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Jacques Roubaud was born in the town of Caluire, in the Provence region of southern France. He once called himself a `manufacturer of mathematics and poetry'. At twenty-two, Roubaud abandoned his literature studies to devote himself to mathematics.
In the early 1960s he was working simultaneously on a thesis on set theory and a book of poetry, having found that mathematic strategies work very well in poetic creation. The result was published in 1967, and has as its title , a symbol from set theory, meaning `contained within'. By introducing new rules, Roubaud succeeds in breaking open the time-honoured form of the sonnet. By this procedure he attracted the attention of Raymond Queneau, who recruited Roubaud for his group OULIPO, or `Workshop for Potential Literature'.
Apart from poetry, Jacques Roubaud has published numerous translations, of modern American as well as traditional Japanese poetry. He has rewritten texts from France's ancient heritage, notably the tales of the Holy Grail; he is the author of prose books, such as the Hortense trilogy, and an ongoing semi-autobiographic project, begun in 1989, which has produced four books so far. Finally, Jacques Roubaud is an untiring champion of poetry in, among other publications, Poésie, etcetera: ménage (1995), in which he makes a clean sweep of popular prejudices about contemporary poetry. Roubaud's work has been widely translated.
Beard of Bees Publications
- #14, An Excerpt From Exchanges On Light, by Jacques Roubaud (Tr. by Eleni Sikelianos) (April, 2004) | <urn:uuid:ffc9d2bb-6d4b-46ca-a46a-371c996b9f91> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://beardofbees.com/roubaud.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966919 | 349 | 2.5 | 2 |
Dr Susan Blackmore
Writer, lecturer and broadcaster
I never really thought about it till last year when the British Humanist Association invited me to give a Darwin Day Lecture in London, which I did. After that they asked me to become a distinguished member of the British Humanist Association. At that point, I looked into their philosophy and moral agenda, asking myself if: ‘Am I prepared to sign up to this?’ I decided that I was, and said: ‘Yes, I would be one’. So, now I often get calls to do radio and TV shows as a humanist.
Susan Blackmore in “The Open Society” (vol 40, Summer 2007)
Dr Sue Blackmore is a freelance writer, lecturer and broadcaster, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Plymouth, Bristol. She has a degree in psychology and physiology from Oxford University (1973) and a PhD in parapsychology from the University of Surrey (1980). Her research interests include memes, evolutionary theory, consciousness, and meditation. She no longer works on the paranormal. She practises Zen and campaigns for drug legalization.
She writes for several magazines and newspapers, and is a frequent contributor and presenter on radio and television. She is author of over sixty academic articles, about forty book contributions, and many book reviews. Her books include Beyond the Body(1982), Dying to Live (on near-death experiences, 1993), In Search of the Light (autobiography, 1996), and Test Your Psychic Powers (with Adam Hart-Davis, 1997). The Meme Machine (1999) has been translated into 13 other languages. Her textbookConsciousness: An Introduction (2nd Edition) was published in June 2010 (Hodder UK, OUP New York), A Very Short Introduction to Consciousness in 2005 (OUP), Conversations on Consciousness (OUP Oxford) in November 2005, and Zen and the Art of Consciousness was published in March 2011.
Simply put I am an atheist. That is, I don’t believe in any kind of god. I think that the major religions of the world are dangerous selfish memeplexes that use a variety of tricks to propagate themselves and do great harm to both individuals and society – from preventing truthful education to justifying war and murder. However, most religions include at least two aspects which I would be sorry to lose.
First is the truths that many contain in their mystical or spiritual traditions; including insights into the nature of self, time and impermanence. Happily, these can be found through meditation, drugs, ritual and other methods and are not the sole prerogative of religions. I have had many spontaneous mystical experiences, and have practiced Zen meditation for more than 20 years.
The other is the rituals that we humans seem to need, marking such events as birth, death, and celebrations. Humanism provides a non-religious alternative and I have found the few such ceremonies I have attended to be a refreshing change from the Christian ones of my upbringing. I am also glad that these ceremonies allow for an eclectic mixture of songs, music and words. In spite of my lack of belief I still enjoy the ancient hymns of my childhood and I know others do too. We can and should build on our traditions rather than throwing out everything along with our childish beliefs.
On February 13th 2006, Susan Blackmore gave the 4th BHA Darwin Day lecture, on “Darwin’s meme: or the origin of culture by means of natural selection” and in October 2009 spoke at the Humanist Philosophers’ day conference “Evolutionary Theory: Is this all there is?”. She appeared on a March 2006 ‘Analysis’ programme on Radio 4, and felt her views on Humanism were misrepresented. Click here to see her blog on Humanism, and watch her talking about Humanism in The really simple guide to Humanism. | <urn:uuid:a7138baa-9a9e-48f7-8a91-58e77b611722> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://humanism.org.uk/about/our-people/distinguished-supporters/dr-susan-blackmore/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961473 | 810 | 1.539063 | 2 |
David Murillo sat in a police station in Juticalpa, Honduras. He was presented with a blank piece of paper, and told to sign it. The gun on the same table told him his fate if he refused. He signed, and then a woman in a ski mask came in and typed his supposed “confession” above his signature. It included murder and rape, and it was published everywhere to discredit him.
Such is life for many who dare to protest the coup d’etat that took place in Honduras on June 28th in the wee hours of the morning. At 5 a.m., members of the Honduran military ousted the elected President, Manuel Zelaya, from bed and flew him out of the country to Costa Rica, literally in his pajamas.
The OAS, the European Union, and President Obama immediately condemned the coup. But many analysts close to the situation say the United States – which has overwhelming influence in Honduras – has not taken effective actions which can literally end the coup. Even U.S. rhetoric has moved away from the word “coup” since the initial condemnation, since that would trigger several required actions, like suspension of aid.
In light of all these developments, the Quixote Center, a faith-based justice center headquartered in Brentwood, MD, launched an emergency U.S. Delegation of Solidarity, Accompaniment and Witness to coup-ravaged Honduras. It included Tom Loudon, one of the Center’s co-Directors. One of the people the delegation visited was the imprisoned David Murillo.
Why the coup?
Conservative analysts lay all the blame for the coup on President Zelaya. They say he had violated the constitution of Honduras by calling for a non-binding vote in June, asking the people of Honduras if there was need to include on the November ballot a question about establishing a Constitutional Assembly to reform the Honduran Constitution. That, they say, violated the law and the Constitutional, and Zelaya “had to be” ousted.
The social movements of Honduras maintain this is a surface analysis and a sham. They note that the Honduran Constitution was written in 1982, when John Negroponte was the U.S. Ambassador in Honduras, trying to find ways to overthrow the Sandinistas in Nicaragua next door. These movements have long said that their constitution was written – essentially by the United States – during that period to shore up U.S. economic interests and thus the wealthy elite of Honduras. And that Honduran Constitution contains provisions that are permanent, and may not be changed! Can you imagine our having no ability to amend our Constitution? That’s the equivalent.
Articles that may not be changed include some that enshrine current economic arrangements, which have long favored the wealthy interests of Honduras, the so-called “ten families,” over the interests of the poor. Not surprisingly, the social movements of Honduras regard constitutional change as key to any meaningful change in the status of the poor.
In the face of this, President Zelaya – who set out to try to raise up the poor – did raise the minimum wage, but he found that the Constitution was a barrier to other basic economic reforms, and he called for this non-binding poll on the need for Constitutional reform.
That’s what precipitated the coup. On the surface, it’s constitutional; but in its deepest roots, it’s economic. To put it bluntly: the poor were getting uppity and challenging the established order. And they had a president who supported them. It’s not surprising that the imprisoned David Murillo said about President Zelaya, “I have never seen a president like this. He has broken the walls behind which the people were held.”
Bishops Speak in Different Voices
The Catholic church in Honduras is split. Catholic Bishop Luis Santos Villeda of Santa Rosa de Copan said bluntly that the wealthy elite are behind the coup. He told Catholic News Service, "Some say Manuel Zelaya threatened democracy by proposing a constitutional assembly. But the poor of Honduras know that Zelaya raised the minimum salary. That's what they understand. They know he defended the poor by sharing money with mayors and small towns. That's why they are out in the streets closing highways and protesting (to demand Zelaya's return)." He called for dialogue between the elite and Honduras' poor and working-class citizens.
His views are markedly different from those of Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. He has publicly urged President Zelaya not to return. He claims to have the support of the Bishops’ Conference, but many Honduran bishops are foreigners, and have not expressed a view on the coup.
The Popular Movements
Meanwhile, the popular movements have been in the streets by the thousands, calling for the restoration of Zelaya as President. According to the Quixote Center delegation, they have been met by beatings, arrests, and general repression.
COFADEH, the Committee of Families of Detained and Disappeared in Honduras, reports that in addition to the militarization of public utilities and agencies, members of the [Battalion] 3-16 death squads responsible for the disappearances of the 1980's are being placed in public positions. But the movements appear undaunted.
At the moment, they are calling for seven days of protests, focusing on the capital, Tegucigalpa, and San Pedro Sula, the country’s second largest city. Thousands of campesinos and campesinas are reportedly already headed for those cities on foot. The action is set to culminate in a massive protest on August 11th. In fact, they have called for a Global Day of Action in Solidarity with the people of Honduras, and many actions are planned in the United States, including Washington, DC.
Bishop Luis Santos Villeda of Santa Rosa de Copan may be right when he described the coup leaders in much the same words as those used by the protesting people, "They are gangsters, but their game is up. They plot together over dinner one night but the next day pretend to have disagreements in order to deceive the illiterate. They don't care that children are dying of hunger, or that people die in hospitals without medicine."
Maybe their game is up. But until then, David Murillo remains in prison, mourning his young son, who was shot at the airport the night that Zelaya tried to return to Honduras shortly after the coup. And much of Honduras awaits new developments, new word from the one capital of the world that could change their situation almost overnight: Washington, DC.
In the face of this, the Quixote Center delegation met with U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens in Tegucigalpa on August 7th, describing the situation as they found it, and demanding that the U.S. call a “coup” and “coup,” cut off aid as required by such a label, revoke all visas of the coup leaders, and cease training Honduran military officers at the School of the Americas. The group emphasized that the people are not going to be beaten back, that the resistance is growing, and that international accompaniment and witness will continue unbroken - documenting the repression and speaking out internationally.
tThey also delivered a letter to the Attorney General of Honduras, Luis Albert Rubi, on behalf of several human rights groups, demanding to know what is being done to investigate several murders, denial of freedom of movement and the press, instances of torture, death threats received on cell phones, and threats against university students.
Sister of Loretto Maureen Fiedler is the host of Interfaith Voices, a public radio show, heard on 62 radio stations in North America. | <urn:uuid:27d9b7ba-74ee-4efb-9c90-05a1da63dfc2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ncronline.org/print/news/global/delegation-asks-decisive-us-action-honduras | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967352 | 1,625 | 2.125 | 2 |
On a winter's day in late 1998, Kim Myong Suk, 20, lay shivering and weak from hunger on the cold concrete floor of a cell in a prison camp in North Korea, not far from the Chinese border. She was five months pregnant and was about to lose her unborn child. Of all the horrors she recalls from that day, she says, two stand out. One is that her sister, who lived in a nearby town, had been brought in to watch what was about to happen to her. The other is the name of North Korean guard, the man who she says killed her unborn child: Hwang Myong Dong. It is not a name, she says, "that I'll ever be able to forget.''
Hwang, Kim says, referred repeatedly to the baby as "the Chink," because the father was a peasant from northeastern China, where Kim had fled earlier that year. As she lay on the prison floor, Hwang demanded that she abort the fetus herself. She refused, so the guard began kicking her in the stomach. Then he beat her and, as her sister screamed, continued beating Kim until she blacked out. When she regained consciousness, she says, she "was taken to a clinic in the camp, and in the most blunt manner, they removed [the fetus] from my body."
Eight years later, the memory of those traumas aren't far from her mind as Kim moves briskly through the streets of a town not far from Bangkok. It's just before dawn, the daily chaos of noise and traffic still hours away. Kim (a pseudonym she used to protect her family in North Korea) is about to meet, for the first time, the men responsible for saving her life. One is Kim Sang Hun, a lay Christian from Seoul. The other is the Rev. Tim Peters, a soft-spoken evangelical Christian pastor from Benton Harbor, Mich., who runs the Seoul-based charity Helping Hands Korea. More than any other Westerner, Peters has become the public face of a network of activists, many motivated by their Christian faith, who have devoted their lives to helping North Koreans, including many living illegally in China, escape to freedom in South Korea. He and others in the network compare it to the Underground Railroad, which took African-American slaves from the South to freedom in the North. The activists are convinced that their cause is as urgent as the abolitionists' was. "When we look back at this era, at what North Korea has done to its people, I'm convinced the civilized world will be shocked and also shamed," Peters says. "In the meantime, we do what we can." | <urn:uuid:2b72e87f-df00-493d-8499-2dd68f6c22e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1186569,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984138 | 544 | 1.679688 | 2 |
It's not an easy conversation to have, but financial advisers need to talk to their clients about Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia and the impact it can have on their financial circumstances.
“The first conversation is difficult, but after you have it, you can actually develop stickier relationships with your clients,” said Brian Parker, managing director of EP Wealth Advisors Inc. “It gives you a chance to talk about future risks.”
The risks aren't only to the clients. Financial advisers providing recommendations and financial advice to clients suffering from some form of diminished mental capacity are vulnerable to lawsuits and enforcement actions that can destroy their practices.
“You can't meet your fiduciary obligations if the client's behavior suggests they have reduced capacity,” said Hollie Mason, an associate counsel for TD Ameritrade Inc. “The bottom line is if a client hasn't provided someone to talk to that has the power to act on their behalf, an adviser may have to determine not to continue making investment recommendations for the client.”
According to the Alzheimer's Association, 5.4 million Americans have the disease and roughly 50% of Americans will develop dementia in their lifetime. Currently one in eight people over the age of 65 and 43% of Americans over the age of 85 suffer from it. With the baby boomers now entering retirement, the numbers will grow dramatically.
For financial advisers, the possibility that a client has dementia raises two major issues. First, is the cost. According to Mr. Parker, the estimated cost of care of a person with Alzheimer's over a typical six- to eight-year course of the disease can be between $600,000 and $800,000. The disease is a life-changing event that will necessarily affect asset allocation decisions for all but the wealthiest clients.
The second issue is legal risk. Ms. Mason suggests advisers proceed with extreme caution when it comes to clients who may have dementia. “When you suspect a capacity issue, it's not the time to get them to sign up for an estate plan,” she said.
In fact, it's not the time to recommend any new investments or strategies to the client. “When you start to have concerns, go to Plan B and manage your risk.” Ms. Mason said the first step should be to bring the client in to have a conversation with a branch manager. A person is not deemed incapacitated until a doctor declares it. If the concerns are borne out, the adviser needs to raise the issue immediately with any family members and determine if the client has given power of attorney to anyone and whether it is limited (only effective when the person is not incapacitated) or durable (effective through incapacity). The documents should be drafted by an attorney.
From the minute an adviser has concerns about a client, they should document them. He or she also should document any meetings, conversations or other exchanges with family members and others about the situation.
“Document, document, document,” recommended Mr. Parker. “The potential legal implications are scary.”
The documentation won't protect advisers from lawsuits down the road if a family member or other party is determined to sue, but it will help in a legal battle.
The truth is, if an adviser hasn't taken any steps to plan for the possibility of a client's developing Alzheimer's, they are at risk. “If you're seeing signs and haven't done anything about it yet, you're too late,” Mr. Parker said. | <urn:uuid:c5a38355-7147-4663-bbd4-ef1ff1220e8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20120203/FREE/120209969 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963477 | 729 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Judge-jury agreement, Juries, Criminal trials, Harry Kalven, Jr., Hans Zeisel, The American Jury, Empirical legal studies, National Center for State Courts, NCSC, Hung juries, Judge-jury disagreement, Conviction thresholds
Applied Statistics | Criminal Law | Criminal Procedure | Litigation
This study uses a new criminal case data set to partially replicate Kalven and Zeisel's classic study of judge-jury agreement. The data show essentially the same rate of judge-jury agreement as did Kalven and Zeisel for cases tried almost 50 years ago. This study also explores judge-jury agreement as a function of evidentiary strength (as reported by both judges and juries), evidentiary complexity (as reported by both judges and juries), legal complexity (as reported by judges), and locale. Regardless of which adjudicator's view of evidentiary strength is used, judges tend to convict more than juries in cases of "middle" evidentiary strength. Judges tend to acquit more than juries in cases in which judges regard the evidence favoring the prosecution as weak. Judges tend to convict more than juries in cases in which judges regard the evidence favoring the prosecution as strong. Rates of adjudicator agreement are thus partly a function of which adjudicator's view of evidentiary strength is used, a result not available to Kalven and Zeisel, who were limited to judges' views of the evidence. We find little evidence that evidentiary complexity or legal complexity help explain rates of judge-jury disagreement. Rather, the data support the view that judges have a lower conviction threshold than juries. Local variation exists among the sites studied. The influences of juror race, sex, and education are also considered.
Eisenberg, Theodore; Hannaford-Agor, Paula L.; Hans, Valerie P.; Waters, Nicole L.; Munsterman, G. Thomas; Schwab, Stewart J.; and Wells, Martin T., "Judge-Jury Agreement in Criminal Cases: A Partial Replication of Kalven and Zeisel's The American Jury" (2005). Cornell Law Faculty Publications. Paper 343.
Published in: Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, vol. 2, issue 1 (March 2005). | <urn:uuid:736daa4b-d799-475a-97a1-e192890462d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/facpub/343/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928748 | 456 | 1.898438 | 2 |
There may or may not be something of interest in the documents released by the National Intelligence Council, representing some of the intelligence estimates on Yugoslavia prepared for US agencies between 1948 and 1990. What may be most interesting of all is the introductory essay to the collection by Marten H.A. van Heuven, attempting to assess just where intelligence succeeded and failed, and noting the strong and perhaps excessive emphasis placed on trying to understand Yugoslavia through the lens of the Soviet Union.
Related?: The CIA's role in the publication of Dr Zhivago?
I have the same mixed feelings as most of the folks who teach at private universities about the increasingly consumerist nature of the whole enterprise. We old folks often complain that paying students are encouraged to feel entitled to any number of things -- our time, a grade, a degree -- while the financial constraints often mean that we serve a fairly narrow social group (although like at most costly institutions, a minority of the people there pay full tuition). Interestingly, in discussing teaching with my colleagues from "the former countries of real socialism" (anyone remember that phrase?), many of them have the sense that high tuitions mean that the people paying them are more likely to be highly motivated than just passing through. For people in the teaching field, it often seems as though the goal is something not entirely realistic, providing knowledge and insight to people who really want it but do not really need it. I render this with a little bit of irony, but still hold to the belief that the best students will usually be the ones who have chosen what they are doing, for reasons of which they are aware.
For those reasons and a bunch of others, the Toronto-basedAnarchist U(niversity, no?) project looks very intriguing. It is not entirely new, having operated since Fall 2003. And it is not so big, with just three courses this term and not much more than five or so in other terms. Courses are free (there may be a charge for books and copies) and non-credit, and most of them are on political and social themes. Although it seems that course development and enrollment are e-mail and wiki-based, the classes themselves are nonvirtual, with people gathering in rooms at particular times.
Probably this sort of model is not likely to substitute for the kinds of institutions where most instructors and students find themselves now. But it looks like a mighty good way of making it possible for both teachers and students (broadly, rather than professionally, defined) to do a bit more of the stuff that attracted them to the world of knowledge in the first place.
Okay, it seems to work. What I like about it so far is that it circumvents the Blogger interface, and that it makes adding tags easy. No complaints yet.
You'll also find some fancy new links on the link list.
- Mushroom soup in the style of the Hungarians, if they were Japanese
- Lentil salad (this is supposed to bring good luck)
- Ruska salata
- Stinco di vitello al vino
- A bunch of fruit and cheese
However and whomever with you are celebrating, a happy new year to you and yours.
Sad news to end the year. This text arrived last night from Christophe, friend of East Ethnia. The text of the obituary is by Srđan Dvornik:
Srđan Vrcan was professor of sociology at the University of Split, Croatia. Born in 1922, he was the head of the Chair of Sociology at the Law School of the Split University from 1961 to his retirement in 1990. In 2003 he was awarded the title of Professor Emeritus. He also taught at graduate and post-graduate studies in Zadar, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Vienna, Rome, Pecs, Berkeley, Sacramento. For many years he was a co-leader, together with the German professor Rudolph Siebert, of the seminar "The Future of Religion" at the Inter-University Centre for post-graduate studies in Dubrovnik. He presented the results of his scientific researches at conferences and symposia in Rome, Florence, Bergen, Dresden, Moscow, Berlin, Paris etc.
He was the Chairman of the Croatian Sociological Society. Through three consecutive terms he served on the Executive Board of the International Conference for Sociology of Religion in Lille/Paris. For many years he was on the Editorial Board of the journal for sociology of religion Social Compass, first published by the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium), later by the Sage Publications (London). He was among the founders of the journal for social issues Pogledi (Views), which was published in Split from 1969 to 1990. He was also on the Editorial Boards of journals Sociologija (Sociology, the journal of the Yugoslav Sociological Association) and Revija za sociologiju (Review of Sociology, the journal of the Croatian Sociological Society).
The main field of Vrcan's scholarly interest was sociology of religion. On that subject he published the books Raspeto kršćanstvo (Christianity Crucified, 1980, co-authored by Boris Vušković); Od krize religije do religije krize (From the Crisis of Religion to the Religion of Crisis, 1986); Faith in the Swirls of Transition (Vjera u vrtlozima tranzicije, 2001). He studied social inequality (Social Inequalities and the Modern Society – Društvene nejednakosti i moderno društvo – 1974); the relationship between sport and violence (Sport and Violence Here Today – Sport i nasilje danas u nas, 1990; Sport, Violence, and Politics – Sport, nasilje i politika – 2003); as a co-author, he participated in two studies of voting behaviour (A Raid on Voters – Pohod na glasače, 1995; Packaging Power – Pakiranje vlásti, 1999); he was also a co-author of a study of youth (Position, Awareness, and Behaviour of the Young Generation of Yugoslavia – Položaj, svest i ponašanje mlade generacije Jugoslavije, 1986). He also published hundreds of scientific and review articles, articles in newspapers and interviews, which makes him one of the most productive Croatian sociologists.
Vrcan's particular merit is establishing and development of the particular sociological disciplines such as sociology of religion, of sport, of politics, of the youth, and of elections and electoral systems.
Srđan Vrcan actively supported democratic civic initiatives; thus, he was among the founders of the Association for Yugoslav Democratic Initiative, the first political civic initiative in the communist Yugoslavia (established in early 1989). He participated in many civic education activities, such as summer schools for democracy and human rights, and spoke at many public panel hearings on relevant political issues.
The photo is from an interview with Rade Dragojević in Zarez, in which Vrcan discusses his research on football fans and politics. | <urn:uuid:86057433-935e-44ab-b531-fc3910308194> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eastethnia.blogspot.jp/2006_12_31_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956842 | 1,507 | 1.554688 | 2 |
EDHI 202 - Students as Group Leaders
Examines the dynamics of group leadership. Focuses on the theoretical and experiential bases for developing group leadership skills and ethics. Attention is given to involvement in student organizations through workshops and faculty mentoring. A total of 2 hours of credit may be earned, but no more than 1 in any one semester or term. Open only to "Excellence in Leadership" phase two program participants.
College: Teachers College | <urn:uuid:cfd870fd-86aa-441c-bc12-5c6c75e6273d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bsu.edu/common/course/0,1481,---EDHI-202,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926924 | 93 | 1.625 | 2 |
- Hispanic Resources
The so-called “digital wallet”—consolidating payment, loyalty, and identity information into one mobile and online-enabled solution—has become a sort of “Holy Grail in next-generation payments,” according to Bank Systems & Technology. But the concept has languished as a not-so-distant science fiction that any number of stakeholders has raced to achieve.
In May, Visa Inc. announced its intention to launch an integrated digital wallet this fall—just in time for the holiday shopping season. If successful, the wallet will include an array of cross-channel services that further digitize and simplify online payments. The integrated features could eventually drive adoption of mobile near field communications (NFC)-enabled payments.
Visa is also planning on leveraging mobile messaging technology and e-mail alerts. As an online payments option, consumers will be able to enter payments details into a preference center, choose how they wish to pay—through credit or debit card—and purchase goods online through a streamlined process.
The wallet will be an open system, according to a Visa press release, in that financial institutions and merchants can brand it or extend it as they choose, and consumer payment options won't be limited to just Visa cards.
Going mainstream, maybe
Similarly, Google unveiled its mobile wallet in late May, promising that it would work with existing technology and provide an NFC-enabled mobile payment platform.
But according to the country’s largest terminal maker, the process isn’t that simple.
When Google launched its mobile wallet, it didn’t explain “how much work, how much software, how much testing, and how much integration went on to make this happen,” Douglas Bergeron, point-of-sale equipment vendor VeriFone’s chief executive, tells PaymentsSource.com.
Allowing the digital wallet to be accessed at the physical point of sale through NFC technology is essential, and the optimistic view is that payment terminal manufacturers and most handset manufacturers have both been adopting NFC technology in their devices.
The extra functions that appeal to consumers, such as digital coupons, require merchant support. The added functionality and tracking will demand added software, and merchants must see the need to make additional investments, say analysts.
“It’s a conundrum. I’d say hardware is even worse than the software,” says James Van Dyke, president of Javelin Strategy and Research. “We’re talking about several hundred dollars, maybe thousands of dollars, for every one of those registers.”
Another issue is whether retailers should ensure consumers can get a clear wireless signal at the register to enable them to check their balances and access their digital coupons.
VeriFone, for its part, is modifying the aesthetics of its terminals to better encourage the use of mobile payments.
“Merchants don’t want coily cords. They don’t want to turn their countertop, which is the last moment in time with the customer, into what looks like a junkyard,” Bergeron says.
So, despite promises of digital wallets in time for holiday shopping, fully functional mobile payments may still face slow adoption, experts say. | <urn:uuid:ec9054b5-cc5a-494d-937a-293476748b7f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.creditunionmagazine.com/articles/37127-the-digital-wallet-promises-promises | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943826 | 672 | 1.695313 | 2 |
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Japan posted its longest run of trade deficits in three decades as exports fell in February, underscoring challenges for Bank of Japan (8301) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda in reviving the world’s third-biggest economy.
Shipments dropped 2.9 percent from a year earlier, the Finance Ministry said in Tokyo today. The median estimate of 22 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 1.7 percent decrease. Imports rose 11.9 percent, leaving a trade shortfall of 777.5 billion yen ($8.1 billion).
Kuroda is scheduled to give his first press conference from 6 p.m. in Tokyo today, with news from Bank of Japan briefings usually embargoed until after they finish. The new central bank chief has pledged more aggressive monetary easing that may further weaken a yen down about 10 percent against the dollar this year, a move that’s already swelling the nation’s import bill as nuclear-plant shutdowns force bigger imports of fossil fuels.
“There’s a time lag until the weakening yen will push up exports,” said Yoshimasa Maruyama, chief economist at Itochu Corp. in Tokyo, who said that imports of oil and liquefied natural gas drove the biggest gain in inbound shipments since October 2011.
February’s deficit was the eighth consecutive monthly trade shortfall, the longest stretch since 1980.
The yen strengthened 0.6 percent to 95.41 per dollar as of 6:37 p.m. in Tokyo.
Exports to China fell 15.8 percent as Asia’s largest economy celebrated the week-long Lunar New Year holiday in February, while shipments to Asia dropped 5.2 percent. Exports to the U.S. rose 5.7 percent, while those to the European Union fell 9.6 percent.
Extra easing by the Bank of Japan is “likely to weaken the yen, boosting import costs and expanding the trade deficit,” Junko Nishioka, chief economist at RBS Securities Japan Ltd. in Tokyo and a former central bank official, said before the release. “The positive impact of the declining yen has yet to be seen.”
Kuroda will speak on monetary policy at the press conference, he told reporters in Tokyo today. Deputy Governors Kikuo Iwata and Hiroshi Nakaso will also speak to the press, the BOJ said in a statement today.
Analysts at banks from JPMorgan Chase & Co. to Barclays Plc expect the BOJ to add stimulus as soon as the next policy meeting on April 3-4.
Kubota Corp. (6326), a tractor maker, said last week that the weakening yen will push sales to a record in the fiscal year starting April. Other exporters including Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) and Nintendo Co. (7974) have raised profit estimates as the yen’s slide raises the value of their foreign revenue.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on March 18 raised its forecast for Japan’s economic growth in fiscal 2013 to 2.3 percent from 2.1 percent. “Typically, a weak yen is swiftly reflected in higher import prices and a rise in the value of imports, but export growth usually comes with a lag, meaning the trade deficit could persist,” Goldman economists wrote in a note.
Obstacles to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s campaign to revive the economy include an aging population, the world’s biggest government debt burden, and restrictions on labor-market flexibility.
To contact the reporters on this story: Andy Sharp in Tokyo at email@example.com; Keiko Ujikane in Tokyo at firstname.lastname@example.org
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Panckhurst at email@example.com | <urn:uuid:cc8e340d-639a-4e21-9934-c3bc7419616d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-03-20/japan-february-exports-fall-2-dot-9-percent-with-yen-effect-yet-to-kick-in | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941625 | 816 | 1.5 | 2 |
Sequester looking pretty inevitable
posted at 9:21 am on February 15, 2013 by Ed Morrissey
So says The Hill, with good reason — Congress has taken a break with just two weeks to go before the deadline. The House and Senate won’t return until February 25th, which only gives them three days to cut a deal to avoid it. That won’t be nearly enough time, and is out of the question if John Boehner sticks to his pledge of normal-order budgeting. The question now will be how long it lasts rather than whether it hits:
The question in Washington is no longer whether the automatic spending cuts known as the sequester will be implemented: It’s when and even if the spending reductions will ever be shut off.
The $85 billion in cuts looming on March 1 would run through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, leaving more than $900 billion in cuts for Congress and the White House to wrangle with over the next nine years.
Pressure may intensify to pass sequester legislation in March as federal workers are furloughed and Pentagon and other government programs are cut.
But the cuts seem also certain to begin rolling given the vast distance between Democrats and Republicans over how to avert them.
One measure of the urgency given this deadline is the very fact that no one felt compelled to stick around next week to deal with it. Another measure is the fact that it’s been a well-known deadline for months now, and yet it took until yesterday for Senate Democrats to offer an alternative to the sequester — and one they knew would be completely unacceptable to the House. That was just a proposal, and a preliminary one at that, with no legislative language for consideration. (The House has twice passed a replacement package that the Senate won’t even consider.)
Of course, at different times both parties have expressed support for letting the sequester hit. Democrats thought it was a great idea when the White House demanded that Republicans accept it in the summer 2011 budget deal, and as late as just a few months ago, Barack Obama scolded Republicans for trying to “wriggle out” of the deal. When Republicans embraced the cuts, suddenly Democrats started talking about how dangerous they are. Perhaps neither side is terribly anxious in reality to undo the only reductions in spending that they’ve so far managed to produce, and that’s why they’re all leaving town rather than deal with the consequences.
If that doesn’t seem terribly dignified, don’t tell Nancy Pelosi. She complained yesterday that the sequester would reduce the “dignity” of Congress and their staffs by forcing them to work for less money. No, seriously:
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that she opposes a cut in congressional pay because it would diminish the dignity of lawmakers’ jobs.
“I don’t think we should do it; I think we should respect the work we do,” Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. “I think it’s necessary for us to have the dignity of the job that we have rewarded.”
The comments were made in the context of the looming sequester, which would force across-the-board cuts affecting most federal offices, including Congress. With lawmakers nowhere near a deal to avert those cuts, federal agencies are bracing for ways to absorb them with minimum damage to programs and personnel.
Ahem. Is this the same body that hasn’t produced a single normal-order budget since 2009, despite being required by law to do so? What exactly have they done with “dignity” on Capitol Hill during that time? They shouldn’t get paid at all if they can’t even bother to budget, one of their core responsibilities. There may be many things wrong with the sequester as it is currently constituted, but the insult to Congressional dignity is pretty far down the priority list.
Breaking on Hot Air | <urn:uuid:163e12a0-cf25-4d71-a7f6-57cb75ef1f53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hotair.com/archives/2013/02/15/sequester-looking-pretty-inevitable/comment-page-3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969743 | 833 | 1.515625 | 2 |
MATHEMATICS EDUCATION FORUM
|June 18, 2013|
FIELDS MATHEMATICS EDUCATION FORUM
Present: S. Brown, Shirley Dalrymple, Sandy DiLena, George Gadanidis, Cyril Garner, Gila Hanna, Bradd Hart, Sonia Beu Jaafar, Dragana Martinovic, Eric Muller, Chris Nanou, Geoff Roulet, Tom Sepp, Margaret Sinclair, Joe Sinyor, Peter Taylor, Al Vilcius
Regrets: Ed Barbeau, Chris Suurtamm, Walter Whiteley
1. George Gadanidis reported that preparations for the February Online Meeting were progressing well, and that public keynotes would be held on Thursday, February 27 by Alan Kay and Seymour Papert. The working group meetings would begin with a keynote by Bill Muirhead on Friday, February 28. He also reported that a Mathematics as Story Symposium would be held in June.
2. Assessment Presentations
-Description of Official ministry curriculum and assessment documents, available here through the Ministry of Education website
-She explained that the current curriculum was expectations-based, and that what was written by those framing the curriculum was not necessarily what was passed by parliament
-Focusses on 3 separate elements: assessment (gathering information), evaluation (judging the quality based on criteria) and reporting (report cards). It is important to note that the main purpose of the first two factors should always be to improve the quality of student learning.
-Achievement charts now have same categories and judgement criteria in all subject areas.
-Evaluation: 30% final exam, 70% term work - term work 'should reflect student's most consistent level of achievement'
-learning skills are reported separately from the mark, whereas they used to be included; these skills are tracked from grade 1, but aren't included in what is sent to universities
-One example of a problem with assessment: on a test, the answer is provided for a student, who has to find the steps necessary to get the answer. They focus so much on getting to that answer, that they don't finish the test.
-Curriculum is now destinations-based: university, workplace, etc.
- Assessment in math has always been fuzzy; standard tests have often received different marks, though fundamentally the same
-Currently, what are considered to be Level 3 skills involve understanding a given question fully, while Level 4 involves extending that understanding to problem solving
-One issue that should be considered is whether assessment is driving instruction
-The distinction between assessment and evaluation is fairly arbitrary, when in fact the two concepts are quite similar.
-In some ways, the categories in the achievement chart could be seen in a hierarchy; the chart was not originally meant to be the core of assessment
-Why do all math teachers need to evaluate all or multiple strands in a given term?
-In Ontario, there is "high-stakes assessment"
-Percentages have always been used for ranking; it has been very difficult for teachers to pull away from the percentage scheme towards the use of rubrics, which are new to math evaluation
-When new factors, such as curriculum, are introduced, Professional Development tends to focus on the new, and forgets about what came before
-In many cases, kids would hypothesize, test, and go back and erase their hypothesis if it was proved wrong
-Role playing: kids write differently if given a target audience, or when writing for a given teacher
-With OSS students, those who are going through now with the intention of spending 4 years will have trouble if they don't get in, and might do better under a
4 1/2- or 5-year plan.
-The 2 categories where kids tend to grow the most are those marked with rubrics
-Number marks do not necessarily need to be given all along the way, since development and progress can be seen
-The current curriculum embeds the intent of the 1985 OSS curriculum, which had the ideas only as a preamble
-Many teachers are having trouble with the current volume of marking
-Electronic version of assessment handouts are avialable by following the links below:
Planning a Trip 1
Planning a Trip 2
Planning a Trip 3
Test 2 - Relations
-What constituted Levels 1, 2 and 3 was not agreed on universally - this presents a false view of uniformity and puts pressure on teachers to conform to an imprecise procedure.
Where do we go with assessment in Ontario?
-Provide forms of assessment (tests, quizzes, assignments) that teachers are familiar with to inform them of the levels being looked at and how to test them.
-Fields doesn't need to generate another set of resources: uniformity is impossible | <urn:uuid:48fe68f1-2f4e-49cc-a357-f030ff667993> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fields.utoronto.ca/programs/mathed/meetings/minutes/02-03/03,01,18.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950904 | 1,000 | 2.328125 | 2 |
The Eugene Stoner-designed M16 was invented and developed in the United States, proven in Vietnam and used by two generations of American warriors in jungles, open desert and urban combat. However it has also been the main battle rifle of many other armed forces that battled terrorism decades before our 9/11 entry into the global fight.
One of those countries that has fought both organized and well-armed criminal groups as well as insurgency from multiple threats has been the Philippines. It was one of the first countries that experienced the shift from battling terrorist groups like the communist New Peoples Army (NPA) and Islamic extremists from their jungle strongholds to their heavily populated cities.
The increasingly urban battlespace created a need for their military and police to be similarly equipped for counter-terror operations, as we are seeing in our country today. The fact that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Mindanao might be used in hostage rescue in the city and the Philippine National Police (PNP) are used in operations against the jungle lairs of the NPA clearly shows that common logistics are essential, so both have selected the M16-based SOAR from Ferfrans as their preferred long arm. | <urn:uuid:a5c97762-6b8b-4e54-b37f-bee7ff251e84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tactical-life.com/tactical-weapons/ferfrans-firestorm/?right=related | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975162 | 243 | 2.0625 | 2 |
The technology now exists to make any tale of imagination come to life on the silver screen. What was started thirty years ago by George Lucas with "Star Wars" has evolved today into an art form where even the most mind boggling fantasy can spring to life, as was exhibited in Peter Jackson's amazing "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
Now Robert Zemeckis takes aim at another literary classic, the Olde English epic poem "Beowulf", using the same technique of motion-capture that he employed in the holiday tale "The Polar Express". It is a cross between CGI animation (like "Shrek") and green screen computer wizardry used to place real actors in unreal sets, such as was used in "300". Visually, it is like nothing else you have ever seen. It's a cartoon...but it's not. When you see old king Hrothgar, it's not just Anthony Hopkins' voice you are hearing, but Hopkins' face and mannerisms as well.
It's a surrealistic, but slightly disconcerting experience, as the one thing that doesn't work well right now with this technology is giving the characters' eyes any level of depth and soul. They seem dead, and it's one of the reasons that you never really can connect with them in the way that you should.
The story itself is one known by pretty much everyone in America, as I haven't found anyone I've talked to who didn't have to read through it in either 8th or 9th grade. The monster Grendal is tormenting the Danes. Hero Beowulf comes from across the sea and battles both Grendal and then Grendal's mother. Later in life, he battles a dragon. The poem itself is long for its genre at 3183 lines, but not exactly novel length, either. This is where the screenwriters must come in...and where they fail miserably.
The comparisons of this film to both the aforementioned "300" and "Lord of the Rings" is inevitable...and that is where "Beowulf"'s flaws are so apparent. In those other epics about battles and sacrifice, you had heroes that you could emphasize with; fleshed out characters who let you inside of them enough to understand their motives, fears, and desires. Whether it was a reluctant, noble man who was unbeatable in battle, like Aragorn in "LOTR", or a proud, fearless warrior whose heart pined for his queen, like Leonidas in "300", we could understand and identify with these larger than life figures.
Not so with Beowulf. Why is he there, other than the love of battle? You never really know. How much of his tales of glory are real, and how much is wild boasting? Zemeckis leads you to believe that Beowulf is almost as good at spreading B.S. as he is at fighting. Even after his early success in battle, Beowulf is still a mystery, and not a sympathetic character at all. He has secrets. He has told multiple lies. And he knows that he's not the man he pretends to be, but isn't sure how to handle it. Zemeckis evidently doesn't know how to handle it either. Consequently, as an audience member, you alternate between pulling for Beowulf as a Hero, and feeling disdain for his callous behavior, wondering why he's acting in that manner.
Now that approach may work for something like "The Sopranos", or any other mob movie...but in those cases, you know the central character isn't on the up and up to begin with. In a heroic epic, you don't really want to see that emotional ambiguity.
Perhaps if the other characters were of any interest, it might still be OK...but with one exception, that's not the case. Hopkins' King Hrothgar is a drunken, dirty old man in a bed sheet that embarrassingly opens up too often, showing the king's bare assets. Robin Wright Penn may have created the most bored animated character of all times as Queen Wealthow...it's unclear who she finds more tiresome...her husband or Beowulf. John Malkovich is also wasted as Unferth, the chancellor to the King who first acts like what you'd expect from a John Malkovich character, the sneering plotter bent on foiling the hero, and then morphing into a lackey once Beowulf prevails; before eventually turning into a firebrand holy man.
The one exception, of course, is Angelina Jolie as Grendal's mother, a cross between a serpent and Elvira...and probably the hottest animated character ever put on screen. The motion capture process works brilliantly for her character, who is not portrayed as she was in the poem, as a hellion warrior, but as a seductress with a body that would have fit right in with the cult classic "Heavy Metal". Unfortunately, despite all the trailer emphasis on her, she actually has less than ten minutes screen time, much to the detriment of this film.
Be warned...it's not a movie for the little kids, either, as it's more gory than "300". Heads are bit off, giant eyes are sliced open, and limbs hacked and hewed enough to almost satisfy Mel Gibson's bloodlust if he were making a "Braveheart" sequel.
All in all, it's a fascinating film in regards to the technology, but one where you walk out thinking about all of the shortcomings. Zemeckis loves new technology, and loves being a pioneer with it. That works well when he also has a story to tell and characters to care for, such as "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", "Back to the Future", and "Forrest Gump". When he forgets that fact, he ends up with disappointments like "Death Becomes Her" and "What Lies Beneath".
This movie could have been something truly special. But like its hero, it is too shallow to embrace.
My Rating: Tim Couch (1 ½ footballs).
Get DirectSatTV to follow your favorite Cavs action. | <urn:uuid:19db609a-d3c4-4930-ba23-32ebaed2af6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theclevelandfan.com/misc/movies-tv/10-movies-archive/2578 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976089 | 1,272 | 2.484375 | 2 |
Shelby Foote, from Mississippi, has died. He was 88. He was best known for his three-volume work, The Civil War: a Narrative
My father got used copies when I was teenager. I’ve read them twice, plus the beginning and the end several more times, plus the battle of Chickamauga several times. And sometimes I’ll just open it at hazard and read a few pages.
It would be hard to explain all the attractions of his Narrative. For one, he manages to recapture as a southerner Lincoln’s perspective that the Civil War was God’s drama, or fate, for his almost-chosen people. But the most relevant reason here is that I recognized something of myself in his writing.
He once explained that “[f]or every southern boy, it’s always in his reach to imagine it being 1:00 on an early July day in 1863.” And in his writing it’s clear that, though he is no partisan, the South is where his heart lies. The truth is that America has produced four indigenous nations (besides the prevailing one)–the South, the African-Americans, the Mormons, and Texas. One of those–Texas–is a more or less triumphant nation. It has accommodated with America on its own terms. One of the others–the African-Americans–is unique. But the Saints and the South have much in common. We both had a region and an approach to life and a separateness that was brought into the United States mostly unwillingly. We both have a memory. We both feel that we have lost something. And in both cases our memories of loss are tainted by the ‘relics of barbarism’–slavery in their case and polygamy in ours.
I’m not the first one to think along these lines. Several have pointed out the common postures of the South and the Saints vis-a-vis the federal government in the 19th Century. Richard Bushman has famously also pointed out that we still are partly a colonized people in the 20th Century. What Shelby Foote did for me was allow me to extend the comparison into the 20th Century. I found in his writing, in his approach to the war, a way out of my dilemma: how to honor my past and embrace it without rejecting the America that had replaced it, that I also loved? How to be both a Saint and an American? Shelby Foote loved America because he loved the South. | <urn:uuid:3eb6a80a-dabc-4535-8b3e-c49184bfb1d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2005/07/if-i-forget-thee-o-jerusalem/ | 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 | 0.98405 | 532 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Shrubbery Camouflages Helmet (Oct, 1939)
What helmet? All I see is shrubs. With binoculars.
Shrubbery Camouflages Helmet
Shrub branches sprouting from soldiers’ helmets are a form of camouflage now being generally used in wartime to help hide officers and troops from enemy snipers. To facilitate the attachment of this camouflage shrubbery, the steel helmets of British troops are being covered with burlap, or other rough cloth, that is applied in folds to hold shrub stems in place, as shown in the illustration above. | <urn:uuid:d95d2e1c-61ff-43d0-91c6-772033291d03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.modernmechanix.com/shrubbery-camouflages-helmet/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955108 | 117 | 2.40625 | 2 |
A reflection by Mother Maria-Michael Newe, OSB.
I read the following verse this morning: “Beloved clothe yourselves with humility… humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time.” (1 Peter 5:5,6) Living that will take a lifetime; and yet we can begin today.
Humility is simply truth. And to live in the truth means you never deny the gifts in yourself and also you never deny the gifts in others. This is what it takes to live in 'right order'. If we practiced this, the world would live in right order. The world itself would be in peace if there were true humility.
Humility respects and humility doesn’t try to be what it is not. When we see that, we find freedom. Imagine if you didn’t have to live up to the expectations you think others have for you or the expectations you have for yourself. If you could simply be yourself and be at peace with that, God would be pleased, because your true self is God’s gift. That is who you are before God. And He rejoices when He sees you. To discover that makes you youthful at any age. | <urn:uuid:dc02140f-b6df-4829-b35f-0b8a74a16194> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stwalburga.blogspot.com/2009_05_03_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959621 | 255 | 1.75 | 2 |
Has America Become a Nation of Psychotics? You'd Certainly Think So, Based on the Medications We're Taking
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Has America become a nation of psychotics? You would certainly think so, based on the explosion in the use of antipsychotic medications. In 2008, with over $14 billion in sales, antipsychotics became the single top-selling therapeutic class of prescription drugs in the United States, surpassing drugs used to treat high cholesterol and acid reflux.
Once upon a time, antipsychotics were reserved for a relatively small number of patients with hard-core psychiatric diagnoses - primarily schizophrenia and bipolar disorder - to treat such symptoms as delusions, hallucinations, or formal thought disorder. Today, it seems, everyone is taking antipsychotics. Parents are told that their unruly kids are in fact bipolar, and in need of anti-psychotics, while old people with dementia are dosed, in large numbers, with drugs once reserved largely for schizophrenics. Americans with symptoms ranging from chronic depression to anxiety to insomnia are now being prescribed anti-psychotics at rates that seem to indicate a national mass psychosis.
It is anything but a coincidence that the explosion in antipsychotic use coincides with the pharmaceutical industry's development of a new class of medications known as "atypical antipsychotics." Beginning with Zyprexa, Risperdal, and Seroquel in the 1990s, followed by Abilify in the early 2000s, these drugs were touted as being more effective than older antipsychotics like Haldol and Thorazine. More importantly, they lacked the most noxious side effects of the older drugs - in particular, the tremors and other motor control problems.
The atypical anti-psychotics were the bright new stars in the pharmaceutical industry's roster of psychotropic drugs - costly, patented medications that made people feel and behave better without any shaking or drooling. Sales grew steadily, until by 2009 Seroquel and Abilify numbered fifth and sixth in annual drug sales, and prescriptions written for the top three atypical antipsychotics totaled more than 20 million. Suddenly, antipsychotics weren't just for psychotics any more.
Not just for psychotics anymore
By now, just about everyone knows how the drug industry works to influence the minds of American doctors, plying them with gifts, junkets, ego-tripping awards, and research funding in exchange for endorsing or prescribing the latest and most lucrative drugs. "Psychiatrists are particularly targeted by Big Pharma because psychiatric diagnoses are very subjective," says Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, whose PharmedOut project tracks the industry's influence on American medicine, and who last month hosted a conference on the subject at Georgetown. A shrink can't give you a blood test or an MRI to figure out precisely what's wrong with you. So it's often a case of diagnosis by prescription. (If you feel better after you take an anti-depressant, it's assumed that you were depressed.) As the researchers in one study of the drug industry's influence put it, "the lack of biological tests for mental disorders renders psychiatry especially vulnerable to industry influence." For this reason, they argue, it's particularly important that the guidelines for diagnosing and treating mental illness be compiled "on the basis of an objective review of the scientific evidence" - and not on whether the doctors writing them got a big grant from Merck or own stock in AstraZeneca.
Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and a leading critic of the Big Pharma, puts it more bluntly: "Psychiatrists are in the pocket of industry." Angell has pointed out that most of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the bible of mental health clinicians, have ties to the drug industry. Likewise, a 2009 study showed that 18 out of 20 of the shrinks who wrote the American Psychiatric Association's most recent clinical guidelines for treating depression, bipolar disorders, and schizophrenia had financial ties to drug companies. | <urn:uuid:fe0c47f7-63a7-45d7-95a3-1dd1dd44214a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alternet.org/story/151657/has_america_become_a_nation_of_psychotics_you'd_certainly_think_so,_based_on_the_medications_we're_taking | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947539 | 836 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Civil society for a secure world without weapons of mass destruction
Vienna, 11 January 2013 - "I have no doubt whatsoever that civil society is enabling the world to closer approach the objective of abolishing weapons of mass destruction through the positive influence it exerts", Austrian Vice-Chancellor and Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said referring to the message from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to the First Civil Society Forum to support the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1540. This Forum was held in Vienna at the invitation of Austria between 8 and 10 January 2013 and brought together some 50 non-governmental organisations from virtually all regions of the world. The UN headquarters location Vienna was also made good use of here for discussions with the international organisations based in the city. The UN Secretary General offered his explicit thanks to Austria for this initiative.
"Austrian support for worldwide implementation of UN Resolution 1540 is a part of our efforts to achieve as many of the necessary requirements to approach the goal of a world free from weapons of mass destruction as possible and as quickly as possible. Civil society involvement is essential here in order to put people and their direct needs for peace and opportunities for personal development at the focus of our security thinking", Foreign Minister Spindelegger said explaining Austrian disarmament policy.
"Our long-standing efforts to involve non-governmental organisations in the solution of global problems are also bearing fruit now in the area of disarmament. The Vienna Centre for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP), which I established two years ago, has strengthened the role of Vienna as an international centre for the civil society in disarmament issues through its participation in the "1540 Civil Society Forum" organisation. Simultaneously it is also thanks to the new Vienna branch of the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), which was also initiated by Austria, that the conference could be organised perfectly in the Vienna International Centre (UNO-City)", Vice-Chancellor Spindelegger said, pointing to the fruits of the long-term and intensive work of Austrian UN diplomacy.
Background information for the media:
Resolution 1540 (2004) of the UN Security Council was adopted in response to the threat to peace and security resulting from the illegal activities of non-state actors in regard to weapons of mass destruction and their carrier systems. This Security Council resolution is binding for all states of the world, although not all of the states have the necessary prerequisites for the implementation of these obligations. International support, also with the involvement of civil society, will be required for this.
Information is available in English on the conference website.
Federal Ministry for
European and International Affairs
Tel.: ++43 (0) 50 1150-3320
Fax: ++43 (0) 50 1159 213 | <urn:uuid:2aac7b35-90a3-46b0-9f07-3d3ba1e919a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bmeia.gv.at/en/foreign-ministry/news/press-releases/2013/zivilgesellschaft-fuer-eine-sichere-welt-ohne-massenvernichtungswaffen.html?ADMCMD_editIcons=ppzpdfdtvtsgngkw | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940654 | 572 | 2.15625 | 2 |
Jupiter's Amalthea Surprisingly Jumbled
9 Dec 2002
(Source: NASA Headquarters)
Donald Savage Headquarters, Washington (Phone: 202/358-1727)
Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. (Phone: 818/354-6278)
NASA's Galileo spacecraft continues to deliver surprises. Galileo's seven-year run of discoveries continued with the discovery of Jupiter's potato-shaped inner moon named Amalthea. It appears the moon has a very low density, indicating it is full of holes.
"The density is unexpectedly low," said Dr. John D. Anderson, an astronomer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif. "Amalthea is apparently a loosely packed pile of rubble, he said."
The empty gaps between solid chunks likely take up more of the moon's total volume than the solid pieces, and even the chunks are probably material that is not dense enough to fit some theories about the origin of Jupiter's moons. "Amalthea now seems more likely to be mostly rock with maybe a little ice, rather than a denser mix of rock and iron," said JPL's Dr. Torrence Johnson, project scientist for Galileo.
This red-tinted moon measures about 270 kilometers (168 miles) in length and half that in width. Anderson and colleagues estimated Amalthea's mass from its gravitational affect on Galileo, when the spacecraft passed within about 160 kilometers (99 miles) of the moon on Nov. 5. Dr. Peter Thomas at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., had calculated Amalthea's volume from earlier Galileo images of the moon.
Amalthea's overall density is close to the density of water ice, Anderson reports today at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. However, the moon is almost certainly not a solid hunk of ice. "Nothing in the Jupiter system would suggest a composition that's mainly ice," Anderson said.
Amalthea's irregular shape and low density suggests the moon has been broken into many pieces that cling together from the pull of each other's gravity, mixed with empty spaces, where the pieces don't fit tightly together. "It's probably boulder-size or larger pieces just touching each other, not pressing hard together," Anderson said.
Johnson said, "This finding supports the idea that the inner moons of Jupiter have undergone intense bombardment and breakup. Amalthea may have formed originally as one piece, but then was busted to bits by collisions."
Amalthea does not have quite enough mass to pull itself together into a consolidated, spherical body like Earth's moon or Jupiter's four largest moons. The density estimate, obtained from Galileo's flyby, extends an emerging pattern of finding irregularly shaped moons and asteroids to be porous rubble piles. What's more of a surprise, Johnson and Anderson said, is the density estimate is so low that even the solid parts of Amalthea are apparently less dense than Io, a larger moon that orbits about twice as far from Jupiter.
One model for the formation of Jupiter's moons suggests moons closer to the planet would be made of denser material than those farther out. That's based on a theory that early Jupiter, like a weaker version of the early Sun, would have emitted enough heat to prevent volatile, low-density material from condensing and being incorporated into the closer moons. Jupiter's four largest moons fit this model, with the innermost of them, Io, also the densest, made mainly of rock and iron. However, the new finding suggests, even if Amalthea is mostly gaps, its solid chunks have less density than Io.
Galileo's flyby of Amalthea brought the spacecraft closest to Jupiter since it began orbiting the giant planet on Dec. 7, 1995. After more than 30 close encounters with Jupiter's four largest moons, the flyby was the last for Galileo. Galileo has been put on course for a mission-ending impact with Jupiter on Sept. 21, 2003. Galileo's long and successful career will come to an end on the Jovian surface. The spacecraft, although still controllable from Earth, is running out of propellant. Researchers are looking forward to more surprises and new data, as Galileo approaches the foreboding giant planet.
Galileo left Earth aboard NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1989. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington. Additional information about the mission is available online at: http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov | <urn:uuid:8420534f-3ab4-4d28-9b72-dedf8637b225> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/display.cfm?News_ID=3919 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931965 | 961 | 3.671875 | 4 |
An affront to independence war heroes
The concerns of a parliamentary panel that the Freedom Fighters’ Welfare Trust set up in 1972 ‘with the objective of rehabilitating families of martyred and wounded freedom fighters,’ is being ‘systematically’ destroyed by vested interests, indeed demand an immediate response on part of the government. According to a New Age report on Thursday, the parliamentary standing committee on the liberation war affairs ministry at its meeting on Wednesday, while discussing the ongoing disastrous condition of all the 36 commercial ventures, apparently because of their unabated losses, run by the trust, also alleged that the vested quarters were out to grab the valuable land and other property of the trust. Besides, the committee deplored the apparent inaction of the incumbent Awami League-Jatiya party government, which more often than not describes itself as the champion of the spirit of the independence war, about protecting these enterprises.
Notably, at its inception, the government handed over the ownership of 19 industrial and commercial enterprises to the trust, many of which proved profitable until a certain period. Not only that, the profit earned by these organisations was also spent on different programmes intended to benefit families of hundreds of insolvent martyred freedom fighters especially those registered with the trust during the period. Like the Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawmaker tied to the committee, one can rightly recall the trust-run Tabani Beverage Industries Limited which, although now a losing concern, once met the country’s total demand for soft drinks.
The industrial and commercial concerns under the ownership of the trust are mostly the ones abandoned by their Pakistani owners. Most importantly, almost all of them are situated on prime locations in cities such as Dhaka and Chittagong while many of them spread over sprawling campuses, thus exposed to grabbing. In addition, rampant privatisation pursued by successive governments, including the incumbent one, of the entities belonging to the public sector for a few decades may have paved the way for grabbers mostly connected to the ruling quarters to heighten their efforts to encroach on these organisations. Pertinently, the key figures of the government, not least the prime minister, have on more occasions than one pledged to rejuvenate the ailing enterprises at hand in three years and a half or so, regrettably though, only to forget later.
It would, indeed, be a shame for the nation if the incumbents continue to fail to address the woes of the organisations in question. After all, they are tied to the freedom fighters, who braved the Pakistani occupation of our motherland, and cannot give in to the conspiracies of the encroachers.
comments powered by Disqus | <urn:uuid:eedcf3be-8170-430d-8d97-4ce34275d942> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newagebd.com/detail.php?date=2012-08-10&nid=20085 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954621 | 541 | 1.78125 | 2 |
|Full name:||Republic of Côte d'Ivoire|
|Language:||French (official), Dioula (spoken)|
|Currency:||West African CFA franc - CFA|
|National Anthem:||L'Abidjanaise (Song of Abidjan)|
|Newspaper:||Fraternite Matin, Le Jour|
|Places to Visit||National Museum of Abidjan , Grand Bassam, Parc National de la Comoë, Basilique de Notre Dame de la Paix and many others.|
|Transport:||Flieghts include Air Burkina, Air France, British Airways, Egyptair, Kenya Airways, SN Brussels that pass through this region to and fro. One may even avail trains and bus routes that ply from this region frequently to different destinations.|
|Shopping:||Ghanaian kente cloth, wax prints, pottery, indigo fabric, wooden statuettes and masks, woven cloth, bead necklaces, basketware.|
Location Of Cote D'ivoire
Côte d'Ivoire is nestled in the western part of the Sub Saharan Africa while facing towards the North Atlantic Ocean coast. The place is engulfed from all ends especially by Ghana from the eastern front, Liberia from the western front, Guinea from the northwestern part, Mali to the northern front, Burkina Faso to the northeast front and Gulf of Guinea from the southern front.
Physical Map Of Cote D'ivoire
The territory of Côte d'Ivoire can be described as a low coastal plain surging with plateaus rising above the sea level and ascending high with scenic mountains. The four major rivers in this region are Bandama, Cavally, Comoe and Sassandra.
The southern regions are filled with lagoons in coastal inlands that initializes from the Ghanaian border and extend along the eastern coast that is filled with tropical forests. The Guinean forest-savanna mosaic belt travel from east to west and seperates the region into coastal region and savannah grasslands. The Dix-Huit Montagnes mountainous region boders along the location of Guinea and Liberia which is nestled near the Guinean forest-savanna area.
Flag Of Cote D'ivoire
The flag of Cote d'Ivoire is designed with three bands of solid color stripes vertically placed which can be compared with the flag of Ireland. The colors are orange lying on the hoist side, which symbolizes the savanna grasslands ; white that signifies the rivers within the country and green, which is known for its coastal wooded forests. The flag was officially accepted during 3 December 1959.
Climate Of Cote D'ivoire
The climatic condition of Côte d'Ivoire varies from the equatorial in the southern coastal region to the semiarid in the far north. Semiariad experiences tropical weather condition whereas Equatorial witnesses dry and sultry atmosphere. November to March is generally warm and dry, March to May is especially hot and June to October is both hot and wet. The place is even affected with sudden rainfall followed with torrential flooding. Temperature ranges from 25 to 30 degree Celsius to 10 to 40 degree Celsius.
Côte d'Ivoire is filled with abundant flora and fauna. There are three major national reserves within the region namely Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve, Comoe National Park, Tai National Park.
The Mount Nimba Nature Reserve is covered with wooded mountain slants and green meadows and this place is famous for Chimpanzees who used stones as their tools whose remnants is still found in this place.
Tai National Park that is filled with tropical forests in the midst of Cavally and Sassandra rivers, is a home to endangered species like Pygmy Hippopotamus, elephants, leopards, diana and colobus monkeys, antelopes and many others.
The Comoe National Park or the Biosphere Reserve is a habitat for animals like baboons, lions and crocodiles.
The native birds include species like vultures, cranes, pigeons, turtledoves, parrots, herons and much more.
Deciduous trees are common in this region especially the mahogany plants.
People Of Cote D'ivoire
There are about 60 cultural groups by which the populations of Cote d'Ivoire can be divided into. The Baoulé (center), the Agri (eastern front), the Senufo (northern front), Dioula (northwest and western front), the Bété (center-west), the Dan-Yacouba (west) are few to name about.
Among the non Ivoirian Africans residing in this place most of the population is covered with people from Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, Benin, Senegal, Liberia, and Mauritania.
The people of this place are friendly in nature and treat you warmly with their hospitality. About 40 percent people staying in Cote d'Ivoire are Muslims, rest 40 percent are Christians and the others are of different religious groups.
Arts, Culture And Music Of Cote D'ivoire
Art: The Baoule, the Senoufo is known for their wooden carvings work creations. Ceremonial Masks are a prominent factor of the region that is inscribed with various designs. Brass carving is also an important factor that is used for artistic creation in Cote d'Ivoire. French Colonial architecture witnessed in Grand Bassam is a good example of masterpiece that was done during the primitive age.
Culture: Participate in the regional Festival of Masks, known as Fêtes des Masques thereby paying respect to the forest spirits that are personified within the masks. Bouaké carnival is celebrated in the month of March each year that carries on for a week.
Music: The music is an important source of entertainment within this region. Dan is considered as the well-played musical artist group within the town. Music is sung during the occasion of death, marriage, and birth or in any other celebrations. The famous musical instruments of this region native to this region are Talking drum, djembe, Kpalogo, Shekere (Youroo), Akombe, Cleavers and many others.
Economy Of Cote D'ivoire
The economic development of Cote d'Ivoire depends on the timber industry due to the wide expanse of forest reserves within the region. Hardwood export adds to the GDP growth in the country's revenue. Cocoa has its largest production in the area along with the plantation of cash crops like coffee, bananas, oil palms, palm oil, kernels, Maize, millet, rice, yams and cassava and many others.
The region has its production of major natural resources, which includes products like manganese, iron, cobalt, petroleum, natural gas, diamonds, bauxit, copper and hydopower and much more.
The region even has its hands on fish rearing and exporting especially the tuna and sardine fish. The regions fish hatrcheries can be seen in Bouaké, Bamoro, and Korhogo.
Stay connected at Mapsofworld for all relevant information about the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire. | <urn:uuid:17e5fae7-f380-4325-84a4-968e81803a39> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mapsofworld.com/country-profile/cote-divoire.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924446 | 1,545 | 2.546875 | 3 |
A confidential Pentagon assessment finds that an overwhelming majority of Iraq's Sunni Muslims support the insurgency that has been fighting against U.S. troops and the Iraqi government, ABC News has learned.
Officials won't say how the assessment was made but found that support for the insurgency has never been higher, with approximately 75 percent of the country's Sunni Muslims in agreement.
When the Pentagon started surveying Iraqi public opinion in 2003, Sunni support for the insurgents stood at approximately 14 percent.
The news comes as September is on track to become one of the deadliest months this year for U.S. troops in Iraq. Forty-nine Americans have been killed this month, with four deaths today.
The Iraqi toll is also climbing. At one Baghdad morgue, taxis and other cars line up to take away the bodies -- the U.S. and Iraqi forces' big push to secure the capital seems to be failing to curb the violence.
"Where is the government?" one man asked. "Where is the promise of security? Where is the prime minister?"
U.S. officials are asking the same questions as they privately express frustration with the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Officials say Maliki's government is not doing enough to win support of Iraq's Sunnis.
Former general Jack Keane said the Iraqi government has been "absolutely unable or unwilling to do anything about the Shia militia groups who are causing so much of the violence in Baghdad."
White House press secretary Tony Snow said reports that the president has lost faith in Maliki are "absolutely false." He said the prime minister has been in office just four months, and there has been "significant progress."
But many of the senior military officials ABC News has spoken to simply do not agree with that assessment. | <urn:uuid:77e80726-4892-4a82-8fe3-22fd7240693e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2470183&page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976767 | 362 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Bears are active in Grand Teton
Black and grizzly bears are roaming throughout the park--near roads, trails and in backcountry areas. Hikers and backcountry users are advised to travel in groups of three or more, make noise and carry bear spray. Visitors must stay 100 yards from bears. More »
Area closure in the area around Baxter's Pinnacle
An area closure is in effect around Baxter's Pinnacle to protect nesting peregrine falcons. This closure precludes any climbs of Baxter's Pinnacle and usage of the walk-off gully. This closure will be in effect through 8-15-2013. More »
Area Closure in effect in the Elk Ranch area
A temporary area closure is in effect in the Elk Ranch Area to protect wildlife during the denning and young-rearing period. Follow the link for a map of the closed area. More »
Special Activities on MLK Fee-Free Weekend
Contact: Jackie Skaggs, (307) 739-3393
January 10, 2011
Grand Teton National Park—along with the 394 units of the national park system—will waive entrance fees during the upcoming Martin Luther King holiday weekend (January 15-17) as part of a nationwide initiative to encourage people to visit and experience the many wonders of national parks across America. To highlight the first entry-free weekend of 2011, Grand Teton ranger naturalists invite visitors and local residents to attend an Evening of Astronomy program at the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center in Moose, and join an early evening snowshoe excursion on the Teton Park Road. Both activities will take place on Saturday, January 15.
The Evening of Astronomy program begins Saturday afternoon at 5 p.m. in the Discovery Center's auditorium with a 45-minute interactive presentation titled: Rangers of the Lost Dark. Ranger naturalists will introduce visitors to the incredible dark skies of Grand Teton National Park and provide tips on viewing the night sky during winter. No reservations are required for this program.
The Evening of Astronomy will continue with a twilight ranger-led snowshoe walk beginning at 6:15 p.m. from the Taggart Lake trailhead, located four miles north of the Discovery Center. The snowshoe walk will offer a chance to explore Grand Teton's magical winter landscape by twilight and learn about the unique characteristics that make this season so remarkable. For centuries, people have used snowshoes as a means of winter travel, and ranger-led snowshoe excursions are designed to introduce beginning and casual snowshoe walkers to the experience of a winter trek in the company of others. The snowshoe walk will traverse a level, three-mile roundtrip distance along the snow-covered Teton Park Road. The two-hour long activity does not require previous snowshoeing experience, and snowshoes are provided for anyone without their own. Reservations are required for this outdoor activity; please call 307.739.3399 to reserve a spot.
Those attending the twilight snowshoe walk should wear warm layered clothing, sturdy insulated boots, and a face scarf or ski mask, plus bring along an energy snack and water or hot beverage in a thermos. Headlamps and flashlights are required as essential safety equipment for any outdoor trek.
For a complete list of wintertime ranger-led activities and programs, please refer to the park's newspaper, Teewinot, online at www.nps.gov/grte, or call the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center at 307.739.3399.
Did You Know?
Did you know that lodgepole pine trees grow on glacial moraines in Jackson Hole? Glacial moraines are ridges of rocky debris left behind as Ice Age glaciers melted. The soil on these ridges retains moisture and is more hospitable to trees than the cobbly, porous soil on the outwash plain. | <urn:uuid:8f7a18fb-4fef-4a87-b878-e8cb78ce132c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nps.gov/grte/parknews/special-activities-on-mlk-fee-free-weekend.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920432 | 815 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Natalie Wood was a child actress who transitioned her early fame into a long and successful acting career.
Wood's first film role, at the age of 4, was in "Happy Land" for 20th Century Fox. Her mother was working for the studio, and Wood landed a silent bit role in the movie dropping an ice cream cone and bursting into tears. The director remembered her and called her two years later for a role in "Tomorrow Is Forever" with Orson Welles and Claudette Colbert.
By the mid-1950s she was entering what would—for most child actors—have been the "awkward age" verging on young adulthood. But the awkwardness seemed to miss Wood.
In 1955 Warner Bros. cast her opposite James Dean in "Rebel Without a Cause," and she was nominated for a supporting actress Oscar. Her next few pictures, "The Searchers," "A Cry in the Night," "The Burning Hills" and "The Girl Left Behind," were of a type—thin script, uninspired characterization—that were to plague her throughout her career.
In 1957 she was chosen, over such competition as Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn, for the lead in "Marjorie Morningstar." In 1961 she made "West Side Story" for United Artists and "Splendor in the Grass" for Warners. She won her second Oscar nomination for "Splendor."
Wood was paired with actor Robert Wagner in several films and the two began dating. They married in 1956, divorced in 1965, and remarried in 1972.
She continued to get parts in films such as "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice," "Peeper," "The Last Married Couple in America" and "Meteor." She also did several TV movies, receiving an Emmy nomination. The last film she worked on was "Brainstorm," an MGM production that was nearly complete when she died in a drowning accident.
Points of interest
|1955||Best Supporting Actress||Rebel Without a Cause||Nomination|
|1961||Best Actress||Splendor in the Grass||Nomination|
|1963||Best Actress||Love With the Proper Stranger||Nomination| | <urn:uuid:32754e94-f37b-4e3a-a1a2-43dc8039ccd8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/natalie-wood/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981793 | 449 | 1.59375 | 2 |
|Spend the time||indoors|
Computer with an internet connection
The Meteon Network is an ambitious collaboration in Italy to make scientific data from over 400 weather nationwide stations available in an easy to understand visual interface. You can now join in this groundbreaking work and gain access to loads of real time data. You can even add your own data and share analysis among the many members of the network.
The Meteon Network also employs several newer, more human centric, data products including something they call ‘weatherness’, among others, that are normalized to an easy to understand scale. All of these, and several other more traditional weather related measurements, are all displayed in real time on the Network’s interactive mapping application.
This kind of nationwide effort to monitor, analyze, and give citizens a more complete picture of weather may serve as a model for others to follow. Now is your chance to get involved in a trailblazing project and get into weather today! | <urn:uuid:fdf3b81e-77fb-4685-983c-f59d9d1048f0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scistarter.com/project/662-MeteoNetwork | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916594 | 201 | 2.3125 | 2 |
In computing, JIS encoding
refers to several Japanese Industrial Standards
the Japanese language
. Strictly speaking, the term means either:
- A set of standard character sets for Japanese, notably:
- JIS X 0201, the Japanese version of ISO 646 (ASCII) containing the base 7-bit ASCII characters (with some modifications) and 64 half-width katakana characters.
- JIS X 0208, the most common kanji character set containing 6,879 kanji
- JIS X 0212, a character set containing 6,067 characters
- JIS X 0213, which extends JIS X 0208
- JIS X 0202 (also known as ISO-2022-JP), a set of encoding mechanisms for sending JIS data over transmission mediums that only support 7-bit data.
In practice, "JIS encoding" usually refers to JIS X 0208 data encoded with JIS X 0202.
There is also the Shift JIS encoding, which adds the kanji, full-width hiragana and full-width katakana from JIS X 0208 in a compatible way to JIS X 0201. Shift JIS is perhaps the most widely used encoding in Japan, as the compatibility with the single-byte JIS X 0201 character set made it possible for electronic equipment manufacturers (such as cash register manufacturers) to offer an upgrade from older cheaper equipment that was not capable of displaying kanji to newer equipment while retaining character-set compatibility.
The main alternatives to JIS encoding are EUC (used on UNIX systems where the JIS encodings are incompatible with POSIX standards) and more recently Unicode, particularly in the form of UTF-8. | <urn:uuid:1af69ec0-517d-450e-9112-ab4f7dfa7cc7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reference.com/browse/JIS+X+0202 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912731 | 367 | 3.046875 | 3 |
What is the state of imagination in Oregon?
This is the question 170 of Portland’s creative community gathered to answer last Monday afternoon in Ziba’s treacherously steep auditorium in NW Portland. The event was one of 50 similar events taking place in every state as part of the Lincoln Center’s annual Imagination Summit.
Billed as a “conversation,” the organizers provided no panel, no experts, and no prepared remarks. Instead, moderator Frances Bronet, dean of UO’s School of Architecture and Allied Arts, instructed the audience to divide itself into small groups to “discuss ways to better foster, cultivate, and leverage imagination to improve our economy, educational system, and general well-being” while minute-by-minute updates from the event’s participants appeared on Twitter feed scrolling on a massive overhead screen.
Bronet then called on the groups to report back to everyone the results of their discussion. Over the course of the two hours, the focus drifted far afield, touching on everything from the vagaries of winemaking, to proficiency-based education, to an impassioned plea for the state to adopt a sales tax.
Nevertheless, recurring themes did come to the surface, the most urgent of which was the view that the supply of good ideas in Oregon is not a problem; rather, Oregon’s problem is successful execution of good ideas. As one participant tweeted halfway through the event, “It would be a travesty for this to end without an action plan. We need to harness this momentum….” In short, Oregon desperately needs action, not necessarily more imagination. | <urn:uuid:00bd7d27-8d0f-40fa-affd-9f6857d5515e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.portlandmonthlymag.com/arts-and-entertainment/culturephile-portland-arts/articles/oregons-imagination-october-2011 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944783 | 344 | 1.789063 | 2 |
FWC to meet Dec. 5-6 in Apalachicola
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Media contact: Amanda Nalley, 850-410-4943 (marine fisheries issues); or
Susan Smith, 850-488-8843 (other issues)
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) will meet Dec. 5 and 6 in Apalachicola to discuss Florida’s saltwater fishery, including possible game fish and sport fish designations and oyster populations in Apalachicola Bay; boating issues; hunting matters, including two new wildlife management areas; alligator harvesting; imperiled species updates and plans; and more.
The Wednesday-Thursday meeting begins at 8:30 a.m. both days in the Franklin County Courthouse, 33 Market Street, and is open to the public. Anyone wishing to address specific issues or items not on the agenda will be allowed to speak according to established guidelines.
After review of consent agenda items on the first day of the meeting, Executive Director Nick Wiley will present the director’s report.
Next on Dec. 5, FWC Commissioners will take up marine fisheries issues, including updates from the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council and the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council meetings, the 2013 Gulf of Mexico gag grouper recreational season, Atlantic black sea bass management changes, game fish and sport fish definitions and staff reports on flounder and oysters in Apalachicola Bay.
In a draft rule hearing, the Commission will discuss possibilities for the 2013 Gulf of Mexico gag grouper recreational season.
In a final public hearing, the Commission will consider changes to black sea bass management in Atlantic state waters. The proposed change would modify state recreational size and bag limits and commercial regulations to be consistent with federal rules.
The Commission also will consider a conservation measure creating game fish and sport fish definitions that could later be applied to some of Florida’s fisheries.
Flounder and oyster issues follow.
Also on Wednesday, staff will report on two boating-related topics.
First, they will review a proposed ordinance regulating the anchoring and mooring of non-live-aboard vessels outside of public mooring fields in Stuart/Martin County. Commission approval is necessary before the community can enforce its ordinance. This is the final ordinance under a five-community anchoring and mooring pilot program in Florida.
The other boating-related issue is a proposed rule amendment to the Okeechobee Waterway Boating Restricted Area.
When Commissioners reconvene on Dec. 6, law enforcement and legal staff will present the FWC’s award for Prosecutor of the Year.
Next, Commissioners will consider expanding hunting and fishing opportunities and public access on nearly 6 million acres of the FWC’s wildlife management area (WMA) system. Most noteworthy is the proposed addition of two new WMAs in its Southwest Region for the 2013-14 hunting season.
The Commission will address proposed amendments that would allow a quota permit holder to take a different guest each day of a quota hunt. Also, hunters would receive reinstatement of their preference points only if they electronically returned their unused quota permit 10 days or more prior to the first day of their quota hunt. Such returned permits would be reissued to other hunters on a weekly basis, instead of once a month.
Staff will update Commissioners on a statewide alligator harvest program and seek guidance for any needed improvements.
Staff from the FWC’s Division of Habitat and Species Conservation will explain how listing and managing threatened and endangered species works in Florida. This presentation will focus on species that are state or federally listed, and on the FWC’s collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conserve imperiled species. Staff will also update Commissioners on a modified Imperiled Species Management Plan for 61 state-listed species. The new approach uses a plan that combines multi-species conservation strategies with species-specific action plans, and includes ongoing stakeholder involvement.
Discussions on automatic vessel registration and recreational license changes and an update on the Florida Youth Conservation Centers Network follow.
At the end of the meeting on both days, the public can comment on items not on the agenda.
The complete agenda, with links to background reports, details on consent agenda items and information about the meeting, is available at MyFWC.com/Commission.
Anyone requiring special accommodations to participate in this meeting should notify the FWC at least five calendar days before the meeting by calling 850-488-6411. Contact the agency using the Florida Relay Service at 800-955-8771 (TDD) or 800-955-8770 (voice) if you are hearing- or speech-impaired.
The next regular Commission meeting will be Feb. 13-14, 2013, in Orlando, commencing at 8:30 a.m. each day. | <urn:uuid:e36bdeac-0da7-47be-bf78-12612a892a95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://myfwc.org/news/news-releases/2012/november/27/precomm-dec/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903672 | 1,016 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Dear 18 Year Old Connie,
You live such an amazing life, even though you think time doesn’t move quickly enough. You want to be older so you can do more things – live on your own, travel, get married, and earn more money. You hate the way you look because you’re so thin. You feel lonely because you don’t have a relationship. But these thoughts and feelings are kept inside, told to no one. So you put on a happy face, go out until all hours of the night, drink too much, do drugs and try to hide your feelings. You’re known as the party girl – the one who takes hours to get dressed and put makeup on, goes out at 11 PM and doesn’t come home until 6 AM. You live for the weekends, school vacations and the summer.
You’ve been lucky that you’re alive with some of the choices you’ve made. Thinking that nothing can harm you is a childish way to think. It’s a shame that you won’t learn that for a long time. Did you ever consider alcohol poisoning, AIDS, rape, or death could be a consequence of your actions? You’ll be grateful that you don’t have an addictive personality, or your life would be changed forever.
People can’t believe the amount of food that you eat and you still don’t gain a pound. And this is so easy to get used to. Who needs to exercise when you’re so skinny? And that’s a habit to fall into also. It’s understandable that you wanted to gain weight, but eating healthy foods instead of junk food would create better eating habits later in life. Just because you didn’t need to exercise, didn’t mean you should become lazy. You loved to run, roller skate, ride your bike because you felt energized. It gave you a high, but I guess the drinking and drugs took the place of that high. In just a few years, you’d wish you had energy for any of that activity.
The good thing is that you loved people and hated to see others hurt. Soon, you’re going to learn that you deserve love and don’t deserve to be treated badly by anyone. It may take the love of your child to recognize that, but that’s what life will put before you. Then you’ll learn to open up about how truly unhappy and afraid you are. Again, it will be for your child’s sake, but soon it will be for your own too. Your friendships and the love of your family will help you get through some difficult times, both emotionally and physically. And you’ll be surprised. The light will dawn on you though, through soul-searching work, tears, anger and fear.
That strength will help you through health problems that may have caused others to give up. Instead, you’ll grieve and move on. Reaching for the love of those around you. Leaning when it’s necessary. Being bold and courageous when it’s possible. Then, helping others for the right reasons.
This post was written as part of NHBPM – 30 health posts in 30 days: http://bit.ly/vU0g9J | <urn:uuid:4b8c46b2-1721-4735-a438-c1d15635160d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mychroniclife.com/2011/11/03/a-letter-to-my-18-year-old-self-hawc/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956046 | 702 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Walking through history
Just outside Cusco are three particularly interesting archeological sites that we were able to explore during our recent travels. We started at Tipon, a 500-acre complex of hillside farming terraces and water channels carved in stone that the Incas took control of and developed shortly after 1400 A.D. Water from a natural spring still flows through the channels and fountains at Tipon, making this marvel of civil engineering feel like it’s functioning as the Incas would have wanted.
We also visited the town of Pikillaqta, a 25,000-acre city that includes warehouses and barns and two- and three-story buildings made of stone slabs and mud mortar. The Wari people built Pikillaqta sometime between 500-900 A.D., well before the Incas came into power.
Finally, we visited Sacsayhuamán, just one mile outside Cusco. This massive complex was built between 1431-1508 and was a religious, military, and political headquarters for the Inca Empire. It features impressive stonework–the largest stone weighs about 70 tons, and the builders fit the stones together so perfectly there was no need for mortar. There weren’t many tourists on the day we visited, but the busiest time for Sacsayhuamán is rapidly approaching: The Inti Raymi festival takes place here on June 24, and thousands come to see the historical reconstruction of the Inca festival of the sun. | <urn:uuid:002ebc0c-51ec-458a-ba7f-d673e780afe9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goshen.edu/peru/2011/06/03/4720/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970131 | 309 | 2.984375 | 3 |
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In physics, the Shockley–Queisser limit or detailed balance limit refers to the maximum theoretical efficiency of a solar cell using a p-n junction to collect power from the cell. It was first calculated by William Shockley and Hans Queisser at Shockley Semiconductor in 1961. The limit is one of the most fundamental to solar energy production, and is considered to be one of the most important contributions in the field.
The limit places maximum solar conversion efficiency around 30% assuming a p-n junction band gap of 1.1 eV (typical for silicon). That is, of all the power contained in sunlight falling on a silicon solar cell (about 1000 W/m²), only 30% of that could ever be turned into electricity (300 W/m²). Modern commercial single-crystalline solar cells produce about 22% conversion efficiency, the difference due largely to practical concerns like reflection off the front surface and light blockage from the thin wires on its surface.
The Shockley–Queisser limit only applies to cells with a single p-n junction; cells with multiple layers can outperform this limit. In the extreme, with an infinite number of layers, the corresponding limit is 68%.
In a traditional solid-state semiconductor, a solar cell is made from two doped crystals, one with a slight negative bias (n-type semiconductor), which has extra free electrons, and the other with a slight positive bias (p-type semiconductor), which is lacking free electrons. When placed in contact, some of the electrons in the n-type portion will flow into the p-type to "fill in" the missing electrons, also known as an electron hole. Eventually enough will flow across the boundary to equalize the Fermi levels of the two materials. The result is a region at the interface, the p-n junction, where charge carriers are depleted and/or accumulated on each side of the interface. In silicon, this transfer of electrons produces a potential barrier of about 0.6V to 0.7V.
When placed in the sun, photons in the sunlight can strike the bound electrons in the p-type side of the semiconductor, giving them more energy, a process known technically as photoexcitation. In silicon, sunlight can provide enough energy to push an electron out of the lower-energy valence band into the higher-energy conduction band. As the name implies, electrons in the conduction band are free to move about the silicon. When a load is placed across the cell as a whole, these electrons will flow out of the p-type side into the n-type side, lose energy while moving through the external circuit, and then back into the p-type material where they can once again re-combine with the valence-band hole they left behind, producing a lower-energy photon. In this way, sunlight creates an electrical current.
The Shockley–Queisser limit is calculated by examining the amount of electrical energy that is extracted per photon of incoming sunlight. There are two primary considerations.
Since the act of moving an electron from the valence band to the conduction band requires energy, only photons with more than that amount of energy will produce power. In silicon the conduction band is about 1.1 eV away from the valence band, which corresponds to red light. In other words, photons of red, yellow and blue light will all contribute to power production, whereas infrared, microwaves and radio waves will not. This places an immediate limit on the amount of energy that can be extracted from the sun. Of the 1,000 W/m² in AM1.5 sunlight, about half of that has less than 1.1 eV of energy, and will not produce power in a silicon cell. That means there is a theoretical conversion efficiency of about 50% or less, ignoring all other factors.
Another important contributor to losses is that any energy above and beyond the bandgap energy is lost; while blue light has roughly twice the energy of red light, there is no practical way to capture that energy. The electron is ejected with higher energy when struck by a blue photon, but it loses this extra energy as it travels toward the p-n junction, this energy being turned into heat in the crystal. The Shockley–Queisser limit calculation is based on this analysis, considering the difference in energy between the photons being absorbed from the sun at 6000° K and their re-emittance at room temperature at 300° K.
Another consideration is the rate of production, which does not effect the efficiency of the cell under normal conditions, but introduces further limits under certain conditions. Every photoelectron leaves behind a "photohole", an ionized atom that will attempt to catch any passing electron. If a cell were placed in conditions where a single photoelectron/hole were produced, that electron has almost no chance of re-combining with the hole it left behind - the force towards the p-n junction overwhelms the force pulling it back towards its own hole.
As the rate of photo-production increases, the number of holes in the bulk crystal grows. These are the holes left behind by previous excitations that have not yet been filled by electrons being returned to the cell. Eventually the number of holes will grow so great that every new photoelectron will meet a hole before reaching the junction, placing a limit on the rate of production. With silicon, this limiting rate is reached quite quickly, at less than "two suns" of incident light. If twice as much light is sent onto such a cell, the production rate is only slightly higher than with one sun, so the ratio of input energy to output is lower, representing a much lower efficiency. For this reason, it is not economically feasible to use mirrors or lenses to increase the production from a simple cell.
Shockley and Queisser's work considered the most basic physics only, there are a number of other factors that further reduce the theoretical power. Many of these have been explored since the 1980s. Landsberg and Baruch added various practical considerations like re-emission, while a number of researchers have attempted to characterize other losses in the cell, like interstitial defects. This latter effect explains why polysilicon cells are always outperformed by their single-crystal cousins.
Exceeding the Limit
It is important to note that the limit makes several fundamental assumptions; that the cell contains a single p-n junction, that the junction is tuned to visible light, and that any extra energy in the photons is lost. None of these assumptions is necessarily true, and a number of different attacks have been made to significantly surpass the basic limit.
The most widely explored path to higher efficiency solar cells has been to use multiple p-n junctions, each one tuned to a particular frequency of the spectrum. Since light will only react strongly with structures roughly the same size as their wavelength, as long as these layers are extremely thin they are almost transparent to lower frequencies. This allows the layers to be stacked, with the layers capturing higher frequencies (shortest wavelengths) on top, and the lower frequency light traveling through them to the lower layers.
The calculation of the fundamental efficiency limits of these "tandem cells" (or "multi-junction cells") works in a fashion similar to those for single-junction cells, with the caveat that some of the light will be converted to other frequencies and re-emitted within the structure. Using methods similar to the original Shockley-Queisser analysis with these considerations in mind produces similar results; a two-layer cell can reach 42% efficiency, three-layer cells 49%, and a theoretical infinity-layer cell 68%.
The majority of tandem cells that have been produced to date use three such layers, tuned to blue (on top), yellow (middle) and red (bottom). These cells require the use of semiconductors that can be tuned to specific frequencies, which has led to most of them being made of gallium arsenide (GaAs) compounds, often germanium for red, GaAs for yellow, and GaInP2 for blue. They are very expensive to produce, using techniques similar to microprocessor construction but with "chip" sizes on the scale of several centimeters. In cases where outright performance is the only consideration, these cells have become common; they are widely used in satellite applications for instance, where the power-to-weight ratio overwhelms practically every other cost.
Gallium arsenide has higher electron mobility than silicon, which means the photoelectrons reach their p-n junctions more quickly. It also has many more charge carriers available, which means the ratio of electrons/holes to neutral atoms is lower. These effects reduce the chance that electrons and holes will meet during the journey to the junction, which allows more light to fall on the cell before they reach equilibrium. These cells have increasing efficiency under concentrated light; under the best possible conditions and perfect lighting, a two-layer cell can reach 55% efficiency, 63% for three-layer cells, and 86% for infinite layers.
Using concentrations on the order of 500 to 1000, meaning that a 1 cm² square cell can use the light concentrated by a 31.6 x 31.6 cm Fresnel lens (covering 0.1 m² area), produces the highest efficiencies seen to date. Three-layer cells are fundamentally limited to 63%, but existing commercial prototypes have already demonstrated over 40%. These cells capture about 2/3rds of their theoretical maximum performance, so assuming the same is true for a non-concentrated version of the same design, one might expect a three-layer cell of 30% efficiency under normal sunlight. This is not enough of an advantage over traditional silicon designs to make up for their extra production costs. For this reason, almost all tandem cell research for terrestrial use is dedicated to concentrator systems, normally using mirrors or fresnel lenses.
Using a concentrator also has the added benefit that the number of cells needed to cover a given amount of ground area is greatly reduced. A conventional system covering 1 m² would require 625 cells of 16cm², but for a concentrator system only a single cell is needed, along with a concentrator. The argument for concentrated tandem cells has been that the high cost of the cells themselves would be more than offset by the reduction in total number of cells and the much lower cost of the concentrators. The downside of the concentrator approach is that at high concentrations even small movements of the sun will cause the focussed sunlight to fall off the cell, so they need to be mounted in a machine that tracks the sun as it moves. Sun-tracking system are expensive, rising with the precision required, offsetting other advantages.
To date, no large-scale tandem cell commercial systems have been deployed, although one has been planned for Spain. PV generator deployments using conventional cells are currently reaching about $5 per peak Watt for deployment and installation costs, a number the concentrator systems cannot yet match. However, Boeing's Spectrolab division claims to be aiming for $3 a Watt in the short term.
There has been some work on the use of deliberate impurities to produce mid-energy states within single crystal structures. These cells would combine some of the advantages of the multi-junction cell with the simplicity of existing silicon designs. A detailed limit calculation for these cells with a wide variety of impurities suggests a maximum efficiency of 77.2% To date, no commercial cell using this technique has been produced.
Approximately half of the solar energy reaching the Earth's surface is in the near and far infrared (IR). In silicon the energy of the bandgap is higher than the energy of these photons, and they do not contribute to energy production. Losing this energy limits cell efficiency to about 50% even if one ignores the other factors included in the Shockley–Queisser limit.
Various solutions to this problem have been proposed. The most obvious solution is to use a semiconductor with a lower bandgap that is suitable for capturing IR energy. This solution actually lowers efficiency, however, because it means more of the energy in the higher-frequency photons is lost. For this reason almost all IR-capture efforts are based on using two-layer cells with a conventional cell on top and an IR-sensitive one on the bottom. These cells have a fundamental limit the same as any other two-layer cell, at about 42%. Unlike the existing tandem cells, however, a conventional silicon cell can be used as the upper layer, which should be much less expensive to produce.
Hot electron capture
Since much of the Shockley–Queisser limit is due to energy losses between the photon energy and the energy captured from the electrons they produce, it should be no surprise that there has been a considerable amount of research into ways to capture the energy of the electrons before they can lose it in the crystal structure. A related concept is to use photoproducers that release more than one electron, instead of a single electron of greater energy. There has been a considerable amount of effort investigating quantum dots for both of these roles.
Another possibility for increased efficiency is to convert the frequency of light down towards the bandgap energy with a fluorescent material. Some fluorescent materials will convert a single high-energy photon into several lower-energy ones, although this conversion process tends to be relatively inefficient. On the upside, such a material could be painted on the front surface of an otherwise standard cell, boosting its efficiency for little cost. Overall operation of such a cell is similar to the quantum-dot case, releasing more electrons of lower energy and producing more energy overall.
A study at Ohio State University has discovered a new class of materials that can be tuned to produce electrons of any energy from light across the entire solar spectrum. In theory, these materials could capture all of the energy, and would be limited by optical issues (reflection off the front face, etc.), not the Shockley–Queisser limit.
Even without these sorts of materials, another use of fluorescence is to produce a low-cost concentrator system. In this concept, sheets of clear plastic are dyed with fluorescent paint. When the dye re-radiates the light falling on the front of the plate, it is trapped within the plastic and travels fiber optic-like to the edges of the sheet. Cells on the edges will see about 40 times concentration, far from the area of peak efficiency of GaAs cells, but without any need for tracking - light falling on the plate from any angle will still be sent to the edges.
Thermophotovoltaic cells are similar to phosphorescent systems, but use a plate to act as the downconvertor. Solar energy falling on the plate, typically black-painted metal, is re-emitted as lower-energy IR, which can then be captured in an IR cell. This relies on a practical IR cell being available, but the theoretical conversion efficiency can be calculated. For a converter with a bandgap of 0.92 eV, efficiency is limited to 54% with a single-junction cell, and 85% for concentrated light shining on ideal components with no optical losses and only radiative recombination.
- ^ a b c Shockley, Queisser, 1961
- ^ "Hans Queisser", Computer History Museum, 2004
- ^ a b "Photovoltaic Cells (Solar Cells), How They Work". specmat.com. http://www.specmat.com/Overview%20of%20Solar%20Cells.htm. Retrieved 22-May-07.
- ^ a b c C. S. Solanki and G. Beaucarne, "Advanced Solar Cell Concepts", Interuniversity Microelectronics Center, Belgium
- ^ P T Landsberg and P Baruch, "The thermodynamics of the conversion of radiation energy for photovoltaics", Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General, Volume 22 Issue 11 (7 June 1989), pp 1911-1926, doi: 10.1088/0305-4470/22/11/02
- ^ Vos, 1980
- ^ Vos, 1980
- ^ a b Michael Kanellos, "Solar cell breaks efficiency record", CNET News, 6 December 2006
- ^ "NREL Solar Cell Sets World Efficiency Record at 40.8 Percent", National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 13 August 2008
- ^ "Sun in Spain to fall on SolFocus", San Francisco Business Times, 3 November 2008
- ^ Andrew S. Brown and Martin A. Green, "Impurity photovoltaic effect: Fundamental energy conversion efficiency limits", Journal of Applied Physics, Volume 92, Issue 1 August 2002, pg. 1392, doi:10.1063/1.1492016
- ^ Stefan Lovgren, "Spray-On Solar-Power Cells Are True Breakthrough", National Geographic News, 14 January 2005
- ^ Jim Swenson, "Infrared Solar Cells", Ask A Scientist, US Department of Energy, 17 January 2005
- ^ Gavin Conibeer et all, "Hot Carrier Solar Cell: Implementation of the Ultimate Photovoltaic Converter", Global Climate & Energy Project, Stanford University, September 2008
- ^ A. J. Nozik, "Quantum Dot Solar Cells", National Renewable Energy Laboratory, October 2001
- ^ Pattareeya Kittidachachan, "Photon collection efficiency of fluorescent solar collectors", CHIMIA International Journal for Chemistry, Volume 61 Issue 12 (December 2007), pp. 780-786, doi:10.2533/chimia.2007.780
- ^ "Sunovia, EPIR Demonstrate Optical Down-Conversion For Solar Cells"
- ^ Malcolm Chisholm et all, "The remarkable influence of M2δ to thienyl π conjugation in oligothiophenes incorporating MM quadruple bonds", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 14 August 2008
- ^ Pam Frost Gorder, "New Solar Energy Material Captures Every Color of the Rainbow", Research Communications, Ohio State, May 2008
- ^ Elizabeth A. Thomson, "MIT opens new 'window' on solar energy", MIT News, 10 July 2008
- ^ Nils-Peter Harder and Peter Würfel, "Theoretical limits of thermophotovoltaic solar energy conversion", Semiconductor Science and Technology, Volume 18 Issue 5 (May 2003), S151-S157, doi: 10.1088/0268-1242/18/5/303
- William Shockley and Hans J. Queisser, "Detailed Balance Limit of Efficiency of p-n Junction Solar Cells", Journal of Applied Physics, Volume 32 (March 1961), pp. 510-519; DOI:10.1063/1.1736034
- A De Vos, "Detailed balance limit of the efficiency of tandem solar cells", Journal of Applied Physics D, Volume 13 Issue 5 (14 May 1980), pp. 839-846 doi: 10.1088/0022-3727/13/5/018 | <urn:uuid:313f927e-5da3-4935-9394-ca2be6a23628> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dictionary.sensagent.com/Shockley-Queisser_limit/en-en/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917973 | 3,954 | 3.921875 | 4 |
Saturday, October 6, 2012, was no ordinary Saturday in the Loch Raven community. Grade 8 students from Loch Raven Technical Academy came to help out at the school’s first annual Loch Beautification Day.
They helped improve the curb appeal of the school by planting flowers, pulling weeds from the flower beds, and undertaking a massive painting job—the school’s famous, very long, very purple ramp. Armed with paintbrushes, enthusiasm, willing spirits, and nifty white painter’s caps, the students earned service learning hours while providing a valuable service to the community.
The students in attendance discussed the importance of Beautification Day, stating that by improving the outer appearance of the building, the community would be cleaner, neater, and the school would appear to be more inviting for students and visitors alike. The students worked diligently all morning, and their efforts are greatly appreciated by staff and community members.
Principal Stacey Johnson initiated Beautification Day as part of her vision to maintain an attractive, inviting learning environment for her students and staff. The hard work of the students can be seen and appreciated simply by taking a drive on LaSalle Road.Visitors will know when they’ve reached Loch Raven. It is the school with the beautifully painted purple railings! | <urn:uuid:214989df-04b5-42ce-86f0-96eb6d7567a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bcps.org/news/2012/1113/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96494 | 262 | 1.664063 | 2 |
|Preview Material||Supplementary Material|| || || || || |
Student Mathematical Library
2003; 213 pp; softcover
List Price: US$39
Member Price: US$31.20
Order Code: STML/20
Plane Algebraic Curves - Gerd Fischer
This is a genuine introduction to algebraic geometry. The author makes no assumption that readers know more than can be expected of a good undergraduate. He introduces fundamental concepts in a way that enables students to move on to a more advanced book or course that relies more heavily on commutative algebra.
The language is purposefully kept on an elementary level, avoiding sheaf theory and cohomology theory. The introduction of new algebraic concepts is always motivated by a discussion of the corresponding geometric ideas. The main point of the book is to illustrate the interplay between abstract theory and specific examples. The book contains numerous problems that illustrate the general theory.
The text is suitable for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students. It contains sufficient material for a one-semester course. The reader should be familiar with the basic concepts of modern algebra. A course in one complex variable would be helpful, but is not necessary. It is also an excellent text for those working in neighboring fields (algebraic topology, algebra, Lie groups, etc.) who need to know the basics of algebraic geometry.
Advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and research mathematicians interested in algebra and algebraic geometry; those working in neighboring fields (algebraic topology, algebra, Lie groups, etc.) who need to know the basics of algebraic geometry.
"The book balances theory and examples well and the exercises are well-chosen to further illustrate the basic concepts. All in all, the book does an excellent job of explaining what algebraic geometry is about, what are the basic results, and it invites the reader to continue exploring the subject ... I would definitely recommend it as reading material to a bright undergraduate who has taken a basic course on rings and fields and has read about Noetherian rings. It is certainly suitable for a one-semester graduate course ... Mathematicians from other areas will also enjoy the book ... [It] reminds me of more old-fashioned books on algebraic geometry ... but updated to our modern standards of rigor and shorter attention span."
-- MAA Online
From a review for the German Edition:
"The introduction contains numerous examples which illustrate and motivate the discussed theory and which reappear, as the course develops, handled in a precise and clear manner ... Each section ends with interesting and doable (!) exercises ... the author makes a great effort to prove most of the theorems in the rigorous way ... Precision and clarity are distinguished features of the reviewed test."
-- MathSciNet, Mathematical Reviews on the Web
"The book remains one of the very best introductory texts on algebraic geometry. The last chapter is a masterpiece of didactic art ... absolutely unique for such an elementary textbook."
-- Zentralblatt MATH
Table of Contents
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© Copyright 2012, American Mathematical Society | <urn:uuid:7cc99eac-de20-4567-8e34-e03d79b5da68> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ams.org/bookstore-getitem/item=STML-20 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906809 | 648 | 2.453125 | 2 |
There are three important factors when it comes to health; diet, exercise and of course the most over looked component, sleep. Sleep is one area where many think they can take shortcuts, getting several hours less than they should. One major health risk from lack of sleep is a rise in cytokine molecules and by association inflammation. The end result is a plethora of cardiovascular issues such as high blood pressure, heart disease and ultimately a stroke. There is no reason to let it get that far though, simply get better sleep and you will feel better.
One of the first things you can do to help ensure you get better sleep is to quit consuming caffeine after lunch. It’s not uncommon for caffeine to impact the body up to hours, which can make it hard to sleep later. Consider dumping caffeinated drinks for things like water and herbal tea. Another good tip is to give yourself a buffer from when you exercise till you go to bed. Exercise is, as always important and will help you sleep, but if you aren’t giving yourself time to cool down then it might be having the opposite of the intended effect.
Something else that gets overlooked by most is when they are consuming liquids before they sleep. It’s not hard to understand that if you drink something before bed, you will probably have to get up in the middle of the night to get rid of it, not having to do so means uninterrupted sleep. A few of these small steps will help greatly when it comes to getting better sleep. If you find yourself getting up at random times and getting to sleep at random times, your body has to adjust. So if you can stick to schedule, your body will naturally be ready to sleep and wake right on time every day. You should also make sure you are sleeping in the most comfortable position, so you are not getting up in pain due to sleeping in stressful positions.
Ensure you are keeping your neck parallel when sleeping. If your neck isn’t straight, it’s putting stress on it, so use the appropriate amount of head support to achieve this. Additionally keeping your sleeping quarters dark will help you get better sleep. Some people go as far as putting tape over items with small lights in them to ensure the room is totally dark. You should always make sure you are comfortable when you sleep. Don’t wear restricting or uncomfortable clothing, and you want to ensure you aren’t getting too hot or too cold. Finally, consider eating a small amount of a food with tryptophan before bed, things like peanuts, yogurt, ice cream and of course turkey will all help make you drowsy. | <urn:uuid:74c5e108-0acd-4b5d-9851-bccece6cd3ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthnewsminute.com/better-sleep-10-tips-for-better-sleep.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954037 | 538 | 2.65625 | 3 |
The Kargil incident was in one way, one realized, the end again of either the civilian rule. It was really at crossroads. Or the civilians would be able to overpower the military. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. There were tensions. There were always tensions between the army and the civilians.
One of the reasons that that does not happen in Pakistan is because whenever a civilian government is in power, they will always ostracize the opposition. So there is a "divide and rule". And these tensions that are built within the political parties are something that the military really takes advantage of.
So we saw that there was a clash of interest. We continue to see that there is a clash of interest between the people of Pakistan and between the power-brokers of Pakistan. When I talk about power-brokers of Pakistan, I mean not just the leadership of the Armed Forces. Here, I am not talking about anybody in the Armed Forces, because the normal people in the Armed Forces have no say in decision-making. It is the leadership of the Armed Forces. It is establishment-born political leaders, or establishment-supported political leaders. And the Superior Judiciary of Pakistan. This is the troika that I see in Pakistan.
In this troika, there is always that vacuum. That vacuum is created purposely, which is filled in time and again by what we call "Leaders of our Islamic Parties." This pattern, now we are beginning to see, is happening in Pakistan. We saw that there is, in Pakistan, now a time where those who talk about peace are considered to be enemies of the People. Those who speak of war and bloodshed are considered to be patriotic people. Militancy is now being officially proposed and condoned. For example, we talk about in the sense of a process, of foreign affairs. Here, I would just like to stop for a minute and just look at it in this way. Where I said, and this is going back to my first point, that there is a clash of interest. Whereas people of Pakistan, the ordinary people of Pakistan, would want peace. That is just a natural phenomenon, anywhere in the world. But the official voice of Pakistan is belligerent. It's hawkish. The people of Pakistan do not want the grandeur of nuclearization. What the people of Pakistan want is economic prosperity, where their children can study, where they can get health services. Now you can argue that this is not the voice of the people. But at the same time, you did not see the ordinary people of Pakistan gushing out in the streets and saying, "Whatever may happen, we want war. We want nuclearism." But what you do see is misery. When you ask the people why they're miserable, they don't say, "We're miserable because we don't have a nuclear bomb." They are miserable because they do not have the next day's meal.
They have no security. Much more, in countries like ours, it is often argued that Pakistan is a country with many illiterates. Pakistan is a country which is very poor. So how is it that people can be aware of something like that? Well, there is far more need to be aware. There is far more need for worry in that country; a country with so much poverty, with so much misery, and at the same time with so much callousness and irresponsibility. Then to have this priority, which is all screwed up, is something to be really looked at far more seriously than in a country where, okay, it may be still affordable. Although, I myself think that such things are never affordable and ill affordable. However, this is the contradiction that I wanted to show you.
Because of this theory that the atom bomb is a deterrent; this has been sold time and again in Pakistan. But now people are beginning to realize that this is a very expensive deterrent. It has isolated Pakistan. It has made Pakistan more into a risky state. Any action on Pakistan will not be a benign kind of an action. It will be a very well-thought out action, because the stakes are much higher. So we are no longer a country which is simply poor and simply ignorant and simply has its problems. But we have a country that also has problems that can actually flow over to other parts of the world. Therefore, it is watched very closely.
We have for example, also in Pakistan, another very confusing new phenomena, which is that people begin to confuse systems with people. When Mr. Nawaz Sharif left, it was as though the "system" was wrong. When our new General came, because a General looks good, therefore the "system" was accepted. That confusion has not only remained in Pakistan. That is a confusion that you find even in the corridors of the United Nations, where they're beginning to de-link human rights and democratic development, where they feel that military governments who give certain human rights, selective, charitable human rights to their loyal subjects, they will be more acceptable. But human rights is an end by itself. To give people dignity, to give people their rights, and that end by itself will only be achieved if there are objective institutions, democratic institutions, and the first thing any military government does is to destroy those institutions. So whatever human rights we have got today has been through the courtesy of the General before whom we have to bow very graciously and thank him many times for it. They can be taken away as easily as they were given.
Therefore, these are only short-term measures. And why I worry about it is that this is not only in Pakistan. The new military face all over the world is using, if I may say so, and politicizing, the human rights aspect of it. Human rights can never be disconnected from democratic movements and democratic processes. We have then, of course, the government which came in and which was welcomed. There is no denial that our previous government had possibly one of the worst human rights records. Apart from the fact that it had a pretty bad human rights record, it was oppressive. It was inaccessible. It was corrupt. It had no respect for the people at large. So there was a kind of a relief in the first few days. They were looking for an alternative and hoped that the new military government would perhaps bring in a magic wand and change things around in Pakistan. But nobody has a magic wand. Military governments are not fairy godmothers. They are people in uniform who know the language of the gun, rather than the language of a person who speaks in terms of non-violence or in terms of peace. So we saw that the first few days of military government were not only welcomed, but people were thrilled. This is very typical. Why I want to say this here, and I know it's controversial, but this is typical.
You pick up something that is very populist. You do it the first time. Take all of the rich people and put them in the prison. I recall that everybody was happy. But nobody actually questioned the fact that how can people be picked up and kept in prison for so many days, like 90 days, without charges? Nobody was allowed to ask why these people were handcuffed when they were sleeping at night. When these questions were eventually asked, we were told, "These are rich people. What are you talking about? De-human conditions? Every Pakistani lives under de-human conditions." To my utter amazement, half of the hall clapped. So this is how you generate a kind of populism on values which are inherently wrong, but perhaps where the people themselves may not have been as innocent as we may want them to have been. | <urn:uuid:245c3312-aa54-441c-80ef-71edeeee145d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://asiasociety.org/policy/social-issues/human-rights/democracy-and-human-rights-post-coup-pakistan?page=0,2 | 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 | 0.986857 | 1,574 | 1.960938 | 2 |
gpsdrawing.com is a collection of drawings, sculptures, and experiments made with Global Positioning System (GPS) by Jeremy Wood
Jeremy Wood is an artist and mapmaker whose work is an expression of the poetry and politics of space. For over a decade he has been exploring GPS satellite technology as a tool for digital mark making on water, over land, and in the air.
Wood started GPS drawing to investigate the expressive qualities of digitally tracing his daily movements. His work binds the arts and sciences by using languages of drawing and technology to present a personal cartography. By revealing ones tracks the technology can introduce new approaches to travel, navigation and local awareness. GPS drawing engages a range of creative applications and challenges perceptions of scale by travelling as a geodetic pencil.
Wood specialises in public artworks and commissions with an original approach to the reading and writing of places. His work is exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collection of the London Transport Museum, the V&A, and the University of the Arts in London. He has conducted numerous GPS drawing and mapping lectures and workshops in schools, museums and galleries and continues to make drawings and maps of his daily travels with GPS.
Selected Press Links:
Traverse Me Warwick Universiry campus GPS map
© Jeremy Wood. 2012 www.gpsdrawing.com | <urn:uuid:c7e06131-8022-4011-a122-9b8db723deaf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gpsdrawing.com/info.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93629 | 272 | 1.710938 | 2 |
A new episode of Dinosaur Train premieres on Friday, February 22, 2013 at 8:30 a.m. Tucson time on PBS (Channel 6 in Tucson). The new episode is called "Submarine: A Sea Turtle Tale/Rocket Train." This episode is about Archelon turtles and a faster train. Below are some activity ideas related to this episode's theme to enjoy before or after watching the episode.
Archelon Coloring Page - You can get this coloring worksheet free, but you do have to sign up for the site and it does limit how many you can get free a month. See the sea turtle coloring pages below if you prefer to not go through the process.
Dinosaur Train Printables - Color scenes featuring the characters from the show.
Printable Sea Turtle Craft - This is a simple sea turtle themed craft.
Sea Turtle Clay Pot Saucer Craft - Make a sea turtle or archelon with this project.
Sea Turtle Coloring Pages - While not exactly of the Archelon, this site has some modern sea turtle coloring pages to download and print. | <urn:uuid:5546cf94-5edb-493c-bf22-82e8a9514ff9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.examiner.com/article/crafts-related-to-submarine-a-sea-turtle-tale-rocket-train-episode?cid=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907431 | 220 | 1.671875 | 2 |
It looks like Wells Fargo is among the banks that will be required to raise capital.
It is my understanding that Wells Fargo requires a non-refundable fee in order to re-finance your house. To the best of my knowledge, you have to pay the fee before the appraisal is done, and Wells Fargo will keep the fee whether the refinancing goes forward (house appraises) or not!
How will Wells Fargo raise this capital? The article does not state much.
Please make sure you understand how Wells Fargo operates before going along with the writing of a non-refundable fee. Also make sure you know how they go about appraising your house before giving them a non-refundable fee.
Posted by Jerry, a resident of the Oak Hill neighborhood, on May 7, 2009 at 12:33 am
Didn't Obama stated in one of his fairly recent speeches that he "didn't want to run the banks or the auto industry" yet his administration is issuing orders to the banks and making demands of the auto industry... | <urn:uuid:3d1d59ae-e601-4d83-b2f8-28fb176dce30> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pleasantonweekly.com/square/index.php?i=3&d=&t=1884 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959804 | 216 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Editor’s Preface: This is the third in a series of articles in ClimateEthics.org looking at ethical issues entailed by the fact that people around the world will need to adapt to climate change. Also see Planning for adaptation to climate change raises ethical questions about the priorities: Examples from Tanzania and Ethical Issues in Funding for Adaptation in Countries Vulnerable to Climate Change; the Example of Bhutan. Adaptation needs will continue to generate profound ethical questions for the international community about such matters as how to set priorities for adaptation funding, who should pay for adaptation costs, how to deal with the needs of climate change refugees, along with many others in the years ahead.
This is the third in a series of posts on ClimateEthics.org that looks at host of ethical issues that arise due to the inevitable need for many around the world to adapt to climate change.
Many developing countries put high hopes in the Adaptation Fund which is expected to be launched at the 14th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Poznan, Poland (December 2008). The main purpose of the Fund is to provide financial assistance for adaptation resources for the most vulnerable. From a distributive justice perspective, the Adaptation Fund may offer practical ways to share both benefits and burdens of negative impacts from climatic changes. At the same time, the so far vastly insufficient funds (2% levy from certified emission reductions issued from Clean Development Mechanism projects, which equals to roughly $300 million by 2012) have triggered a perverse race to the bottom where countries risk competing against each other by essentially portraying themselves as vulnerable as possible in order to access the limited funds. This dynamic not only bypasses the intrinsic questions of ethics and justice between North and South, it downplays people’s agency, learning, and concrete efforts to enhance their own adaptive capacity and to respond to climatic changes. While the Bali Action Plan identified the need for enhanced action on adaptation by all Parties to the Convention, there are several obstacles to ethical and efficient implementation of adaptation actions. This paper discusses two of these obstacles: the first relates to an almost complete lack of culturally and literacy-sensitive learning tools for adaptation decision-making; the second obstacle concerns unequal and sometimes ineffective solutions in reducing risks associated with tipping points of ‘dangerous’ abrupt climatic changes.
II. Learning Tools For Anticipating And Preparing For Uncertainty
In addition to the unresolved questions of equitable access to and distribution of resources from the Adaptation Fund, the most urgent issues of justice in the adaptation debates are the rights of recognition (of needs) and participation in the adaptation process – recognition and participation as main pillars of justice. Besides various technological and infrastructural adjustments currently discussed, the main focus should be on changing people’s behavior and livelihoods to enable and empower the most vulnerable to enhance their adaptive capacity and build resilience into their livelihoods now rather than targeting adaptation in the future.
The adoption of the Nairobi Work Programme was one of the major breakthroughs during the COP 12 in 2007. This five-year project assists Parties, particularly developing countries, to improve their understanding and assessment of climate change impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation and to make informed decisions on practical adaptation actions and measures to respond to climate change. It is structured around nine focus areas, including methods and tools for vulnerability assessments and adaptation planning, adaptation practices, and scenarios and downscaling. In order to enhance adaptive capacity and build livelihood resilience among the vulnerable, it is essential to shift the conceptual core of the current adaptation discourse from responses to predicted impacts of climatic change for some specified time in the future, usually 2025 or 2050, to the underlying factors that determine participation in adaptation action. The large majority of science assessments as well as policy debates portray adaptation as something that is orchestrated, if not imposed, mainly through projects; they assume a linear, largely self-limiting trajectory that results in readily identifiable, discrete, and formalized adaptation actions that are summarized in lists or inventories, are easily implemented, and subsequently incorporated into existing development plans (Schipper 2007). While such an approach may facilitate the execution and evaluation of adaptation strategies, it obscures the very processes and learning activities that shape adaptation in the face of complex risks and uncertainties.
The major obstacle to encouraging participation (and to a certain extent recognition) is that our existing methodological toolbox is sparsely equipped to assist (social learning) processes that enhance adaptive capacity. More problematically, very few tools have been created for and with vulnerable populations to initiate and sustain such adaptive and anticipatory learning processes, in other words learning about the future before impacts are apparent, especially at the community level. Although growing interest exists to ‘move beyond the identification of risk and contribute directly to adaptation decision-making’ (SBSTA 2006), existing vulnerability and capacity assessment tools seldom view adaptation as a socio-institutional process that involves a multi-faceted, cyclical way of thinking and learning to anticipate and respond to a variety of stressors. As emphasized by Downing (2007), the goal is to enhance competence in adaptation, as a process, and to adapt well, not to be well adapted. One member of the Red Cross/Red Crescent climate change group expressed his unease during COP 13 as follows: ‘Even if we had the anticipated $300 million from the Adaptation Fund today, we would not know how to use them as we don’t have the slightest idea how adaptation as a process works’ (Suarez 2007).
An effective adaptation process hinges upon the ability of social actors and livelihoods to be flexible in their decision-making. It involves social learning that considers the dynamics of social institutions rather than pursuing a linear impact-driven trajectory. Moreover, a process-oriented and resilience-enhancing adaptation approach reverses the deterministic notion of presumably vulnerable groups as passive victims by highlighting people’s strategic responses and agency and facilitating the creation of new knowledge and action. Yet, emerging discussions at COP 14 move into the direction of adaptation indicators, essentially metrics to monitor and evaluate whether or not adaptation is successful. This seems in stark contrast to a process-oriented understanding of adaptive capacity that is centered on the ability to deal with change and disturbance. Such an ability depends to a large extent on the capability of individuals and their social networks to learn from mistakes and through knowledge sharing as well as their ability to innovate (Adger et al. 2003; Armitage 2005; Fabricius et al. 2007).
III. Inequality in the Tipping Point Metaphor
Learning under climatic uncertainty is more than a collection of tools and techniques. It requires processes of reflection and critical engagement and the realization that trade-offs are inevitable. Yet, much of the proposed adaptation actions lack a nuanced analysis of vulnerability, the distribution of risks, and an individual’s, household’s, or community’s capacity to change and adapt to these risks. Liverman (2008) argues that powerful narratives of dangerous climate change underestimate certain geographic regions (such as African drylands) to the benefit of other regions, mainly colder and coastal ecosystems. Such unequal spatial geographies, also reflected in the relative abundance of adaptation funds for small island states, are directly linked to current debate on so-called tipping points. The debate (e.g. Schellnhuber and Held 2004; Kemp 2005; Lenton et al. 2008) portrays zones where global warming could trigger ‘dangerous’ abrupt climatic changes, such as the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Amazon forest. Danger is defined from an earth systems perspective, focusing on biophysical systems and the sources of anticipated changes. Impacts and adaptive actions from human systems are largely ignored.
What is needed most to strengthen adaptation as envisioned in the Bali Action Plan is to consider thresholds or tipping points with respect to livelihoods of the most vulnerable and to encourage anticipatory (forward-looking) learning that offers less harmful alternatives to ‘learning by shock’, a reactive response to disasters when they have already happened. Equity and justice in the adaptation debate remind us of our collective responsibility to consider most constructive and inclusive ways to avoid shocks and to assist the most vulnerable to actively shape their future rather than being helpless victims of its unforeseen consequences.
Dr. Petra Tschakert,
Department of Geography and AESEDA,
The Pennsylvania State University
Armitage, D. (2005) Adaptive capacity and community-based natural resource management. Environmental Management 35: 703-715.
Downing, T. (2007) Adapting to Climate Change: Achieving Increased Resilience and Livelihood Improvements. Panel Discussion, Forest Day, December 8, 2007, COP 13, Nusa Dua, Bali.
Fabricius, C., Folke, C., Cundill, G. and L. Schultz. (2007) Powerless spectators, coping actors, and adaptive co-managers: a synthesis of the role of communities in ecosystem management. Ecology and Society 12(1):29
Folke, C., Colding, J. and F. Berkes (2003) Synthesis: building resilience and adaptive capacity in social-ecological systems. In: Berkes, F., Colding, J. and C. Folke (eds) Navigating social-ecological systems: building resilience for complexity and change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK: pp 352-387.
Kemp, M. (2005) Science in culture: inventing an icon. Nature 437 (7063): 1238.
Lenton, T.M., Held, H., Kriegler, E., Hall, J.W., Lucht, W., Rahmstorf, S. and H.J. Schellnhuber (2008) Tipping elements in the Earth’s climate system. PNAS 105:1786-1793.
Liverman, D.M. (2008) Conventions of climate change: constructions of danger and the dispossession of the atmosphere. Journal of Historical Geography. doi: 10.1016/j.jhg.2008.08.008
SBSTA (2006) Conclusion: Nairobi work programme on impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change. UNFCCC 25th Session, Nairobi, Kenya.
Schellnhuber, H.J. and H. Held (2004) Evolution of perturbations in complex systems. In: Steffen, A.S.W., Jaeger, J., Tyson, P.D., Moore, I.I.I.B., Matson, P.A., Oldfield, F., Schellnhuber, H.J., Turner, I.I.B.L., and R.J. Wasson (eds) Global Change and the Earth System: A Planet Under Pressure. Berlin.
Schipper, E.L.F. (2007) Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Exploring the Linkages. Working Paper 107, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Norwich, UK.
Suarez, P. (2007) Community-based Adaptation to Climate Change: Question and Response. Development and Climate Days, December 9, 2007, Nusa Dua, Bali. | <urn:uuid:b3a474ff-c1bf-42a3-95ab-8973dd7bb572> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rockblogs.psu.edu/climate/2009/01/ethics-in-adaptation-decision-making-learning-tools-and-tipping-points.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914851 | 2,336 | 2.890625 | 3 |
2.1 Performance Consideration
It is common understanding that remote calls are more expensive and take longer to execute than local calls. During a remote procedure call, the local proxy objects must make copies of all of the arguments and transport them over the wire, through RMI, to the remote objects, resulting in increased network traffic and slower response time.
Consider the scenario where the user issues a command through a web page, which in turn invokes the servlet, followed by the processing of the business method in the session bean and entity bean. At least four network operations may occur, two of which are remote EJB calls:
Figure 5. Remote Call Sequence in a Typical Business Operation
In the case where a session bean may call other session beans or multiple entity beans, additional remote calls will be made. If performance is a top priority concern, adjustments must be made in the architecture and design to reduce the number of remote calls or reduce the cost of a remote call.
There are multiple ways to address this performance problem:
- We could reduce the number of network trips by using coarse-grained design patterns for the EJBs.
- We could eliminate some remote calls by using local, rather than remote, interfaces for entity beans.
- We could turn some remote calls into local calls by changing the packaging structure to maximize the number of beans within one EAR.
2.1.1 EJB Granularity
If the access interfaces are too fine-grained, it results in excessive network traffic and high latency. One must investigate the architecture and design to ensure the right level of granularity is being used. There are several J2EE design patterns that can control granularity. The two most famous are transfer object and Session Facade. Since the focus of our discussion is on deployment and packaging, please refer to the J2EE Blueprints web site to learn more about these patterns.
2.1.2 Local Vs. Remote Interface
J2EE 1.3 introduces the concept of local enterprise beans. This will allow an entity bean to expose a local interface, thus allowing parameters to be passed by reference rather than by value. However, in order for a session bean to access local enterprise beans, the local enterprise beans must be packaged in the same EAR file as the session bean. There are two ways to achieve this:
- Create a Session Facade in front of the entity beans at the data tier. This will allow us continue to expose the functions of the entity bean to external applications. However, depending on the granularity of the Session Facade, it may not give you much performance gain.
- Move the entity beans into the business tier and allow the session beans at that layer to access the local enterprise beans directly. This reduces the reusability of the entity bean. Since the local entity bean is now only available for beans that are located in the same EAR file, other business beans residing outside of this application module will not be able to access it. This may result in duplicate instances of the same entity bean within different application modules. Scalability options for the application are also reduced, as the local entity bean is now tied to the same J2EE container used at the business tier.
2.1.3 Packaging Structure
Some J2EE application servers (e.g., BEA WebLogic) may optimize remote calls between beans (see the WebLogic Reference Document on Classloading) into local calls if the beans are in the same enterprise application. This is especially beneficial if one session bean may call multiple session beans or entity beans. There are drawbacks with this approach as well:
- Reduced maintainability. All of the beans that are packaged within the same EAR must be deployed and re-deployed at the same time. This will prevent the possibilities of upgrading or changing just one bean at runtime.
- Platform dependence. This kind of optimization is not offered by all application servers, and it may not have any effect if you switch application server vendors in the future.
- May break design assumptions. Many developers design their beans with the assumption that all parameters will always be passed by value instead of by reference. Changing the calling convention may break that assumption, especially if the transfer object pattern is being used together with BMP entity beans.
2.2 Resource Location Consideration
Another area where we should consider is the location of common resources
and libraries. One rule of thumb is that a resource should go together with
the J2EE modules that use it. However, if you have the case where a common
resource is being used by several modules, you may want to place it where it is
accessible by all of the modules. In addition, it is a bad practice to put
resources in your system
CLASSPATH as they may cause conflict with
other J2EE modules deploying in the same container. This will also limit your
options in terms of hot deployment. | <urn:uuid:06a0c9ca-ff15-4a6d-a8b7-6355c14fafa4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2003/06/11/j2ee_deployment.html?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909544 | 1,006 | 1.984375 | 2 |
Date of Award
Master of Arts in Marine Affairs
In recent times, there has been a proliferation of laws enacted by individual states and townships which restrict the ability of mariners to anchor within navigable waters of the United States. These laws have been enacted in many of the coastal states, but are most prevalent in California, Florida and Hawaii. Uncertainty as to whether anchoring is an act of navigation, thereby being a constitutional right, has resulted in confusion among boaters, legal authorities and policy makers. In an attempt to clarify the uncertainty surrounding this issue, a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of anchoring laws within the State of Hawaii has come before the public eye. Although the Hawaiian lawsuit is focused solely upon anchoring laws which affect that state, the ultimate outcome of the case could set precedent for this issue on a national basis. As case history has been unhelpfully silent in the resolution of the anchoring issue, primary legal doctrines, such as the United States Constitution, the public trust doctrine and legal traditions practiced since the Institutes of Justinian law must provide some of the essential guidelines. Also of importance are the opinions of federal agencies, such as the Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers. The following study addresses the current state of the anchoring conflict, explains the importance of a solution, examines the documents which affect the issue, and proposes conclusions based on logic, history, and the guidelines set forth in the surveyed primary data. The conclusions support the proposals that anchoring can be proven to be an act of navigation, laws which restrict anchoring likewise restrict constitutional rights, and that anchoring laws may be deemed to be unconstitutional.
Yatrakis, George, "State Imposed Anchorage Laws: Legitimate Practice, or Unconstitutional Restriction of Navigation?" (1994). Theses and Major Papers. Paper 210. | <urn:uuid:af9da095-99d8-4fea-8db2-9f0403fb855b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/ma_etds/210/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928625 | 370 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Another massive case of misconduct by an established scientist – not a humble post doc but a Director of Cardiovascular Research!! Once again a scientist of Indian origin in the US is involved – Prof. Deepak Das!
This time there are also clear commercial motives which takes scientific misconduct into the realms of criminal fraud!!!
Hartford Business:The University of Connecticut is rejecting nearly $1 million in federal grants awarded to one of its scientists found to have falsified many of his findings on the health benefits of wine.
The school announced Wednesday that an internal investigation against Dipak Das, a tenured surgery professor and director of the UConn Health Center’s Cardiovascular Research Center, found 145 counts of fabrication and falsification of data.
The school said it is now in the process of terminating Das’ employment. The UConn Health Center has also sent letters of notification to 11 scientific journals that had published studies conducted by Das based on his research.
The investigation into Das was sparked by an anonymous allegation of research irregularities in 2008. The school issued a report today, which totals approximately 60,000 pages, that says Das is guilty of 145 counts of fabrication and falsification of data.
As a result of the investigation the Health Center has frozen all externally funded research in Das’ laboratory and declined to accept $890,000 in federal grants awarded to him.
Das had numerous publications on resveratrol and other nutrition-related cardiovascular subjects. According to an online biography, he was a founding editor and editor-in chief of the journal Antioxidant and Redox Signaling, and also served as associate editor of theAmerican Journal of Physiology: Heat and Circulatory Physiology and consulting editor of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry.
Retraction Watch reported a commercial connection:
Das appears to have had a relationship with a Las Vegas resveratrol maker called, unsurprisingly, Longevinex. The company has promoted his research, and Das also shows up in a lengthy video touting the nutrient as the next aspirin. The infomercial is guided by an “investigative reporter” named Gailon Totheroh, who is affiliated with the Christian Broadcasting Network.
The Journals are:
- American Journal of Physiology – Heart & Circulatory
- Antioxidants & Redox Signaling
- Cellular Physiology & Biochemistry
- Free Radical Biology
- Free Radical Research
- Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry
- Journal of Cellular & Molecular Medicine
- Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry
- Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
- Molecular & Cellular Cardiology
- Molecular & Cellular Chemistry | <urn:uuid:9f15bb3a-e363-4efb-8433-04c91a6b831d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ktwop.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/145-counts-of-data-fabrication-against-university-of-connecticut-director-of-cardiovascular-research-11-journals-informed/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94574 | 540 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Ten years ago, we threw a party on Wall Street. It was one year after 9/11 and nine years before Occupy.
Here’s a little video from the original Wall Street Jubilee:
We were inspired by the ancient vision of Jubilee found in the Bible – where God invites the Hebrew people to dismantle economic inequality by forgiving debts, setting slaves free, and redistributing property. It was God’s emancipation proclamation, the Almighty’s creative way of systemically interrupting the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots.
Sure, biblical scholars are quick to point out that the Hebrew people never really practiced the Jubilee very well. But one of my favorite scholars goes on to say, “That’s no excuse… Christians have never really practiced the Sermon on the Mount very well either.” It was still God’s dream, God’s intention — and it is our job to keep God’s dream alive.
So we threw a Jubilee party on Wall Street, ready to confront the raging bull head-on, ready to flip the tables on the front steps of capitalism’s temple.
We invited the homeless folks in New York to come to the front entrance of the New York Stock Exchange where we planned to give away ten thousand dollars in cash. They came…lots of them. Just as the opening bell rang inside the Stock Exchange, Jubilee started rumbling \outside. Small bills were dropped from the balcony of a nearby building, a swarm of bicyclists rode through and dumped thousands of quarters. Undercover by-standers had come prepared and emptied bags, backpacks and purses full of change. The party was so irresistible that some of the folks in the stock exchange came out to catch a glimpse of the action. One of them even bought a bunch of bagels and started handing them out.
It wasn’t about coins – it was about change.
We threw the party there deliberately knowing we needed to bring the poor and rich face to face, to expose the economic patterns of Wall Street that are increasingly leaving masses of people in poverty so that a handful of folks can live as they wish–privatizing profit and socializing debt.
It was brilliant street theater, an economic flash mob, a little act of divine mischief. But something in us felt like there was more, something deeper — even holy — that happened that day. It didn’t change the world. But it did raise the question about whether the world needed to be changed.
Ten years later, we think it’s time for another Jubilee. This time around we are not just performing a stunt on Wall Street. We want Jubilee to spread from Wall Street to Main Street. We want to invite you to do an act of Jubilee on your streets.
So here is the invitation. It’s a call for all superheroes and anti-heroes and ordinary radicals… we are inviting people all over the world to simultaneously, wildly and wonderfully, orchestrate random acts of Jubilee.
Maybe you will hide money in alleyways and park benches. Maybe you will drop rupees from a hot air balloon over a slum in India. Maybe you can take a homeless person to lunch, or learn to quilt with an old lady. Maybe your religious community can match every dollar they spend on buildings with a dollar given to the poor. Maybe you can divest from stocks that exploit and invest in micro-finance grants that enrich. Maybe you can get your office to sponsor a well for folks in Africa, or get your dorm buddies to give $3 to buy mosquito nets for folks who might otherwise die of malaria. Maybe your college will create a scholarship for low-income youth. Maybe your neighborhood will pay off someone’s house before foreclosure. Maybe your business will forgive someone’s debt. Maybe you can get your pastor to switch salaries with the janitor or your CEO to pay all folks the same wage for one year. Maybe America will forgive all third-world debt owed to it. Maybe. It’s up to us. It’s up to you. God is already on the side of Jubilee. God might just be waiting for us to enact it. Be the change.
Shane Claiborne is a prominent author, speaker, activist, and founding member of the Simple Way. He is one of the compilers of Common Prayer, a new resource to unite people in prayer and action. Shane is also helping develop a network called Friends Without Borders which creates opportunities for folks to come together and work together for justice from around the world. His most recent book is Red Letter Revolution, which he co-authored with Tony Campolo. | <urn:uuid:832456f7-afbe-433a-9803-3d2f67755678> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.redletterchristians.org/interrupting-inequality-from-wall-street-to-your-street/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954094 | 976 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Wed, 25 February 2009
New Orleans Gets Least Job Creation Money in U.S.
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
"Obama refuses to use his bully pulpit to defend Americans in trouble in the poorest and most oppressive states."
The treatment that New Orleans has been accorded by the economic stimulus package is the clearest evidence that the federal plan is not in the least transformational - that is, the massive funds that are allocated do little or nothing to rectify the economic and social assaults inflicted on African Americans because they are Black. At the same time, the threatened refusal to spend some of the stimulus funds by the governors of Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina, show that the same racist forces that have always kept the South, in general, and Blacks, in particular, at the bottom of the national economic barrel, remain as entrenched and vicious as ever. The combined effect will be to maintain or worsen racial disparities in the United States, especially in the Republican bastions of the South, and to ensure that the crimes of Katrina will be set in stone, a permanent injury and insult to Black America.
New Orleans is scheduled to receive far less money for job creation than any other congressional district in the United States. That's because the payouts are based on population, and Louisiana's Second Congressional District, centered in New Orleans, is still missing something approaching 200,000 persons, scattered to the four winds three and a half years ago and prevented from returning by a host of public policies. A transformational recovery program would treat New Orleans as a gaping, infrastructural wound, to be addressed by providing the means to make the city livable once again for its exiled citizens. Instead, President Obama's plan simply counts heads, and takes away job creation money for those citizens who would like to return, but cannot.
"That which was unequal and unjust before the recovery program, will remain unequal and unjust after the money has been spent."
Just as New Orleans recovery is not part of the national recovery plan, neither does the plan address any of the country's gross racial disparities. That which was unequal and unjust before the recovery program, will remain unequal and unjust after the money has been spent. That's not an oversight; it's built into President Obama's plan. This fact bears repeating: nothing in the hundreds of billions of dollars to be spent for national recovery is designed to address the institutional harms that have been done to Black people, including the massive racial crime that we call Katrina.
While the federal government pretends to be neutral on race, the governors of Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina put their racial and class depravity on display, threatening to reject millions of dollars in aid to their unemployed. These three states are the Blackest in the nation, historically, and clustered at or near the bottom in household income. The two facts are inextricably related. The governors preside over a system whose purpose is to deny economic security to the great mass of residents, with Blacks forever relegated to the very bottom rungs of society. President Obama says he finds the southern Republican governors' rejection of the unemployment funds "understandable." He refuses to use his bully pulpit to defend Americans in trouble in the poorest and most oppressive states. And so, the United States slumps toward the second decade of the 21st Century spending trillions of dollars, but with no intention of truly transforming itself.
For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com. | <urn:uuid:b8a40f16-c587-43ae-9eb8-99e19f673ca5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blackagendareport.libsyn.com/webpage/new_orleans_gets_least_job_creation_money_in_u_s_ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956564 | 725 | 1.914063 | 2 |
Xavier Bichat (1771-1802)
The son of a physician, Xavier Bichat commenced his own medical studies in Lyon before moving to Paris. His mentor while in the capital, Pierre Joseph Desault, was a famed surgeon and anatomist. Desault introduced clinical instruction at the Hotel Dieu in the 1780s against the opposition of the nuns. In 1795, Bichat commenced his own private anatomy courses. In 1799, he too became a physician at the Hotel Dieu.
During the next year, his first work appeared, a treatise on membranes, which divided organs into membranes and tissues. Inspired by Pinel, this work was the result of detailed anatomical descriptions. It opened the way for more specific diagnoses, replacing vague notions, such as 'brain inflammation', with more specific diagnoses, in this case meningitis or encephalitis. Interestingly, despite the meticulous nature of his research, Bichat refused to use the microscope.
Over the next two years his experimental work only increased. He is said to have dissected 600 corpses in the winter of 1801-02. He famously suggested that pathological anatomy could clarify the origins of disease, a notion best summarised in his advice to students of medicine: 'Open up a few corpses.'
Bichat died of an acute illness, probably tuberculosis meningitis, aged 30. On learning of the young physician’s death, Napoleon ordered the erection of a monument, dedicated to the memories of Bichat and his instructor, Desault, in the hall of the Hotel Dieu. | <urn:uuid:83187d86-754c-4792-af7f-6f8d5e81eb3b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/xavierbichat.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954047 | 326 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Foster Kids Pajama Drive
Did you know there are 542,000 children and teens in foster care any given day in the United States. At age 18 66% of persons in foster care leave without a high school diploma 61% have no job experience and 25% end up on the streets. These are sad but true statistics, that’s why Sleep Country USA has created their foster kids program where they collect donations of the basic necessities that growing foster children need, but often do not have, as well as raising public awareness of local foster children’s needs.
Right now through February 26th Sleep Country is holding their “Foster Kids Pajama Drive” designed to help Pacific Northwest foster children replace pajamas, socks and underwear that have become worn out or too small. You can help by donating new pajamas, packaged underwear and socks to one of the 3 Sleep Country locations in Tri-Cities. At the end of the drive all donations will go to local foster kids in need. | <urn:uuid:5a00aa14-a9d8-4fdd-b2d0-e3781a3e7838> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://keyw.com/foster-kids-pajama-drive/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945392 | 210 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Forbes has written about Oprah Winfrey many times over the years, but this is the first time we’ve ever gotten access to speak to Winfrey herself. It couldn’t have happened in a more fitting way. I had the honor of sitting down with Winfrey for a dynamic discussion that kicked off the Forbes 400 Summit On Philanthropy. At this inaugural gathering, one hundred and fifty of the country’s top business leaders came together to address how collectively this group could leverage their insights, knowledge and resources to change the world, and the face of philanthropy, as we know it. No small mission. Who better to set the day’s agenda in motion than Winfrey, one of the world’s most powerful self-made entrepreneurs and influential forces in the world of philanthropy?
Winfrey’s candid conversation served as one of the day’s keynote addresses that also included remarks from Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. Each represented different definitions of philanthropy based on how and why they each give, as well as tough lessons learned along the way.
“I realized that the only way to create long-term improvement and empowerment, and literally change the trajectory of somebody’s life, is through education,” shared Winfrey. Indeed, she’s done just that with The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, a school in South Africa that she tells us was born out of a fascinating conversation she had while staying as a houseguest at Nelson Mandela’s.
Winfrey not only discussed the defining moments that inspired her that she could transform lives through the power of education. She also opened up to share her philanthropic failures that have evolved and shaped her approach to giving now. “I had thought long and hard about the mistakes that I’d made in the past,” she reflected. “I’d already had a program with young girls in the inner city and had failed because I couldn’t take them out of the environment and didn’t have the infrastructure.”
Winfrey also guided us through the painful experience and lessons learned when her Leadership Academy faced a distressing, and highly publicized crisis in 2006. Despite the most altruistic intentions, philanthropic work isn’t immune from devastating, albeit unintended, consequences. In Winfrey’s case, it began with a phone call where the media mogul learned that one of the school’s dorm parents was involved in sexual abuse. Numerous school-wide allegations soon surfaced. “We thought we thought of everything including knowing how devastating the crime situation can be in South Africa, electrifying the fences around the borders, and making sure that men were off the campus by a certain time at night. Never occurred to me or anyone, I think, that you would have abuse or charges of abuse from a female on campus.” No matter how much you try to build the right environment, you don’t always anticipate all the risks that may undermine the larger spirit of your work.
To Winfrey, the resilience and focus that’s synonymous with this iconic self-made entrepreneur remains key to her evolving success as philanthropist. “I held onto what is the greater vision,” she says. “The real key is not making emotional decisions,” a critical reminder for even the most seasoned philanthropist. For Winfrey, the solution is to build a solid infrastructure and to find the leadership that can sustain your vision for the long term. Not doing so is how the biggest mistakes have been made, she points out, particularly in Africa.
Winfrey even touched on the extraordinary ways people have gotten her attention for their causes. (As you can imagine, her phone rings quite often.) Someone even cleverly bought a billboard to promote the change with puppy mills that she would see on her way to the Harpo offices. “That actually worked,” says Winfrey. That is, until everyone else started buying billboard space to appeal to her. “But the first one worked.” Note to self: extraordinary measures get Winfrey’s attention. But be first about it.
There were the moments of levity, too, in our chat. Who knew that the topic of “Beyoncé dancing on stage in all of her Beyoncé-ness” would come up. Or that after the show, the legendary singer when on to ask Winfrey, “Was that okay?”, deftly illustrating “a common denominator in our human experience” for Oprah. “What I learned in all of those thousands of interviews is that there is a common denominator in our human experience…Everybody wants to know did you hear me and did what I say matter?”
What Winfrey shared at the Forbes 400 Summit certainly mattered and so I hope you’ll view the video of her inspiring and compelling talk. It’s something I know I’ll be going back to again and again for the wisdom she imparts. And, for the record, interviewing Winfrey was the most daunting assignment of my life. On top of being a media mogul, the first self-made billionaire in America, and a role model to millions, Winfrey’s the world’s best interviewer. I prepared days of my life for this conversation, waking up in the middle of the night fearing that I might botch a career or charity milestone – and the fact that our conversation would be immortalized on video (as well as in the minds of my sisters who were in the room) didn’t help either. Did the angel network give away $100,000 every Monday or was it every Tuesday? But ever the professional, Ms. Winfrey put me and audience at ease, asking us immediately to give each other high-fives just for being there.
Winfrey’s natural enthusiasm and contagious energy makes her a joy to watch: “I’m really excited about the possibilities of what will come when all of this energy comes together and we collaborate to say not quite sure what will come from it, but you know that something good will come from it.”
We feel the same way. | <urn:uuid:8a9f778c-4f08-4e4c-b15f-4d029aa8b6c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forbes.com/sites/moiraforbes/2012/09/18/oprah-winfrey-talks-philanthropy-failure-and-what-every-guest-including-beyonce-asks-her/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971257 | 1,290 | 1.8125 | 2 |
With less than 6 months until the London Olympics, British police, fire and ambulances tested their abilitity to deal with a terrorist attack during the games. NBC's Duncan Golestani reports.
LONDON -- The bells of St Clement Danes Church on The Strand chimed on the hour at 10 a.m. Gray clouds hung low over traffic-filled streets and the cold chilled to the bone.
So a pretty typical February day in central London.
It became untypical at around 11, after two young men walked out of nearby Aldwych underground, or subway, station. A few minutes later, a public announcement instructed everybody to leave the building. The trickle of commuters leaving the station became a torrent. Some of them were irate, demanding an explanation from subway workers and police. Others held their heads or limbs, seemingly wounded and in shock.
Sirens screamed and a helicopter hovered above. Police vans, ambulances, fire trucks and a large green tent for the wounded clogged the narrow lane outside the station. Dozens of first responders -- fire fighters in helmets and black-and-yellow outfits, ambulance workers, police officers and delighted-looking bomb-sniffing dogs -- milled around on the street.
The bad news: Word was that an explosive device had partially detonated deep in the Tube.
The good news: It was all part of a two-day drill on Wednesday called Operation Forward Defensive involving thousands of emergency personnel and volunteers.
Dozens of journalists and officials were observing an exercise of how emergency services, London City Hall, transport officials, Olympic organizers, the government and counter-terrorism units would react to a terrorist attack during this summer's games. According to the scenario, there had been an "incident" in Oxford Street Station, a major transport artery, on August 8, 2012, judged to be one of the busiest days during the Olympics.
Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images
Police and fire officers gather during an exercise to test emergency services' readiness for a terror attack at the disused Aldwych underground station on Wednesday.
"We are preparing on the basis of a severe level of threat that is higher than our current threat level," James Brokenshire, a government minister for security, told NBC News on Monday.
While authorities emphasized that security drills happen all the time, the Olympics doesn't happen all the time. The eyes of the world will be on London this summer: The city's population is expected to balloon by almost one million and an estimated four billion globally are expected to watch the games on television.
Partly because al-Qaida and related jihadi groups, right-wing extremists and Northern Irish militants are all thought to be a threat, the games will see the U.K.'s largest peacetime security operation involving tens of thousands of security officials.
The issue of security is particularly relevant to Olympics organizers. The decision to award the 2012 games to London was announced on July 6, 2005. The following morning, the city suffered its worst peacetime attack when four suicide bombers killed 52 commuters, many of them on the subway.
A constant refrain among the phalanx of officials at the drill on Wednesday was improved communications, seen as one of the failings in the response to 7/7, as the July, 2005, attacks are known.
Police, fire and ambulance vehicles line the road during an emergency services exercise at the disused Aldwych underground station on Wednesday.
"We are testing our coordination in working with other agencies," said Nicola Watson of the British Transport Police. "We are testing the communications systems on the underground service, we are testing our command and control in conjunction with the other organizations, and also we are testing the investigation into an incident t such as this."
So a major improvement has been the deployment of a digital radio system that allows first-responders to communicate more effectively and when in subway.
But the drill was a confidence-building exercise as well.
"It's ... about showing that London is ready, and demonstrate it to the world, because a world event is coming to London in a few months," David Whiting of the London Fire Brigade said.
One person whose confidence apparently had been boosted by the drill was London mayor Boris Johnson.
"I want (everybody) to know that London's underground system is the safest in Europe," he said. "It's never been so safe." | <urn:uuid:724522db-d6b1-4ec2-a009-6d14b6da1cee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/02/22/10478241-testing-for-terror-preparing-for-the-unthinkable-at-london-olympics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967792 | 904 | 1.96875 | 2 |
The next best thing
by Dan Lester
|We’re not talking about “virtual” presence, any more than you’re “virtually” talking to your friend on the telephone. There is nothing “virtual” about a telephone conversation.|
But we’ve reached a curious point in our history, where our technology now allows us to experience distant venues through electromechanical surrogates. This technology provides us with keen vision, precision mobility, and a measure of dexterity that approaches that of our hands and arms. Should hearing, smell, and touch be of interest, we could do that too. The idea of exercising our senses through surrogates is nothing new. We’ve been using telephones widely for more than a century, using an induction coil attached to a diaphragm as a remote surrogate for our eardrum and middle ear. Vidicons long ago put our eyes in faraway places. The early implementations of these surrogates often required, of course, having a person on the other end to enable the surrogate, holding the telephone up to their head, and moving the vidicon camera this way and that. While we’ve sent surrogates for our eyes to distant parts of the solar system, the Mars rovers now exercise our mobility, and to some extent our dexterity, in a gravity field on distant soil. Thanks to the RAT tools on Spirit and Opportunity, and now the ChemCam laser on Curiosity, we’re leaving marks inscribed in rocks on Mars, and these vehicles certainly leave their tread marks, if not boot prints, in the soil.
It’s true that Lewis and Clark hadn’t looked down on the Louisiana Territory from orbit. They didn’t because they couldn’t. When you get right down to it, if they could have done that, they would have. In fact, if Thomas Jefferson had that capability, his Corps of Discovery might have been ensconced in a control room hunched over display terminals instead of hauling gunpowder and cartography equipment, and they would have gone home every day when their shift was done.
The progress of electromechanical surrogates, which we abbreviate with the term “telerobots”, has been startlingly rapid. In the last decade we’ve seen these surrogates extend both our awareness and our manipulative abilities into the ocean depths and even inside of human bodies through telerobotic surgery. These are places that we’d otherwise think of as being visited by small numbers of people encased in heavy pressure vessels, and even by Raquel Welch, in her completely fictitious Fantastic Voyage. It is reasonable to think that these surrogates will eventually relay complete senses and dexterity, as well as provide the mobility, of at least a spacesuited human. We’re not talking about “virtual” presence, any more than you’re “virtually” talking to your friend on the telephone. There is nothing “virtual” about a telephone conversation. Defining “presence” as where your cognition is, rather than where your body is, we’re talking about real presence through surrogates. The idea of “telepresence”, which used to be considered somewhat technologically fantastical, is now becoming wholly credible. Isn’t it time for our perception of exploration to graduate from its historical underpinnings of dirt in boots and mature with our technology?
But there is a problem. The distances over which we want to exercise these surrogates impose a time delay on their control. For the Moon, that two-way time delay is at least 2.6 seconds, and for Mars it is far longer: 8 to 40 minutes. The lure of personal experience is in many ways defeated by these delays that render operation through surrogates in real time a decidedly local enterprise. These time delays, absolutely dictated by the speed of light, are what we call “latency”, and a fundamentally constrain earthbound humans in using these surrogates. These delays are, at minimum, what we routinely endure in “experiencing” Mars through our rover surrogates. What kind of personal experience has you turning your head, and waiting 40 minutes to see the view? Is experiencing distant space destinations through electromechanical surrogates really possible?
|So, one might say, if we’re sending astronauts 99% of the way to the surface of Mars, why don’t we just send them down to the surface? Perhaps because we don’t need to.|
It isn’t that easy to do so from Earth. But perhaps it is possible if we can get people close enough to those destinations. NASA has been recently thinking about strategies for on-orbit telerobotics, which would have astronauts travel close to a distant site, but not require them to descend into a gravity well; perhaps, instead, being in orbit around the site. Their lives in orbit would, in many respects, benefit from our vast experience with the International Space Station. Their exposure to space radiation would be higher than for ISS, but not necessarily much higher than if they were on the surface of a planet, such as Mars, which has a thin atmosphere and weak magnetic field. From their high perch, they could control surrogates in near-real time at many different surface locations, quite unlike the capabilities of astronauts who would land at one place on the surface. In the very near term, we’re thinking of doing that at the Moon, from Earth-Moon L1 (near side) or L2 (far side). While the latency advantages would be far less than for Mars, the concept of operations of on-orbit telerobotic control would be exercised.
So, one might say, if we’re sending astronauts 99% of the way to the surface of Mars, why don’t we just send them down to the surface? Perhaps because we don’t need to. Perhaps because surface operations add a thick layer of additional expense, complexity, and risk to a human trip to Mars. Perhaps because the astronauts can actually cover more ground from their high perch. Perhaps because planetary protection makes human visits to the surface problematical. Perhaps because even for resource development, we don’t need astronauts sitting in bulldozers or wrestling with shovels and pickaxes. So while they might like to get dirt in their own boots, these on-orbit astronauts could get dirt in a lot of surrogate boots all over the planet, and even shake the dirt out of them in real time.
My colleagues and I held a symposium at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center a few months ago to assess the promise of real-time robotic surrogates for exploring distant destinations. See http://telerobotics.gsfc.nasa.gov/, where videos and slide sets from the plenary presentations are posted. This symposium was attended by almost a hundred members of the planetary science, robotics, and human spaceflight communities, as well as representatives of terrestrial commercial telepresence activities, such as surgery, mining, undersea operations, and inter-office cooperation. Participants came from NASA, the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, as well as industry and academia. This diverse group was there to think about putting human “presence” at places where it was hard, or at least really inconvenient, to put humans, and to report on that to NASA. Stay tuned.
So with our Earth-controlled Mars rovers and orbiters reaping a new wealth of science, and in the face of serious funding challenges for space endeavors of all kinds, maybe the new next best thing for planetary exploration is on-orbit telerobotics and exploration telepresence: putting real-time human cognition on a planetary surface without quite putting people all the way there. To the extent you eventually want to get dirt between your toes (perhaps a tray full of regolith in a surface habitat would let you do that?) as opposed to dirt in some boots, this strategy may help pave the way. | <urn:uuid:e5a3a790-62a3-430b-b39a-6ccd254c2b2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thespacereview.com/article/2150/1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952926 | 1,683 | 2.515625 | 3 |
International and Off-campus Studies
- Among doctoral granting universities, Notre Dame ranks in the top 10 in the percentage of students studying abroad.
- Notre Dame offers more than 40 international study programs in 20 countries.
- Notre Dame's Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies is the nation's foremost Irish studies program, and Notre Dame has the most prominent presence in Ireland of any American university.
- At the request of Pope Paul VI, Notre Dame helped found the Ecumenical Institute for Theological Studies at Tantur, located on a hilltop on the road from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. The University offers graduate students the opportunity to live and study at Tantur.
- The University's London Centre programs, which are housed in a historic building on Trafalgar Square, include some 130 students each semester from each of Notre Dame's four colleges.
- Notre Dame's London Law Centre operates the only full-time branch of an American law school located outside the United States.
- Students in the School of Architecture spend their third year in the University's Rome Studies Center. | <urn:uuid:0a99d02d-b5c4-4d84-8ad8-7bf6a68ee4b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nd.edu/about/indicators-of-excellence/international-studies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931137 | 220 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Within the list of huge paying jobs in the USA, you may certainly find an auto mechanic’s career with an standard auto mechanic salary(website) of approximately $30,000 on a yearly basis. You would operate hands on with automobiles, vans as well as other types of vehicles and make certain that they are working appropriately and also manage any issues that they are developing. By 2008, the recorded figure for auto mechanic salary in the USA was a major 763,700. The most crucial matter required in becoming a good automotive mechanic is great skills. The exact amount will also differ based on the kind of employer and also the state at which this company is situated.
Apart from sessions in impact restoration, there are also chemistry and physics courses for people who need to proceed further and have a plus from individuals who have merely HS diplomas or an entry level status. They are trained to determine the problem and also repair or perhaps change the substandard pieces. These kinds of training may take from about 9 months to 2 years to finish. There are vocational schools that offer modules about Automotive Technology that can be finished within a a couple of years. A large number of most car specialists will be compensated in an hourly basis.
The job pay depends on your clients instead of on your supervisor. Even so, companies are generally usually ready to accept those who wish to do their job overtime. There are certain states that provide a higher auto mechanic salary on account of high criteria of residing including a higher need for well experienced car mechanics. This will rely upon a number of aspects including the level of practical knowledge you have, the sort of space you work in as well as the town and also state you work out of. A person can anticipate to dedicate about twelve months in training.
Then again, it isn’t really complicated to obtain formal technical skill training through a variety of educational institutions. Individuals who have solely accomplished secondary school is only going to make approximately $12 to $19. This is actually the going rate of pay while you are going through an internship. This should not be a difficulty as decent educational institutions give help until such time as you get certified. The level of learning or perhaps instruction even impacts the earnings of an automotive mechanic. In reality, anyone can certainly be an auto mechanic.
Technology with the vehicular field is often changing due to progression of new solutions to be a answer to current automobile engineering. Having 5 years of working experience in this particular field, an auto technician will get anywhere between $20,000 to $60,000. San Jose, CA along with San Francisco, CA provide earnings in the $50,000 range. With 20 or even more years of working experience you could expect a paycheck of $59,000 per year or $28 per hour. It might take a little while to acquire daily people, but what you need is patience. Granted the flexibility of this job, there is absolutely no doubt that the generating potential shall be good. There is a predicted 17 percent increase in the career industry over the following seven years. | <urn:uuid:616ec22d-f35a-4ace-b1cb-34182adc5b11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://littlequill.com/ways-to-get-a-good-auto-mechanic-salary | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973741 | 618 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Collection Dates: 1940 -- 1970
This document describes a collection of materials held
Special Collections Department
University of Iowa Libraries
Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1420
Posted to Internet:2001
Acquisition Note: This
collection was purchased by the University of Iowa Libraries in 1974.
This collection was purchased by the University of Iowa Libraries in 1974.
Access and Restrictions: This collection
is open for research.
This collection is open for research.
Photographs: Box 1
Digital Surrogates: Except where indicated, this document describes but does not reproduce the actual text, images and objects which make up this collection. Materials are available only in the Special Collections Department.
Copyright: Please read The University of Iowa Libraries' statement on "Property Rights, Copyright Law, and Permissions to Use Unpublished Materials"
Use of Collections: The University of Iowa Libraries supports access to the materials, published and unpublished, in its collections. Nonetheless, access to some items may be restricted by their fragile condition or by contractual agreement with donors, and it may not be possible at all times to provide appropriate machinery for reading, viewing or accessing non-paper-based materials. Please read our Use of Manuscripts Statement.
Archie Alphonse Alexander was born in Ottumwa, Iowa, on May 14, 1888 . He was the first African-American to graduate from the University of Iowa's College of Engineering. He earned his degree in civil engineering in 1912. While a student at Iowa, he also was a member of the varsity football team.
Alexander opened his own engineering firm of A.A. Alexander, Inc. in 1914, in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1917, Alexander and George F. Higbee entered into a partnership. Their engineering company specialized in building bridges, viaducts, and sewage systems throughout Iowa. In 1925, Higbee was killed in a construction accident. For the next several years Alexander continued the business alone. During this period he received several large construction contracts at his alma mater, including the University's power plant and tunnel system. In 1929, Maurice Repass joined him as a junior partner. They had been classmates at Iowa and had played football together. They went on to complete projects in most of the then forty-eight states. Between 1914 and 1950, Alexander's businesses completed over three hundred projects.
Alexander was also active outside of his business. He was president of the Des Moines chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He was also president of the local chapter of the Inter-racial Commission. He was a trustee of both Howard University and the Tuskeegee Institute. Alexander directed that his estate be used to establish engineering scholarships at Howard University, Tuskeegee Institute, and the University of Iowa.
A.A. Alexander was an active Republican who twice served as assistant to the chairman of Iowa's Republican State Committee. And early in 1952, he joined the "Eisenhower for President" movement. His party loyalty was rewarded with the post of Governor of the Virgin Islands. Not well suited to diplomacy, Alexander served only one year. By 1955 his health was failing. Archie A. Alexander died of a heart attack on January 4, 1958.
SCOPE AND CONTENTS
The papers of Archie Alexander consist of 120 items dating from 1940 to 1970. Subject files include topics which range from testimonial dinners to nomination hearings before the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs and from Howard University to construction project photographs. Speeches, correspondence, and clippings complete the papers.
Hearings Before the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, U.S. Senate, 83rd Congress, 2nd Session on the nomination of Archie A. Alexander to be governor of the Virgin Islands, March 10, 1954
Howard University materials, 1954 -- 1955
A Challenge for the Education of our Youth Today," an address by Archie
A. Alexander at Howard University, June, 1955.
pertaining to Archie A. Alexander, 1949 -- 1985.
mostly relating to Mrs. Archie A. Alexander, 1940 -- 1964.
concerning Archie A. Alexander, 1945 -- 1993
of construction projects by Alexander & Repass, 1946 --1954
honoring Archie A. Alexander, April 15, 1954, including a speech by Loren Hickerson
reviewing Alexander's career.
University of Iowa Centennial Commencement Award and Citation, June 1947, nomination forms for Archie A. Alexander by S. Joe Brown and Clifford V. Smith. | <urn:uuid:ba8c2806-23cb-4614-82fb-51b83bf3ff59> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/msc/tomsc350/msc304_alexanderaa/alexander.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948536 | 925 | 2.0625 | 2 |
This TED talk by Candy Chang is a great lesson in how to live life to the full. In response to her grief at the death of a friend, and after reflecting on death and how to come to terms with her loss Candy decided to set up a large blackboard wall in her New Orleans neighbourhood with the sentence: Before I die I want to………………
The response to her wall was phenomenal and other cities followed suit. You can see how Candy’s important message has spread by checking out her website Before I Die.
Take a few minutes to watch her video and I hope you will feel inspired to think about all the things you want to do before you die. You may even feel inspired to set up your own Before I Die wall in your community here are some resources to get you started or it may just cause you to reflect on what really matters to you. Happiness experiment no 10 is therefore to make a list of all the things you want to do before you die and to start doing them today. Have fun doing all the fun things you want to do and let me know how you get on.
Posted by Shona Lockhart, 6th September 2012 | <urn:uuid:d9087d11-3412-4602-8c76-7b2ff9c034a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thehappinessexperiment.co.uk/tag/before-i-die-wall/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971992 | 237 | 2.21875 | 2 |
NYS Senator Eric Adams joined his colleagues in the Senate to enact a 10-point plan that creates jobs, nurtures small businesses, and attracts new investments
NYS Senator Eric Adams states: “Job creation and economic revitalization are top legislative priorities of the Senate Majority Conference. We have now passed a comprehensive jobs package of 10 bills that will put New Yorkers back to work, create new jobs, and spur economic growth for businesses across the state. The Majority’s “jobs plan” will:
• Establish “land banks” in order to foster the development of vacant and abandoned property;
• Extend by 7-years the Empire Zone capital credit for not-for-profit projects;
• Provide small businesses with an SBA loan tax credit to encourage business growth;
• Encourage innovative companies with tax credits for technology start-ups;
• Clarify the definition of work activities to include work-study and internship positions.
“We must extract ourselves from our fiscal crisis by putting New Yorkers back to work. We must invest in small businesses and create lasting jobs to achieve sustainable economic growth. These measures, which make it easier for high quality small companies, the backbone of the state’s economy, to grow and profit, will create jobs, assist businesses, aid workers and consumers, and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of government operations.
“We must work together to rebuild our State.” | <urn:uuid:baec7b21-5c18-4593-beea-41e78fe48735> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nysenate.gov/print/60956 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930534 | 295 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Following NCAA President, Mark Emmert's, halftime interview with Jim Nantz on Sunday, the engine was revved up again. The catalyst for the debate not worth debating: the never ending saga of the one-and-done in college basketball. A topic that has been thought provoking enough that Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari has had to continuously defend his means. Regarding John Calipari's usage of the one-and-done, Emmert defended the 53 year old coach saying, "Any coach who's using the rules and operating inside the rules to provide them with a competitive advantage is certainly within their prerogative." On his Final Four squad, the Kentucky coach has six freshman players, including player of the year candidate, Anthony Davis. Those six clocked 4,014 minutes played in the 36 games prior to their victory over Baylor, three hundred minutes more than last year's freshman class. In the interview on CBS, Emmert expressed his desire to amend the rule to at least make it a two-and-done rule, stating the current system is "a travesty of the whole notion of student as athlete." The question becomes, does implementing a recyclable, one-and-done system give the team a better chance to win a National Championship? | <urn:uuid:4151d283-80da-4a3c-9e81-7383df00d3d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wetalkfantasysports.com/2012/03/wolff-time-to-put-one-and-done-debate.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974451 | 262 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The way you get heat is, well, by things executing -- be it the processor or the graphics -- and ventilation (or lack of it). You know, put a laptop on your lap and you get cooked? The thing has to have air flowing through it.
So, eliminate the simple stuff -- does the fan come on frequently? Is it sitting on a flat surface so air can get though it? That sort of thing -- the thing has to able to breathe.
Then you get to the fun part: what's running (and why)?
How busy are your CPUs? Just sitting there, your CPUs should be pretty much quiescent, somewhere around 1%-2% (not 50% or greater). There shouldn't be much activity at all unless you're doing something (or something else is doing something). How much "stuff" is running all the time (actually executing, not sleeping)? Take a look at top
and see what it tells you -- you should not see a whole lot of time on much of anything but X
or a browser you may have open for a long period (like hours or maybe days). Most things should be seconds or a few minutes in the top
Do you have GKrellM
on the box? If so, start it up and watch the display -- all your CPUs will show graphs of activity (there are a number of things displayed by default plus you can turn on additional information such as temperatures, fans, etc. It's a good tool for monitoring system load (and then you can go find just what is causing the load using top
or other tools). If you don't have it by default, it's probably available from a software repository or take a look at http://members.dslextreme.com/users/...m/gkrellm.html
Something you can do is shut down unneeded stuff -- looking at top
will make you wonder if you really need all these running all the time and you can start eliminating things. Running KDE? it's gotten to be a behemoth and there's a whole lot of fat clogging up your system -- disable if you don't need it or don't use it, turn it off. Try a different, leaner, desktop environment, say, Xfce
Hope this helps some. | <urn:uuid:23ca84ef-2dfa-470c-80b4-8b357b4543b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/mageia-97/heat-problem-4175448669/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93513 | 472 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Second-generation Americans—the 20 million adult U.S.-born children of immigrants—are substantially better off than immigrants themselves on key measures of socioeconomic attainment, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. They have higher incomes; more are college graduates and homeowners; and fewer live in poverty. In all of these measures, their characteristics resemble those of the full U.S. adult population.
Hispanics and Asian Americans make up about seven-in-ten of today’s adult immigrants and about half of today’s adult second generation. Pew Research surveys find that the second generations of both groups are much more likely than the immigrants to speak English; to have friends and spouses outside their ethnic or racial group, to say their group gets along well with others, and to think of themselves as a “typical American.”
The Pew Research surveys also find that second-generation Hispanics and Asian Americans place more importance than does the general public on hard work and career success. They are more inclined to call themselves liberal and less likely to identify as Republicans. And for the most part they are more likely to say their standard of living is higher than that of their parents at the same stage of life. In all of these measures, the second generation resembles the immigrant generation more closely than the general public.
Read the full report, "Second-Generation Americans: A Portrait of the Adult Children of Immigrants", on the Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends Project website. | <urn:uuid:3e532ab8-8773-4062-8f61-350fb069de01> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_report_detail.aspx?id=85899450004 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963616 | 313 | 2.8125 | 3 |
British Columbia Senior Housing
Seniors in British Columbia have a wide range of housing alternatives. From living independently in the family home, to the programs and support offered by different senior housing providers. British Columbia is the first province in Canada to regulate assisted living residences. The Assisted Living Registrar is responsible for ensuring the safety and health standards at publicly subsidized and private-pay Assisted Living facilities. In British Columbia community care facilities are regulated by Community Care and Assisted Living Act.
British Columbia has both private and public options for senior care. Government options are subsidized by the provincial government and are referred to as funded, and private options are paid for directly by the consumer and are referred to as market.
Market senior housing options include different levels of care, and can be classified into the following groups:
- Retirement Homes in British Columbia (also known as Independent Retirement Residences or Independent Living Facilities) – this option is ideal for seniors who are relatively independent, but need help with daily living activities. These activities might include: meals, light housekeeping, laundry, 24-hour emergency response, social and recreational programs. Such residences can range in cost from $1500 to $5000/month depending on the location, amenities, staffing level, and service package options.
- Assisted Living in British Columbia is suited for seniors who can still live independently, but require assistance with activities of daily living and need health support. In BC Assisted Living Facilities are often part of a larger Retirement Community that offers different levels of care and services. Besides housekeeping, meals and landry, Assisted Living residences provide medication management, 24/7 nursing services, various therapies and more.
- Complex Care facilities (also known as Residential Care facilities) are best suited to seniors who require 24-hour professional nursing and support. Significant physical frailty and/or cognitive impairment would be the prerequisite for complex care services. In BC, both profit and nonprofit independent operators deliver complex care under contract to government in a campus-like setting. Such health campuses often include Independent Retirement Residences and Complex Care facilities in the same campus, thus allowing the appropriate level of service as residents’ health-related needs change. All complex-care facilities in British Columbia are regulated under the Community and Assisted Living Act and must be registered with the Office of the Assisted Living Registrar (OALR). Market complex care can cost up to $8,000/month.
Funded programs include two forms of seniors’ housing in BC. They are:
- The Independent Living BC (ILBC) program
- Seniors’ Supportive Housing, known as the SSH Program
Independent Living BC (ILBC) program is administered through one of the five regional health authorities in BC, and it’s subsidized by both the health authority, and BC Housing – provincial housing authority responsible for subsidized housing. In order to qualify for this program, you must meet the eligibility criteria in the following key areas:
- Applicants must require accommodation, hospitality services, and personal care services.
- Applicants must be able to make decisions on their own behalf, rather than someone making these decisions on their behalf.
- Applicants must be able to respond in case there is an emergency situation (i.e. fire in the building).
If the resident is accepted in the ILBC program, the health authority representative will refer the resident to specific available residences within the region that participate in the ILBC program. Not all of the residences will be available, and there might be a waiting list.
Seniors’ Supportive Housing (SSH) program provides specially equipped rental properties to primarily low-income seniors who need some assistance to continue living independently. Such properties are modified to enhance accessibility and improve safety systems. The program also provides support services, such as housekeeping, meals, and social activities. SSH program is administered through BC Housing, and is available in select communities throughout the province.
Sometimes, funded and market units can co-exist in the same project, and in this case there will be effectively two or more programs operating in the same residence. As funded programs require specific elements to be incorporated into the service package, this can define the service package for the entire project.
Senior Housing Guide
- Top Cities to Retire in Canada - 2013
- Laneway Homes Revolutionizing Senior Housing in BC
- Top 10 Reasons Why Move to a Retirement Home
- BC Assisted Living vs. Other Senior Housing Options
- Retirement Home Costs in Canada
- BC's Best Retirement Destinations: The Interior Region
- Vancouver Island is a Retirement Paradise
- Senior Care Options in British Columbia
- Why Choose Retirement Homes in Kelowna?
- Frequently Asked Questions about Assisted Living in BC | <urn:uuid:a7878258-28ea-4219-9f6e-0a800270e86c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.seniorszen.com/care/province/british-columbia | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949127 | 965 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Cheating, Plagiarism, and Academic Dishonesty
Students must be honest and responsible in the completion of their academic work. While parents are encouraged to assist and guide their children, they must allow their children to do their own work. Students must refrain from:
- Copying another student's work or homework
- Plagiarism (submitting another's work as one's own)
Teachers who suspect that a student may have been academically dishonest will report their concern to the Administration. Consequences may range from receiving a zero (no credit) on the assignment to required withdrawal from school. | <urn:uuid:35162ff6-b008-4522-bddd-7963fd6ecab0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.franciscanschool.org/cheat_plagiarism_dishonest | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977458 | 126 | 2.640625 | 3 |
In mathematics, an automorphism is an isomorphism from a mathematical object to itself. It is, in some sense, a symmetry of the object, and a way of mapping the object to itself while preserving all of its structure. The set of all automorphisms of an object forms a group, called the automorphism group. It is, loosely speaking, the symmetry group of the object.
The exact definition of an automorphism depends on the type of "mathematical object" in question and what, precisely, constitutes an "isomorphism" of that object. The most general setting in which these words have meaning is an abstract branch of mathematics called category theory. Category theory deals with abstract objects and morphisms between those objects.
This is a very abstract definition since, in category theory, morphisms aren't necessarily functions and objects aren't necessarily sets. In most concrete settings, however, the objects will be sets with some additional structure and the morphisms will be functions preserving that structure.
In the context of abstract algebra, for example, a mathematical object is an algebraic structure such as a group, ring, or vector space. An isomorphism is simply a bijective homomorphism. (The definition of a homomorphism depends on the type of algebraic structure; see, for example: group homomorphism, ring homomorphism, and linear operator).
If the automorphisms of an object X form a set (instead of a proper class), then they form a group under composition of morphisms. This group is called the automorphism group of X. That this is indeed a group is simple to see:
- Closure: composition of two endomorphisms is another endomorphism.
- Associativity: composition of morphisms is always associative.
- Identity: the identity is the identity morphism from an object to itself which exists by definition.
- Inverses: by definition every isomorphism has an inverse which is also an isomorphism, and since the inverse is also an endomorphism of the same object it is an automorphism.
The automorphism group of an object X in a category C is denoted AutC(X), or simply Aut(X) if the category is clear from context.
- In set theory, an automorphism of a set X is an arbitrary permutation of the elements of X. The automorphism group of X is also called the symmetric group on X.
- In elementary arithmetic, the set of integers, Z, considered as a group under addition, has a unique nontrivial automorphism: negation. Considered as a ring, however, it has only the trivial automorphism. Generally speaking, negation is an automorphism of any abelian group, but not of a ring or field.
- A group automorphism is a group isomorphism from a group to itself. Informally, it is a permutation of the group elements such that the structure remains unchanged. For every group G there is a natural group homomorphism G → Aut(G) whose image is the group Inn(G) of inner automorphisms and whose kernel is the center of G. Thus, if G has trivial center it can be embedded into its own automorphism group.
- In linear algebra, an endomorphism of a vector space V is a linear operator V → V. An automorphism is an invertible linear operator on V. When the vector space is finite-dimensional, the automorphism group of V is the same as the general linear group, GL(V).
- A field automorphism is a bijective ring homomorphism from a field to itself. In the cases of the rational numbers (Q) and the real numbers (R) there are no nontrivial field automorphisms. Some subfields of R have nontrivial field automorphisms, which however do not extend to all of R (because they cannot preserve the property of a number having a square root in R). In the case of the complex numbers, C, there is a unique nontrivial automorphism that sends R into R: complex conjugation, but there are infinitely (uncountably) many "wild" automorphisms (assuming the axiom of choice). Field automorphisms are important to the theory of field extensions, in particular Galois extensions. In the case of a Galois extension L/K the subgroup of all automorphisms of L fixing K pointwise is called the Galois group of the extension.
- In graph theory an automorphism of a graph is a permutation of the nodes that preserves edges and non-edges. In particular, if two nodes are joined by an edge, so are their images under the permutation.
- For relations, see relation-preserving automorphism.
- In geometry, an automorphism may be called a motion of the space. Specialized terminology is also used:
- In metric geometry an automorphism is a self-isometry. The automorphism group is also called the isometry group.
- In the category of Riemann surfaces, an automorphism is a bijective biholomorphic map (also called a conformal map), from a surface to itself. For example, the automorphisms of the Riemann sphere are Möbius transformations.
- An automorphism of a differentiable manifold M is a diffeomorphism from M to itself. The automorphism group is sometimes denoted Diff(M).
- In topology, morphisms between topological spaces are called continuous maps, and an automorphism of a topological space is a homeomorphism of the space to itself, or self-homeomorphism (see homeomorphism group). In this example it is not sufficient for a morphism to be bijective to be an isomorphism.
One of the earliest group automorphisms (automorphism of a group, not simply a group of automorphisms of points) was given by the Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton in 1856, in his icosian calculus, where he discovered an order two automorphism, writing:
so that is a new fifth root of unity, connected with the former fifth root by relations of perfect reciprocity.
Inner and outer automorphisms
In the case of groups, the inner automorphisms are the conjugations by the elements of the group itself. For each element a of a group G, conjugation by a is the operation φa : G → G given by (or a−1ga; usage varies). One can easily check that conjugation by a is a group automorphism. The inner automorphisms form a normal subgroup of Aut(G), denoted by Inn(G); this is called Goursat's lemma.
- PJ Pahl, R Damrath (2001). "§7.5.5 Automorphisms". Mathematical foundations of computational engineering (Felix Pahl translation ed.). Springer. p. 376. ISBN 3-540-67995-2.
- Yale, Paul B. (May 1966). "Automorphisms of the Complex Numbers". Mathematics Magazine 39 (3): 135–141. doi:10.2307/2689301. JSTOR 2689301.
- Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1856). "Memorandum respecting a new System of Roots of Unity". Philosophical Magazine 12: 446. | <urn:uuid:0b5f4900-6fa8-4159-93a8-beb526c25689> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automorphism | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908275 | 1,574 | 3.890625 | 4 |
The big threat to growth in the next decade is not oil or food prices, but the rising cost of health care. The doubling of health insurance premiums since 2000 makes employers choose between cutting benefits and hiring fewer workers.
Rising health costs push total employment costs up and wages and benefits down. The result is lost profits and lost wages, in addition to pointless risk, insecurity and a flood of personal bankruptcies.
Sustained growth thus requires successful health-care reform. Barack Obama and John McCain propose to lead us in opposite directions -- and the Obama direction is far superior.
Sen. Obama's proposal will modernize our current system of employer- and government-provided health care, keeping what works well, and making the investments now that will lead to a more efficient medical system. He does this in five ways:
- Learning. One-third of medical costs go for services at best ineffective and at worst harmful. Fifty billion dollars will jump-start the long-overdue information revolution in health care to identify the best providers, treatments and patient management strategies.
- Rewarding. Doctors and hospitals today are paid for performing procedures, not for helping patients. Insurers make money by dumping sick patients, not by keeping people healthy. Mr. Obama proposes to base Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals and doctors on patient outcomes (lower cholesterol readings, made and kept follow-up appointments) in a coordinated effort to focus the entire payment system around better health, not just more care.
- Pooling. The Obama plan would give individuals and small firms the option of joining large insurance pools. With large patient pools, a few people incurring high medical costs will not topple the entire system, so insurers would no longer need to waste time, money and resources weeding out the healthy from the sick, and businesses and individuals would no longer have to subject themselves to that costly and stressful process.
- Preventing. In today's health-care market, less than one dollar in 25 goes for prevention, even though preventive services -- regular screenings and healthy lifestyle information -- are among the most cost-effective medical services around. Guaranteeing access to preventive services will improve health and in many cases save money.
- Covering. Controlling long-run health-care costs requires removing the hidden expenses of the uninsured. The reforms described above will lower premiums by $2,500 for the typical family, allowing millions previously priced out of the market to afford insurance.
In addition, tax credits for those still unable to afford private coverage, and the option to buy in to the federal government's benefits system, will ensure that all individuals have access to an affordable, portable alternative at a price they can afford.
Given the current inefficiencies in our system, the impact of the Obama plan will be profound. Besides the $2,500 savings in medical costs for the typical family, according to our research annual business-sector costs will fall by about $140 billion. Our figures suggest that decreasing employer costs by this amount will result in the expansion of employer-provided health insurance to 10 million previously uninsured people.
We know these savings are attainable: other countries have them today. We spend 40% more than other countries such as Canada and Switzerland on health care -- nearly $1 trillion -- but our health outcomes are no better.
The lower cost of benefits will allow employers to hire some 90,000 low-wage workers currently without jobs because they are currently priced out of the market. It also would pull one and a half million more workers out of low-wage low-benefit and into high-wage high-benefit jobs. Workers currently locked into jobs because they fear losing their health benefits would be able to move to entrepreneurial jobs, or simply work part time.
In contrast, Sen. McCain, who constantly repeats his no-new-taxes promise on the campaign trail, proposes a big tax hike as the solution to our health-care crisis. His plan would raise taxes on workers who receive health benefits, with the idea of encouraging their employers to drop coverage.
A study conducted by University of Michigan economist Tom Buchmueller and colleagues published in the journal Health Affairs suggests that the McCain tax hike will lead employers to drop coverage for over 20 million Americans.
What would happen to these people? Mr. McCain will give them a small tax credit, $5,000 for a family and $2,500 for an individual, and tell them to navigate the individual insurance market on their own.
For middle- and lower-income people, the credits are way too small. They are less than half the cost of policies today ($12,000 on average for a family), and are far below the 75% that most employers offering coverage contribute. Further, their value would erode over time, as the credit increases less rapidly than average premiums.
Those already sick are completely out of luck, as individual insurers are free to deny coverage due to pre-existing conditions. Mr. McCain has proposed a high-risk pool for the very sick, but has not put forward the money to make it work.
Even for those healthy enough to gain coverage in the individual insurance market, the screening, marketing and individual underwriting that insurers do to separate healthy from sick boosts premiums by 17% relative to employer-provided insurance, well beyond the help offered by the McCain tax credit.
The immediate consequences of the McCain plan are even worse. The McCain plan is a big tax increase on employers and workers. With the economy in recession, that's the last thing America's businesses need.
Finally, Mr. McCain does nothing to bend the curve of rising health-care costs downward. He does not fund investments in learning, rewarding and preventing. Eliminating state coverage requirements will slash preventive service availability.
The high cost-sharing plans he envisions will similarly discourage preventive care. And as he does nothing about the hidden costs of the uncovered -- expensive ER visits, recurring conditions resulting from inadequate follow-up care.
Everyone agrees our health-care financing system must change. But only one candidate, Barack Obama, has real change we can believe in.
Mr. Cutler is professor of economics at Harvard and an adviser to Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Mr. DeLong is professor of economics at University of California, Berkeley. Ms. Marciarille is adjunct law professor at McGeorge School of Law. | <urn:uuid:2652f5f0-974d-4da7-a5d5-36fb7b1593aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usw.org/media_center/news_articles?id=0086 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962645 | 1,294 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Agent of the College
Anyone acting on behalf of the College
AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)
A weakening of the human immune system caused by infection with HIV, as may be defined from time to time by the United States Centers for Disease Control and the United States Public Health Service
Confidential HIV-Related Information
Any information, in the possession of a person who provides one or more health or social services or who obtains the information pursuant to a release of confidential HIV-related information, concerning whether an individual has been the subject of an HIV related test, or has HIV-infection, a HIV-related illness or AIDS, or information which identifies or reasonably could identify an individual as having one or more of such conditions, including information pertaining to such individual's contacts
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) defines disability as (1) a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individuals; (2) a record of such an impairment; or (3) being regarded as having such an impairment.
Negative and/or different treatment of a person based solely on actual or perceived health or disability status
Infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or any other related virus identified as a probable causative agent of AIDS
Any illness that may result from or may be associated with HIV-infection
Any laboratory test or series of tests for any virus, antibody, antigen, or etiologic agent whatsoever thought to cause or to indicate the presence of AIDS or HIV-infection
A person who is the subject of any HIV-related test or who has been diagnosed as having HIV-infection, AIDS, or HIV-related illness
Reasonable modifications or adjustments may include making existing facilities used by employees and students readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities; and job restructuring, part-time modification of equipment or devices, appropriate adjustment or modification of examinations, training materials or policies, the provision of qualified readers or interpreters, and other similar accommodations for individuals with disabilities.
Release of Confidential HIV-related Information
A written authorization for disclosure of confidential HIV related information which is signed by the protected individual, or if the protected individual lacks capacity to consent, a person authorized pursuant to law to consent to health care for the individual. Such release shall be dated and shall specify to whom disclosure is authorized, the purpose for such disclosure and the time period during which the release is to be effective. A general authorization for the release of medical or other information shall not be construed as a release of confidential HIV-related information, unless such authorization specifically indicates its dual purpose as a general authorization and an authorization for the release of confidential HIV- related information and complies with the requirements of this subdivision.
A person in a position that involves responsibility for others, including but not limited to: manager, work supervisor, department head, and dean | <urn:uuid:5bc53f65-4046-483c-9bb7-e575b22a7402> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ithaca.edu/sacl/committees/aidsed/definitions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92943 | 597 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Department of Public Utilities Approves Contract for Offshore Wind Power
Finds 15-year contract between National Grid and Cape Wind, with consumer protections, to be cost effective and in the public interest
The DPU concluded that the contract is cost-effective because its benefits well exceed its costs. It found as well that approving it is in the public interest, because no other renewable resource in the region matches Cape Wind in terms of size, proximity to large electricity load, capacity factor, and advanced stage of permitting; and because its bill impacts are in the range of 1 to 2 percent.
"This contract fulfills a statutory mandate under the Green Communities Act to facilitate the development of renewable energy generation, and it does so with strong protections for ratepayers," said DPU Chair Ann Berwick. "It is abundantly clear that the Cape Wind facility offers significant benefits that are not currently available from any other renewable resource, and that these benefits outweigh the costs of the project. Not only does the contract support the largest renewable energy project proposed in New England, it provides protection for consumers against the volatility of fossil fuel prices for a portion of electricity purchases. We are fully persuaded that if Massachusetts is to meet its statutory renewables and greenhouse gas emissions reduction requirements, offshore wind, and Cape Wind in particular, will have to be part of the mix."
The contract, which is for 50 percent of the output of the Cape Wind offshore wind facility, sets the initial price - for electricity, capacity, and renewable energy attributes - at 18.7 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2013, and rising 3.5 percent annually for 15 years. After that, National Grid would have the right to a one-time extension of the contract for another 10 years on terms that could be below market rates.
The contract allows for upward and downward price adjustments based on a variety of contingencies. If Cape Wind is unable to tap certain federal subsidies, the price would go up, but under other circumstances the prices could go down, to the benefit of ratepayers. Specifically, should debt financing costs be reduced as a result of a U.S. Department of Energy loan guarantee, 75 percent of the savings would be passed along to customers in lower rates. Similarly, if actual project costs, as verified by an independent audit, fall to such an extent that the developer's rate of return on debt and equity exceeds 10.75 percent, the contract price of electricity will be reduced to give ratepayers 60 percent of the benefit of the lower costs; if actual project costs are higher than anticipated and reduce this rate of return, the developer absorbs those losses without impact on rates paid by consumers. This mechanism in the contract assures that the developers of the project will not reap windfall profits.
The 300-plus page order ( http://www.env.state.ma.us/dpu/docs/electric/10-54/112210dpufnord.pdf ) approving the contract was issued today, following three public hearings in the National Grid service territory held in June and 13 days of evidentiary testimony in September. The evidentiary record consists of 838 exhibits, 20 responses to record requests, and a 2,800-page transcript.
The order concluded that the contract met the DPU's standard for long-term contracts under Section 83 of the Green Communities Act, as well as the Department's standard for the public interest.
In terms of cost-effectiveness, the Department concluded that the costs would be outweighed by the benefits provided by the contract, namely assisting National Grid and the Commonwealth to comply with the state's renewable energy and greenhouse gas emissions reduction requirements; providing National Grid the option to extend the contract beyond 15 years at a price that covers the remaining costs of operating the facility plus a reasonable rate of return; enhancing electricity reliability in the state; moderating system peak load; and creating additional employment.
Notably, the DPU found that the contract and the Cape Wind project will moderate electricity peak load in the region. In that regard, the DPU observed that wind data show that Cape Wind's capacity factor would have averaged an impressive 76 percent during the region's top ten historic peak hours. It concluded further that the project will create an average of 162 jobs per year for the 15 years of the contract-but many more than that during the two-plus year construction period.
In terms of the public interest, the DPU found that the Cape Wind project offers "unique benefits relative to the other renewable resources available." In addition, the DPU found that the contract price was reasonable for offshore wind, which the Department determined to be needed to meet state renewable energy and greenhouse gas requirements. The DPU also found that the bill impacts that could occur as a result of the contract "are small relative to the volatility that electric customers regularly experience due to the fluctuations in wholesale electricity prices, and that the contract will mitigate that volatility."
A second power purchase contract for the other half of Cape Wind's power output, which did not specify a contracting party, was rejected by the DPU, but Chair Berwick said that any contract between other regulated utilities and Cape Wind on the same terms could be reviewed on a more expedited basis.
"The issues underlying this contract have been fully adjudicated in this proceeding," said Chair Berwick. "If an identical contract comes before us, not all of the issues would require the same level of review." | <urn:uuid:e51ffd00-f2ef-4c7c-b5b9-3bf8a7f11112> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mass.gov/eea/energy-utilities-clean-tech/home-auto-fuel-price-info/emergy-market-data/cape-wind.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955235 | 1,098 | 1.929688 | 2 |
NEW YORK — In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that having people pray for heart bypass surgery patients had no effect on their recovery. In fact, patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications.
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Researchers emphasized that their work can't address whether God exists or answers prayers made on another's behalf. The study can only look for an effect from prayers offered as part of the research, they said.
They also said they had no explanation for the higher complication rate in patients who knew they were being prayed for, in comparison to patients who only knew it was possible prayers were being said for them.
Critics said the question of God's reaction to prayers simply can't be explored by scientific study.
The work, which followed about 1,800 patients at six medical centers, was financed by the Templeton Foundation, which supports research into science and religion. It will appear in the American Heart Journal.
Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School and other scientists tested the effect of having three Christian groups pray for particular patients, starting the night before surgery and continuing for two weeks. The volunteers prayed for "a successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications" for specific patients, for whom they were given the first name and first initial of the last name.
The patients, meanwhile, were split into three groups of about 600 apiece: those who knew they were being prayed for, those who were prayed for but only knew it was a possibility, and those who weren't prayed for but were told it was a possibility.
The researchers didn't ask patients or their families and friends to alter any plans they had for prayer, saying such a step would have been unethical and impractical.
The study looked for any complications within 30 days of the surgery. Results showed no effect of prayer on complication-free recovery. But 59 percent of the patients who knew they were being prayed for developed a complication, versus 52 percent of those who were told it was just a possibility.
Dr. Harold G. Koenig, director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at the Duke University Medical Center, who didn't take part in the study, said the results didn't surprise him.
"There are no scientific grounds to expect a result and there are no real theological grounds to expect a result either," he said. "There is no god in either the Christian, Jewish or Moslem scriptures that can be constrained to the point that they can be predicted."
Within the Christian tradition, God would be expected to be concerned with a person's eternal salvation, he said, and "why would God change his plans for a particular person just because they're in a research study?"
Science, he said, "is not designed to study the supernatural."
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:ef1fc144-e513-4f98-9c01-f1eda760d7c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbcnews.com/id/12082681/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981551 | 750 | 1.84375 | 2 |
From Gavin Schmidt et al, to appear in JGR:
The attribution of the present-day total greenhouse effect:(highlight mine)
Abstract. The relative contributions of atmospheric long-wave absorbers to the present-day global greenhouse e ffect are among the most misquoted statistics in public discussions of climate change. Much of the interest in these values is however due to an implicit assumption that these contributions are directly relevant for the question of climate sensitivity.... With a straightforward scheme for allocating overlaps, we find that water vapour is the dominant contributor (50% of the effect), followed by clouds (25%) and then CO2 with 20%. All other absorbers play only minor roles. In a doubled CO2 scenario, this allocation is essentially unchanged, even though the magnitude of the total greenhouse e ect is signi cantly larger than the initial radiative forcing, underscoring the importance of feedbacks from water vapor and clouds to climate sensitivity. | <urn:uuid:eb286c44-b60a-410a-a00b-335a730adae1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://davidappell.blogspot.com/2010/08/allocating-greenhouse-effect.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9009 | 194 | 2.34375 | 2 |
See more from this Session: Soil Carbon Dynamics in Forest Soils
The results were estimated base on different site index, and projected for a period of 100 years, considering 4 rotations, using CO2FIX 3.1 model using the national growth inventories, and growth model for biomass and soil carbon sequestration. For the 100 years period, the whole plantations in the Bio Bio Regions capture 84,6 y 58,4 tCha-1 depending on the growth region. Estimated biomass carbon sequestration was 54,29 y 36,28 tCha-. Estimated soil carbon sequestration was 30,46 y 22,09 tCha-1. Results were compared with field studies. | <urn:uuid:057d3283-42f9-4879-965a-c69f0f51f8bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://a-c-s.confex.com/crops/2010am/webprogram/Paper61626.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903895 | 141 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Steve Jobs, the CEO for Apple Inc., (photo) announced on Wednesday that he could no longer maintain his position at the company. Jobs garnered a reputation for being the man behind the iPhone, iPad, and other devices that virtually put Apple on the map, making it one of the most well-known companies in the world. Unfortunately, his health issues have rendered him unable to continue as CEO.
The Blaze explains, “The move appears to be the result of an unspecified medical condition for which he took an indefinite leave from his post in January… Jobs’ health has long been a concern for Apple investors who see him as an industry oracle who seems to know what consumers want long before they do.”
Jobs has required a number of medical leaves throughout the last few years as a result of pancreatic cancer and a liver transplant.
Click here to read the entire article. | <urn:uuid:05342736-f612-4cd2-af20-7813baa6e910> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jbs.org/news/apple-ceo-steve-jobs-resigns | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981698 | 182 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Television and Movie Actress Regina King has penned an op-ed piece about the lack of color during this year’s daytime Emmy’s Awards show. Talk about stating the obvious. However King, who is probably most known for her roles in 227 and The Boondocks, struggled immensely to draft this said piece regarding the number of people of color mentioned, celebrated or honored in the history of the televised Emmys.
Up to and including this year, there have been only 53 non-white actors nominated for Emmys out of nearly 1,000 possible nominations in the top four acting categories for drama and comedy, she said. And to add insult to racial injury, Rutina Wesley from the HBO Vamp-series “True Blood”, who attended this year’s Emmys, walked the red carpet with the caption, “Regina King enters the 62nd Emmys,” displayed under her for the television viewing audience.
Read More at The Atlanta Post | <urn:uuid:0d116ed6-5a67-4e69-ba3a-3fc364493e09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bossip.com/283657/the-persistent-issue-of-black-representation-on-television-and-why-more-roles-wont-fix-a-thing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950363 | 202 | 1.53125 | 2 |
14 Aug, 12 | by BMJ Group
There’s a new intervention being trialled. It will help you lose weight, it will delay the potential onset of dementia, and best of all it will enable you to live in the fullest of health for longer. Perhaps the main virtues of this intervention centre on its sheer simplicity: it doesn’t involve putting any chemicals into your body, it doesn’t involve surgery, and it doesn’t cost anything—it may even save you money. All you have to do is deprive yourself of one of life’s great pleasures—food.
The BBC aired Horizon: Eat, Fast and Live Longer earlier this week. During this one hour programme, Michael Mosley visits a number of institutions seeking to understand the ageing process. He meets a variety of experts, all of whom extol the virtues of caloric restriction (CR), and tries methods they advise in attempts to improve his performance on physiological testing. The most extreme of these methods involved 3 days and 4 nights of fasting, wherein Mosley consumed only water, black tea, and a single sachet of powdered soup. Subsequently, he tried alternate day fasting, where consumption is limited to around 500 calories on one “fast” day and completely unlimited the following “feed” day. He finally settled for a 5 day “feed” period followed by a 2 day 500 calorie fast period.
For a supposedly scientific programme, however, the science was rather scant. The focus was strongly on the insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) as mediator of the benefits of CR. This signalling pathway has been widely studied and is known to stimulate growth and inhibit apoptosis of cells. Perhaps unsurprisingly given this role, it has been implicated in the pathogenesis of cancer . It has several key functions in the body, including growth and maintenance of the skeletal system . Interestingly, in vivo deficiency of IGF-1 in combination with testosterone correlates with reduced survival .
CR (without malnutrition) has been shown to increase lifespan in laboratory animals. In rodents, for example, CR postpones onset of age-related pathology and prolongs lifespan . Is this explained solely by IGF-1 levels? Studies have sought to test the popular oxidative stress theory of ageing, and indeed noted reduced markers of oxidative damage in calorie restricted rodents . This alternative mechanism by which CR may affect ageing is not even touched upon by the programme. As with much human science, it is more complicated than it seems and there is still no consensus on the role of antioxidant levels in CR—there’s something else at play . That something may involve the nutrient-sensing pathways of target of rapamycin (TOR), it may involve the forkhead transcription factor (FOXO), and it may involve sirtuins . In fact, the one thing we can be sure about is that the molecular determinants of lifespan are incredibly complex, and far from fully understood .
The programme furthermore neglected many social factors complicit in the ageing process. Humans are not laboratory animals and their environment cannot be so strictly controlled. Nevertheless, somewhat controversial experimentation in humans is ongoing. Accordingly, some may question whether it is responsible for a qualified doctor to so emphatically endorse such an approach in a prime time television slot? “This could radically transform the nation’s health,” he says.
The programme was littered with health warnings—“don’t do this without supervision” and “for some fasting can be dangerous”—but within hours online weight loss forums were overflowing with posts from people saying they’d give it a go. Mosley’s wife, a GP, appears to support his desire to pursue a 5 days feeding 2 days fasting regime, thus reinforcing to the public that this is a safe and worthwhile method.
Perhaps the diet Mosley ultimately adopts is not that radical, and perhaps it doesn’t even represent CR (the level at which CR is defined varies from 10-25% reduction in overall calorie intake in humans). Any attempt to encourage reduced calorie intake in a nation with such high rates of obesity as our own may be commendable, but critics will likely find little new in the advice Mosley dishes out: reduce your calorie intake, reduce your weight, reduce your cardiovascular risk factors. Perhaps that’s the message to hope people take forward from this. | <urn:uuid:ef3c7806-d757-47a0-8129-6b8cd7d9fdf5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2012/08/14/emma-rourke-reviews-horizon-eat-fast-and-live-longer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955724 | 897 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH)
Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) adjustment payments provide additional help to those hospitals that serve a significantly disproportionate number of low-income patients; eligible hospitals are referred to as DSH hospitals. States receive an annual DSH allotment to cover the costs of DSH hospitals that provide care to low-income patients that are not paid by other payers, such as Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) or other health insurance. This annual allotment is calculated by law and includes requirements to ensure that the DSH payments to individual DSH hospitals are not higher than these actual uncompensated costs.
See funding for your state and all states.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Impact on DSH
- Section 5002 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), provides additional potential fiscal relief to States by increasing most States’ Federal fiscal year (FFY) 2009 and 2010 Medicaid DSH allotments by 2.5 percent.
- HHS/CMS has determined the preliminary increased amounts of each States’ FFY 2009 DSH allotments that would be available to States under the ARRA provision.
- Prior to ARRA, the FY 2009 Federal Medicaid DSH allotments for all States totaled approximately $11.07 billion. After the increase authorized by ARRA, we estimate that the total Federal Medicaid DSH allotments available to States would increase by $269 million to approximately $11.34 billion.
How the New Funds will be Released
- While HHS/CMS is announcing the preliminary amounts of States’ increased FY 2009 Medicaid DSH allotments, it is not immediately releasing funds to States related to the amount of the increase.
- As part of the budget request process from States, HHS/CMS will be asking States to estimate how much of their additional Federal Medicaid DSH allotment they may need. Any additional funds requested by States for Medicaid DSH payments will be handled through separate Medicaid grant awards similar to how the funds associated with the increased FMAP were released to States.
- States will have to first exhaust their original FY 2009 Federal Medicaid DSH allotments (un-adjusted by ARRA) before they can access the increased portion of their Federal Medicaid DSH allotments as authorized under ARRA.
- Historically, not every State expends its full allotment on a yearly basis. So it is unclear at this time, how many States will need these additional allotment funds. | <urn:uuid:e7d8b1c8-209d-42e6-9c6d-75076c90c4c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dhhs.gov/recovery/cms/dsh.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94496 | 524 | 1.734375 | 2 |
May Daouk’s Beirut Villa
With a lively overscale room at its heart, the designer’s home has traditional charm and worldliness to spare
Houses are precious commodities in Beirut. Since Lebanon’s civil war ended two decades ago, the city has been rebuilt and revitalized into a place of soaring glass condominium towers, upstart art galleries, chic restaurants and cocktail lounges, and—risen from the rubble of the old souk—a pristine shopping mall filled with luxe fashion brands such as Yves Saint Laurent, Stella McCartney, and Louis Vuitton. But sadly, you can count on your fingers the traditional dwellings in the downtown area and the façades of several are scarred from smoke and shelling.
So when interior designer May Daouk moved back here from New York with her sons ten years ago, she was exceptionally lucky to find a charming single-story late-19th-century villa, belonging to one of Beirut’s leading families. Situated in the smart Achrafieh district and featuring a sea view and a tree-shaded terrace, it has a tranquillity rare in this frenetic city.
Vivacious and strongly independent, Daouk has clients in New York, Paris, and London as well as Lebanon. Her international outlook reflects the society in which she moves. Brought up in Beirut by an English nanny, she was educated in Switzerland and Boston before taking a job in New York with decorator Bunny Williams. “I learned so much from Bunny,” she says. “Above all, design is not about theory—it doesn’t matter whether pink and green go together. What matters are objects. They’re what give soul to a house. My home is a sanctuary where I’m surrounded by things I like.”
In this cosmopolitan city, it is no surprise to find a tradition of interiors infused with Western influences. Daouk takes that approach further by freely mixing old and new, adding adventurous colors, and giving a contemporary twist to Middle Eastern elements: Drum-shaped garden seats are finished in a fuchsia glaze; a brass table is sculpted to look as if it’s draped with gleaming fabric.
The entrance hall is a foretaste of the eclectic style within. A pair of Louis XVI–style settees are enlivened by bright ikat pillows, and a 19th-century Italian mirror complements an enormous star-shaped zinc ceiling pendant. What the entry doesn’t prepare you for, however, is the scale of the living room beyond. High-ceilinged and stretching the length of the house, it could easily accommodate 200 people. “You walk in and think, How can she live here?” says Daouk. “But it’s not scary, because it’s broken down into little spaces.”
The separation is accomplished partly by a triple arch (a traditional feature of Lebanese houses) that divides a quarter of the room from the rest, creating an enclave complete with a splendid Italian chimney-piece. Here Daouk has placed a daybed, a brass-edged campaign desk, and violet-lacquer bookshelves. “The desk is English. This is an Adnet bed done with Hermès leather. These cushions are Syrian,” the designer explains. “It’s not about whether this matches that—it’s about making it personal.” She is no more restrained by period than by ethnicity; nearby, a mid-20th-century tubular-metal garden seat rubs shoulders with two Victorian armchairs. (Even in the most contemporary room—the kitchen—stainless-steel surfaces are offset by rush-seat bentwood chairs.)
Another island of comfort lies at the opposite end of the living room, where three elegant fretwork windows echo the internal archway and a plump chaise longue is positioned for maximum reading light. The middle of the space, meanwhile, is more sociable, with an inviting cluster of seating and side tables. What unifies this expansive and varied interior is Daouk’s love of vibrant colors—specifically the striking lilac she selected for the walls. The shade also serves to balance the household’s strong masculine bias. “Everything in my house is boys,” she says, referring to her three sons. “So I painted the walls purple and put a pink rug on the floor.”
As in many Lebanese residences, the main room is also the principal thoroughfare. It gives onto the dining room, the master bedroom, and the boys’ den (which, in turn, leads to their bedrooms). In the light-filled master suite, a custom-made striped kilim attests to Daouk’s gift for discovering local suppliers. Her bath is hung with exquisite lace curtains made in the Chouf Mountains, to the southeast of Beirut.
The dining room is an inspired creation that effectively melds two spaces. At one end, a rectangular table for formal dinners is centered against a wall hung with architectural prints of Lebanon’s ancient city of Baalbek; at the other, a smaller, octagonal table for casual family meals has a backdrop that is bare save for a single Syrian calligraphic panel above the door. Rugs of contrasting hues emphasize the demarcation. Here, again, the furniture is spectacularly diverse: Arabic chairs inlaid with mother-of-pearl; an antique double bergère; a red-lacquer sideboard; an Arts and Crafts table of English oak.
Although Daouk loves the objects that surround her, she’s not fussy about them. “I use antique fabrics, but if they get damaged I just replace them,” she says. “The black sofa in the dining room? It’s used mainly by the dog, who likes to be able to see what she might get for dinner.” A house should be as comfortable as it is beautiful—that’s the message from this stylish designer. “Because I don’t want to live in a showcase,” Daouk says. “I want to live in a home.” | <urn:uuid:680f6367-ad9c-4dba-8373-f8318bc10743> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.architecturaldigest.com/decor/2012-05/may-daouk-beirut-home-article | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94353 | 1,315 | 1.515625 | 2 |
The Curriculum Library supports the School of Education at Liberty University by providing access to a variety of instructional resources. Offerings include textbooks and teaching materials for pre-school through grade twelve as well as standardized tests. Educational games, manipulatives, and models enhance the collection.
An extensive selection of juvenile titles provides reinforcement for classes in Children’s Literature and Adolescent Literature in addition to classes in curriculum development. Materials related to educational theory and research can be found on the shelves of the main collection of A. Pierre Guillermin Library.
Audio-visual items, such as DVDs, CDs, and videos are also kept in the Curriculum Library along with musical scores.
A. Pierre Guillermin Library, DeMoss Hall | <urn:uuid:3fde0303-ddd7-4a25-b275-a6b70852a1b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.liberty.edu/informationservices/ilrc/library/curriculumlibrary/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935361 | 152 | 2.5625 | 3 |
From Ohio History Central
Apr. 23, 1836. | 7 Stat., 502. | Proclamation, May | 16, 1836.
Articles of a treaty made and concluded between John A. Bryan, commissioner on the part of the United States, and William Walker, John Barnett, and Peacock, chiefs and principal men of the Wyandot tribe of Indians in Ohio, acting for and on behalf of the said tribe.
The Wyandot tribe of Indians in Ohio cede to the United States a strip of land five miles in extent, on the east end of their reservation in Crawford county in said State�also, one section of land lying in Cranberry Swamp, on Broken Sword Creek, being the one mile square specified and set forth in the treaty made with the said tribe on the twenty-ninth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventeen�also, one hundred and sixty acres of land, which is to be received in the place and stead of an equal quantity set apart in a supplemental treaty made with the said Indians on the seventeenth day of September in the following year, all situate and being in the said county of Crawford.
The said five mile tract, as also the additional quantities herein set forth, are each to be surveyed as other public lands are surveyed by the Surveyor General, and to be sold at such time and place, allowing sixty days� notice of the sale, as the President may direct.
A Register and Receiver shall be appointed by the President and Senate, in accordance with the wishes of the delegation of chiefs, whose duties shall be similar to those of other Registers and Receivers.
They shall receive such compensation for services rendered, not exceeding five dollars per day for every day necessarily employed in the discharge of their duties, as the President may determine.
All expenses incurred in the execution of this treaty, and in the sale of the lands included in it, shall be defrayed out of the funds raised therefrom, including such expenses and disbursements as may have been incurred by the delegation to Washington�and such allowance to individuals who have assisted in the negotiation, as the chiefs in council, after a full and fair investigation, may adjudge to be reasonable and just, shall in all cases be made.
Such portion of the monies not exceeding twenty thousand dollars, arising from the sales as the chiefs may deem necessary for the rebuilding of mills, repair and improvement of roads, establishing schools, and other laudable public objects for the improvement of their condition, shall be properly applied under their direction, and the remainder to be distributed among the individuals of said tribe as annuities are distributed.
The monies raised by the sales of the lands for all the above mentioned objects, except the last, shall be paid by the receiver on the order of the chiefs;�and such order, together with the receipt of the persons to whom payment shall be made, shall be the proper voucher for the final settlement of the accounts of the Receiver;�but the funds for the tribe shall be distributed by the Register and Receiver to each person entitled thereto.
By the 21st article of the treaty concluded at the foot of the rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie, dated the twenty-ninth day of September in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventeen, and the schedule thereunto attached, there was granted to Daonquot, or half King, Rontondee, or Warpole, Tayarrontoyea, or Between the Logs, Danwawtout, or John Hicks, Mononcue, or Thomas, Tayondottauseh, or George Punch, Hondaua-waugh, or Matthews, chiefs of the Wyandot nation, two sections of land each, within the Wyandot reservation �The aforesaid chiefs, their heirs or legal representatives, are entitled to, and allowed one section of land each, in the above designated tract of five miles, to be selected by them previous to sale, and
the same shall be sold as the other lands are sold, and they allowed to receive the respective sums arising from said sale.
If during the progress of the sale, the Indians are not satisfied with the prices at which the lands sell, the Register and Receiver shall, on the written application of the chiefs, close the sale, and report the proceedings to the War Department�and the President may appoint such other time for the sale as he may deem proper.
The President shall give such directions as he may judge necessary for the execution of this treaty, through the proper Departments of the Government.
Signed this twenty-third day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.
John A. Bryan,
Com�r. on the part of the United States,
John Barnett, his x mark,
�Peacock, his x mark.
In presence of us�
- Carpenter, Roger M. The Renewed, the Destroyed, and the Remade: The Three Thought Worlds of the Huron and the Iroquois, 1609-1650. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2004.
- Hurt, R. Douglas. The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1996.
- Tooker, Elisabeth. An Ethnography of the Huron Indians, 1615-1649. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1991.
- Vogel, John J. Indians of Ohio and Wyandot County. New York, NY: Vantage Press, 1975. | <urn:uuid:c35c35d5-fb96-48f1-b00d-88b4dbf4c7d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Treaty_with_the_Wyandots_(1836)_(Transcript)?rec=457&nm=Treaty-with-the-Wyandots-1836-Transcript | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942177 | 1,164 | 2.578125 | 3 |
The company follows mercantile basis of accounting and recognizes
income and expenses on accrual basis except otherwise mentioned. The
accounts are prepared on historical cost basis on the principles of
going concern. Accounting policies not specifically referred are
consistent and in consonance with generally accepted accounting
(2) Use of Estimates :
The presentation of financial statements in conformity with the
generally accepted accounting principles requires estimates and
assumptions to be made that affect the reportable amount of assets and
liabilities on the date of financial statement and the reportable
amount of revenue and expenses during the reporting period. Difference
between the actual result and estimates are recognized in the year in
which the results known/materialized.
(3) Revenue Recognition:
(i) Revenue in respect of sales of goods is recognized at the point of
dispatch/ passage of title of goods to the customer. Sales are net of
excise duty and sales tax.
(ii) Insurance and other claims being unascertained are accounted on
(4) Fixed Assets:
Fixed Assets are stated at cost of acquisition or construction or at
revalued amounts wherever such assets have been revalued less
(5) Depreciation :
Depreciation on Fixed assets has been provided on written down value as
per the rates prescribed in schedule XIV of the companies Act, 1956.
Depreciation on additions has been provided on pro-rata basis from the
date on which asset is capitalized/ put to use, wherever applicable.
Fixed assets costing Rs.5,000/- or less are being fully depreciated in
the year of acquisition.
(6) Impairment of Assets :
The carrying amounts of tangible fixed assets are reviewed for
impairment, if events or changes in circumstances indicate that the
carrying value of an asset may not be recoverable. If there are
indicators of impairment, an assessment is made to determine whether
the asset''s carrying value exceeds its recoverable amount. Whenever the
carrying value of an asset exceeds its recoverable amount, impairment
is charged to profit and loss account.
Recoverable amounts are estimated for individual assets where feasible,
otherwise to the relevant cash generating unit.
Investments are classified into current and long term investment.
Long term investments are carried at cost. Provision for diminution is
made in the value of investment to recognize a decline if any, other
Current investments are stated at lower of cost and net realizable
(8) Export Incentive:
Export incentives on trading export such as import entitlement, advance
license are accounted for on the realization/ sale thereof.
(9) Employee Benefits:
(i) Gratuity and leave encashment payable to employees, who are
eligible are accounted f or on accrual basis as it will become due for
payment on last day of accounting year.
(ii) Provident fund paid/ payable during the year is charged to Profit
& Loss Account.
(i) Raw materials, stores & spares, consumables are valued at actual
cost on FIFO basis.
(ii) Stock-in-process is valued at weighted average cost which includes
cost of raw material,
stores & spares and other consumable consumed and manufacturing
expenses, production overheads and depreciation.
(iii) Finished goods are valued at cost or at estimated realizable
value whichever is lower. Cost for this purpose includes raw materials,
wages, manufacturing expenses, production overheads and depreciation.
(iv) Scrap is valued at estimated realizable value.
(v) Crazy/ wastage arising out of production is valued at net
(11) Foreign Currency Transactions:
(i) Foreign Currency transactions are accounted for at the exchange
rate prevailing on the date of such transaction, where such
transactions are not covered by forward contracts. Gains/ Losses
arising out of the fluctuation in the exchange rate are accounted for
(ii) Current assets & liabilities are translated at year-end rate.
Exchange fluctuation, if any, are adjusted in profit and loss account
(except related to fixed assets) during the year and the related
current assets and liabilities accordingly restated in the balance
(iii) In respect of foreign currency taken for acquisition of fixed
assets, any fluctuation arising due to such transactions are adjusted
in the cost of the respective fixed assets.
a) Current tax is the provision made for Income Tax liability, if any
on profits in accordance with the provisions of the Income Tax Act,
b) Deferred tax is recognized on timing differences, being the
difference resulting from the recognition of items in the financial
statements and in examining the current income tax.
c) Deferred tax assets are recognized on unabsorbed depreciation/
business losses to the extent that there is virtual certainty supported
by convincing evidences that sufficient future taxable income will be
available against which such deferred tax assets can be realized and on
expenses incurred but to be allowed on payment basis as per provision
of the Income Tax Act, 1961
d) Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using the tax rate
and tax law that have been enacted on the Balance Sheet date.
(13) Contingent Liabilities:
Provisions involving substantial degree of estimation in measurement
are recognized when there is a present obligation as a result of past
events and it is probable that there will be an outflow of resources.
Contingent Liabilities are not recognized but are disclosed in the
notes. Contingent assets are neither recognized nor disclosed in the | <urn:uuid:064ae37a-b375-4392-8a44-cf5ab0e0a989> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.moneycontrol.com/annual-report/pacificindustries/accounting-policy/PI02 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923309 | 1,173 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Census 1801-1911: A Guide for the Internet Era
Date of publication: April 2009
Publisher: The Family History Partnership
The Census is a vital sources of information for all social and economic historians interested in the Victorian period. The editor of the Illustrated London news was absolutely right when he wrote in 1851 that 'the numbering of the people at regular intervals is a duty which the people owe to themselves, and to the generations that are to follow them'. The census can be used to study a particular family, or to undertake a total history of a particular street or parish. It is also possible to use it for regional or national studies of subjects such as the disappearance of servants, or the process of urbanisation.
The aim of this book is to provide basic information about the census for both family and local historians: how and when it was compiled, what information it provides, where it can be consulted, and how to use it. | <urn:uuid:06627539-bb5b-4520-b766-efbd4643dc5e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/BOOKSHOP/details.aspx?titleId=768 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939407 | 192 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Scottish health officials are banking on an Android app and the human tendency toward vanity to help reduce the incidence of alcohol-related illnesses and deaths among Scottish women. On Tuesday the office of the Scottish health secretary launched a free Android app, called Drinking Mirror, which shows women just how much older they’ll look in 10 years if they toss back 10 glasses of wine per week.
The app is part of the Scottish government’s campaign urging women in the country to “Drop a Glass Size” by reducing the number of glasses of wine they drink each week. (There’s no mention of curbing Scotch whisky consumption.) In a release, the Scottish officials say alcohol-related deaths among women in their 30s and 40s have doubled in the last 20 years and cirrhosis rates have tripled in the country.
The Drinking Mirror app snaps a picture of your face and asks how many 175 ml (about 6 ounces) glasses of wine you drink every week, from none to more than 10. If you drink between one and five glasses of wine per week, the app morphs your face into a reddened and pudgier version of your current self. Drink six glasses or more and the app will make you look like a bona fide alcoholic, with a bright red nose, sagging jowls and bloodshot eyes. Though the app is far from flawless, the results are scary enough to make me want to consider skipping that second glass of wine. (A similar jowly faced tack was used by financial services firm Merrill Edge in an effort to get people to “face” retirement and plan accordingly.)
Whisky-swilling Scottish men, it seems, get off scot-free, if you’ll pardon the pun. That’s likely because according to guidelines from Scotland’s heath agency, men can safely consume three to four units of alcohol (one unit is 175 ml) per day, while women should only have between two and three units. The Scottish government says 38 percent of women in the country regularly exceed daily or weekly drinking guidelines, though it doesn’t say how many men are drinking too much. Of course there’s nothing to prevent men from trying the app too.
Scary aging effects or not, it may take more than an app to change the boozy behavior of a country whose residents put away more alcohol than England, Wales and most of Western Europe (except Ireland). Maybe the real prospect of a growing economy could help? Just a thought. | <urn:uuid:10f4b7b4-5cc8-49d6-b596-cd2781d2a9c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wired.com/business/tag/drinking/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959337 | 519 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Spicy pineapple fried rice is a spicy and tangy dish with the combination of pineapples, mixed veggies such as carrots, green yellow and red bell peppers, green onions, baby corn, snap peas and peanuts, tofu, mushrooms, fresh cilantro and lemon, cashews spiced with red chilli paste. This is a popular dish among the vegans from the Thai cuisine.
Thai food is popular for being spicy and fiery in nature. Most Thai food novices have exuberantly ask for ‘very spicy’ or ‘spicy’ food, but the rice dish is exception which is usually spicy and just right for the palette. This is because of the perfect combination of pineapple, cashews, sesame seeds and peanuts which lend it a sweet and nutty flavor and lots of chili flakes and chili paste which then balances this sweetness with some heat. This dish is slightly sticky as its made with pineapple and its juices making it moist. There are a lot of veggies and tofu added which adds to the nutritional goodness and can be served with a Thai curry or eaten on its own.
Asian foods have many kinds of variations in preparing the Fried rice throughout the world. Generally fried rice is extensively prepared in Chinese and Thai cuisines apart from other cuisine. Making the fried rice spicy mainly depends on the addition of red chilies to hot oil. You can add as many numbers of red chilies you wish but do add a few because it is the dry red chilies which actually add the flavor to this rice. Some of the very popularly available fried rice are the Kimchi fried rice, Chicken fried rice, Egg fried rice , Fried rice (Chinese style), Corn Cashew fried rice, Vegetable fried rice and so on…
Spicy Pineapple fried rice can be made in many variations catering to the vegetarians and non-vegetarians. For non-vegetarians, substitute fish sauce with soy sauce and you can add good amount of shrimps and pork instead of tofu or veggies. This exceptional spicy rice based dish does not call for eggs but taste delicious and the crushed red peppers really adds a fantastic kick to the flavor and the sweetness of the pineapples exceptionally goes well with the saltiness of the soy sauce and tanginess from the lemon.
Spicy Pineapple fried is a classic Asian comforting and refreshing food, a wonderful stir fried dish of cooked rice, assorted veggies, mushrooms and spices that is cooked over high flame. This Thai spicy fried rice is a brilliant concoction to any ordinary fried rice. It is an easy and fast to cook dish which is appetizing, mouth watering with different flavors exploding in the mouth letting out the sweet and tangy zest of pineapples chunks to linger onto your taste buds. The toasted sesame seeds and peanuts add a superb nutty flavor and make a divine topping too. A fantastic variation of fried rice which can tempt your kids in eating more! This rice based dish can be served with some thinly sliced chilies and extra sauce for guests to add further flavor to their tastes if they need it to be fierier.
For preparing this exceptionally appetizing and comfort food, Spicy Pineapple Fried Rice, firstly place a non-stick wok on high flame. Add oil (preferably sesame oil), sesame seeds, peanuts, cashews, dry red chilies and stir fry for about 30-40 seconds. Then add colorful bell peppers, snap peas and carrots, stir for another minute or so and then add mushrooms, baby corns and tofu. Stir gently on the same high flame. Add pinch of salt and pepper to taste and keep stirring (you can also add other vegetables like broccoli, French beans, bok choy etc). Now add the rice vinegar, soy sauce and red chili paste and mix well. Let the mixture come to a boil. Add pineapple chunks and steamed rice. Mix gently but mix thoroughly well. Turn off the gas stove after about 2 minutes. Squeeze ½ lemon in top for a nice tangy taste. Finally garnish with spring onions and cilantro and serve hot. This makes a great, healthy, spicy, refreshing and colorful recipe that is ready in minutes.
Tips: Other vegetables like broccoli, French beans, bok choy, boiled potato cubes etc can also go into this Spicy pineapple fried rice. Pineapple and tofu may be grilled before adding for better texture.
Serving Ideas: Squeeze ½ lemon on top which gives a brilliant tangy punch to the dish and do not forget garnishing with freshly chopped spring onions and cilantro to make it colorful, appetizing and tempting.
Spicy Pineapple fried rice is a majestic guest stopper in most of the buffets or parties.. This dish is not only visually appealing but also taste splendidly unique. Do try this spicy pineapple fried rice recipe which would not disappoint any of your culinary talents. Click on the below link for the detailed recipe and start preparing this dish: | <urn:uuid:598926a1-fe60-4a3d-98fa-844471e88397> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vahrehvah.com/indianfood/spicy-pineapple-fried-rice/ | 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 | 0.924877 | 1,018 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Writer Alain de Botton has created a list of guidelines for atheists.
The best-selling author said he was unveiling his Manifesto for Atheists in an attempt to promote overlooked virtues including resilience and humour.
De Botton, whose work includes a stint as a writer in residence at Heathrow Airport, said he came up with the idea in response to a growing sense that being virtuous had become "a strange and depressing notion", while wickedness and evil had a "peculiar kind of glamour".
He said: "There's no scientific answer to being virtuous, but the key thing is to have some kind of list on which to flex our ethical muscles. It reminds us that we all need to work at being good, just as we work at anything else that really matters."
The 10 guidelines are:
- Resilience. Keeping going even when things are looking dark.
- Empathy. The capacity to connect imaginatively with the sufferings and unique experiences of another person.
- Patience. We should grow calmer and more forgiving by getting more realistic about how things actually tend to go.
- Sacrifice. We won't ever manage to raise a family, love someone else or save the planet if we don't keep up with the art of sacrifice.
- Politeness. Politeness is very linked to tolerance, the capacity to live alongside people whom one will never agree with, but at the same time, can't avoid.
- Humour. Like anger, humour springs from disappointment, but it's disappointment optimally channelled.
- Self-Awareness. To know oneself is to try not to blame others for one's troubles and moods; to have a sense of what's going on inside oneself, and what actually belongs to the world.
- Forgiveness. It's recognising that living with others isn't possible without excusing errors.
- Hope. Pessimism isn't necessarily deep, nor optimism shallow.
- Confidence. Confidence isn't arrogance, it's based on a constant awareness of how short life is and how little we ultimately lose from risking everything. | <urn:uuid:922cebe4-ac32-4638-ab40-2bff70d5119c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/02/04/10-commandments-for-atheists-alain-de-botton_n_2613783.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966905 | 438 | 2.09375 | 2 |
meekachan's "1001 things to do before I die"
The following are things I want to do before I die. Some are new dreams, some are old dreams (New York, the Grand Canyon and other traveling for sure…). Hopefully, I will be able to check off every last one.
Don’t ask yourself what the world needs.
Ask yourself what makes you come alive
and then go do that.
- Harold Thurman Whitman
“A musician must make his music, an artist
must paint, a poet must write if he is to ultimately
be at peace with himself.”
- Abraham Maslow
“You will never ‘find’ time for anything.
If you want time, you must make it.”
- Charles Buxton
“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
- Mother Teresa
“What are you prepared to give up in your material
life to try to make your dream come true?”
- Gail Sheehy
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest
fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not
our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘Who
am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’ Actually,
who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small
does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about
shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you. We
were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s
not just in some of us; it’s in all of us. And when we let our own
light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to
do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence
automatically liberates others.”
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.
Only through experience of trial and suffering can the
soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and
“An individual has not started living until he can rise above
the narrow confines of individualistic concern to the broader
concerns of all humanity.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. | <urn:uuid:6ae24682-3126-46d8-8036-4dca4158f544> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.listsofbests.com/list/8231-1001-things-to-do-before-i-die | 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 | 0.942163 | 492 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Hackers raid U. of Nebraska database with 654k Social Security nos.
Vandals gained access to a database containing the personal records, including Social Security numbers, of hundreds of thousands of University of Nebraska students, alumni and others connected to the school's four campuses.
How many victims? 654,000.
What type of personal information? Social Security numbers, addresses, grades, transcripts, and housing and financial aid information for current and former NU students (some dating back to 1985), in addition to employees, parents and student applicants who may or may not have attended NU. Also the bank account information for some 30,000 students was involved.
What happened? The breach was detected late Wednesday and announced Friday. School officials said there is no evidence that any of the information was downloaded, but that the intruder[s] behind the attack were skilled and sophisticated.
What was the response? The school already has notified the students whose bank account numbers were involved in the breach. The other victims also will be notified. The university has contracted a forensic firm to help investigate.
Details: The school is reportedly close to determining the culprit's identity.
Quote: "We're putting together a full summary of events to replicate some of the things the hacker did so we can have a better understanding of what data was accessible,” Joshua Mauk, NU's information security officer, said. “We want to know the full ramifications of what he had access to.”
Source: Omaha.com, Omaha World-Leader, "Authorities have lead on possible NU hacker," May 28, 2012.
JournalStar.com, Lincoln Journal Star, "Employees, many parents in NU database breach," May 27, 2012.
Editor's note: SCMagazine.com tried to reach the university to learn why the database was network connected, and whether the school has any policies in place regarding the use of Social Security numbers. We will update if we hear back. | <urn:uuid:84e0292d-07b4-4636-94ad-9d7ed1abe4c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scmagazine.com/hackers-raid-u-of-nebraska-database-with-654k-social-security-nos/article/243232/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966357 | 406 | 1.5625 | 2 |
OBU Kindermusik Program Enrollment Begins
August 7, 2006
Exposing young children to music comes naturally to many parents who are convinced that music exposure is truly paying off as they observe their youngsters mature and develop.
Conchita Hansford, director of Oklahoma Baptist University’s Music Preparatory Department, consistently seeks to educate others to the value of childhood music experiences.
The music educator likes to share a child’s story to illustrate her point.
“Rose, a three-year-old, was born into a family where music was as integral a part of their lives as learning to walk and talk,” she said. “Neither her mom or dad are professional musicians, but both parents are actively involved in musical activities and are frequently singing, practicing for concerts, or playing the piano, while Rose dances and keeps time with her castanets, and baby sister Lillian bounces nearby in her ‘exer-saucer.’
“Mother Jill says Rose is already reading and has a wonderful gift of language much beyond her years,” said Hansford. “Jill is convinced that the rhythm, rhyme, and flow of the music have been positive inducements in this development. A growing body of research supports her observations.”
Hansford’s belief in the developmental role of music has led to her efforts to expand OBU’s Preparatory Department, which she had led since 1990.
Enrollment has begun for the department’s Kindermusik program. The program includes specialized classes for newborns through children age 5. Classes begin on August 24. To register, or for more details, call Hansford at 405-878-2319 or download a registration form online at http://www.okbu.edu/academics/finearts/music/departments/ preparatory.html.
Three levels of Kindermusik are offered at OBU. Kindermusik Village is for newborns to 18 months; Kindermusik Our Time for toddlers eighteen months to three years; and Kindermusik Imagine That! is for children three to five years old.
“Everybody knows babies love music. Gently bouncing a baby while you sing is not just fun, but feeling the beat actually helps wire babies’ brains to hear rhythm,” said Hansford. “Around the globe, parents sing to their infants in a special way, with a distinctive high pitch that’s soothingly slow for a lullaby and elaborately bright at playtime.
“Babies catch on quickly, able to perceive aspects of melody and recognize different beats at just a few months of age,” she said. “This early experience that parents do naturally is really important for learning down the road. Research proves that early integration of music into a child’s daily routine means improving his ability to think, reason, create, and express.”
With more than 25 years experience in early childhood development, Kindermusik is a globally recognized program in musical learning. Hansford and Hillary Anderson, both licensed Kindermusik educators, provide researched, developmentally-appropriate music and movement for children – newborn through age five.
Kindermusik Village instructs how sounds can develop physical, social, cognitive, and emotional skills. The class meets on Mondays at 10 a.m.
Kindermusik Our Time introduces the parents or caregiver and their child to a musical world of singing, imitating sounds, rhyming, sound identification, instrument exploration, and creative movement. The class meets on Mondays at 11 a.m.
Kindermusik Imagine That! pairs music with expressive language, storytelling, peer interaction, movement, and pretend play. Children will further expand cognitive and literacy skills as well as creativity and individuality. The classes meet on Wednesday at 10 a.m. for the 3-year-old group, and on Thursday at 11 a.m. for the 4-5 year-old-group. The morning classes are taught by Hansford. Thursday evening classes for the 3-5 year-old group are taught by Anderson. | <urn:uuid:f773ded1-90a4-44df-a25d-002663752ff5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.okbu.edu/news/2006-08-07/obu-kindermusik-program-enrollment-begins | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956684 | 854 | 1.867188 | 2 |
- Rating: Fair
- Conditions: The ice is off, and access is good all around the lake. There didn't appear to be any winterkill. Anglers report catching some nice splake with cut bait and frozen minnows. Fishing is often spotty but can be very good at times. Catchable-sized rainbow trout will be stocked soon.
- Location: Kane County, east of Cedar City
- Directions: Approximately 24 miles east of Cedar City via SR-14
- Type: Fishing
- Size: 618 acres
- Elevation: 9,250 feet
- Hours: No restrictions
- Likely catch: Brook Trout, Rainbow Trout, Splake
- Possible catch:
- Regulations: To see what statewide or special regulations apply to this waterbody, please read the current Fishing Guidebook.
- Site amenities: Three USFS campgrounds. One private lodge with cabins & boat rentals. Launch area for small boats
- Handicap access: None
- Site description: This beautiful lake lies in a unique location within an interesting geologic formation. It is fed by snowmelt and ground water through numerous springs and lava tubes. Covering over 600 acres when full at an elevation of over 9,000 feet, it drains into both the Sevier River drainage (via Duck Creek) and the Virgin River Drainage (via Cascade Falls). The lake drains through numerous lava tubes in the lake basin.
In an effort to maintain a more consistent water level, a dike was constructed in the east end of the lake to isolate the major portion of the lake from some of the major lava-tube drains on the east side. On good water years, the area of the lake nearly doubles in size in the spring and the dike can be five feet or more under water. Maximun depth of the lake when it is up to the level of the dike is about 15 feet.
The shallow nature of the lake presents some challenges for managing a sport fishery. With its large littoral area producing a significant amount of vegetation and the long period of ice cover at this elevation, winter conditions are often marginal for trout. During the long winter, vegetation decomposes under the ice, using up oxygen and producing toxic gases.
In the past, trout survival has typically been poor over the winter. Spring-stocked rainbow trout grow to over 14 inches in the fall and, during good water years, can reach 16 to 18 inches the next summer, if they survive the winter. Fingerling brook trout are stocked later in the summer and usually better-survive the winter than rainbows.
The latest addition to Navajo Lake is the splake, a cross between brook trout and lake trout. These sterile fish are aggressive predators that help keep the Utah chub population in check. Splake have shown the best observed winter survival rates at Navajo Lake. For example, in winter 2007-2008, while the entire rainbow trout population was lost because of the low water levels, the number of splake actually increased. In 2008, anglers caught splake up to 19 inches and, with the abundance of chubs, you can expect to continue seeing the quality-sized splake.
Navajo Lake's shallow nature means that anglers can catch splake year-round. Splake head to deep water during warm summer months, so you can usually only catch splake from October until April or May. Anglers have the unique opportunity to catch splake on a fly rod during the summer at Navajo Lake. Try stripping wooly buggers over holes in the weeds, or using flashy lures like Kastmasters and Jake's. During heavy feeding times in early spring and late fall, or through the ice in the wintertime, jigs tipped with pieces of chub or sucker meat are very effective.
The lake is generally inaccessible during the winter except by snowmobile. Fishing can be good from shore from ice-out to when the lake freezes again in early December. Trolling spinners or popgear and a worm will work for boat anglers. During the late summer or fall there can be some good flyfishing in the west end. Boat launching can be difficult on low water years. | <urn:uuid:ff2275e3-4ebd-4886-996f-1cc765816769> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wildlife.utah.gov/hotspots/detailed.php?id=1154783450 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932353 | 862 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Wellcome Film of the Month: Acute Encephalitis Lethargica (1925)
This is a short filmed case study of a female patient with encephalitis lethargica; an epidemic illness that appeared between 1915 and 1926 affecting the nervous system. We still understand little about its origin today. One theory suggests that it is an auto-immune illness connected to the Spanish Flu influenza pandemic. Recently, the writer Laurie Winn Carlson has suggested that the symptoms of bewitchment investigated in the Salem Witch trials (1692-93) were in fact due to an outbreak of encephalitis lethargica (see her book A Fever in Salem: A New Interpretation of the New England Witch Trials).
Also known as ‘sleepy sickness’ or ‘sleeping sickness’ (in the non-tropical medicine sense), Encephalitis lethargica was popularised by the neurologist Oliver Sacks in his 1973 book Awakenings. Many of his patients had been hospitalised for 50 years. Sacks famously treated these patients (as well as others with Parkinson’s disease) with L-DOPA and, as the title of the book suggests, watched in amazement as they woke from their deep sleep. The story was fictionalised in 1990 and made into a film starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams.
Our Wellcome film is a unique case study of a female patient showing the outset of her illness and then a short while after. At the beginning, she is shown to have ‘anaesthesia’ of one side and is visibly barely conscious, needing to be held up. She has ataxia (lack of control over her bodily movements) and a tendency to fall over; she duly falls to the right when the doctor releases her. According to an intertitle, in the eighth week, she began to grow somnolent (a state of drowsiness which is close to sleep), although she was completely ‘orientated’ and ‘rational’ (the exact nature of this condition experienced by patients is expressed in Oliver Sack’s book). Later, she touches her nose with her left hand, but falls asleep performing this important finger-to-nose test ( one of a battery of tests used by neurologists to evaluate coordination, which can indicate temporary or permanent malfunction of the brain)..
The early 20th Century was an exciting time in neurology and neurologists were early adopters of the medium of film. They captured the observable manifestations of certain conditions caused by disturbances in the nervous system; typically the gait and eye movements. The clinician behind this film was a German neurologist, Fredriech Henrich Lewy (1885-1950), who was based in Berlin at the time the film was made.
As a medical student, Lewy worked in Alois Alzheimer‘s laboratory at Emil Kraepelin‘s psychiatric university hospital in Munich. Alzheimer of course gave his name to a degenerative condition of the brain. Lewy emigrated to the US and was latterly known as “Lewey”. He gave his name to ‘Lewy bodies’, the subject of his final dissertation and an indicator of Parkinson’s disease or dementia with Lewy bodies. The connection between these diseases is still the subject of medical research.
You can learn about the Wellcome Film project here. If you would like to make use of this archive footage in your own projects, please visit the Wellcome Library catalogue to download the original files, which are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.0 UK: England & Wales licence. | <urn:uuid:88d64a01-0702-4715-8055-689c43e8f82d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.wellcome.ac.uk/2012/11/02/acute-encephalitis-lethargica-1925/?like=1&_wpnonce=a32b89adfa | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973398 | 752 | 2.921875 | 3 |
During a recent visit to Nicaragua, I found evidence of profound change and the signs of a very promising future. However, everything that Nicaraguans have accomplished in the last decade and the very future of their nation are "in play" in the November 2006 elections.
Visiting Fellow Roger Noriega
The engineer Bolaños explained that with controls on toxic dumping, the application of neutralizing chemicals, and the introduction of healthy, natural algae, the grand lake that--along with its volcanoes--makes Managua such an awesome site will be restored in about 10 years. Gradually, the toxicity will be leached out by nature, as long as Nicaraguans make the right decisions and do no harm. As it is with the lake, it is with Nicaragua's politics.
First, let me give the embattled president Bolaños the credit he is due. The country's economy is growing by around four percent; the crushing international debt has been reduced dramatically; the government's coffers are bare, but its fiscal house is in order; and Nicaragua stands to benefit from increased U.S. trade and aid. Only years of steady growth and good government will extend economic opportunity and political poor to the very poorest citizens, who need it most.
I have been with Bolaños many times since his election, and conversations usually turn to his vision for Nicaragua's future. This gentleman--who will turn 78 on May 13--is utterly obsessed with where Nicaragua will be 20 or 25 years from now. By contrast, his chief political rivals are locked in a fierce debate over whether the country was better off in the 1980's (Daniel Ortega and his unreconstructed Frente Sandinista) or the 1940's (Arnoldo Alemán's and his accomplices).
Thanks to those who struggled against the dictatorship of the Sandinistas, Nicaraguans have the right to settle that debate when they vote in November 5 elections to choose a new president and national assembly.
Daniel Ortega's patrón, Hugo Chavez, has done Nicaraguans a favor by reminding them that the Sandinistas and their compañeros see politics as "war." Nicaraguans must know that an FSLN victory means a return to social and political warfare. So, the only way Ortega can recover the presidency legitimately is if the democratic elements of the country (including well-intentioned Liberal voters) divide their strength among several candidates.
It is more than a bit amusing to watch my Arnoldista friends insisting vigorously that Liberal party candidate José Rizo is not a puppet of the former President Alemán, who stands convicted of gross corruption. Apparently, they cannot sort out even among themselves whether Alemán is an innocent, persecuted brother or a caudillo who is a part of their past. It is either cynicism or arrogance or both that leads the Arnoldistas to hope that Nicaraguans will be fooled into expecting Mr. Rizo--who is too nice a fellow--to be his own boss if elected president.
In fact, the historical Liberal movement has produced several genuinely democratic and capable leaders, notably experienced former government ministers Eduardo Montealgre and José Antonio Alvarado. Joined by Alvarado, the Nicaraguan Resistance and Conservative elements, Montealegre’s Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance can defeat the Sandinistas--without making a pact with the corrupt clique that is holding back the Liberal Party. They could also deny the FSLN the 37 seats in the 92-member assembly that Ortega needs to block major measures and constitutional reforms. A Montealegre victory would not only mean a defeat for the corrupt and totalitarian toxins that poison Nicaragua's politics. It would promise sound and honest government and a modern vision for the country's future.
With Chavez pumping millions into the Sandinista coffers, it is essential that Nicaragua's democrats--particularly its entrepreneurial sector, which has so much to lose--give full and united backing behind a single candidate. There is too much in play for any Nicaraguan to try to split the difference or make accommodations.
The United States will do its part, although our government is sometimes criticized--even by friends--as being too vocal about advancing our agenda in Nicaragua. But we did not invent the admonition, "Thou shalt not steal," and we hardly need to remind Nicaraguans of the many sins of Sandinismo. Our role in this election year should be, no more and no less, to pledge to be a good partner and friend with any decent and democratic government in Nicaragua.
Roger F. Noriega is a visiting fellow at AEI. | <urn:uuid:c21f102c-92e0-4816-b574-bb94d80ea0f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://aei.org/article/foreign-and-defense-policy/regional/latin-america/united-democrats-can-save-nicaragua-again/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958462 | 960 | 1.84375 | 2 |
WASHINGTON -- Despite all the negative publicity of recent years, research shows U.S. Catholic priests are demonstrably among the happiest, most job-fulfilled and satisfied men in the country, theologian and psychologist Msgr. Stephen J. Rossetti said Oct. 5.
Key reasons seem to be their prayer life and the close relations they have established with God, fellow priests and laity in their parishes, he said.
Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta, the strong-minded former president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops who played a major role in 2001-02 in leading the bishops to confront the crisis of clergy sexual abuse of minors, strongly affirmed many of Rossetti's findings from his own experience.
Rossetti and Gregory were the two main speakers at a symposium Oct. 5 at The Catholic University of America in Washington. The symposium -- titled "Why Priests Are Happy" -- marked publication of Rossetti's research book by the same name. The more than 100 participants received free copies of his book, published by Ave Maria Press at Notre Dame.
The title at first glance might seem unlikely from a book by Rossetti, who knows first-hand the problems that many unhappy, dysfunctional or troubled priests face. From 1996 to 2009, encompassing the peak years of the clergy sexual abuse crisis in this country, he was president and CEO of St. Luke Institute in Silver Spring, Md., the country's leading Catholic facility treating priests and religious who face alcohol, drug or sexual addictions or other severe problems that make them incapable of effective ministry.
Gregory knows the issue equally well in another way.
First, as a young auxiliary bishop in Chicago whose main background was a doctorate in liturgy, in 1993 he was appointed to head the Diocese of Belleville, Ill., just as that diocese was in the midst of a local clergy sex abuse scandal as bad as that which emerged in Boston eight years later. The difference was that Gregory dealt with the issue effectively, removing abusive priests and it made few of the national headlines prompted eight years later by the Boston Globe's reportage on Boston Cardinal Bernard F. Law's inept handling of the same kind of situation in Boston.
Second, as USCCB president 2001-04, Gregory played a major, almost certainly decisive, role in getting the entire body of U.S. bishops to adopt a legally binding charter for the protection of young people, subsequently approved by the Vatican, and many of its norms more recently adopted by the Holy See as norms for the universal church.
Whatever criticisms of inadequacy the U.S. charter and norms and subsequent implementation may face, it has introduced radical changes in the way both the U.S. and global church has addressed the sexual abuse of minors by priests over the past decade. Since then the Holy See has adopted universally more restrictive laws and more recently asked bishops' conferences around the world to adopt measures that closely parallel the 2001 norms of the USCCB.
The sexual abuse of minors crisis remained an important backdrop to the Rossetti study released Oct. 5. But he pointedly cited other data to argue that even while U.S. Catholic priests were under the most fire over that issue, their prayer life, their spiritual centering and their relations with God, other priests and lay friends continued to make them as a group statistically happier than almost any other segment of Americans.
In his talk Rossetti repeatedly invoked data from his 2004 and 2009 surveys of U.S. Catholic priests (more than 1,200 respondents in 2004, more than 2,400 in 2009) along with other surveys, to argue that Catholic priests are among the happiest people in any profession or occupation in the United States today.
He argued in his book that this information could lead to significant changes in vocation recruitment, seminary formation and other aspects of the church's approach to those areas and to mentoring of young priests.
His research showed that young men recently ordained are the most vulnerable to many challenges to the priesthood, from celibacy to isolation, loneliness and other factors that may affect a priest's sense of self-worth, he said.
But he also reported that on many happiness factors that correlate closely with a priest's sense of worth, satisfaction, well-being and inner peace, priests who were ordained within the past 20 years or who have been ordained more than 40 years score far better than priests ordained in roughly the 1970s or '80s.
The surveys also found that priests ordained in those middle post-Vatican II years are less likely to value daily private prayer or other spiritual exercises than their older or younger confreres, he said. His surveys found that the more time a priest spent in prayer each day, the more likely he was to be happy and to score high on many other factors that correlate positively with happiness.
Gregory said his own experience as a priest and bishop reinforced Rossetti's findings on prayer and many other factors in what makes priests happy.
"Prayer quite simply is an indispensable component of and a reason for a priest's happiness and ministerial fulfillment," he said. "Prayer is so intimately tied to a priest's job satisfaction that without a genuine life of prayer, a man soon withers and may even lose his desire to be a priest."
"Priests help to bring people into a life-giving relationship with Jesus Christ," he said, "and that same relationship with the Lord is the very bedrock of their own faith and happiness. Priests literally market a spiritual joy that they themselves depend upon."
[Jerry Filteau is NCR Washington Correspondent.] | <urn:uuid:0975b0b4-9707-410c-b860-84db97dc1cf5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ncronline.org/print/news/faith-parish/us-catholic-priests-happy-life-and-ministry-says-study | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975508 | 1,150 | 1.625 | 2 |
At Queensway at every check-up you will be screened for mouth cancer. Please ask your dentist or a member of the reception team for more information.
If your dentist finds something unusual or abnormal they will refer you to a consultant at the local hospital, who will carry out a thorough examination of your mouth and throat. A small sample of the cells may be gathered from the area (a biopsy), and these cells will be examined under the microscope to see what is wrong.
If the cells are cancerous, more tests will be carried out. These may include overall health checks, blood tests, x-rays or scans. These tests will decide what course of treatment is needed.
If mouth cancer is spotted early, the chances of a complete cure are good, and the smaller the area or ulcer the better chance of a cure. However, too many people come forward too late, because they haven’t visited their dentist for regular examinations.
Anyone can be affected by mouth cancer, whether they have their own teeth or not. Mouth cancers are more common in people over 40, particularly men. However, research has shown that mouth cancer is becoming more common in younger patients and women. There are, on average, over 4,400 new cases of mouth cancer diagnosed in the UK each year. The number of new cases of mouth cancer is on the increase.
Most cases of mouth cancer are linked to tobacco and alcohol. Cigarette, cigar and pipe smoking are the main forms of tobacco use in the UK. However, the traditional ethnic habits of chewing tobacco, betel quid, gutkha and paan are particularly dangerous.
Alcohol increases the risk of mouth cancer, and if tobacco and alcohol are consumed together the risk is even greater. Over-exposure to sunlight can also increase the risk of cancer of the lips.
Mouth cancer can appear in different forms and affect all parts of the mouth, tongue and lips. Mouth cancer can appear as a painless ulcer that does not heal normally. A white or red patch in the mouth can also develop into a cancer. It is important to visit your dentist if these areas do not heal within three weeks. | <urn:uuid:7e7f3a6c-a565-4cc0-91fe-fe5979de514a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.queensway.co.uk/oral-health/mouth-cancer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957557 | 444 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Outback of Beyond AdventuresP.O. BOX 803-SALMON, ID 83467
This page best view with
Darien Gap Guide
Darien Gap Update - November 2012
We have received no new information from anyone traveling to the Darien Gap.
Darien Gap Update - March 2008
In December we were contacted by a traveler that was attempting to hike the Darien Gap. He stated that the Panamanian police were NOT allowing any gringos to travel beyond either Yaviza or El Real.
Darien Gap Update March 2006
Because of the unsettled nature of the Darien Gap we have not made any recent trips into the area. Our last trip into the Gap was in May of 1999. At that time we had no problems at all, but since then things have changed and not for the better. Our Darien Gap Guidebook is no longer available since we have not returned to the Gap to update the information.
In early 2003 Robert Young Pelton and a couple of fellow travelers ventured into the Darien Gap. According to what we read in the National Geographic Adventure magazine article they were held against their will for several days before being released, unharmed.
In mid December 2000 Tom Hart Dyke and Paul Winder were released (after nine months of captivity) by their guerrilla captors. They had disappeared earlier in the year, while attempting to cross the Darien Gap from Panama to Colombia. This is one of the very few rare times that something like this has happened and the outcome is one of celebration! For more information check out the Electronic Telegraph. They have written a great book, The Cloud Garden a True Story of Adventure, Survival and Extreme Horticulture.
The three New Tribes Missionaries that were kidnapped from the village of Pucuro, Panama in the Darien in January of 1993 are now known to have been killed. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of these three men during this most trying and heartbreaking time.
BECAUSE of the great uncertainty that still runs rampant in the dense jungles of the Darien Gap we DO NOT recommend travel through the Darien Gap of Panama and Colombia at this time.
We no longer have any copies of our guidebooks for sale since we have not returned to the Darien Gap to update the information contained in the guide. Please feel free to contact us with your questions and we will do what we can to help.
If you are planning on traveling into, or through the Darien
Gap of Panama and Colombia please contact us first! My husband and I have
spent more time traveling in the "Gap" than just about any other "gringos."
We hold a Guinness Book record for the first all land crossing of the Gap via motor
vehicle - Jeep, Roads End to Roads End. And
more recently we were the first to cross the Gap via motorcycle, Rokon
Trail-Breaker, again, all on land, Through the Gap - The Taking of the
Windmill. There is very little published on the mysterious Darien Gap, and what is
available is not always reliable. Basically, we've "Been There - Done That" so
we have put together, hopefully, a very informative reference guide - "THROUGH THE
DARIEN GAP- An Adventurer's Guide to Crossing the Darien Gap of Panama and Colombia."
Whether you plan to travel by foot, boat, bike, motorcycle, or even 4 x 4 vehicle this
guide could be just what you need! We have included information on guides and how to
contact them, best time to travel, shipping information, information on internet cafes,
routes with global positioning system coordinates, wages and prices, and most importantly,
areas we recommend avoiding. The guide was last up-dated in July of 1999.
For more information contact:
Outback of Beyond Adventures
Send mail to firstname.lastname@example.org with questions
or comments about this web site. | <urn:uuid:0fb2be46-fdfc-4189-b1e6-92347e545aec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.outbackofbeyond.com/guide.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951914 | 829 | 1.515625 | 2 |
- Who are we?
What is Kids Against Hunger?
Every hour of every day 10 children per minute die of starvation or malnutrition related diseases. Kids Against Hunger is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to end that tragedy. Kids Against Hunger packages and ships highly nutritious, life-saving meals to starving and malnourished children in developing countries and the United States. We do this by mobilizing the energy and caring of American children, teens, and adults on behalf of hungry children around the world. Kids Against Hunger seeks to end the literal hunger of poor children receiving the meals, but also satisfies a hunger among prosperous Americans, a hunger for meaning and contribution.
We have a national packaging network made up of our headquarters facility in New Hope, Minnesota, a packaging division in Mankato, Minnesota, and satellites in 27 U.S. states and Canada staffed by volunteers who package the meals. In total, the packaging network has the capacity to produce over 50 million meals per year. We also work with other organizations seeking long term solutions to the systemic causes of hunger. Our aim is for our meals to provide a stable nutritional base from which the recipient peoples can move their families from starvation to self-sufficiency. Since its launch, Kids Against Hunger has provided over 162 million meals for children and their families in more than 60 countries through the efforts of over 800,000 volunteers.
How was Kids Against Hunger started?
The organization was founded in March 1999 by Richard Proudfit, a successful entrepreneur. In 1974 Richard volunteered on a medical mission to Honduras after Hurricane Fifi had ravaged that country. Profoundly affected by the starvation he saw among the children there, he made a decision to commit his life and financial resources to solving the enormous problem of world hunger. His life’s work became clear to him – feed these starving children.
Richard Proudfit enlisted leading executives at Cargill, Pillsbury, General Mills, and Archer Daniels Midland to formulate a food that would meet all the nutritional requirements of severely malnourished children for physical growth and mental development. The result was the creation of a balanced, high nutrition food that can reverse the starvation process, and restore a child’s health and mental alertness.
To learn more about Richard Proudfit, please click here.
What are your long-term objectives?
Kids Against Hunger has two long-term objectives:
- Create a national food packaging and distribution network of large regional packaging divisions and local packaging satellites.
- Deliver the food produced by Kids Against Hunger through partnerships with humanitarian organizations of high integrity and capability.
How many food packaging locations are there?
There are currently close to 100 satellite locations in 27 U.S. states, District of Columbia and Canada, distributing food to more than 60 countries. A complete list of satellite locations can be found here.
Do you require the children you feed to become Christians, or your volunteers to be Christians?
Again, Kids Against Hunger is a humanitarian organization. We have only one test to feed a child – ‘is the child hungry?’ We have only one test for accepting volunteers – ‘does the volunteer want to help feed hungry children?’ We require any organization that distributes our food to give the food freely out of love for the child without coercion or religious tests. To do otherwise would be a fundamental betrayal of our core beliefs.
What is Kids Against Hunger’s religious affiliation?
Kids Against Hunger is a humanitarian organization that is not affiliated with or restricted to a particular religious group (nonsectarian). We do not discriminate on any basis in any way, shape or form. All religions and non-religious groups can volunteer, donate, and help in any way. We feed children from all walks of life. Some of our volunteers and satellites are driven by their love of God and helping to feed all of His children, but all are welcome to help out in any way. We have had volunteers that are Jewish, Muslim, Lutheran, Buddhist, Hutterite, Methodist, Catholic, and others. We have had volunteers with no religious ties whatsoever. Despite our various diverse backgrounds, we all want to help feed starving children.
Do you provide aid for children/families in the U.S.?
Although our main focus is on feeding starving children abroad, we also help children and their families within the U.S. The recommendation we give to our food packaging centers (we call them "satellites") is to ship 2/3 of the packaged meals abroad and have 1/3 of them remain within the local community. Some of our satellites focus almost exclusively on helping children and their families in the U.S., e.g. through outreach to inner city families, homeless people, Native American reservations, seniors, and children.
The main reason we are focusing on other countries in the first place is because even though you will find HUNGRY people within the U.S., you won't find STARVING people. People in this country have food shelves and other places to assist them, whereas kids in foreign countries do not.
I work with an organization in XYZ country and would like to request food aid from you. Is that possible and what is the process?
Kids Against Hunger does not usually ship the meals directly to a foreign country. Instead, we rely on the expertise of reliable and trustworthy feeding partners to get the food to its destination safely. We work with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in over 40 countries to get our food shipped and distributed. A 40 ft. container of meals includes over $65,000 worth of food. As a nonprofit organization, we have to raise the funds for ingredients and supplies to package the food. We work with our feeding partners to cover our costs so that we can continue to provide our highly nutritious meals to starving children worldwide.
Is there a video I can watch that summarizes your program?
Yes, check out our YouTube channel here.
There are also several other videos available to watch online (click on the links below):
Four Minute Overview of Kids Against Hunger (on YouTube)
"The News Hour with Jim Lehrer" (aired on 12/22/08 on PBS)
"Religion & Ethics News Weekly" (aired on 12/13/08 on PBS)
"On the Road with Jason Davis" - Minnesotans against hunger (aired 05/11/08 on KSTP)
"On the Road with Jason Davis" - Interview with Richard Proudfit (aired 05/08/08 on KSTP)
Please check our "News" section periodically for additional video clips from our feeding partners and food packaging events.
What is your mission and vision statement?
It is our mission to significantly reduce the number of hungry children in the USA and to feed God’s starving children throughout the world.
It is our vision to set up food packaging satellites in the USA and around the world, and to spearhead community and youth volunteer packaging of Kids Against Hunger’s highly nutritious meals. It is also our vision to deliver Kids Against Hunger’s food through partnerships with humanitarian organizations in the USA and worldwide.
- Our Food
What's so special about your food package?
Rice Soy Vitamins & flavoring Vegetable blend
The meal ingredients are formulated by food scientists to provide a rich source of easily digestible protein, carbohydrates, and vitamins needed by an undernourished child’s body and mind. The food is also acceptable to the broad diversity of ethnic tastes and religious differences around the world. The food offers all 9 of the essential amino acids required for complete nutrition, something that can’t be said about other typical food relief sources such as rice or beans alone. It is also very simple to prepare, requiring only 6 cups of boiling water to make a complete meal.Our food consists of:
- high-quality white rice
- fortified, crushed soy - 52% protein
- blend of 6 dehydrated vegetables
- 21 vitamins & minerals
The specific formula took nearly three years to develop. The rice was chosen because it is so widely recognized worldwide. We use premium long-grain white rice. We chose white rice specifically because of its shelf life. The soy we use is fortified with ten vitamins in addition to the high protein content of the soy. The vegetables provide both color and flavor to the food. The vitamin formula is a proprietary formula and is the “secret sauce” that goes into our food.
We provide 21 vitamins and minerals and each bag of our food contains six servings of the dehydrated food which when boiled will serve six children and provide all the vitamins and minerals they need for a day. It provides not just a meal - but better health to starving children. Additionally, our bags are specifically made to be three-ply for strength and they are made of a moisture-proof and odor-proof material to prevent spoilage and insect or rodent problems. Our food has a shelf life of at least three years.
Seeing is believing:
Her bloated bellly
shows that she is
...after 18 months
of eating Kids Against
...and all grown up!
How much do the meals cost?
The average program cost to produce each Kids Against Hunger meal is 25 cents.
Each bag of food (390 grams) includes six one-cup servings.
Each 32 lb. box of food holds 36 bags of food. That is the equivalent of 216 meals at a program cost of only $54. Each 40 ft. container load of food includes 285,120 meals or 40 pallets of food at a program cost of approx. $71,280.
Kids Against Hunger purchases the ingredients for its meals at very competitive prices through longstanding relationships with reliable suppliers. The necessary funds are raised through donations from individuals, corporations, churches, and other organizations.
How does the food get to hungry children, and how can you be sure it gets to them?
We work closely with our distribution partners - churches, nonprofit organizations, and U.S. government agencies operating in poor countries - to distribute the meals prepared by our volunteers. We seek out organizations that have proven track records of successfully getting the food to the children and keeping it out of the hands of corrupt government officials and criminals. We always require our feeding partners to document how they distributed the food and provide us with pictures of the children who receive it.
Where have you sent your food?
Each Kids Against Hunger food packaging satellite is able to choose where its packaged food will be distributed. The International Headquarters office recommends that approximately two thirds of the meals be shipped internationally, and that the remaining third be distributed locally, but allocation varies based on each satellite's location and global/local need. Some satellites focus almost exclusively on shipments to a particular country – while others put a higher emphasis on helping those in need within the local community where the food is being packaged.
The following is a list of countries Kids Against Hunger's meals have been shipped to within the last several years:
Federated States of Micronesia
Papua New Guinea
Sao Tome & Principe
How do you decide where the food will be sent?
We prefer to ship where the need is the greatest, but we have to be careful. We have relationships with NGOs (non-governmental organizations) on the ground in the receiving countries and when one of our international partners appeals to us, we put them in line for a shipment. We can only ship to places where we know the food will be properly and freely distributed through an organization that can handle such an effort. Accountability is key - we need to have a good relationship with people we trust to do the right thing, because we can't always be there in the countries we're shipping to when the food is being distributed.
You package food to be shipped worldwide. What is involved in that process?
We purchase bulk raw ingredients and store them at our warehouse. Then, volunteers like you come in and assemble the bags using our ingredients. The bags are then boxed up, loaded onto a pallet and stored to await shipment. Our international shipping is provided by the U.S. government or our international feeding partners. They pick up the cargo (or we have it shipped to their location within the U.S.) and transport it by plane or by ship to the destination country.
You send meals to prevent people from death by starvation. What happens when that food is gone?
It's not enough to simply fill the stomach and walk away. It's not enough to simply send food. This is why we partner with people on the ground who promote continued sustainability in these regions. What does that mean? Well, it means that some of our partners are setting up schools, teaching the local people how to farm and ways to improve their health. They administer necessary emergency medicines and teach people about proper hygiene and basic first aid.
There are many efforts made to teach the local people how to advance so that they are never on the brink of starvation again. That's not to say we never deliver to the same place twice - sometimes the children in the area need a little extra boost of nutrition so we will go in with another smaller shipment when necessary.
What about local agriculture? If you ship your food for free, won't that hurt their economy?
We are in constant communication with our partners on the ground regarding just such an issue. It would not be good for us to go into a situation where we're causing harm. Our NGOs will tell us that their region is suffering a drought and the crops have been destroyed, and what little food they do have available is too expensive for the local people. If there is a viable agricultural commodity in an area, the situation wouldn't be desperate enough for an appeal from an NGO, and we take steps to determine the actual need.
- This Satellite
What are your food packaging hours?
Since we are the corporate headquarters for the Kids Against Hunger network, we are generally only open during regular business hours. Packaging sessions can be scheduled Monday through Friday between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. A packaging session is usually two hours long and we therefore recommend that you schedule a starting time of no later than 2:30 p.m. to allow for cleanup. To schedule a packaging session, please call Angie at (763) 257-0202.
We understand that many volunteers are unable to come to our office during normal business hours. If this applies to you, please contact one of our other locations in the Twin Cities metro area as they may have evening and/or weekend availability. The list of packaging locations can be found here (or by clicking on “Locations” at the top of this page).
What types of people volunteer to package the food?
While our name implies that children are the source of our volunteers, in practice our volunteers come from all age groups and walks of life. Individuals and groups from churches, synagogues, schools, social clubs, businesses, senior centers, and civic groups are common sources of volunteers for packaging our food. Children from the fifth grade on seem to have the best experience in packaging events. Teens require minimal adult supervision and often plan their own packaging events. Some of the best volunteer experiences come when children, parents, and grandparents work together as a family. Schools and corporations often do packaging with us as a community service event.
What is a "Satellite" and how do I set one up?
A “satellite” is an independent, mostly volunteer-driven nonprofit organization that is affiliated with Kids Against Hunger and has followed the process of becoming officially licensed to use the Kids Against Hunger name and food formula through the organization’s headquarters in New Hope, MN. Individuals at each satellite package the proprietary Kids Against Hunger food for the malnourished and starving children of the world.
A satellite must have a facility in which it can set up its manual packaging equipment and store supplies and the packaged food. The actual food packaging is done by volunteers and so the satellite needs the ability to attract, schedule, and supervise volunteer food packagers as well as the ability to fundraise to cover the cost of the ingredients used. For more information on satellites (and to find out how you can set up your own), please read this article.
Can you come to our school/church/business to do a packaging event?
We do not have a mobile packaging unit, but you are welcome to set up a time to come to our New Hope location to package the meals (30 people max.). We do several off-site packaging events each year, but are only able to do so if your team can raise the funds needed to cover the cost of ingredients and travel and is able to follow our mobile packaging event guidelines. To schedule a special packaging event, please contact Kathy at (763) 257-0202.
I made a donation to Kids Against Hunger last year, but have not received a year-end tax receipt. Why?We generally acknowledge each donation right away and that letter can serve as your tax receipt at year-end. To keep administrative expenses at a minimum, we do not send additional year-end receipts unless requested.
Is my donation to Kids Against Hunger tax deductible?Yes. Kids Against Hunger has been recognized by the IRS as exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and is approved for tax deductible donations.
How much of my donation actually goes towards program expenses?Because of Kids Against Hunger's volunteer-driven program, very little of your contribution goes towards overhead expenses. As our most recent IRS Form 990 shows, 89% of your donations are going directly into the feeding program.
Can I make a donation in honor/memory of someone?
Yes. When making your donation through the “Donate” link on this web site, select “in honor/memory of” in the optional “Donation is” field and enter the person’s name. Please enter that person’s street address if you would like us notify him/her. Making a donation in honor/memory of someone is optional and that field does not have to be completed in order for the donation to be processed.
How do you raise the money for your food?
It costs Kids Against Hunger about 25 cents to buy the ingredients, packaging, and shipping for each meal. That means when we ship a cargo container (285,120 meals) to a country, it includes $71,280 worth of food. As a nonprofit organization we raise all our funds from the generosity of individual donors, corporations, churches, synagogues, and foundations. Put simply, the more money we receive from donors, the more children we can feed.
I would like to make a donation. What are my options?
There are many convenient ways to support Kids Against Hunger by making a donation:
- Mail a check, money order, or cash to: KAH Your Site, Your Address, Your City, State ZIP.
- Make an online donation right here on our web site (using PayPal). You can choose to use a PayPal account, or have the donation charged to your credit card. To donate, please click on the “Donate” link at the right.
|Kids Against Hunger - Louisville|
|4209 Gardiner View Avenue|
|Louisville, Kentucky 40213| | <urn:uuid:e9328f7b-2dbc-4604-90df-eed50ea7fc6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kah-louisville.org/faqs-about-us | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946267 | 3,985 | 1.914063 | 2 |
Megan Horst Hatch
Whether you want to learn about compost or find out how you can save an endangered species, the Chicagoland area has numerous activities planned for Earth Day.
Whether you are in the mood for a cappella renditions of your favorite songs or just want to listen to choral music, the Chicagoland area has plenty of groups to find what you’re looking for.
From learning about haikus to open mic night, the Chicagoland area offers numerous opportunities for you to learn and experience poetry. Keep the following events in mind when planning how to celebrate National Poetry Month.
To get your guests on their feet during your wedding, consider getting a live band to perform. From traditional favorites to the latest hits, these bands will keep your reception rocking.
From comedy to drama, the Chicagoland area offers numerous opportunities to see a play by award-winning directors. Get your theatre fix by checking out the following productions.
Whether you’re looking for a free concert during your lunch break or want to unwind with friends at a jazz club, the following female musicians based in Chicago offer a great way to experience music.
From art to cover bands, you can celebrate spring at numerous festivals in Chicago. Grab your friends and get ready for a fun weekend with these upcoming events.
Are you ready for the Big Dance? Come March 19, basketball fans across Chicago will be ready for the 2013 college basketball tournament. If you’re looking for a great place to catch a game, then check out the following sports bars.
On March 14, you can have your pi and eat it, too. Pi Day is a great way to celebrate pi with a slice of pie. To get started, check out the following events.
Ready for the wearin’ of the green? Then celebrate St. Patrick’s Day at the following bars.
If you want to observe Women’s History Month, get ready for a hands-on experience. From volunteer opportunities to online resources, the Chicagoland area offers ways to celebrate notable women in history as well as ways to help girls today.
Kristin Solis teaches first grade at Euclid Elementary School. Find out why she loves her job.
From checking out the solar system to going head-to-head with other film buffs, there’s never been a better time to be a nerd in Chicago.
Step one to landing a great job? Update all online profiles.
Succeeding in a web admin role in Chicago takes a strong education and diligence.
With the economy finally on the upswing, many in Chicago are reconsidering education.
An expert discusses education trends for nurses in Chicago.
The Chicagoland area is ripe with opportunity for professionals with business degrees.
Say goodbye to the dragon and get ready to celebrate the year of the snake as the Chicagoland area prepares for the Chinese new year. From tea ceremonies to parades, there’s plenty to do to start the new year. Use this list to get started in planning your own festivities.
From live bands to New Orleans cuisine, the Chicagoland area offers plenty of ways for you and your friends to have one last hurrah for Mardi Gras. Whether you want to dress up in costume or come as you are, there’s a party for just about everyone.
- Rev. Jackson: School Closings UndemocraticOpponents of Chicago school closures are vowing to fight on, but they appear to have little chance of reversing the mayor's agenda... unless a federal judge steps in, reports WBBM's Mike Krauser.90
- Mount Prospect Man Falls To Death From Albany Park RoofA Mount Prospect man fell to his death from a roof in Albany Park Friday afternoon.113
- 3 Dead, 8 Hurt In Shootings Since Friday NightThe most recent fatal shooting happened about 1:50 a.m. Saturday in the Hyde Park community, roughly half a mile from President Barack Obama’s home in neighboring Kenwood.198
- Some People You Should Know: The MelodeersIt all began when barbershop patrons started singing while waiting to get their hair cut. A century or so later, the Melodeers chorus is taking the music to a dazzling new height with 140 ladies singing in unaccompanied four-part harmony. CBS 2's Harry Porterfield reports.155
- Mother Of Student Pushed Down School Stairs ‘Enraged’ At Security GuardNew video surfaced Friday that appears to show sophomore Lauren Goodlow being pushed by a male security guard. CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker reports.329
- House Passes Concealed Carry Plan Opposed By Senate LeaderGun owners in the only state still banning concealed weapons would win that right under a plan approved by the Illinois House on Friday, but the governor and other powerful Democrats oppose the plan because it would wipe out local gun ordinances -- including Chicago's ban on assault weapons.220
- Benjamin Moore Which Team Colors Matter Most? May 24, 2013Which Team Colors matter most to you? Either way, you could be a winner! Just sign up now for a chance to win $500 Depot Dollars to the Chicago Sports Depot to pick up some gear with your favorite team colors as they battle it out this week!
- AVEENO® MEN’S “Building a Healthier Foundation” Sweepstakes May 21, 2013AVEENO® Men’s™ knows your family is your foundation. And to take good care of them, you need to take good care of yourself. Win a family day at the ballpark from AVEENO® Men’s™.
- Join Hankook Tire To Reel In The Next Big Catch May 20, 2013Join Hankook tire to reel in the next great catch! Click here to go to www.TirePrize.com and enter for your chance to win the ultimate fishing excursion in Puerto Rico!
- Meet Jim Rome On Set In Los Angeles May 20, 2013AutoZone and the Jim Rome Show are giving one winner and a guest a trip to meet Jim Rome in Los Angeles on the set of his Showtime television show! Enter for your chance to win! | <urn:uuid:464f9e9c-5317-45ee-9aaa-23503c96aa6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://chicago.cbslocal.com/tag/megan-horst-hatch/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93177 | 1,278 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Web Extra: Natural Attractions of Uvalde Area
By Rob McCorkle
Outdoor tourism opportunities abound in Uvalde County, where the rivers, hills, and canyons of the Texas Hill Country merge with the flatlands and chaparral of the South Texas Brush Country.
Soak up the natural beauty on your own or attend the Nature Quest, held April 24-28, for guided sojourns to dozens of nature hot spots in the Texas Hill Country River Region. Hill Country Adventures, based at Hill Country Nature Center in northern Uvalde County, is organizing the event, now in its 14th year.
Just a 30-minute drive north of Uvalde, Garner State Park draws crowds to the banks of the sparkling Frio River to swim, float, hike, camp, and dance under the stars. The park’s 17 cabins, 13 of which were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, have undergone extensive renovation. Each climate-controlled, energy-efficient cabin now sports new, handcrafted CCC replica furnishings, as well as amenities including toilets, showers, and kitchens.
Uvalde County features more than a half-dozen stops along the Nueces and Rio Frio Loops of the western segment of the Heart of Texas Wildlife Trail. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department produces the road-trip guide, and it’s sure to appeal to both novice and accomplished birders and wildlife watchers alike.
Just south of Uvalde, birders can visit Cooks Slough Nature Park, where an observation deck overlooks one of three water treatment ponds frequented by birds and other wildlife, hiking trails, and a picnic area. Nearby Fort Inge Historical Park, established in 1849 on the Leona River, contains wildlife habitat that attracts green kingfishers, great kiskadees, long-billed thrashers, and black-chinned hummingbirds. The park also hosts periodic star parties.
Uvalde National Fish Hatchery, established in the 1930s, encompasses more than 100 acres dotted with dozens of ponds. You can roam the grounds, hike the new pond-side nature trail, or take a pre-arranged tour of facilities. One of the stops is a tank house that holds various fish, at times including the endangered razorback sucker, a long-nosed fish with a prominent hump behind its head.
From the March 2013 issue. | <urn:uuid:4f968d0d-dcc0-4331-9458-9d3e4e329ea5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://texashighways.com/component/content/article?id=6667:web-extra-natural-attractions-of-uvalde-area | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930024 | 506 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Purpose or Pleasure?
Through a story and tour of the museum students will learn the role quilts have played in family life in the late 1800’s. Each student will design a quilt square for a classroom quilt and make a quilt design bookmark. This field trip takes place at the Gordon-Roberts House at 218 Washington Street. The tour will last approximately 90 minutes. Cost is $2 per student. Teachers are free. | <urn:uuid:08b7b67e-59de-4472-bc19-7099a0b1bcde> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gordon-robertshouse.com/quilt.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938534 | 91 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Codec: Hardware or software that can compress and uncompress audio or video data. Codec is short for compressor/decompressor. A video codec is software that compresses a video file in order to send it over the Internet. Several video codecs are available, including products from Microsoft, RealNetworks, Intel, and VDOLive.
Decode: To decompress a video file after receipt so that you can view it. Most decoding is done through a player plugin on the receiving computer's browser.
Encode: To compress a video file with a codec so that it doesn't use maximum bandwidth as it travels across the Internet.
Fps: Frames per second. The fps rate determines how smoothly a video will play. Most video on the Internet plays at 5fps to 15fps. To watch a video on the Internet at 15fps, viewers need a 120MHz Pentium or better, with a 56Kbps connection.
Frame: One screen of information, including text and graphics.
Multicast: One server signal from which multiple viewers can watch a video simultaneously.
Splitter server: A server that receives one video signal and rebroadcasts it across a network.
Stream: A one-to-one connection between a server and client that lets a user view a video clip before the video file fully downloads.
Stream thinning: A process that eliminates frames from a video feed over the Internet, protecting the audio feed. This process is helpful when the Internet is momentarily clogged; preventing the loss of the entire signal and the resulting forced reconnection, stream thinning drops some of the video signal until the connection restores full bandwidth.
Unicast: Individual signals from a server to individual clients for on-demand video viewing. | <urn:uuid:0d12f4b5-8f6e-4629-afc3-b66e33072597> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://windowsitpro.com/print/windows/internet-video-terms | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905353 | 359 | 3.625 | 4 |
Even "supernatural" can be problematic as a concept; one person's supernatural is another's natural. Richard Carrier suggests that naturalists should avoid the natural/supernatural dichotomy. Naturalists effectively believe only in things that have material basis. So "consciousness" is ok as it depends on brain processing and would end with its cessation. However whether or not atheism necessarily extends to disbelieving in all things that don't have some material basis is another thing. Alex
Not sure about that :-) I can understand a person, totally unaware of an idea, being without belief about it. However it seems unrealistic to suggest that having been exposed to the god idea, especially when so pervasively, that a person can still claim to be without any corresponding beliefs even if he or she seeks to disbelieve in god. The passionate postings to this forum seem to suggest otherwise. Alex
This atheism definition is a semantic black hole where pedants come to die. The amount of pointless noise it generates is staggering. It is as stated without a belief. For lack of evidence, the null hypothesis stands. That's all it is. Adding any more to it and it ceases to be atheism and it becomes yet another ideology. This explains it neatly -
If you want to add meaning to it, invent another word. Leave atheism be.
Religion means link to the past - Buddhism is a religion in the sense that it is a traditionally based view of the nature of the universe on an absolute scale. It does not claim a centralized, creator deity, per se.
It is a religion of people who don't believe in god. The same can be said for communists. | <urn:uuid:6439136b-f9e0-4ca1-8aa1-1f6253fe6a0a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.atheistnexus.org/forum/topics/define-meaning-of-atheism?xg_source=activity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953292 | 336 | 2.25 | 2 |
(Parasite in cats may lead…)
Exposure to a parasite hosted by cats could make people more likely to attempt suicide, says a new study.
Toxoplasma gondii, which can cause toxoplasmosis, is easily transmitted to humans, with most catching it by consuming undercooked meat or anything contaminated with cat faeces, the Daily Mail reported.
A group of 54 patients of both sexes in a Swedish hospital, all with a history of attempting suicide, were studied, along with 30 control subjects.
It found that people who were exposed to toxoplasmosis were seven times more likely to attempt suicide.
Scientists have linked toxoplasmosis to behavioural changes and even the development of schizophrenia.
Infected people become more expedient, suspicious, jealous and dogmatic.
The report said identifying toxoplasmosis as a risk factor for suicide could be of benefit in suicide prevention.
Czech scientist Jaroslav Flegr has claimed to be a living example of toxoplasma gondii causing schizophrenia.
The 63-year-old said he had contracted the parasite, and that it had led him to behave in strange, self-destructive ways.
Signs of toxoplasmosis include mild flu-like symptoms such as a high temperature, sore throat or aching muscles, although the infection often causes no symptoms at all.
The study will be published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. | <urn:uuid:69c48bf9-9aa0-4e0a-aeb7-28dde69c95cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-05-04/pets/33321639_1_suicide-prevention-toxoplasmosis-toxoplasma-gondii | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969239 | 296 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Remote controls use an infrared ray to tell its machine to do something like changing a channel on a T.V. This might look like it might take forever but it takes less than a second. Remotes are now being used on many things, like CD players, VCRs, and in computer technology. You can see the electronic components below. Here is a good link on How It Works: Remote Controls. If you would like to see Beakman's World explain the use of a remote control click here (you will need the Macromedia Shockwave Plug-in). | <urn:uuid:107ebc12-b58e-498c-8301-450595e8ce36> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://library.thinkquest.org/3660/Remote_control.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933851 | 117 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Aretha Louise Franklin, March 25, 1942
Music royalty Aretha Franklin was born on March 25, 1942 in Memphis, Tennessee. The “Queen of Soul’ has enjoyed a successful career that has spanned over fifty years and at 70 years old she doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
She started singing in her father’s church in Detroit and in the 60′s, she released her first single and the rest is history. Aretha Franklin has a timeless voice and people from many different generations can relate to her soulful sound. Recently she had a battle with her health, but after taking a little time off she is slowly but surely regaining her throne.
Aretha became “The Queen Soul’ in the 60′s…and she’s still reigning today!
Happy Birthday Queen!
One of my favorite songs by Aretha, ‘Natural Woman’ | <urn:uuid:354fa7a9-f979-44fa-81de-995638914d02> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thesavvysistah.com/entertainment/happy-70th-birthday-queen-soul-aretha-franklin/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980393 | 189 | 1.960938 | 2 |
One of the unfortunate casualties of my recent blogging hiatus was that I left the account of my trip to Oman unfinished. Once you’ve reminded yourself of the story so far (Part 1, Part 2), let’s continue the parade of pretty photos.
Day 10. Today started out with another long car journey – this time to the northwest corner of Oman. We skirted to the north of the Wahiba sands, a massive sea of sand dunes, all of which seem to be gradually moving north-east and threatening to engulf the highway. Many of the telephone poles at the roadside were already half buried by sand, indicating an ongoing and fairly rapid migration.
In order to reach today’s sampling target we had to put ourselves completely in the hands of our Omani colleagues, and a GPS, and drive out into the desert to reach an inlier of 800 million year-old basement riddled a swarm of igenous dykes.
Igneous rocks are very useful for paleomagnetic studies, not only because they’re chock full of magnetic minerals but because they are much easier to date – and knowing the age of the magnetic signal is pretty important if you’re trying to reconstruct tectonic movements over time. Interestingly, the best rocks for palaeomagnetic studies are the finer grained parts near the faster-cooling margins, but for radiometric dating you want the larger mineral grains in the slower-colling centre. So because we wanted to date these dykes, double the weight ended up in the back of our Landcruiser.
Day 11. We stayed overnight near the coast of the Arabian Sea, and were treated to a spectacular sunset over the sand dunes (which I didn’t photograph due to driving), and a spectacular sunrise from the water, which I did.
In a bizarre “small world” moment, I realised that if you head out to sea from this point to the edge of the continental margin, you’ll get to the sampling site for a sediment core that I’ve done some work on, and published a paper about, at the beginning of the year.
Before heading back to Muscat, our Omani colleagues were quite keen for us to sample a 380 million year-old Devonian carbonatite, a mineralogically unusual igneous rock rich in carbonate minerals. All of the small hillock-like outcrops breaching the flat surface of the wadi appeared to be the eroded remnants of a large volcanic plug.
On closer inspection, there appeared to be quite a lot of magnetite in this rock: no cause for complaint there, although strongly magnetic rocks are not always the most useful ones, not least because they have a habit of overloading our nice sensitive magnetometers.
This was in many ways a target of opportunity – it wasn’t something I’d planned to sample, and it was also much younger than everything else we were looking for. But it was there, and our Omani friends are interested in what was going on tectonically when it erupted, so it might well yield some interesting results. After all, you can never have too many samples!
Day 12. Back in Muscat, we spent a relatively uneventful day preparing to fly down to the very south of Oman for the final lot of sampling. This involved unloading all our equipment and samples from our trusty Landcruiser so that we could clean it before returning it to the rental company, imposing the stuff that we didn’t immediately need on our friends at the University, and trying not to get into too much trouble.
Day 13. An early start allowed us to fly all the way to Salalah, right over the other side of the country near the Yemeni border, by lunchtime. We then picked up our latest field vehicle.
Yes, our other car was a Hummer, and I can’t say I was entirely impressed with it – for all its bulk, it’s extremely cramped and the windows were exceptionally small (a nod to its military lineage, I suppose). Besides, it was an automatic, which did not predispose me to being a fan.
After picking up some subsidiary equipment that we could not fit on the plane – mainly tanks for drill cooling water – we managed to get right out into the field for another afternoon of sampling Snowball Earth carbonates.
In contrast to the previous examples, this carbonate was directly laid down on granite rather than overlying the supposed glacial diamictites. They are certainly present, but their distibrution is patchy – they appear to be filling in the valleys, possibly carved by glaciers, of an ancient Precambrian landscape. The higher ground was left bare, until the carbonate was deposited in a period of higher sea-level which drowned the entire landscape.
Our reward for a hard day’s sampling was a rather spectacular sunset. As in the north, the high mountains are mainly Mesozoic limestone.
Day 14. Our main motivation for visiting the south is that you can find the largest chunk of exposed basement in the country; and as in the north, that basement rock is riddled with dykes.
It’s quite a spectactular landscape: the granitic basement itself has almost been eroded down to sea-level, and the more resistant dykes form elevated, linear ridges of darker rock.
A satellite view shows just how numerous these dykes are.
Dating so far indicates that the entire dyke swarm was intruded between 700 and 750 million years ago, right at the start of the ‘Cryogenian’ period that covers the alleged Snowball Earth events. We sampled as many different dykes as we could; the only stumbling block was that we were drilling extremely hard rock, which was quite expensive in terms of time and water (we had to return to civilisation to refill the water tanks a couple of times).
Day 15. Our last day of fieldwork proved to be somewhat disappointing. We wanted to find another outcrop of cap carbonate, this time where it was deposited on top of diamictite. Finding the diamictite wasn’t too hard: we just drove inland and discovered hills of the stuff.
In the final image, the crags in th top 1/3 of the hill mark a transition to massive sandstones, and hence if there is any cap carbonate that is where it would be. Despite a couple of hours’ worth of sweat- and dehyrdation inducing scrambling in the scorching sun, we were unable to find it. In the end, I was actually quite glad, because getting up to the contact was hard enough when I was just carrying myself, let alone a drill and gallons of water.
During my clambouring, I was also on the look out for definitive evidence of a glacial origin for the diamictites – thinks like striations carved onto the larger rock clasts by the moving ice. Unfortunately, I was unlucky there too – although partly that was because many of the clasts are granite and gneiss eroded locally from the basement, which are not the best starting material for such things.
The one advantage of this rather anticlimatic finish to our mad dash around Oman was that before flying back to Muscat that evening we could afford to go a bit tourist. On the way back to Salalah we ate at an excellent fish restaurant in the traditional fishing village of Mirbat. Although, situated on a lovely little fishing harbour, this place has seen better days; it seems that rather than rebuild after a significant amount of damage was caused by a cyclone several years ago, the government has been moving the population to a new, much less picturesque settlement, further inland.
We also drove up into the mountains above Salalah, where I was probably the coolest I’d been since I arrived in Oman (it was below 30 C, I tell you!) and I got to drink out of a coconut for the first time. Before boarding the plane back to Muscat, we gave our magic export letter a first (successful) test run when the x-ray machine indicated that our souvenirs were a little out of the ordinary.
Day 16. It’s unfortunate that your last memory of any country you visit in the name of fieldwork is usually the cargo terminal of an international airport – difficult to get to, not exactly brimming with cheer, and staffed by people who flip between puzzled (you want to ship rocks? And suspicious (what exactly is in these rocks?) This time, we managed to get through two layers of bureaucracy before someone decided that despite our magic letter, they wanted us to unpack our 64 kg, bulging at the seams case of rocks for a visual inspection. On the whole, though, the Omanis were as helpful as ever, and it actually cost far less time and money that I was expecting to send our geological bounty homewards, giving us a few hours to relax before we took to the skies ourselves.
Day 17. After the usual indignities of an overnight flight in economy class, we landed back in Edinburgh. Blessedly cool, overcast, drizzly, wonderful Edinburgh. And it was then that the real work could begin: turning our samples into useful and exciting data. Well, that’s the plan, anyway… | <urn:uuid:891eaaff-1a61-4881-84c8-840a127795b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://all-geo.org/highlyallochthonous/2009/08/field-trip-diary-part-3/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967977 | 1,932 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Most social media marketers and companies stick to Facebook and Twitter for all their social media and content marketing campaigns. In this global economy where valuable customers and leads need to be found from all countries to expand companies, these social media channels are not enough. With over a billion active users and because it is the top social networking platform in many countries, Facebook is the safe choice but there are many other social networks that you have probably never heard of that are more popular than Facebook in quite a few countries.
This comes as no surprise that Instagram has angered many of its users with the new Terms of Service. One Instagram user has decided to take legal action against the photo-sharing platform over its new terms of service. Lucy Funes has filed a class action lawsuit in the San Francisco federal court, against the photo-sharing service, last week. This California resident has accused the website, among other things, of breach of contract and claims that she is acting on behalf of other Instagram users and herself.
Just when Instagram started becoming an essential tool for online and social media marketers, the enforcement of new policies could see it vanish into obscurity. As many social media experts are calling it, the new policies that come into effect from 16th January, 2013, could be Instagram’s “suicide note”. These terms and policies indicate that the business model of Instagram is changing. It is now making users the product instead of the service.
Facebook has been trying to capture the image-sharing market in the social networking world and as a result, recently bought Instagram. As a clear indication of the social network war going on between Facebook, Instagram and Twitter; Instagram has stopped allowing its pictures to be displayed in Twitter timelines. Kevin Systrom – co-founder of Instagram, announced in the first week of December that his company will be dropping support for Twitter cards completely in some time. This change means that Instagram photos will not be displayed in Tweets or photo galleries of users.
This post is a continuation of Use Instagram to Boost your Social Media Marketing Strategy - Part 1' and highlights a few more points that could enhance your Social Media Strategy with the help of Instagram.
Instagram is the new player in the social networking world. The user base of this simple photo sharing application has exploded in recent times and has gained a lot of attention from social media marketers. It was originally created to allow Apple device users to add filters to images and to share them with other Instagram users. People immediately latched on to this product as it allowed them to transform photos to look like old acetate film based photos and Polaroids. It is now available on Android devices and currently boasts over 80 million registered users. If you could reach out to such a large market base, imagine the effect it would have on your business.
© 2013 Godot Media | <urn:uuid:43ed7c26-6a7a-4722-a9a3-d94b27ec6915> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.godotmedia.com/tag/instagram | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965084 | 571 | 1.5 | 2 |
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War & Locale: World War II -- European Theater
Date of Birth:
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By Ashley Tompkins
Cipriano Gamez contends he "never did anything outstanding," but many would disagree. His actions speak for themselves and for the thousands of other men who served in World War II.
Born in Belmont, Iowa, in 1922, Cipriano (one of nine brothers) and his parents moved to East Chicago, Ind., when he was a baby. After high school graduation in 1941, Gamez heard President Roosevelt announce the shocking news that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor.
"Immediately, I wanted to join the Army, but my parents and my sweetheart wouldn't hear of it, so I decided to hold off until they drafted me on Jan. 23, 1943," said Gamez with a smile.
Gamez went through four days of mental and physical health testing and 14 weeks of medical basic training.
"I was trained as a medic, but I couldn't see myself being shot at and not being able to shoot back," Gamez said. "I told the captain that I wanted to do something different and he told me there was a need for medics and that was what I was going to be."
Sometime during his training, a team of parachuters came to the camp looking for volunteers to join. Gamez was impressed with their boots, hats and badges and enlisted with the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment with a guarantee he could be in the infantry and became a member of Company C. They trained at Camp Mackall in North Carolina for five weeks.
There were only three Mexican-American men in Gamez's company and he only saw a few others when he was actually on the battlefield. He says when it came to training, however, they were treated equally.
"The regiment leaders tried to break all of the jumpers down mentally and physically because they wanted us to be our best," Gamez recalled. "I remember once we were getting ready to do a qualifying jump and the sergeant threw a dummy out of the plane and the parachute didn't open. At the time, we were still packing our own chutes and they were trying to scare us into doing it right."
Being 21 at the time, Gamez says he was considered old next to the 19-year-old jumpers. He admits the first jump was the hardest, but in the end, he made 31 jumps and two of those were into combat.
"There was an intense amount of training for the regiment," he said. "We learned a lot about infantry weapons, but we didn't have anything heavier than a .30 caliber."
After training, Gamez boarded the James Parker troop ship on chilly Dec. 27, 1943, and stayed there until January 8.
"There was a gambling game going on in the hold when the signal for lights out came in, and the guys didn't turn off the light," said Gamez with a laugh. "Another war ship signaled the captain to let him know he could see lights on. The captain sent the military police and the shore patrol down to the hold to take care of the problem and they knocked out every light in the compartment with their nightsticks."
After 11 days on the rocky waters, the ship docked at Belfast, Ireland, on Jan. 8, 1944, and the men went through more training. They were then sent to Scotland, where they boarded trains headed to Nottingham, England.
"When I heard that we were going to stay in Nottingham, the first thing that came to mind was Robin Hood," said Gamez with a chuckle. "We were allowed passes into town, where we had some conflict with the British because we had money and the British didn't."
After training for about two months, Gamez found himself "volunteering" to become a pathfinder in late April when a lieutenant approached him. "I didn't know what a pathfinder was, but he told me I'd find out soon enough."
His first jump as a pathfinder was a fiasco at best. The night before D-Day, Gamez was dropped southeast of Chef-du-Pont, considerably off target, and was lost for five days before finding his way back to the regiment. He lived on what he scrounged off of the land, as well as a small box of food and a chocolate bar that could last three to four days.
"It was terrible because there are a ton of hedge walls and the Germans had already taken over the entrances and exits," Gamez recalled. "Once I found my way back, I spent 31 days on the line and then sent back to Nottingham."
Only six of the original 30 platoon members survived, and he was promoted to Staff Sergeant. Some men were taken hostage, died or were wounded. However, during the next campaign, about 20 of the original men rejoined before the invasion of Holland on Sept. 17, 1944.
The invasion jump of Holland was a disaster as well. The British 1st Airborne were massacred in Germany and only 2,500 of 10,000 survived when they were sent in across the Nijmegan Bridge to relieve the British inside.
"That night the third platoon was sent in to escort G2 Intelligence so they could see what was going on," he says. "I ran into three or five Germans who were coming up a side road. Luckily, I saw them first and fired at them with my Thompson submachine before they hit my left arm."
He spent two weeks in the hospital and received the Purple Heart for his actions.
Gamez turned 22 on December 15 and celebrated. The next day was spent recovering, and on Dec. 17, 1944, he received word to move out. The men where sent by tractor-trailers to Belgium for the Battle of the Bulge.
During the battle, a corridor was created to transport men from the front lines to the back. Gamez's regiment was assigned Thier-du-mont Ridge and stayed there December 20-25. After two days, they made contact with the Germans. They pulled back the Army Christmas morning, but were sent to take Thier-du-mont again on January 7.
"After the ridge was taken, we were sent to look for the wounded," Gamez said. "I have never known so much fear. It was a terrible slaughter for us and most of the men were dead or frozen."
After Thier-du-mont, the regiment was trained to liberate prisoners after the war, but they never had the chance. He rotated home and was discharged Nov. 9, 1945. On August 31, 1946, he married his sweetheart, Carmen Negrette, who later gave birth to Dwight and Richard Gamez.
Following Carmen’s death in 1985, Gamez married Esperanza Teresina, who had three children: John, Lou and Mary.
Gamez worked at a steel mill in Indiana as a foreman until he retired.
Furious about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Gamez says if he were a few years younger, "I'd join [the military] again in a heartbeat. I was raised to respect the flag and I can't explain how much rage I felt."
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