natchitoches. Later, the owner claimed his cargo had been confiscated, but it was proven that he had sold it at La Bahía. Tovar was unpopular with soldiers and priests, who complained of his abusive manner. Governor Juan María de Ripperdáqv was petitioned in 1771 to remove Captain Tovar, who asked to be relieved of his command for health reasons. His resignation was accepted on April 28, 1772, by his superiors, and Luis Cazorla was assigned as his successor.
Bexar County Archives, San Antonio. Carl A. Brasseaux and Richard Chandler, "The Britain Incident, 1769–1770: Anglo-Hispanic Tensions in the Western Gulf," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 87 (April 1984). William H. Oberste, Remember Goliad (1949). Kathryn Stoner O'Connor, The Presidio La Bahía del Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga, 1721 to 1846 (Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1966). Robert S. Weddle and Robert H. Thonhoff, Drama and Conflict: The Texas Saga of 1776 (Austin: Madrona, 1976).
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.Robert H. Thonhoff, "TOVAR, FRANCISCO," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fto53), accessed May 19, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. | <urn:uuid:4126e846-2674-4505-9370-acd7ef786954> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fto53 | 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 | 0.974292 | 656 | 2.421875 | 2 |
View Full Version : Propellor detecting EEPROM...
02-14-2007, 08:01 AM
Would the Propellor detect Flash Memory as EEPROM, and boot up using it?
-Never Underestimate the power of human stupidity.
02-14-2007, 08:18 AM
What do you mean by flash memory, an SD card or something? The boot memory must follow the I2C protocol, there are no flash cards which support this protocol.
Paul Baker (mailto:firstname.lastname@example.org)
Propeller Applications Engineer
Parallax, Inc. (http://www.parallax.com)
02-14-2007, 08:35 AM
The Propeller will only boot up from standard I2C EEPROM at least 32K x 8 in size (or it will boot up from a connected PC via the Propeller Tool). Anything beyond 32K is ignored. It is possible to have the EEPROM contain only a program that loads a program from an SD card or some other SPI flash memory, then starts to execute that program as if it were booted from the SD card or SPI flash memory.
02-14-2007, 10:28 AM
Since this has came up. I understand how the propeller would load it's information into ram, but how would it be initiated?
I'm a little confused how this would be accomplished.
Keep it as simple as you can.....I'm still a newbie with the prop.
02-14-2007, 10:42 AM
I'm not sure what you're asking. Are you asking about the built-in bootstrap loader in the Propeller's ROM or are you asking about what I suggested, that there could be a program loaded into the Propeller's EEPROM that would load something else from an SD card or SPI flash memory?
02-14-2007, 10:54 AM
I'm sorry......again I didn't state my question clearly. (I'm getting a really bad habit of this.)
If there were a small program in the eeprom to be a "SD card program reader" that recalled a program from an SD card or similar, how would the program be initiated after being loaded into memory.
02-14-2007, 11:49 AM
It would probably be provided as a source file with a string constant near the beginning that would give the name of the SD card file to be loaded. This would be compiled and downloaded to the Propeller's EEPROM. When the Propeller was reset, it would (as usual) load the program in EEPROM to RAM and execute it. This program would load the file with the fixed name off the SD card and start the Spin interpreter on it. That's all.
Chip posted a small assembly program fragment that can be used to start a Spin interpreter on a program loaded into memory beginning at location zero. The Propeller OS uses this for loading from 32K pages in EEPROM. I already have the same kind of thing mostly working for SD cards. I'll post it when it's working well enough.
02-14-2007, 12:25 PM
That was the tid bit of info I was looking for.
I had not seen the assembly program that can be used to start a Spin interpreter on a program in memory.
But thanks......you hit the nail on the head. That is exactly what I need to revise my current system to do. (I will of course have to learn how to use Chip's assembly program to initiate it.....I haven't started with assembly yet.....just trying to get all my ideas working first.)
Thanks Mike......you are getting up to a case of beer (or whatever you drink). The abyss of knowledge. | <urn:uuid:b45e118c-915f-4691-9796-a326d51b7e52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forums.parallax.com/archive/index.php/t-92042.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927339 | 794 | 1.9375 | 2 |
Registration of handguns occurred steadily after the 2008 ruling, with about 500 guns registered each year in the District, but the 1,400 registered guns in D.C. represent a very small percentage of a city whose population was nearly 600,000 people according to 2009 Census population estimates.
"More importantly, legally registered firearms in the home generally do not impact gun violence on the streets, which, unfortunately, represents the majority of gun violence in the District of Columbia," Lanier said.
However, the police data on firearm registration raises the question: How many people in the District own guns but simply do not register them?
"There may be guns out there that aren't registered, and that's not a good situation," Helmke said. "That makes it hard to analyze the situation of where guns are in the city."
Helmke points out that studies have found that a gun in the home is 22 times more likely to be used against the owner or a family member than it is to be used for protection, raising the need for awareness of the risks and responsibilities that accompany gun ownership.
"Guns get stolen, get misused," Helmke said. "People get angry, and people make mistakes."
"I hope that people who are buying guns understand that there are serious risks that go with ownership and serious responsibilities that go with them." | <urn:uuid:c18c5ca7-7a53-48d4-bc02-adff69a63e2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/dc-neighborhoods-packing-heat/story?id=12870238&page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975322 | 275 | 2.296875 | 2 |
I was pleased to see Andrew Jefford mention in Andrew Jefford's Wine Course that 'sometimes simplicity is perfection.' He's quite right. I go further and say that simplicity is a difficult virtue to achieve.
When a wine maker has managed to achieve perfect ripeness in the vineyard and has successfully brought those grapes into the winery he is faced with a series of multiple answer questions. Most of these answers will produce a great wine - after all he has perfect grapes to work with. Some answers of course fall short of the ideal but supposing our wine maker chooses well, will he opt for a simple and brilliant offering or will he go for broke and look to achieve something a lot more complicated?
He will choose the latter because today's world does not appreciate simplicity. If he doesn't he will be told that he could have done better. In fact he will be lambasted by the wine press and told he should have done a lot better.
Now take the other end of the scale where the grapes are adequate but not perfect. Does our winemaker achieve these grapes' potential by making a simple wine? No. He will do everything in his little notebook to elevate the wine up to the highest level possible by introducing an array of wine making tricks/techniques.
So, who does make simple wine and what is simplicity anyhow?
Without making things complicated when we are trying to talk Simple (!) I reckon that if a wine expresses fruit, place and style then it is both great and simple.
Fruit can be an amalgam but should be clean, obvious, and fresh according to the age of the bottle
Place should give a clear indication of terroir. We may ALL get the place wrong in a blind tasting but at least the wine should show a definite expression of coming from Somewhere and not just be a a drink from Anywhere.
Style is the wine makers fingerprint. So many wines have been butchered or stillborn because they were forced into life and not brought along carefully and with skill.
So, any takers for the simplest wine now or do we agree that simplicity is a hard wine to make? | <urn:uuid:39b2137e-00d6-4d0c-99b2-bf8d243abe0f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://firstpress.blogspot.com/2009/02/simplicity-is-wine-virtue.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972733 | 437 | 1.632813 | 2 |
China has put together a car that can supposedly drive itself, which was unveiled at the Northeast Asia Investment and Trade Expo. FAW tested the sedan at speeds of up to 37 mph but said the car can actually reach a top speed of 93 mph, which is about 93 mph faster than I'd like to go in a driverless car.
According to the newspaper, the specially equipped HQ3, which monitors the road via two onboard cameras and receives its instructions from a computer, "has a strong ability to recognize the environment around it and tackle turnoffs [and] street crossings, as well as broken lines instantly. It's also able to adapt to changes of driving attitude and natural lighting, as well as shadows of trees and bridges."
In case you didn't understand all that let me translate: it will crash into the first thing it sees. And at speeds up to 93 mph!
This is a video of a heavily modded PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV that has a functional time traveling DeLorean added. Like, you can actually use the car to time travel in-game. Plus there's a Marty McFly skin. I'm actually playing through GTA4 on the PS3 right now while... / Continue →
This is a time-lapse video of Richard "8-bit Builder" Clinton building a Link computer case inspired by the SNES classic 'A Link to the Past'. Now I don't know about you, but I, for one, would be stoked to have that sitting on my desk. A grown man in a diaper demanding I span... / Continue →
These are a couple videos from Geekologie Reader/Skyrim lover Benjamin S. of a mod he created that allows the PC version of the game to accept dragon shout commands through a microphone. The first video is of him briefly talking about the mod and demonstrating it, the second, ... / Continue → | <urn:uuid:0b576fdf-73a1-46c6-bc7e-387e70ce3822> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.geekologie.com/2006/09/china-develops-self-driving-ca.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966202 | 384 | 1.5 | 2 |
Governing Through Intermediaries
Daniel R. Ortiz
University of Virginia School of Law
New York University School of Law
University of Virginia Law School, Legal Studies Working Paper No. 99-6
Governing Through Intermediaries explores political representation through the lens of agency costs. In particular, it looks at the role intermediaries play in our political system and describes many of them as "superagents," that is, agents who monitor and supervise primary agents on behalf of political principals. While these superagents can help reduce the primary agency costs inherent in representation, they threaten to add a whole new layer of superagency costs to the relationship. We must consider these other costs in designing our political structures. We consider two problems in particular: superagent shirking and fractionated supervision of interests. We also consider the dangers of superagent rent-seeking. While focusing on corporations, unions, and political parties as superagents, the analysis applies to many other entities as well. The piece ends by applying superagency analysis to several thorny issues in campaign finance regulation.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 33working papers series
Date posted: July 12, 1999
© 2013 Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This page was processed by apollo1 in 0.407 seconds | <urn:uuid:7929c6a2-94ec-409f-80ea-532cef27f64d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=169268 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919858 | 266 | 1.578125 | 2 |
The experiments at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla is the latest effort to bring the power of the immune system to bear against addictive substances.
The original lab experiments of a heroin vaccine were published in 1974. Since then, scientists have developed vaccines against nicotine, cocaine and amphetamines. Although both nicotine and cocaine vaccines have gone as far as human tests, none have been licensed for commercial use.
This month Nabi Biopharmaceuticals of Rockville reported that a nicotine vaccine it is developing failed to help smokers quit smoking in a clinical trial involving 1,000 people. A second trial is underway.
The vaccines work by stimulating the immune system to make antibodies against the addictive compounds. The antibodies bind those compounds in the bloodstream and prevent them from entering the brain, where they exert their euphoric and addictive effects.
In the case of heroin, the task is especially difficult because soon after the drug enters the body it rapidly changes — or is “metabolized” — into two other compounds that also are addictive. They are 6-acetylmorphine (6AM) and morphine. A useful vaccine would need to target all three compounds.
The vaccine fashioned by Kim D. Janda, a chemist at Scripps, and his colleagues consists of a carrier protein that is attached to a heroin molecule on the side opposite from where the metabolism occurs. They then add a salt-like substance that sticks to the vaccine and slows down the metabolism.
“Our vaccine goes through a dynamic process where it slowly changes in form from heroin to 6AM to morphine,” Janda said. “The immune system recognizes each of those molecules.” The result is antibodies against each molecule — “three columns of troops,” in Janda’s words.
Rats given the vaccine did not experience the pain-blunting effects of heroin when their paws were exposed to a hot surface or a sharp object. They also didn’t learn to push a lever to give themselves heroin through a permanently implanted intravenous line. However, they did get pain relief from oxycodone, an opiate commonly used in medicine, suggesting that the vaccine neutralizes heroin, 6AM and morphine specifically.
The experiments are reported in the current edition of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. The next task is to see whether the vaccine prevents relapse in previously addicted, and then detoxified, rats.
Paul R. Pentel, a physician at the University of Minnesota who is working on a different heroin vaccine, called Janda’s “a very creative strategy.” He said he was “delighted to have the competition” from the Scripps group.
Any vaccine that might work as an adjunct to drug rehabilitation would need to be boosted several times a year and could probably be overpowered by taking high doses of the abused substance. It would not be a cure-all.
Unlike vaccine candidates for some other abused substances, neither Janda’s nor Pentel’s heroin vaccines have been patented.
“There is a market for a nicotine vaccine, but there’s no market for this stuff,” said Janda, 54, who has worked in the field for 25 years. “Most cocaine and heroin addicts aren’t CEOs and insurance companies don’t cover them. But there’s clearly a need for this. The billions of dollars spent on wasted lives, theft, destruction, AIDS — it’s hard to measure.”
Pentel, 62, basically concurred.
“Our lab is focused on showing ‘proof of principle,’ ” he said. “We’re very happy if others can take these ideas and use them productively.” | <urn:uuid:3efda9c0-c0bf-47d9-a179-40562c12708d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/a-vaccine-against-heroin-works--at-least-in-rats/2011/07/25/gIQAm4PeZI_story.html?hpid=z5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959144 | 782 | 3.3125 | 3 |
At its core, the Book of Jonah is a story of teshuvah, repentance: The people of Nineveh are told that if they continue on their path, “In forty days Nineveh shall be overturned.” Their response? Fasting and repentance. Man and beast alike abstain from food and drink. The King of Nineveh himself rises from his throne, dons sackcloth and sits in ashes. God sees their sincerity and they are spared. In fact, the Talmud (Rosh HaShanah 16b) cites this story as a proof text that one can change their fate by changing their actions. Such is the power of teshuvah! We even use the approach of Nineveh to teach how we as Jews should behave on a public fast day (See Mishnah Ta’anit 2:1).
But why on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, do we read the story of Nineveh, a gentile community engaged in teshuvah? Are there no stories about the Jewish Nation engaged in repentance that could serve as an inspiration for the power of change?
Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik explained that the story of Jonah teaches a profound lesson: Concern for humanity.
While the sailors of the storm tossed ship cry out to their gods in fear, Jonah, in the holds of the ship, descends into a deep sleep; an escape of sorts. He is criticized by the captain who asks, “How can you sleep so soundly? Arise, call to your God! Perhaps God will pay us mind and we will not perish!”
The captain’s call is, in a sense, a wake up call to understand one’s role in the world – one’s responsibility to his fellow man. Can we sleep soundly while others suffer? Do we remain silent?
In fact, Jonah’s flight is more than a rebellion against God, it represents a rebellion against society. Jonah shakes off the burden of mankind when he shakes off the burden of prophecy. This was his mistake.
But Jonah’s lack of empathy is most clearly expressed at the end of the book. He is grieved after the city of Nineveh repents and is saved from destruction. Many explain that Jonah is pained for he knows that the backsliding Jewish Nation will suffer greatly if compared to the people of Nineveh and their teshuvah. (This was, as many understand, the reason for Jonah’s initial flight).
Now he sits alone in his sadness.
Suddenly, God creates a kikayon tree for Jonah. It provides him with shade and brings him joy. His whole demeanor changes. But the next day at dawn, a worm attacks the tree, and the tree dies. A hot wind blows in from the East and the sun beats down upon Jonah’s head. He is now even more despondent. He wants to die and says, “…death is better than my life.’’ The kikayon tree, of course, was a lesson for Jonah. Tragically, he does not comprehend the irony; the message is lost on Jonah. God Himself has to spell it out:
You took pity on the kikayon for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow; it lived one night and perished after one night. And I, shall I not take pity upon Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and many animals as well?
Yom Kippur is not just about the individual, nor even just the Jewish Nation. Our collective fate is being sealed: Which nations are destined for ‘…sword and which for peace, which for famine and which for plenty.’ We all pass together under God’s staff as members of the flock. We all feel vulnerable.
The story of Jonah is read on Yom Kippur because it demands of us to think of the other.
And so we pray for the entire world. We consider what we can do for our community and what we can contribute to humanity. And we express sincere concern for our fellow man, created in the image of God. | <urn:uuid:aa52f717-e23e-41f7-a9b0-723f165e10a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-book-of-jonah-and-our-concern-for-humanity/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964236 | 892 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Hajj and Eid Greetings to All
Sunday, 8 January 2012
Congratulations for the over 2 million Muslims - including the nearly 200,000 Pakistanis - who performed Hajj yesterday.
To me, the Hajj is an amazing and powerful symbol of equality and unity in a world distraught with frictions and factions.
It is not just a symbol of 'Muslim brotherhood' but of human oneness. It is not simply a connection - in its rituals and its meanings - amongst the Abrahamic faiths; it is also a spiritually moving and visually powerful symbol of the unity of all humankind. There are those who wish to reduce the meaning of the message to merely one religion, or even one sect. I, at least, have always found it a more universal message and moved by the symbolism of unity and harmony of all.
It seems that everywhere and always we are not just divided but we take pride in our divisions. Our language, our vocabulary, our thought processes are geared to highlight our differences with others. We take a perverse pride in these differences, whether we consider ourselves to be 'superior' to others or we believe ourselves to be victims of differentiation.
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Sunday, January 08, 2012,
- At 09:17, said...
Wishing blessings and peace to all.
- At 12:42, said...
happy eid and happy new year to you and your family !
- At 21:59, irving said...
Eid Mubarak dear Brother :) And Happy New Year!
You are so right about the divisions people enjoy feeling superior about. May Allah grant us all the wisdom to see our common humanity, the real kinship of all human beings, instead of the false divisions of language, color, race, religion, tribe sect, ethnicity, gender, status and other such stupidities.
- At 05:17, chosha said...
"It is not just a symbol of 'Muslim brotherhood' but of human oneness. It is not simply a connection...it is also a spiritually moving and visually powerful symbol of the unity of all humankind."
Um, what?! Not being familiar with the term, I just googled 'hajj' and found that it is the pilgramage to Mecca. Mecca. The city I cannot enter because I am not Muslim. Me entering this city is in fact punishable by death. Unity of all humankind - have you lost your mind? I'm having trouble thinking of a greater symbol of exclusion.
- At 07:12, said...
Asalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah
Eid Mubarak to you, too. Insha'Allah, you and your family are having a nice time celebrating this Eid.
I think I commentated on your post already on ATP.
- At 03:04, David Stoker said...
Came across your post doing a little research. I think the symbolism of the Hajj is beautiful. I am always moved by the images of such a large gathering of devotees moving in unity. I wish you all a wonderful celebration.
- At 07:28, jinghao said...
When I begin to play this Seal Online game, I first go to buy seal online cegel to buy some my favorite and beautiful clothes to dress up my character. I have spent cheap seal cegel to buy my favorite cloth. I mean we have anime and some necessary seal online cegel based games that do not look really kid dish. Though I will admit with my own seal cegel I went crazy on leveling with DECO. Some of the skills that we can use our sealonline cegel to improve to look amazing, and are fun to just watch honestly.
- At 16:15, Umra said...
Eid and Hajj together symbolize the Islamic virtues of peace and goodwill to all men.
- At 23:16, said...
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Links to this post: | <urn:uuid:376d9c8e-8370-4deb-a703-38adc4de93ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sajshirazi.blogspot.com/2006/12/hajj-and-eid-greetings-to-all.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927595 | 935 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Rotary - A Brief History
Paul P. Harris, an attorney who wished to recapture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth, formed the world’s first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA, on 23 February 1905. The name "Rotary" derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members' offices.
Rotary's popularity spread throughout the United States in the decade that followed; clubs were chartered from San Francisco to New York. By 1921, Rotary clubs had been formed on six continents, and the organization adopted the name Rotary International a year later.
As Rotary grew, its mission expanded beyond serving the professional and social interests of club members. Rotarians began pooling their resources and contributing their talents to help serve communities in need. The organization's dedication to this ideal is best expressed in its principal motto: Service Above Self. Rotary also later embraced a code of ethics, called The 4-Way Test, that has been translated into hundreds of languages.
During and after World War II, Rotarians became increasingly involved in promoting international understanding. In 1945, 49 Rotary members served in 29 delegations to the United Nations Charter Conference. Rotary still actively participates in UN conferences by sending observers to major meetings and promoting the United Nations in Rotary publications. Rotary International's relationship with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) dates back to a 1943 London Rotary conference that promoted international cultural and educational exchanges. Attended by ministers of education and observers from around the world, and chaired by a past president of RI, the conference was an impetus to the establishment of UNESCO in 1946.
An endowment fund, set up by Rotarians in 1917 "for doing good in the world," became a not-for-profit corporation known as The Rotary Foundation in 1928. Upon the death of Paul Harris in 1947, an outpouring of Rotarian donations made in his honor, totaling US$2 million, launched the Foundation's first program — graduate fellowships, now called Ambassadorial Scholarships. Today, contributions to The Rotary Foundation total more than US$80 million annually and support a wide range of humanitarian grants and educational programs that enable Rotarians to bring hope and promote international understanding throughout the world.
In 1985, Rotary made a historic commitment to immunize all of the world's children against polio. Working in partnership with nongovernmental organizations and national governments thorough its PolioPlus program, Rotary is the largest private-sector contributor to the global polio eradication campaign. Rotarians have mobilized hundreds of thousands of PolioPlus volunteers and have immunized more than one billion children worldwide. By the 2005 target date for certification of a polio-free world, Rotary will have contributed half a billion dollars to the cause.
As it approached the dawn of the 21st century, Rotary worked to meet the changing needs of society, expanding its service effort to address such pressing issues as environmental degradation, illiteracy, world hunger, and children at risk. The organization admitted women for the first time (worldwide) in 1989 and claims more than 145,000 women in its ranks today. Following the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Rotary clubs were formed or re-established throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Today, 1.2 million Rotarians belong to some 33,000 Rotary clubs in 166 countries.
Continue reading The Object of Rotary
|Last Updated on Wednesday, 28 September 2011| | <urn:uuid:428c30fb-6897-4875-bd6a-5c5eefc8fac4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fcfoothillsrotary.com/membership-information/rotary-a-brief-history | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958041 | 730 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Bankruptcy law provides for the development of a plan that allows a debtor, who is unable to pay his creditors, to resolve his debts through the division of his assets among his creditors.The philosophy behind the law is to allow the debtor to make a fresh start, not to be punished for inability to pay debts. Bankruptcy law allows certain debtors to be discharged of the financial obligations they have accumulated, after their assets are distributed, even if their debts have not been paid in full. Some bankruptcy proceedings allow a debtor to stay in business and use business income to pay his or her debts.
Bankruptcy law is federal statutory law contained in Title 11 of the United States Code. Congress passed the Bankruptcy Code under its Constitutional grant of authority to "establish. . . uniform laws on the subject of Bankruptcy throughout the United States." See U.S. Constitution Article I, Section 8. States may not regulate bankruptcy though they may pass laws that govern other aspects of the debtor-creditor relationship. A number of sections of Title 11 incorporate the debtor-creditor law of the individual states.
Bankruptcy proceedings are conducted in the United States Bankruptcy Courts. These courts are a branch of the District Courts of The United States. The United States Trustees were established by Congress to handle many of the supervisory and administrative duties of bankruptcy proceedings. Proceedings in bankruptcy courts are governed by the Bankruptcy Rules which were promulgated by the Supreme Court under the authority of Congress.
A bankruptcy proceeding can either be entered into voluntarily by a debtor or initiated by creditors. After a bankruptcy proceeding is filed, creditors generally may not seek to collect their debts outside of the proceeding. The debtor is not allowed to transfer property that has been declared part of the estate subject to proceedings. Furthermore, certain pre-proceeding transfers of property, secured interests, and liens may be delayed or invalidated. Various provisions of the Bankruptcy Code also establish the priority of creditors' interests.
There are two basic types of Bankruptcy proceedings. A filing under Chapter 7 is called liquidation. It is the most common type of bankruptcy proceeding. Liquidation involves the appointment of a trustee who collects the non-exempt property of the debtor, sells it and distributes the proceeds to the creditors. Not dischargeable in bankruptcy are alimony and child support, taxes, and fraudulent transactions. Filing a bankruptcy petition automatically suspends all existing legal actions and is often used to forestall foreclosure or imposition of judgment. After 45 or more days a creditor with a debt secured by real or personal property can petition the court to have the "automatic stay" of legal rights removed and a foreclosure to proceed. When the court formally declares a party as a bankrupt, a party cannot file for bankruptcy again for seven years.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows a business to reorganize and refinance to be able to prevent final insolvency. Often there is no trustee, but a "debtor in possession," and considerable time to present a plan of reorganization. The final plan often requires creditors to take only a small percentage of the debts owed them or to take payment over a long period of time. Chapter 13 is similar to Chapter 11, but is for individuals to work out payment schedules. Bankruptcy proceedings under
Under Bankruptcy Rules Rule 7001, an adversary proceeding may be filed in a debtor's bankruptcy action for certain specific reasons. An adversary proceeding may be filed to recover money or property of a debtor, for the sale of a debtor's property by a co-owner, to object or revoke a discharge, to revoke the confirmation of a reorganization plan, to determine the dischargeability of a debt, to obtain an injunction or other equitable relief, and for other matters.
Creditors also may initiate adversary proceedings to determine the validity or priority of a lien, to determine the validity of a debt, to obtain an injunction, or to subordinate a claim of another creditor. The debtor in possession may institute an adversary proceeding to recover money or property for the estate. A creditors' committee may be authorized by the bankruptcy court to pursue certain actions which the debtor has failed to pursue.
The bankruptcy rules consist of nine distinct parts with Part VII governing adversary proceedings and Part VIII governing appeals. The court that will hear an appeal and the appropriate standard of review depends on which court issued the order or judgment that is appealed. Appeals of final judgments, orders, and decrees of the bankruptcy court are taken to the district court or the bankruptcy appellate panel established by the district court.14 Final decisions, orders, and decrees of the district court, as well as appellate decisions rendered under 28 USC 158(a) are heard by the court of appeals. | <urn:uuid:211a13f5-53eb-49c3-a81b-02207bbb258b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://definitions.uslegal.com/b/bankrutpcy-official-forms/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94915 | 963 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Originally Posted by AlmostFullBenefits
Lentils should be cooked--or "altered"; same with chicken. Is chicken unhealthy? No. Grapes are toxic to dogs, should people not eat them because they are toxic to some mammals? No. Your arguments all stem from generalized logic fallacies that have no baseline in either reason or science. Legumes used for food are not toxic to most mammals, and certainly not humans, as they have long provided the dietary backbone for large portions of the human race for thousands of years. There are legumes that are toxic in large quantities, but these are not frequently or purposefully consumed by humans. It's like saying people shouldn't eat mushrooms in your grocery store, because a few species that you can't even find in a store are toxic. The bulk of the carbohydrates in lentils come from fiber (over 50%), which is largely beneficial to the bacteria in your gut, not you (i.e., no net caloric value). Furthermore, carbohydrates are not inherently evil, and no true nutritionist will tell you that they are--it's the over-consumption of them, largely in the form of added sugars, which they become harmful in your diet. So, once again, what books are you reading? Not to be insulting, but it sounds like you are getting some really piss-poor advice and information from somewhere (if you aren't trolling), and really my only gripe is that too often pseudoscience and other quackery gets passed off as legitimate advice to people too gullible and ignorant to know the difference.
Chicken can be consumed raw. Obviously, human digestive systems differ from that of dogs. Just because they have provided the backbone of the human diet for thousands of years does not mean that they are inherently healthy. On an evolutionary scale, thousands of years is a rather short period of time. The advent of agriculture, roughly 10,000 years ago, saw a huge shift in the human diet from mostly plants and vegetables to grains. This shift paralleled a reduction in average human life span as well as body and brain size, increases in infant mortality and infectious diseases, and the occurrence of previously unknown conditions such as osteoporosis, bone mineral disorders, and malnutrition. With advancement in modern medicine, we now can live long enough to enjoy atherosclerosis, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes. Humans have simply not yet adapted to this diet. I don't believe carbohydrates are evil, as long as they are consumed with the accompanied fiber that nature paired them with, and are not processed or refined. A lot of the information I am reiterating comes from Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
, by Dr. Jared Diamond and Richard Manning's Against the Grain
Because I offer a contrary opinion I am trolling? | <urn:uuid:3169f5a9-f745-4c02-8100-fa760ba4fd44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.styleforum.net/t/215210/just-finished-a-20-day-water-fast/105 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959276 | 572 | 2.140625 | 2 |
UNICEF supports mothers and children in flood-stricken Benin
Cotonou, Benin, 9 November 2010 - When floodwaters inundated Vossa, a suburb of Cotonou, Lucie Zanou had to leave her house in the middle of the night carrying her two children. The floods destroyed most of her belongings and all of the crops she grew to support her family.
Ms. Zanou found shelter under a truck and managed to save a basin, where she washes her children. “It’s our only solution, but is not safe for us to live. I have to bathe my children on the side of the road, we urgently need food and clothes,” she said.
Almost 200,000 children affected
About 680,000 people have been affected by recent heavy rainfall and floods in Benin. Among those affected are almost 200,000 children who still cannot live a normal life.
In fact, the rain and floods that hit five West African countries have displaced a total of almost 1.5 million people. The priority for UNICEF and its partners is to avoid disease outbreaks in flood-ravaged areas.
“Once the water retreats, it infiltrates the soil and contaminate the wells,” said UNICEF Water and Sanitation Expert Francois Bellet, who came from Senegal to assess the situation. “We are very concerned that cholera cases could skyrocket. Children would be especially at risk. We fear an increasing child mortality rate in the coming weeks.”
Getting back to normal
In Kpakankamey, also located in the suburbs of Cotonou, Julienne Baoungbola and her five children are starting to suffer due to the stagnant water in their contaminated well.
“We all feel more and more sick,” she said. “My daughter has headaches and fever. I think it’s because we use a bad water and because we spend our days in the water. My dream now is a pair of boots for my children.”
So far, Ms. Baoungbola has no choice but to stay at home with her children, as the neighbouring school is still closed because of the floods. More than 100,000 Beninese children are waiting to return to school.
UNICEF will distribute thousands of school kits to help children get back to a normal education when their classes resume. But for the children of Ms. Zanou and Ms. Baoungbola, and all the flood-affected children of Benin, getting back to a normal life may take time.
By Edward Bally | <urn:uuid:e7d7665d-0d27-458e-867c-fac07e15a626> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unicef.org/wcaro/2009_5748.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966695 | 546 | 2.171875 | 2 |
For younger kids and parties that will include whole families a scary party is probably not the best idea. Instead throw this fun barn party.
Get a small pumpkin for each family that is being invited. Draw a funny face on the front and write the information for the party on the pumpkin. Or attach the information for the party by rolling up the paper, tying it with raffia and tying the invite to the stem of the pumpkin.
Decorate the barn with lots of hay, pumpkins, dried corn and maybe even a scarecrow, which can by made by stuffing an old pair of jeans and a shirt with hay then attaching a carved pumpkin for the head.
Activities and Games:
> Offer wagon rides where everyone can sit together and enjoy the autumn air.
> Have a pumpkin-decorating contest. You can either ask everyone to bring an already decorated pumpkin or you can provide a table with lots of items to decorate pumpkins at the party. Towards the end of the party have a judging. Be sure to have multiple prizes and contest winning titles such as “funniest” pumpkin, scariest pumpkin, most life-like and so on.
> Have a costume contest. If you have a large group you will most likely want to divide the contest by ages and give at least a small prize and some recognition to the each younger kid to avoid bad feelings.
> Hide candy and small prizes in loose hay and let the kids look for them. They will enjoy it because it is like a scavenger hunt.
> Set up a karaoke machine and have a contest where singers sing songs like the “Monster Mash,” and “Ghostbusters.”
Offer hot dogs, cheese puffs, cookies and other easy to make and eat foods. Be sure to add to the décor with the food by putting the punch in a cauldron and the food in other fun Halloween themed dishes. | <urn:uuid:53e522bc-5c4d-499a-9d11-3b4783313419> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://celebrating-halloween.com/party/autumn-fun-barn-party.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949303 | 400 | 2.359375 | 2 |
The Intolerable Life of Dhimmis In 19th Century Damascus
The Intolerable Life of Dhimmis In 19th Century Damascus
By Jacob Thomas
My interest in the life of Dhimmis (Christians and Jews) under Islam goes back to my childhood. I am an Eastern Christian from the Levant and I was a Dhimmi. As soon as I became aware of my cultural environment, I discovered that fact. I belonged to a minority group. That’s quite disturbing to a child, especially if it is a constant topic of discussion as it was for me as I listened to my father’s stories at meal times. His experiences while serving as a soldier in the Ottoman Army during WWI were a large part of the subject matter of the many stories he related to his family. By the time I began my schooling, I realized that something quite unusual and troubling must have occurred way back in history to put me in a special category of humanity that was considered to be inferior to others.
My formal education took place when the French were in control of the northern part of the Levant (Syria and Lebanon.) We were taught the history of the Middle East, which took into consideration the many people groups that made up its character. Thus, we learned about all the ancient peoples such as the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Aramaic-speaking people of Mesopotamia and Syria. But no sooner than the French left the Levant after WWII, than the teaching of history, at least in Syria, changed drastically. The country’s leaders were not as enlightened as the European colonists had been about teaching history. The children were soon given a new interpretation of the area’s beginnings. It was as if the Levant’s history actually began with the Arab conquest, and everything that had preceded it was of no consequence!
Many years later, I remembered this shift in educational philosophy when reading V. S. Naipaul’s book “Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions among Converted People.”* He described how Islam changes everything including the history of nations its followers conquer:
“Islam is in its origins an Arab religion. Everyone not an Arab who is a Muslim is a convert. Islam is not simply a matter of conscience or private belief. It makes imperial demands. A convert’s worldview alters. His holy places are in Arab lands; his language is Arabic. His idea of history alters. He rejects his own; he becomes, whether he likes it or not, a part of the Arab story. The convert has to turn away from everything that is his. The disturbance for societies is immense, and even after a thousand years can remain unresolved; the turning away has to be done again and again. People develop fantasies about who and what they are; and in the Islam of the converted countries there is an element of neurosis and nihilism. These countries can be easily set on the boil.” P. xi
My background as a Dhimmi child thus left me with a keen and personal interest in the history of Dhimmis. I was therefore intrigued to recently find two articles (24 and 31 May, 2009) in the Arabic-language website of the daily Al-Awan relating to the lives of Dhimmis in 19th century Damascus, which at the time, was an important part of the vast Ottoman Empire. The author had access to several original documents, both in Arabic and in Western languages, with many details that one rarely finds in academic books on Middle East History.
Here are excerpts from the articles, followed by my analysis and comments:
“The plight of Dhimmis living under Islamic rule remained the same for centuries. Their treatment was deplorable. They were regarded as third-class citizens. That changed when the Ottoman Sultan Abdel-Majid proclaimed the Tanzimat or reforms that altered the lives of Dhimmis in the Ottoman Empire. These are undisputable historical facts.
“Nevertheless, the claim made by most Arab writers and apologists that “History has never known any kinder conquerors than the Arabs,” is mere propaganda. In fact, to speak about this legendary love and utopian tolerance that portrays Muslims as “United Nations peace envoys” amounts to a falsification of the history of Islam.
“For example, at the very dawn of that history [in Arabia,] the massacre of Bani Quraiza occurred and took the lives of 600 to 900 Jews. Their heads rolled into the trenches they were forced to dig! Another shocking event was the attack on the Jews of the Khaybar Oasis, which resulted in the killing of its men, and the “distribution “of its women as concubines for the victorious Muslim men!
“The reputed Arab ‘tolerance’ manifested itself in the horrific massacre of Imam Hussein, the grandson of Muhammad, by the army of Caliph Yezid bin Mu’awiya, the founder of the Arab Islamic Umayyad Civilization!
“It is not my intention to defend Christians and Jews, and to attack Muslims. My goal is to unmask those terrible deeds in Islamic history that have been glossed over by Arab historians who are unwilling to admit their mistakes. Perhaps by pointing to such events, I may succeed in forcing them to adopt an attitude that is in harmony with the rest of the civilized world.
“This brings me to my main subject, “Accounts of the Lives of Dhimmis in 19th Century Damascus under Ottoman Rule.”
“The Ottoman Turks occupied Syria in 1516, after defeating the Mamluks. Their treatment of the Dhimmi population remained unchanged from that prevailing under the previous Islamic regimes until the promulgation of the Tanzimat (Reforms) of Sultan Abdel Majid (1839-1861.)
“These were the regulations that governed the lives of Christians and Jews in Damascus under the Ottoman rule prior to the reforms mentioned above:
“A Dhimmi could not criticize the Qur’an, or claim that it had been altered; he could not say anything derogatory about the Prophet, or Islam; he could not attempt to change a Muslim’s religion, rob him of his fortune, or make an attempt on his life. During a time of war, a Dhimmi must not help the enemies of Islam.
“Furthermore, Dhimmis were required to wear clothes of a different color than Muslims’ clothes, and have belts around the waist. When at their places of worship, the loud ringing of bells was forbidden; when reading their Scriptures, they could not raise their voices; they were refrained from drinking wine in public. Their homes were not allowed to be higher than Muslims’ homes; Dhimmis were not to bury their dead in secrecy and express their grief in low tones without raising their voices. Dhimmis were not allowed to ride on horses, but only on mules and donkeys!
“Any non-compliance with the above-mentioned regulations was considered a breach in the Covenant of Dhimma which made a Dhimmi liable to insults, and sometimes led to his death by the orders of the governmental authorities in Damascus.
“Another example of Christian humiliation occurred in Damascus. When leaving his home, a Christian was required to have a sac slung over his shoulder, in order to be ready to accompany a Muslim on his way to the market and carry (in his sac) the groceries of that Muslim “boss”! Quite often, such a Christian might spend most of his day in this forced and degrading service to unknown Muslims he had met by chance!
“And as these events multiplied, it was the custom among Christian families when visiting their friends to inquire, ‘How many times were you forced today to carry the bag for the Muslims you had encountered?’ And, ‘On your way home, how often were you slapped by Muslims?’
“The level of persecution of the Christians in Damascus would increase whenever the Ottomans were fighting European powers. This happened during the Greek revolution early in the 19th century, and in the wars between Turkey and Russia. The height of persecution of Christians took place in Istanbul (Constantinople) when the Sultan ordered the execution, by hanging, of the Orthodox Patriarch and several of his priests on Easter Sunday.
“The conditions surrounding the lives of Dhimmis in Damascus continued to be in state of flux, depending on the wars between the Ottomans and some European powers. Finally, a new and better era began when Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Muhammad Ali Pasha of Egypt, liberated Damascus on 15 July, 1832, and declared the equality of all the citizens of Damascus, whether they were Christians, Jews, or Muslims.
“Now Christians and Jews were allowed to wear bright colored clothes, and ride horses, and were no longer required to dismount upon meeting a Muslim on the road. Ibrahim Pasha declared that a Dhimmi’s testimony against a Muslim was to be accepted in the courts. All the rules and regulations that had been instituted to humiliate Dhimmis were abolished as Ibrahim Pasha sought to create a secular state in the Levant as inspired by the country he admired so much, namely France!”
The author of the two articles, by drawing on original sources describing the life of Dhimmis in 19th century Damascus, has added to the literature of these persecuted people, by going to the actual sources. These sources demonstrated the complete falsity of the claim that Islam’s leaders treated with kindness the conquered peoples who did not convert to Islam.
Many Western political leaders show their ignorance of Islam when they assume that Islam was or is a peaceful religion. Their public pronouncements of this ongoing theme, does not contribute at all towards a real change in the status of Christians and Jews living in Daru’l Islam. It is therefore heartening to read in an Arabic-language website articles that do not hide the past discriminatory and humiliating status of Dhimmis. Even though in the past the Jewish population of the Arab world was higher, it is now almost non-existent. The change came with the birth of the State of Israel in 1948. As for the Christian population of the Middle East, their numbers are dwindling as well and in an alarming way. Even after the liberation of Iraq from Saddam’s brutal regime, the plight of its Christian population has deteriorated, with thousands being forced to seek refuge in neighboring countries and throughout the Western world.
As I noted in my 7 June, 2009, article, “Islam’s Law of Apostasy in our Globalized World”:
“The relation between Islam and the rest of the world is marked by asymmetry. Muslims may and do enjoy all kinds of freedoms and privileges in the lands of the Kuffar; however non-Muslims are not granted the same rights and privileges when they live in Daru’l Islam. Western politicians don’t seem to notice this anomaly; while most Western academicians don’t appear concerned about this lack of quid pro quo in the Islamic world. In our globalized world, this state of affairs should not continue.”
I am thankful that an Arab intellectual has addressed the readers of Al-Awan, (most of whom are of the rising generation,) by calling upon them to rid themselves of the myths that glorified Islamic history. It is to be hoped that when confronted with the truth, they will be more receptive to the principles that govern countries of the free world. A good beginning would encompass believing all citizens are worthy of dignity, respect and equality.
*Naipaul, V.S. Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions among the Converted Peoples. New York: Random House, 1998
The Link to the original Arabic article is:
Short URL: http://www.archive2012.faithfreedom.org/?p=5315 | <urn:uuid:6a973258-691e-482b-b4ec-24edc66ea81e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.faithfreedom.org/op-ed/the-intolerable-life-of-dhimmis-in-19th-century-damascus/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972507 | 2,476 | 2.65625 | 3 |
"They Are Afraid Their House Could Blow Up": Meet the Families Whose Lives Have Been Ruined by Gas Drilling [Photos By Award-Winning Photographer Nina Berman]
Continued from previous page
Adron and Mary Dell'Osa, two young organic farmers, put all they had into building a one room home and starting an organic farm. One month after they settled in, a well pad went up, then another and another. A compressor station is planned. They're concerned about how the diesel fumes from all the trucks were affecting their 2-year-old daughter. They don't know what to do. They're getting water tests.
Joe Shervinski has a 12-acre spread in Wyalusing, with a windmill, solar panels, some cows and three domestic turkeys. He's trying to figure out whether he should sell now while his water is still good and move out of state, but he doesn't know where to go. Each month he fills a water jug and tries to light it as a DIY water test.
Down the road from him, George and Charlene Miller, two retirees from New Jersey, thought they had found the perfect spot: 16 gorgeous acres with a brook, three ponds, space for gardening. George, a disabled veteran, built 40 birdhouses. A sign at the entrance to their home reads "Journey's End" and Charlene spoke of wanting her ashes spread across the woods. "Then, one day I went out to get my mail, and all the trees were gone," she said.
Soon she'll be looking at a huge rig, and the first round of drilling will last 26 days. The noise will be constant. Trucks carrying water, equipment, men and machinery will pass by her home. Another well is planned across the street in the opposite direction. "We'll likely have to get a water buffalo," she said. They've spent $1,000 on a private water test. Next they'll test their pond as a kind of insurance policy in case the drilling ruins it.
"We moved out here to get away from all of this, and it caught up with us quicker then we thought, " she said. She seems more resigned then surprised. She already supplies water to her son, his wife and two young children who live in Montrose, about an hour away, surrounded by gas wells. The young family moved from Michigan to be close to her and George. They're renting a home with an option to buy, but their water went bad and the landlord isn't doing anything. He sends Charlene photos of flaring wells, and trucks with radioactive signage. "They're being crushed, " she said. | <urn:uuid:d62b86f6-863e-4c15-97a1-fe9a20362379> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alternet.org/story/150527/%22they_are_afraid_their_house_could_blow_up%22%3A_meet_the_families_whose_lives_have_been_ruined_by_gas_drilling_%5Bphotos_by_award-winning_photographer_nina_berman%5D?page=0%2C1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986701 | 551 | 1.765625 | 2 |
(CNN) -- Three of the largest Sikh advocacy groups in the United States are opposing airport passenger screening measures they say require hand-searches of turbans, despite the use of electronic imaging technology.
The Sikh Coalition, United Sikhs and the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund are lobbying members of Congress in an effort to pressure federal transportation authorities to re-examine a policy they say unfairly scrutinizes members of the Sikh community.
"Sikh Americans are already looked at differently in this country," said the Sikh Coalition's director of programs, Amardeep Singh. "Once you start pulling Sikhs aside for extra screening, it sends a message that the government is suspicious of them for the same reasons [other passengers] are suspicious of them."
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration adjusted security procedures in 2007 to include provisions for "bulky" clothing that includes headwear, according to an agency statement.
Removal of all headwear is recommended, it said, but the rules are meant to accommodate passengers who may not want to remove the items for religious, medical, or other reasons.
Transportation officials would not confirm whether "advanced imaging technology" can sufficiently see through turbans, citing security reasons.
Despite the advent of the advanced technology, transportation security officers are permitted to use "professional discretion" in determining if a particular item of clothing should be subject to further screening, according to the statement.
Authorities say the policy has remained unchanged since 2007, but Sikh advocacy groups argue that airport security procedures were recently ramped up to include extra screening for all turban-wearing passengers.
Singh said U.S. Sikh groups that had once observed "a patchwork of [airport security] policies" are now witnessing a process in which "all turbans are searched."
CNN was not able to independently verify that claim. | <urn:uuid:f44a5f35-f5a2-4704-b2d3-8d7125bfc6ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/11/08/airport.turban.screening/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960264 | 379 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Solving this problem is an important step before moving on to potential therapies
THURSDAY, Feb. 14 (HealthDay News) -- A major concern with using stem cells to treat disease has been the possibility that the retrovirus used to implant the cells might cause cancer, but now a group of scientists appears to have solved that problem.
In November, two groups of researchers -- one in Japan and one in the United States -- showed that adult human and mouse skin cells could be reprogrammed into stem cells similar to embryonic stem cells, which can be made into any type of cell. These cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), could be the key to using stem cells to cure a variety of diseases.
In this latest study, published in the Feb. 14 issue of Science, the Japanese researchers prove these stem cells are made from normal mature adult cells, and they show that these stem cells can be implanted using a retrovirus without fear of causing cancer.
"This is a real nice follow-up and confirmation of the previous papers that looked at inducing normal cells to become stem cells," said Dr. Hugh Taylor, an associate professor at Yale University School of Medicine.
"The question that still existed from the previous paper was whether these stem cells were some sort of adult stem cells," Taylor said. "This paper shows that these stem cells are fully differentiated adult cells, that they can be reprogrammed into stem cells," he added. "You can probably take almost any adult cell and turn it into a stem cell."
In addition, there has been a fear that using a retrovirus to implant stem cells results in an increased risk of cancer. This study showed that doesn't happen, Taylor said. "It proves, without a doubt, that these cells are safe for human use," he noted.
However, Taylor thinks the cells need to be studied over a longer period to ensure they don't have an elevated cancer risk.'/>"/>
All rights reserved | <urn:uuid:435a0548-f9a8-4a91-b9b2-34f4f1bf0d05> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news-1/Scientists-Show-Stem-Cells-Dont-Cause-Cancer-11968-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962508 | 407 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Interior Nomination Becomes Embroiled in Fight Over Alaska Refuge
"Alaska’s Izembek National Wildlife Refuge is a 315,000-acre stretch of eelgrass and tundra pockmarked with lakes and lagoons, a site where the geese called Pacific black brants stop off to feed before they begin their journey to wintering grounds in Mexico."
"But the fate of this remote wilderness area has become a critical bargaining chip in an inside-the-Beltway battle, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) threatening to block Sally Jewell’s nomination as interior secretary unless the Obama administration agrees to put a road through it.
For nearly 20 years, Alaskan politicians have lobbied the federal government to construct a roughly 20-mile gravel road connecting the tiny village of King Cove to the larger town of Cold Bay, so its 750 year-round residents could have access to an all-weather airport in case of medical emergencies. Like many remote communities, King Cove has no road out, relying on air and marine transport."Source: Wash Post, 02/25/2013 | <urn:uuid:0f08b940-3f70-486d-87b1-1ce77f64e2a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sej.org/headlines/interior-nomination-becomes-embroiled-fight-over-alaska-refuge | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931879 | 234 | 2.421875 | 2 |
The simple answer is: there can't be a list of things that just make a design better.
Here's why, and a couple of tips on what you can do when you find yourself looking for such a thing.
Everything is case by case. The text indenting style you use in your example, for example, sometimes works well and can help make text more prominent by increasing contrast and creating a slight sense of depth. How much that improves a design depends on how much that element needs more prominence, and it comes at the slight cost of complicating the text element and adding noise to the page. Sometimes, that's a net benefit, sometimes, a net loss.
In your example, it's a net benefit because there are few competing elements and because the extra prominence and contrast counter-acts the downside of the texture underneath. The texture looks nice but has a downside that it competes a little with the text for foreground status, weakening the hierarchy and clarity of the page. The extra dash of prominence from the text shadow makes sure there's no serious competition, restoring a clear figure/ground relationship and hieratchy between text and background.
If an identical effect was used, say, against a flat background on a busy page, it would harm the design.
Anything that, today, seems to always look great anywhere will, tommorrow, be a horrible tired overused cliche. It's a really really common to see some stylistic trick, think "That looks great and fresh!", try it in some design of your own, think "This looks fresh here too!", then start habitually using it in places where it doesn't actually improve the design but doesn't obviously harm it, and raises a smile among friends/clients because it's reminiscent of those other things that look really good, and then - with hundreds of other people doing the same - that stylistic trick quickly becomes a tired cliche.
Any list of the stylistic tricks of 2012 that seem to always look cool, will almost certainly double up as a list of tired design cliches of 2013.
Here's an example of just this - Smashed Magazine, a popular online web design magazine, listing design "epidemics", many of which are things it itself recommended a few years previously as cool new stylistic tricks, which then got out of control and were over-used.
If a design doesn't satisfy, don't look for a stock trick that can be parachuted in.
Ask: why isn't it working? What's it lacking? Then ask: based on the specifics of this case, what can I do to fix that specific problem or need?
The closest thing I'm aware of to a good, universal, non-fashion-dependent reference you can turn to when stumped when looking for something to add a touch of something to a design that doesn't quite cut the mustard is the brilliant book Universal Principles of Design. It's unique in that it is a catalogue of things that work across design disciplines because of some evidence-based fact (standards of evidence vary...) about human perception / psychology or engineering etc, with an ingenious contents page listing them by type of design problem they can solve. But it's not easy to apply: they're very, very, very general principles and seeing how things like this can be applied is a very difficult art in itself.
Aside from that, there are literally hundreds/thousands of books, online magazines, dead tree magazines, blogs, showcase sites etc (links to random examples off the top of my head) that showcase design techniques and which people turn to for ideas.
Use them, don't abuse them. Have a reason for adding a stylistic or decorative trick that is based on your case and isn't just "it looks awesome somewhere else" | <urn:uuid:a5ea6e2a-71b9-4434-893e-584900c39eef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/13349/what-subtle-techniques-can-be-used-to-make-design-look-better-overall?answertab=votes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959929 | 775 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Beige, Brown, or Black
Vol. 13, no. 1 (Fall 1959): 38–43.
The late nineteen-forties, a brief period of sociological experimentation in American film-making, contained several works dealing specifically with problems involving Negro characters. Such films as Home of the Brave, Pinky, Lost Boundaries , and No Way Out were particularly memorable because they attempted to portray the Negro in a predominantly white environment; as a figure of dramatic importance, the Negro has long been overlooked or carefully avoided on the screen, chiefly because of the refusal of Southern theater exhibitors to book such films. The U.S. Motion Picture Code's rule regarding the depiction of Negro characters, notoriously outdated, has only managed to keep in effect a rigidly stereotyped view of a race whose economic and intellectual status has risen to such a degree since 1919 that one tends to look upon most Negro screen actors as creatures speaking the language of closet-drama.
American drama has suffered from a lack of Negro playwrights (not to mention Negro screen writers) who are able to present their characters in authentic and dramatically informative situations, for certainly few racial groups in this country flourish so actively on a level of melodrama, except perhaps the Puerto Ricans in New York, and yet, the two most successful stage works about contemporary Negro life are based upon the same rather bland premise: the sudden acquisition of a large sum of money by a middle-class family (Anna Lucasta and A Raisin in the Sun ). These plays succeed because they honestly develop character in an all-Negro milieu on a nonstereotyped basis—they reveal the Negro to audiences with the same sympathy and insight with which Sean O'Casey exhibited the Irish in Juno and the Paycock . So far, so good, but what has happened in the American cinema since the forties regarding the plight of the Negro?
First of all, the Supreme Court decisions regarding integration of Southern schools, in 1954, once more brought the entire question of Negro-
white relationships to the attention of the world. The incidents ensuing from this historic decree have yet to be conveyed in either stage or screen terms, and apparently, no one is courageous enough to do anything about it, but, at any rate, the Arkansas affair stirred interest in the Negro race once more as a focus for drama. Secondly, it was apparently decided by various Hollywood producers that a gradual succession of films about Negro-white relationships would have a beneficial effect upon box-office returns and audiences as well. The first of these films, Edge of the City (1956), is the most satisfactory because it is the least pretentious. The performance by Sidney Poitier (the Negro actor whose career has most benefited by the renaissance of the color theme) was completely authentic, but true to the film code, any hint of successful integration must be concluded by death, usually in some particularly gory fashion, and so Poitier gets it in the back with a docker's bale-hook. The most constructive contribution of Edge of the City to film history is one sequence in which Poitier talks philosophically to his white friend, using language that rings so truthfully and refreshingly in the ears that one suddenly realizes the tremendous damage that has been nurtured through the years because of Hollywood's perpetuation of the dialect-myth. The film was praised for its honesty, but its conclusion was disturbing; audiences wanted to know why the Negro had to be killed in order for the hero to achieve self-respect.
Strangely enough, this promising beginning of a revival of American cinematic interest in interracial relationships took a drastic turn with Darryl F. Zanuck's lavish production of Island in the Sun (1957). The focus changed from concern for an ordinary friendship between men of different racial backgrounds to the theme of miscegenation, considered to be, in Hollywoodian terms, a much bolder and more courageous source of titillation.
This film, made solely for sensationalistic reasons, was supposed to depict racial problems on the fictional West Indian island of Santa Marta, but it became simply a visually fascinating document without a real sense of purpose. Against a background of tropical beauty, a series of romantic attachments and longings are falsely attached to a group of famous personalities, each of whom is given as little to do as possible.
Harry Belafonte, a Negro singer who has risen to the astonishing and unprecedented stature of a matinee idol, was presented as David Boyeur, a labor leader for the island's native population, and his obvious attractions for a socially distinguished white beauty, Mavis (Joan Fontaine), created a furor among the Southern theater exhibitors, who either banned the film or deleted the Belafonte-Fontaine sequences. Actually, there were no love scenes between the two, only glances of admiration and dialogue of almost Firbankian simplicity. In fact, Boyeur's decision not to make love to Mavis is evasive and full
of chop-logic, and every indication is given that poor Mavis will literally pine away thereafter among the mango trees. On the other hand, a Negro girl, Margot (Dorothy Dandridge), is allowed to embrace and eventually marry a white English civil servant (John Justin) and, although their life on Santa Marta is segregated, they finally sail happily off to England together at the end of the film. And so, the crux of the matter of miscegenation is again at the mercy of the film production code. Although "color" is the most important problem on the island, it seems that a white man may marry a Negro girl and not only live , and live happily, but that a Negro man and a white woman dare
not think of touching. There is an odd moment in Island in the Sun when (after watching Mavis yearn for Boyeur in sequence after sequence) the Negro reaches up and lifts her slowly from a barouche, holding her waist. The shock-effect of this gesture upon the audience was the most subtle piece of eroticism in the film, and only the lack of honesty in the work as a whole made this hint of a prelude-to-embrace seem realistic.
Island in the Sun also stirred other concepts about color, for the problem of concealed racial ancestry is introduced, bringing out all sorts of moody behavior on the part of a young girl, Jocelyn (Joan Collins), and her brother, Maxwell (James Mason). Jocelyn attempts to break off her engagement to an English nobleman, but he ignores her racial anxieties and is willing to chance the improbabilities of an eventual albino in the family. Maxwell, however, is driven into gloom, drink, and eventual murder, one feels, because the Negro skeleton in the family closet has thoroughly rattled him. The entire film is certainly important as a study of the tropical myth in racial terms, and even Dandridge's character, though she comes out of the whole business fairly happily, is not entirely free from the stereotype of the Negro as sensualistic, for, at one point, she performs a rather unusual Los Angeles–primitive dance among the Santa Marta natives, an act that is quite out of character, if one knows anything at all about the problem of class consciousness among the Negroes themselves in the West Indies.
Miss Dandridge has been continually cast as the typically sexy, unprincipled lady of color, in all-Negro films like Carmen Jones (1956) and Porgy and Bess (1959), as well as in a singularly appalling film called The Decks Ran Red (1958), in which she is the only woman aboard a freighter in distress and, naturally, is pursued by a lusty mutineer, with much contrived suspense and old-hat melodrama. It is ironic, under the circumstances, to recall that this actress's dramatic debut in films coincided with that of Belafonte in Bright Road (1955), a minor work about a gentle schoolteacher and a shy principal in a Southern school.
The commercial success of Island in the Sun led to the decisive movement in Hollywood to make films dealing specifically with the theme of miscegenation. The color question appeared in the most unusual situations, particularly Kings Go Forth (1958), an epic cliché of wartime in France, where two soldiers (Frank Sinatra and Tony Curtis) find it nicer to be in Nice than at the front. Sam (Sinatra) falls in love with Monique Blair (Natalie Wood), whose parents are American, although she has been reared in France. Monique lives with her widowed mother, and reveals to Sam that her father was a Negro. Exactly why this is introduced is never really clear unless it was intended to bring some sort of adult shock to a basically What Price Glory situation, for even Mademoiselle from Armentières is fashionably under the color line in contemporary war
films. There is also a triangle complication, for while Sam is away, Monique becomes infatuated with Britt (Curtis) after hearing him play a jazz solo on a trumpet. This implies that even Monique's French upbringing cannot assuage the jazz-tremors of her American Negro heritage. Of course, nothing is solved in the film. Although Sam and Britt go through a baptism of fire and limb-loss, their characters are molded out of a screen clay pit as tough-talking, hard-drinking, callous hedonists, and the fact that both love and racial awareness are merged in their personalities is supposed to be basis for poignancy; besides, marriage with Monique is only weakly suggested at the conclusion of the film. Perhaps the most unfortunate part of Kings Go Forth was its adherence to the lamentable Hollywood practice of casting a white actress in the part of a mulatto heroine, thereby weakening even further an already unsuccessful attempt to jump on the bandwagon of popular film concepts regarding hardhearted American officers falling madly in love with foreign girls of another race. Kings Go Forth convinced one that racial films were once more in vogue, and the so-called taboo theme was simply a "gimmick."
Although it attempts boldness, Night of the Quarter Moon (1959) only belabors the question of intermarriage. Ginny (Julie London) marries a wealthy San Franciscan, Chuck Nelson (John Drew Barrymore), while on a vacation in Mexico. When she reveals that their marriage might cause them trouble because of her racial background (she is one-quarter Portuguese-Angolan, which is, one supposes, cause for some sort of genetic alarm), Chuck tells her that
such statistics only bore him. However, the film erupts into a succession of violent and racially antagonistic episodes on the part of Chuck's society-minded mother (Agnes Moorehead), the San Francisco police force, and the neighbors. The fact that Chuck is a Korean war veteran, susceptible to mental blackouts and fatigue, creates an odd impression about American film myths of this nature. It would seem that war veterans are more susceptible to miscegenation, and that certain environments, like the Caribbean or Mexico, actually put one into that frame of mind which considers racial backgrounds to be of major insignificance, eventually leading to intermarriage. All of this chaos leads to one of the most incredible courtroom sequences in film history, during which Ginny's Negro lawyer (James Edwards) strips the blouse from her back in front of the judge so that her skin color can be revealed as white. Night of the Quarter Moon did contain one notable feature, however. It showed an adjusted, sophisticated, and extremely articulate interracial couple, Cy and Maria Robbin (Nat Cole and Anna Kashfi), and Maria's summation of a white man's general attitude toward a quadroon is a very forthright and adult statement that takes one by surprise.
It is, indeed, the social position of an individual who is able to pass for white that seems to bear most interest for film-makers, and it was only a matter of time (28 years) before a remake of Imitation of Life (1959) would appear. Fannie Hurst's novel, a tear-jerker, could possibly have been a fine film, considering the different film techniques and audience attitudes of 1931 and 1959. However, the earlier version of the film is the more honest of the two, if only for the fact that the mulatto girl, the true figure of pathos, was played by Fredi Washington, a Negro actress. But the basic premise that any Negro girl with a white skin is doomed to despair on a social level is maintained in a most unreal and almost farcical manner. The clichés are kept intact and aimed at the tear ducts, and once more, one cannot help feeling that a Negro screen writer might have been able to bring subtlety into the characterizations. Imitation of Life is a hymn to mother love, a popular fable of ironic contrasts between the light and the dark realms of racial discrimination. A famous actress, Lora Meredith (Lana Turner), and her daughter, Susie (Sandra Dee), are devoted to the Negro maid, Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore), and her mulatto child, Sarah Jane (Susan Kohner). But it is the behavior of Sarah Jane as a beautiful young woman that is handled falsely. Living in a nonsegregated environment in a Northern metropolis, surrounded by the glamour of Lora's world of the theater, it is inconceivable that Sarah Jane would be made to feel inferior by people around her, especially since she is not, by any stretch of the imagination, obviously a Negro. It is equally incomprehensible that Sarah Jane's taste in clothes would not be affected by the chic apparel of both Lora and Susie, both of whom symbolize a world to which she very much wants to
belong. The final stroke of absurdity lies in the sequence in which Sarah Jane is savagely beaten by her white boyfriend (Troy Donahue) when he learns that she is a Negro, implying that anyone who attempts to step out of an established class structure, racially or otherwise, must be subjected to physical violence. This attitude (equally out of place in a film like Room at the Top ) comes as a shock and reflects a dangerous kind of moralizing. As if inner anguish is not enough for an individual who is unable to successfully "pass" for white, or move from one social stratum to another, one must behold such a character actually beaten up and thrown into the gutter.
In Imitation of Life , Annie's funeral is epic sentiment in the charlotte russe tradition, complete with a spiritual by Mahalia Jackson—an episode that is
completely fictional and as incredible to Negro spectators as it is to white; and Sarah Jane's psychological maladjustment never leads one to imagine that she would so blatantly embrace her Negro heritage by hysterically throwing herself upon her mother's coffin; also one is never told what the girl eventually does or becomes. What is not understood by the makers of Imitation of Life is that a Negro's sympathies are with Sarah Jane, not Annie, and that contemporary audiences are able to discern the finely hypocritical dictums of the fake solution, the outdated stereotypes of the code, and, in a sense, the anti-integrationist's point of view.
The Negro character in the nineteen-fifties is very much the hero or heroine in isolation, and the cinema never quite illustrates this quality of "invisibility" and frustration as often as it should. Perhaps the most effective presentation of this particular aspect of racial adjustment is The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959), in which Ralph Burton (Harry Belafonte) finds that he is the only person alive in New York City after some great destructive force has swept away all human existence. The horror of loneliness in New York, a potential Angkor Wat surrounded by steel foliage, is brilliantly evoked, at once underlining one's contemporary fears of sudden radioactive destruction, and emphasizing the symbolic figure of the Negro hero alone in society.
The appearance of two white people throws the film back into the world of color consciousness. Sarah Crandall (Inger Stevens) meets Ralph, and for a time they exist together, but he insists upon maintaining separate living quarters. The racial issue remains symbolically in his mind, though, in reality, it is gone with the civilization around them. When Benson Thacker (Mel Ferrer) arrives, however, a triangle is created, a wall of simple-minded clichés obscures the true situation, and, after a gun battle and fight, the men declare peace, join hands with Sarah, and walk into the oblivion of Wall Street together.
This parable exemplifies today's approach to the theme of interracialism: vague, inconclusive, and undiscussed. Like a fascinating toy, American film-makers survey the problem from a distance, without insight, and guided by a series of outmoded, unrealistic concepts regarding minorities. The major irony is this: that in a country where life is actually lived quite freely with races so intermingled, it is still difficult to capture this sense of freedom, of humanity, this robust diversity of backgrounds of American life upon the screen. As far as motion pictures are concerned, the Negro character remains mysterious because he is the most diversified by background, by color, and by regional dialect, and, considering the number of films involving Negroes, the race as a whole is inadequately represented on the screen. Represented solely by limited night-club entertainers and recording artists, and only a few outstanding young actors (Poitier, Belafonte, and Henry Scott, who has appeared in only one small role so far), it is no wonder that audiences cannot get a sense of truth between the black, brown, or beige images that vary so greatly from celluloid to reality, from mythology and stereotype to history and drama. | <urn:uuid:99d91151-371d-462f-b257-2a08d4dbfef9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft5h4nb36j&doc.view=content&chunk.id=d0e452&toc.depth=1&anchor.id=0&brand=eschol | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958618 | 3,704 | 2.578125 | 3 |
This website contains a set of information and planning instruments relating to the Ministry of Secondary Education.
They relate to grammar, technical and teacher education.
This website aims, first and foremost, to reach out to the following persons :
Cameroonians who intend to continue university studies in and out of Cameroon ;
•Persons living out of Cameroon and who would like to pursue their education in any of our colleges or high school
• Researchers and professionals interested in the statistics, school programmes and educational projects of MINESEC ;
• And generally, any person interested in education issues.
This tool for exchange also helps decision-makers in MINESEC to reach out to diverse education stakeholders or any other person who carries out activities relating to the world of education.Here, you will also find an outline of the MINESEC website presenting this website in detail to help you access directly to the web page of your choice.
Louis BAPES BAPES Minister of Secondary Education | <urn:uuid:ba1762a5-d8bf-4f4b-a1a5-7a45567bb48f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.minesec.gov.cm/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937399 | 199 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Life Sustaining Physical Services
Life-sustaining physical services include: a daytime shelter; a 50-bed overnight shelter; breakfast, lunch, and dinner (NOTE: only lunch is open to ALL clients who come to Sarah's Circle during the day); laundry facilities; lockers; bathroom facilities (including showers); an address and telephone number (for job applications); and daily toiletries.
Case Management Services
Case Management services provide individualized assistance with employment, continuation of education, housing referrals, supportive counseling and aid with obtaining benefits.
The Housing Program of Sarah’s Circle places women in permanent housing, as well as providing support services necessary to retain the housing.
Education/General Wellness Services
Sarah’s Circle provides a variety of educational programs on topics pertinent to women who are homeless. Programs topics include domestic violence, all aspects of health; physical, emotional and mental, and advocacy.
Trauma Services for Women who are Homeless, Domestic Violence, Mood Management, and Art Therapy are specialized therapy programs, designed to provide women who have experienced trauma with the tools to move toward greater self-determination and empowerment.
Why Women-only Homeless Services?
Women become homeless for different reasons than men, have gender-specific needs while they are homeless, and will become housed and stay housed through different services than men. For more comprehensive information about the importance of women-only services, please see this document. | <urn:uuid:9c1e74d9-c4c3-48b5-b45d-24fa9e8367c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sarahs-circle.org/services/services-overview.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942501 | 290 | 1.773438 | 2 |
More than a dozen farmers complete tillage for man injured in farm accident
WORTHINGTON — A farm accident that happened in the blink of an eye earlier this month has kept Kent Johnson of rural Worthington in a Sioux Falls, S.D., hospital recovering from head trauma and numerous bone fractures.
ST. PAUL — Many things affect the impact of agriculture on soil and water quality in Minnesota. Annual rowcrops like corn and soybeans don’t protect the soil from direct raindrop impact until the leaf canopy closes, which is usually mid- to late June.
JODI DEJONG-HUGHES, U OF M EXTENSION
, June 03, 2008
View your ad here! Cost effective targeted advertising. Contextual advertising starting as low as $79/month. This includes targeted ad delivery and search results! Add your business to the Marketplace » | <urn:uuid:d6dfd768-d973-49c5-8fff-0fe206c764a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dglobe.com/event/tag/tag/tillage/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930668 | 181 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Last Updated: 03/22/2013*
In a first-of-its-kind test, a Raytheon Standard Missile-3 Block IA fired from the USS Lake Erie destroyed a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) target using a remote cue from a satellite sensor system.
The test marks the 22nd successful intercept for the SM-3 program.
“This is the first time the U.S. Navy has launched an SM-3 using a cue from space,” said Mitch Stevison, director of Raytheon’s SM-3 program. “It significantly expands our warfighters’ response options.”
The medium-range ballistic missile was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the south shores of the island of Kauai, Hawaii. As it rose into the sky, the target was acquired and tracked by sensors built by Raytheon for the Space Tracking and Surveillance System-Demonstrator satellites.
Threat data was then relayed through the command, control, battle management and communications (C2BMC) system to the ship, allowing the crew to launch the SM-3 before the ship’s own sensors acquired the target.
“This is an extremely important capability for our warfighters,” said Stevison. “The STSS-D gives us eyes in space, and that’s a true advantage.”
“The space-based sensor’s unique vantage point allows it to see the threat early in its trajectory,” said Bill Hart, vice president of Space Systems for Raytheon’s Space and Airborne Systems business.
“We can give our naval warfighters extra time to analyze and respond, by providing target data before the ship can track the threat,” Hart said.
The first ‘launch-on-remote’ test occurred in April 2011 when a SM-3 Block IA was launched against an intermediate-range ballistic missile using remote sensor data provided by a Raytheon-made, forward-based AN/TPY-2 radar.
The SM-3 is designed to destroy incoming short, medium and intermediate range ballistic missile threats by colliding with them in space. More than 135 SM-3s have been delivered to the U.S. and Japan ahead of schedule and under cost.
Raytheon is on track to deliver the next-generation SM-3 Block IB in 2015 in both sea- and land-based configurations.
STSS-D consists of two satellites carrying sensor payloads in a low-Earth orbit that are capable of tracking missiles in space.
Raytheon sensors used on the satellites were developed under contract to Northrop Grumman, prime contractor for the STSS-D program.
* The content on this page is classified as historical content. See this important information regarding such content.
SM-3 Photo Gallery
Related Feature Stories
SM-3 infographic and desktop wallpaper: | <urn:uuid:3b34e3ae-771a-4140-8fc3-70cc1b1c50eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.raytheon.com/newsroom/technology/rtn13_sm3_ftm20/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906334 | 611 | 2.296875 | 2 |
Photographer Christopher Herwig documents the strange phenomena of the Soviet bus-stop. For the most part Sovjet architecture is remembered by its heavy block buildings and functionally spartan designs. It’s overpowering desire for conformity left little room for individual creative freedom. A notable exemption to this is in the transportation sector. One can admire this creativity in the metro station of cites like Moscow or Tashkent where the coldness and sterility of typical Soviet urban architecture and costs are not spared as creative freedom is unleashed. While many of us are aware of the elaborate splendor of the Moscow underground, its easy to overlook the phenomena of the common roadside bus stop as an example of Soviet art and design letting loose and becoming a little weird and crazy.
This post was written by Pieterjan Grandry
Get our latest updates straight in your Facebook newsfeed | <urn:uuid:135f46d7-b369-4b2c-bab2-e2666e976e1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://crapisgood.com/2012/01/sovjet-bus-stops/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938186 | 174 | 1.90625 | 2 |
Driftwood collected at river's edge.
If you choose to have a fire at your river camp in the Grand Canyon, please do so responsibly.
The collection of driftwood for fires is only allowed from November 1 through February 28, and driftwood is the only wood that may be gathered and burned in the Grand Canyon. Driftwood should only be collected close to the water in areas where the river is still actively depositing it. Wood found far from the water’s edge may be historic or from past flood events, and should not be collected. Driftwood is found near the strand line at the water’s edge and has been obviously worked by the river. So, please stay close to the water when collecting.
In many parts of the country, the collection of dead and down wood is encouraged. This is prohibited in the Grand Canyon. This wood is important for the stabilization of fragile sand dunes and the ecological survival of the area. At popular camps, dead and down wood is often used to rehabilitate impacted areas; so it may be protecting sensitive resources. Never collect dead and down wood and don’t tear down or cut living trees, even if they are non-native. | <urn:uuid:daa92b33-0328-4115-a9af-87e5a44bb552> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nps.gov/grca/parkmgmt/crmp_ranger-log.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95739 | 246 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Washington, D.C. (July 2, 2012) – Much about leadership is left to timing and, somewhat, to chance. An executive, for example, might be asked to assume a leadership role when the state of the industry in which the business serves is experiencing unprecedented turmoil. Or perhaps the industry is brand new and each decision has broader, longer-term impacts that will literally shape the business landscape. Each situation poses its own set of challenges. How he or she approaches those challenges can forever define that leader’s capabilities.
Nelnet Foundation’s $25,000 donation to Imagine America Foundation helps career college students continue their education
Imagine America Foundation Honors Frank Longaker, President of National College, with Lifetime Achievement Award
Washington, D.C. (June 26, 2012) - Fueled by a genuine concern for others, National College President Frank Longaker is a natural leader. Perhaps his service as a Captain during the Vietnam War or dedication to his community supplement the philanthropic character Frank Longaker exudes. Although these achievements are noteworthy in themselves, Longaker has received his latest recognition from the Imagine America Foundation for yet another leadership accomplishment – his 40 years of dedication to National College and the career college community. | <urn:uuid:4583215a-c267-4560-8545-db66b88db47b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.imagine-america.org/archive/2012/06 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968703 | 251 | 1.757813 | 2 |
STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS—When a company does badly, no manager likes to be blamed for things that were really outside his control—like a general downturn in the economy. That goes especially for chief executives. But do boards really take external factors into account when giving CEOs the ax?
A new study finds that more CEOs are fired when their industry or the overall market is doing badly. But, say the scholars, it is not just a case of boards looking for scapegoats during harder times. The CEOs who are let go under such conditions tend to be underperformers anyway.
Looking at more than 1,600 CEO turnovers in the United States from 1993 to 2001, Dirk Jenter, associate professor of finance at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Fadi Kanaan of MIT first found that managers tended to be fired based on the performance of their firm regardless of the larger economic picture.
“When stock prices are up, managers are less likely to be fired; when stock prices are down, they are more likely to be fired,” said Jenter. “Our first results suggested that it does not matter whether a low stock price is driven by firm performance alone or broader market factors.”
Specifically, the researchers found that after one to two years of bad industry performance, the probability of a CEO being fired was more than 50 percent higher than after good industry performance. The pattern shows up everywhere, whether companies are large or small, whether CEOs have long tenures or short, or whether corporate boards are governed by company insiders or outsiders.
However, when the investigators looked at the data more carefully, they found that it was CEOs who were underperforming—that is, heading companies that historically had lower stock returns than their peer companies—who were most likely to be fired. “So it’s not the case that boards just willy-nilly fire CEOs when the industry or the economy is doing badly,” said Jenter.
Extrapolating from his results, Jenter conjectured that corporate boards may be using bad times as an opportunity to get rid of underperforming CEOs. “This is what I find when talking to members of boards personally,” he said. “They report that it’s really difficult to fire a CEO unless the company’s stock valuation is down.”
Boards, then, may want to consider whether they are asking enough tough questions about their CEOs in good economic times. “A rising tide may lift all boats, but the company may not be benchmarking itself well during such periods,” said Jenter. “If a firm’s stock is up 5% while several competitors are up 15%, then a board may want to think about rocking that boat.”
CEOs who underperform in good times, the study warns, should be aware that they will be scrutinized more closely when things go south. “Such CEOs need to prepare better for the next recession,” Jenter advises.
Also on Stanford Knowledgebase: | <urn:uuid:22c032c7-3d50-499e-93eb-8b15c6c88b63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stanford.edu/group/knowledgebase/cgi-bin/2011/08/18/underperforming-ceos-risk-being-fired-in-economic-downturns/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977941 | 636 | 1.773438 | 2 |
"Tolstoy's lavish and always graphic use of detail," wrote John Bayley, "together of course with its romance and exotic setting . . . has made "The Cossacks the most popular of all his works." This vibrant new translation of Tolstoy's 1862 novel, by PEN Translation Award winner Peter Constantine, is the author's semiautobiographical depiction of young Olenin, a wealthy, disaffected Muscovite, who joins the Russian army and travels to the untamed frontier of the Caucasus in search of a more authentic life. Quartered with his regiment in a Cossack village, Olenin revels in the glories of nature and the rough strength of the Cossacks and Chechens. Smitten by his unrequited love for a local girl, Maryanka, Olenin has a profound but ultimately short-lived spiritual awakening. Try as he might to assimilate, he remains an awkward outsider and his long search for a more enlightened and purposeful existence comes to naught.
With the philosophical insight that would characterize Tolstoy's later masterpieces, this long overdue major new translation is a revelation.
"From the Hardcover edition. | <urn:uuid:506e9826-cd4b-4702-b472-5f07adf4aece> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bookpassage.com/book/9781421809755 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95635 | 247 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Ill Health and Occupational Health
The University concerns itself with the wellbeing of all employees and recognises that all recurring, progressive and life-threatening diseases or impairments present challenges that require appropriate action. The needs of the institution should be balanced with those of the employee in that it is important for the University community to acknowledge that living with a life-threatening disease relies on positive support structures, and, that, continued employment has beneficial effects during remission and recovery periods or may create positive life-prolonging effects. In addition, the institution seeks to promote positive quality of work life and personal wellbeing. The Ill-Health and Occupational Health Policy and related programmes seek to address this. | <urn:uuid:72556d99-c7a8-4294-aae2-ea77169f4f74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ru.ac.za/humanresources/supportstaffmatters/healthandwellness/illhealthandoccupationalhealth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948387 | 137 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Inside a bright sunlit classroom, students hunch over their laptops. They’re laughing and smiling as they create an interactive story with images, sounds and text. One girl happily helps a friend take a digital photo of himself for the multimedia timeline.
Charlotte At A Glance
City Population: 751,087
Regional Population: 2,442,564
Median Household Income: $48,670
under 25: 35%
Knight active grants portfolio: 12 projects totaling $18,113,00
It’s a typical college scene. But this isn’t a college. It’s a second-grade classroom at Druid Hills Elementary School in Charlotte, N.C. The students are inventing their own digital version of Little Red Riding Hood. They’re seven years old.
The elementary school is one of nine in a West Charlotte initiative called Project L.I.F.T. The five-year, $55 million public-private initiative is designed to speed student progress in some of city’s lowest-performing schools. Knight Foundation announced $4 million in support last fall. Part of the foundation’s funding will provide laptops to all Kindergarten-through-fifth grade students in the Project L.I.F.T schools.
The students making themselves the heroes in Little Red Riding Hood -- and the teachers who plan the lessons that turn computers into teaching tools -- are the pioneers. Most of the 3,200 laptops will come in late February and “the excitement is contagious,” said One Laptop Per Child project manager David Jessup, who is overseeing their introduction.
The project is a key part of Knight’s strategy to improve Charlotte’s future by infusing access and engagement into a potentially transformative community initiative. The city has long viewed itself as a “New South” City. It takes great pride in being progressive and having residents working together. Knight’s grantmaking strategy reflects that. The foundation’s education projects connect with each other and the community at large. Technology is one of the pillars on which Project LIFT is built. Increasing digital skills and digital access helps students but also their parents. “The focus is on increasing resident collaboration and decision-making,” said Knight’s longtime Program Director in Charlotte, Susan Patterson. “Project LIFT is a community effort where collaboration already occurs, but ensuring families and residents in the area actively participate will be critical to its long-term success.”
One example: Knight’s Project L.I.F.T grant paid for two coordinators to work with the schools, nonprofits and directly with families and parents, helping the community become more involved in the education of its children. Coordinator Brandi Williams says this is crucial: “While there are barriers to getting parents and families engaged…we [meet] them where they are, build trust and help them define a path that is in line with their dreams and life mission.”
Full participation, whether on-line or offline, is often difficult for those living in low-income neighborhoods, like those in the LIFT zone. Charlotte is the largest city in North Carolina and its tremendous growth (from 2000-2010, the population increased by 65 percent) has led to the wider economic disparity common to urban America. This blocks access to the technology people need to be successful.
In the zip code around Druid Hills Academy, fewer than 20 percent of the homes have broadband. That’s one of the reasons Knight is involved in the national Connect2Compete program, with a goal to have “EveryoneOn” through low-cost Internet services, equipment and training. Connect2Compete comes to Charlotte this year. To help bridge the digital divide, qualifying families in the community will be eligible for Internet access for $9.95 a month, $150 laptops or desktops and free computer and technology training.
There’s also a focus on digital literacy skills at the Knight School of Communication at Queens University of Charlotte. Supported by a $5.75 million grant, its mission is to teach digital and media literacy not just to students but to the whole community, with classes, workshops and more. Last year, Knight School boot camps paired local Charlotte non-profits with students so that they could learn about social media. The school is forming partnerships with major institutions like the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library system, which served more than 3 million people last year.
The school also is launching a new website called Digital Charlotte to profile people, organizations and programs that help increase digital and media literacy. It will invite the community to add its own content, and features upcoming technology training events, including ones that teach blogging and using Twitter.
Using technology has also been a catalyst to fund the city’s cultural projects. Charlotte helped pioneer a new way of online giving when it launched Power2Give.org, a website that gives art lovers the chance to choose exactly how they want their money to be spent on projects. Since launching in 2011, the site - a project of the Arts and Science Council - has raised over $373,874. It is a sign of the city’s growing arts environment including cultural institutions like the Knight Theater, the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, the Charlotte Symphony and the Mint Museum among others.
Like Little Red Riding herself, these Charlotte projects explore new and unfamiliar territory. No doubt the community will face challenges. But equipped with the right digital tools, its digital adventurers will find they can compete in the 21st century economy. And if the inspiring seven-year olds at Druid Hills Elementary School are any indication, it looks like they’re going to have fun along the way.
By Elizabeth R. Miller, communications associate at Knight Foundation | <urn:uuid:f95bb06b-9299-4b53-aadd-0223bc88c211> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.knightfoundation.org/blogs/knightblog/2013/1/28/using-digital-tools-literacy-reshape-charlotte/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93912 | 1,196 | 2.34375 | 2 |
February 5, 2003
As the nationwide nursing shortage focuses attention on recruiting first-line RNs, SFSU's School of Nursing is finding new ways to also increase working nurses' career satisfaction and retention.
Associate Professors Amy Nichols and Andrea Boyle have designed an innovative MSN program that helps RNs with bachelor's degrees move up the career ladder -- an effort to retain these much-needed professionals in their field.
With an emphasis on flexibility, peer support, and respect for the experiences and knowledge that working professionals hold, the two-year MSN cohort program is tailor-made for nurses who want to enhance their career mobility and earning potential without putting their careers or family lives on hold.
Nichols and Boyle will present the innovative model at the American Association of Colleges of Nursing's February Master's Education Conference.
"What makes this a model program isn't that we have elements other programs don't have," Boyle says, "its the way that we combine the elements."
That innovative combination includes evening and Saturday class schedules, since weekday classes create barriers for working professionals; faculty willingness to bring classes to the workplace; teachers who employ adult learning principles that respect the needs, interests and experiences of practicing nurses; and a remarkably supportive atmosphere.
Support comes from two directions -- faculty and fellow students. Students are accepted into a cohort, and complete all classes as a group. The group structure provides encouragement and peer support that's especially important for nurses who are apprehensive about hitting the books after a many-year break from academia. The level of faculty support is unusual as well. The faculty provide intensive advising and mentoring that helps students with the tough balancing act of work, study and personal life.
Thelma Domingo, who graduated with the pilot cohort in summer 2002, said it was her fellow classmates who buoyed her up when pressures seemed overwhelming. Domingo's delighted that she persevered. "I'm more marketable and more confident now," she said. "My scope of knowledge is bigger and my mind is broader."
While SFSU and nursing programs nationwide are understandably focused on attracting new nurses to the profession, fully addressing the nursing shortage calls for attention to the entire career ladder. Advanced practice nurses drive change and research in the profession, Nichols points out, and are essential for helping the profession grow.
"But then there's a whole other piece of this," Boyle adds. "The education makes you better in whatever it is you want to do -- it makes you look at things differently, to think differently."
1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132 (415) 338-1111 | <urn:uuid:f7eebc8c-8637-480d-ba89-79eb49c452e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sfsu.edu/~news/2003/spring/14.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963592 | 536 | 1.53125 | 2 |
On the walking track outside its corporate headquarters on Royal Little Drive in Providence, employees of AAA Southern New England can frequently be seen engaging in the company’s latest wellness challenge – a walking event – in which more than 725 of the firm’s 1,500 employees are participating. Pedometers, so they can measure their progress, are provided through UnitedHealthcare of New England, the self-insured company’s partner in its wellness program. The goal is have employees take 10,000 steps a day.
Every little step adds up, and the results are evident. Last year, according to Michelle Saunders, AAA’s director of workforce development, there were 325 participants who each lost 7 pounds.
AAA also has invested in having its employees complete personal health assessments, resulting in a decrease in the number of employees in the “at-risk” category. As an incentive, employees are offered a $20-a-month deduction in health insurance if they complete a PHA, resulting in 93 percent participation, according to Saunders.
In addition, if employees participate in another wellness event, an incentive program called PHA Plus 1, they can receive another $20 cut on their health insurance, for a total of $40 in monthly reductions.
AAA’s wellness initiatives are targeted as they are built upon claims data and health-assessment results. They seek to promote healthy lifestyles and, at the same time, control health care costs, according to Saunders. “We combine education with fun to encourage participation,” she said. “We talk about wellness from the first day you start work. • | <urn:uuid:8c90242f-968c-4c33-9627-039103cb71bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pbn.com/AAA-wellness-efforts-move-in-right-direction,69720?category_id=100&list_type=most_commented&sub_type=stories,packages | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961113 | 334 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Working on the Berio Sequenza, I've been trying to figure out ways to double tongue faster. Theoretically, I presume, one should be able to double tongue exactly twice as fast as one can single tongue. [1x ST = 2x DT] So if I can single tongue 16th notes at mm.=120, why can't I double tongue 32nd notes at the same speed? It works sometimes, but only for a short burst of time.
Here's how I'm working to prolong it: practice double tonguing as fast as possible independent from the beat - not trying to fit two or for or however many on a certain note. It's kind of like how you try to get vibrato to sound smooth, not sounding like 4 or 5 to a beat but just natural. Try it with the tongue!
Take Taffanel/Gaubert e.j. no. 4
I'll play the ascending line slurred, then descending with double tonguing as fast as possible independent of the beat, but keeping the fingers in time. Usually I start with tempo mm.=100 then work up. Then I will switch, ascend with double tonguing, then descend legato.
Going back and forth between fast articulation and legato gives a good rest for the tongue, and it's a good way to focus on the tempo again. (For some reason, my brain can turn off when articulating fast!) When I feel confident, I will try articulating ascending and descending.
One thing that helps: with the tongue moving so fast, it really does interfere with the airstream. Therefore, you really need a steady support from the abdominal muscles - it actually helps when keep them firm and moving in and up when exhaling.
Berio uses this technique of double tonguing as fast as possible in his woodwind quintet also - so it's good preparation for his other works!
Photo: Arthur Sassa/AFP-Getty Images File | <urn:uuid:a9d7adc8-6070-4138-9948-e816bc81d4c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bledsoe22.blogspot.com/2009_06_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951216 | 405 | 2.03125 | 2 |
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Driving school warns Winchester drivers ahead of New Year's Eve parties
4:09pm Monday 31st December 2012 in Winchester
A DRIVING school is urging young drivers in Winchester to stay away from drink at New Year’s Eve parties tonight.
BSM driving school has come up with a five-point plan to avoid accidents on the road.
The plan is as follows: - Not getting into a car with a driver you know to be over the legal alcohol limit or who has taken an illegal substance.
- Looking after your friends – if you know someone is over the limit or has taken an illegal drug try to persuade them not to drive. Peer pressure can be used positively.
- Adopting a ‘zero tolerance’ position by not drinking any alcohol if driving.
- Not taking any illegal drugs if driving.
- Organising a designated driver or pre-booking a licensed taxi for New Year’s Eve.
A BSM study suggests only 59 per cent of young drivers would try to stop a friend drink driving while only 54 per cent would try to stop a friend under the influence of drugs from driving.
But Mark Peacock, head of BSM, said: “We are really urging young drivers to take care of themselves and their friends on the biggest party night of the year. “The majority of them do have a sensible attitude to keeping themselves and their friends safe and we need to encourage this to spread further in their peer group.” | <urn:uuid:caf2c1c4-32c3-4179-89b4-405b89d4fa86> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/news/winchester/10133736.Driving_school_warns_Winchester_drivers_ahead_of_New_Year_s_Eve_parties/?ref=nt | 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 | 0.95671 | 335 | 1.601563 | 2 |
One of the biggest problem with older calls is the build up of chalk on the lids, most folks used what ever chalk they had for chalking their calls and a lot of it was a wax based chalk. Take the call apart. You'll need 2 grits of sand paper or sanding sponge, like a 180-150 grit and a 100-80 grit. Look at the bottom of the lid and see where the angel wings are on the lid ----) from where the lid rubs on the rails. Mark that area from the back of the angel wing to the start of them, should be about 1-1/2" area, with a pencil. Lightly sand the lid the lenght of the lid with the finer grit, very lightly your not sanding the wood off only the chalk, to get back to the raw wood. Then cut a stip of sandpaper about 2" wide, and get someone to hold the lid for you. Go to the area you marked where the angel wing were, and hold your sandpaper at the ends and let it form around the crest in the lid, and draw it back and forth acrossed the lid a few times to rough that area up with your rougher grit paper, you want it rough it's a friction call. Again very lightly, just enough to rough it up, not to sand any wood away. Take your sanding sponge and just set it on the rails, draw it from the back of the call to the screw, only one way lightly. Put the call back together with the lid level or a bit high at the screw, looking from the side of the call, and play it, without any chalk, and adjust the screw to get the sound you want, then add your chalk and it should be ready to go. Chalk build up on the lid and rails and glazing from playing, is what kills the sound in box calls. It's a friction call and it has to rub wood on wood to sound right, chalk makes it easier to play if it's not to much chalk. That way you get the sound of the wood it's made from, not the sound of the chalk used to play it.
Dodge County NWTF Chapter
WI. Youth Turkey Mentor | <urn:uuid:322264db-38bd-44fd-be2d-a9d7c769d858> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.turkeyandturkeyhunting.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=139955 | 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 | 0.949382 | 460 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Marine railway revived on Long Island
As straight as rows of Midwestern corn, more than 200 new creosote-soaked pilings disappear into the water, creating the backbone for the refurbished Greenport Yacht and Shipbuilding marine railway, located on the North Fork of Long Island, N.Y.
The 4 1/2-acre yard at the end of Carpenter Street already has one operational railway, but owner Steve Clarke, citing increased demand from his commercial customers, has decided the time was right to rebuild a second marine railway that was originally taken out of operation in 1973.
Greenport Yacht and Shipbuilding is the latest in a series of shipyards that have occupied the site during the past 150 years. Marine railways have always been part of those shipyards. Clarke knows of one old photograph of this same railway, originally laid down in 1910, showing a ship being hauled out of the water, pulled by a single horse.
The restored railway, which extends 550 feet from the massive gear system on land, will have a capacity of 500 tons. What this actually means is that vessels with keel lengths of 120 feet, weighing no more than 2 1/2 tons per foot, can be hauled. The railway, when first constructed, had a 1,100-ton capacity, but as the equipment aged that capacity was reduced to 500 tons. Powering the rebuilt railway will be a 75-hp electric motor with double chain of 1 3/4 inches.
Although it is an almost total rebuild, the job is being considered a major repair. The original cast-iron gears will be used, but the gears have to be dismantled as the foundation on which they are resting has deteriorated. Clarke says that when they are reassembled there will only be a one-sixteenth-inch tolerance for error.
According to Clarke, the job of restoring the railway is broken down into three parts. The first, the most time consuming and difficult, is rebuilding the track, which includes new piles for the track to lie on. The piles than have to be cut and capped so they can support the eight-foot lengths of track.
The next part of the job is to build the cradle of wood and steel that the ships will be supported on as they are hauled out. The cradle will move along at 19 feet per minute, mounted on small cast-iron rollers.
The third part of the job is rebuilding the foundation under the gears. Clarke has to dismantle the gearing and then pour a foundation of concrete. This will be followed up by the bedding of heavy wood timbers on which the gears actually rest.
A few years back, when Clarke began entertaining the idea of rebuilding the railway, an application was made to the state for federal monies, but the DOT turned down the application. The estimated $600,000 expense will be borne by Clarke, who has owned the yard since 1973.
As well as his existing customers, which include ferries and fishing boats, Clarke is also entertaining the idea of enticing more large wooden sailing ships to Greenport to be hauled. Owners of large wood sailing ships prefer railways as a means of hauling their vessels as marine railways give better all-around support to a wooden vessel. This is because the loads are supported along the boat's keel. A ship taken out of the water by a sling lift is basically hanging in the air supported by a number of slings, concentrating the ship's weight in those places. This can cause unequal stress in a wooden hull, and, if done improperly, can even create structural problems.
Unlike a sling, a marine railway has a flatbed cradle mounted on rollers that travel along the tracks. The cradle is sent down into the water below the ship and the ship is maneuvered onto the cradle, blocked below the waterline, and then drawn out of the water. This way the keel is supported along the whole length of the ship, thus preventing any hull distortion that might take place if the same boat were lifted by a travel lift.There are many operating marine railways along the East Coast, but there are only four other large-capacity railways in the northeast, two in Maine and another two in Massachusetts.
If Clarke can stick to his schedule, he expects to have the restored railway completed, and operational, within a year. | <urn:uuid:b56050a1-adac-47b2-8212-20728115fae6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oceannavigator.com/January-February-2003/Marine-railway-revived-on-Long-Island/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974885 | 879 | 2.046875 | 2 |
How to ease Pacific tensions
How to solve Pacific security tensions lies within troubled island states themselves, says a Fijian academic.
Dr Steven Ratuva is about to begin compiling a handbook on the subject that he hopes can be used to resolve conflict.
The political sociologist at the University of Auckland has received a $A460,000 grant for a major research project about Pacific regional security issues.
The project will involve several researchers.
He told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat he will look at case studies involving Fiji, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands and Tonga.
'Arc of instability'
"There has been an assumption that the Pacific is all the same: 'arc of instability', 'failed states'," says Dr Ratuva, using common labels.
"In fact the Pacific is very complex," he said.
Those four nations faced quite different security situations and became useful studies to seek solutions.
Fiji had seen ethnic tension; Tonga a struggle involving the structure of society; an independence struggle in New Caledonia; and internal divisions in the Solomons.
He noted that Australia and New Zealand had also seen internal security issues and violence.
"One cannot really generalise."
But, said the researcher, there was "also a whole lot of goodwill" which has sustained Pacific communities through trouble.
The key was to find those "building mechanisms".
"There's been a whole lot of focus on conflict and not so much on the conflict resolution mechanisms, the building mechanisms, which have been responding to those issues for centuries".
Topics: defence-and-national-security, unrest-conflict-and-war, community-and-society, race-relations, education, university-and-further-education, pacific, fiji, tonga, solomon-islands, new-caledonia | <urn:uuid:eff4b787-8d71-4464-89ce-03013adcd431> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-25/an-easing-pacific-tensions/4484050?section=sport | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956231 | 384 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg held a speech at the South Pole, Wednesday, to pay tribute to Roald Amundsen and Captain Robert Falcon Scott.
“Courage and determination”
Today marks exactly 100 years since Amundsen reached the South Pole with Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel and Oscar Wisting.
“We are here to celebrate one of the most outstanding achievements of mankind,” said Prime Minister Stoltenberg in his speech.
“Roald Amundsen’s polar expeditions helped to form our national identity, and the qualities that enabled him and his men to reach the South Pole were precisely those the young nation of Norway would want to have be recognised by: courage, determination, endurance, as well as the will to meet new challenges.”
The Prime Minister reached the Ceremonial Pole on skis after travelling the some last six kilometres of Amundsen’s journey in temperatures of down to as low as -34C. Conditions were sunny. Norwegian Polar Institute Director and intrepid skier Jan-Gunnar Winther was one of several others who joined him.
Surrounded by flags of the 12 nations that signed the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, PM Stoltenberg unveiled an ice bust of Amundsen to an assembly of approximately 200 people. There are reports a permanent memorial was not chosen following US Antarctic Program officials’ wishes.
Talking of Captain Scott, whose ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition cost him his life after reaching the Pole on 17 January 1912 with Capt. Lawrence Oates, Edward Wilson, Lt. Henry ‘Birdie’ Bowers, and Petty Officer Edgar Evans, the Prime Minister continued, “Nevertheless, their names will forever be inscribed in Polar history. They will always be remembered for their courage and determination in reaching one of the most inhospitable places on earth.”
Today’s ceremony follows the PM’s arrival at the Geographic South Pole on Monday in anticipation of the historic event, which forms part of Norway’s Nansen-Amundsen Year 2011 (read more about Fridtjof Nansen here – external link).
Wisting, Bjaaland, Hassel, Amundsen, South Pole, 1911
Helmer Hanssen/Owner: Nat. Lib. NorwayHe met, Tuesday, with Jan-Gunnar Winther and Stein P. Aasheim, two of the four-man party from the Centenary Expedition to the South Pole retracing Amundsen’s route starting from his base camp at Whale Bay.
The over 700-kilometre journey inland took the men over the Ross Ice Shelf, up the Axel Heiberg Glacier, and on to the South Pole.
After several setbacks, the expedition started two weeks late on 1 November. Freezing temperatures of -30C and strong winds also slowed them down. The men had two days rest. Snow like “fish glue”, as Amundsen described it, added to their problems, NTB reports.
Prime Minister Stoltenberg had expressed doubts whether the men would arrive at the Pole in time. It became apparent yesterday this would not be accomplished. Both Norwegians were flown to the rendezvous, just 80 km from reaching their destination.
The others, Vegard Ulvang and Harald Dag Jølle continued their journey as planned and had 41 kilometres left to go on Tuesday evening. It is hoped they will reach the South Pole today, weather-permitting.
“This is not how I wanted to arrive at the South Pole. It’s nice to be here, but I would rather have come on skis,” said Stein Aasheim to NRK.
Members of one of the other expeditions in the area, using replicas of Amundsen’s clothes and equipment, also had to be flown the last 400 kilometres to the Pole by plane, Saturday, after suffering from high pulse-rates and the effects of high Himalayan altitudes.
Scientific research at the South Pole also formed part of Prime Minister Stoltenberg’s Antarctic programme. Visiting the US National Science Foundation-run Amundsen-Scott Base, which is hosting his visit, he was greeted by scientists studying CO2 emissions.
Oates, Bowers, Scott, Wilson, Evans, South Pole, 1912
Henry Bowers (1882-1912)/W. Commons“The US-Norwegian Antarctic Scientific Traverse [of East Antarctica] made some important discoveries in 2007. The Antarctic Continent has been changing more rapidly in recent years than at any time in the past 800. Some of the fastest and most widespread impacts of climate change appear first in the Polar Regions,” the PM said in his speech today.
“The loss of ice in Antarctica can have dramatic global effects. It is our common responsibility to save this planet for future generations. Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott were prepared to make an extraordinary effort in order to reach their ambitious goals. We must be prepared to do the same.”
Norway and the UK also work closely together on Polar research. Heather Lane, Librarian and Keeper of Collections at the University of Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute, told The Foreigner, “We are pleased and delighted to witness these 100th Centenary celebrations.”
“They raise the profile of Amundsen, Scott, as well as the history and attainment of the Pole. Focusing on what was happening 100 years ago also helps put focus on what is happening now,” she concluded.
The Institute, which has one of Amundsen’s marker flags that was collected by Scott’s British Antarctic Expedition party, is currently displaying an exhibition of manuscripts and photographs from Terra Nova.
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The Vajra is the quintessential symbol of Vajrayana Buddhism, which derives its name from the vajra itself. The Sanskrit term vajra means 'the hard or mighty one', and its Tibetan equivalent dorje means an indestructible hardness and brilliance like the diamond, which cannot be cut or broken. The vajra essentially symbolizes the impenetrable, immovable, immutable, indivisible, and indestructible state of enlightenment or Buddhahood. The form of the vajra as a scepter or a weapon appears to have its origin in the single or double trident, which arose as a symbol of the thunderbolt or lightning in many ancient civilizations of the Near and Middle East. Parallels are postulated with the meteoric hammer of the Teutonic sky-god Thor, the thunderbolt and scepter of the Greek sky-god Zeus, and the three thunderbolts of the Roman god Jupiter. As a hurled weapon the indestructible thunderbolt blazed like a meteoric fireball across the heavens, in a maelstrom of thunder, fire and lightning.
In ancient India, the vajra, as a thunderbolt, became the chief weapon of the Vedic sky-god Indra. It controlled the forces of thunder and lightning, breaking open the monsoon storm clouds, bringing the welcome rains to the parched plains of an Indian summer. According to legend, Indra's thunderbolt was fashioned from the bones of the great Rishi Dadhichi, who was decapitated by Indra in sacrifice. Dadhichi's 'indestructible' skull-bones gave Indra the most powerful of weapons. By its energy he slew innumerable of his enemy demons. In mythological descriptions, Indra's thunderbolt or vajra is shaped either like a circular discus with a hole at its center, or in the form of a cross with transverse bladed bars. The Rigveda, the most ancient text in the world, identifies the vajra as a notched metal club with a thousand prongs. What is significant is that all these descriptions identify the vajra as having open prongs, unlike the Buddhist one, which has closed prongs. According to a Buddhist legend, Shakyamuni took the vajra weapon from Indra and forced its wrathful open prongs together, thus forming a peaceful Buddhist scepter with closed prongs. The Buddhist vajra hence absorbed the unbreakable and indestructible power of the thunderbolt. The Buddhist vajra may be represented with one to nine prongs. It is designed with a central shaft that is pointed at each end. The middle section consists of two lotuses from which may spring, at each end, for example, six prongs of the dorje. Together with the projecting and pointed central shaft, each end thus becomes seven pronged. The outside six prongs face inwards towards the central prong. Each of these outside prongs arise from the heads of makaras (mythical crocodiles), which face outwards. The mouths of the makaras are wide open and the prongs emanate from the mouth like tongues of flame.
The vajra is generally two-sided but the vishvavajra or the double thunderbolt has four heads representing the four dhyani Buddhas of the four directions namely, Amoghasiddhi for north, Akshobhya, who presides over the east, Ratnasambhava, lord of the south, and Amitabha who reigns over the west. It is the emblem of the crossed vajra that is inscribed upon the metal base that is used to seal deity statues after they have been consecrated. The vajra is indeed the most important ritual implement and symbol of Vajrayana Buddhism. It is so important that many of the Vajrayana deities have the word vajra prefixed to their names, two of them being Vajradhara and Vajrasattva. When used in ritual, the vajra is paired with the bell. It represents the masculine principle and is held in the right hand, the bell, held in the left hand, represents the female principle. More on this follows.
GHANTA (THE BELL):
The bell is the most common and indispensable musical instrument in tantric Buddhist ritual. Gods and apotheosized lamas alike hold this popular symbol, along with the thunderbolt in their hands. The bell has an elemental function and its sound, like those made by the trumpet and the drum, is regarded as auspicious; it is said to drive away evil spirits. Like the church bell, the Buddhist hand bell sends the message to evil spirits that they must stay away from the consecrated area where the ritual is being performed.
As already mentioned, in ritual the bell is paired with the vajra. The vajra represents the compassion of the Buddha, the masculine principle; and the bell represents wisdom, the female principle. To achieve enlightenment, those two principles must be combined. The bell is visualized as the Buddha's body, the vajra is visualized as his mind, and the sound of the bell is visualized as Buddha's speech in teaching of the dharma.
USE OF VAJRA GHANTA:
The use of the bell and vajra differs according to the ritual performed or the sadhana chanted. The vajra can be used for visualization or evocation of deities; ringing the bell can be used to request protection or other actions from a deity, or it can represent the teaching of dharma, and can also be a sound offering. As one example of their use, during meditation on the deity Vajrasattva, the vajra is placed on the chest of the practitioner, meaning that Vajrasattva is brought to the meditator, and they become one and inseparable. Ringing the bell then represents the sound of Buddha teaching the dharma and symbolizes the attainment of wisdom and the understanding of emptiness. While chanting, the vajra is held in the right hand, which faces down, and the bell is held in the left hand, which usually faces up, and they are moved in graceful gestures. Sometimes the hands are held with the wrists crossed over each other, against the chest. This represents the union of the male and female principles.
The Bell and Vajra are probably the most identifiable tantric ritual items to Tibetan rituals. The Bell is known as Ghanta in Sanskrit or Dril-bu to Tibetans. It symbolizes female energy in the form of Wisdom expressed as "going beyond wisdom." The vajra is also known as Dorje in Tibetan, where it symbolizes male energy in the form of Method expressed as "compassion." They are inseparable companion pieces, with the bell held in the left hand and the vajra in the right. Used together, they can activate energy and clear a space of negative energies. The bell is used as a sonic focus for meditation, a cadence factor for mantra recitation, or a signal when the spirit of the Buddha has entered the ceremony. The vajra is added to all kinds of ritual implements to potentate them.
The Crossed Vajra, or Vishvavajra in Hindu, is known to Tibetans as the Double Dorje. It represents the principle of absolute stability. The thrones of high lamas are usually decorated on the front with the image of the crossed vajra. This emblem represents the indestructible reality of the Buddha's mind as the unshakable throne of enlightenment. Tibetans regard the double dorje as the symbol of that which is un impenetrable. It is used to adorn temple doors or entranceways as a Guardian. The symbol of the crossed vajra is often placed under the meditation cushion when a practitioner is on retreat. Like the vajra, the crossed vajra is forged with meteorite or "sky metal" to infuse the "void ness of space" into its alchemy.
VAJRA GHANTA WE OFFER:
We Offer varieties of Vajras and Ghantas in different of sizes and price range. Vajras and Ghantas we offer are of great quality at reasonable price. The fascinating and mystical ritual items "Vajra and Ghanta " are important in Buddhist religion. The Vajra Ghanta we offer are beautifully carved to give it meaning and look which looks extremely beautiful and produces perfect sound. Though simple yet great Vajra and Ghanta at reasonable price can be available in our stock. The Vajra and Ghanta are monastic ritual standard, made from mixture different of material or metal. Perfect sound and excellent quality ritual items from www.himalayanmart.com Since sound is the primary concern so to be the good Ghanta it has is to produce perfect sound therefore our Ghantas are selected and tested for a perfect sound and quality. All our Vajra(s) and Ghanta(s) are shipped within 12 hours of order received through DHL and reached to the customer within 5 to 6 business days after it is shipped. We also Have Vajra Ghanta Wholesale Option. Please Contact Us for detail. | <urn:uuid:d86d8425-0c87-4c71-aa04-42557c1d5259> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.himalayanmart.com/VajraGhanta.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946662 | 1,911 | 3.390625 | 3 |
When I went to Hampton Court last weekend, I didn't have time to visit the palace but did manage to snap a few chimneys. (I say a few because there are 241 in total!)
These chimneys were an integral part of the palace's design - although many are now Victorian replicas, since the soft red brick is vulnerable to weathering. Indeed, conservation is ongoing (read about it in detail here [PDF]).
Why were chimneys so important to the Tudors? They were a response to the increasing use of coal, which creates more smoke than wood. The fanciness of these examples was a way of showing Cardinal Wolsey's, and later Henry VIII's, wealth. Spiralling and fluted designs also kept them cooler - important given the limitations of tudor bricks. | <urn:uuid:9fc0133c-4605-4b39-b6ce-654937faf3ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://carolineld.blogspot.com/2009/05/hampton-court-chimneys.html?showComment=1243627606804 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986651 | 163 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Borderline Personality Disorder
Section Author: E. David Klonsky (University of British Columbia)
Borderline personality disorder refers to a longstanding pattern of unstable self-image, moods, relationships, and impulsive behaviors that usually begins in early adulthood. People with this disorder are typically unable to tolerate being alone, and their relationships tend to be unstable and intense. They also engage in risky and impulsive behaviors such as dramatic over-spending, having unsafe sex, or having sex with people they hardly know, abusing drugs or alcohol, driving recklessly, or binge-eating. It is not uncommon for people with this problem to physically hurt themselves (by cutting themselves, for example) or to try repeatedly to kill themselves. Individuals with borderline personality disorder also often experience severe mood swings, feelings of emptiness, and intense anger.
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (strong research support)
- Mentalization-Based Treatment (modest research support)
- Schema-Focused Therapy (modest research support)
- Transference-Focused Therapy (strong/controversial research support)
Note: Other psychological treatments may also be effective in treating Borderline Personality Disorder, but they have not been evaluated with the same scientific rigor as the treatments above. Many medications may also be helpful for Borderline Personality Disorder, but we do not cover medications in this website. Of course, we recommend a consultation with a mental health professional for an accurate diagnosis and discussion of various treatment options. When you meet with a professional, be sure to work together to establish clear treatment goals and to monitor progress toward those goals. Feel free to print this information and take it with you to discuss your treatment plan with your therapist. | <urn:uuid:9fdfd4bf-1b7f-4518-aad9-a31cf53e42b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.div12.org/PsychologicalTreatments/disorders/bpd_main.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936173 | 346 | 3.015625 | 3 |
“This was the best science fair yet!” - a common sentiment offered by teachers and students at the annual Don Corrie Science Fair, held at the Tehama County Department of Education on Friday, March 22.
Over 100 students from Tehama County’s Small Schools Consortium gathered to showcase their projects, from “Gross Moldy Mold” to “Building Skyscrapers.”
While projects were being judged by the panel, students participated in math and science workshops, hands on projects and mind boggling math scenarios. They also had the opportunity to view all of the projects and do peer evaluations.
“We received a lot of positive feedback from students, teachers and families,” said Lorna Manuel, Director of Educational Support Services. “This event is one we all look forward to every year as we get to help students really hone their scientific exploration and presentation skills.”
Awards were presented to the three top scoring projects in both grades 4-6 and 7-8. Students who placed in the 4-6th grade group were: 1st place – “Why Ruin Our Gelatin” by Dillion Towne & Trinity Kingwell; 2nd place – “Packing Materials” by Clyde Talley; 3rd place – “Fresh Meat” by Britini Wunsch & Jacob Alston. Awards in the 7-8th grade group were: 1st place – “Hot or Not” by Reyn Hutton and “Paw Preference” by Shelby Devita; nd place – “Bulls Eye” by Dartagnan Kingwell & Terry Adams; 3rd place – “Wonders of Rust” by Devin Wunsch & Isaac Gonzalez and “Got pH” by Morgan Mason & Jillian Wunsch.
A great big THANK YOU to all of the staff and volunteers who made the Don Corrie Science Fair possible:
Judges: Lorna Manuel, Jill Lyford, Ray Dinkel, Cathy Szychulda, Joan Allen and Fred Null, Jr.
Room monitors and helpers: Amy Hogun, Estelle Rocco, Bridget Minter and Debbie Kelly
Workshop presenters: Maureen Clements, Karen Hutton and Michelle Umrigar
Additional volunteers: April Farmer and Maria Diaz
Participating schools: Manton, Elkins, Reeds Creek, Kirkwood, Mineral, Flournoy, Plum Valley and eScholar | <urn:uuid:bb3600d1-b605-4494-b285-bc2ee1c2b9aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tehamaschools.org/hot-topics/public-hearing-budget-2012-2013 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944802 | 522 | 2.171875 | 2 |
I’ve seen a bunch of links to instructions on how to install the Vista “Upgrade” edition on a PC without an existing Windows partition, something that theoretically shouldn’t be allowed.
I can’t help but feel that this is nothing new—It reminded me of something a friend at Uni was told by Microsoft support 10 years ago.
After a catastrophic PC failure, he was reinstalling software. He had the Office 95 upgrade disc, which required you to insert the installation disk from an earlier version of one of the Office tools to “prove” that you were upgrading. Unfortunately, he’d left all the old disks at his parents’ house.
So, after calling round friends in something of a panic (there was no doubt a paper due) to see if anyone had an old office disk (no-one did), he called up Microsoft support to ask what he could do.
“Oh, when you’re asked to point to an old installation disk,” he was told, “just point it to the Office 95 disk you’re currently installing from. That will work.”
And it did. | <urn:uuid:b4fd416b-fd03-44bc-a7b0-bd05ee55e7c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://begbie.com/tag/microsoft/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968373 | 247 | 1.5 | 2 |
The M14 rifle isn’t something you’d really expect to see in a rundown of new military equipment. The M16 replaced the M14 in the 1960s as the Army’s standard rifle.
But this November 2003 article, which discusses the Rapid Fielding Initiative (RFI), explains how something so old can be new again:
Another historically proven addition using the RFI for the Stryker brigade is the 7.62 mm M14 rifle. According to SFC Myhre, the M14s allow squad designated marksmen a larger caliber rifle that will cover more area and provide capability that was only available in very limited numbers within the individual sniper sections.
The M14s, which are equipped with Leopold Mk IV scopes, are fielded at a rate of one per squad, with additional weapons going to specific slice elements within the brigade.
A January NYT article about snipers in the Stryker Brigade included
The sergeant drew a bead on the shooter with his weapon of choice, an M-14 rifle equipped with a special optic sight that has crosshairs and a red aiming dot.
It struck me as a little weird that an Army sniper was using an M14 instead of the standard-issue M24, M40 (which I believe is used more by the Marines than the Army) or the .50 caliber M82. Darren Kaplan wondered, too. I guess this answers our question. It could very well be that the “snipers” the NYT article (which, BTW is now only available for $$$ so I grabbed the one at FR) were really “just” sharpshooters in the standard squads and not sniper team specialists.
This also seems to answer the “Is the 5.56 NATO round sufficient?” question. Apparently it is not. At least not for everyone in the squad. This demonstrates, to me at least, that the Army is very serious about getting its troops what they need to prevail. I also believe that it demonstrates that sometimes older is better.
The next paragraph reads
At the same time that some Army units are looking back to the venerable M14, small arms planners are also looking forward, hoping to accelerate the fielding of future weapon technologies to tomorrow’s warfighters. A clear example of this can be seen in the recently announced acquisition of 200 Heckler & Koch XM8 assault rifles for test and evaluation beginning late this year.
This indirectly describes what the 20″ barreled “sharpshooter variant” of the XM8 is designed to do. The longer barrel will allow longer ranged and more deadly fire by some members of the squad, while leaving the majority of the men armed with the shorter, lighter “baseline carbine” model for regular close-quarters firefights. The only question is “Is that 5.56 round good enough for the job?” | <urn:uuid:f35f090f-362f-41fd-9651-532fc20297aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.murdoconline.net/archives/909.html/comment-page-1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958984 | 604 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Glossary of Terms
alloy: A homogeneous mixture, usually of two or more metal elements. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc.
alloy 230: A brass alloy which is 85% copper and 15% zinc. We currently carry tokens in alloy 230 in a variety of diameters. This alloy appears slightly "redder" than the alloy 260.
alloy 260: A brass alloy which is 70% copper and 30% zinc. This alloy is yellower in color than alloy 230. It is also known as 70/30.
antique: To apply a chemical to the surface of a coin in order to artificially "age" the coin. Antiquing coins prevents tarnishing. Every coin that is antiqued must be lacquered to protect the finish.
Augenstien: An engraving machine that automatically traces the image on a mold onto a die.
brass: An alloy of copper and zinc. The higher the copper content, the more expensive the brass will be. Brass with a higher copper content will tend to be redder in color than brass with lower copper content.
bronze: An alloy of copper zinc and sometimes tin, producing a deep reddish-brown color. We can approximate the color of bronze by antiquing a brass coin.
bucket: White plastic containers with lids used to ship tokens.
capsule: A round or square container (usually plastic) that snaps together and holds a coin or token. Capsules are usually used to preserve coins or tokens from oxidation and to make the presentation of the coin more impressive.
bill changer/token dispenser: A machine that makes change and/or dispenses tokens when currency is inserted.
coin blank: See planchet.
coin mechanism (mech): The part of a coin-operated machine (vending, arcade, or other) into which a coin or token drops. The mechanism either accepts the coin or token or rejects it. Coin mechanisms come in various levels of sophistication and operate based on the size of the coin. There are also coin mechs available that can distinguish between different alloys. We sell mechs for every size of coin we make up to and including 1.125", as well as a .984 & quarter combination mechanism, or combo mech.
combo mech: A coin mechanism that accepts both .984 tokens & quarters.
cradle: The part of a coin mechanism that "catches" the coin as it comes through the slot. Cradles can be replaced without replacing the coin mech. Sometimes referred to as a cradle arm
custom token or coin: A coin designed specifically for use by one customer, with the customer's name, logo, etc.
density: Density is the mass(M) divided by the volume(V) D=M/V. Density has a dimension of grams/cubic centimeter. Zinc is a lighter metal than copper because it has a lower density.
die: An engraved or etched tool, which is put into a coin press and impresses an image onto a coin blank. The image on the die is a negative impression of what will be struck on the coin.
element: A substance which has the same number of protons; the basic building block of the periodic chart.
engraving: A die-making process in which the design of a three dimensional die is mechanically traced from a pattern and cut into the surface of a die. Engraving can be done automatically, or manually.
face plate: The flat piece of metal or plastic on the front of a coin operated device (such as a vending machine or video game) that has a coin slot cut in it and covers the coin mech.
flip: Vinyl coin cover with 1 or 2 pockets. Tokens or coins are inserted and sealed in coin holders or vinyl flips to preserve them in a collection.
gauge: The thickness of a token. The lower the number, the thicker the token; e.g. 10 gauge is thicker than 15 gauge.
Janvier: An engraving machine that automatically traces the image on a mold onto a die.
nickel silver: See alloy 752.
obverse: The front of a coin.
pantograph: An engraving machine that a die-maker uses to trace a design or image manually onto a die.
patina: The discoloration of a metallic surface due to oxidation. See Antique.
planchet: A rimmed, round, flat metal shape (at Hoffman Mint, it is usually made of brass, although occasionally zinc or some other metal) used to make coin blanks.
proof: A coin that is struck several times on a highly polished planchet to obtain an extremely clear, lustrous finish.
reverse: The back of a coin.
riddle: To pass blanks through a specially made sieve in order to separate blanks of different diameters.
strike: To hit a coin blank with a die or dies to produce an image on the coin.
three-dimensional (high relief): A die or coin that consists of surfaces of varying heights, such as a United States coin. People's faces, intricate designs, etc., are usually three-dimensional or 3D.
zinc: Zinc is a metallic element which is a dull silver color. Zinc tokens should be plated with some other metal. Zinc tokens are about 13% in weight than brass tokens of the same size. | <urn:uuid:a99e70d1-7270-44e9-8719-b59133b58099> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hoffmanmint.com/glossary.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906291 | 1,137 | 2.40625 | 2 |
When Data Is A Matter Of Life Or Death
Healthcare analytics startup offers insights into how to develop the numbers when it counts for everything.
But what if they are? As they are for Ash Damle, the 35-year-old founder of an about-to-be launched, cloud-based, big data healthcare analytics company called MEDgle.
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Because MEDgle could make the difference between life and death, I found myself pestering Damle for details. I discovered what it takes to collect copious amounts of raw data from obscure journals and exotic databases and create sophisticated probability algorithms, while making it useful to help nurses, doctors and others diagnose, triage, and treat flesh-and-blood people.
Maybe seeing how MEDgle met the standards required by such high stakes will offer you some insights for developing, crunching, or using your own data more effectively, too.
[ Tech is having a major impact on healthcare. Read When Smart Mobile Technology Meets Good Science. ]
Damle was among about 200 entrepreneurs in San Francisco last week for a two-day Life Sciences Venture Summit. While the burgeoning opportunities in medtech lured most of those attending, Damle arrived no doubt at the behest of nature and nurture: His father is a pulmonary physician, his mother a pediatrician.
An only child, he grew up to the heartbeat of conversations about the common concerns shared by docs. He went off to MIT, earned degrees in computer science and mathematics, and started a search consultancy. Then began connecting dots to what he learned from the time he occupied a high chair.
Dot 1: The emergence of diagnostic tools--like WebMD's symptom checker.
Dot 2: The coming explosion of data spawned a growing number of medical devices and sensors hitting the market.
Dot 2 seemed particularly important because of a law of nature Damle identified. "If you have data," he said, "there's an inherent demand to do something with it."
As personality types go, Damle describes himself a clinician--curious about conditions, diseases, and their causes. As he began to survey the market, he knew, by temperament and training, there had to be better system to help healthcare pros determine what's ailing a patient.
So began what has since become a laborious five-year effort to build--and bulletproof--MEDgle, a name, by the way, created to suggest MEDicine's GooGLE. (Get it?)
It took so long for a good reason: MEDgle relies on an intricately branched decision-making tree, comprised of symptoms and the probabilities among their multitudinous relationships to each other. Damle has been trying, in effect, to replicate with software the same diagnostic intelligence, intuition and judgment exercised by TV's "House."
"Little did we know how much data is needed to mimic the human mind," Damle said.
Thus began the search for data. But, as in any data-based endeavor, quality isn't to be confused with quantity. To build MEDgle, Damle says he's relied on that programmer's adage--you know, GIGO, for garbage-in-garbage-out. (It is comforting that some things don't change.)
For input, he had to tap into a broad array of sources--medical journals, government statistics, and obscure rare-disease databases. Over time, he says, the company collected medical data from hundreds of sources. "We had no idea how much data it would take," he told me.
Of course, Damle and his engineers applied their own algorithms to the data, including a semantic search technology for which Damle says he'll soon receive a patent.
But patent or not, software programming smarts alone weren't up to this task. As Damle says, you can't finesse the outcomes to a system like MEDgle's by creating machine instructions. No matter how brilliantly conceived, the rules invariably result in unforeseen consequences--unacceptable in healthcare.
That led to a second laborious facet of developing MEDgle's big data analytics: Peer review. Over time, he had physicians--one of them his father--reviewing every output, to the tune of 20,000 hours. He didn't consider his results acceptable until the doctors said they were. Good enough wasn't good enough.
Damle says MEDgle is being used now by five beta customers. He offered me a glimpse at several demonstration applications for the platform. One could be used by a patient, another by a nurse at the end of phone line.
But the most intriguing of these was a mobile SMS service that resembles the back and forth between a physician and a patient. Though the exchange appears to be conversational, it's not. Using MEDgle's platform, the responses are prompted by answers, which prompt more questions prompted by the analytics-based probabilities, leading to more questions, and so on. (Click on the image to the right for an example.)
Damle says, in one deployment, the MEDgle platform slashed the time for an acute conditions diagnosis from 15 to eight minutes.
In the end, Damle believes he's working on a way to scale "hyper-personalized" healthcare--by enabling providers to make better decisions faster from anywhere, based on a data-driven model of an individual, who lives and could very well die.
Patrick Houston is the co-founder of MediaArchitechs. He's a former SVP for a new media startup, a GM at Yahoo, and editor-in-chief at CNET.com. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org.
Get the new, all-digital Healthcare CIO 25 issue of InformationWeek Healthcare. It's our second annual honor roll of the health IT leaders driving healthcare's transformation. (Free registration required.) | <urn:uuid:e9fe29bb-fe0d-40cd-8aea-7f5f74c25840> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/clinical-systems/when-data-is-a-matter-of-life-or-death/240002705?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Security_&_Privacy_healthcare&itc=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Security_&_Privacy_healthcare | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95843 | 1,295 | 1.765625 | 2 |
To my mind, there is no such objective thing as essence, at least in the sense of a soul, genius, augoeides, higher self, or other non-corporeal form of self-being. In relation to this, I also do not recognize different spiritual states. By that, I mean that any experience of a “spiritual state” is a purely psychological phenomenon. This is not a bad thing at all; in fact, I am a big proponent of seeking such experiences. But they are purely subjective—no one is “more spiritual” than another person in any essential, objective sense.
There is a reason I put these two things together, spiritual states and essence. Religious transformations have not been shown to change the fundamental nature of people—such experiences can often change things like attitudes, aims, and beliefs, but not personal capabilities, bio-psycho functioning (with a caveat given below), or personality (a la the Big Five). Rather, such transformations often are aimed not at the biopsychosocial self but at one’s essential self, frequently in terms of being “born again,” “initiated,” or “attained.” The idea of attaining to objective spiritual states is an ancient one, although it takes a good number of forms, depending on the model one is working within. It’s useful to remember that those models are all manmade. | <urn:uuid:62815de8-2eeb-4ea9-ad9d-9229121bb1c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sacredriver.org/tag/spirituality | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941559 | 299 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Ice hockey, by birth and upbringing a Canadian game, is an offshoot of field hockey. Some historians say that the first ice hockey game was played in Montreal in Dec. 1879 between two teams composed almost exclusively of McGill University students, but others assert that earlier hockey games took place in Kingston, Ontario, or Halifax, Nova Scotia. In the Montreal game of 1879, there were fifteen players on a side, who used an assortment of crude sticks to keep the puck in motion. Early rules allowed nine men on a side, but the number was reduced to seven in 1886 and later to six.
The first governing body of the sport was the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada, organized in 1887. In the winter of 1894–1895, a group of college students from the United States visited Canada and saw hockey played. They became enthusiastic about the game and introduced it as a winter sport when they returned home. The first professional league was the International Hockey League, which operated in northern Michigan in 1904–1906.
Until 1910, professionals and amateurs were allowed to play together on “mixed teams,” but this arrangement ended with the formation of the first “big league,” the National Hockey Association, in eastern Canada in 1910. The Pacific Coast League was organized in 1911 for western Canadian hockey. The league included Seattle and later other American cities. The National Hockey League replaced the National Hockey Association in 1917. Boston, in 1924, was the first American city to join that circuit. The league expanded to include western cities in 1967. The Stanley Cup was competed for by “mixed teams” from 1894 to 1910, thereafter by professionals. It was awarded to the winner of the NHL playoffs from 1926–1967 and now to the league champion. The World Hockey Association was organized in Oct. 1972 and was dissolved after the 1978–1979 season when the NHL absorbed four of the teams.
Rule changes have been implemented to steer the league from its violent reputation in order to better showcase the world's most talented stars.
Hockey, once considered a cold-weather sport, has increased its fan base to the southern and western part of the United States. In 1996, Florida and Colorado battled in the Stanley Cup Finals, the San Jose Sharks sold out all 41 of their home games, and the second team in two years (Winnipeg) migrated from Canada to the Southwest region of the U.S. (Phoenix).
The Nashville Predators joined the league in the 1998–1999 season. The 1999–2000 season introduced the Atlanta Thrashers and the 2000–2001 season saw the new Columbus Blue Jackets and the Minnesota Wild.
The collective agreement between the NHL and the NHL Players Association (NHLPA) expired on Sept. 15, 2004, and a lockout began. A major sticking point was the salary cap the league wanted and the NHLPA was adamantly against. After many bargaining sessions, the 2004–2005 season was finally canceled on Feb. 16, 2005. The NHL and NHLPA finally came to terms on July 22, 2005. Among the points agreed on was a 24% salary rollback on player contracts, renegotiating six-year contracts after the fourth year, upper and lower salary caps, and NHL participation in the Olympics. In an attempt to revitalize the game, new rule changes were also adopted, chief among them the adoption of the shootout, making tied games a thing of the past.
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:157f076b-5dc8-4305-8346-2efcebab36da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infoplease.com/ipsa/A0112673.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972991 | 716 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Amateur Radio and Innovation in Telecommunications Technology
Kevin McQuiggin, VE7ZD
School of Communication
Simon Fraser University, 2001
Click here to read a PDF version of my M.A. thesis
Throughout its history, amateur radio has made significant contributions to science, industry, and the social services. The economic and social benefit derived from amateur radio research has founded new industries, built economies, empowered nations, and saved lives.
Amateur radio represents a unique research and development (R&D) environment that cannot be duplicated in the labs or research parks of either industry or the government. Existing at the intersection of the social, economic, cultural and scientific spheres, amateur radio leverages this position to invent and innovate from unique perspective. Many now-commonplace communication technologies have their genesis in amateur radio.
However, the amateur radio service, or more specifically, the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum allocated to the activity, is under extreme pressure from the telecommunications industry. Recent exponential growth in commercial wireless communication systems has taxed existing commercial spectrum allocations, and industry is eager for expansion. Amateur radio spectrum is threatened. Ironically, many of the communication technologies used by these firms were initially developed within the field of amateur radio.
To justify their quest for additional spectrum, industry lobbyists portray amateur radio as an anachronism, and characterize amateur bands, particularly in the UHF and microwave region, as underutilized. On the contrary, innovative communications research within the hobby is alive and well, and many of these new amateur projects utilize the higher-frequency bands sought after by industry. There is commercial interest in some of the new technologies currently under development within amateur radio, and amateur radio continues to contribute to the state of the radio art.
Therefore, amateur radio must be supported by government and the telecommunications industry it helped create, so that it may continue to innovate and serve as a source of creativity for both technological and social change as we move forward into the twenty-first century.
Thesis copyright 2001 by Kevin McQuiggin. National Library of Canada AMICUS No. 27222813; ISBN: 0612818934
Thanks for visiting and 73! | <urn:uuid:70da2623-ee91-4524-b9ce-09d33e68dc52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48&Itemid=55 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928215 | 442 | 2.3125 | 2 |
...because it’s fast, fun, and cheap. Bicycling is healthy for you and the planet. Berkeley has more than 15 miles of designated bike routes, lanes, and paths plus more than 100 miles of quiet residential streets for peaceful routes to most destinations. Why not get your helmet and go?
Berkeley’s Bicycle Program
The City of Berkeley is working to make cycling as safe and convenient as possible. Plans include an increased number of bikeways, a new network of Bicycle Boulevards (bicycle priority streets), more bicycle parking, a bike bridge over the freeway, and new bike safety and promotion programs. The Bicycle Subcommittee of the Transportation Commission is involved in the planning of these facilities and programs. Meetings are held every month and are open to the public. Past meeting agendas and minutes are available on the Transportation Commission page of this website. For further information, questions, or comments, email or call the Transportation Division at (510) 981-7010.
Bicycling also helps the City of Berkeley meet its Climate Action Plan goals by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and creating a healthy and sustainable community. Check out the transportation and land use targets of the Climate Action Plan and our progress towards reaching them. For more information about other Climate Action Plan goals see: www.cityofberkeley.info/climate
Key Phone Numbers
City of Berkeley
|Report Road Hazards/ Potholes
|Report Stolen Bikes
|Bicycle Safety and Education
|Telecommunications Device for the Deaf
|Report Road Hazards
|Report Stolen Bikes
Bicycle Advocacy and Community Resources
Local Bike Riding Groups
Bicycle Commute Resources
UC Berkeley Bicycle Commuting Resources
511 promotes alternatives to single occupant auto commuting. They have bicycle resources for the whole Bay Area including a “bike buddy” matching service for new or experienced bicyclists. Call 511 for more information.
Bikes on Transit
It is easier than ever to take your bicycle on BART—no permit is required. Bikes are allowed on all but the lead car. They are allowed on the Fremont/Richmond line at all hours. Some lines have restrictions on weekdays 6:30am - 9:00am and 3:30pm - 6:30pm. Bicycles are never allowed on escalators and should never be ridden in the stations. Bicyclists must be at least 14 years old or else accompanied by an adult. For more details, pick up a BART Schedule and a “Bikes on BART Guide” at any BART station, or call (510) 464-7133.
AC Transit has bike racks on all buses that run through Berkeley and most buses in its service area. Racks hold only two bikes and you must wait for the next bus if they are full.
NOTE: Folding bicycles are allowed on ALL transit systems during ALL operating hours.
511 also has information about bikes on transit.
Avoiding Bicycle Theft
Bicycle theft is a serious problem in Berkeley, but if you follow this advice you’ll stand a much better chance of holding onto your bike:
High quality U-locks are among the most theft resistant. These locks are most secure if you can fill the space within the U.
A good lock is worthless if you don’t use it properly. Always take a few extra seconds after locking-up to make sure you didn’t make a silly error, like not looping through the frame or not closing the lock all-the-way. These are common mistakes!
Always lock your frame to something that cannot be moved or disassembled.
Many people have their quick-release wheels and seats stolen. Wheels are most secure when locked with a U-Lock, but a cable will also help deter theft.
Secure your bike at home. Many bikes are stolen from houses, garages, & back yards.
Old & ugly bikes are less likely to be stolen than flashy expensive bikes. Consider buying a cheap, used bike for shorter trips around town.
Register your bike with the police. This makes it more likely that you will get it back if it is stolen and recovered. For more information, call (510) 981-5750.
Record your bike’s serial number (printed on the bottom of your frame). In case of theft, the serial number helps police positively identify a bike. | <urn:uuid:41e3bb5c-53d4-46ab-877e-791825705449> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=6580 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908743 | 909 | 2.390625 | 2 |
Caught Napping (Boys Caught Napping in a Field)
Along with landscape paintings, "narrative" pictures—which offered a readable story—became immensely popular in the pre-Civil War era, as Americans began to fashion more images of themselves. William Sidney Mount, one of the leading painters of such works, completed this scene of lazy boys for the New Yorker George Washington Strong, for whom it represented a childhood memory. The theme of country boyhood subsequently became one of the most popular subjects for American narrative painters after the Civil War, when urban centers increasingly drew people away from their native rural environments. Unlike those later versions, which tended to be sentimentally sweet, Mount portrayed these boys as mischievous, with due punishment approaching in the form of their father. Mount's insertion of the goat's skull on the tree also signaled the considerable risks incurred by the neglect of their duties.
- Artist: William Sidney Mount, American, 1807-1868
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dates: 1848
- Dimensions: 29 1/16 x 36 1/8 in. (73.8 x 91.7 cm) (show scale)
- Signature: Signed lower left: "Wm. S. MONNT [sic] / 1848"
- Collections:American Art
- Museum Location: This item is on view in American Identities: A New Look, Everyday Life/A Nation Divided, 5th Floor
- Accession Number: 39.608
- Credit Line: Dick S. Ramsay Fund
- Rights Statement: No known copyright restrictions
- Caption: William Sidney Mount (American, 1807-1868). Caught Napping (Boys Caught Napping in a Field), 1848. Oil on canvas, 29 1/16 x 36 1/8 in. (73.8 x 91.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 39.608
- Record Completeness: Best (83%) | <urn:uuid:8452ae31-9fcb-45ff-a9a7-22623f939952> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/492/Caught_Napping_Boys_Caught_Napping_in_a_Field/right_tab/tags/community/posse/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916587 | 412 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Q: My wife and I are both Catholics and are expecting our first child in three months. Our parish requires all parents who want their baby baptized to attend an evening class, which conflicts with my work-schedule. Otherwise they told us we cannot have our baby baptized. But both my parents and my in-laws have told us that they never had to attend any such class before we were baptized! Why do we have to do this? The pastor knows us, and can see that we regularly attend Mass on Sundays. Does he have the right to refuse to baptize our baby if we don't attend this class? — Tony, Annapolis, MD
A: In our last discussion on May 24, we saw that according to canon 843.1, Catholics have the right to receive the sacraments if they opportunely ask for them, are properly disposed, and are not prohibited by law from receiving them. On the surface, therefore, it would appear that your pastor may not refuse to baptize your child if you sincerely wish it.
But with every right comes a corresponding obligation, and this right to receive the sacraments is no exception. Canon 843.2 states that pastors of souls have the duty to ensure that those who ask for the sacraments are prepared for their reception. In the case of parents who present their infant child for baptism, it is the parents who must be adequately prepared, as they are asking for a sacrament on behalf of another person who is too young to request it for himself.
What is the primary purpose of baptizing an infant? The Catechism of the Catholic Church notes that Christ Himself affirmed that baptism is necessary for salvation (CCC 1257), and that even innocent children, who are born with original sin, need baptism to be freed from the power of darkness and to become children of God (CCC 1250). Since canon law follows theology, it should not be surprising that this teaching also appears in the Code of Canon Law, as canon 849. Parents should want their children baptized because they want them to be freed from original sin, and made members of the Church.
But unfortunately, in many cases nowadays, parents who ask for their children's baptism do so for cultural reasons rather than spiritual ones. Too often, religiously indifferent parents ask for their child's baptism merely because they are being pressured by their own parents to have their child baptized. In some cultures, the celebration of an infant's baptism is an important social event, quite separate from its religious significance, and baptism is for this reason requested by parents who no longer practice their Catholic faith themselves. In such cases the spiritual importance of this sacrament is being lost.
The Church seeks to avoid situations in which a child is baptized a Catholic, but then, due to the negligence and indifference of his parents, is not raised to practice the Catholic faith. For this reason canon 868.1 n.2 notes that for a child to be baptized, there must be a realistic hope that he will be brought up in the Catholic religion. If such hope is lacking, the baptism is to be deferred — and if, at some point in the future, the parents can provide grounds for hope that their infant will in fact be raised as a Catholic, the priest may then proceed with the baptism.
This requirement routinely presents practical problems for pastors who are faced with non-practicing Catholic parents seeking baptism for their children. A priest is obliged by law to determine that there is reason to believe that somehow the child will in fact be raised Catholic, or else he must tell the parents that their baby may not be baptized. At the same time, denying the parents' request requires great pastoral sensitivity and tact, since a priest does not want to drive such parents away from the Church for good.
Deciding what constitutes a "realistic hope" that the child will be raised Catholic is often a difficult judgment call, and sincere priests may at times differ about what to do in a particular case. It cannot be automatically assumed that there is no hope of the child's Catholic upbringing simply because the parents themselves are less than perfect Catholics. For example, the fact that the child's parents were not married in the Catholic Church, or perhaps are not even married at all, may not necessarily indicate that they have no intention of raising their child as a Catholic. God alone knows whether, in some cases, the decision of lapsed-Catholic parents to educate their children in the Catholic faith may actually bring about a return to the Church on the part of the parents themselves! Over the years, some pastors have told me that they feel that the mere fact that such parents phone the rectory to arrange a baptism, is in itself an indication that they have not totally severed their connection with the Church, and constitutes a reasonable hope that they will bring up their child as a Catholic. Others will disagree, wanting to see stronger evidence that the baptism is not simply being sought to please other family members, or to satisfy social expectations.
To avoid confusion and inconsistency, it has become the norm for US dioceses to require parishes to hold mandatory classes for parents requesting infant baptism, in order to ensure that (1) all parents truly understand the spiritual obligations that their child's baptism will place on them, and (2) the pastor may have the opportunity to determine whether it may be unrealistic to hope that the children of the parents attending the class will be raised as Catholics. The development of these classes no doubt took place after you and your wife were baptized, which explains why your own parents were not required to take one. Attending such a class, and participating in it, shows your pastor that you are properly disposed for the baptism of your child; adamantly refusing to attend it may be interpreted as a sign that you are not.
Keep in mind that, while you may have a right to have your baby baptized, your pastor simultaneously has an obligation to ensure that the sacraments are celebrated properly in his parish. In fact, canon 851 n.2 notes that the pastor is required to see to it that the parents of a child who is to be baptized are suitably instructed on the meaning of this sacrament and the obligations connected with it. A mandatory class is an obvious way to do this.
It may require some inconvenience and sacrifice to make arrangements to leave your workplace in order to attend the class. But given the tremendous spiritual importance of the sacrament of baptism to your child, surely it will be well worth it! | <urn:uuid:e02fe883-0947-43f1-9746-13b53d1875a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://catholicexchange.com/why-do-we-need-baptismal-classes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978599 | 1,318 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Talk early, talk often is a big phrase this year for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. An idea born in a workgroup meeting last June is now the call to action of our campaign. We are asking adults to play a role in supporting healthy children by breaking through silence and opening up communication. Talking early, talking often is also how we want to approach sharing the SAAM campaign. Sure, it’s not April yet, but sexual violence prevention is a year-round priority and the conversation needs to be on going. That’s why we’re excited to build some energy for SAAM 2013 by sharing the following “Talking early, talking often” tools.
Each week leading up to April, NSVRC will release one page of the collect all four poster series. Collect all four pages to make one large poster for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Posters will be available in English and Spanish. Coming soon: Poster 1 will be available for download the week of March 2.
The “Talk early, talk often” series on the SAAM blog launched in January, and we are excited to share insights on healthy childhood development leading up until April. We are excited for the line up of experts and voices that will add to the series. So far it's been exciting to reflect on mothering, challenge street harassment and engage with parents.
Clear your calendar on Tuesday afternoons in April for Tweet about it! Tuesdays. Join NSVRC and partners on Twitter each Tuesday in April from 2-3pm EST (1pm CST / 11am PST) for #SAAM. Be on the lookout for the chat series schedule and instructions for participating.
Posts for FB and Twitter
Social networking is a great way to connect with your network and community, and it’s also a great way to participate in SAAM. Have you checked out the resources for this year’s campaign? If you are on Facebook and Twitter or just want to spread the word, be sure to use this tool to Start the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.
It’s hard for us to contain our excitement for SAAM 2013, and we hope you can’t either! It’s never too soon to start talking early and often. Raise your voice! | <urn:uuid:3c8e6044-3651-4bcb-9ce9-988826ce65b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nsvrc.org/blogs/saam/get-talking | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946701 | 467 | 1.953125 | 2 |
Mon May 28, 2012
For Future Energy, Volcanic Indonesia Bets On Heat
Originally published on Mon May 28, 2012 10:30 pm
Indonesia, the country with the world's largest number of active volcanoes, is betting that all the hot rocks will provide a clean and reliable energy source for the future.
The country is believed have 40 percent of the world's geothermal energy resources. But making geothermal energy economically feasible will require adjusting the country's heavily subsidized energy prices. And that issue is a political hot potato.
Steam is visible from miles away as it billows into the sky over Kawah Kamojang, Indonesia's first geothermal field in West Java. Some of the steam is piped into a plant, where it turns turbines and generates electricity that is fed into the national power grid. It's is run by the geothermal arm of the state-owned oil company Pertamina.
"This area," explains plant manager Tavip Dwikorianto, "used to be a volcano that erupted and collapsed, forming a large crater. Heat comes up from faults inside the crater. The heat is released through vents and hot springs around the crater."
In many spots near the Kamojang plant, boiling hot water with the sulfurous smell of rotten eggs gushes from the ground.
Indonesia has around 130 active volcanoes, strung out through the archipelago. At present, Indonesia is only using about half a gigawatt of its estimated potential of 28 gigawatts of geothermal energy. That potential is roughly equivalent to 12 billion barrels of oil.
Until 1996, Indonesia produced more oil than it could consume, so there was little incentive to invest in geothermal, and it is still cheaper to produce electricity by burning oil or coal.
Return On Investment
Slamet Riadhy, CEO of Pertamina Geothermal, says his company will only invest in building up capacity if the price is right.
"It takes very little money to operate a plant to produce geothermal power," he says. "But it requires huge investments up front. The price has to be high enough to help us recover that and give us a return on our investment of more than 10 percent."
Riadhy says geothermal in Indonesia is now poised to take off. The government is preparing to introduce feed-in tariffs that will make the price of geothermal more competitive with fossil fuels, and Pertamina plans to double or triple its geothermal capacity in the next five years.
Last year, geothermal accounted for most of the billion dollars of investment in renewable energy sources in Indonesia, a 520 percent year-on-year increase, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts. This month, Indonesia's State Investment Agency announced it will spend $367 million on new geothermal projects in the near term.
New Zealand geothermal consultant Mike Allen, who helped build Pertamina's Kamojang facility nearly three decades ago, says that private energy companies are now lining up to invest in Indonesian geothermal, which is currently dominated by state-owned firms like Pertamina.
"I think that the private sector input is valuable because it's going to give the opportunity for work to be done by commercially savvy groups, who perhaps can do things a little bit cheaper and faster than the state-owned enterprises would able to do, so I think it will bring some balance into the market," Allen says.
It's hard to make money in Indonesia's energy market because prices for oil, kerosene and electricity are all heavily subsidized by the government, which sets prices based in part on political considerations, including social stability.
On April 1, police in downtown Jakarta fired tear gas on thousands of demonstrators who were protesting government plans to reduce fuel subsidies by a third. In the end, the government relented and shelved the planned cuts.
At the equivalent of about $1.90 a gallon, Indonesia's gas is the cheapest in Asia. Critics point out that the government now spends about 2 percent of GDP on fuel subsidies, more than it spends on roads and other infrastructure.
They also note that the biggest beneficiaries of this subsidy are those who burn the most fuel: the rich. Geothermal could help this problem by generating electricity which could then be used to power urban mass transit for everyone.
Whatever energy mix Indonesia chooses, says Allen, geothermal provides a good, steady supply, which unlike solar or wind, doesn't depend on the weather.
"It just runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week," he says. "It provides you a good underlying input of energy which doesn't exist in Indonesia at the moment; that has to come from coal or oil."
Renewables, Allen points out, can't meet all of the energy needs of Indonesia's rapidly developing economy. But he says they'll make an important contribution without emitting a lot of greenhouse gases, of which Indonesia is already the world's third largest emitter after China and the U.S. | <urn:uuid:3797ca32-4ec7-46a2-8336-c071e3b020b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kasu.org/post/future-energy-volcanic-indonesia-bets-heat | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954277 | 1,027 | 2.640625 | 3 |
SMS and social media platforms, like the Text to Change platform, have become major conduits through which lives can be saved. On Sunday, 11th December 2011, the life of a Dutch woman in Kampala was saved, thanks to a very efficient emergency response from the Dutch embassy and Text to Change.
The woman who was doing a medical internship in Tanzania and visiting friends in Uganda was involved in a serious accident in Kampala from which she sustained severe injuries, fractures and a serious loss of blood. She was transferred to a clinic from where it was discovered that she was in dire need of blood, a rare blood type, O negative. Therefore, the Dutch embassy in Kampala and Text to Change sent out an emergency SMS to the Dutch community with a request to help donate this rare blood type in order to save the woman’s life. In addition to the SMS, a message was posted on several Facebook pages. This combination of media made the news spread rapidly and within a period of one hour, almost 20 people contacted the clinic and within several hours the woman received blood from 4 fellow Dutch people. The clinic has a database of donors, but on this day there were not enough donors with the rare blood type available within or near Kampala.
The 4 donors appeared to be sufficient to stabilize the woman’s life making it secure for her to be transferred to a hospital in Nairobi in neighboring country Kenya for further treatment. At the moment she is still in Nairobi, awaiting transfer to the Netherlands. She's severely wounded and has a complicated fracture but she's stable. Our thoughts go out to the woman, her friends and family!
This action proves the enormous power of communication tools like social media and SMS, as being effective and readily available tools to save lives. The Dutch Embassy and Text to Change launched the emergency SMS platform just before election in February 2011, to inform the Dutch community about riots and possible unrest in Uganda. | <urn:uuid:6a0a1ff4-73a2-4194-bc27-3fbac7e93662> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.texttochange.org/news/sms-and-social-media-save-life-dutch-woman-uganda | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972188 | 395 | 1.96875 | 2 |
May 7, 2013 1:00:00 PM
End: May 17, 2013 7:30:00 PM
Location: various venues, UCL Bloomsbury Campus More...
The panel investigates shifts in the role of the Holocaust in European public debates in the recent past. Contrasting developments in Poland, Germany, and Great Britain, we will identify common threads as well as differences in perceiving, presenting, memorizing the mass murder of European Jewries.
The Yiddish Forverts has recently published a report from the Graduate Student Conference on ‘Jewish Spirituality in Eastern Europe – a Textual Perspective,’ held at the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, UCL on 6-7 June, 2012. The article, authored by conference participant Adi Mahalel (Columbia University), is available online on the website of the Forverts: http://yiddish.forward.com/node/4589 More...
Over a period of three years, the Hebrew and Jewish Studies Department at UCL has been cooperating in a research project devoted to 'Cultural Continuitiy in the Diaspora: Paris and Berlin in 1917-1937', based at the Department of European Studies and Modern Languages, University of Bath, and in cooperation with the Centre for European and International Studies at the University of Portsmouth. The project had been funded by the Leverhulme Trust Academic Collaboration-International Network scheme. Among the initiators of the project had been the late John D. Klier. More...
The Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at UCL is pleased to announce plans for an International Graduate Student Conference, devoted to explorations of multiple aspects of Jewish spirituality in Eastern Europe, to be held on 5th and 6th of June 2012 in London. The conference organizers invite graduate students and recent PhD holders to submit their proposals. We welcome presentations addressing any aspect of the religious history and religious culture of Eastern European Jewry, with an emphasis on their textual products. We are particularly interested in proposals which open up new perspectives and pose new questions regarding conceptual frameworks and traditional definitions used to describe Eastern Europe in the field of Jewish Studies. Topics may include:
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Students currently enrolled in the Department on either a graduate or undergraduate course can find information on their course below.
Student Essentials - All you need is....
Right here below. The links below will provide you with all the information necessary, from essay essentials to information on spending a year abroad and much more. Please comb through these links carefully as you will find that they answer most, if not all your questions. But should you have any further queries, please do get in touch with us and we will be happy to help.
All BA degrees are taught and examined on the course-unit system, in which a student normally takes four units a year. Examinations are taken at the end of each year, and most courses have an essay component, or are assessed by essay work alone. Language courses are assessed by coursework, an oral component and exams.
The department offers four BA Honours degree programmes:
- BA Hebrew & Jewish Studies Q480
- BA Jewish History V290
- BA Jewish Studies Q481
- BA History (Central and East European) and Jewish Studies VV23
In the first year, students for both the Hebrew & Jewish Studies and Jewish History degrees (unless exempted) study Introduction to Classical Hebrew, Modern Hebrew for Beginners, and a Survey of Jewish History and Culture (2 units). These together make up the four units required in the first year.
Of the remaining units required after the first year, one per year may be drawn from adjacent fields (such as Egyptology, archaeology, European history or indeed from any other subject taught by UCL or elsewhere within the University of London, by arrangement with the relevant department) and the rest from the range of options available.
All students are required to take some language and text courses within the department. The minimum requirement is five course units for the BA in Hebrew & Jewish Studies and three for the BA in Jewish History.
The normal length of each degree programme is four years, though students who on entry have a good knowledge of Hebrew, defined as comparable to the Advanced Modern Hebrew course (HEBR7304) demonstrated by examination in the middle of the second year, may be permitted to complete it in three years.
The department offers a combined-studies degree with the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, for which SSEES is the admitting institution. The degree is entitled BA History (Central and East European) and Jewish Studies.
Undergraduate students can also study in the department as either:
The Professor Chimen Abramsky Scholarship has been established through a generous donation from an alumnus of the UCL Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies. The scholarship will provide financial support to an outstanding UK undergraduate student in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies. One scholarship will be awarded in 2013 subject to successful applications. For more information, click here: Professor Chimen Abramsky Scholarship
The Master of Arts (MA) degree in the department is a self-standing degree, but may also serve as preparation for the research degrees of MPhil and PhD. The MA is appropriate either for students with a broad undergraduate background in this area who wish to focus their knowledge more closely, or for students with a different undergraduate experience who wish to make progress in the areas of Hebrew, Yiddish, Semitic or Jewish Studies.
The Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies runs four MA programmes, which are pathways of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities MA in Language, Culture and History. The four pathways are:
- MA in Hebrew & Jewish Studies
- MA in Holocaust Studies
- MA in Modern Israeli Studies
- MA in Jewish History
The MA programme, which begins in September, is one calendar year in length, or two years if taken part-time. Although it contains an element of research work, the MA is primarily a taught degree, which means that students attend courses which they select from amongst all the courses taught in the department in any given year. Candidates also write a dissertation, based on an independent research project. They are examined on all this work at the end of the academic year.
The majority of classes in the department are open to advanced undergraduates as well as graduates. In such classes, known as "non-dedicated-classes", graduates are required to submit a piece of written work, to be marked, returned and discussed with the student.
Under exceptional circumstances, members of the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies can direct the research projects (towards either the MPhil or PhD degrees) of students who are not resident in the United Kingdom.
Further information on postgraduate study is contained in the links below.
If you have studied at UCL for more than three months then you are a member of
the UCL Alumni Network. For information on everything that is available
to former students of UCL you can visit the website (www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni) of UCL Alumni
At the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, we want to ensure that our students have the best possible education at UCL. You can help us to provide this by making a gift to the Department. All donations will be used to support our students. Past donations have included the provision of bursaries for students on their Year Abroad.
The Department keeps in touch with its alumni. We send our twice-yearly Departmental Newsletter to all HJS alumni, either by post or by email. If you would like to contribute to an edition, please email your article, together with your name and years of study, to firstname.lastname@example.org.
We also invite alumni to departmental events during the academic year.
Reference Request Form
Non-degree students are eligible to participate in Hebrew and Jewish Studies courses through UCL’s Continuing Education programme. Continuing Education students will not receive accreditation.
Information on how to apply, course fees and information can be found at: | <urn:uuid:53bf911b-7768-45d3-970d-c23a630b6219> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ucl.ac.uk/hebrew-jewish/students | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946065 | 1,670 | 1.789063 | 2 |
The English program is ideal for students who like to read, write, and think critically and creatively. The English major is for people who are curious about what it means to be human and are concerned about the increasingly complex moral issues that confront human society. And, the English major is for those who want to make all these interests part of their lives and their professions. English majors want to make a difference, to have an impact on the world.
Designed to develop graduates who think creatively and critically and who communicate well, the English major is an excellent foundation for the future lawyer, doctor, business executive, librarian, social worker, or teacher. Combined with appropriate minors, it is a sound preparation for careers in television, radio, journalism, advertising, public relations, public service, merchandising, and computer programming.
Graduates of the Mount Marty College English program are found today in most of these fields. They have been supported in their career development by faculty who take pride not only in offering an excellent academic program but also in seeing that each graduate is well positioned in graduate study or a career.
English majors will choose to concentrate on courses in composition and language or in literature. Composition and language involves the study of history and structure of English, different dialects, literary styles, phonetics and rhetoric, and courses in expository writings as well as fiction, poetry, and technical writing. The literature concentration focuses on literature courses, British and American literature, and drama, mythology, and poetry.
In order to teach English in secondary schools, the requirement for teacher certification will need to be completed. Through a cooperative program with the University of South Dakota, students accepted for a Master's degree program in English at the University may complete up to 50 percent of their course work in approved courses at Mount Marty College. | <urn:uuid:dacf816f-c233-4faf-8f07-6753ec3a9d5c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mtmc.edu/academics/programs/eng.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967155 | 367 | 2.4375 | 2 |
DALLAS — Teresa Needham may not have loved her dog more than most. But when 10-year-old Tiffin was diagnosed with cancer, she was willing and able to do more than most to save his life.
She flew the dog to a veterinary hospital in Los Angeles specializing in a blood treatment that can cure lymphoma in dogs.
The procedure is a bone marrow transplant that uses the animal's own healthy cells and radiation to beat the cancer.
“We thought that if we don't do everything that's out there that there is to do, I don't think I could live with myself knowing that there could've been something that could've saved him,” Needham said.
At first, the doctors said the risks for Tiffin were too high for this rare procedure. They said Tiffin was too small to survive, and his other health problems — including diabetes — made it too complicated.
But the Needhams insisted. And it's a good thing, because Tiffin survived the surgery.
He came home to Dallas on Thanksgiving, and so far, is doing well.
Most of Tiffin's hair is gone, though it will slowly grow back. And now, instead of a life expectancy of weeks or months, he may now have years.
Dr. Johnny Chretin of West Los Angeles Animal Hospital said this little dog taught some big lessons. "It is possible to do little animals," he said. "Just because they have other diseases, it's not a reason to not offer it to them.”
But it's an offer, for many pet owners, that's not realistic. The procedure requires a two-week hospital stay and can cost up to $19,000.
So why did Teresa Needham spend so much money on the care of her pet?
"Because we love him,” she said.
For the Needhams, there's no putting a price on that. | <urn:uuid:dc78696b-dded-46c5-9e4c-1a51fc84b116> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wfaa.com/news/entertainment/pets/Costly-cancer-treatment-gives-Dallas-dog-new-leash-on-life-112641864.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979292 | 401 | 1.984375 | 2 |
Thanatos (Death, just an ephebe resembling Eros). 8403: Sculptured marble column drum 325-300 BC. Found at the south-west corner of the later temple of Artemis at Ephesos. British Museum, London.
"Death comes alike to the idle man and to him that works much." (Achilles to Odysseus. Homer, Iliad 9.320).
"Ah, Hector, you have brought utter desolation to your parents. But who will mourn you as I shall? Mine is the bitterest regret of all, for at your death you did neither stretch out your hands to me from your bed, nor speak to me any word of wisdom that I might have treasured in my tears by night and day." (Andromache. Homer, Iliad 24.740).
"Death is the only God that loves not bribes ..." (Aristophanes, Frogs 1393).
"Your thoughts reach higher than the air;
You dream of wide fields' cultivation.
The homes you plan surpass the homes
That men have known, but you do err,
Guiding your life afar.
But one there is who'll catch the swift,
Who goes a way obscured in gloom,
And sudden, unseen, overtakes
And robs us of our distant hopes—
Death, mortals' source of many woes."
(The actor Neoptólemos. Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 16.92.3).
"I win greater honor when the victims are young." (Thanatos to Apollo. Euripides, Alcestis 55).
"Death is a debt which all of us must pay." (Mycenaean women to Electra 2. Sophocles, Electra 1173).
Sancho Panza: "No es segador, que duerme las siestas; que a todas horas siega, y corta así la seca como la verde yerba; y no parece que masca, sino que engulle y traga cuanto se le pone delante..." (Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quijote de la Mancha, Segunda Parte, Capítulo XX).
Sancho Panza: "... he is no mower that takes a nap at noon-day, but drives on, fair weather or foul, and cuts down the green grass as well as the ripe corn: he is neither squeamish nor queasy-stomached, for he swallows without chewing, and crams down all things into his ungracious maw ..." (Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, Part II, Chapter XX).
Thanatos is Death, often remembered as the older
brother of Hypnos, who
imitates him. Thanatos' power only affects mortals,
for the gods, being immortal, cannot be influenced
by him. On account of this, Thanatos endures the
hate of mortals and the immortals' rejection.
The twin brothers take care of Sarpedon 1
These twin brothers, Hypnos and Thanatos, are the swift conveyers who took Sarpedon 1 to Lycia, where his kinsfolk would give him burial with mound and pillar. Zeus had granted his son Sarpedon 1 life for three generations, but his time was up when he came to the Trojan War with an
army of Lycians, and he was killed by Patroclus 1. Zeus then bade Apollo to cleanse the blood from Sarpedon 1's body in the streams of a river, anoint him with ambrosia, and after clothing him about with immortal raiment, give him to Hypnos and Thanatos, so
that they speedily should set him in Lycia, which
Thanatos, in bringing death, is often followed
by the fates of death or Keres, who are called
hounds of Hades, and are
Death-spirits, devourers of life. Thanatos, they
say, is subject to the MOERAE, who are the three
sisters who decide on human fate; and as everybody
has a portion in life, the individual fate (moira)
is usually present when Thanatos comes to fetch a
Thanatos may come at any time, but his
intervention in the case of Alcestis, who died a
vicarious death in the place of her husband, is one
of his most memorable. For Apollo had obtained a
special favor of the MOERAE, which was that when Admetus 1 should be about to die, he might be released from death if someone should choose voluntarily to die for him. Thanatos then fetched Alcestis instead of her
Nyx and her children Hypnos and Thanatos. 3726: Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, 1751-1829: Die Nacht mit ihren Kindern Schlaf und Tod 1790-91. Landesmuseum Oldenburg, Das Schloß.
Thanatos claims fair play
However, the gods of the Underworld dislike
this curtailing and anulling their prerrogatives,
and consequently Thanatos did not approve of Apollo's manipulations,
and called them trickery. And when Thanatos came to
fetch Alcestis, Apollo tried to persuade
him to wait and grant her a long life. But
Thanatos, being ruthless, refused. Heracles 1, however,
took Alcestis from him
by force, but later, when his own time came, he
could not defend himself:
"For not even
the mighty Heracles escaped Death, dear as he was to Zeus ..." (Achilles to
Thetis. Homer, Iliad 18.116).
Death is hated by mortals, who call him black,
evil, and grievous. For they think that darkness
will enfold them when Death lays his heavy hands on
them. Although Thanatos may come first in Old Age, mortals still call him swift, and his arrival is often regarded as unannounced or sudden, causing even surprise. Yet there are no doubts about Thanatos' coming, and no man knows for certain whether he will still be living the next day.
Help for intimidation
Normally, mortals fear Death, and taking this
fear into account, some among them use Death as an
instrument of intimidation, and turning themselves
into bringers of Death, threaten other mortals with
prematurely sending them to another world. This
behavior is usually caused by disputes concerning
gold, power, sexual satisfaction, or other things
deriving from these three.
Abolition of Death
Threatening to bring Death to others is one of
the most powerful weapons available, for fear of
Death follows the mortal condition. However, if
Death could be abolished by vote, many could be
assumed to prefer the abolition of Death and
thereby live for ever, even to the price of having
to renounce all forms of death-penalty. But the
nature of things is completely different.
Invoking Death is, when other possibilities are
not available, the method that may be used in order
to obtain a certain behavior from anyone else,
including states. For example, if a certain amount
of gold is not provided, then Death is invoked; or
if obedience is not showed, then Death is invoked.
Similarly, any other satisfaction may be obtained
by invoking Death upon the head of a man, a woman,
or a state. And upon refusal to comply, retaliation
may occur leading to the effective arrival of
Other things also painful
Some have believed that in such cases the
alternative is not between dying or not dying, but
rather between dying now and dying later. They have
also thought that danger of life or death is not
the only thing deserving regard, but also whether
what is done is goor or bad. For, they reason,
preserving life at the price of performing bad
deeds, may ruin life itself, turning it into a
painful shame. So, as some fear Death, others fear
to live in fear, or are more afraid of slavery and
other similar things than of Death.
Death escapes control
It is said that Death escapes control, and that
the mind should be busy controlling what can be
controlled, disregarding what cannot be controlled;
and so they say:
"I must die:
must I, then, die groaning too? I must go into
exile: does anyone, then, keep me from going with a
smile and cheerful and serene?" (Epictetus, Discourses 1.1.22).
And they add that such a dialog could come up:
"I say not a word; for this is under my control."
"But I will fetter you."
"My leg you will fetter, but my moral purpose not even Zeus himself has power to
"I will throw you into prison."
"My paltry body, rather!"
"I will behead you."
"Well, when did I ever tell you that mine was the only neck that could not be severed?"
(Epictetus, Discourses 1.1.22ff.).
Fear of Death
Death, as imagined in later ages. 4928: Elna Borch 1869-1950: Death and the maiden. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen.
Some affirm that Death should not be feared, for
no one knows whether this god brings good or evil.
It has been observed that despite the fact that
nobody knows what Death is, there are those who
act, in court or in other dangerous circumstances,
as if they were to suffer something terrible if
they were put to death; and conversely they act as
if they would be immortal in case they were not
killed. It is also well known that most mortals
experience joyous feelings when they escape Death,
and many among them are prepared to make all kinds
of efforts and sacrifices in order to postpone, no
matter for how little time, the arrival of this
Yet the coming of Death may be a joy for those
who are held in great misery and pain, and they may
sincerely say, both in their hearts and aloud:
"Come Death!". However, there are others who
complain beyond measure, praying insincerely for
Death, but once this god comes close, neither life,
nor sickness, nor Old Age seem any longer burdensome to them. That is what
happened to the old man who called Death, wearied
as he was of carrying wood to the city for sale;
and when Death came and asked for what reason he
had called him, the old man, forgetting his
tiredness, hurriedly replied: "That, lifting up the load, you may
place it again upon my shoulders."
Life is short and sweet
And this is so because, in the presence of Death
or under his threat, many find life sweeter than
ever, enjoy looking on the light more than before,
and reason that Death is long and Life short, and
indeed sweeter, much sweeter than they ever cared
to taste, except when Death showed up:
"Sweet is the
sun-god's light, sweet." (Pheres 1 to Admetus 1. Euripides, Alcestis 722).
If to live is to be dead ...
"Who knows if
to live is to be dead, and to be dead, to live? And
we really, it may be, are dead; in fact I once
heard sages say that we are now dead, and the body
is our tomb ..." (Socrates. Plato, Gorgias 492e).
If to live is to be dead, if we really are dead,
then our world must be the kingdom of death.
To inhabit such a kingdom means to die
continuously, to be subject to transience, to
agony, and loss. To lead the existence of a shadow
that will soon vanish. To repeatedly watch the
defeat of goodness, the destruction of love and
joy, of beauty and innocence. To go hungry or
thirsty. To be sick or old. To know exhaustion,
fear, anguish, violence or desolation. To destroy
and be destroyed: to be the client of death in
every respect. Confused and wounded, the shadows
wander about their nocturnal kingdom, and from the
openings of their tombs take darkness for light and
death for life. They forget they are shadows, since
they have drunk from the spring of oblivion ... But
sometimes a spark of memory makes them search for
the light of such a dawn as might reveal, beyond
the fields of death, another landscape: a kingdom of life where love has made decay
unknown, and no one ever dies. | <urn:uuid:8388c431-e993-41c4-8114-c7157e9f797f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.maicar.com/GML/Thanatos.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929262 | 2,764 | 2.390625 | 2 |
June 26, 2008 New analysis of Mars' terrain using NASA spacecraft observations reveals what appears to be by far the largest impact crater ever found in the solar system.
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Global Surveyor have provided detailed information about the elevations and gravity of the Red Planet's northern and southern hemispheres. A new study using this information may solve one of the biggest remaining mysteries in the solar system: Why does Mars have two strikingly different kinds of terrain in its northern and southern hemispheres? The huge crater is creating intense scientific interest.
The mystery of the two-faced nature of Mars has perplexed scientists since the first comprehensive images of the surface were beamed home by NASA spacecraft in the 1970s. The main hypotheses have been an ancient impact or some internal process related to the planet's molten subsurface layers. The impact idea, proposed in 1984, fell into disfavor because the basin's shape didn't seem to fit the expected round shape for a crater. The newer data is convincing some experts who doubted the impact scenario.
"We haven't proved the giant-impact hypothesis, but I think we've shifted the tide," said Jeffrey Andrews-Hanna, a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
Andrews-Hanna and co-authors Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Bruce Banerdt of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., report the new findings in the journal Nature this week.
A giant northern basin that covers about 40 percent of Mars' surface, sometimes called the Borealis basin, is the remains of a colossal impact early in the solar system's formation, the new analysis suggests. At 8,500 kilometers (5,300 miles) across, it is about four times wider than the next-biggest impact basin known, the Hellas basin on southern Mars. An accompanying report calculates that the impacting object that produced the Borealis basin must have been about 2,000 kiolometers (1,200 miles) across. That's larger than Pluto.
"This is an impressive result that has implications not only for the evolution of early Mars, but also for early Earth's formation," said Michael Meyer, the Mars chief scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
This northern-hemisphere basin on Mars is one of the smoothest surfaces found in the solar system. The southern hemisphere is high, rough, heavily cratered terrain, which ranges from 4 to 8 kilometers (2.5 to 5 miles) higher in elevation than the basin floor.
Other giant impact basins have been discovered that are elliptical rather than circular. But it took a complex analysis of the Martian surface from NASA's two Mars orbiters to reveal the clear elliptical shape of Borealis basin, which is consistent with being an impact crater.
One complicating factor in revealing the elliptical shape of the basin was that after the time of the impact, which must have been at least 3.9 billion years ago, giant volcanoes formed along one part of the basin rim and created a huge region of high, rough terrain that obscures the basin's outlines. It took a combination of gravity data, which tend to reveal underlying structure, with data on current surface elevations to reconstruct a map of Mars elevations as they existed before the volcanoes erupted.
"In addition to the elliptical boundary of the basin, there are signs of a possible second, outer ring -- a typical characteristic of large impact basins," Banerdt said.
JPL manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. For more information about the mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mro.
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Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead. | <urn:uuid:f50d034b-80d2-4ea0-9459-bfa2f97ba2b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080625223036.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9301 | 805 | 3.984375 | 4 |
Bump: The Easy Way to Share Photos
Let's say you just took a great picture at a party and one of people in the photo asks for a copy. Do you email it? Facebook it? Text it? If you have the free Bump app for iOS and Android devices, sharing photos with another person's phone or a computer is as easy as tapping the two devices together.
To initiate the transfer of photos, you need to start the Bump app or, if you're transferring to a computer. browse to bu.mp. Then you select up to 10 photos you want to share. Finally, you bump the devices together or bump the phone against the computer's space bar. Both devices send their location with a time stamp and the Bump servers make a match between the devices. Each device then gets a request to connect, with the person's name and photo, if available. After both devices have accepted the connection, the data transfers.
Shared photos then appear in your phone's photo gallery or the directory you choose on your computer. One big drawback is that photos transfer at a maximum resolution of about 600 x 800 pixels. That's fine for viewing on a phone or computer screen, but not good enough quality for prints.
Bump can also be used to send contact information. And for iPhone users, there's Bump Pay (free on iTunes), which connects with your PayPal account to let you transfer cash. | <urn:uuid:c7eb2c36-c313-4859-a2e8-03f800936456> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techlicious.com/blog/bump-the-easy-way-to-share-photos/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943086 | 292 | 1.679688 | 2 |
UNDERWOOD Some might look at it as playing in a sand box, but at The Kids Therapy Center, it is a form of exercising mental health.
Sand tray therapy is one of the many forms of therapy that can be found at The Kids Therapy Center, which opened in Underwood in December.
"With the population growing ... we are seeing more and more (patients)," said Valerie Meyers, who owns the center in Underwood, as well as a similar center in Bismarck. "So, we decided to expand out to the rural community to help with travel time."
Submitted Photo • Valerie Meyers, a therapist who specializes in mental health issues involving children and adolescents, opened The Kids Therapy Center in Underwood in December. The purpose of the center is to help serve these patients who live in a rural setting.
Meyers, who is originally from Mandan, received her master's degree at the University of Wisconsin, majoring in clinical mental health counseling with an emphasis on children and adolescents. She had worked in Minneapolis and for five years as a therapist at the Dakota Children's Advocacy Center, in Bismarck, where she provided counseling for children affected by child abuse. A year-and-a-half ago, she opened The Kids Therapy Center in Bismarck, where she sees patients from across the state, from "Jamestown to the Montana border" and up to Canada.
"It's not uncommon for a parent and child to drive hours to get here," Meyers said.
The centers specialize in mental health counseling for children and adolescents. "We really see a broad range, from toddlers to teens," Meyers said.
Prairie Profile is a weekly feature profiling interesting people in our region. We welcome suggestions from our readers. Call Regional Editor Eloise Ogden at 857-1944 or Managing Editor Kent Olson at 857-1939. Either can be reached at 1-800-735-3229. You also can send e-mail suggestions to firstname.lastname@example.org.
In addition to sand tray therapy, which uses a sand tray and miniature figurines to allow a child to tell a story, The Kids Therapy Center utilizes creative therapies, such as play therapy and the usual talk therapy. Play therapy involves "a room with toys that allow kids to express themselves," Meyer said.
"The therapist is trained so she's not sitting down and playing, but using the toys to allow the child to express themselves and tell their story through the play. We believe in meeting the child at their level, instead of them coming up to our level."
Even before the center officially made Underwood its home, it received a warm welcome from the community.
"We got a call from the Underwood Clinic asking us if we wanted to come in there, because they were so excited about having us as part of Underwood," Meyers said.
Talesa Heger, a therapist with the Underwood center, said that having it located in the same building as the Underwood Clinic is a good fit.
"I just think the community, as a whole, and parents are excited to have such a service offered in our community," Heger said. "Often times they have to travel to Bismarck to receive services, and this is something that can serve the McLean County area."
There are meetings this week "with area social workers that want to meet with us and get our information for the referral process," Heger said, noting that the school has also had interest. "They all see a need in rural communities."
Meyers noted that in the past, there have been suicides in the Underwood and Garrison areas.
"There were two last year and one just recently," Heger said.
With the center located in Underwood, it "can help kids and give kids tools at an early age for depression and anxiety and different struggles they are having," Heger added.
Heger, who was raised in nearby Turtle Lake, said that in the past, mental health services weren't readily available in the area but now, with the concept of mental health being more and more accepted by society, more services are available. | <urn:uuid:4c97c663-ef52-4c6e-a08b-7101202823c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/562159/The-Kids-Therapy-Center-focuses-on-mental-health-of-rural-children.html?nav=5013 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976477 | 870 | 2.171875 | 2 |
ARTISTS AND TITLES
1976, 33 mins, film: 16mm, colour, sound
A plot is constructed around a sequence of ten shots taken from inside and outside a house. The shots varied by length and by different camera movements repeat themselves ten times. The plot moves forward mainly on the soundtrack as, apart from 'the husband', no other character actually appears on screen. Sometimes the plot is narrated on the soundtrack in the manner of an excerpt from a novel, sometimes noises/effects carry the story forward. The viewer is continually 'tantalised' with what is happening off screen as well as in the visual manner wondering what is going to happen next. The predictability of the shots gradually concentrates the viewer's attention on the soundtrack. The dialogue is increasingly interspersed with remarks from the woman which have nothing to do with the 'standard' plot, but which criticise the ideological oppression of the mass media. The manipulated tension in the film is part of the oppression. By using a repetitive sequence of ten shots the viewer is left free to consider how the sounds and dialogue create atmosphere and can also observe the detailed changes of framing and the different effects of making the same shot a different length. The immediacy or 'power' of the shots is clearly greatly affected by the nature of the sounds that go with them. sound and picture converge and diverge. When the plot narration on the soundtrack describes precisely the action on the screen the digestibility and sensory force of the image becomes total requiring very little thinking 'intellectual' energy. When pictures and sound become divergent from each other the viewer has to become reaware of the two elements and direct his/her concentration consciously. In between these two extremes are various degrees of sound/image divergence and convergence and because of the repetitiveness of the shots even those points, where sound and picture match each other, gradually become readable as sound imposed on picture. Where each of the shots is matched to a single word their importance as a vehicle for visual action is completely removed and they become openly merely rhythmic support for the soundtrack. There is throughout the film a continual counterpoint between sound and image and a set of variations on the ten root images. The aim of the film however is not just to be an aesthetic structure but to relate back in a critical manner to the dominant commercial cinema. - R.W. ‘...A serious and thorough artist, his films collectively encompass all those issues which are at the centre of current critical debate: from the Straub-like impact of the deliberate camerawork and distanced acting and direct address in Inside and Outside to the ironic deconstructive narrative of Illusive Crime to the Structural rigor of Kniephofstrasse. Despite stylistic variety, these films are not pastiche, nor is Wolley a dilettante, rather his consistent concern has been to articulate image and sound through shifting relationships which challenge the very production of meaning through the conjunction of image/sound.’ - Deke Dusinberre, Time Out.
Film Collection (public) | <urn:uuid:a80afacc-8d6b-45ee-908c-e6d0c790edf1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.studycollection.co.uk/bamid/details.php?id=1365 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948983 | 623 | 1.945313 | 2 |
BSkyB is in conflict with the BBC over carriage fees.
BSkyB, the UK’s biggest pay TV operator, with over 10 million subs, has locked horns over carriage fees with the UK government, which is attempting to stop it charging broadcasters including the BBC £10 million ($16 million) a year to carry their programming. Sky has rebuffed the move, arguing that the BBC and others are benefiting from the investment it has made in its TV platform and should contribute towards it.
“Public service broadcasters benefit from the billions of pounds we’ve invested in our TV platform, and the technical services we provide them,” said a Sky spokesman. “The payments they make are no different to paying for electricity, studio facilities or any other operational costs.”
The BBC on the other hand has argued that the transaction should be reversed and that Sky should pay it for the privilege of carrying its content, which enriches its overall content offering. Sky has recently incorporated iPlayer, the BBC catch up service, into its package, which adds fuel to both sides of the argument. iPlayer has generated extra traffic for Sky, which consumes its bandwidth but also helps retain eyeballs that might otherwise wander off to the web to Watch the content, or worse defect to rival Virgin Media, which has included iPlayer in its package for three years.
There are precedents for both sides in other countries. In Germany, broadcasters have been paying carriage fees to cable TV operators but not satellite providers, although this has led to conflict there too. Kabel Deutschland, Germany's largest cable TV operator, recently upped the ante by dropping regional channels operated by the public networks ARD and ZDF. This was is in direct retaliation for the recent move by ARD and ZDF to stop paying around $35 million annually in carriage fees to Kabel Deutschland. The cable giant has been locked in legal battle with the country's public broadcasters since mid-2012, when ARD, ZDF and Franco-German broadcaster ARTE cancelled carriage contracts with Germany's three major cable operators.
In the U.S., on the other hand, cable operators pay carriage fees to the leading networks for the right to carry their channels. This partly reflects the different balance of power there, with operators dependent on the networks for much of their premium content. Meanwhile, the UK government is arguing that the pros and cons cancel each other out so that no money should change hands for carriage of broadcast channels. Ed Vaizey, the country’s Culture Minister, has said the fees should be dropped and hinted that the government might legislate to remove them if Sky insisted on continuing to charge them. “We’re not going to rush into a regulatory solution because I believe there’s no reason the market should not be able to work out a fair, equitable solution. But if the industry cannot find a way to stop imposing this cost on license fee payers and public service broadcasters, we will look at our options for intervention,” he said.
Vaizey said he would give Sky 12 to 18 months to agree to drop the fees before he would consider intervening. He did though reject the BBC’s call for Sky to pay for its channels. No doubt the BBC would love to emulate the move taken by Germany’s broadcasters and cancel its carriage contract with Sky. But given its delicate position as a noncommercial broadcaster relying mostly on public license fee income, such a move would be impossible politically and alienate a large swathe of the population, unless it could pin the blame on Sky. | <urn:uuid:7e00edb5-d830-4ec6-9fee-d75b21605501> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://broadcastengineering.com/cable-amp-iptv/bbc-and-sky-war-over-carriage-fees | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964764 | 738 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Ashok Mansata’s mobile number features on the “Dial E” (for emergency) page of the Telegraph’s annual Metro Guide publication. All day long, he gets calls from Kolkatans seeking help with consumer complaints.
Mansata’s family runs the oldest film distributorship in eastern India. He owns Drive Inn, a popular vegetarian restaurant. But first thing every morning Mansata, 50, thinks not of his businesses, but of the consumer complaints received on the previous day, and on the cases he takes up voluntarily.
His activism began a decade ago, he says, when he opened a packet of mushroom-and-peas curry of a reputed international brand. The contents matched neither the details nor the picture on the cover. He wrote to the manufacturers, who promised to take corrective measures.
After this there seemed to be cases all around waiting to be tackled. In 2003 he set up the NGO Concern for Citizens. Since then he has caught out scores of brands and institutions in Kolkata. A retail group modified an advertisement from “up to 50% on all items” to “most items”. A leading company withdrew its brand of chocolate biscuits because the contents did not match the picture. Forum Mall has made free drinking water available to its patrons. “I need to take it up with other malls,” Mansata says purposefully.
“But I do not take up matters that happen by accident,” he says, “like a paan masala found in a cola bottle. I will take up issues related to policies, or ones that mislead, dupe or fleece consumers.” Recently he came to the rescue of a harried parent who was being forced to pay 11 months’ fees to get the transfer certificate of her daughter from a reputed public school, because she was withdrawing her child after the beginning of the academic session. She would have had to pay the full fee in two schools for the same session. Pressured by Concern for Citizens, the school relented. Mansata plans to ask the ministry of education to issue proper guidelines to schools. “See,” he says, “it just takes writing a few letters to get people to act to rectify a wrong.”
Another example: most hospitals do not provide a cost account of services rendered, like tests, doctor’s visits, medicines or products used on an in-patient. Mansata organised a seminar on “Patients versus Medical Fraternity”. After this, he says, “I got a mail from Mani Shankar Aiyar who was at the seminar, saying he had forwarded the issue to the health ministry for action.”
Mansata’s activism is not just a well-off businessman’s hobby. He shows awards given to him by the Kolkata Police, a Good Samaritan Award and several others. “It’s funny — I never got a single award for anything in school, neither in sports nor studies,” he says, breaking into laughter. | <urn:uuid:e5db6842-6609-49f6-b2ee-783b11e26f38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.business-standard.com/article/beyond-business/writing-the-rights-letters-112072900042_1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967211 | 645 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Quantum Dots Are Behind New Displays
They make LCDs brighter and could challenge OLEDs for future TV dominance
Photo: QD Vision
Bright Dots: Red, green, and blue pixels made from quantum dot LEDs developed by QD Vision.
13 June 2012—Liquid crystal displays dominate today’s big, bright world of color TVs. They are inefficient, though, and don’t produce the vibrant, richly hued images of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens, which are expensive to make in large sizes.
But a handful of start-up companies have been plugging away at another display technology that could enhance LCDs and unseat OLEDs: quantum dots. These light-emitting semiconductor nanocrystals shine pure colors when excited by electric current or light and promise rich, beautiful displays that would be inexpensive and easy to manufacture.
At Display Week, an industry meeting run by the Society for Information Display, quantum-dot developer Nanosys announced that it is working with 3M to commercialize a quantum-dot film that could be integrated into the back of today’s LCD panels. The film could cut the display’s power consumption by half and enable LCDs to generate 50 percent more colors within the range set by the National Television System Committee. Nanosys’s CEO, Jason Hartlove, says that major LCD manufacturers are now testing the film, and a 17-inch notebook incorporating the technology should be on shelves within six months. “We’ve designed this technology to give LCD manufacturers a competitive counterweight to OLEDs,” he says.
New LCD TVs typically have a strip of white LED backlights along the panel’s edge. Light guides spread the illumination evenly across the panel; the light then passes through a series of optical films that colorize, polarize, and diffuse it. The resulting red, green, and blue hues are mixed at different intensities to produce the display’s color gamut. More pure, saturated red, green, and blue yield a wider range, rendering more-lifelike images. But with today’s technology, “the broad-spectrum white has a bunch of pinks, yellows, and oranges,” Hartlove says. “So when you create a red from a color filter, you let in a bunch of different reddish colors.”
The process is also extremely inefficient: More than 90 percent of the light from the white LEDs (which are really blue LEDs coated in yellow phosphor) is wasted as it passes through the optical film stack.
Nanosys’s quantum-dot film effectively acts as the phosphor that converts some of the light from highly efficient blue LEDs to spectrally pure red and green, resulting in a broad color gamut. And it shouldn’t add extra cost. “This technology just drops in and is compatible with existing LCD manufacturing methods,” Hartlove says. “And we only use blue LEDs, which are half the cost of white.”
Bright Idea: The 47-inch HDTV on the right has been modified with Nanosys' quantum dot film to enhance the performance of its backlight.
Lexington, Mass.–based QD Vision, an MIT spin-off and the first to market a quantum-dot consumer product, is developing its own LCD backlight technology. Its technology, literally and figuratively, has an edge over Nanosys’s, says CTO Seth Coe-Sullivan. Instead of using a large film of quantum dots, its product would integrate the quantum dots into the LED array on the panel’s edge. “The efficiency and stability of quantum dots degrades at higher temperatures. We’ve made ours to handle the higher temperature at the backlight. So we use 1/100 of the material, which is not inexpensive.”
QD Vision is also working on another exciting product: a quantum-dot LED display that works exactly like an OLED display but at a lower cost. OLED displays contain a thin layer of light-emitting organic semiconductor sandwiched between two electrodes. QD Vision replaces the organic material with quantum dots.
Manufacturing OLED displays typically requires depositing organic molecules on the substrate using expensive evaporation techniques. There are cheaper ways to deposit the materials, such as inkjet printing, but those methods compromise the quality of the molecules. Quantum dots, on the other hand, can be easily suspended in solvents to make inks that can be stamped or printed without losing their glowing prowess. Quantum dots are also intrinsically better than organic semiconductors at converting electricity to light, so they use less energy to shine just as brightly.
QD Vision demonstrated the first full-color, 4-inch-diagonal quantum-dot LED display prototype at Display Week last year. The company has teamed up with LG Display to commercialize the technology, and Coe-Sullivan expects the first products in three to five years. Samsung, meanwhile, is also pursuing quantum-dot LED displays. Last year, researchers at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology reported a 4-inch-diagonal color display made on glass and plastic.
Quantum dots, both in LCD backlight films and as light emitters, might still face tough competition from OLEDs. So far, OLED displays have been relegated to small smartphone screens, but this year LG and Samsung unveiled the first 55-inch OLED TV-screen prototypes. Samsung claims that it will launch a commercial version later in 2012 in South Korea, at a price of US $9000—10 times as expensive as LCD sets—but the cost could drop as the technology improves. “There [have] been decades of work on organic emissive material, and there have been a lot of improvements,” says Paul Semenza, a senior analyst at research firm DisplaySearch. “It’s not like quantum dots are competing against a new thing.”
Semenza says that the success of quantum-dot display technology will depend in part on developments in OLEDs and LEDs over the next few years. The LCD backlight approach shows promise because it’s easy and shows visible improvements, but “as white LED backlights improve, the benefit from doing this might diminish,” he says. OLEDs, meanwhile, are already beautiful but costly to manufacture. “If quantum-dot displays are easy to manufacture [and] have a lower cost process and better efficiency, they could be big.”
This article was updated on 17 July 2012.
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