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The Truth About Gasland
Matthew is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.
The organization I work for recently co-sponsored a local showing of the movie Truthland which is a direct rebuttal to the HBO movie “Gasland.” I’ve now seen both of the films and encourage investors in the industry to do the same. In Truthland we follow a woman from a rural Pennsylvania farm as she sets out to discover the truth about gas drilling after becoming concerned about her own farm after having watched Gasland.
One of her biggest concerns was in if it were possible for fracking fluids to come back up and harm the water that her family and livestock drank. In an interview with John Hanger who is the former secretary of Pennsylvania DEP (who also appeared in Gasland), he said, “We’ve never had one case of (hydraulic fracturing) fluid going down the gas well and coming back up and contaminating someone’s water well.” Further on in the movie there is a demonstration on just how well constructed the shell casings are and Scott Roberts who was the former deputy secretary for the Pennsylvania DEP, had this to say, “Multiple layers of protection: cement, steel, cement, steel, cement. Production tubing on the inside. … You can see nothing’s going to get in or out of this pipe.” The bottom line conclusion being drawn is that nothing is getting out of those wells and even if it did, the chemicals are fairly common and can be found online at FracFocus.
In the move Gasland one of the more powerful scenes is when they lit tap water on fire and blamed this on fracking. This is of course a grave concern for anyone to know that their drinking water could be filled with explosive contaminants. In an interview with Joseph Martin who is a professor of engineering at Drexel University he said that, “There’s almost no likelihood or possibility that methane could migrate laterally from a natural gas well.” He further went on to make the connection that nobody is motivated to have the gas leave the pipe and have it escape into the environment as companies get paid by marketing the gas. So what of the exploding water? The makers of Truthland were able to replicate it by capturing methane that naturally bubbled up from a stream on their property. They went on to interview homeowners from across the US who’d experience similar flaming faucets, and in each case it was a natural occurrence where methane was seeping into the groundwater because of where the water well was drilled. In another great quote, this time from Gary Hanson who is the Director of the Red River Watershed Management Institute, he said that, “It’s literally impossible to (hydraulically fracture) into a groundwater zone.”
The movie goes on to uncover more facts in an effort to debunk Gasland, but whose side of the story are they telling? One thing this movie makes clear is that while no one who appeared in the movie were paid for their contributions, the industry did fund making the movie. Although, can you blame them? If your company was attacked and what was being said wasn’t true, I’m sure you’d fight back.
Depending on which side you choose to believe, the one undeniable fact is that drilling is creating jobs. In the movie they interview two workers from US Steel (NYSE: X) who said that they were laid off but because of the natural gas boom they got their jobs back. According to the Truthland website in 2010, the development of shale gas supported 600,000 jobs and that figured is expected to surpass 870,000 in 2015. Further they state that oil and natural gas development created nearly one out of every 10 new jobs in the US last year.
I’ve looked at the trickledown effect and the companies that are positioning themselves to grow and it cannot be understated that amount of new jobs and related economic activity that are being generated. According to EQT (NYSE: EQT) the industry needs to invest $20 billion dollars in infrastructure spending over the next decade to meet the growth demands of the Marcellus. While midstream giant Enterprise Products (NYSE: EPD) is investing $8 billion dollars throughout their nationwide system over the next two years. Going further out the value chain, Shell’s (NYSE: RDS-A) planned cracker plant in PA has the potential to create 20,000 jobs with most of them being induced jobs which are those created to support the direct and indirect jobs.
While Gasland created a lot of interesting talking points, the truth is that we need to develop our natural gas resources responsibly. We need the energy and the jobs to get our economy back on its feet. While I’ve been quite vocal as my displeasure on how Chesapeake (NYSE: CHK) CEO Aubrey McClendon has seemingly only been focused on enriching himself we need the leadership of a man like him to make sure we get this right. As the number two natural gas driller in the country we need to see them continue to be an innovative leader in taking our country forward to responsibly drill in order to create desperately needed jobs.
Truth is we need the industry so it’s good to see the industry is stepping up and getting the real truth out there. Lies and rumors do make for an entertaining movie, but creating division in a country that’s already painfully divided isn’t doing anyone any good. The truth is out there, but Gasland is filled with more hot air than truth.
latimerburned owns shares of Enterprise Products Partners L.P. The Motley Fool has the following options: long JAN 2013 $16.00 calls on Chesapeake Energy, long JAN 2013 $25.00 calls on Chesapeake Energy, long JAN 2014 $20.00 calls on Chesapeake Energy, and long JAN 2014 $30.00 calls on Chesapeake Energy. Motley Fool newsletter services recommend Enterprise Products Partners L.P.. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.If you have questions about this post or the Fool’s blog network, click here for information. | <urn:uuid:bfcf45a3-b627-4c35-97b3-536190f4824d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://beta.fool.com/latimerburned/2012/07/24/the-truth-about-gasland/7721/?ticker=CHK&source=eogyholnk0000001 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968819 | 1,334 | 1.648438 | 2 |
It is a tribute to the universality of the spirit of the Kural that at various times different religions and sects—Jainism, Buddhism, Vaishnavaism, Saivaism—have claimed the author as their own. Some Christian scholars, who have studied and translated the Kural, find in it the echo of the "Sermon on the Mount." In the Kural there are echoes of the finest principles of various religions. "What is revealed in the Vedas is brought out clearly in the Kural," said the great poet Arisilkizhar at the Madurai Sangham—the Taxila of the South—when the book was submitted by the writer for examination. Kalladar praised it as "the only book which harmonizes with all the religions of the world without condemning any of them." Several poets in the course of the last centuries have taken him as their beacon light. Father Beschi, who came to South India in the early 18th century, learnt from the Kural and recommended it to Europeans. "Nothing in the whole compass of human language," it has been claimed, "can equal the force and wisdom of the sententious distichs of the Kural." The book has been translated into Latin, German, English, Hindi and Marathi. We can only conclude that the book is a synthesis and that when he wrote it, Valluvar's mind and vision had outgrown geographical and racial boundaries and had risen above all distinctions.
Kural is the poet's great and only work, which consists of 133 chapters, each containing 10 couplets; and thus numbers 1330 couplets or 2660 lines. Kural means "anything short" and this is the shortest species of stanza in the Tamil language. Though short, in value it far outweighs the whole of the remaining Tamil literature.
The Kural is in three parts, dealing with the threefold objects of life, namely, Arram, Porul, Inbam, corresponding, respectively, to Dharma, Artha, Kama, i.e., Virtue, Wealth and Happiness. The fourth object of life, namely, Moksha or final release, comes naturally as the result of perfection in the first three. The plan of the book reflects Truth in all its aspects and proportions; and the divisions into chapters and sections is based on a perfect logical sequence. Valluvar's approach to moral doctrine is marked by a very thorough knowledge of human psychology and a desire to help imperfect men in their struggle against evil by giving them practical hints. Throughout we can see how the poet brings everything down to the level of practicality without losing hold of the ideal.
The First Book consists of 38 chapters; chapters 5 to 24 deal with the "Householder's duties" and chapters 25 to 38 deal with "Asceticism" (Illaram and Turavaram in Tamil).
The Second Book consists of 70 chapters dealing with policy in worldly affairs, including statecraft, full of interest for the scholars, historians and politicians of our day. The principles of conduct contained in these are not meant only for princes and those around them but for all engaged in secular affairs.
The Third Book deals with Kama or Love. This section is not properly understood by many, but mistaken as sexual love. What is Kama in its pure and original meaning? Says H.P.B. in The Theosophical Glossary under Kamadeva:
This section of the Kural is an allegory exhibiting the play (lila) of the Divine Spirit with the embodied Soul, a theme not uncommon in Indian literature.
The chapters of the Kural dealing with the "Grihastha Ashrama" must be studied in the light of Divine Wisdom—THEOSOPHIA.
The basis and the foundation on which the whole philosophy of Theosophy rests is the "three fundamental proposition of The Secret Doctrine," which deal with GOD-LAW-BEING. Valluvar brings out these great Ideas in his Kural.
God or Deity is the source of all things; It is beginninless and endless, eternal and omnipresent; IT is the origin of all; all things proceed from IT. The First chapter of the Kural is headed "In Praise of God" and the very first verse runs thus: " 'A' is the origin of all letters; likewise God is the origin of the world." Doesn't Shri Krishna say in enumerating his Divine Vibhutis Universal Divine Perfections): "Among letters I am the vowel 'A'"? "A" is the first of all letters by eminence and afinity. Valluvar points out that the idea of the Supreme is the first impression the world produces on the reflecting mind. H.P.B. writes of the letter "A":
Also, in the following verse we get a clue to Valluvar's conception of God. He says: "Of what avail is learning, if due reverence is not paid to Him who is Immaculate Wisdom?" Describing the state of those who have reached the goal of evolution he says: "Those who find refuge at the Great feet (of Him) who lives in the lotus of the heart (of the devotee) live eternally in heaven." Says The Voice of the Silence:
In the subsequent verses the poet points out that good and evil spring from the darkness of the mind and that those who still the five senses and walk in Truth will ever live in happiness.
In The Voice of the Silence we are asked to mistrust the senses; to brush away the dust of our illusions by the gentle breezes of Soul-Wisdom and to look inward.
The Gita says: "The man who restraineth the senses and organs and hath faith obtaineth spiritual knowledge, and having obtained it he soon reacheth supreme tranquility." (Chapter IV)
In the seventh verse Valluvar describes God as the peerless, whom none resembles—the Eternal Adorable One, whom no symbol can express and no form confine—"Be-ness" in terms of the First Fundamental Proposition of The Secret Doctrine. He calls God a sea of virtue or of righteousness; the word he uses is "arravayhiantanan"—"virtue's sea, the fair and loving one." Only those who have taken refuge in the Lord who is the sea of righteousness can safely complete the whole round of existence. "Poor wanderers of a stormy day—from wave to wave we're driven." wrote the poet Moore.
In the next verse he describes God as "Lord of eight attributes," and says that the head that does not bow down and worship in spirit and in truth "the Lord of eight attributes" is like the palsied limbs. What are the eight attributes that the poet had in mind, it is difficult to say. One of the commentators enumerates thus: Essential purity; Intuitive wisdom; Infinite intelligence; Essential freedom; Infinite grace; Omnipotence; and Infinite Love. As this is the ninth verse, we may conclude that the poet sums up the qualities referred to in the previous verses. If that be correct, then the eight attributes could well be: Eternity; Omnipresence; Happiness; Freedom from the pairs of opposites; Purity, Incomparability and Love.
He closes the first chapter by stating that only those who cling to the feet of God can cross the widespread ocean of mortal birth and be absorbed into the Divine Essence. This is the doctrine of metempsychosis and in the language of The Secret Doctrine: "The obligatory pilgrimage for every Soul...through the Cycle of Incarnation or 'Necessity' in accordance with Cyclic and Karmic law, during the whole term."
The language in which the poet expresses the mental attitude of the true worshipper is worthy of our consideration. In verses 2 to 10, the same idea is expressed—that of drawing near to or worshipping at the feet of God, the idea being that of profoundest, most loving and clinging humility. We see in Valluvar a noble, truth loving and devout man. The eclectic poet has selected the choicest epithets existing in the language.
(To be continued) | <urn:uuid:aa404e68-a6a4-42a8-afad-3530d4dc8060> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.teosofia.com/Mumbai/7509tirukkural.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952998 | 1,691 | 2.6875 | 3 |
World Population Day
In honor of World Population Day today, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), together with National Geographic, IBM, and SAP, launched the 7 Billion Action Campaign, which will run through October 31 when the world population is expected to exceed 7 billion. The campaign seeks to educate people concerns related to the growing population.
Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of UNFPA stated, "Whether we can live together on a healthy planet will depend on the decisions we make now. The date we reach the next billion-and the ones after that-depends on policy and funding decisions made now about maternal and child health care, access to voluntary family planning, girls' education, and expanded opportunities for women and young people."
Since 1950, the world's population has grown from 2.5 billion people to 7 billion, and since 1987, when the first World Population Day took place, the world's population has grown by approximately 40 percent. According to UNFPA, "all of this population growth - 97 of every 100 people - is occurring in less developed countries" and approximately 215 women who want access to birth control lack access to family planning in developing nations.
See Suzanne Petroni's article entitled "7 Billion Reasons" in the Summer 2011 issue of Ms. magazine, to be released August 2.
Media Resources: UNFPA Statement 7/8/11; Planet Newswire 7/8/11; US Census Bureau International Database Accessed 7/11/11 | <urn:uuid:c3ae462a-3319-45b4-a8c4-84121ca35649> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=13112 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929307 | 311 | 3.328125 | 3 |
After reading your article,it would seem to me that the average retired investor needs a 7% yearly return to simply keep pace. Example 4% dividend to live,and 3% return on shares to keep pace with inflation. Thats a pretty scary thought.
This is an interesting comment and an astute observation. This doesn't have to be that scary, challenging yes, but not necessarily scary or wildly unattainable. It seems like the commenter is a dividend investor of some sort but I cant be certain but that was the orientation of the article and most of the comments.
In past posts I have been pretty clear (I think) about believing heavily in dividends but not believing in making them a priority ahead of proper diversification. My idea of proper diversification is building the portfolio to include stocks with various types of attributes including exposure to lower yielding higher growth names.
It has become easier in the last five years to build a somewhat diversified portfolio that yields 4% but doing still requires skewing the portfolio away from growthier names assuming you don't want to load up on BDCs and mortgage REITs. Targeting closer to a 3% yield or even 3.25% would obviously leave a little more room for a couple of growthier names that don't necessarily bring much yield to the table.
My experience with individual stocks under the hood of a diversified portfolio tells me that if you own 30-40 names with all different attributes you will have at least one name that goes up 50-100% in a year or maybe every other year assuming you are just an average stock picker. Obviously having that many holdings is a function of time available and interest in investing.
The importance to this is that if you have one stock that starts out at a 2% target weight and goes up 50% it will obviously deliver 1% to the entire portfolio leaving 29 other holdings to average out such that they deliver another (in the reader's example) 2% in growth. Having one stock that goes up 50% is harder to do if too many of your holdings are like Chevron (CVX) and Procter & Gamble (PG).
The logical question here would be that if one name can go up 50% then why can't another go down 50%? Of course it can but it is very rare for stocks to go down that much over night. So assuming getting ambushed by an overnight 50% decline is just a once or twice in a lifetime event then this issue can be mitigated with some sort of sell discipline based on price, fundamentals or anything else you think would get you out before absorbing the full brunt of a protracted 50% decline.
Looking at the very long term an average annual increase at the index level in the mid single digits far from heroic. Yes the US has been on a 13 year round trip to nowhere but that is not true of global markets. And to paraphrase myself, a 13 year round trip to nowhere is a lot less likely after a 13 year round trip to nowhere.
I don't think we can expect 10% annualized anytime soon but I do think mid single digits for global markets is plausible for the long term. Of course there will be years that are far better and years that are far worse but an average 4-5% is plausible provided truly stupid or self destructive behavior can be avoided--easier said than done.
One last layer is whether or not the full brunt of large declines can successfully be avoided. Going down 20% in a down 30% world offers the opportunity to increase the average annual number by quite a few basis points but among other things this requires being able to take a long term perspective which is also easier said than done.
One big and visible fly in the ointment to the above (and there are several) is inflation. Reported inflation has been running low and so has been easier to manage. If much higher inflation comes from current Fed policy then this all becomes much harder because you can only take what the market gives. What I mean by that is if inflation were to rise to 7% and the stock market were to average 8% then investors would have very little margin for error because in an up 8% world investors cannot count on being up 15%. Maybe they can average 10% but 5-6% is more likely.
The big idea here is looking at each aspect of a diversified portfolio as a separate task toward the bigger goal of having a portfolio that gives you right combination of yield, growth and sleepability for your circumstance. None of this is easy but it can be defined ahead of time which can make it a little easier.
The picture is from our hike yesterday. | <urn:uuid:513a02b3-1ce2-482d-afea-d551d3b6a281> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.randomroger.blogspot.jp/2013/03/difficult-but-not-impossible.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964792 | 951 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Tax cuts create jobs. Paul Ryan and the Republican nominee Mitt Romney told a group that Canada just cut their corporate taxes to 15%.
Paul Ryan was obviously insinuating that these tax cuts put America at a disadvantage, and that the Canadian economy is going to explode and take all of our jobs. Corporate taxes in 2006 were already just 21%. In January 2011, Canada cut the corporate tax rate to 16.5%, then cut them again to 15% January 2012.
Overall, Canada has cut corporate taxes by almost 30% in 6 years.
The only problem is, the Canadian economy isn’t blasting off at all. It is still stuck in an anemic recovery. just like the United States. The Canadian economy only grew 1.8% in the second quarter of 2012. The United States on the other hand has a much higher statutory corporate tax and the economy grew at 1.7% in the same quarter. How can this be? Higher taxes hurt job creation, right? Yet both countries are stuck in the same slow recovery.
Unemployment should be dropping like a rock in Canada, not staying pace with the United States.
So for the last 3 years, 2009- 2012 the Canadian economy has failed to produce jobs at a healthy clip, even though corporate taxes are on the verge of being the lowest of the G7 countries. | <urn:uuid:bc30bf47-640e-4ab8-882e-1d0947ea3a2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.politicususa.com/2012/09/01/canada-proves-conservatives-wrong-cutting-corporate-taxes-30-jobs.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974521 | 273 | 2.28125 | 2 |
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July 17, 1806. Captain Meriwether Lewis, traveling through the Great Plains of the American West, writes in his notebook, “The grass is naturally short and at present has been rendered much more so by the graizing of the buffaloe, the whole face of the country… looks like a well shaved bowling green, in which immense and numerous herds of buffaloe were seen feeding attended by their scarcely less numerous sheepherds the wolves.”
The American West has long been a rich treasure trove of fascinating flora and fauna, and modern travelers to the “American Serengeti” can still see many of the features that Lewis and Clark might have come upon, and still others in more obscure corners of the West. The American pronghorn, fastest land animal after the cheetah; the Gila monster, the only venomous lizard in the United States; pale blue-eyed grass, one of the smallest and rarest members of the iris family; playful, communal prairie dogs and the species that depend on them, including the black-footed ferret, the mountain plover, and the burrowing owl to name only a few. The West is home to beauty both great and small, from the majestic landscape of Glacier National Park to a host of butterflies such as the Sacramento Mountains checkerspot, the unsilvered fritillary, and the bay skipper, all of which have very limited ranges and are found nowhere else in the world.
But much of what Lewis and Clark saw in the 1800s has since disappeared. Predator control campaigns and unrestricted hunting have taken their toll on our larger fauna and species viewed as “vermin.” The teeming herds of buffalo, elk, and pronghorn are gone or diminished, and the gray wolf has vanished from 95 percent of its former range. Grizzly bears are restricted to a tiny corner of the lower 48. All five species of prairie dog have experience huge declines – mainly because of extermination campaigns, poisoning, and shooting – with some species reduced to just 2 percent of their historic numbers.
The threats to the unique repository of biodiversity in the West are numerous and varied. Development and agriculture have overtaken many of the West’s native ecosystems. Unsustainable livestock grazing practices, fueled by government subsidies and lack of oversight, threaten the integrity of Western streams, forests, deserts, and grasslands. Cattle denude grasslands of native grass, pushing grassland-dependent species such as the Arizona striped whiptail out of their habitat. Cattle trample the banks of streams and pollute their water with silt and droppings, leaving them inhospitable for rare fish such as the prairie chub. Off-road vehicles fragment habitat with deeply cut and ever-proliferating trails and can visit sudden death upon slow wanderers like the Sonoran desert tortoise. Oil and gas drilling destroys the homes and dancing grounds of the lesser prairie-chicken and the greater sage-grouse, whose unique mating dances may be some of the most colorful natural history pageants in the West. And a host of other, more secretive animals are suffering in silence: for example, the Jemez Mountains salamander, which spends much of its life underground, is slipping into oblivion. The tiny mist forestfly is losing the glacier-fed streams it depends on due to climate change. And other cryptic invertebrates and plants may disappear from the West before they are even discovered, taking their secrets and their unique contributions to biodiversity with them.
The heart of WildEarth Guardians’ mission is preserving all the threads in the West’s web of life, both great and small. Each animal and plant in these pages is worth saving, not only for their own sakes, but because their decline is an indicator of the loss of something much greater: healthy grasslands and streams, diverse deserts, untrammeled forests, rich coastal marshes, and wild mountains. By protecting the diversity of life in the West, we intend to safeguard this irreplaceable part of our American heritage for future generations of animals, plants, and people. | <urn:uuid:e92dc814-b60b-49af-979f-ac28ebe48ce7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wildearthguardians.org/site/PageServer?pagename=species | 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 | 0.948516 | 863 | 3.375 | 3 |
As all Extreme Bridge Builders know, it is unrealistic to expect bridge builders to learn their chosen vocation to this level of proficiency.
In 480BC, Xerxes, King of Persia, spanned the Hellespont with over 600 ships, creating a gigantic pontoon bridge over which he could invade Greece. That might give you some idea of just how long the human race has been building bridges. We're still in our first century of programming, and we're still not very good at it. We're nailing planks together and seeing what happens.
Those areas of Computer Science that can be proved mathematically have a head-start, because we've been doing maths for a long time as well. Unfortunately, most of what we do is Psychology, not maths. Once the algorithms have been worked out by the mathematically inclined, there's only so many times they need to be written. The rest is twisting our brains, and the brains of our co-workers, into the right shape to tell the computer what to do and not get too much wrong on the way: all the time trying to interface with the bizarre world of management theory. One redeeming feature of management consultants: unlike us, at least they don't pretend what they do is a science.
Science is about measuring things. Once you can measure something, you can change a few factors, measure it again, and try to work out why it's changing. Do that for long enough, you'll be able to model the whole bridge without building it. Right now, though, we can't even get two practicioners to agree on metrics for measuring deveoper productivity, code quality, or even the success of an entire software project:
"The bridge sank into the river! Half our troops drowned!"
"Yes, but if we'd built it to be unsinkable, it would have taken three times as long and the Greeks would have been ready for us!"
From that perspective, the "scientific method" of Software Engineering, at least as it is practiced at the coal-face of development1, is as follows:
- Gather anecdotal evidence from your experience, and the experience of people whose opinions are like yours.
- Come up with a mental model that accounts for around 80% of your anecdotal evidence.
- Come up with plausable reasons to ignore the remaining 20%.
- Extrapolate your mental model until it applies generally. You will find carefully-chosen metaphors especially useful at this point.
You can then evangelise your theory, in competition with the hundreds of other theories being thrown around by your colleagues in the field.
These methods apply both to development methodologies (like Agile Development™, and whatever catchy word we can come up with to describel stuff that isn't Agile™), and to trends in programming tools and techniques like patterns, IOC, MVC, object-orientation, structured programming, and so on.
Proof is largely impossible. There are just too many variables to isolate in horizontal surveys, conducting an experiment using real programmers in a plausible task is too expensive, and nobody has the time anyway.
But boy, don't we enjoy pretending we have all the answers? I know I do: this blog is full of blanket pronouncements on what is are the Right and Wrong ways to do things: some of them contradictory. In that way, I'm a microcosm of the programming world.
Object domain models are a good thing. Except, of course, we all know that object orientation has failed. Well, no, we're just perversely ignoring Smalltalk in favour of inferior object systems. Although really, pervasive OO is just a bad substitute for a real LISP environment.
Watch the writings of programmers for long enough, and you won't be able to code without doing something that's considered harmful, but that's preached as gospel truth by others. You can read an oft-revered article like worse-is-better, without knowing that even its author changes his mind about every couple of years
And whatever you do, don't mention Postel's Law!
All these ideas fight in the bizarre landscape of the computing market. It's like watching evolution at work: being forced to realise that Darwinism is a statistical process that doesn't apply to individual species. You have to have faith the general trend is for the better despite the fact that the most efficient carnivore can have a bad run of luck and die out, while some completely unremarkable scavenger can find itself in a lucky niche and plod along forever.
Except this is evolution played at maximum fast-forward, with an ice-age every couple of years and meteorites hitting the planet constantly from every angle.
Sometimes, very rarely, some idea survives long enough and is generally applicable enough that it is no longer challenged. The list is particularly short: maybe Fred Brooks "Mythical Man Month" may qualify: the book being, once again, anecdotal: Brooks' personal experiences on projects coalesced into a book.
So what do we do?
Well, the obvious answer is to always be critical of both new ideas and accepted wisdom. How well does our own anecdotal experience meet with others? Are the reasons to ignore the contradictory evidence really that convincing? What are the risks involved?
That said, you're never going to find certainty, because there is none. Worse, ignoring anything that you're not completely sure about is the equivalent of stagnation. If you wait until everyone else is doing it successfully, you'll always be behind the game. So that means you have to keep your eyes open for good-sounding ideas, and you have to take some risks.
But still, choose your battles wisely, and make sure you have an escape-plan if things go pear-shaped.
If we keep doing this for long enough, we might end up as good at writing software as the Persians were at building bridges.
1 Being a two-time University drop-out, I'm not sure how this is done in academia, but I suspect from memories of Pascal-evangelism from my first-year lecturers that they do pretty much the same thing, just a lot slower.
note: After hitting 'save' on this post, and getting to the 'assign secondary categories' stage in MT, I realised that where this really belonged was in an as-yet-non-existent 'rambling aimlessly' category. A category which, as you should see below, I now have created. | <urn:uuid:071acd20-6fd2-4176-9b29-135da573099e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fishbowl.pastiche.org/2004/01/13/the_art_of_programming/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963371 | 1,335 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Parents and schools need to work together for the betterment of the students. Parents play an important role in providing support and building the confidence of their children. Parents should check some of the tips
they can use to develop their children’s confidence and improve their school experience. Please find current information including the Parent/Student Handbook and information about Volunteering at RJBA as links in the right hand column of this page.
Links to Common Core Information
Common Core Information
General information about the Common Core Standards
Information about the new Standardized National Test
New Mexico Common Core Parent Information
Provides more links to information for parents | <urn:uuid:2582b0a7-2ffb-43e1-9e6d-66946b387587> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rjba.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=1514526&pageId=1514547 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90517 | 128 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Have you done any Googles for such sites? There are plenty out there. Many from highly respected e-magazines and forums. Try it, and while you are at it, try Vivisimo and Alta Vista as well. Who knows, maybe you will learn something.
I don't think there's any question that a person with ordinary skills, like being able to read and follow instructions, being meticulous about their work, having some understanding of computers and how they work, and a reasonably normal set of tools can construct as very competitive computer. All of the necessary components are readily available both online and at local computer parts outlets. The biggest problem is deciding what parts to use as the selection is staggering.
The first issue is what kind of computer you want to build. That includes the purpose its to be used for, the Operating System to be employed and which type of processor will be used. The type of computer could include tower or small form factor or even portable (though a true notebook is probably out of the question as getting the chassis and mainboards is very difficult and expensive). Operating Systems include various flavors of Windows, Unix/Linux, and other exotics. Processors are extremely varied but the main catergories are Intel types (both Pentium 4 and Pentium mobile as well as Celeron and other older models), AMD, VIA Eden, etc. Lots and lots of choices. Best to work all that out before you even start to look at specific parts. Also a good idea to set yourself a budget, one that breaks the total cost down into how much you should spend for each major component as well as a slush fund for all the little odds and ends. and a time table. Once you have settled on a type, an OS and a processor, you should look into Graphics systems, the processors, the cards and the displays. After that, you can decide on the rest of the peripherals. But I repeat its a good idea to work out what you want before you start buying anything. Figure the whole thing out in detail. Then see how it works with your budget.
And yes, Ars is a good starting point. Certainly not the only one but a good start. | <urn:uuid:88a47e3d-5185-4582-b302-8414467e5e95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.notebookforums.com/t/20638/help-in-building-a-pc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970946 | 451 | 2.15625 | 2 |
"I Know That I Shall Meet My Fate, Somewhere Among The Clouds Above"
World War 2 was an epic conflict in every sense of the term. Armies of unprecedented
scale clashed over battlefields that had been stained for centuries with the
blood of past wars of the ancient Monarchies. However, during WW2, air power
rose to new levels of importance. It in became just as crucial to the war effort
as the ground combat. In some cases, such as the Battle of Britain, the entire
conflict was fought in the air. These conflicts, like the rest of the war, were
massive engagements of sometimes hundreds of fighters and Bombers. Until now,
no World War 2 flight combat simulator has ever captured the raw size of those
battles. With the release of Microprose's European Air War, we now have
a flight simulation that captures the epic drama of the massive air battles
of World War 2, and is one of the most accessible flight sims to come out in
Air War is the long awaited sequel to 1942: Pacific Air War, one
of the most popular flight sims ever made. EAW was originally titled
"1943: European Air War" but the 1943 was dropped, most likely due
to the sim's inclusion of conflicts from both 1940 and 1944. Much like the Falcon
series of sims, 1942: Pacific Air War was a true classic and one of the
major reasons why Microprose used to be known as the king of simulations.
EAW allows you to fly a total of 20 planes from the USAAC (United States Army
Air Corps), RAF (Royal Air Force), or the German Luftwaffe. You can fly this
happy mob of aircraft (including the German Me-262, the first jet fighter aircraft)
over most of Britain, France, and Germany in either a quick mission, single
mission, or one of three campaigns; 1940: Battle of Britain, 1943: European
Theater, or 1944: European Theater. The two European Theater campaigns differ
only when your career begins, not ends.
Once you begin a single or quick mission, or fly a campaign mission, you'll
notice the quirks of the graphics engine. Restricted to a resolution of 640x480
(unless you get the patch) and operating with a 256 color, 8-bit palette, the
graphics may seem at first somewhat low tech. Once you get into the meat of
the game though, you might begin to appreciate the simplistic approach to graphics
found in European Air War. The flat terrain, which is believable for the most
part, as France and Britain are fairly flat in the areas of concern, delivers
a great sense of altitude and a good sense of speed when you get down low. Also,
the limited color palette gives the game a somewhat grayish, gritty feel which
feels appropriate for World War 2.
The good part of all this is that the lack of complexity in the terrain allows
the graphics engine to have enough power left over to support up to 256 planes
in the air at once. This allows you to fly with a wing of 12 planes into a sortie
that very well might include two waves of bombers (about 24) and a similar number
of fighters. This gives the game one of its greatest boons, flying in a battle
that is actually reminiscent of the great air brawls of WW2. 3D Accelerator
support is provided through both D3D and 3DFX modes.
The flight modeling of the planes is also top notch. It really is quite thrilling
to get in behind a very realistically realized B-17 and shoot its engines out,
causing it to plummet to the ground trailing smoke. That's simply one of the
most dramatic events that can happen in air combat. Hey, anyone ever seen Memphis
go along with the great sense of historical realism present in the large scale
battles, European Air War features some very fine physics modeling. In EAW you
really must take care not to exceed the limits of what your plane can do. For
instance, g-forces will have realistic effects on your craft like bending wings,
perhaps sending you into a spin. That'll require some fancy rudder stick action
to break out of. Also, as this is WW2, an era in air combat before pressure
g-force suits, your body cannot take as much as it could in say, Falcon 4.0,
meaning that blackouts and redouts are very easy to attain.
One of the great things though, is the accessibility that EAW offers.
A large list of realism/difficulty settings and the comparative simplicity of
WW2 flight to modern day aviation, combine to make European Air War a
great choice for both hard core sim grognards and aviation plebes alike. EAW
even includes a Wing Commander-esque "skip
to next event" command to pass over long, uneventful flight sequences.
There are a few spots on this bird through. First of all, although the campaign
is dynamic, it is hardly exciting. There are over 20 planes to fly, but each
campaign you must concentrate on only one aircraft. Furthermore, each mission
ends up being highly repetitive as you cannot choose your targets and the opposition
is very similar in each type of mission. In Battle of Britain, for instance,
you are always either a jolly British chap in a Spitfire dealing with incoming
flights of bombers and fighters or a German brute in a Messerschmitt escorting
the bombers. This gets very dull after a while. Also, the emphasis on function
over form in the graphics may leave many gamers who are more used to exquisite
Overall European Air War is a good, solid, almost traditional WW2 flight
sim. In some ways it is a last hurrah of the past just before the ultra sleek
Jane's WW2 Fighters and Fighter Squadron: Screaming Demons Over Europe
hit the shelves soon. Though it may seem a tad aged, European Air War
offers deep, rewarding gameplay for flight gamers new and experienced that makes
it a great choice for those who care more about gameplay than style.
It's a pity that the campaign isn't a bit more interesting though. With the
immense narrative backdrop of WW2, there is almost no reason anymore that any
WW2 flight sim should achieve anything less than making you recite Yeats' "An
Irish Airmen Foresees His Death" before climbing in to the cockpit and kicking
some Jerry, British, or Democratic ass. | <urn:uuid:447a1b2c-33c3-46b6-a5d7-34f44c3fed93> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gamerevolution.com/review/european-air-war | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941832 | 1,374 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Marriage (the union of one man and one woman as husband and wife) and religious liberty are two distinct goods that are also related to each other.
Marriage and religious liberty are both goods in their own right, meaning that both deserve our care and protection. The Church does not promote and defend marriage simply out of a concern for possible consequences to religious freedom if marriage were redefined. As said elsewhere on the website, “Marriage must be protected for its own sake, and not just for the sake of preserving religious liberty.” Marriage contributes greatly to the common good and is worth protecting, period.
The protection of each good follows from the duty to protect the inviolable dignity of the human person.
The Church’s teaching on marriage and on religious liberty both find their roots in Christian anthropology, that is, the understanding of the human person and his or her dignity. Concerning marriage, upholding the meaning of marriage as the union of one man and one woman upholds human dignity by, among other things, honoring the uniquely complementary natures of man and woman, their capacity for union and fruitfulness, and the child’s birthright of being given the best chance to know and be raised by his own father and mother. Concerning religious liberty, as was said in a previous post, man’s ability – and responsibility – to seek truth and conform his life to it necessitates religious freedom. In fact, Bl. Pope John Paul II saw religious freedom as so important to human dignity that he called it the “source and synthesis” of rights basic to human flourishing (Centesimus Annus, no. 47). Concern for the human person means concern for marriage, and for religious liberty.
But even more directly, the legal protection of marriage as the union of one man and one woman also protects the religious freedom of those who adhere to that vision of marriage.
More on this later. Suffice it to say that changing the legal definition of marriage will have – and already has had – a direct effect on the ability of persons and institutions who hold a definition of marriage other than that of the state to “live in the truth of [their] faith,” as Bl. John Paul II put it.
Answer from: Marriage & Religious Liberty FAQ #2
Next: How could changing the legal definition of marriage have any effect on religious liberty?
Fortnight for Freedom posts:
- Sunday Pope Quote: Fortnight for Freedom edition
- What is religious freedom?
- St. Thomas More, married saint and hero of religious liberty | <urn:uuid:5bdca642-de7f-454e-b203-0c1633fe661a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marriageuniqueforareason.org/2012/06/25/fortnight-for-freedom-day-5-how-are-marriage-and-religious-liberty-connected/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966321 | 529 | 2.578125 | 3 |
By Rupa Subramanya
Going back to the 2006 Sachar Committee report and research that’s followed, it’s been widely documented that Muslims in India have lagged behind the population as a whole on a range of economic and social indicators, such as education and health. Specifically, data in the Planning Commission’s India Human Development Report 2011 suggest that Muslims lag all social groups except scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
Economist Michael Walton of Harvard’s Kennedy School presents data showing that Muslims account for 89% of household expenditure per capita as a share of the national average, whereas Hindus account for 97%, Christians are above 100%, and other religions (principally Sikh and Jain) are at 132%. Again, only SCs and STs are worse off than Muslims, coming in at 78% and 67%, respectively. A share below 100% means that a particular group is spending less than the national average and a share over 100% means it is spending more than the national average.
Mr. Walton also shows Muslims in India fare poorly on poverty indicators, with incidence of 35.5% only ahead of SCs at 38.5% and STs at 46.5%. Poverty incidence among Hindus is 26.9%. All of these data are culled from the National Sample Survey 2004-05, the last year for which data has been analyzed and are consistent with the findings of the Sachar report.
A team headed by Abusaleh Shariff, lead economist on the Sachar report, has produced new research, reported on here, that reconfirms the impression Muslims lag on economic and social indicators, in particular the share of their contribution to high value-added sectors of the economy.
Mr. Shariff and his team suggest that the lower performance and productivity levels of Muslims provide a prima facie case that they’re disadvantaged, adding that this provides a case for “pro-poor and just policies” to help bridge the gap.
While the raw data are not in dispute, Mr. Shariff’s interpretation is incomplete because, beyond referencing a state of deprivation, it doesn’t probe into the reasons why Muslims may be faring poorly.
Could it be that the poor performance on economic and social indicators by India’s Muslims today doesn’t just reflect current disadvantage and deprivation, but also has far deeper historical, cultural, and religious roots?
Timur Kuran, an economics professor at Duke University, together with Anantdeep Singh, a researcher at the University of Southern California, in a new study have argued that the roots of Muslims’ lagging performance may be attributed to institutional differences that go back to the British colonial period. In doing so, they discount conventional explanations including the supposed “conservatism and insularity” of Islam, the supposed “demoralization” of the Muslim community after the fall of the Mughal empire, and the supposed animosity of the attitude of British colonizers against the Muslims and in favor of the Hindus.
Instead, Mr. Kuran and Mr. Singh argue that the real culprit is the Islamic inheritance system, which the British codified and enforced after coming to power in India. They suggest that the typical Muslim form of saving across generations, family trusts known as Waqfs, were not well suited for the pooling of capital across families, nor were they well suited to pursuing profit-making enterprises. What they were good at, though, was providing a safe way for an individual family to save its wealth over time.
By contrast, more flexible Hindu inheritance practices were much better suited to capital accumulation within a given family, the pooling of resources within extended family and clan networks, and the preservation and growth of wealth across generations. What is more, Hindus tended to do business within family run enterprises that were able to transition to modern corporate setups in the 20th century, whereas Muslims tended to rely on transitory and short-lived business partnerships with other Muslims that were difficult to translate into the structure of a modern corporation.
While it’s obviously true that Islamic inheritance practices predate British rule, the study documents that these laws were only loosely enforced during the late Mughal period and many Muslims, especially converts, continued to live by non-Islamic customs including inheritance practices. However, the British, who set up common law courts, more rigorously applied the distinct inheritance laws of different communities. Crucially, as Mr. Kuran and Mr. Singh argue, the British, being unfamiliar with Indian traditions, institutionalized a more “classical” or Arabic form of Islamic law than the more flexible practices derived from Persian and other sources that had existed under the Mughals.
The end result was that in practice many more Muslims became subject to a stricter enforcement of Islamic laws. Tellingly, the Muslims who’ve fared best economically come from small ”nonconforming” communities that converted from Hinduism – the Khojas, Bohras, Memons and Girasias – who as it happens were allowed by the British to retain their original inheritance practices. Azim Premji, India’s richest Muslim and the only Indian Muslim on the Forbes list of billionaires, is a Khoja.
To borrow a term from historian Niall Ferguson’s book “Civilization: The West and the Rest,” were the majority of Indian Muslims deprived of a “killer app” that Hindus and nonconforming Muslims had access to, preventing their development of modern enterprises? Mr. Kuran and Mr. Singh make a compelling case that the answer is yes and that this helps explain their current state of relative deprivation.
In their book, “Why Nations Fail,” MIT economist Daron Acemoglu and Harvard political scientist Jim Robinson persuasively argue that institutional structures going back centuries to colonial times help explain the different performances of countries today. The same logic that they apply to nations may also apply to communities within a given nation. Where we came from might well affect where we are today, and history casts a longer shadow than we might think.
Rupa Subramanya writes Economics Journal for India Real Time. You can follow her on Twitter @RupaSubramanya.
Follow India Real Time on Twitter @indiarealtime. | <urn:uuid:00b101d8-22ab-4a07-9356-126d1e584db8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2012/10/03/economics-journal-a-theory-why-indias-muslims-lag/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955934 | 1,300 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Grand challenges, national lab-style
February 17, 2006
Multi-institutional efforts to understand microbial biology and biogeochemistry converge at DOE’s Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory
RICHLAND, Wash. –
The W.R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), a Department of Energy-sponsored national scientific user facility, is seeing early promise from its two scientific “grand challenges” that have been investigating enigmas in microbiology and biogeochemistry.
The grand challenges are innovative, multidisciplinary projects on which scientists from more than 20 institutions collaborate. The projects are anchored by EMSL, based at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash.
“Results could show how microbes and biological processes can be used to address currently intractable issues in environmental remediation, saving the nation hundreds of millions of dollars and reducing risk to people and to the environment,” according to EMSL Director Allison Campbell. The work, she added, also will shed light on natural energy transfer processes.
One of the challenges, led by Washington University biology professor Himadri Pakrasi and PNNL laboratory fellow David Koppenaal, is investigating the biology of membrane proteins in cyanobacteria, important microorganisms involved in photosynthesis in the world’s oceans.
Pakrasi, speaking Friday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting, announced that his team had already, in just six months, sequenced and annotated a cyanobacterium important in understanding how environmental conditions influence key carbon fixation processes in an organism.
The other challenge, led by PNNL laboratory fellows and chief scientists John Zachara and Jim Fredrickson, has begun to map out how subsurface metal-reducing bacteria interact with and transfer electrons to the mineral surfaces on which they live. Zachara reported Friday that this grand challenge eventually “will provide an unprecedented, detailed view of how organisms engage with mineral surfaces to exchange energy and electron density as required for life function.”
Campbell cited the early results of the three- to- five–year projects as a sign of the approach’s success. The scientific grand challenges, she said, are designed to marshal time, talent and instrumentation to look in unprecedented detail at vexing problems that could not be approached by a single team working at a single institution. “We are bringing together international expertise to advance an area of science in ways that haven’t been possible before,” Campbell said. “A combination of world-class minds, methods and capabilities uniquely positions PNNL and EMSL to deliver answers to the grand challenge questions these teams are addressing.”
J. Michael Kuperberg, Acting Director for DOE’s Environmental Remediation Sciences Division in the Office of Biological and Environmental Research, defined EMSL’s scientific grand challenges as “complex, large-scale scientific and engineering problems with broad scientific and environmental or economic impacts whose solution can be advanced by applying high-performance scientific techniques and resources.” PNNL is investing roughly $2 million a year for each grand challenge, or around $10 million for the life of the projects, which take advantage of access their investigators have to suites of advanced analytical instrumentation and computational facilities housed at EMSL.
Investigators expect the grand challenges to yield new information on issues ranging from how energy and nutrient transport occurs between microbes and their environment, to how microorganisms influence soil and water chemistry, with potential applications that include groundwater remediation, carbon sequestration and energy generation.
# # #
The William R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (www.emsl.pnl.gov) is located on the PNNL campus. Since its inception in 1997, the 200,000-square-foot facility has played host to more than 5,500 visiting scientists, professors and other individuals who requested use of the facility's resources through a peer-review proposal process. These individuals—commonly referred to as “users”—come to EMSL from academia, other research and development laboratories and industry.
PNNL (www.pnl.gov) is a DOE Office of Science laboratory that solves complex problems in energy, national security, the environment and life sciences by advancing the understanding of physics, chemistry, biology and computation. PNNL employs more than 4,100 staff, has an annual budget of more than $700 million, and has been managed by Ohio-based Battelle since the lab’s inception in 1965.
Tags: Energy, Environment, Fundamental Science, National Security, EMSL, Operations, Environmental Remediation, Chemistry, Biology, Facilities | <urn:uuid:de8b2267-8cc2-475f-90aa-17a2e8107e51> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pnnl.gov/news/release.aspx?id=140 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927169 | 965 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Photograph courtesy Novosibirsk Zoo
Published September 21, 2012
You may have heard of a liger—the lion-tiger hybrid is, after all, Napoleon Dynamite's favorite animal—but now a Russian zoo has released photos of a so-called "liliger" named Kiara, the offspring of a liger mother and a lion father. (See liger pictures.)
The cub, born last week at Novosibirsk Zoo, may be the only liliger in existence. But charming as the cuddly cub appears, ligers, liligers, and other mix-and-match felines raise serious concerns for advocates of big-cat conservation.
Ligers are the result of a male lion mating with a female tiger. Craig Packer, director of the Lion Research Center at the University of Minnesota, said he hasn't heard of a liliger before but is "not surprised" that it exists.
All ligers are born in captivity, Packer said, because this animal simply does not exist in the natural world. Not only are wild lion and tiger populations separated by geography, there are certain behavior mechanisms in place that would prevent the two species from mating.
"If a tiger tried to mate with a female lion it would be chased away by the other lions pretty fast, and vice versa," said Packer, who is also a National Geographic Society/Waitt Foundation grantee.
Liligers "Irrevelant" for Conserving Big Cats
That can change in captivity. Given no other options, lions and tigers may breed. "Lions and tigers are separated by about seven million years of evolution," Packer said, "but they are still closely enough related that they can hybridize."
In the wild, an animal like Kiara would "probably be very mixed up," Packer speculated. "Lions are genetically predisposed to be very sociable and cooperative. Tigers are genetically predisposed to be very ornery and solitary." (See big-cat pictures.)
While zoos in some countries do cross-breed cats (probably for the publicity value), U.S. zoos typically do not. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), the accrediting body for zoos in North America, does not approve of ligers, said spokesperson Steve Feldman, and no AZA zoos breed them. Modern zoological institutions, he said, instead focus on wildlife-conservation programs.
Packer, who has devoted his career to studying lions, can't imagine why zoos would breed liligers and other such hybrids.
"In terms of conservation," he said, "it's so far away from anything, it's kind of pointless to even say it's irrelevant."
The Ring Nebula shines, a volcano erupts, and Germans see the bat signal in this week's best new space pictures.
As extreme weather seems to accelerate globally, scientists believe events Down Under can help explain what to look for-and guard against.
Cicadas bugging you? See our recipe ideas for the low-fat critters, including the new candied cicada cocktail. | <urn:uuid:14a45203-1882-4bd7-b8c3-8b3f443a0910> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/09/120921-liliger-liger-lion-tiger-big-cats-animals-science/?source=link_twex20120924liliger | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950017 | 653 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Bob Herbert | The Art of the False Impression
The Art of the False Impression
By Bob Herbert
The New York Times
Monday 11 August 2003
Al Gore slipped into Manhattan last week and gave a rousing speech downtown before a very young audience at New York University. He got some coverage, but Mr. Gore has never been mistaken for an entertainer. In the superamplified media din created by the likes of Arnold and Kobe and Ben and Jen, it's very difficult for the former vice president, a certified square, to break into the national conversation.
That says a lot about us and the direction we're headed in as a nation. You can agree with Mr. Gore's politics or not, but some of the points he's raising, especially with regard to President Bush's credibility on such crucial issues as war and terror and the troubled economy, deserve much closer attention.
"Millions of Americans now share a feeling that something pretty basic has gone wrong in our country, and that some important American values are being placed at risk," said Mr. Gore.
Keeping his language polite, the former vice president asserted that the Bush administration had allowed "false impressions" to somehow make their way into the public's mind. Enormous numbers of Americans thus came to believe that Saddam Hussein was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks and was actively supporting Al Qaeda; that Saddam's weapons of mass destruction were an imminent threat, and Iraq was on the verge of building nuclear weapons; that U.S. troops would be welcomed with open arms, and there was little danger of continued casualties in a prolonged guerrilla war.
The essence of Mr. Gore's speech was that these corrosive false impressions were part of a strategic pattern of distortion that the Bush administration used to create support not just for the war, but for an entire ideologically driven agenda that overwhelmingly favors the president's wealthy supporters and is driving the federal government toward a long-term fiscal catastrophe.
What if Mr. Gore is right? There's something at least a little crazy about an environment in which people are literally stumbling over one another to hear what Arnold Schwarzenegger has to say about the budget crisis in California (short answer: nothing), while ignoring what a thoughtful former vice president has to say about the budget and the economy of the U.S.
Voters with children and grandchildren who may someday have to shoulder the backbreaking debt that is being piled up by the Bush crowd might want to carefully examine some of the points Mr. Gore is raising. The Bush administration would have you believe he is talking nonsense. But what if he's not?
"Instead of creating jobs, for example, we are losing millions of jobs net losses for three years in a row," said Mr. Gore. "That hasn't happened since the Great Depression." He then looked at the audience and deadpanned, to tremendous laughter: "As I've noted before, I was the first one laid off."
Credibility is the Bush administration's Achilles' heel. If the public comes to believe that it cannot trust the administration about its reasons for going to war, about the real costs of the war in human lives and American dollars, about the actual state of the nation's defenses against terror and about the real beneficiaries of its economic policies, the Bush II presidency will be crippled, if not doomed.
This is an administration that is particularly sensitive to light. It prefers to do business behind closed doors, with the curtains and shades drawn. Enormous taxpayer-financed contracts are handed out to a favored few without competitive bidding. We still don't know what went on at the secret meetings between Dick Cheney and top energy industry executives at the very beginning of the Bush reign.
"It seems obvious," said Mr. Gore, "that big and important issues like the Bush economic policy and the first pre-emptive war in U.S. history should have been covered more extensively in the news media, and better presented to the American people, before our nation made such fateful choices. But that didn't happen, and in both cases reality is turning out to be very different from the impression that was given when the votes and the die were cast."
The Bush administration has managed to dodge the hard questions and benefit from an atmosphere in which the media and much of the public would rather contemplate Jennifer's navel and Arnold's fading pecs than pursue a possible pattern of deceit at the highest levels of government.
All republished content that appears on Truthout has been obtained by permission or license. | <urn:uuid:0de31125-ae0a-48b4-8ad3-f9210a0639e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archive.truthout.org/article/bob-herbert-the-art-false-impression | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976369 | 921 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Energy audits are a great first step toward lowering your heating bills and maximizing your Memphis home’s energy efficiency. Energy audits give homeowners a comprehensive "to do" list on how to improve make their home more efficient and which upgrades will be the most cost effective.
The audits involve several different tests to figure out how well your home is performing. One of the tests is a blower door test, and it identifies any areas of your home where air is leaking in or out of your home. Another test, the infrared scan, can alert you to any areas in your walls that are lacking insulation. There are several other tests auditors will use to check the efficiency of your ductwork, appliances and other areas of your home. Our online energy audit tool will give you an idea of what some of the tests might find, but in order to get the most out of your home, you should have a comprehensive audit performed.
Energy auditors in the Memphis area typically charge between $300 and $500 for a full energy audit. When homeowners act on an auditor’s suggestions, they typically lower their utility bills by 30 percent, which will save the average homeowner around $700 per year. | <urn:uuid:523a2b95-508b-463a-9b1c-44062c036c3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.energysavvy.com/answers/energy-audit-memphis/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956823 | 241 | 1.976563 | 2 |
Swastika incident sparks discipline
July 3, 2008 · Updated 12:30 PM
"It was a joke. Just a silly way to get someone to wash her car. Just a joke.That's what three Oak Harbor High School students thought when they etched a swastika in paint on another student's car windshield late last month.No one's laughing.Everyone involved now readily admits that at best, it was a bad joke - and at worst, it came very close to being a hate crime. Caught in the act by school surveillance cameras, the students found quickly that, in the heightened awareness of a post-Columbine High School world, school officials and parents see no humor at all in such behavior.Though the act was later determined to be more dumb than malicious, the students were given temporary suspensions and are now getting sensitivity training.We did treat it very seriously, said Pat Felger, dean of students at Oak Harbor High School. On the morning of March 29, Felger was watching one of the school's new parking lot surveillance monitors when she saw two male students marking something on a car while a third male student watched. Felger intercepted the trio and took them back to the car to investigate. When she saw the swastika, the students were taken to the school's office.One of the things I told them is that this is something you can be arrested for, Felger said.It's true.The swastika, an emblem of Nazi Germany, is acknowledged by state law as a symbol of terror, intimidation and harassment. It is a felony to use it or any such symbol to harass anyone on the basis of their race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or mental, physical, or sensory handicaps.But there's a fine legal line between malicious harassment and free speech. The First Amendment to the Constitution protects someone who carries a Nazi flag in front of a general audience - in a parade, for instance. But it does not protect someone who paints a swastika on the wall of a synagogue because that would be considered a targeted threat.In the high school case, Felger called on Oak Harbor Police Officer John Little, the school's on-campus cop, for advice. Little concluded that no laws were broken because the students' intent was not to intimidate or maliciously harass the other student, who was neither of a minority race or Jewish.There has to be intent, Little said.Felger said she also consulted with an Island County Sheriff's deputy who specializes in hate crimes. He agreed with Little's conclusion.Vance said the students had no previous record of committing similar acts and had no affiliations with any hate groups.Vance said the vehicle already had tempera paint on it from a school event. The boys etched the symbol into the existing paint. It was a poorly chosen prank, she said, to get the other student to wash her car.They put the ugliest thing they could think of on her window,'' Vance said.The two students who etched the swastika were given three days of in-school suspension, which means they spent three school days in a special suspension room with their school work. They were not permitted to interact with other students or to participate in extra-curricular programs or events.The student who was a bystander was ordered to attend two four-hour Saturday schools. All three had to remove the offending symbol from the car's windshield and enroll in sensitivity-training classes.MORE SENSITIVE TIMESThe student whose car was marked told school administrators that she was not pleased with what the boys had done but was not personally offended.Nevertheless, the boys' motives had to be questioned, Assistant Principal Lynette Vance said. Particularly in light of new programs to head off hate crimes and school violence nationwide, as well as last year's dramatic school shootings at Colorado's Columbine High School. At Columbine, two teens chose Adolph Hitler's birthday to carry out an armed assault on their school. They eventually killed 15, including classmates, a teacher and themselves, and wounded 20 others.In videotapes the shooters made prior to the massacre, the swastika symbol was seen in their rooms. When Columbine students returned to their school months later it was discovered that someone had carved new swastikas into four bathroom walls.Columbine and similar school shooting incidents over the past three years have forced schools across the country to keep a more watchful eye for potential problems and stop school violence before it starts, Oak Harbor Principal Dick Devlin said.Schools are a mirror of society - its problems as well as its wishes, hopes and dreams, he said. Our society is concerned about safety in schools. I think we reflect that sensitivity.Last year, Oak Harbor High School was one of only six schools in the state to receive a special Community Oriented Policing Services grant. The grant paid for a study of intimidation and harassment on campus and the development of programs to deal with school crime and violence.Devlin said last month's incident was an isolated event and not an indicator of general attitudes on the high school campus. He was aware of only one other occasion several years ago when an Oak Harbor student had to be disciplined for drawing a swastika. He said he felt in both instances his staff took swift action while still honoring the rights of the kids involved.Students don't lose their constitutional rights when they walk through the school room door, he said. This week, the prank-victim's mother said she was satisfied with the action the school took. Though she said that her daughter and the boys are well aware of the seriousness of the incident, she cautioned against overreaction.It was done as a joke. They just chose something really stupid, she said. They feel bad. I hope everybody sees it was just something dumb.EQUAL JUSTICE?Two of the male offenders are prominent athletes at the school, which raised the question about whether they received any special treatment. Vance said no. In fact, she said the students' parents were extremely upset and insisted that the school do whatever was necessary. The discipline dished out was consistent with past procedures Vance said.The behavior of student athletes is governed both by school codes and by a special athletic code that all of them sign before they can play. The athletic code cites delinquent behavior as an offense and holds kids accountable after school and beyond the end of the school year, in addition to school hours.Felger said it was ironic that a week prior to the swastika incident, the school's drama class featured a play called Edelweiss which focused on the horrors of Nazi Germany.That was a way to heighten awareness, she said." | <urn:uuid:b1b4b615-3205-42f5-8654-9ff4ef79418f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/news/22066809.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984432 | 1,357 | 1.726563 | 2 |
||This article needs additional citations for verification. (February 2013)|
Lotta Svärd was a Finnish voluntary auxiliary paramilitary organisation for women. The name comes from a poem by Johan Ludvig Runeberg. Part of a large and famous book, The Tales of Ensign Stål, the poem described a fictional woman named Lotta Svärd. According to the poem, a Finnish soldier, private Svärd, went to fight in the Finnish War and took his wife, Lotta, along with him. Private Svärd was killed in battle, but his wife remained on the battlefield, taking care of wounded soldiers. The name was first brought up by Marshal Mannerheim in a speech given on 16 May 1918.
During the Finnish Civil War it was associated with the White Guard. After the war Lotta Svärd was founded as a separate organisation on 9 September 1920. The first known organisation to use the name Lotta Svärd was the Lotta Svärd of Riihimäki, founded on 11 November 1918.
The organisation expanded during the 1920s and it included 60,000 members in 1930. By 1944 it included 242,000 volunteers, the largest voluntary auxiliary organisation in the world, while the total population of Finland was less than four million. During the Winter War some 100,000 men whose jobs were taken over by "Lottas" were freed for military service. The Lottas worked in hospitals, at air-raid warning posts and other auxiliary tasks in conjunction with the armed forces. The Lottas, however, were officially unarmed. The only exception was a voluntary anti-aircraft battery in Helsinki in the summer of 1944, composed of Lotta Svärd members. The battery operated the AA search-lights. The unit was issued rifles for self-protection, thus being the only armed female military unit of the Finnish Defence Forces history.
Post-World War II
When the Continuation War ended, the Soviet Union demanded that all organisations considered by them to be paramilitary, fascist or semi-fascist be banned. Thus, the Lotta Svärd organisation was one of the groups which was disbanded. This happened 23 November 1944. However, a new organisation called Suomen Naisten Huoltosäätiö (Support Foundation of Finnish Women) was started which took over much of the old property. This organisation still exists by the name of Lotta Svärd Säätiö (Lotta Svärd Foundation).
Since 4 January 1995 women between the ages of 18 and 29 have had the right to apply for voluntary military service in the Finnish Defence Forces and are free to apply into any form of service, which is granted provided they fulfill the minimum fitness and health requirements.
The Finnish Lotta Svärd organisation has inspired similar organisations in other countries and there is still a Lotta Svärd organisation in Sweden (Lottorna); the same model is also used in Denmark and Norway.
Popular references
A 2005 film Lupaus ("Promise") describes the trials and tribulations of a number of Finnish Lottas during the Second World War.
- Valonheitinlotat - ainutlaatuinen osa historiaa. Ruotuväki 19/2004. Retrieved 10-2-2007.
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Power, Sean Bernard (2003) The development of Roman Catholic education in the nineteenth century, with some reference to the diocese of Hexham and Newcastle. Masters thesis, Durham University.
This thesis seeks to examine the development and growth of English Catholic education in the nineteenth century. Several important milestones mark the progress of Catholic education from the turn of the nineteenth century to the Education Act of 1902. The Relief Acts of the late eighteenth century brought Catholic education into the public domain. The Act of Catholic Emancipation in 1829, combined with mass Irish immigration, saw the need for greater educational provision for the children of poor Catholics. Grant Aid, first issued to Catholic schools in 1847, legitimised the Church's claim to educational equality with her Protestant neighbours, which was pursued vigorously by the Catholic Poor School Committee, founded in 1848. The 1870 Education Act, which stands at the centre of the educational politics of the nineteenth century, brought in a state-supported educational system which stood in opposition to the systems created by the various Christian denominadons, chiefly the Church of England, and to an extent, the Methodists. This started an effort, mainly on the part of the Catholic Church, to secure Rate Aid for denominational schools. This was realised by the Education Act of 1902.This thesis seeks to examine these events from the viewpoint of the Catholic community which saw education as part of the continuous teaching charism of the Church, dating back, in England, to Saxon times. It also seeks to show the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle as an example of how national events in education were interpreted and came to fruition in the local Catholic Church.
|Item Type:||Thesis (Masters)|
|Award:||Master of Arts|
|Copyright:||Copyright of this thesis is held by the author|
|Deposited On:||26 Jun 2012 15:21| | <urn:uuid:0994b662-10a3-41f0-b6b4-44249f58b7a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3711/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960036 | 385 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Date of Original Version
Abstract or Table of Contents
In 1993, the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute (SEI) developed a taxonomy-based method for facilitating the systematic and repeatable identification of risks associated with the development of a software-dependent project. Since then, this method has also been used in the Software Risk Evaluation process to identify risks associated with the development of software-intensive systems.
Recently, organizations that employ software-intensive systems have requested that the SEI help identify a baseline set of risks associated with missions performed at operational sites (e.g., satellite ground stations, military units, customer service units). While the concepts embodied in the software-based taxonomy apply in this context, the taxonomy presented in this report has been constructed to better suit an operational environment.
This report presents a taxonomy-based method for identifying and classifying risks to operational aspects of an enterprise. It defines the key sources of risk associated with the mission, work processes, and constraints of an operational organization and establishes a structure for representing operational risks by grouping them into distinct classes, elements, and attributes. In addition, the appendix of this report contains a short taxonomy-based questionnaire that can be used by personnel at operational sites to identify and categorize risks. | <urn:uuid:f101b2b7-62fc-4b12-967b-59e3eab45302> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://repository.cmu.edu/sei/421/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927421 | 255 | 2.125 | 2 |
It is really frustrating when the internet is not getting connected or when the connection works really slow almost second to not having any access at all. But according to Digital Trends, the recent Akamai State of the Internet report shows which countries have the fastest internet speed and mentions the slowest too. South Korea is the country with the fastest internet speed with 17.5 Mbps.
To understand what that means, here is an example. A full-length could be downloaded within 30 minutes and a song downloads in less than 3 minutes and 30 seconds. In contrast to South Koreans are states like Cuba which connect with the speed under 300kbps. The U.S. has an average connection speed of 5.8 Mbps. The internet speed of Pakistan can be checked out here.
According to Akamai’s data, the top ten the countries with the highest average broadband connection speeds are:
- South Korea
- Hong Kong
- The Netherlands
- Czech Republic | <urn:uuid:3303c557-f533-444a-8c2b-4636d79e7e30> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vsocio.com/2012/05/17/fastest-slowest-internet-countries/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93549 | 197 | 1.859375 | 2 |
The United States is pleased by another successful session of the Human Rights Council, and congratulates member states for their leadership in promoting and protecting human rights during its 20th session. We are pleased by the strong leadership shown within the Africa Group, in particular the delegations of Nigeria, Somalia, and Djibouti, which took the lead in the creation of a special rapporteur on Eritrea. Similarly, we applaud the creation of a special rapporteur on Belarus, a mandate that had been eliminated in 2006 when the United States was not on the Council, but has been reestablished thanks to the leadership of the European Union and U.S. reengagement. In both cases, countries worked to make sure the international community addressed chronic human rights violators in their own regions. The special rapporteurs will make crucial contributions by providing the international community with independent and credible accounts of the human rights situations on the ground.
The Human Rights Council also affirmed unanimously that human rights apply on the Internet just as they do offline, and that all governments must protect those rights regardless of the medium.
The Council also maintained its strong pressure on the Assad regime, adopting its fourth resolution on Syria this year. We are pleased that the Council did not adopt any new resolutions on Israel, which has disproportionately borne the brunt of Council attention.
Finally, the United States presented a resolution on the right to nationality for women and children as a follow up to the Women’s Nationality Initiative announced in Geneva last year. The resolution, which passed by consensus with 49 cosponsors, urges nations to recognize a child’s and a woman’s right to nationality and to grant equal nationality rights to women. | <urn:uuid:e5de07a9-779c-44df-a14e-1c0209c9eb32> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/07/194668.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960458 | 342 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Buckwheat Beats the Snow
Buckwheat Beats the Snowfall
Buckwheat moves fast. On September 20th, pictured above, is the buckwheat planted August 19th. Buckwheat was simply broadcast on the soil in a raised bed a day after the garlic was harvested. Just amazing.
Buckwheat is often a forgotten crop which can be used by backyard gardeners. It will enrich the soil and helps to control the weeds. This is the first of two raised garlic beds, the other is about a week behind and just starting to bloom.
Late September and into October are great times to plant garlic. This year the bonus might be some extra buckwheat, if not for pancakes, then for the winter bird feeder. Buckwheat will be a garden favorite here, it saves money because less organic fertilizer is needed, saves on the compost, saves time from constant battles with weeds.
Buckwheat could be a good crop to plant after spring lettuce or broccoli crops are gone or just to have a bed or a row or two. It enriches the soil and helps the bees. And the bees will come. The buckwheat is swarming with honeybees and bumblebees; there are so many you can hear the buzz. Buckwheat has to be one of the original bee plants.
Now is the time to face some cold reality. Pictured above is the first snowfall last year and, grab your seat, it was October 29th and about six inches. So even if buckwheat is planted as late as August 19, it is possible to harvest a kitchen crop in about seven weeks, maybe eight. To check the first and last frost dates, click weather service, for your area. It gives a general idea at the very least. Buckwheat planted in August gives the bees their last good meals before winter.
If you want to save some for kitchen use, the hulls come off easily. The remaining kernel, called groat, can be ground into flour, or eaten or used as sprouts. The leaves and the flowers are also edible and can be used in salads or as an herb.
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Rosy Red's: The Best Place in Town
The small pond in the snow picture above is the Frog Bog which was dug out last year in September. It sits on the edge of the backyard garden. We put in about a hundred Rosy red minnows, which are actually flathead minnows, but they are a brilliant orange color, very communal and peaceful. They multiply like guppies and love mosquito larvae. Kids and a lot of adults walk through the garden to feed the fish bread, so nobody sees the weeds.
For more information on them, Rosy Red. These small minnows would work well in any size garden pool and they are even great fish for an indoor tank. Even a small water pool in the garden is a great help for birds, butterflies, bees and people.
H1N1 Health Care is a universal human right and the current debate should include all person within the borders. It is the moral course of action and plain common sense. Read more here and leave your comment on what you think.
Keep updated on the H1N1 virus, click the ad below.
For the Heck of It:
What happened to September? The full harvest moon is in a couple days, October 4th.
October is also breast cancer awareness month, be safe.
October is also adopt a shelter dog month. Why not? On that note, here is a great article from Penn State and the research into why and how it might soon be possible to help dogs that are scared of of thunder and lightning storms.
My dog isn't scared of thunder, but let him hear a firecracker or a rifle shot, he's hiding!
Good Blogs to Read
Vincent di Fondi
On Your Way to the Top
New York's Southern Tie
Urban Veggie Garden | <urn:uuid:219cb83a-ea50-4d26-93b6-d742e0fa9779> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://koyotehill.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961416 | 850 | 2.53125 | 3 |
BUENOS AIRES As Latin America’s first pope was inaugurated Tuesday in Rome, the region’s faithful hit the streets in celebration. But some wonder if Argentina’s Pope Francis can help fill the pews once the festivities are over, and if he’s the man to burnish the church’s tarnished image.
Latin America is home to about 40 percent of the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics, according to the non-profit Population Reference Bureau. And Brazil and Mexico are the top-two most Catholic countries on the planet. But the power of the church has been waning, as attendance has been sapped by ongoing scandal and the rise of charismatic competition.
María Tessier, 43, was among the thousands who gathered in the predawn hours in front of Buenos Aires’ National Cathedral — where Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio regularly held mass — to watch his inauguration broadcast on large television screens.
Tessier said the church she attends has fallen into the doldrums as the congregation has slowly drifted away. But since Francis was named pope on Wednesday, she said family and friends have been calling her saying they “wanted to believe again.”
“Particularly for Latin Americans, I think this pope will feel very close to us,” she said. “We all need to believe in something and I think this will give us renewed faith in the church.”
Regular church attendance has been in steady decline in most Catholic countries. In Argentina, 21 percent of Catholics said they attended mass weekly, down from 30 percent in the 1990s, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.
Gustavo Sánchez, a 35-year-old monk of the Dominican Order, said he’s hoping Francis can reverse the trend.
“Obviously it makes us very proud but it’s also a big responsibility,” he said. “We’re obliged to pray more intensely for our pope and to lead an ecclesiastical life that is as close to his as possible.”
A poll by the Pew Research Center released this week found 73 percent of Catholics were either “happy” or “very happy” with Francis’ election. And 70 percent said his top priority should be addressing the sex-abuse scandals that have rattled the church.
But some have question if he’s right for the job. On Tuesday, BishopAccountability.org, a U.S. organization that tracks church sex-abuse scandals, asked Francis and Argentina’s Catholic Church to apologize for protecting two clergymen and to reveal the names of any other priests “credibly accused” of abuse.
The group cited the case of Father Julio César Grassi, who ran the “Happy Children” foundation and was convicted of pedophilia in 2008, and Father Napoleón Sasso, who was convicted in 2007 of abusing girls at a soup kitchen where the church moved him after pedophilia allegations had already surfaced.
“For [then]-Cardinal Bergoglio to be advocating for convicted priests in 2007 is quite shocking, and for him to refuse to meet with victims is inexcusable,” said Anne Barret Doyle, the co-director of the abuse-tracking group. “We’re not just concerned, we are alarmed. And we hope that Francis’ pontificate is different than his archdiocese of Buenos Aires.” | <urn:uuid:ce461ee8-59a7-4361-8ce0-9b53b65eeadc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/19/3294406/argentina-cheers-hometown-pope.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969581 | 731 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Malawi is one of the poorest countries in Africa. Life expectancy is less than 50 years old.
Inequality is a huge problem, with the richest 20 per cent of the population using nearly half of all goods and services.
It also has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the region.
CARE International projects ensure people get medicine and information about health risks such as HIV.
CARE plays an active role in supporting Malawi’s emerging civil society – its charities and community organisations. We focus particularly on good schools, hospitals and support for farmers.
CARE trains volunteers in villages across Malawi to provide home based care to orphans and adults who are HIV positive.
The volunteers care for these vulnerable people and help them grow fruit and vegetables to supplement their diets – which is crucial to fighting the onset of AIDS.
Responding to food shortages
Food shortages are common across southern Africa, most people can not produce enough crops to survive from one year to the next. Agricultural labour can often be on very exploitative terms.
Many are trapped in a cycle of debt, unable to repay past loans. We hand out emergency food aid, but also provide education to help people make a viable living from farming.
CARE aims to make sure that both boys and girls in Malawi have at least a basic primary education. | <urn:uuid:83ebece1-8a3d-4d32-817c-36cf58f115ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.careinternational.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=683&Itemid=301/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953752 | 283 | 2.6875 | 3 |
5 Big Security Mistakes You're Probably Making
How vulnerable are most companies to hacking? So vulnerable that hackers claim they can point their systems at pretty much any target and be guaranteed of breaking in fairly quickly. Most run-of-the-mill vulnerability testers I know can break into a company in a few hours or less. It must be child's play for professional criminals.
It doesn't have to be this way. The problem is that most IT admins are making the same huge mistakes over and over.
Security mistake No. 1: Assuming that patching is good enough
Every company I've ever audited tells me it has patching under control. What the company means is that the operating systems running on most of its computers have been patched. The most popular and most attacked applications? Not so much.
For example, when I find an Apache Web server running, it's never fully patched. If the computer has Adobe Acrobat Reader, Adobe Flash, or Java, the same is true. They're almost never patched. It's not a coincidence that they're also the most successfully exploited applications. This huge disconnect has been true for years.
IT admins think they have patching under control because they bought a comprehensive patching program, assigned someone to oversee it, got better patching than before, and checked it off their to-do list. Never mind that the patching was never perfect, never patched all computers, and didn't patch every piece of vulnerable software. Somehow all that was glassed over and quickly forgotten.
On top of that, many departments won't patch many of the applications they want to patch because of real (or perceived) application compatibility problems. For example, they update Java one day, hear that it caused some random error to appear in one department's application, and by default are forbidden to update Java -- forever. Or they have to keep a bazillion versions of Java around because updating it could possibly cause problems.
Years pass while most computers aren't fully patched. Management goes along happily thinking that the patching problem is solved, whereas it's just as bad as ever. Hackers have a field day.
Security mistake No. 2: Failing to understand what apps are running
Most IT departments have no clue about the programs running on their computers. New computers come preloaded with dozens of utilities and programs the user doesn't need, then users routinely add more. It's not unusual for a normal PC to be running hundreds of programs and utilities at startup.
How can you manage what you don't even know you have? Lots of these programs have huge, known vulnerabilities or vendor-implemented backdoors that anyone can take advantage of. If you want to secure your environment, you have to inventory what programs are running, get rid of what you don't need, and secure the rest.
Security mistake No. 3: Overlooking the anomalies
Although hackers can break in without being detected, it's hard for them to hack away without doing something anomalous. Hackers need to explore the network, connecting from one computer to other computers that never talk to each other. Basically, hackers perform tasks that regular end-users would almost never do.
Most IT admins do not have good baselines about what activities and activity levels are expected and normal. If you don't define what is normal, how can you detect the abnormal and send an alert? The Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report says year after year that almost every data breach would have been detected or prevented if the victims had implemented the controls they should have had in place all along.
Security mistake No. 4: Neglecting to ride herd on password policy
We all know that passwords should be strong (long and complex) and changed frequently. Every admin I talk to says their passwords are strong. But whenever I check, they aren't. Well, they might be strong in some areas, but in the places they really count, like enterprisewide service accounts, domain-wide accounts, and other super-user accounts, they are weak.
I've got an axiom: The more powerful the account, the weaker the password will be and the less likely it will ever be to be changed. Wanna find out how strong your password policy really is? Run a query to see how many days it's been since the last password change. I guarantee you'll find accounts that have gone without a password change for thousands of days.
Security mistake No. 5: Failing to educate users about the latest threats
This one befuddles me the most. We say end-users are our weakest links, but then we don't educate them about the latest threats. Regarding latest threats, I mean the big majority of attacks for the last five years. Most end-users are incredibly educated about email file attachment attacks -- you know, the attacks that used to be popular 10 years ago.
But ask end-users if they realize they are most likely to be infected by a website that they know, trust, and visit every day -- and you'll hear crickets. Most end-users have no idea about malicious ads on their favorite website orr the fact that popular Internet search engines may get them infected. They don't know that the cute little app being pushed their way by a friend in Facebook is most likely malicious. They don't know the difference between their antivirus software and the fake one that just popped up a window on the screen. They don't know because we don't teach them.
These five weaknesses are far from new. They've been around for over two decades. What I'm constantly surprised by is the complacency. They have checked off the item and are moving on to bigger tasks -- when in fact, their environment may be very broken. All they would have to do is ask a few questions or run a few queries.
To all those IT admins who realize this stuff is broken, I salute you. At least you know. That's the first step. You're ahead of the game.
This story, "5 big security mistakes you're probably making," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Keep up on the latest developments in network security and read more of Roger Grimes's Security Adviser blog at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter. | <urn:uuid:d23bd7c7-0217-489f-95bb-06958dd4b152> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pcworld.com/article/251873/5_big_security_mistakes_youre_probably_making.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972726 | 1,292 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Heart disease and stroke remain the No. 1 and No. 3 killers in our country. To fight these statistics, the American Heart Association has started My Heart. My Life. This comprehensive health, wellness and fitness platform will help Americans improve their cardiovascular health. My Heart. My Life. is an important component of the American Heart Association’s national goal to improve the cardiovascular health of all Americans by 20% and to reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease and stroke by 20% by the year 2020.
My Heart. My Life. provides many programs and resources to help all Americans achieve the 2020 Impact goal. These fun and engaging programs are designed to encourage participation from all age groups, and to bring communities together. Through My Heart. My Life. programs, we all can improve their cardiovascular health.
|Walking Clubs |
A sedentary lifestyle increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. You can reduse your risk and have fun by joining a local walking club.
|My Life Check|
Thanks to the science and research volunteers of the American Heart Association, we have created a simple tool so you know where you stand on your road to good health.
|National Start Walking Day |
On this day, employees are encouraged to wear sneakers to work and take at least 30 minutes out of their day to get up and walk.
|Celebrate at the Heart Walk|
Join thousands of your friends, neighbors and co-workers as we gather together to raise money to fight heart disease and celebrate the steps we are taking to create a healthier America.
Worksite wellness programs can help prevent factors for cardiovascular disease and help lower healthcare costs. Implementing such programs in your company will help protect your greatest resources – your employees.
Healthy habits start at a young age. Teaching Gardens engages students while teaching them about healthy living. | <urn:uuid:dbc00e05-c4ba-434f-b075-d31f6bc1d530> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/General/My-Heart-My-Life-Northern-Panhandle-WV_UCM_434564_SubHomePage.jsp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915494 | 371 | 1.9375 | 2 |
Like many exciting and inpsiring projects in the design community these days, Linotype: In Search of the Eighth Wonder of the World began as a Kickstarter project. Director Doug Wilson was successfully funded and went on to make the 78-minute documentary about the Linotype typesetting machine.
Wilson’s debut film does a wonderful job in its opening minutes of creating the historical and aesthetic backdrop for the machine. Through compelling charts and infographics, you get a definite sense of how many attempts were made at a machine that could speed up hand compositing, thus multiplying the fortunes of newspaper and book publishers.
The viewer likewise gets a sense of the extreme complexity of the machine. Measuring an overwhelming 7 feet tall and weighing in at several hundred pounds, the Linotype is a behemoth, and the viewer is awestruck as the operators describe the remarkably complex system of levers, wheels, and molten lead. Here, the first human element of the movie comes to light: the co-mingled fear and respect the linotype operators have for the machine.
Judging by the bearded and bespectacled men and sensible skirt-wearing women in attendance at a recent Seattle screening, many were approaching the film as a modern designers or typography lovers. For this demographic, one of the more thought provoking elements of the film is the way it illustrates that linotype operators were not just the midcentury equivalent of our current hipsters. These people were working class artisans, not the bohemian elite. And yet the care they invested in their craft was remarkable. As one historian put it, “These were talented, artistic people posing as industrial workers in coveralls.” These men (and a few women) were the proletariat virtuosos of a bygone era.
Unlike many dramas you’d watch unfold at a movie theater, you know how this one ends: with the demise of a machine that, like all machines, meets its end and is made obsolete by its successor, in this case, photo-typesetting. And yet where the film shines is the sense of nostalgia it evokes in you as you watch the archival footage of the machines being dismantled in the very context in which they were once considered irreplacable. As a lover of type, as a human being, it tugs on your hearstrings.
Linotype operators were the proletariat virtuosos of a bygone era.
Overall, type designers, typographers, and graphic designers alike would be well served to learn what they can about these machines before the thousand or so that remain are sold for scrap. And as we complain about type rendering on the web or Photoshop crashes, it behooves us to recall and learn from the constraints that type designers, compositors, and layout artists dealt with in a time before our own.
Linotype: In Search of the Eighth Wonder of the World debuted on February 3rd. Check the screenings page for an event near you. | <urn:uuid:2133fa2f-6629-429b-b141-f174aca1d941> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.everydaytype.com/tag/documentary/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968391 | 607 | 2.203125 | 2 |
HARRISON B. WATERMAN was born in Wooster, Otsego county, New York, January 2., 1820. After receiving a common
school education he entered Hardwick Seminary, and afterward Cazenovia Seminary, where he graduated. Studied law
with Gen. Burnside seven years, and was admitted to the bar of the supreme court in 1844, practiced law until 1852,
when he joined the "Western Farm and Village Association" and removed to Minnesota, arriving at Wabasha
prairie (now Winona City) May, 1852. Mr. Waterman was married to Miss Mary E. Fuller, November 1, 1851. Mrs. Waterman's
mother was cousin to the late Hon. Salmon P. Chase, chief-justice of the United States at the time of his death.
Mrs. Waterman was born in the State of New York, October 28, 1828. Nine children have been born to them; three
boys and two girls are still living. The eldest daughter, Clara, is at present, and has been for the past four
years, a teacher in the public high school in Winona. In politics Mr. Waterman is a republican, and is a member
of the Episcopal church at Winona.
The History of Winona County
Together with Biographical Matter, Statistics, Etc.
BY: A. T. Andreas
H. H. Hill and Company, Publishers
Winona County, MN
Names A to H
Names I to Y
Also see [ Railway Officials in America 1906 | <urn:uuid:43c9d983-6602-43b8-97c1-f5ac47386b7f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.onlinebiographies.info/mn/winona/waterman-hb.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956268 | 331 | 1.882813 | 2 |
As a parent, it is our responsibility to educate our children on the dangers they face in today’s electronic media world and how to be accountable and safe in their choices and their actions. Our children are more vulnerable today INSIDE their homes, than when we were running around late into the night OUTSIDE in our back yards and neighborhoods.
You might ask how that is possible. Take a minute and think about how many ways your child has access to the World Wide Web? Almost every electronic gadget now has internet access. This includes, cell phones, Gameboys, IPods, PlayStations, Xboxes, school computers, laptops, netbooks, the family computer (just to name a few). If you think you have a secure internet access and that your children cannot access the web without your permission think again.
If anyone near you has an unsecured internet access your child’s electronic media can easily connect to them. Try it on your computer or IPod. It is scary how easy it is to access the World Wide Web outside of your own setup. If you do not monitor your child´s online activities, including how they connect to the internet or who they are talking to online or on their cell phone then you are not being a responsible parent.
Child predators are using the social networks, teen chat rooms, online gaming sites and forums to find their next victim, without ever having to leave the comfort of their own home. Yet, you would never let a stranger walk in your front door without your consent. However, if you allow your child unlimited internet access and choose to not monitor their activity, you are essentially giving a child predator permission to hurt your child.
Children are intelligent, much more intelligent than many of us give them credit, so please do not be naïve. Your children need your vigilance and your wisdom to help them learn how to deal with the very adult issues they are being faced with at a very early age in life. Be careful allowing children to have unlimited access to the internet.
After all, you would never let your child have unlimited access to the entire world by letting them walk around your city or town at any time of the day or night. Then why do parents allow a child to have unlimited access to the World Wide Web. It is called the World Wide Web for a very good reason; you can access parts of the world that no one should ever know exists. | <urn:uuid:bcb9c77b-fc9a-4182-a801-f08cf66ac10d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bellaonline.com/ArticlesP/art176015.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964819 | 492 | 2.5625 | 3 |
The barriers to a solid recapitalisation of Europe’s banks look political, not economic as per reuters.
The shortfall created by a tougher stress test is certainly large. Take the 90 banks that participated in the European Banking Authority’s now-discredited exam in July. If banks were forced to mark their sovereign debt to market and achieve a core Tier 1 capital ratio of at least 7 percent under a stressed scenario, they would need 93 billion euros. Raise the pass mark to 9 percent, and the hole is 260 billion euros.
That’s a giant leap from the gap of 2.5 billion euros identified by the EBA in July. However, when judged against the economies of the 21 countries whose banks sat the test, it’s still manageable. A 93 billion euro capital injection is equivalent to only 0.7 percent of the countries’ expected GDP for 2011. Even with a 9 percent pass mark, the bill is still just 2 percent of GDP.
True, the overall cost might be higher, because the lenders that sat the EBA test only represent 65 percent of those countries’ banking assets. However, smaller banks tend to hold bigger buffers. And some bigger lenders may be able to raise capital privately.
Peripheral states would still suffer. At a 7 percent pass mark, Greek and Cypriot banks would need a combined 36 billion euros of extra capital. Footing the bill would push Greece’s 2011 debt-to-GDP ratio to 171 percent, from 157 percent. Cyprus’ post-recap debt would be 86 percent of GDP, 26 percentage points higher than before. But both those countries’ banking systems always needed help to cope with a Greek default.
The real question is whether Spain and Italy, which face a combined bill of 22 billion euros, need bailout money as well. However, financing the recap will only add 1 percent to their respective debt-to-GDP levels.
France and Germany have recently squabbled about whether the recapitalisation of their banks should be financed by the countries themselves, or by the European Financial Stability Facility. With self-help perfectly plausible, it suggests the real problem is justifying further bank rescues to voters. | <urn:uuid:de57774c-3b36-4b89-b68c-031e3fd36357> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://capital3x.com/tag/recap/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948469 | 456 | 2.15625 | 2 |
God and spirituality
natural disasters happen?
Was God responsible?
|"....there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the
LORD do all these things." Isaiah 45:7-8, King James Version of the
Hebrew Scriptures (a.k.a. Old Testament).|
|"Why did you do this to us, God? What did we do to upset you?"
The plea of an elderly woman who lived in devastated village in southern India's Tamil Nadu
state, trying to make sense of the tsunami disaster. 1|
|"How could a benevolent god visit such horror on ordinary people?,"
Peter Graff, Reuters news agency. 1|
|"...the Bible does indeed say that God kills people because of sin, and
that he is going to send even more disasters to this planet, and kill most of
the people on it, because of sin." Anon 2|
|"I try to make sense of it all: how a loving, compassionate God is
trying to send us a message about our sins. But then my beliefs disintegrate
when I see the row upon row of children's coffins." Excerpt from an
Email sent to this website.|
About God's role:
Beliefnet conducted a poll of its visitors concerning whether God has "a
role in natural disasters like hurricanes." Results as of 2005-SEP-24 were:
|45%: Although I believe in God, the supernatural has nothing to do with
any specific natural disaster.|
|28%: Yes, disasters are sent by God, but we don't know what the purpose
|12%: God is testing us|
|8%: God is punishing us.|
|8% God doesn't exist and disasters like this are just forces of nature.|
Editorial comments: We normally try to keep
our personal beliefs out of our essays, but will make an
exception in this case. We were surprised that more than one person in four
believes that God creates disasters like the South Asian Tsunami and the Katrina
Hurricane in order to send us
some sort of message, causes the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and major
dislocation to millions of people, and yet does not make that message clear. We
are at a loss to understand this position.
Topics covered in this section:
We attempt to describe the diversity of
beliefs about the reasons why the south Asian tsunami of 2004 and hurricane
Katrina of 2005 happened and why so many humans were killed.
As with most sections in this website, we expect that visitors will see
their own beliefs documented here, and may become somewhat enraged at the conflicting
beliefs of others who do not share their beliefs.
Peter Graff, "Faiths Ask of Quake: 'Why Did You Do This, God?'," Reuters, 2004-DEC-30, at:
"Swedish pastor disowns US hate site," The Local, Sweden, 2005-JAN-07, at:
Copyright © 2005 to 2008 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Originally posted: 2005-JAN-01
Latest update: 2008-SEP-11
Author: B.A. Robinson | <urn:uuid:e0f871d6-d1a0-4921-b109-e9e1ca30e52c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://religioustolerance.org/tsunami04.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931544 | 701 | 1.875 | 2 |
Get Your Nature On!
from Wildlife Promise
While following TV shows like Lost (yes, I am in love with Sawyer) over 6 seasons and staying up late to watch playoff basketball seems like the obvious best choice for weeknights, watching TV appears to have taken over as Americans’ #1 past time. While I always knew that watching TV wasn’t exactly healthy, a myriad of studies suggest that the more you watch, the more likely you are to develop a host of health problems and die at an earlier age.
The Journal of the American Medical Association published an eye opening study this week that made me question if I really should have hung in there for the 121 episodes learning about “the others,” spending 94 hours glued to the TV. Researchers concluded that for every additional two hours people spend glued to the tube on a typical day, their risk of developing type 2 diabetes increases by 20% and their risk of heart disease increases by 15%.
Sure I instinctively knew that too much TV is not a good idea, but are Americans aware that the increase risk of disease tied to TV watching is similar to those associated with high cholesterol or high blood pressure or smoking? Across the globe, people spend more time engaged in this pastime than in any other activity except working and sleeping. While smart phones, Ipads, and flat screens are certainly hard to resist, I refuse to be a couch potato and fall subject to a lousy statistic!
While, Jeopardy, Seinfeld and Who’s Line is it Anyway will still be a part of my week (TV in moderation isn’t necessarily a bad thing now), I am ready to not only scale back on my couch time but get my nature on! I am roping in family and friends to participate in Get Your Nature On by setting challenges and getting active and healthy. NWF’s Nature Find makes it easy to find new areas to explore and by participating on facebook, I am able to compete with my friends while sharing photos.
In addition to the health benefits of avoiding my TV, there are all kinds of great mental, physical and emotional health benefits of spending time in nature.
The Get Your Nature On challenge is a project of OAK, the Outdoors Alliance for Kids. OAK is a national alliance working to reconnect children, youth and families with the outdoors for their health and the health of the planet. OAK’s Get Your Nature On challenge supports the First Lady’s Let’s Move Outside campaign to end childhood obesity within a generation.
So join me and Get Your Nature On! Let’s defy the average American sedentary statistic… I challenge you!
Follow me on Twitter @PetersNY | <urn:uuid:18eef64b-31c5-479d-9df0-6fc1ba21067b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.nwf.org/2011/06/get-your-nature-on/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950896 | 557 | 1.851563 | 2 |
What is Dialogue?
Dialogue is a process that enables teams and individuals to get on the same page, generate common goals and create sustainable change together. It helps participants understand each others' differences and similarities and allows for an open exchange that maintains the dignity of all. Dialogue is an innovative way of communicating. In Dialogue, there is no convincing others of our point of view. Dialogue, unlike debate, is about listening to the truth in other's viewpoints and coming up with a collective meaning that all members of the group can work with and appreciate.
Why Does it Work?
The Dialogues work because their foundation is based on a set of "tools" developed by The Dialogue Consultants that give participants effective skills for communication while increasing their self-awareness. The tools provide participants with ways to express their feelings and beliefs, while maintaining a productive, positive discussion. Moving through emotions to constructive dialogue, participants are free to think creatively about their work environment and their lives. Participants are empowered to ask themselves, "What needs to happen here, and what is my responsibility?"
|©2001 The Dialogue Consultants||home dialogue workshops learn more resources about us contact| | <urn:uuid:3e46f73f-7a4b-4d20-aa63-3b9926fb7d6f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dialogue-consultants.com/dialogue.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946715 | 234 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Although their solo project had largely been successful, 1970 was a dark year for The Beatles. Their group activities were limited to finishing off the Let It Be album, dealing with business activities at Apple, and giving occasional interviews to the press.
The year ended on perhaps its lowest point of all, with Paul McCartney filing a lawsuit in London's High Court to dissolve The Beatles' partnership.
Talk about traumas! Not only was the Beatles broken up, this fabbest of groups and these nicest of people, the other three Beatles, these true buddies of mine from way way back, these truest friends of mine were now my firmest enemies overnight. Ever since I was a child I'd been in this group, I'd grown up in this group, this was my school, my family, my life. John Eastman said, 'You've got to do it this way, there's no other way.' I said, 'I can't do it! Can you imagine the perception of the world? I know what public relations I'm going to get. I know how the press will perceive it." I was just trying to walk away from them and keep it low-key, but I couldn't. I knew I had to do it. It was either that or letting Klein have the whole thing, all the fortune we'd worked for all our lives since we were children.
But we did rescue the Beatle millions. They had taken us long enough to earn and we hadn't screwed anyone to earn them and I always thought it was very clean money compared to the shipbuilders and the great sugar fortunes. No one had to buy our records. We'd kept people in work at the vinyl factories, we'd worked for this, scraped our own fingers to the bone. So we felt good about that and I felt good about hanging on to it.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
The writ was issued in the High Court's Chancery Division, based at the Royal Courts of Justice on The Strand. It sought:
A declaration that the partnership business carried on by the plaintiff and the defendants under the name of The Beatles & Co., and constituted by a deed of partnership dated 19 April 1967 and made between the parties hereto, ought to be dissolved and that accordingly the same be dissolved.
There were three reasons put forward for the dissolution: firstly, The Beatles had ceased to perform together as a group, so the purpose of their partnership was no more; secondly, the other three Beatles had, despite McCartney's opposition and in breach of their partnership agreement, appointed Allen Klein and his ABKCO as their exclusive business manager; and that McCartney had never been given audited accounts during the four years of their partnership.
McCartney also asked for a receiver to be appointed until the case was settled, and requested that Klein was formally charged with mismanagement of Apple's funds.
The other Beatles declined to comment. That night, Ringo Starr held a New Year's Eve party at Ronnie Scott's in London, where an all-star jam took place into the small hours with Charlie Watts, Eric Clapton, Bobby Keys, Klaus Voormann, Maurice Gibb and Georgie Fame. | <urn:uuid:57dc2e24-7a23-487a-b192-5186e4eb2ca5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.beatlesbible.com/1970/12/31/paul-mccartney-files-a-lawsuit-to-dissolve-the-beatles-partnership/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987955 | 656 | 1.507813 | 2 |
JACKSON, MS (WLBT) - On Kevin Garnett Court there was a party thrown Sunday. "We just are going to do a little New Orleans boiled pig feet, turkey necks, corn, potatoes, stuff like that, A little small celebration," said Anthony Young.
The Young family is hosting their neighbors to celebrate life post Hurricane Katrina. All of them are survivors of the storm.
"That was truly a blessing. We couldn't ask for nothing than what happened after Katrina because we was down with nothing," said Young who is a New Orleans native and relocated to Jackson.
"Not knowing this would be my house, I'm proud to say I am so happy that we are here," said Barbara Young.
In the Spring of 2006 Habitat For Humanity partnered with Oprah and NBA star Kevin Garnett to build ten fully furnished homes for those who lost everything during Katrina.
"My intentions were to go back to New Orleans, but Hod sent a blessing my way and here I am," said Jomeika Ruth.
Ruth and her two children were living in New Orleans. They fled to Clarke County, Mississippi and there on August 29th they celebrated her daughter Kayla's 5th birthday.
"We had a cupcake and a candle. We were sitting in the dark singing happy birthday," said Ruth.
Sunday Kayla turned ten surrounded by strangers who became neighbors and are now dear friends.
"We love each other. We depend on each other. We stick by each other through thick and thin," said Ruth.
©2010 WLBT. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:9d81b1ca-ef63-4790-9e5f-470289233f61> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cbs3springfield.com/story/13063786/katrina-survivors-celebrate-life-in-jackson | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984441 | 342 | 1.546875 | 2 |
After a semester under their belt, your student might be looking for other ways to branch out socially as well as academically. Universities offer a wide range of clubs and organizations to join and can be an important part of your college student's experience.
Help your student expand their interests! Most universities have a number of clubs and organizations for your student to explore. In Alexander Astin's book, What matters in college: four critical years revisited, research shows that engagement is positively linked to better grades while involvement with community service has a positive effect on student's overall development.
Here's a list of the type clubs and organizations that may be offered:
If academic clubs are not your student's interest, there are a wide variety of intramural sports for the more athletic student. Intramural sports not only encourage students to interact with their peers, they also lower stress through exercise.
A happy and healthy student gets better grades! In addition to formal clubs and groups, or even intramural sports - universities offer plenty of classes at the recreation center. Your student can explore everything from yoga and bodybuilding, to swimming and cycling.
If your student does not see a club listed that they are interested in joining, they can create their own club or organization! Visit your school's student involvement or student activities page online to find out how to get started.
Whatever your son or daughter decides, their involvement will enhance their college experience, introduce them to new ideas and prepare them for their future careers.
For specific information regarding clubs and opportunities please visit: Student Organizations at Marquette | <urn:uuid:e99dca8e-f621-47f5-bbad-cd281ed18e3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.universityparent.com/marquette/2010/09/29/dining-rooms | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959354 | 320 | 2.328125 | 2 |
El Puerco Loco writes with a followup to a story we discussed in May about the manslaughter charges facing six seismologists and one government official in Italy after an earthquake there killed 309 people and destroyed 20,000 buildings. The case is going to trial next week, and an article at Nature provides an update on how things stand: "The indictments have drawn global condemnation. The American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), both in Washington DC, issued statements in support of the Italian defendants. ... The view from L'Aquila, however, is quite different. Prosecutors and the families of victims alike say that the trial has nothing to do with the ability to predict earthquakes, and everything to do with the failure of government-appointed scientists serving on an advisory panel to adequately evaluate, and then communicate, the potential risk to the local population. ... [The charges allege that the defendants] provided 'incomplete, imprecise, and contradictory information' to a public that had been unnerved by months of persistent, low-level tremors. [Prosecutor Fabio Picuti] says that the commission was more interested in pacifying the local population than in giving clear advice about earthquake preparedness. 'I'm not crazy,' Picuti says. 'I know they can't predict earthquakes. The basis of the charges is not that they didn't predict the earthquake. As functionaries of the state, they had certain duties imposed by law: to evaluate and characterize the risks that were present in L'Aquila.'" | <urn:uuid:fd6c7a33-b682-4c1c-b518-e1c6e1986ae2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/09/16/1720213/Seismologist-Manslaughter-Trial-Begins-Next-Week/informative-comments | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968886 | 318 | 1.859375 | 2 |
ACCOUNTING TERMS - ACCOUNTING DICTIONARY - ACCOUNTING GLOSSARY
From the web's #1 provider of financial analysis / ratio analysis
ADEQUATE DISCLOSURE Definition
ADEQUATE DISCLOSURE is sufficient information in footnotes, as well as financial statements, indicative of a firms financial status.
Learn new Accounting Terms
FP&A is Financial Planning and Analysis.
PROSPECTUS is the disclosure document for an offering registered with the SEC. The final prospectus is issued on the effective date, i.e., when the offering is released by the SEC. | <urn:uuid:6fed7489-aa46-40ff-b602-479e1d5f74d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ventureline.com/accounting-glossary/A/adequate-disclosure-definition/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901201 | 127 | 2.25 | 2 |
Top Ten Jesus Movies
Of the making of movies about Jesus, there is no end. In the first three months of this year alone: Son of Man, which casts a black man as Christ and sets his life in modern South Africa, got positive reviews at Sundance; the makers of Color of the Cross, which also casts a black man as Christ, established a website with trailers for their work-in-progress; and New Line Cinema announced that Oscar nominees Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider) and Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog) will star as the Virgin Mary and her cousin Elizabeth in a new movie about the Nativity, to be released in time for Christmas.
Some of this activity can be credited to The Passion of The Christ, which shattered box-office records and sparked interest in religious films when it came out in 2004. But movies about Jesus have always been popular, especially in times of heightened spiritual interest—the countercultural craze of the 1970s, the millennial anxiety of the late 1990s, etc.
No interpretation of the life of Christ can ever tell the full story. That is, indeed, one of the reasons we have four Gospels; each one paints a unique portrait of the Savior and emphasizes a different set of themes. Similarly, no mere movie about Jesus can capture the fullness of his divinity, or the fullness of his humanity, no matter how sincere its makers are; but the better films can help us to see a small part of the bigger picture.
This list is limited to those that focus mainly on Jesus' life story as told in the Gospels; thus, it does not include films about characters who are only peripherally connected to Jesus, such as Ben-Hur (1925, 1959). Also, because each film has its strengths and weaknesses, they are listed in simple chronological order; no ranking is implied.
The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ(1902-05)
Film was a new medium, only a few years old, when the Pathé company in France produced this series of short tableaux illustrating scenes from the Gospels. Like a series of icons brought to life, or a passion play enhanced by the odd special effect, The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ never pretends to be a drama; instead, it is a uniquely visual work of art which underscores the supernatural context within which Jesus' life and ministry took place. At times, the film borrows from later, post-biblical legends, but it also emphasizes Jesus' place within the Trinity, and it concludes with a fantastic (if a tad rickety by modern standards) shot of the Ascension and Jesus seated at God's right hand in the heavenly court.
The King of Kings(1927)
All of Cecil B. DeMille's best and worst instincts are on display in this, his last silent movie. Fortunately, he gets the tawdry stuff out of the way pretty fast. The ludicrous opening sequence features a scantily-clad Mary Magdalene hosting a banquet and asking what has happened to her lover Judas Iscariot; but once Jesus casts the seven demons out of her—one of several biblical details included here that most films omit—the film relies on the Gospels for most of its content. That said, DeMille also rearranges episodes from the Bible in ways that are startlingly original yet quite effective. Re-issued in the 1930s with a music and sound-effects track, The King of Kings was such a big hit that no Hollywood studio would make another life-of-Jesus movie until the 1960s, after DeMille had passed away.
The Gospel According to St. Matthew(1964)
Right from its very first frames—when a visibly upset Joseph beholds a very pregnant Mary—this film challenges the soft-focus piety that affects many adaptations of the Gospels. Director Pier Paolo Pasolini, a gay Marxist atheist who was famous for his poetry before he turned to filmmaking, certainly wanted to confront the conventional spirituality of his day, and his Jesus is more aggressive than most. But nearly every single line of dialogue comes from Matthew's Gospel (a pattern that would be followed decades later by Campus Crusade's adaptation of Luke and the Visual Bible's adaptations of Matthew and John), and the film's gritty, down-to-earth realism underscores the revolutionary nature of Christ's message; you can believe the authorities would want to crucify this guy. While the film is often hailed for stripping the story down to its basics, it also reflects Pasolini's belief in finding transcendence within the everyday—an effect that is especially achieved on the eclectic soundtrack, which includes Bach, Negro spirituals, and the Missa Luba. | <urn:uuid:fddbcd4d-78d2-40f2-82d9-2070cd7980c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/aprilweb-only/top10jesusmovies.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961677 | 973 | 1.703125 | 2 |
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There has been concern that Asian carp eggs, larvae and fry contained in towboat and barge ballast tanks could be transported past electrical dispersal barriers operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and released into the Great Lakes.
Specifically, the study investigated the possibility for early life stages of Asian carp entering barge ballast tanks through either cracks or holes in the hull and then surviving there, which could circumvent the existing electrical dispersal barriers in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal that have helped prevent breeding population of the carp from establishing in the Great Lakes to date.
The study consisted of three parts:
- A hopper barge was modified by installing valves on 3‑inch holes cut into the exterior of its four ballast tanks to simulate how larvae might enter a barge with a ruptured hull.
- Caged larvae were placed into the tank for set periods of time to investigate survival rates.
- The barge was deballasted through either 2- or 3-inch portable ballast pumps to determine if larvae could survive the trauma of passing through a mechanical pump.
A previous study evaluated barges and towboats on the Illinois River to determine the volume of water carried in ballast tanks. That study found that only five percent of the tanks inspected carried more than a couple of inches of water. Operators interviewed during that study indicated that barges were seldom ballasted except to clear low bridges and that tanks were inspected regularly.
The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, in which the Coast Guard and EPA partner among 14 other agencies to rehabilitate the ecosystem's health, provided funding for the study.
Asian carp are non-native, invasive fish that have been migrating up the Mississippi River and its tributaries since the mid-1990’s.
# # # | <urn:uuid:2e5ffa0f-1f07-4e28-ae48-d98da5282145> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://xrock1039.com/index.php/news/region-news/58783-new-study-on-asian-carp-potential-to-enter-great-lakes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961151 | 380 | 3.21875 | 3 |
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, warns a report that should be troubling to every consumer, “does not — nor will it — have the resources to adequately keep pace with the pressures of globalization.”
That isn’t the conclusion of bitter agency critics, nor professional agitators. The line comes directly from the FDA’s own introspective review, “Pathway to Global Product Safety and Quality,” issued last summer.
The FDA knows something that most Americans don’t: Extremely low quantities of imported food are ever inspected. It’s a numbers game in which the equivalent of 277 full-time employees attempt to monitor 24 million foreign food shipments that enter the country each year, up dramatically over the past decade from 6 million annual food imports.
Inspectors have to cope not only with pathogens, banned pesticides, drug residues, insect parts, rodent hairs and potent toxins, but also with the duplicity and cleverness of some import operations. According to a report by the investigative journalists at News21:
“In order to avoid holding up commerce, food shipments often are allowed to proceed directly from a port to the importer. The FDA may decide to physically inspect a shipment only after it has been moved. But once food products are in the hands of the importer, there are more opportunities for fraud. To thwart investigators, importers may re-label a shipment or swap out the original product for something more likely to pass FDA inspection . . .
“Importers also have been known to circumvent orders to destroy or return shipments to their home countries . . . For example, they might place contaminated food on top of a shipment and load the bottom with rocks or debris, hoping that federal inspectors — who must be present during export or destruction — will check only the boxes on top.” | <urn:uuid:ccf19cf2-deb8-401e-8bb7-e613e0fecaee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.onedegreeorganics.com/2012/06/port-to-fork-risks/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93833 | 382 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Tooth Alert: Are Cavities Contagious?
Turns out, you can spread cavity-causing bacteria — especially to young kids. Here's how to protect your family's pearly whites.
Friday, April 1, 2011 — Colds, chickenpox, and even yawns are contagious. But did you know that cavities can be catchy too?
Despite your mother’s finger-wagging, sugar-laden candy bars aren’t the only cause of cavities. Tooth decay actually results when bacteria in your mouth feed on food debris (starchy, sticky foods are a primary culprit) and produce acid as a byproduct. This mix of food, acid, saliva, and germs clings to your teeth as a filmy substance called plaque, which can erode teeth enamel and cause cavities to form.
No matter what you eat, cavities won't form without the help of such bacteria. These germs can spread from mouth to mouth via shared food and utensils, sneezing, kissing, and more, according to Edward “Trey” Wilson, DDS, a dentist in private practice in New York City and New Hope, Pa. — making cavities contagious.
One study in the Australian Dental Journal pegged tooth decay as one of the most common infectious oral diseases. Researchers found that 30 percent of 3-month-olds, 60 percent of 6-month-olds, and nearly 80 percent of 2-year-olds were infected with cavity-causing Streptococcus mutans bacteria, a strain that’s especially likely to cause cavities.
Researchers believe that children “caught” the germs from their mothers; those with a history of cavities were more likely to pass the bacteria along to their children.
So does this mean you should avoid smooching with someone who has a horrible track record at the dentist? Not for dental health reasons, at least: As an adult, you're far less susceptible to bacteria spread than children because they haven’t built up immunity yet, says Dr. Wilson.
Here are Wilson's tips for preventing cavity spread in your family:
Go to the dentist. Nearly half of adults skipped the dentist in 2009, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But to keep from passing on a cavity, your first step should be to schedule a dental check-up. “Every adult needs to be screened for tooth decay,” says Wilson. While warning signs such as tooth sensitivity, pain, or visible holes in teeth are cavity clues, one of the biggest mistakes patients make is to avoid the dentist until they’re in pain. Regular cleanings (every six months) can help prevent decay from turning into cavities and reduce levels of cavity-causing (and cavity-spreading) bacteria in your mouth. According to CDC data, 23 percent of adults have untreated cavities.
Use a heavy-duty mouth rinse. If a cavity has formed, you’ll need a filling. But for early-stage decay, your dentist can prescribe mouth rinse with chlorhexidine, a powerful antiseptic that fights off bacteria and can prevent decay from developing into cavities.
Chew sugar-free gum between meals. Pick a brand with the artificial sweetener xylitol, and chew it three times a day for at least five minutes, Wilson advises. Xylitol boosts saliva production, which helps fight off bad bacteria.
Don’t overshare. If you have young kids, avoid sharing utensils with them or tasting food before serving it to them. Cover your mouth when you sneeze, and if you’re really concerned, “maybe kiss your kid on the cheek instead of the lips,” says Wilson.
Be a good dental patient. This time, heed the hygienist’s advice: Brush frequently (in the morning, at night, and after meals), floss daily, and put a cap on sugary drinks and snacks — and instill the same tooth-friendly habits in your kids. With infants, clean your baby's teeth with a soft cloth or gauze pad as soon as they start to come in; you can switch to a soft toothbrush when more teeth emerge.
Forgo fancy water. You may also want to consider switching your family from bottled water to tap. Most tap water contains fluoride, which helps teeth build up resistance to plaque.
10 Bad Habits That Can Harm Your Teeth
The bottom line: “We’re not talking about a fatal disease here,” says Wilson. “But tooth decay is a communicable disease, and it can be prevented.” | <urn:uuid:6ba0d324-c9ba-46bb-92ef-76f3b7c3e011> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.everydayhealth.com/dental-health/oral-conditions/0401/tooth-alert-are-cavities-contagious.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941935 | 979 | 3.25 | 3 |
Feb. 7, 2013 Work-related stress is not linked to the development of colorectal, lung, breast or prostate cancers, a study suggests.
Around 90% of cancers are linked to environmental exposures and whilst some exposures are well recognised (such as UV radiation and tobacco smoke), others are not (psychological factors such as stress).
Stress can cause chronic inflammation which has been shown to have various roles in the development of cancer, plus stressed individuals are more likely to smoke, consume excessive amounts of alcohol and be obese -- all of which are cancer risk factors.
So far, only a few studies have examined the associations between work-related stress and cancer risk. These also had unclear conclusions.
Researchers from the IPD-Work Consortium, led by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and University College London therefore carried out a meta-analysis of 12 studies involving 116,000 participants aged 17 to 70, from Finland, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, and the UK.
Psychological stress at work was assessed using a validated measure, job strain. Job strain was categorised into: high strain job (high demands and low control), active job (high demands and high control), passive job (low demands and low control) and low strain job (low demands and high control).
Data on cancer events were obtained from national cancer or death registries and hospitalisation registries.
Rates were adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic position, BMI, smoking and alcohol intake. Those with a BMI under 15 or over 50 were excluded from the study.
Results showed that 5,765 out of 116,056 (5%) participants developed some form of cancer in the average 12 year follow-up. Researchers found no evidence of an association between job strain and overall cancer risk. They suggest that many of the previously reported associations may have been chance findings or influenced by possible unmeasured common causes of stress and cancer, for example shift work.
Researchers conclude that the meta-analysis provided "no evidence for an association between job strain and overall cancer risk" suggesting that work-related psychological stress is unlikely to be an important factor for cancer. And although reducing work stress would improve the well-being of the general population, it is unlikely to have a marked impact on cancer burden at population-level.
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
- K. Heikkila, S. T. Nyberg, T. Theorell, E. I. Fransson, L. Alfredsson, J. B. Bjorner, S. Bonenfant, M. Borritz, K. Bouillon, H. Burr, N. Dragano, G. A. Geuskens, M. Goldberg, M. Hamer, W. E. Hooftman, I. L. Houtman, M. Joensuu, A. Knutsson, M. Koskenvuo, A. Koskinen, A. Kouvonen, I. E. H. Madsen, L. L. Magnusson Hanson, M. G. Marmot, M. L. Nielsen, M. Nordin, T. Oksanen, J. Pentti, P. Salo, R. Rugulies, A. Steptoe, S. Suominen, J. Vahtera, M. Virtanen, A. Vaananen, P. Westerholm, H. Westerlund, M. Zins, J. E. Ferrie, A. Singh-Manoux, G. D. Batty, M. Kivimaki. Work stress and risk of cancer: meta-analysis of 5700 incident cancer events in 116 000 European men and women. BMJ, 2013; 346 (feb07 1): f165 DOI: 10.1136/bmj.f165
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead. | <urn:uuid:a731c8f5-42c5-4253-bb38-658f03f7743c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130207192233.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91527 | 807 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Illustration: Raphael Urwiller
The woman in the ICU bed was almost unrecognizable. Her chest rose and fell mechanically, her eyes screwed shut in something between sleep and death. Her arms were puffy from fluid that her kidneys would normally carry away but that instead leaked from her cells and accumulated under her skin. Her beautiful straight nose, the one I wish I'd inherited, was mashed to one side by the tape holding the tube in her mouth, which connected to the ventilator breathing for her.
It was my 76-year-old mother in the bed, and she was dying of sepsis, a disease I'd never heard of—a disease she may not even have had when she came to the hospital six days earlier, complaining of abdominal pain.
Each year more than one million Americans develop sepsis, a systemic response to even the tiniest infection in which a devastating cascade of inflammation races through the body, potentially leading to organ failure. It tends to strike those over 65 and people with weakened immune systems. It's common among hospital patients, who pick up pathogens through IV lines or catheters. But anyone is susceptible.
If caught early, the syndrome is treatable with heavy-duty antibiotics. The trouble is, there's no single diagnostic test. And while sepsis is common, doctors often miss it until it's too late, which helps explain why 20 to 60 percent of those who develop sepsis die from it.
My mother's doctor initially thought her stomach pain was caused by scar tissue from an earlier operation, and took a wait-and-watch approach. But by day five of her hospital stay, the pain had worsened, her breath came quick and hard, her blood pressure dropped, and she became confused. Exploratory surgery revealed nothing.
Next: The diagnosis no one had considered
We Hear You! | <urn:uuid:78f6010f-45e5-4842-b19c-ce8e25f099d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oprah.com/health/How-to-Know-if-You-Have-Sepsis-Signs-of-Sepsis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980629 | 383 | 2.46875 | 2 |
STUDENTS, WIN A FULL CSA SHARE FOR YOUR FAMILY!!
DEADLINE EXTENDED TO MONDAY FEB 14!
Slow Food Portland is very excited to announce the 2011 First Annual Young Food Writer’s Competition. The contest is open to any student enrolled in public or private school, or being home schooled, in Cumberland County. To enter, a student must write a short essay about food, which can be fiction or non-fiction, and written on the chosen theme. The 2011 theme is “The Taste of Maine.” Students are encouraged to explore this theme within the core principles of the Slow Food movement, which includes supporting local seasonal food that tastes good and is environmentally sustainable. To find out more about Slow Food visit the Slow Food USA website, http://www.slowfoodusa.org/.
Students compete at three levels: grades 3-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12. A panel of judges will read the essays and select one winning essay from each grade range. These three winners will each receive a full family CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share from the CSA of their choice (maximum award value is $500). Three runners up will receive $50 restaurant gift certificates. The winning essays will be published on the Slow Food Portland web site, and possibly other print media. The winner of the grade 9-12 competition will be invited to read their essay at the Slow Food Portland Writers Night event on March 10, 2011, with other winning essays also being read by members of the panel of judges.
Essay length should be 500-800 words for grades 9-12, and 250-400 words for the younger grades.
Deadline for entry is Monday Feb 14, 2011. Only one entry per student. Winners will be announced the week of February 21, 2011, and winners will be able to redeem their CSA share award at the Maine CSA Fair taking place in Portland Sunday, February 27, 2011 at the Woodfords Congregational Church. The Maine CSA Fair sponsored by MOFGA and the Maine Council of Churches is a celebration of If winners cannot attend the CSA fair, alternate arrangements will be made. More information about Community Supported Agriculture in Maine and the Maine CSA Fair can be found on the MOFGA website, www.mofga.org, and Slow Food Portland website, www.slowfoodportland.org.
Students can enter either by filling in the online form found below or emailing their entry, along with their name, school, grade, and email or phone contact information to firstname.lastname@example.org. By submitting an essay contestants agree to allow Slow Food Portland to publish their essay along with their name, school and grade. | <urn:uuid:f359f0c7-0a54-4d59-a050-ea65c28dd20c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.slowfoodportland.org/sfp/?p=90 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948091 | 566 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Malaysia’s first underground rail transit system commenced operations when Phase 2 of the PUTRA LRT system opened on 1 June, 1999.
The underground stations are fitted with 60 platform screen doors, supplied by Westinghouse Platform Screen Doors, which allow the use of full air-conditioning in the stations as well as on the trains.
The automated driverless system is operated using 35 two-car 3-door Bombardier trains and an automated signalling system supplied by Alcatel.
Platform-based PSD control equipment interfaces with the ATC and PDI and allows system monitoring via a Local Control Panel. The system is currently being upgraded and WPSD are activating an additional 60 doorways to accommodate longer trains. | <urn:uuid:6eb2402a-9987-43b2-9d3f-43c8e2e71571> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.platformscreendoors.com/en/archive/kualalumpurltr2_1/kualalumpurlrt2malaysia.jsp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950179 | 150 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Thomas Hill Williams
|Thomas Hill Williams|
|United States Senator
December 10, 1817 – March 4, 1829
|Succeeded by||Thomas B. Reed|
Surry County, North Carolina
|Died||1840 (aged 59–60)
Robertson County, Tennessee
Thomas Hill Williams (1780 – 1840) was a senator from Mississippi. Born in North Carolina, he completed preparatory studies, studied law, was admitted to the bar and practiced. He was register of the land office for the Territory of Mississippi in 1805, secretary of the Territory in 1805, and Acting Governor in 1806. He was reappointed secretary in 1807, and was again Acting Governor in 1809. In 1810 he was collector of customs at New Orleans, and was a delegate to the State constitutional convention.
Upon the admission of Mississippi as a State into the Union in 1817, Williams was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the U.S. Senate. He was reelected as a Jackson Republican (later Jacksonian) in 1823 and served from December 10, 1817, to March 3, 1829; while in the Senate he was chairman of the Committee on Public Lands (Sixteenth Congress). He moved to Tennessee, where he died, in Robertson County, in 1840.
|United States Senate|
|United States Senator (Class 2) from Mississippi
Served alongside: Walter Leake, David Holmes, Powhatan Ellis, Thomas B. Reed, Powhatan Ellis
Thomas B. Reed
|This Mississippi-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.| | <urn:uuid:1ccdfa5e-01ef-4d8f-b186-c63e3847c3ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hill_Williams | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947958 | 340 | 2.75 | 3 |
News tagged with virus
A protein known to be a key player in the development of Parkinson's disease is able to enter and harm cells in the same way that viruses do, according to a Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine study.
Parkinson's & Movement disorders Apr 25, 2013 | 5 / 5 (5) | 0 |
Researchers have discovered the mechanism behind one of the Ebola virus' most dangerous attributes: its ability to disarm the adaptive immune system.
Medical research May 02, 2013 | 5 / 5 (5) | 0 |
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and University of Washington scientists have identified a class of immune cells that reside long-term in the genital skin and mucosa and are believed to be responsible for suppressing ...
Immunology May 08, 2013 | 5 / 5 (5) | 2 |
(Medical Xpress)—A fresh round of trials to evaluate gene therapy for the heart is set to begin in a couple of weeks. The British Heart Foundation will be sponsoring the study, which seeks to replace defective ...
Medical research May 01, 2013 | 4.2 / 5 (5) | 0 |
Medical researchers discover new ways to target, develop and design drugs to prevent and treat viral infection
Researchers at the University of Alberta have discovered a new drug target, developed a new drug and identified a new way to design drugs—all of which could be a winning combination in the battle against viruses.
Medical research May 22, 2013 | 4.5 / 5 (4) | 0 |
(Medical Xpress)—Scientists have long believed that measuring the amount of HIV in a person's blood is an indicator of whether the virus is actively reproducing. A University of Delaware-led research team ...
HIV & AIDS May 08, 2013 | 5 / 5 (3) | 0 |
(Medical Xpress)—Waging an immunological war against a pathogen is not the body's only way to survive an infection. Sometimes tolerance, or learning to live with an invader, can be just as important. In tolerance the body ...
Immunology Apr 29, 2013 | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 0 |
An experimental drug has shown promise in treating influenza, preventing lung injury and death from the virus in preclinical studies, according to University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers publishing in the journal ...
Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes May 01, 2013 | 4.3 / 5 (3) | 0 |
(Medical Xpress)—An international team of bio-researchers has found that a mutant strain of the H5N1 influenza virus (created in a lab) has a 200-fold preference for binding with receptors in human cells, ...
Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Apr 25, 2013 | 5 / 5 (2) | 0 |
(Medical Xpress)—Pandemic flu continues to threaten public health, especially in the wake of the recent emergence of an H7N9 low pathogenic avian influenza strain in humans. A recent study published in ...
Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Apr 26, 2013 | 5 / 5 (2) | 2 |
China's deadly outbreak of H7N9 bird flu has spread to the central province of Hunan, local health authorities said Saturday, the third announcement in three days of a case in a new location.
Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Apr 27, 2013 | 5 / 5 (2) | 0
Scientists said Wednesday that flu infections were rising among pigs raised for slaughter on farms in south and southeastern China, also plagued by bird flu.
Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes May 07, 2013 | 5 / 5 (2) | 0
Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have successfully tested their novel anti-cocaine vaccine in primates, bringing them closer to launching human clinical trials. Their study, published online by the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, used a ...
Psychology & Psychiatry May 10, 2013 | 5 / 5 (2) | 0 |
Two respiratory viruses in different parts of the world have captured the attention of global health officials—a novel coronavirus in the Middle East and a new bird flu spreading in China.
Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes May 13, 2013 | 5 / 5 (2) | 0
Four more cases of the deadly coronavirus have been detected in Saudi Arabia, the health ministry said, raising the number of people infected from the SARS-like virus in the kingdom to 28, including 15 fatalities.
Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes May 14, 2013 | 5 / 5 (2) | 0
I: dsDNA viruses II: ssDNA viruses III: dsRNA viruses IV: (+)ssRNA viruses V: (−)ssRNA viruses VI: ssRNA-RT viruses VII: dsDNA-RT viruses
A virus (from the Latin virus meaning toxin or poison) is a microscopic infectious agent that can reproduce only inside a host cell. Viruses infect all types of organisms: from animals and plants, to bacteria and archaea. Since the initial discovery of tobacco mosaic virus by Martinus Beijerinck in 1898, more than 5,000 types of virus have been described in detail, although most types of virus remain undiscovered. Viruses are ubiquitous, as they are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth, and are the most abundant type of biological entity on the planet. The study of viruses is known as virology, and is a branch of microbiology.
Viruses consist of two or three parts: all viruses have genes made from either DNA or RNA, long molecules that carry genetic information; all have a protein coat that protects these genes; and some have an envelope of fat that surrounds them when they are outside a cell. Viruses vary in shape from simple helical and icosahedral shapes, to more complex structures. They are about 1/100th the size of bacteria. The origins of viruses in the evolutionary history of life are unclear: some may have evolved from plasmids—pieces of DNA that can move between cells—while others may have evolved from bacteria. In evolution, viruses are an important means of horizontal gene transfer, which increases genetic diversity.
Viruses spread in many ways; plant viruses are often transmitted from plant to plant by insects that feed on sap, such as aphids, while animal viruses can be carried by blood-sucking insects. These disease-bearing organisms are known as vectors. Influenza viruses are spread by coughing and sneezing, and others such as norovirus, are transmitted by the faecal-oral route, when they contaminate hands, food, or water. Rotaviruses are often spread by direct contact with infected children. HIV is one of several viruses that are transmitted through sexual contact.
Not all viruses cause disease, as many viruses reproduce without causing any obvious harm to the infected organism. Viruses such as hepatitis B can cause life-long or chronic infections, and the viruses continue to replicate in the body despite the hosts' defence mechanisms. In some cases, these chronic infections might be beneficial as they might increase the immune system's response against infection by other pathogens. However, in most cases viral infections in animals cause an immune response that eliminates the infecting virus. These immune responses can also be produced by vaccines that give lifelong immunity to a viral infection. Microorganisms such as bacteria also have defences against viral infection, such as restriction modification systems. Antibiotics have no effect on viruses, but antiviral drugs have been developed to treat both life-threatening and more minor infections.
For more information about Virus, read the full article at
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. | <urn:uuid:6825eb7a-dc45-4048-b446-4e4f5976bb42> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://medicalxpress.com/tags/virus/sort/popular/1m/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937909 | 1,602 | 2.375 | 2 |
Making marriage less available
Children during the era of the Greatest Generation had comfortable homes complete with a mother, father and an extended family. The highlight of the day was the evening meal with the whole family present. Our neighborhoods were made up of similar homes, and the parents of friends could easily step in and replace our own parents.
Growing up in this nurturing environment led each boy to anticipate marriage and fatherhood. Thus he needed to get as much training and education as possible to support his future family.
Unfortunately, today’s boy will often not live with his father and thus miss the guidance and support necessary to grow into manhood. Seeking this relationship, he may turn to gangs or strangers with deviant interests for leadership. Having little reason to anticipate becoming a dad and spouse, he sees little reason to improve through education.
The growing antagonism toward the married state has succeeded in making marriage less available to our emerging young man. The crowning blow is President Obama’s support for the legalization of gay marriage. This distortion of marriage absolutely deprives a young man of the opportunity to become either a father or husband.
Well, what can a guy do? We had better rush or we will miss dinner at the local school.
Who is to blame?
Concerning the damage to the fish ladder and boat passage at the Lincoln Street bridge and dam (June 6 Eagle): I saw how high the river was and thought they should have opened or lowered some of the dam gates to allow excess water to go downstream.
The river could have been lowered to where it was not running through the ladder so strongly. But the city wanted the river high for the Wichita River Festival. So now we have a $2.3 million fish ladder and boat passage that is damaged.
Is it possible that the architects and engineers who designed this system did not consider whether it would be strong enough to withstand extremely high water?
Do we blame the architects, engineers, the construction company, poor design, or the city for wanting the river high? And who pays the cost to repair it?
WILLIAM E. BAUCOM
Still no color
Here we go again. Intrust Bank Arena posted its schedule in the paper from now until next January, and the only thing that has any color to it is the NBA basketball game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Dallas Mavericks.
We can pay our money to see a basketball game, but we don’t rate people of color in the musical arena? A casino just across the line in Oklahoma can bring acts such as Toni Braxton, Al Green, LL Cool J and Earth, Wind and Fire. Can’t we get the same at the arena?
Care about seniors
I want the people of Wichita to know how fortunate we are to have our Central Plains Area Agency on Aging. I have been around several other aging agencies in Kansas, and none compares to ours. The staff members are all knowledgeable and compassionate, and really try to help the helpless.
Our seniors saved our country in World War II and have worked hard all of our lives, thinking we had Social Security and Medicare to help. But many of us have lost our savings to the high cost of medical care, and many have no family to help them or that will help them. Many seniors think our government would just like them to die.
The helpless are the ones who need help. Very few have any feelings of self-worth. They have to sit every day and look at four walls. They have no transportation, and they wonder if they can have enough money for rent, food and medicine.
Stop and think how you would feel in their shoes, as they still have feelings.
Thank you for your concern, CPAAA. | <urn:uuid:e19e7774-c45b-4575-bf65-8f2f9c20c561> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kansas.com/2012/06/18/2375084/letters-to-the-editor-on-marriage.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974051 | 767 | 1.976563 | 2 |
Khodorkovsky, who was once Russia's richest man and considered a political threat to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, was convicted at a new Moscow trial for embezzlement.
He is currently serving an eight-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion from his 2005 trial.
The BBC quoted the White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs as saying that the White House was concerned about "what appears to be an abusive use of the legal system for improper ends".
"We are deeply concerned that a Russian judge today has indicated that for a second time Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev will be convicted," he added.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had said earlier that the verdict would have a "negative impact on Russia's reputation".
Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said he was "very worried" by the conviction.
"The way the trial has been conducted is extremely dubious and a step backward on the road toward a modernisation of the country. It is in the interest of our Russian partners to take these concerns seriously and to stand up for the rule of law, democracy and human rights," he said in a statement.
However, the chairman of the Russian lower house of parliament's Foreign Affairs committee, Konstantin Kosachev, refused to pay much attention to these criticisms saying that he respects the court's decision as a loyal citizen of Russia.
"I understand perfectly well that this is a very spectacular case and many questions may arise. But I have to respect the decision by the court, as a loyal citizen of Russia," he added. (ANI) | <urn:uuid:d33b6424-a818-4ca5-a93d-8af2b58dc5d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.oneindia.in/2010/12/28/usgermany-deeply-concerned-about-russian-tycoonsilleg.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983391 | 325 | 1.75 | 2 |
Teens For Jeans
By Krystal Klassen
.6 to 1.7 million people under 18 will experience homelessness each year. An estimated 1-in-3 of those are under the age of 18. With the help of Aéropostale and Dosomething.org, there is an opportunity to get homeless teens the clothes they need.
Teens For Jeans is in their fifth year of this project; and in the past four years, 1.5 million jeans have been collected and donated. Everyone who donates a pair to Teens for Jeans will receive a 25 percent off coupon on a new pair of jeans.
The contest started on Jan. 16 and will end on Feb. 10. It is open to elementary, middle and high schools located in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada. 7,000 schools are competing for the grand prize, including Lincoln, which is a $5,000 donation to the school, one pair of jeans (valuled at $30) for each student at the winning school, and a party hosted by the sponsors. The grand prize will be awarded to the school that has donated the highest number of jeans during the contest period.
Lincoln will be collaborating with Horton Plaza Aéropostale to reach our goal of 5,000 jeans!
This is how it works:
- Students and Faculty will participate in a 4th period class competition. Participants can donate denim jeans in any brand, color, style, or size.
- For each pair of jeans the participants donate, they will receive a 25 percent off coupon on their next pair of jeans at Aéropostale. That means that if you donate 5 pairs of jeans, you will receive 5 coupons!
- The first 4th period class that collects 100 jeans will win a pizza party!
- Each class that collects a minimum of 150 jeans will get an ice cream party!
- This event will start on January 16 and final collections will be on February 10.
“I got interested because it all goes to charity,” said senior Saniesa Thomas, who is taking the lead on this project. “It all goes to a good cause. There might be LHS students who are homeless, and because these jeans are going to local shelters, we might be helping out our classmates without knowing it. So far, I’ve given 10 pairs and I hope to give 10 more.”
- 2012-05-10 08:00:00 - Lincoln Seniors Moving on to Bigger and Better Things
- 2012-05-07 08:00:00 - Lincoln High Helps Cure Cancer
- 2012-05-04 08:00:00 - Golden Opportunity
- 2012-04-23 08:00:00 - A Fatal Game
- 2012-03-30 08:00:00 - President Obama may Speak at 2012 Graduation | <urn:uuid:b25b3100-0d41-4688-abd9-060be54ac57a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://voicesoflincoln.com/index.php/news/1491-lincoln-high-graduation-location-debated | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937827 | 597 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did allow the self-imposed Israeli building freeze in Judea and Samaria to expire last month. He likely would have lost his ruling coalition had he not done so. But Israel’s largest newspaper revealed on Sunday that despite public announcements, in practice the building freeze remains very much in place, and has in fact spread to Jerusalem.
Yediot Ahronot reported that even though all political restrictions were to be removed from Jewish building in Judea and Samaria, thousands of planned homes and apartments are not receiving the government approval they need to move forward.
Construction projects in Judea and Samaria, even in established Jewish towns there, require the approval of the Defense Ministry, a process that until last year was a simple one. But now officials working for Defense Minister Ehud Barak are putting as many roadblocks as possible in front of contractors trying to transition new projects from the blueprint phase to the actual construction phase.
Even in Jerusalem, which Netanyahu insisted never was and never will be part of any Jewish building freeze, the paper reported that 1,300 housing units that contractors are ready to begin work on are being denied final approval.
Last week, the government did approve a miniscule 240 new housing units in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Zeev. The move elicited an international outcry, and grand Palestinian pronouncements that Israel did not really want peace.
According to Yediot Ahronot, the plans originally approved also included another 600 apartments in the southern neighborhood of Har Homa, but Netanyahu cut them after the Obama Administration said that would be too many new Jewish homes in Jerusalem.
A real estate broker told the newspaper that the policy is “a disaster for Jerusalem,” and will “create an immense shortage of apartments within a year or two, and dramatic price hikes.”
Already the Jerusalem Municipality has had trouble attracting young Israeli couples to move to the capital, where real estate prices are disproportionately high and job opportunities are few. The new shortage will only exacerbate that problem, as the above real estate agent predicted.
The general building freeze in Judea and Samaria is having a similar effect on other parts of the country. Many Israelis used to turn to the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria when prices got a little high in metropolitan areas. But with the building freeze, house prices in Judea and Samaria are skyrocketing, which is increasing demand in other areas, which in turn is also bringing up prices there.
In short, Israelis are finding it increasingly difficult (for many it has become impossible) to buy a home in their own country because the international community doesn’t like Jews building on lands the Arabs claim as their own. | <urn:uuid:b3caf2dd-8353-480f-9717-06be67cce544> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/22062/Default.aspx?archive=article_title | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971744 | 558 | 1.632813 | 2 |
by Gary North
Last week, the Vatican celebrated 25 years of Pope John Paul II's papacy. It featured the announcement of the beatification of Mother Teresa — or, as a local television news anchorgirl misread the Teleprompter, her "beautification." (This gaffe was more than matched by NBC's Brian Williams' announcement — live from Rome! — on Sunday morning's "Today Show," that stories regarding her miracles are under investigation by the Pentagon. Anyway, I hope this was a gaffe. I think he meant "the Vatican.")
Beatification is a prelude to being canonized. In order to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church — posthumously declared a saint by the Pope — a person must have performed at least two miracles posthumously. I have no idea whether Mother Teresa ever performed a miracle. I know this much: when I wrote to her in 1991 about the availability of information in the United States about practical ways for local Protestant congregations to adopt her organization's charitable techniques, she wrote back. She wrote a letter on a manual typewriter, and she signed it. No secretary wrote it, I suspect. For anyone running an organization as large as the Missionaries of Charity to type a letter to a Protestant bordered on the miraculous. This experience confirmed what Malcolm Muggeridge wrote in 1988 about her.
Thinking about Mother Teresa, as I often do, and realizing that by all odds she will one day be canonized, I try to sort out the various characteristics in her of a saint. First of all, contrary to what might be supposed, otherworldliness is not one of them. Mother Teresa is very firmly settled here on earth, in time and in mortality, and her judgments relating thereto have proved to be quite remarkably shrewd and perceptive. Her practicality never ceases to amaze me. Thus, she is now responsible for some two hundred and forty houses in different parts of the world, including some in places like Yemen and Zagreb, which present peculiar hazards. The headquarters of a business of comparable size and distribution would occupy a whole skyscraper, filled with managerial staff, computers, secretaries, tape machines and teleprinters tapping away.
Mother Teresa manages without any of this plant and paraphernalia, dealing with her correspondence in her own hand, usually late at night, and traveling about the world in the most economically way possible. (Confessions of a Twentieth-Century Pilgrim, pp. 135—36).
One report last weekend said that at the time of her death in 1997, she was overseeing almost 700 centers of her Missionaries of Charity, which were operating in over one hundred countries. Her order has 5,000 nuns. How on earth did she supervise anything this big, with only a manual typewriter, while traveling and raising millions of dollars a year? (Please don't tell me that "it was probably a portable typewriter.") When someone can do this, she doesn't need to perform miracles.
I no more understand how Mother Teresa ran such a huge international organization from Calcutta than Malcolm Muggeridge did. It was her calling: the most important thing she could do in which she was most difficult to replace. It was also her gift. She, unlike most of us, was able to match her gift, her calling, and her occupation. When someone achieves this unique combination of talent and opportunity, a person can accomplish a great deal.
WHAT ONE PERSON CAN DO
We hear the phrase, "What can one person do?" The answer depends on the person and the opportunities available to that person.
In a recent interview of Peter Drucker, the management guru, Drucker made an important point. While she raised millions of dollars, Mother Teresa's most valuable contribution was something else: creating a greater sense of compassion, especially in India. The money she raised, compared to the needs at hand, was minimal, he said. But by captivating people's hearts and minds, she multiplied total giving. Drucker was correct.
She served as a representative agent — of God, she always said. Her example challenged others. Surely, it challenged the 5,000 women she recruited. In a generation in which her Church could no longer recruit the tens of thousands of nuns who had joined in generations past, her order has always had a waiting list of candidates. In a generation of nuns who insisted on abandoning the traditional long black habits in preference for more fashionable attire, her order merely changed the colors to blue and white.
The Missionaries of Charity grew out of her vision and leadership. The appeal of the organization was based on the idea of poverty and service. This dual appeal has been successful in recruiting committed women and committed donors.
In the late 1940's, Communist organizer Douglas Hyde defected to the Roman Catholic Church. In 1956, Notre Dame University Press published his classic little book on how Communists in Great Britain recruited and trained its members in the 1940's. The book is titled Dedication and Leadership. His point was simple: with a great vision that calls for great sacrifice, you can recruit the best and the brightest. Lower your sights and your requirements, and you will not attract them.
He made it clear that the Communist Party of Great Britain was never intended to be a mass movement organization. It could not become such a movement and still maintain its level of commitment among its members.
In the mid-1980's, I came across Hyde's manual, "Dedication and Leadership Techniques." It was a long transcript of a seminar that Hyde had given to Catholic priests. The topic was how the Church could adapt some of the Communists' mobilization techniques. I wrote to Hyde and asked permission to reprint the manual. He refused to allow this. He offered this reason: the Communists had lost both their vision and their commitment. He said that his manual would give a false impression.
Solzhenitsyn was saying much the same thing in the mid-1980's. Within half a decade, the Berlin wall came down. In 1991, the Soviet Union fell.
The Catholic Church has always recognized that the degree of dedication and leadership possessed by a Douglas Hyde or a Mother Teresa is in very short supply. The Church has been organized to reflect this: celibacy for nuns and priests, as well as separate orders of priests — regular (monastics) and secular (parish) — plus the Vatican's hierarchy. The Church is run by a man who basically cannot resign, no matter how frail he becomes.
John Paul II is no fool. He speaks many languages. He was trained in philosophy. He grew up under Nazi tyranny and then Communist tyranny. He was physically vigorous. He knows how terrible he now appears, yet he cannot bring himself to retreat into isolation, where he could hide his infirmities from the public. He and the Dali Lama are not able to retire. The rest of us can. He remains on his post. The rest of us can gracefully retire.
One person can accomplish a great deal. Dedication, leadership, and persistence count for a great deal. We see this in a handful of people who possess these characteristics. There are more of them out there than the media cover. But there are fewer of them out there than the $19.95 self-help books indicate. Not everyone can become a millionaire. Not everyone should.
There are no books on "Canonization for Dummies," nor should there be. But there is no doubt that everyone can strive to be more like leaders who adopt self-sacrifice as their way of life. I once saw a forgettable movie in which Stockard Channing uttered this memorable line: "I always wanted to be somewhere in between Mother Teresa and Imelda Marcos." Better to model ourselves by the former than the latter.
EFFICIENCY AND VOLUNTARY COOPERATION
Genius helps, but it's not crucial. What matters most is sticking to the task, or as I like to say, sticking to your knitting. Doing the best job you can do, day after day, always attempting to improve your performance, whether or not you get a raise, is the key to efficiency. In your niche in the division of labor, you strive to improve your mastery of whatever it is you have been assigned. You produce more with a fixed supply of resources. This is possible because your ability is not in fixed supply. It can be improved up until the day that either age or Alzheimer's gets you.
John Paul II and Ronald Reagan, more than any other two people, brought down the Soviet Union. The former now suffers from old age; the latter suffers from Alzheimer's. They were both comparatively old men in 1991, when the USSR went belly-up. I was once told by a specialist in foreign policy and national defense, Angelo Codevilla, that in the first few years of Reagan's Presidency, the video sequences of Reagan on horseback or chopping wood at his California ranch undermined the self-confidence of the doddering leaders of the Soviet Union. I don't doubt it. Gorbachev, a much younger man than either Reagan or the old guard, came into power in 1985, but it was too late for the Soviet system to recover. Gorbachev came begging, hat in hand, to Western banks and governments, beginning in 1988.
In 1988, Gorbachev also made a visit to the Vatican to commemorate the 1000-year anniversary of the Russian Orthodox Church. One thing is certain: Stalin would not have made such a journey. That was when I concluded that the Communists' rule was just about over in the USSR.
Nobody ever figured out how Reagan did it, not even conservatives who seemed to be close to him in the White House. He kept his cards close to his vest. He took naps, refused to micro-manage, and gave humorous yet inspiring speeches. This didn't seem like much at the time. It was more than his predecessors or his successors accomplished. He refused to back down. He told Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin wall. In 1989, the Berlin wall came down.
He was efficient. How do we know? Because he achieved his goal: to undermine the USSR and end the Cold War. George Bush in 1989 inherited a done deal.
Political leaders have different styles, as do entrepreneurs and managers. But these three features are common to most of them: a clear goal regarding future results that are outside their own self-interest ("the vision thing," as Bush described it, but never possessed), an unwavering determination to achieve that goal, and the ability to gain the support of others in carrying out the goal. The leader must make use of the division of labor. He cannot achieve much by himself.
The more determined the support of one's followers, the more likely the targeted outcome. The free market makes use of personal self-interest in mobilizing people. It does so through the price system. But there is more to economic success than low prices. There has to be a shared vision.
The best case study I have ever read on this phenomenon was written by a theologian, although readers of his book would never guess this. The author is R. C. Sproul. The book is titled, Stronger Than Steel (1980). It is the story of a middle manager who was handed the responsibility of saving a near-bankrupt steel-fabricating firm. The firm had no credit line to tap. It was in the midst of a strike. Its quality controls were poor. Its reputation was poor. It had only a few days before it would close its doors. The man was able to save the company by persuading managers and workers to start treating each other decently, as men on the same sinking ship. With no infusion of monetary capital, this infusion of personal capital — a willingness to cooperate — was sufficient to make the firm profitable within a year.
The pressures of the free market — profit and loss — make themselves felt. The market pressures employees to cooperate with each other if they want to become successful. Leadership styles differ, but market pressures stay the same: serve consumers well or else go out of business.
Non-profit organizations do not feel market pressures directly. Managers must serve donors rather than consumers, usually by articulating the vision of specific donors and by mobilizing resources to implement that vision. This is what Mother Teresa did. While she has had a few detractors, most notably the atheist-socialist-materialist Christopher Hitchens (The Missionary Position, 1995), her work drew the best efforts of a small army of women and the donations of a larger army of well-wishers.
Hitchens' main complaints are these: (1) her shelters do not provide full medical care, with physicians, nurses, and diagnostic equipment; (2) her care-givers encourage the dying to convert to Christianity; (3) she has an agenda: serving the Roman Catholic Church; (4) she raises a lot of money. This takes him 96 pages to explain.
The fact is, we are all dependent on the money and the commitment of others. The division of labor keeps us alive. Success depends on it.
People ask me what is the secret of success. I tell them: "You have to serve someone." Bob Dylan wrote a song about this two decades ago. That doesn't mean that the principle isn't true.
If you want to be closer to Mother Teresa than to Imelda Marcos, then serve self-sacrificially. If you do, the money will come. Don't worry about sainthood. We need dedicated servants more than we need miracles.
October 22, 2003
Copyright © 2003 LewRockwell.com | <urn:uuid:e5722a6d-a76b-4cc1-acb0-5e5ed7ca6244> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north217.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977125 | 2,815 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Reduce Your Risk of a Second Stroke
“If you have suffered a stroke, it may be the result of a medical condition, such as uncontrolled hypertension or uncontrolled diabetes,” Dr. Lackland says. After a stroke, you’re more likely to have another stroke
, so it’s even more critical that you learn to manage your health
. Take any prescribed medication for blood pressure, diabetes, or other conditions as directed. Eat a healthy diet that is high in fiber and lean protein and low in fat, salt, and processed foods, and exercise regularly to maintain a healthy weight. | <urn:uuid:0b0b74a8-b1eb-4181-b782-cb9d80193bc4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.everydayhealth.com/stroke-photos/tips-for-stroke-recovery.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951555 | 126 | 2.296875 | 2 |
May 22nd, 2013 National Maritime Day May 22nd, 2013 World Biological Diversity Day May 25th, 2013 African Liberation Day May 26th, 2013 Trinity Sunday May 27th, 2013 Memorial Day May 27th, 2013 Jefferson Davis Birthday May 29th, 2013 International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers May 30th, 2013 Corpus Christi May 31st, 2013 World No Tobacco Day June 1st, 2013 Statehood Day June 3rd, 2013 Jefferson Davis Birthday June 4th, 2013 World Day for Child Victims of Aggression June 5th, 2013 World Environment Day June 6th, 2013 Isra and Mi'raj June 8th, 2013 World Oceans Day June 11th, 2013 Kamehameha Day June 12th, 2013 World Day Against Child Labour June 14th, 2013 World Blood Donor Day June 14th, 2013 Flag Day June 16th, 2013 Father's Day June 17th, 2013 Bunker Hill Day June 17th, 2013 World Day to Combat Desertification June 19th, 2013 Juneteenth June 20th, 2013 World Refugee Day June 20th, 2013 West Virginia Day June 21st, 2013 June Solstice June 23rd, 2013 Public Service Day June 23rd, 2013 International Widows' Day
Vintage Majolica Devil Face Head Figural Tobacco Humidor Jar For Sale
Vintage Majolica Devil Face/Head Figural Tobacco Humidor Jar
Vintage Majolica Figural Devil Face/Head Tobacco Humidor Jar. Pre-owned/vintage condition. Hand-painted, very real, life-like looking, almost scary. Has damage-please read below for more details.
He does have chipping to both pieces(lid, bottom, nose, red by ear, beard) and some cracking to bottom part. Also, some paint rubs/loss/extra paint and lines in the paint that look like cracks. He still displays nicely. Some areas where the glaze/coloring did not get. The chip on the underneath part of the nose-not sure it is a chip or was there when made, there is glazing over it. There are also a couple of spots on his beard that also have coloring on them-filled in-could they have been chips??-I don't think they were, I think these were there when made. The edge/end of beard is rough, I feel it, I can't really see a chip although there is a small chip on the side edge of beard, very small. Some rough spots on the ridges on the top piece but no big chips. Please take a look at all the photos, they better show/describe the chipping/cracks, etc.. than I can.
The top part of the jar is the humidor part but it is missing the sponge.
7.25" tall at highest point with lid on. Bottom of base is 4" across at widest point. Marked 6762 and underneath that is 27. I have no idea of the maker or where this was made.
I have not cleaned him, I will leave that to the new owner.
Please scroll all the way down to view all of the photos-I took a lot of them. I took photos with/without flash.
Shipping will be free priority mail with usps tracking info. Will also include insurance but I will package carefully.
Please make sure you see all my photos-don't want you to miss them! I do consider my photos to be a part of the description. Thanks!
Please contact me with any problems or if you believe your item to be not as described. I never have-never will-knowingly misrepresent an item that I sell.
Return Policy: I offer a full refund of your purchase price(no shipping costs)if not satisfied whether the item doesn't fit, wasn't exactly what you hoped for, etc.., upon return of the item in its original condition. Buyer is responsible for the return shipping costs except in the case that I made a mistake-then all shipping costs will be refunded :) Please contact me within 14 days to advise me of the return or problem(if there is one) and return the item to me. Item must be in same condition sent to you(unused/unworn, tags attached, no damage, etc...) Refund will be money back in your Paypal account.
I DO have animals-cats, dogs, horses. All of these items are kept separate(I have an room). My home is a clean, non-smoking home but it is possible you might encounter a stray hair.
I do estate sales, yard sales, sales, etc...for my vintage & collectible items. Almost all vintage items show some wear/use and since I do not know their background I cannot say for sure if they have been exposed to pets/smoke. If there is something that I can smell, I will let you know in the description. I love these items and like to pass them on to other people who like them and appreciate vintage things as I do. Thank you!
ALWAYS AUTHENTIC, GUARANTEED! I purchase large lots that come from major department stores/retailers. This merchandise is always 100% guaranteed authentic or your money back, that's my promise to you. These are usually shelf pulls(end of season merchandise, discontinued styles, etc..) and overstocks. A few may be customer returns but I will note this in the listing. Some items may have cosmetic issues(from being tried on & handled, being dropped on the floor, etc..) but I will note these, if any, in the description-that's why the sale might be listed as new with defects. I do not sell or deal in irregulars/irregular merchandise. Tags may show markdowns. Please note that I am not affiliated with nor am I a representative/consultant/employee of any brands or products that I sell or their companies.
See my other listings for more great items!
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Vintage Majolica Devil Face Head Figural Tobacco Humidor Jar: $79 | <urn:uuid:be6df549-762a-402d-8cc7-87ecc1268dac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.holidays.net/store/Vintage-Majolica-Devil-Face-Head-Figural-Tobacco-Humidor-Jar_390542359075.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945065 | 1,425 | 1.625 | 2 |
According to findings published in the Journal of Marketing Research, people tend to have a "now or whenever" mentality when it comes to results. We'd like our rewards now, thank you—but if we have to wait, it doesn't matter so much when they arrive.
It's why we're willing to pay considerably more to have something shipped tomorrow, but not much more to have it shipped in seven days rather than 10. It's probably also why, if we can't have rock-hard abs tomorrow, it seems like it doesn't matter whether we start that aerial yoga class today or next week. Or whenever.
Behavioral economists say we're even more likely to discount future rewards if we can choose a more immediate alternative. No wonder skipping a workout to dine with friends always seems like a good idea.
Logically, we know that the sooner we start improving our diet and exercise habits, the better. But how can we get as excited about the health benefits we'll enjoy in 10 years as we get about overnight shipping? Researchers have found one way to bypass our tendency to prefer pleasure in the present: show us pictures of ourselves.
Hey, That's Me—But Fitter
In five studies, scientists at Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab set out to test whether virtual doppelgangers would influence their owners' real-life health and fitness behavior. As it turned out, they did.
The researchers created personalized avatars using participants' photographs. In one study, people who watched their avatars running on a treadmill were more likely to exercise following the study than those who watched their avatars lounging. Watching avatars of strangers exercising didn't have the same motivating effect.
In another study, people who watched their avatar's figure get slimmer during a workout—or conversely, gain weight in connection with inactivity—were even more likely to get moving afterward. Similar experiments in which avatars ate healthy or unhealthy food, and waistlines narrowed or expanded accordingly, also spurred healthier behavior.
We feel compelled to imitate what we see, the study authors said, especially when the outcomes of the actions become more tangible.
Seeing aged avatars can also help us overcome the tendency to short-change our future selves. Studies measuring financial behavior have shown that when someone views an older doppelganger, they become more future-oriented with regard to retirement savings. The same aging models could be applied to long-term health goals, researchers in Stanford's Virtual Human Interaction Lab said.
Our Imagination Works, Too
If you don't have access to a personalized avatar, visualization might be the next best thing. "Visualization is an easy way to see ourselves practicing a certain behavior," says Jeff Brown, an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a Boston Marathon psychologist. Brown says Boston marathoners use visualization to boost motivation and performance: "They dedicate time to seeing themselves run well and run strongly," he says.
Ample research has demonstrated that being able to see oneself from a bird's eye view can alter self-perception and subsequent behavior. In a 2007 study, psychologists at The Ohio State University found that when people pictured themselves engaging in a potential future action (in this case, it was voting) from a third-person perspective, as opposed to first-person, they were more likely to view that action favorably and to actually do it.
Not only are we likely to identify with the exerciser in our mind's eye, but visualization has additional rewards. According to Brown, it can help with skill-building and exercise anxieties. If you're scared to hazard your first few kettlebell swings in front of an audience, you might spend 15 minutes mentally working through your strength training routine before you go to the gym. "It's perfectly fine to visualize yourself messing up and correcting it," Brown says. "You visualize yourself being resilient."
Brown, who coauthored The Winner's Brain, adds that once you've done a few trial runs in your head, you'll be less susceptible to in-the-moment temptations. And don't forget to visualize the rewards to come.
Realistic Imagery is Important
It seems the advice "fake it 'til you make it" might actually have some basis in psychological science. The trick to bringing your healthier simulations to life? Make them compelling.
For a computer simulation to be effective, it should look enough like you to trigger self-identification, the researchers at Stanford noted. For visualizations, Brown suggests incorporating as many senses as you can, as well as conjuring them in real-time: "Spend however long it will take you to actually do it—because you're ultimately teaching your brain to do it," he says.
Brown also recommends using visuals during the day, which creates a stronger imprint on your mind than when you're relaxed at bedtime.
A cautionary note: Keep in mind that you aren't burning any calories from watching your doppelganger work out—some people have a tendency, as observed by Cornell University professor Brian Wansink, to calorie-compensate for the exerciser onscreen.
Hungry for more? Write to email@example.com with your questions, concerns, and feedback.
Chelsea Bush is a Utah-based journalist on a mission to tap the secrets of psychology to end laziness, cheeseburger addictions, and other annoying habits that keep us flabby. Join the cause here in the comments and at @chelseawriting. | <urn:uuid:727313d2-77f1-4471-a9b5-7be085f81e07> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2013/01/11/need-fitness-motivation-theres-an-avatar-for-that?s_cid=related-links:TOP | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963757 | 1,137 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Design LED lamps by AmbienteDirect.com
In the online shop by AmbienteDirect.com we have put together a beautiful LED lamp selection you shouldn't miss!
Compared with the classic light bulb, which was invented 130 years ago, an LED lamp is a real bundle of energy, literally! The LED, short for “light-emitting diode”, is a lot smaller than a conventional light bulb and is considered a survivor: It can burn up to 50,000 hours, and it doesn't even run hot! Vibrations also don't bother at in any way and it is shockproof. Another advantage of the energy saving LED lamp is its UV-free light. This way, e.g., precious paintings or pieces of art can be illuminated with LED lamps without distorting the original colours.
LEDs have only been around for about 50 years and were in the beginning only existed in the colours red, yellow, green, and orange. The little lamps were originally used as indicator lights, but also found application for turn indicators in cars and taillights. When finally LEDs with white light came onto the market in 1997 LED lamps started finding their way into our homes. Today we know: There isn't any illuminant more innovative or functional than the LED light.
With their discreet bodies single LEDs can create beautiful lighting effects. An especially impressive atmosphere is created when your LED lamp is dimmable. At AmbienteDirect.com you will find LED design lamps in various versions, colours, and designs. Feel free to browse through our online shop. We guarantee that you will find the right LED design lamp that matches your interior furnishing style.
You don't own a LED design lamp, yet? At AmbienteDirect.com you will find LED lamps by renowned manufacturers like Flos, Foscarini, Artemide, Lumina, and Catellani & Smith, like the Tolomeo Lettura LED reading lamp by Artemide or the timeless FLO nightstand light by Lumina. A very unique creation is the Abyss table lamp by Kundalini, which is also available in our online shop.
Create playful pictures of light in your living spaces and set brilliant accents with the clear light of the LED lamp. Make use of the advantages of the LED technology with your very own LED design lamp. We at AmbienteDirect.com are always at your service for questions or suggestions! | <urn:uuid:17b11f36-3591-4edb-af28-cdbfc17311e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ambientedirect.com/en/design-special/led-lighting?categoryid=78 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950489 | 501 | 1.5 | 2 |
Koalas Under Threat From Climate Change
New research shows increased temperatures and carbon dioxide levels are a threat to the Australian national icon, the koala.
Professor Ian Hume, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, and his students from the University of Sydney have been researching the effects of CO2 increases and temperature rises on eucalypts.
Professor Hume's group have shown in the laboratory that increases in CO2 affect the level of nutrients and 'anti-nutrients' (things that are either toxic or interfere with the digestion of nutrients) in eucalypt leaves. Anti-nutrients in eucalypts are built from carbon and an increase in carbon dioxide levels will favour the production of anti-nutrients over nutrients.
Koalas are fussy about the species of eucalypts that they eat as different species contain different ratios of nutrients to anti-nutrients. Some eucalypt species may have high protein content, but anti-nutrients such as tannins bind the protein so it can't be used by the koala.
He said: 'If there is a significant rise in CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, which we're already seeing, that's going to push the ratio of nutrients to anti-nutrients even lower by increasing the concentration of these carbon-based anti-nutrients.
'What currently may be good koala habitat may well become, over a period of not so many years at the rate that CO2 concentrations are rising, very marginal habitat...
'I'm sure we'll see koalas disappearing from their current range even though we don't see any change in tree species or structure of the forests.'
When asked how long it would take for koalas to be affected, he said: 'I would've thought a few years ago when we first did these experiments that you might see something in a hundred years, but at the rate at which things are going I suspect that we might see changes within our lifetimes.'
Changes in eucalypt nutrient content may force koalas to travel in search of more nutrient-rich species. With habitats fragmented by roads and agriculture, more koalas will travel by land, which increases their risk of being hit by vehicles or eaten by predators.
Higher temperatures could also affect eucalypt species. Some are so sensitive to temperature that even a one degree shift in mean annual temperature will affect them. These sensitive species could then be outcompeted by others which are less sensitive to temperature.
If these less temperature sensitive species aren't suitable for koala feed then '...we're not seeing anything in terms of the forest disappearing, but in terms of nutritional habitat, it has disappeared.'
When asked if koalas could adapt to changes in nutrient levels, he said: 'I don't think they've got enough time to do that, nowhere near enough time to do that.'
Professor Hume's group have been studying the four marsupials that eat eucalypt foliage with the koala being the most highly specialised. The others are the greater glider, common ringtail possum, and common brushtail possum.
By comparing the responses all four species make to dietary changes, a larger picture of the state of the environmental system can be formed.
This research was presented at the Academy of Science's peak event, Science at the Shine Dome, April 24, 2008. | <urn:uuid:c1e63d6a-e834-4f38-ba0f-45180c45ef47> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/36055 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95766 | 701 | 3.25 | 3 |
“Apple has become one of the best-known, most admired and most imitated companies on earth, in part through an unrelenting mastery of global operations. Last year, it earned over $400,000 in profit per employee…”
[Per the article, Apple employs 763,000 workers, of whom 43,000 are U.S. employees, giving a total of only 5% U.S. employees.]
“Apple’s executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ is no longer a viable option for most Apple products.”
[Outlier: Let us be generous and assume that American business decision-makers always make solid, empirical, business-based decisions. This would mean that overseas factories are far bigger. Foreign workers are more skilled, harder working, and more flexible than are workers in the U.S. That is, they can respond more quickly to changing situations and new instructions.
If this is true, I can see why a business would prefer to set up operations overseas. Wouldn't you? Unless there were some sort of advantages to being an American business...any benefits that it bestows to a corporation or to its employees...hmmm...tax breaks? Permission for the corporation to lease or own land (which implies that this nation stop allowing foreign nations to do the latter...)? How about this one: Access to the American market for its goods and services?
It's too bad our government currently allows equal access to our American market to both American companies and to foreign companies such as Apple. What, Apple? You say you're an American company? What makes you one? Your employees are foreigners. Your operations are performed overseas. How are you different than a foreign company? Oh--that's right: You are getting American company tax breaks.]
“Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only option.”
[Outlier: Hmmm…Their only option…Does that mean their backs are against the wall? Their company is about to fail and their shareholders are at their throats? I mean, I’m just thinking of that $400,000 profit per employee, now. And the fact that their business is claiming to be an American one. And that they’re reaping the tax benefits of being an American corporation, and have been reaping these for quite some time. And that their top level employees—their American employees—have been enjoying the American lifestyle at the top of the food chain over here. I’m just not so clear on what Apple means by “their only option”.
Couldn’t some of that $400,000 per employee have been shaved off to go into apprenticeships to talented highschool and college students HERE? Or even untalented ones who tested well for the vocational/industrial aptitude skills needed to run efficient Apple factories HERE? Just sayin’…
Could it be that this is your "only option" if your company's only motivation is profit untempered by morals, and you have no scruples about eating the hand that is allowing you to feed upon it?]
“One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul.New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight. (A foreperson) …immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories…each…was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.”
Said an Apple executive: “The speed and flexibility is breathtaking…There’s no American plant that can match that.”
[Outlier: So, let me get this really clear:
Apple has taken its firm back to the days of the great robber-baron industrialists. Company dormitories, and the 12-hour workday—and Apple is proud of it. Boasting about it: How they can depend upon being able to roust their human machines from their Company beds in the middle of the night and prime these pumps for a 12-hour run with just hot tea and a cracker.
How is a real human being to respond? Let me try: None of the top-echelon Apple employees would consider this to be appropriate treatment for an adult child of their own, or anyone else they cared about. The fact that they consider it perfectly acceptable treatment for brown-skinned foreigners whom they never intend to see is dashed disturbing. (Oh, but it's perfectly all right, because a higher standard of living is brought to those they serve--perhaps like the British served the Indians?)
At the end of the NYT article was this:
“Companies once felt an obligation to support American workers, even when it wasn’t the best financial choice,” said Betsey Stevenson, the chief economist at the Labor Department until last September. “That’s disappeared. Profits and efficiency have trumped generosity.”
WHOAA!!! This is the department that is supposed to be helping American workers??!! Betsey’s viewpoint comes through as skewed toward the business end. She refers to Company dormitories, and tea and cracker fuel, as “efficiency”. She considers normal humane treatment of employees to be “generosity”. I’m sure she’s a very lovely person, but she has been working with the barons too long. Probably without her being aware of it, their perspective has polluted her thinking.
Apparently, google and Wikipedia also need re-education. The Wikipedia entry for “robber baron” is entitled “robber baron (industrialist)”. And if you enter “robber barons” into google’s search box, google asks you if want “robber barons or captains of industry”.
We should be far past the days when we had cause to consider all these terms equivalent. | <urn:uuid:84cd47d5-04ad-4fba-b1ce-8054dc494168> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://outlierbabe.wordpress.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9636 | 1,332 | 2.140625 | 2 |
French voters decide whether Hollande's Socialist Party gets majority
updated 3:04 PM EDT, Sun June 10, 2012
French President Francois Hollande arrives for a press conference in Brussels on May 24, 2012.
- Candidates could head to a runoff vote June 17
- If the Socialist Party wins a majority, it would help new president Hollande's agenda
- Hollande has chosen mostly moderates for his Cabinet
(CNN) -- Authorities were tallying results Sunday in France's parliamentary elections, a key vote that could determine whether the country's new president can push through his agenda.
Voters cast ballots across France to fill 577 parliamentary seats. If President Francois Hollande's Socialist Party wins a majority, it will be easier for him to garner support for his proposals.
Hollande has been critical of the austerity policies central to European bailout deals for troubled economies there.
To win the first round of voting, parliamentary candidates must receive a majority of votes cast in their districts as well as enough votes to represent 25% of all registered voters in their districts. If those requirements aren't met, candidates will head to a runoff vote, scheduled for June 17.
Hollande became France's first Socialist president since François Mitterrand left office in 1995 as he swept to election victory over the incumbent Sarkozy, one of the most America-friendly French presidents in decades
Hollande has unsettled investors with his criticism of the austerity policies central to European bailout deals for troubled economies such as Greece's and Ireland's..
The president, who was sworn into office in May, has chosen mostly moderates for his Cabinet, indicating an effort to build a broad coalition in the country.
Last month, Hollande said he wants to balance the need to reduce the debts of European governments with efforts to stimulate growth.
CNN's Claudia Dominguez and Ben Brumfield contributed to this report.
Part of complete coverage on
updated 10:26 AM EST, Wed February 6, 2013
Advocates say the exam includes unnecessarily invasive and irrelevant procedures -- like a so-called "two finger" test.
updated 7:09 PM EST, Tue February 5, 2013
Supplies of food, clothing and fuel are running short in Damascus and people are going hungry as the civil war drags on.
updated 1:01 PM EST, Wed February 6, 2013
Supporters of Richard III want a reconstruction of his head to bring a human aspect to a leader portrayed as a murderous villain.
updated 10:48 AM EST, Tue February 5, 2013
Robert Fowler spent 130 days held hostage by the same al Qaeda group that was behind the Algeria massacre. He shares his experience.
updated 12:07 AM EST, Wed February 6, 2013
As "We are the World" plays, a video shows what looks like a nuclear attack on the U.S. Jim Clancy reports on a bizarre video from North Korea.
The relationship is, once again, cold enough to make Obama's much-trumpeted "reset" in Russian-U.S. relations seem thoroughly off the rails.
Ten years on, what do you think the Iraq war has changed in you, and in your country? Send us your thoughts and experiences.
updated 7:15 AM EST, Tue February 5, 2013
Musician Daniela Mercury has sold more than 12 million albums worldwide over a career span of nearly 30 years.
Photojournalist Alison Wright travelled the world to capture its many faces in her latest book, "Face to Face: Portraits of the Human Spirit."
updated 7:06 PM EST, Tue February 5, 2013
Europol claims 380 soccer matches, including top level ones, were fixed - as the scandal widens, CNN's Dan Rivers looks at how it's done.
updated 7:37 AM EST, Wed February 6, 2013
That galaxy far, far away is apparently bigger than first thought. The "Star Wars" franchise will get two spinoff movies, Disney announced.
updated 2:18 AM EST, Fri February 8, 2013
It's an essential part of any trip, an activity we all take part in. Yet almost none of us are any good at it. Souvenir buying is too often an obligatory slog. | <urn:uuid:fde7f68e-8598-4644-b5a0-c7d344b7dd90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/10/world/europe/france-elections/index.html?eref=rss_world | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961558 | 864 | 1.53125 | 2 |
You’ve heard it before. “Greater collaboration in the public sector is needed to enable delivery of essential public services.” Another platitude? Like the need for everyone to work together on a bi-partisan basis? Or the need for world peace?
Yes, you’ve heard it but it’s still true. Unfortunately, when the need for effective networking is greatest federal agencies have failed to harness such synergies. According to 2011 Federal Viewpoint survey results, agreement that “the people I work with cooperate to get the job done” is down 11% since 2008, while agreement that “employees in my work unit share knowledge with each other” has declined by 3%. Across the workforce of 2.1 million public servants, these seemingly small changes translate into substantial lags in productivity and innovation.
The meager returns from recent social media investments illustrate an important lesson: simply building it will not get them to come. That is, constructing an elaborate communication infrastructure is not in and of itself enough to drive collaborative effort. Instead, government leaders must find ways to reward, financially and otherwise, real outcomes from effective cooperation. From this, greater networking, and importantly, real results, from these associations, will grow.
This is about making priorities and communicating them. If collaboration is important, communicate it and yes, incentivize it. Belief in mission is fundamental; incentives and sanctions are essential as well. It’s tough out there being a public servant these days. It’s a rough voyage. The seas are terrible and wolf packs are lurking, waiting to take you and your agency down. The sooner we start working together – moving in convoys – the better off we all will be. | <urn:uuid:b242a873-473b-4f82-afc8-36305c52f524> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.executiveboard.com/government-blog/collaboration-declines-as-stakes-rise/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932322 | 355 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Mycotoxin economic aspects
Contents - Previous - Next
by Thirapong Tangthirasunan
Thailand is an agricultural country. Agriculture has played a vital role in the Thai economy contributing around 25% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and about 55% of export by value.
Thailand's economy still depends on the successful export of its major agricultural commodities. Problems in export of agricultural products are many and varied.
Firstly, it subjects to the uncertainty of the world commodities market including the importing policy of the buying country.
Secondly, for some specific crops such as maize, it is more difficult as world production continue to rise faster than demand. The maize buyers now emphasize quality particularly the level of aflatoxin.
Formerly, Thai maize was preferred for its bright yellow colour and high protein content. Today, however, these qualities are overlooked as a result of high level of aflatoxin. This has seriously affected the demand for Thai maize.
In recent years the quality of Thai maize has suffered through high level of aflatoxin, a mycotoxin produced by a fungus thriving in moist condition and poisonous in concentration. The effect on Thai economy has been substantial through lost export market and discounted prices. The Thai farmers, many of whom are often subject to unfair practices of the middlemen and the private local traders, have seen the price depressed accordingly.
Thailand is the world's third largest exporter of maize, and maize contributes significantly to the country's foreign exchange earnings. Thai maize is exported freely, with major customers in Singapore, Malaysia, Hongkong, Taiwan, Korea, Middle East and more recently in Africa. Over 60% is exported in the period from September to January, largely influenced by the season of harvest and seasonal price advantage.
It is generally realized throughout that Thai maize suffers from a US$ 10-20 per tonne quality discount on the world market. These losses will continue to rise unless real efforts are made to control aflatoxin and improve quality.
There have been significant changes in the export markets for Thai maize. In 1981/82 Japan purchased 20,400 tonnes and Taiwan purchased 235,000 tonnes. In 1983/84 these purchases were 9,500 and 1,000 tonnes respectively. Such decline purchasing always referred to aflatoxin. In recent years the price of Thai maize has also fallen in relation to other sources of supply reflecting a decline in quality associated with the incidence of aflatoxin.
Levels of aflatoxin acceptable to Japan are less than 20 ppb. Other countries required levels of less than 50 or 100 ppb. Thai maize frequently exceeds these levels, in the rainy season. Because of the high incidence of aflatoxin, Thai maize regularly trades at $15-20 per tonne below comparable maize from other sources. The annual cost to Thailand of the aflatoxin problem is not less than $50 million per annum according to the report on the findings of the ThaiBritish aflatoxin Project, 1984.
Aflatoxin is measured in terms of parts per billion (ppb.) Acceptable levels in importing countries are generally in the range 30-100 ppb. Levels of aflatoxin found in the stores of regional merchants in Thailand generally exceeded these levels.
In Thailand there is little contamination before harvest and contamination occurs mainly in the period immediately after harvesting and during primary processing.
It appears that most farmers dispose of their maize as soon as possible after harvest. Usually, harvesting may occur over a 10-14 day period, during which time the maize is bulked up often in moist, if not in wet conditions. In terms of aflatoxin contamination, this bulking up period is not considered as "storage" although in critical period. This storage period may be longer if the roads are impassable due to heavy rain, or if there is delay with transport or in the arrival of the mechanical sheller.
Maize is typically a low input-low output system. About half of the maize crop is stored on farm for at least 60 days-frequently in a moist condition. Many farmers store temporarily while bulking up enough for sale. Storage bulking up delays in drying and queuing problems in the merchant sector, together with the humid ambient conditions, create ideal conditions for aflatoxin contamination.
It appears that, in general, those involved in the marketing and utilisation of maize in Thailand are generally aware of the problem of aflatoxin. What they lack is information about the problem, practical proposal for its solution and financial incentives to implement the appropriate measure.
Following the above, the Thai-British Project for the control of aflatoxin in maize was established in 1984 to investigate the incidence of aflatoxin in Thai maize and to determine whether its level can be controlled by effective drying. This project was undertaken by the staff of the Rural Investment Overseas Company Limited in conjunction with Silsoe College and the Tropical Development and Research Institute now the Overseas
Development and Natural Resource Institute, or ODNRD from the U.K. Also the Thai team comprised of officers and technicians from the Department of Agriculture, Office of Agricultural Economics, Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Co-operatives and some private sector in the upcountry rural areas.
After Phase III is completed it indicated that the combined effort of the Thai Government, the maize industry and the participants of this project have been successful in demonstrating an effective method of aflatoxin control. Thailand is now in a better position to reduce the aflatoxin problem in maize to acceptable levels following the application of this research on a much wider national scale (see following sections for more comprehesive review of conclusions and recommendations from the project)
Contents - Previous - Next | <urn:uuid:a5e6dabc-9a94-4a39-8e2a-0d4e81b98511> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fao.org/docrep/x5036e/x5036E0a.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946526 | 1,161 | 3.03125 | 3 |
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County freezes as temperatures drop
10:40am Thursday 13th December 2012 in News
Buy this photo » Annabel Hosegood, nine, and Mason Chandler-Wickens, seven, in the playground at Witney’s Batt School
CHILDREN at Witney’s Batt School wrapped up warm to learn about the shapes that ice makes yesterday.
Pupils went on a winter walk around the school grounds, keeping an eye out for frozen spiders’ webs.
Temperatures dropped to well below freezing throughout Oxfordshire on Tuesday night and wintry scenes took over as freezing fog engulfed the county.
The coldest temperatures were recorded in South Newington, where it was -7.9C on Tuesday night, while RAF Benson dropped to -6.1C.
It wasn’t quite the coldest place to be in the country though – Little Rissington in Gloucestershire, just across the county boundary north of Burford, was the coldest in England at -8.3C, while Braemar in the Scottish Highlands was the coldest in the UK at -11.3C.
Met Office spokesman Sarah Holland said: “It was quite a chilly night in Oxfordshire on Tuesday night.
“It was the coldest night the county has seen this winter.”
She added: “It will be turning milder, but more unsettled towards the end of the week.”
While temperatures were expected to be at least -2C last night and could be again tonight, forecasters say it won’t be as cold as Tuesday.
Rain and strong winds are forecast to return tomorrow with temperatures rising to 9C. Next week conditions are expected to become much milder.
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Sure, that iPad’s fun. But doesn’t your arm get tired propping up one and a half pounds after an hour or two?
Yes, one thing that the iPad is definitely missing is angle. A laptop has an adjustable screen, and you can just set it on your lap for couchborne surfing. Just set the iPad on your lap and… well… it’s sits there taunting you, pointing at the ceiling.
You can try sitting cross-legged like Steve Jobs, angle your knees with the help of the coffee table, or give up and shell out for a tabletop dock.
No, it’s not the end of the world. But shouldn’t fun new toys just be… fun?
So here is our solution: a DIY adjustable-angle iPad stand for your lap. Inexpensive, cozy, and light. Designed for both portrait and landscape use, and ready to fold up for transport and storage. With a stand, you can use your ‘Pad with zero, one, or two hands, and sit how you darn well please.
Our iPad lap stand is made out of flannel and velcro, with rigidity provided by a masonite endoskeleton plus some fat elastic bands to hold your preciousssss in place.
To get started, the first thing that you’ll need is a piece of fabric at least 24.5 x 27 inches. We used flannel, because it’s super cozy sitting there on your lap. And cozy is good for something that spends more time on your lap than a narcoleptic kitten.
The pattern, sketched out above, shows the three main segments of the stand– the iPad holding Front Panel, the back (vertical) panel, and the bottom (base) panel. It also shows the part of the fabric that’s bent over to cover the reverse sides of those panels, as well as the seam allowances.
The first step in building it is to fold over the edges on the left and right sides and sew them down.
Next, you fold the left half over the area where the panels will be, and sew that down on the top and bottom edges. The stand is a hollow pocket in shape at the moment– we’re constructing a big pocket in the middle of the stand, where the masonite endoskeleton will reside.
In the next step, we’ll need some velcro. The type of velcro that we’re using is the low-profile “cable tie” velcro– which is actually good for most light-duty velcro applications. (We had more to say about it in this article.)
Having sewn the top and bottom sides of the pocket, we now turn that inside out so that all the rough seams are safely hidden insde. We also add the velcro bits that allow this pocket to be held shut, once we add the masonite.
The masonite is the standard medium-stiffness fiberboard, about 1/8″ thick, the kind you find at the hardware store. You can score it with a utility knife and ruler, and then snap it to size. It’s strong enough to do the job but not overly rigid.
The masonite pieces provide rigidity to the three panels, and need to be cut out the the same sizes as the three panels. You’ll want to make sure that they fit before proceeding.
Next, two strips of velcro that are used to hold the stand upright.
Those two sewn-down strips of velcro connect to two loose straps of velcro that extend from the other end of the stand.
Also, at this stage, you add four loops of wide elastic that are used to hold down the corners of the iPad– more detail about that part in a moment.
The front panel is designed to hold the iPad by its corners– not obstructing the touchscreen nor the button –in either portrait or landscape (vertical or horizontal) orientations. This is illustrated here, with the iPad outline shown both ways and then stacked. The careful stitching of the elastic straps– shown in green– allows it to be mounted either way.
This template (drawn to scale) shows you exactly where to put those stitches at each corner.
Then finally, you put the masonite bones back in and use them as a guide for the hinges. There isn’t much slop in the design, so when you put in a row if stitches between the panels, it turns into a reasonably sturdy hinge.
At this point, it’s just a matter of using it. Put it all together, close the flap, fold it up, and get to work, er, play as the case may be.
Here’s the back side, showing the flap where the masonite pieces can be inserted. (That also means that you can take them out for cleaning.)
Here you can see the elastic straps.
And, full height. If you don’t like the range of angles in the design, it’s pretty straightforward to build another, with a different value (instead of 5 inches) for the back panel, to give different heights.
Works for tabletop use, too!
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BSE ('Mad Cow Disease') and vCJD
“Mad Cow Disease” actually refers to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a disease first described in 1996 in cattle, which is related to a disease in humans called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). Both disorders are universally fatal brain diseases caused by a prion--a protein particle that lacks nucleic acid (DNA) and is believed to be the cause of various infectious diseases of the nervous system. The link between the agent that causes human deaths from vCJD and outbreaks of BSE in cattle appears to be dietary consumption of infected cattle products, including beef.
Nonvariant forms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), which was described before 1996, still exist and may have one of three causes: unknown (sporadic form); genetic mutation; or contaminants introduced during a medical procedure (conventional sterilization methods may not remove the prion that transmits the infection). According to the World Health Organization, less than 5 percent of nonvariant CJD cases are introduced through medical procedures. Nonvariant CJD is also universally fatal.
What is bovine spongiform encephalopathy (Mad Cow Disease)?
BSE is a progressive, fatal neurological disorder of cattle resulting from infection by a prion. A total of 217 patients with vCJD have been identified since 1996. The majority are from the United Kingdom (170) and other countries in Europe (41). Three have been reported in the U.S., but all three are thought to have acquired the disease overseas.
In addition to the cases of BSE reported in the United Kingdom (78 percent of all cases were reported there) and the U.S., cases have also been reported in other countries, including France, Spain, Netherlands, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Canada. Public health control measures have been implemented in many of the countries to prevent potentially BSE-infected tissues from entering the human food chain. These preventative measures appear to have been effective. For instance, Canada believes its prevention measures will eradicate the disease from its cattle population by 2017.
What is variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD)?
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) is a rare, fatal brain disorder that causes a rapid, progressive dementia (deterioration of mental functions), as well as associated neuromuscular disturbances. The disease, which in some ways resembles BSE, traditionally has affected men and women between the ages of 50 and 75. The variant form, however, affects younger people (the median age of onset is 28) and has atypical clinical features as compared with CJD.
What is the current risk of acquiring vCJD from eating beef and beef products produced from cattle in Europe?
Currently this risk appears to be very small, perhaps fewer than one case per 10 billion servings--if the risk exists at all. Travelers to Europe who are concerned about reducing any risk of exposure can avoid beef and beef products altogether, or can select beef or beef products, such as solid pieces of muscle meat, as opposed to ground beef and sausages. The solid pieces of beef have a reduced opportunity for contamination with tissues that may harbor the BSE agent. Milk and milk products are not believed to transmit the BSE agent. You cannot acquire vCJD or CJD by direct contact with a person who has the disease. Three cases acquired during transfusion of blood from an infected donor have been reported in the United Kingdom. Consult your doctor for more information. | <urn:uuid:2c895c2f-c6b7-4cbf-86df-9670aa5d489f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.barnesjewish.org/healthlibrary/default.aspx?ContentTypeId=85&ContentID=P01444 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961799 | 754 | 3.59375 | 4 |
Oran Park Raceway Pty Ltd Cobbitty Road
Narellan NSW 2567
Oran Park opened in 1962 and the circuit was extended in the early 1970s to create the present layout. The original lap distance of 1.0 miles (1.6 km) was extended to 1.21 miles (1.9 km) with a further extension in 1974 creating an alternative “Grand Prix” circuit of 1.63 miles (2.62 km) in length. The Grand Prix circuit featured a figure-of-eight configuration with a bridge where the track crossed over itself. Despite the loop the racing direction was still regarded as being anticlockwise. The complex also had a motocross track, a skidpan, a dirt track and four wheel drive course and a 1000 foot drag strip. Most of the circuit was visible from the main grandstand or the grassed banks surrounding the track.
In the era of the thundering V8 Formula 5000 cars, it twice hosted the Australian Grand Prix, won by Max Stewart (1974) and Warwick Brown (1978). Oran Park pioneered racing under lights and hosted the world superbike championship races when the series came to Australia for the first time in 1988. However, touring cars and then V8 Supercars have been Oran Park's biggest annual treat, regularly going close to filling the 30,000-capacity venue.
Tony Perich's family company Leppington Pastoral bought Oran Park Raceway in 1983. Perich became an overnight multimillionaire after his vast pastoral land holdings south-west of Sydney were rezoned for housing - land including the race track. The last motorcycle race meeting, the BelRay 6 Hour, was held on the 21/22 November 2009. The final race meeting was scheduled for 23-24 January 2010 but was cancelled due to a lack of entries. This meant that the Independant Race Series event on 16 January 2010 was in fact the last race meeting ever to be held at the circuit, which is now closed forever.
Perich has been speaking with the state government about zoning for three possible locations for a new circuit which he says are "not too far away" from Oran Park. Unlike the two plans before the government for temporary street racing circuits at the Olympic precinct at Homebush Bay, the new track will not require any taxpayer funding. A figure of $40 million was rumoured as the cost to build it.
The amiable but media-shy 65-year-old said he wants the track at the new western Sydney venue to incorporate many of the characteristics of his existing circuit. "All the good stuff that the drivers and the spectators like at Oran Park I want to recreate at the new place," Perich said. These include replicas of the notorious flip-flop and some of the challenging Oran Park corners. He expects the roller-coaster effect to be prominent and a natural amphitheatre for spectators. | <urn:uuid:3f29636b-11d3-4872-8ce7-4eac76b303ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.motorsportcircuitguide.com/circuit-directory.php?id=233 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968063 | 602 | 1.546875 | 2 |
[W]hen I asked a liberal longtime editor I know with a mainstream [publishing] house for a candid, shorthand version of the assumptions she and her colleagues make about conservatives, she didn't hesitate. Racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-choice fascists, she offered, smiling but meaning it.
Harry Stein, I Can't Believe I'm Sitting Next to a Republican
[T]he way to achieve a system of determining admission to the public schools on a nonracial basis,
Brown II, 349 U. S., at 300–301, is to stop assigning students on a racial basis. The way to stop
discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.
Roberts, C.J., Parents Involved in Community Schools vs. Seattle School District
[T]he Liberal, and still more the subspecies Radical... more than any other in these latter days seems under the impression that so long as he has a good end in view he is warranted in exercising over men all the coercion he is able[.]
Herbert Spencer, The Man Versus the State
[To make] of each individual member of the army a soldier who, in character, capability, and knowledge, is self-reliant, self-confident, dedicated, and joyful in taking responsibility [verantwortungsfreudig] as a man and a soldier.
Gen. Hans von Seeckt, quoted in MacGregor Knox, Williamson Murray, ed., The dynamics of military revolution, 1300-2050.
[The Axial Age] highlights the conception of a responsible self... [that] promise[s] man for the first time that he can understand the fundamental structure of reality and through salvation participate actively in it.
Robert N Bellah, "Religious Evolution", American Sociological Review, Vol. 29, No. 3.
[In the] higher Christian churches... they saunter through the liturgy like Mohawks along a string of scaffolding who have long since forgotten their danger. If God were to blast such a service to bits, the congregation would be, I believe, genuinely shocked. But in the low churches you expect it every minute.
Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm
[Every] sacrifice is an act of impurity that pays for a prior act of greater impurity... without its participants having to suffer the full consequences incurred by its predecessor. The punishment is commuted in a process that strangely combines and finesses the deep contradiction between justice and mercy.
Frederick Turner, Beauty: The Value of Values
Within Pentecostalism the injurious hierarchies of the wider world are abrogated and replaced by a single hierarchy of faith, grace, and the empowerments of the spirit... where groups gather on rafts to take them through the turbulence of the great journey from extensive rural networks to the mega-city and the nuclear family...
David Martin, On Secularization
What distinguishes true Conservatism from the rest, and from the Blair project, is the belief in more personal freedom and more market freedom, along with less state intervention... The true Third Way is the Holy Grail of Tory politics today - compassion and community without compulsion.
Minette Marrin, The Daily Telegraph
These emerge out of long-standing moral notions of freedom, benevolence, and the affirmation of ordinary life... I have been sketching a schematic map... [of] the moral sources [of these notions]... the original theistic grounding for these standards... a naturalism of disengaged reason, which in our day takes scientistic forms, and a third family of views which finds its sources in Romantic expressivism, or in one of the modernist successor visions.
Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self
There was nothing new about the Frankish drive to the east... [let] us recall that the continuance of their rule depended upon regular, successful, predatory warfare.
Richard Fletcher, The Barbarian Conversion
The Union publishes an exact return of the amount of its taxes; I can get copies of the budgets of the four and twenty component states; but who can tell me what the citizens spend in the administration of county and township?
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
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Georgetown, Ky., Feb. 19,1863.
"Will brother J. F. Johnson, of Kentucky, give his views on the number seven, as the term is used in the scriptures? What are we to understand by it? There has been a great deal said about the seven golden candlesticks, but the term seven was not explained to my satisfaction. It has been spoken of as a perfect number, but I want to know what we are to understand from it." John Crihfield.
Brother Beebe, I find the foregoing request in the 14th number of the past volume of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. Past experience proves to me that I cannot render satisfaction to all the readers of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES in my attempts to answer their requests through that medium for my views on passages of the holy scriptures. I have received several private letters within the past few months; some commendatory and others adverse to the views I have heretofore given through the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. Permit me here to say that I am pleased that the columns of your periodical have been open for the discussion of the various subjects upon which we have written, if that discussion is conducted in a proper spirit, and that those who may see that I err, instead of my displeasure, will receive my hearty thanks for the detection of my errors through the same medium in which they are circulated. Whether I really know what we are to understand from the number seven as it is used in the scriptures, is a matter for those scriptures to decide, and for my brethren to judge when I shall have given them my views. The word seven, and its derivatives, are used perhaps over three hundred times in the holy scriptures, far exceeding in frequency that of any other number, which circumstance alone would induce us to suppose that an importance is attached to it above that of other numbers. Cruden, Butterworth and Brown all define it to be "a number of perfection," and they are the only theological lexicographers I have examined respecting it. Admitting those authors to be correct in their definition of the term, let us endeavor to examine it according to their description and in the light of scripture. In the second chapter of Genesis and second verse the number is first alluded to, where, it is said, "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from his work which he had made." Concluding that seven is "a number of perfection," I suppose that we have here exhibited the perfection of God's creation as to time, manner, matter, and every thing else pertaining thereto. His wisdom, his power, his glory and his eternal Godhead were conspicuously developed on the seventh day. What a miraculous display of the perfection of the Deity was portrayed on that day! Above us the sun, "which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race," flings out from his golden face myriads of brilliant beams, spreading over the wide domain of God's creation a lustrous flood of effulgence to lay open to view and decorate with beauty the wide expanse and great variety of herbage and animalcules as they drifted in untold multitudes from the prolific breath of the Almighty, when he spake and it was done, commanded and it stood fast. In that lucid flood we behold the perfection of creation in all the verdure and beautiful scenery that surrounds us, in every crawling insect, rambling beast and fluttering fowl that we behold. Yonder, in the watery world, the aqueous tribes equally exhibit the perfection of the work of God. Ranged in perfect order from the lowest up to the highest grade, all, all occupying the precise location or moving in the exact sphere in which the perfection of his wisdom, in his undeviating counsel and immutable decree, had ordered, so that the sweet singer of Israel was constrained to cry out with rapture, "All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord, and thy saints shall bless thee." With profound adoration and ineffable delight, with hearts attuned with sweetest concord, and voices swelling the noblest strains of melody, caroling the highest praises of the great Creator, "The morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy" in view of the perfection of the handiwork of God. The same perfection is seen in the fair-faced moon, as she majestically moves onward in her nocturnal journey, the quivering stars, whether stationary or rolling along their shining pathway in their respective orbits, although they may glide onward with the rapidity of the electric flash, and although myriads of them were flung like flaming meteors from his almighty hand, each one under the directory of the perfect law of nature's God, has traced the line marked out by the finger of perfection, so that, in all the thousands of years that have gone by not one has been known to conflict with its fellow. Thus the "number of perfection" evinces the perfect time, the perfect manner and the perfect order in which the perfect works of God are seen as accomplished by the hand of perfection.
"Perfection is seen in the works of his hand,
In the spheres that they move, in the order they stand;
Perfection rules regent, Jehovah must reign,
In the heavens, the earth, and the wide spreading main."
Again, to prove the perfection of his providence and his purposes concerning the children of Israel in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh is made to see in his dreams seven well favored kine, fat-fleshed, and seven ill-favored ones, lean-fleshed, the latter eating up the former; and seven ears of corn to come up upon one stalk, rank and good, and seven blasted ones upon another, blasted with the east wind, the latter devouring the former; which Joseph interprets to be seven years of plenty and seven of famine, the latter consuming the production of the former; thus opening the way for the transition of the Israelites to Egypt, where the Lord perfected all his works there concerning them. In the giving of the law to his people Israel, and in their obedience of his statutes, he particularizes the seventh day, the seventh week, the seventh month, the seventh year, and the seven times seven or forty and ninth year, as a memorial and testimonial of the perfection of his work, of his rest, and of all his works of perfection concerning them. - Exodus xx. 10; Deuteronomy xvi. 9; and Numbers xxix. 1. Exhibiting the perfection of his conquests in their behalf, he drives out seven nations before them mightier than they, (Deut. vii. 1,) causing them to flee seven ways. (xxviii. 7) And when he led Joshua and his hosts before the strong-walled city of Jericho, to illustrate the perfection of the victory there; seven priests, bearing seven trumpets, were to compass the city seven days, and on the seventh seven times blowing upon their trumpets. Josh. vi. 4-16. If, indeed, our authors are correct, that the Lord designed and the Jews regarded the number seven as "a number of perfection," we shall find, of course, that where he uses it, or where they use it under his supervision, that perfection will be exhibited in connection with the use of the term. And is not that perfection clearly manifest in the circumstances thus far alluded to?
Next, let us refer to a few of the many cases where the term is used in relation to the sacramental order, the altar, offerings, sacrifices and purifications connected with that order. In the first place Aaron's habiliments were to consist of seven articles. The coat, the robe of the ephod, the breastplate, the girdle, the mitre and the holy crown upon the mitre. The son that succeeded him in the high priest's office, when he came into the congregation to minister in the holy place in his father's stead, was to put on those seven articles seven days; and seven days were necessary to make an atonement and sanctify the altar upon which the offerings were to be made. - Ex. xxix. 5, 6, 30-37, and Lev. xvi. 19. Again, the blood of the bullock which Aaron was to offer for himself and house was to be sprinkled upon the mercy seat seven times. - Lev. xvi. 14. Time would fail me to mention the different instances in which the number seven is used in the purifications, offerings and sacrifices, and in regard to the time of those rituals. In the cleansing of the leper the priest was to sprinkle him with the blood of the bleeding bird seven times, then the leper was to tarry out of his tent seven days, and the seventh day to shave off his hair; and a part of the offering which he was to make was "a log of oil," a portion of which the priest was to sprinkle before the Lord seven times. - Lev. xiv. 7-9, 16-27. The Syrian general, Naaman, was commanded by Elisha, the prophet, to wash in the Jordan seven times, and the result was a perfect cleansing of his leprosy. - 2 Kings v. 10-14. When David and his hosts went to the house of Obed-Edom to bring to the house of David the ark of the Lord, the Levites offered seven bullocks and seven rams; and when Hezekiah had thoroughly cleansed the house of the Lord he ordered to be offered for the kingdom, for the sanctuary and for Judah seven bullocks, seven rams, seven lambs and seven he goats. - 2 Chron. xxix. 21. All these, and numerous other texts of the same class which might be adduced, evidently stand as so many prominent directories to the one great propitiatory sacrifice that was offered on Calvary, and which "PERFECTED FOREVER them that are sanctified." In connection with the foregoing texts we might contemplate upon the seventh day on which God rested, and on which he commanded the twelve tribes to rest, as indicative of the perfect rest that remains for his people. To illustrate the perfection of God's work as to the time, manner, &c., of his dealings in reference to that people, a holy convocation was inaugurated for the seventh month, and within the same a feast of seven days. - Lev. xxiii. 21; Num. xxix. 1-12. In this holy convocation in the month Abib, which was the seventh month of the civil year, the feast of the Passover was observed by Moses, (Deut. xv. 1,) and in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh of the sacred year, the same feast was observed by Solomon when he assembled the elders of Israel, the heads of the tribes, fathers, &c., to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the city of David to the house of the Lord, which Solomon built, (I Kings viii. 1, 2,) to memorialize the paschal lamb, the exit from Egyptian bondage, and point to the Lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice that perfected his people forever. In the seventh year, to indicate the "perfect law of liberty," and the rest which God vouchsafes to his people, every Hebrew that had been sold into bondage was to be peremptorily released, the land, servants, beasts, all were to rest. Not only was the seventh year thus to be celebrated, but the Lord said, "and thou shalt remember seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years." Then came the year of general release or grand sabbatical year, when not only the Jews and hired servants were to be released who had been sold into bondage, but all debts were to be canceled, all lands and other property that had been alienated were to be restored to the tribes or families to which they formerly belonged; when the great trump of jubilee was to sound, and the Lord said, "And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. - Lev. xxv. 2-16. Thus we see typically and beautifully portrayed the perfect release of the people of God from the bondage of sin, the perfect liquidation of every claim that stood against them, and the perfect rest that remains for them. Moreover, the church, to exhibit the spotless purity with which Christ has enrobed her, is comparable to "a candlestick of pure gold;" and, in Zech. iv. 2, as having attached to it seven lamps and seven pipes, to exhibit the perfection of the light as it radiates from the lamps, and produced by the blazing oil, conducted through the seven pipes to the seven lamps at their terminus, from the bowl upon the top of it, which I suppose, represents Christ, united to the church as her head, and from whom emanates all the effulgence of the "Father of lights," in all its pristine purity and perfection. Then again, to remind us of the perfection of the instruction which his words afford her, they are compared to silver purified seven times. Psalm xii. 6. Still further to elicit the perfection of the church and the light afforded her, her seven branches in Asia are presented as seven golden candlesticks, and her seven servants as seven stars in the right hand of the "Alpha and Omega," to reflect, not their own light, but that of the "SUN of Righteousness," as the literal stars do the rays of the sun in the firmament. - Rev.i. 12-20. But we are not to suppose that seven, as used in the scriptures, always brings to view that definite number. It is often used to show a perfect fullness or sufficiency, as in Zech. iii. 9, "Behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes;" showing, as I suppose, the full, complete and perfect vision of the BRANCH, the foundation stone; and, in Rev. v. 6, the Lamb was seen, "having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God." Here, I think, is evinced the perfection of his power in the horns, the perfection of his vision in the eyes, all to exhibit the perfection of the work of the Spirit. Again, to show the perfect and final overthrow of the enemies of God and his people, John saw seven angels with seven trumpets to sound the alarm at the approach of the terrible judgments of God. - Rev. viii. 2-6. A mighty angel came down from heaven clothed with a cloud, and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. - Rev. x. 3. To consummate the dreadful destruction another sign is seen in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues of God, in which is filled up the wrath of God. "And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen &c." And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth forever and ever. - Rev. xv. 1, 6, 7. But I am extending my remarks too far, and must look out for a lighting place. Volumes might be written on the subject. A cursory review and I shall have done. I have endeavored to elucidate, in my feeble way, some of the perfections of God in his works of creation, providence and grace. The entrance of sin into the world presents an opportunity for a sublime and conspicuous display of the latter. Therein is exemplified the counterpart of God's perfection. Man, the crowning piece of creation, engulfs himself and all his race into the dark abyss of sin, of imperfection. And, from the time he sets out on his dreary and wayward journey, whether by sea or land, imperfection trails in his wake or follows in his footsteps. The thoughts and imaginations of his heart are all imperfect - his words, his works, his ways, all, all imperfect. But God ordained to overrule all this to the development of his own glory, "to the praise of the glory of his grace;" for says David, "All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord;" and "surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, the remainder of wrath thou shalt restrain." The salvation of his people from their sins shall unfold the perfection of his grace; the destruction of his enemies by his power shall disclose the glory of his justice. O, my brethren, while we lament the imperfection of our depraved nature and OUR works, let us rejoice in the Lord and exult in HIS toward us, "for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." Still, "it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." That will be perfection enough for us. "Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face." Now we know in part only, "but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part (or imperfect) shall be done away." Then, "let us go on unto perfection,” for thither shall we all appear at last. Our Savior will appear the second time, without sin unto salvation. Yes, "He that shall come will come, and will not tarry." "And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." That brightness, that divine effulgence shall dissipate the gloom, sweep away, as with angels' wings, all the rubbish of imperfection; therefore each one may confidently say, "The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me; thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever; forsake not the works of thine own hands."
With unabated affection your brother in tribulation,
J. F. JOHNSON. | <urn:uuid:1a82558e-836f-407c-9d80-64a18639346b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://asweetsavor.info/johnson/seven.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97494 | 3,871 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Byline: Rachel Armstrong
DEBILITATING, frightening and much misunderstood, migraine is the most common neurological condition in the developed world -- but few non-sufferers appreciate how serious it really is.
It affects 10% of the population and there are more than six million migraine sufferers in the UK -- more than the number of diabetics, epileptics and asthmatics combined. But migraines are still dismissed by many people as just a headache.
Migraine Awareness Week, running until September 11, aims to change this by informing the public about a condition which disrupts millions lives.
Anita Few, executive officer of The Migraine Action … | <urn:uuid:4b0ed406-4b4f-4f00-8a7e-7205caee913e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.questia.com/library/1G1-121677325/viva-migraine-misery-there-are-six-million-uk-sufferers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948612 | 139 | 2.15625 | 2 |
A key issue in the continuing debate about care services in England is the need for more integrated care. It is accepted across the political spectrum that for too long, NHS and social care providers have failed to co-ordinate their work fully. As a consequence, the effectiveness of care has been reduced and the patient experience diminished, while scarce resources have not been best used.
Poor care integration is particularly important given the continuing increase, as the population ages, in the numbers of people living with long-term conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. Care for these people will inevitably require complex co-ordination of services if it is to be effective.
The Department of Health recently released an independent evaluation of integrated care pilots carried out by Ernst & Young and Rand Europe. The evaluation looked at the work of 16 pilots established in 2009. Each was designed to support closer working between different care providers – most focused on integrating general practice, community nursing and social services – but some attempted to integrate hospital services with those provided in the community.
The evaluation found that, from the perspective of pilot staff, integration was a success. A majority felt that they had enjoyed better teamworking and communication, had increased the breadth and depth of their jobs and that, overall, patient care had improved as a result.
Analysis of hospital care showed that the pilots had failed to reduce the numbers of emergency admissions to hospital, one of their key aims, but they had reduced significantly outpatient hospital attendances and admissions for planned care. This meant that the overall use of hospital care had decreased as a result of integration.
Patient responses to the pilots were less positive. While they reported receiving more care plans and that care was better co-ordinated when they were discharged from hospital, they also found it more difficult to see the nurse of their choice, felt listened to less frequently and felt less involved in decisions about their care.
Overall, these results provide grounds for cautious optimism that integrated care may deliver at least some of its hoped for benefits.
However, it is a big assumption to make that even modest gains achieved in a pilot environment will be easily translated to the NHS and social care systems generally.
The evaluation found that when implementing change on a relatively small scale, the complexity of integration across organisational boundaries challenged even the generally strong pilot leaders.
These leaders faced a number of obstacles, including having to cope with different procedures and regulations within the different organisations that were integrating. This made some objectives, such as pooling budgets across sectors, difficult.
Pilots also frequently found what they felt to be bureaucratic barriers getting in the way and slowing down progress. In one case, the national co-operation and competition panel felt it had to rule on whether the proposal to integrate services contravened competition rules within the NHS.
In many pilots, having leaders drawn from clinical staff was a big advantage in terms of motivating others to participate and in giving credibility to the venture. However, by being outside of the formal management chain of the NHS, those clinical leaders often had to seek approval further up the chain – something that may change as new clinical commissioning groups take charge of NHS commissioning from next year.
It is significant that the pilots were selected from among willing volunteers. Moreover, they received financial and other support from Whitehall and had the prestige of being national pilot sites.
Those following after will have to succeed in a different, and in some ways harsher, environment. This will place an even greater premium on leadership capability.
Richard Lewis is a partner at Ernst & Young LLP | <urn:uuid:0c44b440-7349-4594-b62e-60c7eb087be4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.guardian.co.uk/public-leaders-network/2012/apr/30/integrating-health-social-care-challenge | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983492 | 717 | 2.203125 | 2 |
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Proceedings of The Physiological Society
Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife (2003) J Physiol 548P, P168
Kinetics of procalcitonin in neutropaenic rats after bacterial and viral fevers
M.L. Ojeda, R. Maldonado, E. Tavares, D. Chbihi, A. Fernández-Alonso and F.J. Miñano
Unidad de Investigación, División de Farmacología Experimental y Clínica, Hospital de Valme, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Sevilla, Ctra de Cádiz s/n, Sevilla, 41014, Spain
Procalcitonin (PCT) concentration increases in bacterial infections but remains low in viral infections. Studies to date have demonstrated that PCT is synthesized and release in response to appropiate stimuli in the face of immunosuppression and leukopaenia.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the dynamics of PCT and fever in a neutropaenic rat model of gram-negative (lipopolysaccharide, LPS) and virus (polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid, poly I:C) sepsis that mimics the series of pathophysiological events that may accompany the administration of cytoreductive chemotherapy in cancer patients.
Male Wistar rats were used (weighing 250-275 g; Charles River Laboratory, Barcelona, Spain). All of the experimental procedures were performed following guidelines from the European Union (86/609/EU) and Spanish regulations (BOE/67:8509/1988) for the use of laboratory animals in chronic experiments. Body temperature (Tb) (± 0.1 °C) was measured by biotelemetry using transmitters (Mini Mitter, Sunriver, OR, USA) implanted intraperitoneally (I.P.) at least 7 days before the onset of experimentation, the rats were anaesthetised with a mixture of ketamine and xylazine I.P. All drugs were injected I.P. (Miñano et al. 1996).
Neutropaenia (< 50 mm3) was induced by injecting a first dose of cyclophosphamide (150 mg kg-1) and a second one (50 mg kg-1) at day 3. LPS (50 µg kg-1), poly I:C (100 µg kg-1) or an equivalent volume of pyrogen-free saline were administered 1 day after the second dose of cyclophosphamide (Bhattacharjee et al. 1994). Serum PCT levels were measured by immunoluminometric assay with a sensitivity of 0.1 ng ml-1.
Intraperitoneal injection of either LPS or poly I:C produced fever of greater magnitude in neutropenic animals. The febrile response induced by LPS was significantly higher than that induced by poly I:C. Time-kinetics studies demonstrated that the production of PCT was markedly increased at 8 h after LPS challenge in non-immunosuppessed animals and at 8 h after poly I:C challenge in neutropenic rats.
These results confirm that PCT is a well-known tool for detection of bacterial gram-negative fevers in immunocompetent animals. However, in contrast to normal rats, PCT was significantly increased during fever induced by poly I:C in neutropaenic rats. Finally, present data suggest that different cellular and humoral mechanisms, which may have important therapeutic implications, are involved in the development of a febrile response triggered by a bacterial and viral infection in normal and neutropenic animals.
Where applicable, experiments conform with Society ethical requirements | <urn:uuid:f87c8d4c-534e-459c-a7ed-de630cec9b5c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.physoc.org/proceedings/abstract/J%20Physiol%20548PP168 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901548 | 913 | 1.523438 | 2 |
TO READ THE BRITISH PRESS, you would think the only things worth hearing about Argentina (after its reliability in producing world-class footballers) are the political class and its preoccupation with the Falkland Islands.
But though the bickering over sovereignty comes and goes with the regularity of mid-Atlantic storms, one of the untold stories is the UK’s success in sending its goods and services to the home of Eva Perón and the gaucho.
In 2011, a year in which UK economic growth was less than 1%, and the eurozone crisis prompted economists and politicians alike to exhort commerce to find alternative export destinations, British exports to Argentina grew by an impressive 16%. The message had been heard and exporters had begun working outside Europe with gusto.
However, the success of the burgeoning UK-Argentine business relationship has been thrown into jeopardy by a dramatic change in the attitude of Buenos Aires to imports. Indeed, the country’s leaders have done their best to shut down a good deal of cross-border trade with a policy that appears to owe more to populist protectionism than it does to reasoned economic policy, resulting in a damaged economy and frustrated business people across Argentina.
Gabriela Castro-Fontoura, an export consultant working with UK businesses shipping to Latin America, says: “The whole protectionism issue is from 50 years ago. They are really contracting their growth. Argentina is suffering.”
And that’s a shame because, excepting the occasional flare-up in the ongoing Falklands row, things had been going well for Argentina. Following the economic melt-down of the early noughties and the country’s vast sovereign debt crisis, the country and its economy were back in the saddle. Between 2003 and 2011, Argentinian GDP grew by an average annual rate of 7.8%. After a stumble in 2009 when growth plummeted, it reached the heady heights of 9.2% in 2010 and 8.9% a year later. Imports have also been seen to grow at impressive levels, clocking up a 42% rise in 2011. The country’s economy was growing fast and had an apparently insatiable appetite for overseas goods and services. It is the 19th largest economy in the world, has a distinctly European outlook, and boasts a business sector that was functioning enthusiastically.
But that all came to abrupt end in October 2011 upon the landslide re-election of president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Faced with growing public expenditure and twitchiness over the levels of dollar reserves to settle sovereign debt,-- Kirchner and her commerce secretary Guillermo Moreno decided to clamp down on imports. Hard.
The result? Growth plummeted. Final figures for 2012 are expected to show it reached only 2.6%, though a rally to 3% is forecast for 2013.
What Kirchner and Moreno did was introduce the now notorious import permission regime, which combined a heavy-handed approach to closing down chunks of cross-border trade with an apparent arbitrary attitude to what would be allowed to cross the country’s borders. Those who experienced the period speak of a raft of new rules, sometimes unarticulated, that seemed to change what could and could not be shipped - on a whim and without reason. Some goods would get in; others wouldn’t. Shipments could be cleared by customs efficiently or they could sit waiting for months.
Rice and paper cups
The core rationale was that goods that could be produced in Argentina should not be imported and goods should be balanced by an equal value in exports when they were brought in. The approach has led to some unlikely business deals.
To keep the door open for their high-performance cars, BMW became an Argentinean exporter of processed rice. Subaru ships out chicken feed, Mitsubishi peanuts, and Porsche trades in olives and Malbec wine. Last year, Businessweek cited the case of a local bicycle maker who began exporting agricultural parts so he could import gears from Shimano in Japan. Starbucks came a cropper when it was stopped from importing its paper cups and was forced to source what some described as inferior products from local suppliers (the issue became a local PR disaster when the chain appeared to apologise for the quality of the Argentinian mugs on Twitter). Other brands simply closed the storm shutters. Both Cartier and Louis Vuitton felt forced to lock the doors of shops in the capital.
Recent communications have given reason for optimism, though. In January, Buenos Aires announced the import regime would be reformed, though how and when remain a mystery. And there are those who still see Argentina as an attractive destination, even if it is one with its own peculiarities.
“Argentina is an exciting market but not one without complications or red tape. UK companies and products are well received and the market is prepared to pay higher prices for them as they are perceived as coming along with good quality, service and longer life spans,” says Alfredo Ferreira, the deputy director of trade and investment at the British Embassy in Buenos Aires.
In some ways, a veneer of stability has settled on Argentine imports though it is still subject to a degree of capriciousness. Experts make plain that attempting to move “retail” or “consumer” goods into the country is a lost cause, unless you’re willing to follow BMW’s lead. Largely acceptable, however, are capital goods - contributions to infra-structure or services such as consultancy (it’s much harder to regulate advice).
Chief among the British exports to Argentina are pharmaceuticals, chemicals, power-generating equipment, industrial machinery and scientific instruments. Anything that adds value.
Sheffield Forgemasters ships vast steel rolls (160 tonnes) to Argentina for use in the production of aluminium sheets. CFO Neil Maskrey says the company, which exports 90% of its production, now has a flourishing market serving the country’s two largest local smelters -- Aluar and Metallurgica Oliva - with products that he says push the “boundaries of technology” and “add value”.
“Everything we do is at the high end of the market. Our customers recognise that,” he explains.
And that’s a key insight for would-be UK exporters. Adding value counts. But Maskrey observes that access to what he describes as “blue-chip” clients comes on condition. One being representation by a quality local agent. Maskrey says: “We use a number of agents and we rely on them and their local market intelligence.”
He’s not alone in that view. With such import regulations being as complex as they are, local knowledge is at a premium. According to Gabriela Castro-Fontoura, this is for two key reasons. Completion of the import paperwork has to be absolutely correct to appease pedantic local officials. And exporters need to know the market well and calculate whether it’s worth the investment. Even though the population stands at 40 million, wealth is concentrated. There may be relatively small markets for some products or services.
Castro-Fontoura calls the preparatory work “investment” because of the high cost of research. She estimates most export projects take a minimum of 12 months between first moves and shipping, and possibly a lot longer, a period that will cost in terms of travel and building the necessary personal relationships that are expected. Neil Maskrey says he travels extensively, but Castro-Fontoura stresses when talking about Argentina: “There are no quick wins” - and adds that the country is best suited to companies “with a strategic vision and the cashflow to sustain it”.
Market development costs can soon mount. Investigation into trademark and intellectual property legalities, and uncertainty around the import license arrangements, can make the cost difficult to forecast. A pricing strategy will have to be thought out too, as Argentine inflation currently runs at about 9%. Big local prices don’t necessarily mean big margins.
Import duties can be a hefty blow, charged as they are somewhere between three and 32%, and there is an additional tax of 5% of value (including shipping and insurance) on some goods. Other goods may attract punitive levies of 70-80%, depending on what they are, making the up-front research a must. “FDs get very frustrated,” says Castro-Fontoura - as calculating a return on investment can prove a moving target.
But if there is one thing that concerns some agents, it is corruption. While relationships with the private sector are considered clean and easygoing, there are warnings about the behaviour of some public officials. A survey in 2010 by Transparency International found that 12% of those polled locally had paid a bribe, 62% felt that corruption was increasing, and 77% believed that government efforts to deal with it were ineffective. This is important for British exporters that are governed by the UK Bribery Act 2010 which makes the bribing of foreign public officials a crime. Castro-Fontoura says it is one of her top five issues to be aware of in Argentina and has blogged that the country is known for it across Latin America.
That aside, Argentina remains a country open to Brits with a quality product or service to sell. Argentine business people are described as “skilfull negotiators” with great communication skills. Others describe them as genuinely creative in the way they will approach the details of deal.
Ferreira, at the British Embassy in Buenos Aires, sees the Argentine door as open to Brits: “It is a wealthy and sophisticated market that can afford to look beyond short-term costs or financial implications and will hence appreciate and recognise quality.”
Key facts: Argentina
GDP growth 2012: 2.5%
UK/Argentina exports: £414m
Argentina/UK exports: £589m
Primary imports: Chemicals, vehicles, industrial machinery, power generating equipment, beverages, professional and scientific instruments
Getting paid: Letters of Credit are recommended when starting operations; local customers may wish to move into other payment forms including advance payments
Negotiations: Be prepared to discuss all aspects of a contract simultaneously rather than sequentially; Make sure that you have a local lawyer for contract issues
Intellectual property rights: Manufacturers are strongly advised to patent their inventions and register their trademarks in Argentina.
Customs duties: Samples worth less than US$1,000 (AR$4,500) do not incur customs duty but do attract handling and storage charges. For samples over US$1,000 normal customs duties and clearance procedures apply.
Labelling: Labelling and packaging details should be agreed with the importer to avoid delays in clearing the goods.
Staffing: Wages are increasing substantially every year accompanying a real inflation of over 20% per year whilst the exchange rate remains stable
Legal environment: Foreign and Argentine companies are treated equally under Argentine law and regulations; legal processes in Argentina can be as expensive as in the UK but can take even longer
Source: UK Trade & Investment
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Want to be healthier? Detox your body. It’s like getting a car wash – but for your insides.
Take algae tabs. Here’s why.
You wouldn’t drive your car forever without occasionally taking it to the car wash or changing the oil. Right? Well your body needs the occasional clean up too. Detoxing is one way to do this. But detoxing doesn’t mean you have to give up food (unless of course you want to). You can detox slowly, just by making better food choices and by taking algae, which is a natural detoxifier/blood builder. This is because algae is a plant based protein and has the highest concentration of chlorophyll in the world. Chlorophyll is a recognized antioxidant and blood builder which detoxes, cleanses and builds. Chlorella algae like that found in our RECOVERYbits® also has a unique ability to absorb toxins and remove them from your body. This combined with its higher concentration of chlorophyll (more than spirulina algae), makes it the preferred algae for detoxing. So if you want to supercharge the detox you are already on or if the prospect of a cleanse is too overwhelming, just take RECOVERYbits® on a daily basis. It's like giving your insides a bath. Bubbles optional.
- Detox and Cleansing
- Removing Heavy Metals
- Building Immune System
- Longevity and Wellness
- Hangover Prevention
Detoxing can be a Long Process
Have you ever redecorated or peeled wallpaper or paint from walls? If you have, you’ll know that things can get pretty messy before they get better. Nevertheless, the end result is always worth it. Right? Well, detoxing is a bit like that. As you clean out the toxins your body has stored for years, you release a lot of gunk. It’s a lot like peeling off those old layers of paint before you can start over.
When you detox, its like telling the toxins that have been comfortably hanging out in your cells, colon, or fat, that the party is over and its time to “leave the building”. So what happens next? Well, your body is as efficient as FedEx. Once toxins have been told by your cells to get lost, their pickup and departure is rapid. They are then dumped into your bloodstream, which knows it needs to get these unwelcome guests quickly on their way and readied for rapid removal (sweating, bowel movements, urine or a combination). But before your toxins can hit that exit ramp, they need to travel a quite a distance through your body.
If you’ve ever driven behind a garbage truck, you know that it isn’t pretty and in fact can be very stinky. Detoxing can be a bit like that. All those toxins which have quietly been squatting in your body and slowly doing damage, have been suddenly yanked from their perch and unceremoniously asked to “leave the building.” So they’re not about to leave without making a stink. Literally. As a result, when these toxins move through your blood stream to get to their ultimate destination (out of your body), you MIGHT experience the occasional headache, breakout or upset tummy. But it won’t last long (7-10 days). And it might not happen at all. But if it does, just keep reminding yourself that this temporary inconvenience is better than letting these harmful toxins stay in your body where they quietly and maliciously chip away at your health and your body. The more detoxing and cleansing you do, the better you will feel. By the way, detoxing not only cleanses your body but also your mind and spirit, so much so, that eventually your entire body will be humming along like a Ferrari on the Autobahn. And who doesn’t want that? Vroom Vroom.
Why Algae Helps
Why does Algae Help you Detox?
Algae helps you detox physically and mentally because it is 100% green, 60% protein, has 40 naturally occurring vitamins and minerals and the highest concentration of chlorophyll in the world. This helps activate the enzymes and processes that are part of the detox and the cell building process. Nothing in the world has as much nutrition or can help your body cleanse and rebuild as naturally as algae. Chlorophyll is also a blood builder so as it detoxes you, it also helps you rebuild. That's what we affectionately call a win-win. In fact did you know that the molecular composition of chlorophyll is IDENTICAL to the molecular composition of human blood? Well, it is and there is only one atom that is different. In humans the central atom is iron while in the plant chlorophyll it is magnesium. Other than this small difference, they are identical. In fact the two are so identical that during WW II when there were shortages of blood for transfusions, liquid chlorophyll was instead. It was even used on the skin as a natural antiseptic. Are you excited yet by what all this chlorophyll will do for you? We are!
Why some consider Chlorella the king of detox
Any of our algae tabs will help you cleanse and detox, but our RECOVERYbits® are specifically known for their detox and toxin removal characteristics. This is because they are chlorella algae. The remarkable detoxing ability of chlorella algae was first discovered in Japan after the Hiroshima bombings, when chlorella was given to the population just as a healthy source of protein. Remarkably, those who ate the chlorella algae, recovered from the devastating nuclear radiation poisoning that had resulted from the Hiroshima bombings. This discovery led to an extensive study of chlorella first by the USA Government and then by the Japanese Government. Tens of thousands of studies on chlorella have been conducted over the last fifty years, all of which confirm this amazing ability of chlorella algae to absorb toxins (any toxins - from radiation to mercury to alcohol) and remove them from the body. These findings, combined with the knowledge that algae is the most concentrated source of protein available on the planet, led the Japanese to build chlorella farming, into the billion dollar industry it is now. For the last fifty years, chlorella has been taken by most Japanese on a daily basis. It is still unknown in the USA. But with the launch of our algae tabs, we’re hoping to change that. It's finally your turn to experience the amazing benefits of chlorella.
Why Drink Water?
OK, so now you know that algae can help you feel like a superhero. But you’re not done yet. You also need water. Lots of it. And no, coffee or soda's don’t count. Nice try though.
Think about this. When you were a kid, you probably had a gold fish. Right? Remember what happened when you didn’t change the water? It got murky. Your goldfish seemed depressed, stopped swimming or worse – died. Poor thing. But once you cleaned out the bowl and replaced it with fresh water, little “Goldie” was probably back doing laps again, maybe even back flips like Dr. Seuss’s “One Fish, Two Fish”. Well, your body’s cells are just like little Goldie They need a constant supply of fresh water and if they don’t get it, they slowly but surely shut down, just like little Goldie. Without a daily supply of fresh water, the water around your cells gets dirty, murky and toxic like the water in your goldfish bowl did. Yuck. Who wants dirty goldfish water sloshing around inside them? Not us. Not Goldie. And not you either. So drink up. Drink often. And hopefully drink with our algae tabs.
But seriously, here’s why you and your need water. Your brain is 75% water. In fact, your muscles are 75% water too. Ever notice how you get thirsty when you lift weights? You do lift weights don’t you? The point is, your body is over 60% water and some parts are even higher, like your blood and lungs which are 90% water. Did you know your body is constantly rebuilding itself? Yup, your bones, your organs, your skin, absolutely everything is in a constant state of re-growth 24/7. Can you imagine a skyscraper built without steel? Well, water is one of your body’s most critical building materials and it can’t build healthy bones, organs or anything else for you without water. Not only that, but water is what moves stuff around in your body. Not having enough water is like not having enough construction workers on a work site. Donald Trump would not be amused. So, as you can see, water does much more than just quench your thirst. It actually helps to build and run your body efficiently. That’s why just an occasional glass of water isn’t enough. You really need those eight glasses every day. Sounds like a lot. We know.
So, lets do the math. Each day, a typical adult loses an average of six cups of water from urine, four cups from breathing, sweating and bowel movements and two to three cups from digestion. That’s twelve cups even before you add in the dehydrating effects of caffeine, stress or exercise. Granted some of your H20 needs could come from your diet but only if you are eating a lot of fruits and vegetables. And no, French fries do not count. Nice try though. So we bet you are walking around dehydrated but just don’t know it. When you are dehydrated, you fatigue easily and nothing works as well as it should. In fact, without sufficient water, your body thinks it's in survival mode. And when this happens, your body behaves like a squirrel who hides nuts before the winter. It holds on to and stores whatever water it can get its hands on –causing swelling in feet, legs, hands, or horror of horrors - weight gain. But once you give your body what it needs, this stored water is usually released. Say hello to more energy and weight loss.
By the way, that eight glasses of water a day is just a starting point. Your body treats water like a bank account. Every time you drink water, it’s like you’re making a deposit into the account. But unlike a real bank account where you are the only one authorized to make withdrawals, water withdrawals from your body can be made without your authorization or knowledge. Yikes! That’s right. It’s like giving thousands of total strangers your ATM card and PIN number and allowing them to withdraw whatever they want, whenever they want. And they do. The result? You become bankrupt, of water. And who are these unscrupulous strangers making these unauthorized withdrawals? Some are things you can control like your food and drink (eg caffeine and sugary foods are very dehydrating). Others are things you can’t control like breathing. Remember those twelve cups of water that you lose each day? Without making additional water “deposits” (i.e. drinking more water) to cover these other "unauthorized" water withdrawals your body can easily go into “overdraft” and become bankrupt i.e. dehydrated.
Still not convinced you need water? Then consider what happens when you get dehydrated. Without water in your body, you would be poisoned by your own waste products. Whoa! That got your attention didn’t it? Sorry for the drama. But here's what happens. During dehydration, the water surrounding your cells is reduced, leaving the small remaining amount to become stagnant and loaded with toxins. As dehydration continues, since your body absolutely has to have water surrounding its cells (to perform all its daily duties), it pulls out water from inside your cells. Yup, like a fugitive on the run, your body literally “steals” water where ever it can find it, from inside your cells, your blood, your organs and even from inside your colon (a big contributor to constipation). This continues until your cells finally lose all or most of their internal water, shrivel up, malfunction or become damaged. You can usually stop these early stages of dehydration just by drinking more water, but most people have no idea they are dehydrated. Too bad because there are so many health conditions that could be eased just by drinking more water. Who knew? Well, now you do. So drink up and drink often – preferably with our algae tabs. Heck they’re even approved by Goldie! | <urn:uuid:831341f2-1233-4cac-977a-59eb8b0e08e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.skinnybits.com/index.php/detox-cleanse | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964109 | 2,660 | 1.734375 | 2 |
For release: February 13, 2009
For press information, contact Brandy Hunter, 901-678-6244 or Cody Newman, 901-461-8654
As part of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (Feb. 22-28), the University of
Memphis will host the West Tennessee premiere of the documentary film America the Beautifulon Tuesday, February 24, in the Michael D. Rose Theatre. A reception will begin at
6 p.m., followed at 7 p.m. by the film and a panel discussion with its writer and
producer, Darryl Roberts.
The film explores the question of whether America has an unhealthy obsession with
beauty. It is presented by Active Minds and the Student Dietetic Association, in
partnership with the Eating Disorders Coalition of Tennessee.
The event is free and open to the public. Convenient parking is available in the
Zach Curlin garage or in the Southern Avenue parking lot.
On Thursday, February 26, a panel discussion featuring Dr. Beth Lyons and Leslie Schilling
will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. in Brister Hall, Room 220. They will discuss the prevalence
of eating disorders on college campuses and what college communities can do to aid
in eating-disorder awareness.
The event is free and open to the public, but reservations are recommended. Reservations
may be made by calling Brandy Hunter at 901-351-4734 or Cody Newman at 901-461-8654.
Convenient parking is available in the Fogelman garage on Innovation Drive or in the
Central Avenue parking lot.
Now in its 22nd year, National Eating Disorders Awareness Week brings attention to
the severity of eating disorders, which are mental illnesses that can often have life-threatening
physical consequences. In the U.S., as many as a million males and 10 million females
struggle with the devastating effects of anorexia and bulimia. Another 25 million
suffer from binge-eating disorder. While recovery is possible, especially with early
intervention, many people suffer from long-term effects of these illnesses.
Thousands of individuals and communities are expected to participate in events across
the country to raise awareness about body image and eating disorder issues during
National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. | <urn:uuid:1c679810-0601-43e5-88ab-2f686f59cd6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.memphis.edu/releases/feb09/eatingdisorders.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927863 | 476 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Children in the Libraries
Like the local public library, the university libraries are an important resource for seeking, finding, retrieving, evaluating, and using information. Our goal is to provide a clean, safe, and quiet atmosphere for all members of the APU community.
Unlike the local public library, the university libraries serve a primarily adult population. We are not designed to meet the information needs of children, and make no promise that the needs of children will be accommodated. The following guidelines have been established to clarify our position on children in the library, and to remind adults that they are responsible, at all times, for the behavior, and safety, of their children while visiting APU libraries.
Parents are urged to assist their children in the selection (and use) of various library materials and computer resources appropriate to their age and family values. A parent or guardian must accompany children at all times. It is the responsibility of the parent(s) or guardian(s) to monitor the behavior, and safety, of their children at all times.
Unruly children will be asked to discontinue their use of library resources and/or leave the library, and parents shall be required to remove their children from the library if requested by library staff.
Children may use the library (and its resources) as long as they are not disrupting patrons, are not misusing library resources (or its facilities), and are not creating a safety hazard to themselves or others. Parents assume financial responsibility for any loss or damage to library resources and/or facilities.
Although we try to accommodate all library users, APU students, faculty and staff do have priority over visitors (including children) in the use of library resources, facilities and services.
UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES PUBLIC SERVICES TEAM, 8/15/2006 | <urn:uuid:1841e324-c99e-4c58-8ba6-14ba35ac9a0b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.apu.edu/library/about/policies/children/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950655 | 365 | 2.53125 | 3 |
the NEA in the FY 2012 Interior Appropriations bill to widen citizen access to the cultural, educational, and economic benefits of the arts, and to advance creativity and innovation in communities across the United States.
* Strengthening Arts Education in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to retain the arts in the definition of core academic subjects, and strengthen equitable access to arts learning through the following actions:
o Improve the U.S. Department of Education’s national data collection and research regarding what students know and are able to do in the arts and the conditions for teaching and learning in arts education.
o Require states to report annually on student access to, and participation in, all core academic subjects.
o Improve student success in school, work, and life by strengthening arts education in provisions relating to afterschool/extended learning, teaching effectiveness, school turnaround, charter schools, and student assessment.
* Arts Education Funding and Research through the U.S. Department of Education (AEI) to appropriate $40 million for the Arts in Education programs in the FY 2012 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill, and retain the Arts in Education program as a distinct grant competition.
· Although all of our legislators are essentially supportive of the arts, they acknowledged other priorities and lack of consensus regarding the budget on Capitol Hill.
NOTE AS OF April, 15: The battle for the 2012 budget continues but the Congress yesterday passed a long-awaited budget funding the government for the rest of the fiscal year. The final budget agreement for FY 2011 negotiated by President Obama with House and Senate leaders includes $155 million in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). This represents a cut of $12.5 million from the FY 2010 enacted level of $167.5 million. Also included in this bill is $25.5 million in funding for the Arts in Education programs at the U.S. Department of Education, which had been zeroed-out in a previous continuing resolution. | <urn:uuid:c4020bc2-0a1d-4073-9f47-b4810dd67398> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hoyendelaware.com/noticia/2968/1/0/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949129 | 407 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Jeremy Lenig makes a living driving.
Asked whether he was alarmed by a study that found nodding off while driving is fairly common, he said, yes, in fact he has first-hand experience.
"It happened to me," the 31-year-old over-the-road trucker from Milton, Pa., said. "I fell asleep on the road. So you could say I'm concerned about it."
It happened nearly two years ago, in March 2011. He was driving overnight from Pittsburgh to Milton, about 50 miles north of Harrisburg, on Route 22, when he dozed off and rolled his truck.
"It burned up pretty good," he said. "Burned my leg."
He's fine now, he said as he fueled up at the Rutter's Farm Store off of the Newberrytown exit of Interstate 83 Friday.
"It was just one of those things," he said of drivers falling asleep. "It happens when you're out on the road as long as we are."
And, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released this week, it happens with alarming frequency. The study, echoing previous reports, concluded that about 4 percent of the nation's drivers -- one in 24 -- admitted to nodding off or falling asleep while driving at least once in the previous month.
People between 25 and 34 years old, those who reported getting less than six hours of sleep a night, and Texans, for some unexplained reason, were more prone to falling asleep while driving.
Retirees, students or homemakers and unemployed
Even more alarming is that researchers believe the number could be low.
"This percentage we reported is people that actually recognize that they had fallen asleep while driving," Anne G. Wheaton, an epidemiologist and the lead author of the CDC report, told the Los Angeles Times. "A lot of people, if they fall asleep for a second or two, don't even realize it."
And a second or two can be plenty of time to crash. A car going 60 mph travels 88 feet-a-second, according to the CDC.
Lenig learned that the hard way and has scars on his leg to show for it. He said he's more vigilant now, and if he's tired, he pulls off the road. These days, it helps that he does most of his driving during daylight hours and seldom drives a night shift.
"I don't drink coffee or soda or any of that stuff," he said. "I just pay more attention."
Cody Garver, who hauls logs daily from his family's logging business in Glen Rock to a mill in Newport, Perry County, said he sees a lot of drivers who appear to be nodding off.
"You'll see people veer off the side of the road, and then they pull back," the 22-year-old said. "If I see that, I try to back off and keep my distance."
Steven Siebert, a long-haul trucker from Missouri who was on his way to California with a load, said he takes breaks, and if he feels tired, "I get off the road, and go to bed."
Some drivers resort to tricks to stay awake. Andre Tucker, who works for J.B. Hunt in Harrisburg, said he listens to music or rolls the window down. Sometimes, he said, he'll focus on something -- lights or other landmarks -- to stay alert. "But you can focus on them too long," he said, "or else you're asking for trouble."
Eddie Navey, an over-the-road trucker from Charlotte, N.C., said he wasn't surprised by the findings of the study. But he said, it's the least of his concerns.
"What's more of a concern for me is all the people texting while they're driving," he said.
Texting while driving is illegal in Pennsylvania.
"It's illegal in a lot of states, and that doesn't stop anyone," Navey said. "I see it all the time, people with their smart phones while they're driving, texting or fooling around on Facebook or whatever. This, to me, is more of a problem. It's ridiculous."
Rolling down the window. Turning the air conditioning to the maximum level. Cranking up the stereo.
Those are all ways some people try to stave off sleep while driving.
But, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that's not the best way to deal with drowsy driving. The best preventative measure, the agency says, is to recognize and address the conditions that lead to sleepiness. In other words, the best way to prevent it is to get enough sleep at night.
The agency said those at increased risk for drowsy driving include commercial drivers, people who work at night or long shifts, drivers with untreated sleep disorders, those who use sedating medications, and anyone who does not get adequate sleep.
The agency recommends that people pull off the road, or switch drivers, when they recognize the symptoms of drowsiness. Warning signs include frequent yawning or blinking, difficulty remembering the past few miles driven, missing exits, drifting from one's lane or hitting a rumble strip.
"The only safe thing for drivers to do if they start to feel tired while driving is to get off the road and rest until no longer drowsy," the CDC concluded.
-- SOURCE: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | <urn:uuid:d3ef9fd6-3825-43a4-90b8-fbfb27def02b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ydr.com/local/ci_22312025/study-finds-drivers-are-snoozing-while-cruising | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979772 | 1,139 | 1.898438 | 2 |
ABILITY: (n.) The quality or state of being able; power to perform, whether physical, moral, intellectual, conventional, or legal; capacity; skill or competence in doing; sufficiency of strength, skill, resources, etc.; — in the plural, faculty, talent.
For a series that describes itself as the “Science Next” show, it should really come as no surprise that “Fringe” is set to reach beyond the conventional norms of regular television experience. The latest episode, “Ability”, presented us with the idea that Olivia is special, gifted. In other words, she has mad skills! It’s a possibility that gives me great optimism for the future of the show. Not only does it offer plausible explanations for why Olivia is so widely coveted by the likes of Nina, Jones and Broyles, and why these seemingly random events happen all around her. But it elevates the show above a human drama to the level of an inspirational human drama.
On some level, wouldn’t we all want powers? Don’t we all aspire to be faster, stronger, better..wouldn’t it be good to heal the sick and the needy, to bring back loved ones, even for a moment? What price having abilities that allow us to do the things that we can only imagine? I feel that this is why season 1 of “Heroes“, despite obvious flaws, was so legendary. It instilled a sense of wonder and possibility at a time when the television audience was open to it. And why Bad Robot’s “Lost“ has, in my humble opinion, been the best television show over the past 5 years. The willing among us can understand the magic, we can see that the show itself is one big metaphor for our world and the people, conflicts, hopes and desires in it. The show invites, no, compels, it’s audience to journey through the trials and tribulations of these seemingly disparate characters. We suspect that they are connected, that they might be special, that they are “there for a reason”, for a grand purpose. And most of us, I suspect, can all relate to that. So when John Locke died and resurrected 3 days later, it resonated, because on some level, we all believe in our own metaphorical ‘islands’ – our own place “where miracles happen”, our own “constants”, our own destiny.
Which is why “Fringe” intrigues me — it shares many of Lost’s themes, but is even more grounded in the ‘real world’. Sure, some of the science can be ‘out there’, but hey, science is pretty out there.
Of course, the fantastical aspects are only one of the reasons that make such stories great, but I think such inspirational elements are are among the most powerful. Which is why I really hope that Olivia is a ‘Cortexiphan kid’. She may not have been born special like Superman. However, she was chosen..
What does that mean, to be chosen? Did Olivia display specific traits that gave her the best chance of maximising her abilities? But what distinguishable traits can a child display? I guess the “Run Away” story in the latest Fringe comic can provide some ideas for why certain children were selected for William Bell’s clinical trial.
At any rate, aren’t all children “special”? It’s a notion not lost on “Lost”, where the concept of Tabula Rasa and the importance of rebirth are some of the underlying themes of the entire series. Themes which have recently evolved into self-fulfilling prophecies, where the arrival of a ‘special child’ is foretold by the adult version of that child (yeah, Lost goes there). Which makes me wonder – could Olivia have been prophesied? After all, doesn’t everything happen for a reason in these shows? Could the Observer have had something to do with Olivia’s selection..or perhaps Peter’s? In fact, I’d be surprised if Peter wasn’t also a Cortexiphan kid..or at the very least, the crude equivalent from one of Walter’s experiments.
Thing is, Cortexiphan, like so many ‘gifts’, must surely come with negative consequences. I believe they call it the “gift and the curse”. It seems to be the blueprint for many ‘heroes’ that they should struggle with their abilities and the moral implications of their use. In an ideal reality the hero would always remain a hero. His or her actions would be purely for the good of humanity, there would be no question as to their intentions. But as The Dark Knight and Watchmen stories have illustrated: every hero will fail at some point, every hero will question their own ability, every hero will at some point wonder: ‘am I part of the solution..or part of the problem?’. As we well know, some end up becoming the very thing they are fighting against.
This personal conflict could be argued to mirror the broader issue at the heart of Fringe (and indeed, our world) – the advancement of science and technology; tools of the enlightened, from which so much good has been done. Science, in many respects, is OUR ability. Just as faith is, for those who share that belief system.
But how do you regulate and control the use and application of science – who watches this advancement? It’s a tricky question..
Probably a better question in relation to this topic would be, who has the right to decide that a child should be treated with Cortexiphan? It is not a life-saving medication, or a treatment for an illness. It’s a reality changing (or preserving) drug, the ethical and moral implications of which have to be severely questioned. Does anyone deserve to be made a “soldier” at such a young age?
One thing that I’ll be particularly interested to see upon the Fringe return is Olivia’s long-term response to her supposed ability. It’s one thing knowingly living with something like this your entire life, it’s another thing suddenly finding out that you’re a piece of a much larger pattern. How will she respond this reveal – will it make her question her identity, or will she embrace it? Maybe she’ll seek help from those who already know more about her than she does?
But perhaps this is all part of the plan? If Cortexiphan really does preserve the mind as it was perhaps intended – as God (or whatever your belief system) intended, then maybe the likes of Olivia have been given the opportunity to experience reality in it’s purest form? In the context of the show, perhaps everyone at one point had the ability.
For me, this is the underlying message of the “Ability” episode – that we are all born with an innate skill. A tool that gives us everything we need in the journey that awaits humanity. This ability elevates us all. Perhaps the key is understanding how to unlock it.
Maybe in this context, the advancement of science and technology will take us full-circle. Expanding upon that fleeting time when our minds were their most open — when anything and everything was still possible? If this does happen, perhaps we’ll be better prepared to face the challenges, like the ‘multiversal’ conflict that the ZFT’ers predict in their manuscript?
Which world..which reality deserves to win and prosper, if there can only be one? I fear that it’s a question that our own history has already answered for us. But maybe we all have the ability to change the future, if not the past.. | <urn:uuid:f1bdbccc-dea9-411f-a16b-2dbc460c6d60> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fringebloggers.com/beyond-the-cape-and-mask/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965037 | 1,659 | 2.0625 | 2 |
As the June 16 opening of Koke‘e trout season approaches, the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) is asking for the public’s help with catching what appears to be fish thieves who left taxpayers on the hook.
DLNR is seeking information that may assist an ongoing investigation into the possible theft of rainbow trout that the Division of Aquatic Resources was holding in pens at the Pu‘u Lua Reservoir at Koke‘e, Kaua‘i.
On March 28, 2012, a DLNR employee discovered trout missing; he estimated that the pen held 3,000 fewer fish than in the previous week. Subsequently, a report was made to the Kaua‘i Police Department that individuals were observed near the floating pens in the reservoir. Damage to the pens was also observed, and obstacles placed on roadways to the reservoir had been moved.
“We are very concerned about this action, which harms the opportunity for many Kaua‘i and Hawai‘i families who look forward to the opening of Koke‘e trout fishing on June 16,” said William Aila Jr., DLNR Chairperson.
Anyone who may have seen persons in or around the reservoir in March is asked to contact the Kaua‘i Police Department or the state Division of Conservation and Resource Enforcement (DOCARE) on Kaua‘i at 274-3521. Also, anyone seeing non-state employees around the reservoir before the trout season opens should also immediately call these numbers.
“The Department encourages the public to comply with state regulations and to stop from damaging valuable equipment used in the rearing of the trout,” said Aila. “We still expect a good fishing season come June 16, although not as good as if we were able to release an additional 3,000 trout for fishing.”
Filed under: Agriculture, Announcements, Economy, Environment, Hawaii, Kauai, Legal, Missing, Rumors, State Affairs Tagged: | Fish Thieves, Hawai'i Department of Land and Natural Resources, Pu‘u Lua Reservoir at Koke‘e, Rainbow Trout | <urn:uuid:4530444b-1f29-473a-9676-3409a5cb7c50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://damontucker.com/2012/05/18/fish-thieves-leave-hawaii-taxpayers-on-the-hook/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968685 | 447 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Minamata: The Irresponsibility of the Japanese State
Yoshinaga Fusako and Gavan McCormack
On 14 October 2004, a suit filed by 45 plaintiffs against the Japanese state and Kumamoto prefecture was successful in the Supreme Court in Osaka. The case concerned the mass poisoning almost half a century ago of residents of the town of Minamata in Western Japan, when mercury contained in effluent from the Chisso Corporation's factory contaminated the Shiranui Sea and then accumulated in the bodies of those who ate its fish and shellfish. The Supreme Court found the national and prefectural government authorities responsible for administrative malfeasance. The status of the plaintiffs as Minamata sufferers, till then persistently denied by the authorities, was upheld, and compensation was ordered. This was an action launched in 1982, preceded by a long and anguished course on the path of the plaintiffs, and in the twenty-two years that has passed since the suit was launched twenty-three of the fifty-nine died (the bereaved families of fifteen of them persisting in the action), and the average age of the survivors came to be over seventy. The authorities, responsible for protecting the rights and health of the people, had caused these citizens continuous pain by denying them their just rights.
Minamata is a disease of the nervous system, first noted in 1953, affecting those who had eaten fish or shellfish contaminated with organic mercury from a factory in Minamata City. In 1965, a so-called "Second Minamata" disease epidemic broke out in the Agano River region in Niigata Prefecture and the two were recognized by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in September 1968 as pollution diseases caused by the organic mercury in the effluent from Chisso Corporation in Minamata and Showa Denko in Niigata. To date 2,955 people (including 690 in Niigata and 490 in Kagoshima), have been recognized as victims of mercury poisoning, making them eligible for a variety of health benefits, but 16,289 people were refused recognition. In Kumamoto, those denied such recognition launched a suit for recognition and compensation in 1969 and subsequently many others joined them. There is still no consensus on what it is exactly that constitutes Minamata Disease. The criteria for recognition as a sufferer, fixed in 1977, remain strict and many victims remain officially unrecognized.
In 1979, the president and executives of Chisso Corporation were found guilty on criminal charges. That judgment was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1988. From 1980, thoroughly fed up at the official lack of response the unrecognized disease sufferers turned to legal proceedings against the national and prefectural governments. Japan is notorious for its plodding judicial procedures, but even in Japan the slowness of these proceedings has been exceptional, and judgments against the authorities were regularly appealed in the effort to evade responsibility.
In 1990, the courts one after another urged conciliation. After such a recommendation from a Tokyo court, the head of the Environment Agency, Kitakawa Ishimatsu, visiting Minamata, referred in this way to the rigidity of the administration:
"When a young sufferer in the Minamata Hospital grabbed me by the shirtfront, I was overwhelmed with pity at what had happened to him, just by eating fish. I have constantly called for conciliation and for something to be done, but I faced massive resistance from the bureaucracy. The head of the project liaison bureau was even driven to commit suicide."
In 1995, the cabinet of Murayama Tomiichi published a "final proposal," indicating a readiness to pay each and every victim 2.6 million yen (approx. US$23,000) plus medical expenses, provided all legal claims were withdrawn. About 10,000 accepted, and legal proceedings were withdrawn in seven different courts. However, the plaintiffs in the present action persisted, demanding recognition and insisting on the responsibility of the authorities. They found it intolerable that the state could escape its responsibility by just paying a paltry sum of money while refusing to accept its own responsibility for failure to curb the pollution decades after its source was discovered, and to recognize the sufferers as Minamata victims.
In December 1999, the National Minamata Disease Research Centre issued its Minamata Disease report. Miyazawa Nobuo, a journalist who had long been involved in Minamata victim support activities, issued this sharp comment on it:
"Basically the matter is very simple. People who ate the fish and shellfish of Minamata bay polluted by Minamata factory effluent got sick. The facts of 'contamination caused by effluent' and 'sickness caused by eating fish' were pretty much clear just six months after Minamata Disease was declared and measures should have been taken to deal with the problem there and then. Furthermore, by the spring of 1957 cause and effect were clear beyond doubt and measures to stop the disease spread were proposed. Had they been adopted, it could have been ended within a year. What complicated and prolonged the proceedings was simply that at every twist and turn thereafter all parties other than the victims made excuses and did whatever they could to avoid doing what they needed to do. In other words, Minamata is a disease that was willfully inflicted. It cannot be understood save in the context of these bureaucratic responses."
That his assessment hit the nail on the head is plain from the chronology of responses at the official national, prefectural, and business level during the decades that followed the Minamata outbreak.
From December 1953, case after case began to be reported from Minamata City, the company town overlooking the Shiranui (also called Yatsushiro) Bay, of people complaining of sensory disorder, such as numbness or loss of feeling in the arms or legs, inability to coordinate fingers, legs, hands, narrowing of the visual field, and stabbing pains in various parts of their body. Symptoms were more pronounced in the case of those who had eaten lots of fish and shellfish.
In January 1957, Minamata fishermen, putting together the increasing numbers of deformed fish with the outbreak of the "strange disease," suspected the effluent and asked the company to stop its emissions. While the Minamata health department was investigating it as an unexplained illness, 17 of the 54 sufferers had already died.
In February, a Kumamoto University research team warned that fishing should be banned. In March, the first report of Kumamoto prefecture's Liaison Committee on Measures to Address the Strange Illness, held that the illness should be treated as something "unconnected with the factory." At the end of March, the scientific report of the Ministry of Health and Welfare referred to the effluent from the plant as suspect, and in July Kumamoto prefecture decided to apply health regulations to local marine products, but it made no public announcement.
More than a year passed before it took the step, in August 1958, of issuing a directive recommending that fishing be suspended in Minamata Bay. In September of the following year, Chisso altered its system so that it began discharging its effluent into the Minamata River. Mercury contamination thereafter spread from Minamata City to the whole of the Shiranui Sea, and casualties grew.
In July 1959, a research group at Kumamoto University announced its view that symptoms of Minamata disease were caused by mercury poisoning and attention focused on mercury contained in the effluent from the Chisso factory. When doctors at Chisso conducted the experiment of giving cats effluent to drink, the cats developed the same symptoms as sufferers from the "strange disease" and died. Chisso did not make this outcome public.
In November of the same year, an advisory body to the Ministry of Health and Welfare found that "the cause of the disease is organic mercury poisoning." Though fully understanding the grave risk to the life and health of residents, the Ministry, far from forbidding the catch or sale of fish in the contaminated area, actually dissolved the advisory sub-committee.
Following the launch of a large-scale movement of opposition by fishermen against effluent from a paper factory in Urayasu in Chiba prefecture, two laws were passed in January 1960 designed to protect the life and health of residents: one for the maintenance of water quality and the other for the restriction of factory effluent. The Factory Emissions Regulation Law established contamination limits on the emission of fluids into public waters, and empowered the Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI) to require necessary steps, such as improvement in water treatment methods and facilities, or to order temporary suspension of works, in order to maintain regional water quality. However, it was 1969 before the national government began to apply this law to Minamata Bay. By then, organic mercury generating operations had ceased and effluent was no longer being emitted from the factory.
Minamata disease was above all a disease of the spirit to which Japan succumbed as growth, money, material wealth come to be valued above the natural environment or humanity. Forgetting the basic principle that the purpose of economic activity is so that human society might flourish, MITI and the Economic Planning Agency decided that, even if a few people were to fall ill or die from mercury poisoning, corporations should be protected. The authorities in Minamata and some residents seemed to think that, even if a minority of people from the town had to be sacrificed to the disease, Chisso Corporation should be protected as the major employer in the town. The actions of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, that was supposed to protect the health and wellbeing of the people, and of the Environment Ministry, whose supposed rationale was the preservation of nature, including not only humans, cats and dogs, but fish and shellfish, birds, and all creatures, was inexplicable to ordinary citizens. Why, as soon as doubts were raised about the industrial effluent, did they not take steps to stop it? Why, sorry for not having warned people at an early stage and having failed to prevent more people from being infected, did they not make sincere efforts to help people? While they resorted to the excuse that there was nothing an individual official could do about it, the disease became rampant and enormous suffering and death was caused.
An editorial in the Asahi shimbun ("The state found guilty of neglect of its duty," 16 October 2004) sums up the situation:
"The spread of Minamata disease was due to the authorities of the national and prefectural (Kumamoto) governments folding their arms and ignoring it. Such was the judgment of the Supreme Court, which ordered the two governments to pay compensation. By holding that it was 'official negligence' that had failed to put a stop to the release of effluent from Chisso chemical company's plant, the judgment brought legal closure to the debate over responsibility that had continued for almost half a century ...
"The Supreme Court criticized the response to the disease on the part of MITI, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Fisheries, and Economic Planning Agency during the late 1950s when Minamata disease became a problem. It was especially severe in its denunciations of MITI. That ministry put pressure on the Ministry of Health and Welfare, saying 'You must not find Chisso effluent to be the cause of the disease,' and it was blind to the fact that the water treatment system belatedly and grudgingly installed by Chisso Corporation was a sham that did not eliminate mercury.
"Although the Kumamoto prefectural government was supposed to be close to the local residents, the judgment was also critical of its passivity. As the people of Minamata see it, this has been a half-century of constantly appealing to and constantly being given the cold shoulder by national and local governments. If they appealed to the local health department or city hall, they were treated like carriers of an infectious disease and forced to live their lives cringing before public opinion. If they went in a group to protest against Chisso they were blocked by riot police and arrested. If they went up to Tokyo to call on the various ministries, nobody would meet them. When we pay taxes, do we not think that it is because, when it comes down to it, public organs will protect our lives and health? We cannot help thinking that public officials who saw the suffering of people whose bodies were wracked by mercury but did nothing for them were lacking in any sense of responsibility.
"Hansen disease sufferers were held long in isolation for no reason and, although officials knew the dangers of AIDS being contracted from contaminated blood products, they did nothing about it. Such a system of government is not unrelated to Minamata disease. Such cases clearly demonstrate that the crime of administrative malfeasance must not be tolerated.
"This present judgment has an additional meaning. It recognized as Minamata disease sufferers those who had failed to gain certification under the criteria set by the Environment Agency. There are still many who are applying for certification. The Environment Ministry must revise its criteria, which it has kept without change since 1977.Thi"It is 48 years since Minamata disease was first noticed, and 36 years since Chisso stopped its discharges. A treatment has yet to be found for Minamata disease. Those who contracted the disease in the womb before they were born are now in their mid-forties. The suffering of victims continues.
Posted on December 9, 2004.
"Ours is a time when above all health and safety are at issue. The weight of this judgment on the authorities is likely to grow heavier and heavier."
This article was written for Japan Focus. Yoshinaga Fusako is a translator and writer. Gavan McCormack is a Japan Focus coordinator. | <urn:uuid:628f7f63-2bfd-4bd0-b0c0-e8e9d1f9e5e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://japanfocus.org/-Gavan-McCormack/1559?rand=1368900383&type=print&print=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979718 | 2,844 | 2.75 | 3 |
From Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott:
The elders would have sat and talked all the evening, but the young folks were bent on having their usual Christmas frolic; so, after an hour of pleasant chat, they began to get restless, and having consulted together in dumb show, they devised a way to very effectually break up the family council.
Steve vanished, and, sooner than the boys imagined Dandy could get himself up, the skirl of the bag-pipe was heard in the hall, and the bonny piper came to lead the Clan Campbell in the revel.
“Draw it mild, Stenie, my man; ye play unco weel, but ye mak a most infernal din,” cried Uncle Jem, with his hands over his ears, for this accomplishment was new to him, and “took him all aback,” as he expressed it.
So Steve droned out a Highland reel as softly as he could, and the boys danced it to a circle of admiring relations. Captain Jem was a true sailor, however, and could not stand idle while any thing lively was going on; so, when the piper’s breath gave out, he cut a splendid pigeon-wing inot the middle of th hall, saying, “Who can dance a Fore and After?” and, waiting for no reply, began to whistle the air so invitingly that Mrs. Jessie “set” to him laughing like a girl; Rose and Charlie took their places behind, and away went the four with a spirit and skill that inspired all the rest to “cut in” as fast as they could.
A song: Nothing says “Thanksgiving” like a chorus of “Jingle Bells,” Mark Steyn on Jingle Bells
A book (or two): My Friend Amy lists Christmas mysteries for 2010.
A birthday: A Meme and a Celebration, C.S. Lewis, Louisa May Alcott, and Madeleine L’Engle.
A poem: Indwelling by T.E. Brown | <urn:uuid:c519e899-d371-44e8-85a4-dc648bb080d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.semicolonblog.com/?p=12111 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976542 | 444 | 1.710938 | 2 |
April 18, 2011
Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic is working on a number of major projects and cases on the cutting-edge of human rights work. They include:
Thailand in Crisis
Thailand was plunged into political crisis in 2010. More than 80 civilians were killed and almost 2000 injured in confrontations with the military and government. While the immediate violence has ended, the underlying causes of the conflict persist. This project is gathering diverse reflections on the recent conflict and violence. The ultimate aim is to elevate Thai voices and Thai solutions through a dialogue to help the country begin to move forward. To date, the Clinic has conducted three research trips to Thailand to collect perspectives that will shed more light on the complicated underpinnings of the crisis.
Documenting Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Violations of HIV-positive Women in Namibia
Working with the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW) and the Namibian Women's Health Network (NWHN), the Clinic is documenting violations of sexual and reproductive health rights in Namibia. In April 2010, a clinical team traveled to Namibia to conduct on-site research. The Clinic continues to investigate possible violations of the rights of HIV-positive women, and to contribute to ongoing efforts to litigate sexual and reproductive rights in Namibia. A report based on the Clinic’s research will be released in spring 2011.
Cluster Munitions: Negotiating and Implementing a New Treaty
Cluster munitions are large weapons that disperse dozens of smaller sub-munitions and cause significant numbers of civilian casualties both during attacks and afterwards, given that many linger after a conflict. For more than five years, the Clinic has played an active role in the campaign to ban cluster munitions. Students went on a fact-finding mission to investigate in Lebanon in 2006 and participated in negotiation sessions for the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. Since the adoption of the convention, students have advocated for its strong implementation and interpretation. The Clinic has co-published numerous legal advocacy papers with Human Rights Watch, and students have taken part in international conferences where those papers have been released.
Mamani et al. v. Sánchez de Lozada and Sánchez Berzaín
The Clinic serves as co-counsel in an Alien Tort Statute suit, brought in a U.S. federal court on behalf of ten plaintiffs, against former Bolivian President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and former Minister of Defense José Carlos Sánchez Berzaín for their involvement in a series of civilian massacres in 2003. In December 2009, the district court largely denied defendants' motion to dismiss, allowing plaintiffs' claims for extrajudicial killing and other violations to proceed. The case is now on appeal before the Eleventh Circuit. This term, the Clinic will work with co-counsel to prepare the appellate briefs.
Crimes in Burma
In May 2009, the Clinic released a major report, “Crimes in Burma,” commissioned by five top international jurists: Judge Richard Goldstone (South Africa), Judge Patricia Wald (United States), Judge Pedro Nikken (Venezuela), Judge Ganzorig Gombosuren (Mongolia), and Sir Geoffrey Nice (United Kingdom). The report called on the UN Security Council to create a Commission of Inquiry to investigate crimes against humanity and war crimes in the country. The report has received widespread press attention, including an editorial in The Washington Post. Following elections in Burma last November, the Clinic continues to work with civil society organizations to advocate for accountability in Burma and an end to human rights violations, especially in ethnic minority areas.
Indigenous Rights and Consultation in Colombia and Chile
In partnership with human rights clinics in Colombia and Chile, the IHRC has been working on the implementation of the right to be consulted in International Labour Organization Convention 169. In November 2010, the U. Diego Portales and the IHRC partnered to draft an amicus curiae brief to the Colombian Constitutional Court to support an earlier landmark decision on indigenous consultation rights. The IHRC has researched consultation processes in Colombia (2009-2010) and in Chile (2010) and is preparing a report on these issues jointly with its Latin American University partners.
In re South African Apartheid Litigation
Since 2005, the Clinic has worked with a team of South African and U.S. lawyers to litigate an Alien Tort Statute case known as In Re South African Apartheid Litigation. The case, in which the Clinic has served as co-counsel since 2008, seeks to hold major corporations accountable for aiding and abetting human rights violations committed by the apartheid government, including torture, extrajudicial killing, and denaturalization. In April 2009, the district court largely denied defendants’ motion to dismiss, and the case is currently on appeal before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York. Clinical students have taken multiple trips to South Africa to work on the case.
São Paulo May 2006 Attacks
The Clinic, along with NGO partners in Brazil coordinated by Justiça Global, has been conducting a multi-year study of the period in São Paulo known as the attacks of May 2006. On May 12, 2006, a criminal faction called the First Command of the Capital led a wave of prison riots and attacks on security officials and others. The nine days that followed marked an alarming spike in the level of violence in São Paulo. Over the course of 2009-2010, students engaged in ongoing research, including a fact-finding trip to Brazil in January 2010. The work will culminate in the publication of a book-length report by mid-2011 on human rights abuses, governmental responses to date, and avenues for reform.
Kiobel, et al. v. Royal Dutch/Shell
In September 2010, a divided panel of the Second Circuit held that corporations cannot be subject to suit in U.S. courts under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) for violations of international law. In the fall 2010 term, the Clinic drafted an amicus curiae brief on behalf of legal historians in support of a petition for rehearing en banc. The brief argues that interpreting the ATS to disallow cases against corporations would run counter to the text, history, and original purposes of the statute.
Incendiary Weapons: Strengthening International Law
In a new initiative, IHRC has joined forces with Human Rights Watch to campaign for stronger international laws on incendiary weapons. The existing treaty has multiple loopholes and allows problematic incendiary weapons, including white phosphorous munitions, to escape regulation. Students have researched and written two advocacy papers, one calling for that treaty to be amended, and the other detailing the harm that incendiary weapons cause. The joint IHRC-Human Rights Watch papers have generated initial support at international disarmament conferences. The Clinic will continue to work on this issue through publications and conference participation.
Mining and the Rights of First Nations
In 2010, the Clinic published an independent, in-depth look at how mining has affected the Takla First Nation—“Bearing the Burden: The Effects of Mining on First Nations in British Columbia.” That book explored the human rights implications of mining and mapped the possible human rights approaches for advancing indigenous interests. The Clinic is currently preparing for a round table discussion with government officials and representatives of First Nations in 2011. | <urn:uuid:64e521dd-c97b-4d9b-b3ed-226e79bc4636> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/spotlight/human-rights/related/hls-human-rights-clinic-projects.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940476 | 1,523 | 2.015625 | 2 |
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A declaration that the plaintiff in a civil case or the prosecutor in a criminal case will drop prosecution of all or part of a suit or indictment.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In law: in civil actions, an acknowledgment by the plaintiff that he will not further prosecute his suit, as to the whole or a part of the cause of action, or against some or one of several defendants (Bingham);
- n. in criminal cases, a declaration of record from the legal representative of the government that he will no further prosecute the particular indictment or some designated part thereof (Bishop). Abbreviated nol. pros.
- n. law A declaration by the prosecutor that a civil or criminal prosecution will not proceed.
- n. figuratively A refusal, a denial, a rejection.
- v. law, transitive To issue such an declaration about a particular (charge or case).
GNU Webster's 1913
- (Law) Will not prosecute; -- an entry on the record, denoting that a plaintiff discontinues his suit, or the attorney for the public a prosecution; either wholly, or as to some count, or as to some of several defendants.
- n. an entry in the court record to the effect that the plaintiff or prosecutor will not proceed
- v. drop prosecution of by entering a nolle prosequi in the court records
- Latin nōlle prōsequī, to be unwilling to pursue : nōlle, to be unwilling + prōsequī, to pursue. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
“A bill to require the Judges of the Superior Court of the various counties in this State to enter a nolle prosequi in certain cases and for other purposes.”
“Also, a bill to require the Judges of the Superior Courts of the various counties in this State, to enter a nolle prosequi in certain cases:”
“The guilty parties were never arrested, and a nolle prosequi was entered at the October term at court, 1835.”
“Also a bill to require the Judges of the Superior Courts of the various counties in this State, to enter a nolle prosequi in certain cases, and for other purposes.”
These user-created lists contain the word ‘nolle prosequi’.
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
discovered while reading this book.
Long-overdue words found elsewhere.
Looking for tweets for nolle prosequi. | <urn:uuid:7cc39e32-f660-4993-8b73-50f65d3bc804> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wordnik.com/words/nolle%20prosequi | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909328 | 598 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Suddenly, everyone in India is talking about executions.
Grim hangings are a topic of animated conversation at water coolers, cocktail parties and chat shows. Everyone seems to favour them, the quicker the better.
Just weeks ago, Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, the Pakistani gunman convicted in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, was sentenced to death by hanging.
Everywhere in Mumbai, where 166 people were gunned down by Kasab and his accomplices, people cheered and fought to express their joy to newspapers and TV channels.
But Kasab, who has the right to appeal his sentence at a higher court, is in queue. Ahead of him is Afzal Guru, who was convicted in the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament.
Guru had filed a mercy petition, which is doing the rounds between ministries in Delhi. | <urn:uuid:c0470537-0355-42c0-b44f-60e378e4b70c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/tag/mercy-petition/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986159 | 167 | 1.53125 | 2 |
See also:chair was yet a seat of state or dignity the
See also:bench was ordinarily used by the commonalty . It is still extensively employed for other than domestic purposes, as in
See also:schools, churches and places of amusement . Bench or Banc, in
See also:law, originally was the seat occupied by
See also:judges in
See also:court; hence the
See also:term is used of a tribunal of
See also:justice itself, as the
See also:King's Bench, the
See also:Common Bench, and is now applied to judges or magistrates collectively as the " judicial bench," " bench of magistrates." The word is also applied to any seat where a number of
See also:people sit in an official capacity, or as
See also:equivalent to the dignity itself, as " the civic bench," the " bench of aldermen," the " episcopal bench," the " front bench," i.e. that reserved for the leaders of either party in the
See also:House of
See also:Commons . King's Bench 716 (q.v.) was one of the three
See also:superior courts of common law at
See also:Westminster, the others being the common pleas and the ex-chequer . Under the Judicature
See also:Act 1873, the court of king's bench became the king's bench division of the High Court of Justice . The court of common pleas was sometimes called the common bench . Sittings in banc were formerly the sittings of one of the superior courts of Westminster for the
See also:hearing of motions,
See also:special cases, &c., as opposed to the nisi
See also:Arius sittings for trial of facts, where usually only a single
See also:judge presided . By the Judicature Act 1873 the business of courts sitting in banc was transferred to divisional courts . BENCH-MARK, a surveyor's mark cut in
See also:stone or some durable material, to indicate a point in a
See also:line of levels for the determination of altitudes over a given
See also:district . The name is taken from the "
See also:angle-iron " which is inserted in the
See also:horizontal incision as a " bench " or support for the levelling
See also:staff . The mark of the " broad-arrow " is generally incised with the bench-mark so that the horizontal
See also:bar passes through its
See also:apex .
JOHN BENBOW (1653-17o2)
BENCH TABLE (Fr. bane; Ital. sedile; Ger. Bank)
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October 5-9, 2013
San Francisco Bay Area, CA
Mind-Body Medicine is the Center’s core program we’ve offered around the world for 20 years, providing health professionals with the tools they need to become more effective clinicians and to find more meaning in their work.
During the intensive 5-day training, our extraordinary faculty teaches the science of mind-body medicine in plenary sessions and techniques for self-awareness and self-expression in supportive small groups — the Center’s unique model for learning and support.
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Who should attend?
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Up to 80% of all illnesses are related to chronic stress.
The comprehensive materials and hands-on experience will prepare you to begin to integrate our mind-body model into your work in a wide variety of settings, including private practice with individuals and groups, hospital work, educational programs and work with populations affected by war, abuse, terrorism and other forms of trauma.
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Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) infects nearly 100 percent of humans in early childhood, and the infection then lasts for the rest of a person's life. Now, a team led by Peter Medveczky, MD, a professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at the University of South Florida (USF), has discovered that in some individuals, HHV-6 causes such a permanent infection by inserting or "integrating" its DNA into human chromosomes. From this harbor, the viral DNA cannot be eliminated by the immune system.
The paper describing this research was published online March 8 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The USF team also confirmed preliminary results by other investigators that, a long time ago, the virus inserted its DNA into the DNA of human sperm and egg cells. As a result, some people (about 1 percent of people in the U.S.) are born with the virus's DNA in every cell in their body. Indeed, HHV-6 is the first functional virus of any type reported to be passed through the human germ line.
The team presented clear evidence that the virus can insert its DNA specifically into telomeres - structures at the ends of each chromosome that play key roles in both aging and cancer.
Finally, the team showed that the chromosomally integrated HHV-6 (CIHHV-6) genomes can be reactivated to an infectious form.
The findings are a surprise, since other human herpesviruses cause permanent infection by a different mechanism. The round up their DNA into a little circle that resides inside the nucleus of the cell: they do not insert their DNA into the chromosomes.
There are many unanswered questions that the USF team hopes to sort out. "We would like to know whether the location of the integration has an impact on pathology," Dr. Medveczky said. "We'd also like to know more about which drugs can provoke reactivation in patients that carry this virus in every cell... It would be important for these patients to avoid drugs that may reactivate the virus."
"This is an exciting and provocative series of observations. The questions raised by this work will keep herpes virologists busy for years," predicted HHV-6 expert Phil Pellett, PhD of Wayne State University.
HHV-6 was discovered in 1986 in the laboratory of Dr. Robert C. Gallo at the National Cancer Institute after Gallo asked his co-workers to look for a herpesvirus in AIDS lymphoma cases that might be triggering cancer. "In my mind these findings also should stimulate further studies on a possible role of HHV-6 in some cancers as suggested by others who have found a possible link to some lymphomas," Dr. Gallo commented. "However, clearly more work will be needed to advance any conclusion in this regard."
HHV-6 causes roseola, a generally benign rash and fever in infants. The virus can reactivate in individuals with suppressed immune systems, sometimes causing serious consequences such as encephalitis, hepatitis, myocarditis, and pneumonia.
Recent research has suggested that HHV-6 may also be associated with diseases in people with apparently healthy immune systems: encephalitis, mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, myocarditis, and idiopathic cardiomyopathy. While there is no proof that the virus plays a causal role in these diseases, the virus has been found more often in the diseased tissue than in healthy tissue.
Previous studies had used a visual technique called fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), which showed that the viral DNA was present at the same location (near the telomeres) of the same chromosome in both parent and child. This strongly suggested but did not prove that the virus was inherited through the germ line in these children. By determining the DNA sequence of the ends of the chromosome, the Medveczky team clearly demonstrated that the HHV-6 genome was integrated into telomere DNA. The team also showed that HHV-6 DNA, unlike other human herpesviruses, does not curl into a circle inside the nucleus.
The great majority of people, however, do not inherit HHV-6 DNA from their parents and do not have it in every cell of their body. Yet nearly everyone becomes permanently infected with the virus. So Medveczky and colleagues wondered if the virus might take up permanent residence in the body by integrating its DNA into the chromosomes of just some cells.
To examine this possibility, the investigators took cells that had never been exposed to HHV-6 and infected them with HHV-6 that had been engineered to make infected cells glow bright green. Sure enough, once the infection died down, the green cells contained HHV-6 DNA integrated into the ends of the chromosomes. When the investigators stimulated the cells with chemicals known to activate other herpesviruses, cells with integrated viral DNA began producing infectious virus. It will be important to learn whether a similar process occurs during the form of HHV-6 infection that occurs in most individuals.
For the approximately 1 percent of the population born with viral DNA in every cell in their body, several questions arise. Are such people more prone to diseases because they have a greater risk of viral reactivation? If so, which diseases? If a person is born with viral proteins present from birth, would that person's immune system be "fooled" into thinking that the virus was not foreign and need not be attacked? If so, is that a bad thing or a good thing for a person's health? Finally, the virus inserts itself into the telomeres and could theoretically disrupt the function of the telomeres. Since the telomeres are important in cellular aging and in cancer, could the insertion of viral DNA in the telomeres have any effect on a cell's tendency to age or to turn cancerous?
While unique among known human herpesviruses, the capacity of HHV-6 to integrate into human chromosomes is not unique in nature. A herpesvirus that infects chickens, called Marek's disease virus, appears to behave the same way. Interestingly, although the viruses are not otherwise closely related, the DNA sequence used by Marek's disease virus to integrate into chicken chromosomes is remarkably similar to the DNA sequence used for chromosomal integration by HHV-6.
Explore further: Now we know why old scizophrenia medicine works on antibiotics-resistant bacteria | <urn:uuid:239fab43-ef45-4200-86ba-f383b48b0862> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://phys.org/news187282554.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967888 | 1,319 | 3.25 | 3 |
A Medieval Song Treasury
PiŠ Cantiones ecclesiasticae et scholasticae veterum episcoporum
"Devout ecclesiastical and scholastic songs of the old bishops"
In 1582, Theodoricus Petri, a Finnish student at the university in Rostock, compiled a song book containing 74 Latin church and school songs, intending to preserve some ancient hymns and songs of his fatherland. The rector of the Turku Cathedral School, Jaakko Finne (or Suomalainen) edited and then published the first edition in Greifswald, Sweden.
Music was an important part of education in Scandinavia, as well as elsewhere on the Continent. Students were required to practice daily, and often participated in religious services at their schools. PiŠ Cantiones would be one source for the songs that the students would employ in these studies and practices.
The PiŠ Cantiones collection of medieval songs from several Finland, Sweden, and other European countries became one of Finlandĺs greatest musical treasures, and demonstrated Finland's link to other medieval European cultural centers. About half of the songs are believed to be of Finnish origin, as they have not been found in other sources; other songs came from France, England, Germany and Bohemia.
According to the Oxford Book of Carols, "The songs spread in the reformed Church of Sweden and Finland, and were still sung in Swedish schools in 1700, and in Finland late in the nineteenth century."
It is considered remarkable by some that PiŠ Cantiones was compiled by a Finnish student with Catholic leanings, and was edited and published by a Swedish Lutheran. This type of interdenominational cooperation was rare in those days of violent sectarian strife. However, in an attempt by Finne to bring the text into orthodoxy with then-Lutheran thought, some of the texts were severely "edited."
Although popular in Sweden and Finland, this volume was unknown in England. Fortunately, in a remarkable stroke of foresight (or perhaps just good luck), in 1853, G. J. R. Gordon, Her Majestyĺs Envoy and Minister at Stockholm, gave a rare and possibly unique copy of the 1582 edition of PiŠ Cantiones to the Rev. John Mason Neale, Warden of Sackville College, East Grinstead, Sussex. Neale translated some of the carols and hymns, and in 1853, he published 12 carols in Carols for Christmas-tide, with music from PiŠ Cantiones arranged by the Rev. Thomas Helmore, vice-Principal of St. Markĺs College, Chelsea. In 1854, they published 12 more in Carols for Easter-tide. That copy of PiŠ Cantiones is now said to be in the British Museum.
Multiple editions of PiŠ Cantiones would later be printed. The Finnish edition of the songs dating from 1616 under the title Wanhain Suomenmaan Pijspain is considered among the earliest Finnish poetry. The Finns Henricus Fattbuur and Mathias Tolia published the second Latin edition, with 90 songs, in Rostock, Germany, in 1625, under the original name; it is believed that Petri contributed to this revision. The first English edition, with scholarly commentary by George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934), was published in 1910: PiŠ Cantiones: A Collection of Church & School Song, Chiefly Ancient Swedish, Originally published is A.D. 1582 by Theodoric Petri of Nyland (London: Plainsong & Medieval Music Society, 1910). Concerning this volume, it was noted:
Collection of sacred and student songs in Latin for 1-4 voices. This edition uses mensural notation, but the editor has transposed all songs into treble or bass clef. In addition, the text is given in a modern font and has been arranged under the staff so that it is easier to follow.
Woodward also translated and "re-texted" some of the carols and hymns. In large measure, much of this "re-texting" was due to the brutal editing of Jaakko Finne, who was attempting to expunge any "Catholic" references, awkwardly replacing any reference to the Virgin Mary with the name of "Jesus," at times producing some very odd lyrics and meter.
Woodward also edited numerous other books of carols, including Carols for Christmastide (1892), Carols for Easter and Ascensiontide (1894), The Italian Carol Book, The Cowley Carol Book (1901, 1902, 1919), and The Babe of Bethlehem (1923), The Adoration of the Kings (1924) and The Cambridge Carol Book (1924).
A facsimile edition of PiŠ Cantiones has been printed as PiŠ Cantiones: Ecclesiasticae et Scholasticae Veterum Episcoporum. Helsinki: Edition Fazer, 1967. There are numerous contemporary recordings of songs and music from PiŠ Cantiones. Scans of individual pages from PiŠ Cantiones (in the Adobe PDF format) can be downloaded from Facsimiles Piae Cantiones (http://www.spielleut.de/facs_piae_cantiones.htm; accessed June 15, 2009).
Other medieval collections of hymns at that time include The Cloister Book (Denmark, c. 1450) and Thomiss°n's Hymn Book (Denmark, 1569). Thomiss°n's Hymn Book and the Piae Cantiones were published after the Reformation, but both of them contain many examples of music deeply rooted in the Middle Ages. In some cases the songs have been transmitted virtually unaltered down through the centuries (for example the Latin Christmas sequence "Psallat fidelis", which appears both in the Cloister Book and the PiŠ Cantiones). In other cases new texts have been written for the old popular melodies that people knew and loved, and several songs are found in both Swedish and Danish versions (for example the famous carol "In dulci jubilo").
In fulfillment of the requirements for obtaining her Doctor of Musical Arts degree, Eileen Hadidian wrote an excellent dissertation about PiŠ Cantiones in June, 1978. She has generously permitted a copy to be placed on this website, A Study and Critical Commentary of PiŠ Cantiones, A Sixteenth-Century Song Collection.
The Christmas hymns in PiŠ Cantiones include:
Cantiones de Nativitate Domini et Salutoris Nostri Jesu Christi
Note that most of these Latin lyrics have multiple English translations.
Unica, gratifera (Also found as Vnica gratifera legis)
Paranymphus adiit (also found under the title Paranymphus adiens)
Source: PiŠ Cantiones: Ecclesiasticae Et Scholasticae Veterum Episcoporum, 1582, Facsimile 1967, Edition Fazer, Helsinki-Helsingfors, FM 4000, with excellent notes by Timo Mńkinen (both in Finnish and in English). Most of these texts were reproduced in Volumes 1 and XLVb of the monumental collaboration by Guido Maria Dreves and Clemens Blume, Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi (1908); copies are available at both the Internet Archive and Google Books.
Additional Latin hymns on this website can be seen on the Latin Hymns of the Christian Church and Latin Hymns in the Seasons of the Church Year web pages.
Some of Latin hymns found in Piae Cantiones can be found in these collections:
Guido Maria Dreves and Clemens Blume, eds., Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi, Vol. 1. Cantiones Bohemicae. (Leipzig: O. R. Reisland, 1886).
Guido Maria Dreves and Clemens Blume, eds., Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi, Vol. 45b. Cantiones et Motetten des Mittelalters. (Leipzig: O. R. Reisland, 1904).
G. E. Klemming, ed., Piae Cantiones. S. Trinitas. Iesus Christus. S. Spiritus. S Maria. (1886). Primary source for many scholars, including Dreves, Woodward and others.
George Ratcliffe Woodward, Piae Cantiones: A Collection of Church & School Song, chiefly Ancient Swedish, originally published in A.D. 1582 by Theodoric Petri of Hyland. (London: Chiswick Press for the Plainsong & Medieval Music Society, 1910).
Sheet music for some hymns can be found in George Ratcliffe Woodward, The Cowley Carol Book, First & Second Series. (London: A. R. Mowbray & Co., Ltd., ca. 1902, 1912).
Translations of some carols can be found in John Mason Neale and Thomas Helmore, eds., Carols for Christmas-tide (London: Novello, 1853). By the same authors was Carols for Easter-tide (1854).
Translations and sheet music for some hymns can be found in Charles L. Hutchins, ed., Carols Old and Carols New (Boston: Parish Choir, 1916).
Ian Bradley, The Penguin Book of Carols (London, Penguin Books, 1999)
Kirsti S. Thomas and Esther Mendes, A Singer's Guide to Bibliographic Resources for Medieval and Renaissance Music
Percy Dearmer, R. Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw, The Oxford Book of Carols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1928)
Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrott, The New Oxford Book of Carols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992)
Eric Routley, The English Carol (New York: Oxford University Press, 1959)
William Studwell and Dorothy Jones, Publishing Glad Tidings (New York: The Haworth Press, 1998)
Timo Mńkinen, ed., PiŠ Cantiones: Ecclesiasticae Et Scholasticae Veterum Episcoporum, 1582, Facsimile 1967, Edition Fazer, Helsinki-Helsingfors, FM 4000.
"Piae Cantiones." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 3 Jan 2009, 21:13 UTC. 4 Feb 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Piae_Cantiones&oldid=261753028>.
Facsimiles Piae Cantiones, 2007. 4 Feb 2009 <http://www.spielleut.de/facs_piae_cantiones.htm>
See also: Markus Tapio, Latin song in ancient Finland. These are notes concerning PiŠ Cantiones by the director of the musical ensemble, Retrover. I have not had the opportunity to listen to it myself, however, the CD has received excellent reviews. The CD contains compositions from PiŠ Cantioneas, well as other sources that "connect Finland to the common European musical heritage."
According to its web site, "Retrover is an ensemble specialized in the music of the Renaissance. Its primary goal is to perfect a performance style combining living musical expression and high artistic ambitions with thorough musical research....Retrover has performed and recorded in France, Belgium, Germany, Holland, Italy, Switzerland and in Scandinavia. The group has received acclaim by its variety of imaginative concert programs and CD recordings." | <urn:uuid:702481d8-4f18-4fbd-a4e6-0529882d36fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Biographies/piae_cantiones.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905396 | 2,498 | 3 | 3 |
- Voyages and travels (2)
- Admirals (1)
- Biography (1)
- Description and travel (1)
- Discovery and exploration (1)
- Drake, Francis, Sir, 1540?-1596 (1)
- Naval history (1)
- Nordenskiöld, A. E. (Adolf Erik), 1832-1901 (1)
- Northeast Passage (1)
- Russian Far East (1)
- Voyages around the world (1)
Along the Russian Arctic Regions: Adolf Nordenskiöld's Voyage around Europe and Asia in 1878–80
This illustrated book by Eduard Andreevich Granstrem (1843–1918), a Russian writer of popular histories for young people, recounts the first successful navigation of the Northeast Passage, accomplished by the Finnish-born geographer and Arctic explorer Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (1832–1901) on the steamship Vega in 1878–79. A possible northern passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans had been discussed since the early 16th century, but Nordenskiöld was the first navigator to travel the entire water route along the northern coast of Europe and Asia. Accompanied by three other ...
A Discourse in Commendation of the Valiant as Virtuous Minded Gentleman, Mister Frauncis Drake: With a Rejoicing of his Happy Adventures
This small book by the Elizabethan writer Nicholas Breton (circa 1545-1622) is a work of praise addressed to Francis Drake for his voyage around the world of 1577-80. The fact that it refers to Drake as “master” rather than “sir” suggests that it was published some time between September 26, 1580, when Drake returned to Plymouth, and April 14, 1581, when Queen Elizabeth I visited Drake’s ship and conferred knighthood upon him. Breton mentions the booty brought home by Drake, but is silent as to how it was acquired ...
The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake, Being His Next Voyage to That to Nombre de Dios Formerly Imprinted: Carefully Collected out of the Notes of Master Francis Fletcher, Preacher in This Imployment
This work of 1628 is the first edition of the earliest detailed account of the voyage around the world by Sir Francis Drake in 1577-80. It includes a frontspiece with a portrait of Drake and a double-globed map of the world. Drake’s was the second successful circumnavigation, after that of Ferdinand Magellan in 1519-22. Setting out with five ships and 160 men, Drake used his voyage to attack Spanish shipping and search for new territories and maritime routes. This work is based on the notes of Francis Fletcher, who ... | <urn:uuid:7b41bba2-fc32-4cf3-8227-49a753c24e40> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wdl.org/en/search/?additional_subjects=Explorers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933161 | 600 | 3.109375 | 3 |
After a decade of work, a garden blooms at Shawmut
With a yew and haw and a black cohosh, neighbors of the Shawmut T station on the Red Line celebrated the culmination of an over a decade-long struggle last Saturday. Where once stood decrepit warehouses and flooded sidewalks now grows a medicinal herb garden with informational plaques and 36 plant varieties.
"I really got active because I was trying to meet a man," admitted Jenny Moye to a crowd of her neighbors and a handful of pols including Mayor Thomas Menino and Councillors Charles Yancey and Maureen Feeney. Moye was among the first to come up with the garden idea in the late 90s. "Well, I met a man and we got a garden out of it."
Moye is credited with dogged determination for bottom-lining the push for the garden, but dozens of other volunteers were involved over the years and several obstacles were overcome. Around $122,000 in additional funding was eked out of city to fund the informative herb-walk along the walkway from Mather Street to the station, the T built the sidewalks and the Codman Square Health Center signed the dotted line to make sure it will be maintained.
The battle for improvements at the Shawmut was inextricably tied to the station improvements at all the Red Line stations in Dorchester. Moye began advocating for it in the late 90s, when all the Red Line stations were in poor shape. Pillars in the stations were crumbling, water damage was spreading and most stations had limited access for those with disabilities.
One resident was quoted in the Nov. 18, 1999 edition of the Reporter as saying, "Realtors tell people to get off at Ashmont, because Shawmut is such a pit."
But at the same community meeting where that was said, Moye was already sharing work Shawmut neighbors had done to encourage the T and the state legislature to improve the station. The now-dormant Dorchester Allied Neighborhood Associations helped spread her gospel so others could replicate the neighborhood pressure at Ashmont, Fields Corner and Savin Hill.
Today, the garden is a well-tended pathway of medicinal herbs, such as black cohosh, in colonial times a certain sign that its owner was a witch, and Yew, an evergreen that the drug Paclitaxel is derived from. Paclitaxel fights breast, ovarian and lung cancer. Hawthorns are planted along the path as well, bearing the haw fruit, which can be used to make jelly and possibly lower blood pressure. Where a warehouse once stood, now the yard of the Epiphany School sits.
"It wasn't done by the T, it wasn't done by the city, it was done by the neighborhood, because if they didn't push it wouldn't have happened," said state Rep. Marty Walsh at the event. "I really don't know if I can explain to people how long 10 years is. I think it translates into thousands of hours of community service." | <urn:uuid:343dc4c4-50e4-4d00-a6c7-091a10e6581b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dotnews.com/2008/after-decade-work-garden-blooms-shawmut | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979861 | 624 | 1.90625 | 2 |
|U.S. Drought Monitor Shows Record-Breaking Expanse Of Drought||martes, 10. julio 2012|
| More of the United States is in moderate drought or worse than at any other time in the 12-year history of the U.S. Drought Monitor, officials from the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln said recently.
Analysis of the latest drought monitor data revealed that 46.84 percent of the nation's land area is in various stages of drought, up from 42.8 percent a week ago. Previous records were 45.87 percent in drought on Aug. 26, 2003, and 45.64 percent on Sept. 10, 2002.
Looking only at the 48 contiguous states, 55.96 percent of the country's land area is in moderate drought or worse — also the highest percentage on record in that regard, officials said. The previous highs had been 54.79 percent on Aug. 26, 2003, and 54.63 percent on Sept. 10, 2002.
"The recent heat and dryness is catching up with us on a national scale," said Michael J. Hayes, director of the National Drought Mitigation Center. "Now, we have a larger section of the country in these lesser categories of drought than we've previously experienced in the history of the Drought Monitor."
<- Atrás, a la lista de noticias | <urn:uuid:fbe600a6-e107-46d0-a28f-31bd7c746ae5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dwc-water.com/nc/es/news/single-news/article/us-drought-monitor-shows-record-breaking-expanse-of-drought/1/134/fae6c1a3a57302889e28c34e959798b5/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922125 | 294 | 2.734375 | 3 |
"A Whole New Mind" by Daniel Pink
"A Whole New Mind" by Daniel Pink is a book from 2005 about "why right-brainers will rule the future", so if you want to rule the future, or just be highly successful, you should consider making time to read this book!
I've seen this book recommended many times in the past couple years on websites and in other books. So this week I went to the library and checked out a copy. While not wanting to rule the world, I was curious about why so many people were recommending this book. After reading about half the book, I've been tempted four or five times to put it down to start doing some of the activities recommended in the book or to write a blog post about what I've read.
Some of the ideas the book lays out are a bit disturbing both for me personally and for many engineering and technology types who have helped build large sectors of the American economy, including the internet and the high tech world in general. A large number of those people are predominantly left-brained. That's why they are so good at what they do. This book suggests those logical, sequential left-brain tasks are increasingly being moved to lower wage areas of the world or to computers. Somewhat the same thing that Thomas Friedman says in "The World Is Flat." As a result, Daniel Pink says, left-brain Americans are going to have to become more right-brain, or at least more balanced, if they want to maintain their standard of living. They need to learn how to provide something which the lower-cost labor regions can't provide, and a more right-brain approach to life is a big part of the answer.
One of the nice aspects of the book is that it provides specific recommendations for improving your right-brain capabilities. After each chapter about the six right-brain senses there is a 'Portfolio' section with usable, interesting action items. I plan to do at least some of those exercises myself, although my days don't have enough hours in them to do all of the things suggested. That's ok-- I'm sure there's a limit to how much my brain can switch from being left-brain to being right-brain!
Based on what I've read so far, this book is highly recommended to others for reading. Especially if you're an engineer or technology type person. You won't change your stripes, but the book may make you aware of opportunities you would otherwise have not seen. | <urn:uuid:79c49e54-cd52-4be4-a95d-cdc0af7f34af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mydigitechnician.blogspot.com/2008/04/whole-new-mind-by-daniel-pink.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973075 | 508 | 1.859375 | 2 |
Surveys are good methods for gathering opinions about a project you intend to undertake or even a product you want to launch. Surveys have proven to be an effective way for businesses and companies to collect consumer opinions and feedback.
If you are getting little responses or no responses at all or if you intend to run a survey soon, the following will be helpful.
- Find where the really interested people are for that niche. It is easier to get people who are already into what you want to research about
- Send out a notice to give people a heads up the survey is coming.
- You could pay consumers for participating in the survey
- give away some content (knowledge) about the very topic / need / context you’re addressing
- Get someone (or several people) to send the survey invite who individually or through their corporate affiliation has the credibility to warrant a higher response rate.
- Find the blogs of ideal survey respondents and send them a message through their blog.
- Follow up your email invitation 24 hours later with a phone call.
- Reach out to the organizers of the trade group(s) and ask for their help in getting survey respondents.
- Post your survey on blogs and post summary data that others will find useful.
- Promise to share results of the survey with survey respondents. Keep to that promise!
- Ask respondents to refer one or two other people who they know that would be good participants in the survey.
- If you are not offering incentives, keep it short and ask only what you need to know.
- Be clear about how much time it will take “this will take five minutes or less . . .”
- Consider taking the surveys with you to networking meetings - | <urn:uuid:5cd77961-864c-4b93-af40-de534531fa1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://alltopstartups.com/2011/10/02/14-ways-to-get-people-to-participate-in-your-surveys/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95243 | 356 | 1.507813 | 2 |
By Miceal O'Neill, O.Carm. We are living at a great time in terms of our consideration of contemplation as the heart of the Christian vocation. By contemplation we mean the journey and the encounter with God that transforms us into ever fuller images and likenesses of God, capable of seeing with the eyes of God and loving with the heart of God. It is the contemplation of a God who reveals God's own identity, with God's way of being, of speaking, and of acting (Psalm 115). In our journey therefore we are taking on more and more the way of God. We are coming to greater union with God and with his way. Those who know God in this way will do justice and live in justice. They will be people who will be incapable of living with injustice. They will abhor the kind of injustice that diminishes the human person, or fails to cultivate the human person as created in the image and likeness of God. While we speak a lot about God, as if we knew God as he really is, we have to recognize that we have no complete image of God, who is beyond all images. Our limited images of God have a great influence on how we practice our faith, how we relate to others, how we approach life. Unquestioned images are capable of becoming idols. In order to know God we have to be open to God's new ways of revealing God's self to us. In the Scriptures we can see three very strong images of God. The Lord hears the cry of the poor: The heart of God was moved by the cry of the poor. This God, knows the sufferings of his people, has heard their cry and is coming down to save them (Exodus 3). Before acting in the name of justice and love it is important to be like this God, to listen first to the cry of the people, to know their suffering and to have a firm desire for the liberation of the poor. When we listen and respond to the cry of the poor, in an authentic manner, we go through a process of conversion. We become more like God. Where the cry goes unheard, it is harder for people to believe. Jesus – the perfect image of God: The God who comes down to save his people from their oppression, sends his Son, the Incarnate Word, to be the full revelation of who God is. All we could ever want to know of God can be found in Jesus. He who sees me sees the Father (John 12:45). He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all Creation (Colossians 1:15). When we think of our life and how we would like to live it, we have to think of Jesus. When we want to understand and deepen our commitment, we have to think of Jesus' commitment. On very many occasions Jesus spoke of why he had come: I came…to do the will of the one who sent me (John 12:44-50)…that you might have life (John 10)…to serve and not be served (Matthew 20:28). Jesus performed miracles which reveal how he understood his mission: His miracles were an expression of the presence of the Kingdom of God, an expression of his ability to act out of sheer love, and a sign so that people might believe. Jesus was also an expression of God's option for the poor, by being born as one of them and living among them. The Reign of God is at hand (Mark 1:15): Jesus made the Reign of God the center of his preaching. This Reign is now a reality, but in such a way that it needs to grow among us. Because of Jesus, even now, the blind begin to see, the lame begin to walk, the deaf begin to hear and the Good News is being preached to the poor. The Reign of God embraces the whole of creation, as we know it. It is a reign of justice and truth, holiness and peace, grace, unity and love. What we know of the Reign of God allows us to understand what God's will is, and the kind of God in whom we believe. By what we know of the Reign of God we can discern what is good, acceptable and perfect. Belief in the Reign of God drives people on to be its servants and to build up the Reign of God, through the love that has been poured into our hearts (Romans 5:5). Our knowledge of the Reign of God is more than mere information. It implies mission and demands participation and commitment. It promises development, growth, and transformation for the individual and for the community. | <urn:uuid:7f6e2530-8e21-462c-9374-11f39d4615e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.loyno.edu/twomey/images-god | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971377 | 957 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Willard Wigan MBE made the artwork from a slither of cable tie, which sits in the eye of a gold needle.
The 51-year-old said that being able to witness the first black presidency was a "dream come true" and something he wanted to mark.
He said: "This is a very significant piece. Being the first black president in history, I had to make a tribute like this as something to show my gratitude.
"It was my belief that I would never see anything like this in my lifetime. It's a dream come true. Martin Luther King's dream has finally come true."
Mr Wigan, from Birmingham, said he worked nearly 18 hours a day for seven weeks in a cupboard to create the sculpture.
"It became an obsession, it almost sent me insane. I had to make it right. I had to really concentrate, you have to be a dead man walking," he added.
The artwork is so small that a powerful microscope that magnifies the object 400 times is needed to see the detail clearly. Mr Wigan worked on it in between heartbeats to avoid mistakes.
He used a small splinter of a diamond as a chisel and to paint it he used a hair of a dead fly.
Mr Wigan said: "I found a piece of old cable tie and I cut out a microscopic slither, and put it under a microscope to carve out one piece, which is smaller than a full stop in a newspaper.
"To carve out the president's family I used a broken shard of a diamond and attached it with the tiniest spec of super glue and I attached it to a broken part of a needle.
"When I first heard that Barack Obama was going to be the first black president, I wanted to do the smallest, biggest tribute in history."
Mr Wigan said he wants the president to see his work and hopes to go to America to promote his artwork.
"I would like Oprah to see it," he said. "America will be in for a surprise. I'm sure no one would have seen anything like it before. My work knocks people out, you've not seen the best of me yet."
His work is currently on display at the Friar Lane gallery in Nottingham. | <urn:uuid:1fca2afa-5be1-4771-962d-e472bef04811> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4296808/Barack-Obama-inauguration-artist-Willard-Wigan-creates-microscopic-sculpture.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984083 | 471 | 2.28125 | 2 |
About the Photographer
John Pfahl's photographs, from his series Waterfalls, speak not only of our awe for and fascination with our environment but also of our capacity to take advantage of it. Showing the United States' waterfalls as alternately sources of power and aesthetic landmarks, Pfahl's works do not disregard the human presence inherent in these landscapes, as other photographers have, but rather examine the effects we have had upon our surroundings. Many of the Eastern waterfalls Pfahl photographs have been exploited for industrialization, while the Western waterfalls are less common and are usually protected by the parks system. Pfahl recognizes that "waterfalls photographed close-up and isolated all look very much the same"; for this reason, he works with a panoramic camera and wide-angle lenses, providing context and complicating the significance of his images.
A native of New York City, Pfahl (b.1939) was educated at Syracuse University (BFA, 1961 and MFA, 1968). His works have been exhibited in solo exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography; and the Cleveland Museum of Art, among others. Pfahl has received two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and his photographs are held in many public and private collections, including those of the Museum of Modern Art, the Chicago Art Institute, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Now a full-time artist and photographer living in Buffalo, NY, Pfahl has taught as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Buffalo since 1986. | <urn:uuid:3a88e205-a914-4e66-855d-114b30edbcbd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mocp.org/detail.php?type=related&kv=6937&t=objects | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9688 | 320 | 1.726563 | 2 |
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Dodd-Frank's Mystery SIFI Theater
Dodd-Frank's Mystery SIFI Theater
November 01, 2012
Originally published in The American Spectator
Following the financial crisis, there was a desire to protect the nation against banks becoming so large that their failure would threaten the entire financial system. The result was the Dodd-Frank financial reform act, signed into law in 2010. Now there's a renewed debate over whether the nation's biggest banks are still too big to fail, after Mitt Romney, in the first Presidential debate, called Dodd-Frank, the "biggest kiss that's been given to -- to New York banks I've ever seen." One of the law's co-authors, Rep. Barney Frank (D.-Mass.), hotly disputed that assertion, saying that if a bank "gets into so much debt that they [sic] can't pay off all their debts, they are put out of business" and noted that many firms were resisting Dodd-Frank's implementation.
Last week, Dodd-Frank defenders got a boost thanks to a report produced for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), which argues that Dodd-Frank's "orderly liquidation authority" (OLA) provided what the author called a "meaningful answer to too-big-to-fail," and treats opposition to the law as a mystery.
The law's critics also chimed in. There are, in fact, many aspects of Dodd-Frank that entrench too-big-to-fail status for big banks. As former White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray and attorney Adam White outline them in a Weekly Standard cover story, the new regulatory burdens imposed by the law will place smaller banks at a disadvantage relative to the bigger banks that can better absorb the compliance costs. In fact, some smaller banks may have to merge to deal with the costs effectively, creating yet more big banks in the process.
There's an even more troubling aspect of Dodd-Frank, which Gray and White do not mention. The act designates the too-big-to-fail institutions as SIFIs -- Systemically Important Financial Institutions. SIFIs are subject to additional regulations and eligible for OLA. Most importantly, they have to pay staggeringly large fees to help clean up the mess when a peer SIFI fails. That's right -- Dodd-Frank requires some financial institutions to pay to fix problems created by others.
This means that there are two classes of SIFIs -- 1) the high-rolling institutions that may be tempted to take unreasonable risks with the money people have entrusted to them, and 2) the large stable firms that actually have the money (again, entrusted to them by clients) that can be expropriated by government to pay for the mistakes of the first class. In effect, Dodd-Frank turns responsible institutions into cash cows to pay for the "orderly liquidation" of the irresponsible.
The moral hazard involved in this situation should be obvious. In fact, the OLA and bailout fees together represent an opportunity for regulators to nationalize SIFIs, turning them into new versions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with all that entails. The idea that Dodd-Frank provides a "meaningful answer to too-big-to-fail" turns out to be a fiction -- and not a very believable one.
This is why responsible institutions have been resisting Dodd-Frank. It's also why state attorneys general are very worried about the damage that this process could do to holdings in state pension funds, which are already under great stress.
Furthermore, the law designates other firms besides banks as SIFIs, including large insurance firms. There is no good reason for this. As State Farm points out, "insurance companies in general, and mutual insurers in particular, do not engage in the types of unregulated, highly leveraged and interconnected activities that threaten the financial stability of the United States (e.g. speculative participation in credit default swaps)." This raises the possibility that regulators could try to broaden the category still further, and designate, say, large retailers and even manufacturers as SIFIs.
It is all so unnecessary. Chapter 11 bankruptcy could provide a perfectly acceptable method for liquidating a bank, as former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan noted at the SIFMA meeting last week. However, until Dodd-Frank is repealed or replaced, that will not happen.
Yet, there is another possible solution to the Dodd-Frank mess. The State National Bank of Big Spring, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the 60-Plus Association have joined to together to sue over the constitutionality of the law, which creates agencies that violate the separation of powers, among other things. As my CEI colleague John Berlau noted recently, there are now several prominent Democrats who recognize the damage Dodd-Frank is doing. In other words, more and more people are realizing that Dodd-Frank is an example of mystery SIFI theater, and heaping well-deserved opprobrium upon it. | <urn:uuid:6c84c55a-4df0-4d8b-9b42-1ab182cfaee0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cei.org/op-eds-articles/dodd-franks-mystery-sifi-theater | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964838 | 1,038 | 1.53125 | 2 |
The Primary Curriculum
Learning from International Perspectives
Edited by Linda Hargreaves, Janet Moyles
Published January 29th 1998 by Routledge – 240 pages
This book is concerned with the relationships and tensions in education between children's needs and societies' demands, questions which primary teachers everywhere face on a daily basis, such as:
* how does society's view of children and childhood affect teaching and learning?
* how do the dictates of the education system, including a national curriculum, shape teaching practice?
* how do the conventions of classroom practice fit with teachers' own beliefs and values?
The first part of the book offers a basic framework for thinking about primary curricula from the perspectives raised by these questions, whilst the second part presents a range of international views on the primary curriculum from Australia, New Zealand, South-East Asia, Europe and the USA. | <urn:uuid:c7701232-5daf-44e2-9b14-596336482b8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.psypress.com/books/details/9780415158329/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937437 | 179 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Wetland ecosystems conservation is essential
Closer cooperation GTOS-Ramsar Convention
15 June 2006, Rome – “Conservation of wetland ecosystems is essential not only for sustainable fresh water supply but also for preserving biodiversity and ensuring other services necessary to the health and well-being of people around the world,” FAO Assistant Director-General Alexander Müller said at the signing ceremony of a memorandum of cooperation between the Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS) and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
GTOS, an international programme on global environmental change, sponsored by FAO, UNESCO, UNEP, WMO* and the International Council for Science (ICSU), plays a major role in monitoring and assessing wetland ecosystems in order to address loss and degradation.
The Convention on Wetlands was born in 1971 in Ramsar, Iran, when very few governments had environmental concerns. This intergovernmental forum on wetland conservation issues today gathers 152 contracting parties.
The agreement signed on June 13 provides for joint actions related to “the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local, regional and national actions and international cooperation, as a contribution towards achieving sustainable development throughout the world.”
“Wetlands offer a wide range of services to farmers and people in general; yet human populations can be considered at the source of the causes leading to the loss and degradation of these fragile ecosystems,” Mr. Müller said.
Warning against the harmful consequences to human well-being of increased wetland ecosystems degradation or unsustainable use, Mr. Müller stressed “the urgent need to reverse the trend, or else the situation could grow significantly worse.”
“Wetlands need conservation and wise management, because they are used for water supply and food resources, including fishing, hunting, irrigation, energy production, recreation and many other uses,” said the Secretary-General of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, Peter Bridgewater.
“The key issues tackled by GTOS, such as land use and land-cover change, water resources management, loss of biodiversity, climate change, pollution and toxicity, provide a strong basis to improve our knowledge of wetlands dynamics, a crucial component in assessing freshwater supply, demand and crisis within sustainable food and agriculture systems,” FAO expert Lucilla Spini said.
Different types of wetlands have been recognized by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. “Particular attention should be placed on coastal wetlands and mangrove forests, being places of remarkable biological productivity and intense human population pressure,” according to FAO.
Reconciling people and nature
The agreement between GTOS and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands calls attention to the importance of partnerships to address the global challenge linked to freshwater supply.
The activities to be implemented jointly by GTOS and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands consider the specificity of the coastal zones and highlight the importance of cooperation with other relevant mechanisms, such as the World Heritage Convention and the MedWet Initiative.
“The ultimate objective of the international cooperation in this field is to reconcile people and nature in wetland ecosystems,” said Mr. Müller, who praised Italy for its support to GTOS, which allows for the development and execution of pilot initiatives.
* The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); the UN Environment Programme (UNEP); the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
Media Relations, FAO
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