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The ABC’s of health insurance
HMO, PCP, PPO, POS — feel like you’re wading through alphabet soup? Read on for translations of common terms.
• Health maintenance organizations (HMO) require you to choose a primary care physician (PCP), who coordinates all of your care, including visits to specialists.
• Preferred provider organizations (PPO) let you make your own choices from a network of preferred providers (in some plans, you can pay a higher fee for out-of-network care) and may not require you to have a primary care physician.
• Point-of-service plans (POS) let you choose between receiving care from participating providers (you’ll be reimbursed more for this), or non-participating providers(you’ll be reimbursed less for this).
Some plans offer lower premiums (monthly payments) in exchange for a higher yearly deductible (the amount you must pay personally before insurance provides any coverage). Some plans require co-pays, a set fee you pay for health care visits or medications. Others ask you to pay co-insurance, which means you’re responsible for a portion (20 percent, for example) of eligible expenses charged by a provider or the amount the insurer agrees to pay for specific services.
Many plans require preauthorization or precertification for certain services, such as surgery or visits to a specialist. Some pick up the tab on preventive care services, such as flu shots, cholesterol tests, or colonoscopy. Most have formularies that list pre-approved, commonly prescribed drugs.
Making every dollar count
“Until the economy bounces back, people will be looking for ways to cut costs wherever they can,” said Dr. John Fallon, Chief Physician Executive at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA). “But when it comes to our health, we have to be smart about the decisions we make, including how we select and use our health care plans.”
Whether you sign up for a health plan through work or on your own, being a smart consumer is key. Carefully evaluate all the options available to you to find the best care for your money.
Compare available plans during open enrollment periods.
Carefully compare all available options during annual open enrollment periods (often in the fall); sticking with the same plan doesn’t always make sense. If you don’t anticipate needing to see the doctor frequently, it may be worthwhile to select a less expensive plan with higher co-pays or a higher deductible. Most health plans have formularies listing pre-approved drugs. Often, drugs are added (and sometimes dropped) annually. Remember to check formularies annually for medications you need. Staying informed — and keeping on top of selection deadlines — can save you headaches and cash.
Compare additional incentives. Many plans offer discounts for health club memberships, smoking cessation, weight loss programs and preventive screenings. Discounts may even apply to accredited complementary care providers you visit, such as a dietitian, chiropractor, masseuse, or acupuncturist. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts offers this through the Living Healthy Naturally Program. Once you find the right plan, follow these tips to save on costs:
1. Investigate health savings accounts. If you’re under 65 and have a high-deductible plan, you can put a portion of pretax dollars into a Health Savings Account (HSA) to pay for eligible health expenses, thus lowering your tax bill. Unused HSA funds can roll over and accumulate year to year. Alternatively, a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) offered only through employers holds pretax dollars for eligible health or dependent expenses. FSA funds not spent by year-end are forfeited. If you already have an FSA, remember to submit 2009 claims for reimbursement by March 31, 2010.
2. Stay in network. Use doctors and specialists in your health plan’s network. Out-of-network care drives up your share of the health care bill. If you’re unsure if a provider is in your plan’s network, simply give your plan a call or check online.
3. Save on prescriptions. Always ask about generics, lower-cost brand name medications and over-the-counter options. Generics, which can be as effective as brand name counterparts, come on the market frequently (and big chains like Kmart, Sam’s Club, Target, and Wal–Mart price hundreds of generics under $5 for a 30-day supply). Find out if lifestyle changes — more exercise, better diet, stress reduction — might lower dosages or erase need for some medication. Always talk to your doctor or pharmacist before making any medication changes.
4. Dial a help line. Find out if your plan has nurse help lines to advise you on whether you should see a doctor or can self-treat using simple remedies like fluids, fever-relievers and rest. For example, members who have a plan under BCBSMA can call experienced nurses staffing the 24–hour Blue Care Line. Often a call can save an unnecessary trip to the hospital or doctor’s office — and your co-pay. Ask your plan what resources may be available to you.
5. Participate in wellness programs. Hit the jackpot with healthy choices. Exercising, losing weight and quitting smoking dramatically lower your risks for asthma, diabetes, cancer and heart problems, significantly improving your health while cutting your health care bills. Many health plans offer wellness program discounts, rebates and fabulous online tools like personalized weight loss or workout plans. Free and low-cost community programs may be available through the Boston Parks and Recreation Department, senior centers and community education centers. | <urn:uuid:8444b13b-7aab-4801-be7c-89c2a29400f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://behealthy.baystatebanner.com/issues/2010/03-2010/MakingEveryDollarCount.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92455 | 1,196 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Verbal Self Defense – a Critical Factor in Self Defense for Women
Verbal self defense, the use of your voice in a threatening situation, is an extremely important tool in protecting yourself. How? Uncommon to popular belief, criminals do not pounce on an individual when the mood strikes them. They attack when they see an opportunity available to them. If it?s easy, they will take it. They will prey on those who are weak, unaware, and an uncomplicated target.
Criminals will act on premeditation, or stalk their victims ahead of time before attacking. If you show that you are familiar with your surroundings, walk with confidence, and give off the impression of strength, a criminal will not want to work to fight you.
Keep you eyes on everyone. Just because they might not ?look? like an attacker, doesn?t mean that some guy in a business suit can?t be one. If someone is approaching you, look them in the eye, hold out your hands in front of you and yell ?Stay Back!? or ?Stop!?
Most sexual assailants interviewed say that they leave a woman alone if she showed that she wasn?t someone to be messed with or wasn?t afraid to fight back. It?s called putting up a verbal boundary or verbal self defense. Many who have used this as part of their self defense training say they were amazed when they stepped toward a threatening stranger and yelled ?Back Off!? in a strong, assertive, projecting voice. And the would-be assailant did just that.
Pepper sprays can work in the same manner. Just by aiming at a potential attacker and yelling, ?I have pepper spray!? can be a deterrent. That?s if it is in your hand at the time. Pepper sprays are only effective if properly used. Telling your would-be assailant that you have pepper spray? and it?s at the bottom of your purse is not effectively using it, or any weapon or self-defense product, for that matter. Whether its mace, a stun gun, or even your keys, have it readily available, in your hand.
Knowing how to use these devices also plays a huge role in protection. You must know how the device works and be familiar with it. How? Practice. Practice. Practice.
When using mace/pepper spray or gel, go outside and shoot a tree. See how the sprayer really works. See the distance it takes to reach a target. If you?re going to use your keys, pre-plan ahead of time just exactly where on an attacker you would jab them. The eyes and throat are terrific targets. Tell yourself?
?I will use this if I feel my life is in danger ? No Question.? and without hesitation.
There are even places that actually have computer simulated pepper spray practice rooms. They are extremely life-like. These are the same simulation rooms that police and security officials use for their own training. Check with you local law enforcement to see if they are available in your area.
This type of training is extremely successful to program the mind during adrenal-stress. Or another form is called Body Alarm Reaction (B.A.R). You must train the mind with a stressful situation or adrenaline response to know just how you will react during an actual confrontation or attack. How you react in a B.A.R. moment will let you know if you?ll hesitate in a life or death situation.
Knowing how verbal self defense works can be a terrific safety tool for you in preventing from falling prey to an approach of a stranger ? male or female. Verbal self defense is also another way to build confidence in yourself. It allows you to see the power of your voice, and the protection you have from that voice. You do not have to feel threatened by anyone, ever. | <urn:uuid:0c94707c-59df-47c8-b278-3293450f1ab9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://womenselfdefensefederation.com/verbal-self-defense-a-critical-factor-in-self-defense-for-women-2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953341 | 791 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Butterfly Wing Scale Digital Image Gallery
False Acraea Butterfly
The brilliant orange, red and black patterns of the false acraea butterfly mimic those of other species in order to provide protection from predators, yet, cannot protect them from man. The species ranges from the Republic of Cameroon and Gabon, east across Central Africa through the Congo, and into Western Uganda. However, the habitat of the false acraea has greatly suffered from many years of war and the local butterfly populations may be shrinking.
False acraea butterflies are scientifically described as Pseudacraea clarki and are members of the family Nymphalidae. The adults have a highly modified front pair of legs, which are no longer utilized for walking. Rather, the brush-like legs act as sensory organs used to taste plants as potential egg hosts and larval food sources. Sexual dimorphism is highly pronounced in the false acraea species. The males display burnt oranges and reds, but the larger females are more golden and are highlighted by numerous black spots.
Entymologists are not certain whether the mimicry displayed by the false acraea butterfly is Batesian or Müllerian. Batesian mimicry, in which one species is harmful and the other is harmless, is named for Henry Walter Bates, an English biologist who studied tropical butterflies in the 1850's. Müllerian mimicry, named for Fritz Müller, a German zoologist who worked in the Amazon about thirty years after Bates, refers to several unpalatable species that share a similar warning pattern.
The feeding habits of false acraea caterpillars have often caused them to be regarded as agricultural pests. The larvae feed on several different host plants, such as star apples, red-milkwoods, satin leaf, golden leaf, balata, and bully trees. The fruit of the balata and star apple trees are sold commercially in Africa. Since the caterpillars are herbivores of the economically important fruit trees, they are often treated with toxic insecticides. Additional problems for the species include over-collecting, destruction of habitat due to agricultural conversion of forests, and the aftermath of many years of war.
False Acraea Swallowtail Butterfly Images in Brightfield Illumination
Fur on Wing - This high magnification brightfield image features an area of a false acraea wing that is largely devoid of scales. Instead, straight pin-like fur is the dominant feature.
Wing Scales and Membrane - In the lower right hand corner of this photomicrograph several tapered wing scales are rooted to the membrane of a false acraea wing. Brightfield admirably displays both the shape and overlapping pattern of the scales.
Cynthia D. Kelly, Shannon H. Neaves, Laurence D. Zuckerman, and Michael W. Davidson - National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, 1800 East Paul Dirac Dr., The Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, 32310.
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This website is maintained by our | <urn:uuid:7810a680-434d-450f-a707-193cffc83249> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/olympusmicd/galleries/butterfly/falseacraeao1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922799 | 699 | 3.75 | 4 |
Speeches by Chinese Communist Party leaders are great opportunities to play “buzzword bingo”. Hu Jintao’s July 23 policy summary was replete with such phrases as “socialism with Chinese characteristics”, “Deng Xiaoping Theory” and “Scientific Outlook on Development”. But the sloganising is more than empty rhetoric. The speech, echoed elsewhere, shows the outgoing leader wants the CCP, and the country, to escape from might be called a Marxist trap.
The trap has three parts. The first is the core Marxist belief that economic considerations come first while culture and everything else lag far behind. These days, many non-Marxists also put the economy first, but Chinese leaders are especially loyal to the simple claim that GDP growth equates to progress. Hu’s focus on scientific development, for instance, is shorthand for putting higher production before all other goals. His other big buzzword – harmonious development – is not a tribute to the traditional Confucian notion of cosmic harmony, but a call not to let inharmonious social disorder slow material progress.
The second part of the Marxist trap is the Communist Party’s monopoly of power in government and its final authority over everything in society. That predominance has been taken for granted by virtually everyone in the top leadership since the foundation of the People’s Republic in 1949, although the thinking comes less of Marx himself than his teacher G.W.F. Hegel. Hegel believed that the state would and should eventually take over the roles traditionally played by the various organisations of civil society: family, church, guild, cultural and special interest groups. Lenin added the claim that the Communist Party is the vanguard of this all-encompassing state, so there is neither need nor space for other voices.
The final piece of the trap was set by Deng Xiaoping, the second leader of communist China. His endorsement of rapid and chaotic capitalist development, later know as socialism with Chinese characteristics, may not sound Marxist – Deng’s doctrinaire opponents in the CCP were certainly horrified. But Marx himself believed that only bourgeois capitalists had the fervour and motivation required to industrialise a predominantly agricultural economy. In Marx’s day, the bourgeois and the communists were enemies, but the CCP has tried to co-opt the private sector by admitting leading industrialists into the Party.
By some standards, the Deng version of Marxism has worked very well, far better than the Leninist approach, adopted in the Soviet Union and its satellites, which gave the state control of all the means of production. China’s GDP has increased remarkably rapidly for almost four decades. There has been little social discord and the Party remains in firm control. | <urn:uuid:9433315a-a261-4514-b0f1-f8ac443da47d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.reuters.com/edward-hadas/tag/china/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963409 | 564 | 2.453125 | 2 |
LONDON (Reuters) - A molecule found in a curry ingredient can kill esophageal cancer cells in the laboratory, suggesting it might be developed as an anti-cancer treatment, scientists said on Wednesday.
Researchers at the Cork Cancer Research Center in Ireland treated esophageal cancer cells with curcumin -- a chemical found in the spice turmeric, which gives curries a distinctive yellow color -- and found it started to kill cancer cells within 24 hours.
The cells also began to digest themselves, they said in a study published in the British Journal of Cancer.
Previous scientific studies have suggested curcumin can suppress tumors and that people who eat lots of curry may be less prone to the disease, although curcumin loses its anti-cancer attributes quickly when ingested.
But Sharon McKenna, lead author of the Irish study, said her study suggested a potential for scientists to develop curcumin as an anti-cancer drug to treat esophageal cancer.
Cancers of the esophagus kill more than 500,000 people across the world each year. The tumors are especially deadly, with five-year survival rates of just 12 to 31 percent.
McKenna said the study showed curcumin caused the cancer cells to die "using an unexpected system of cell messages."
Normally, faulty cells die by committing programed suicide, or apoptosis, which occurs when proteins called caspases are 'switched on' in cells, the researchers said.
But these cells showed no evidence of suicide, and the addition of a molecule that inhibits caspases and stops this "switch being flicked' made no difference to the number of cells that died, suggesting curcumin attacked the cancer cells using an alternative cell signaling system.
U.S. researchers said in 2007 they had found curcumin may help stimulate immune system cells in the Alzheimer's disease.
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Are YouMoney Smart? | <urn:uuid:90c0af41-d368-4674-af30-2588f22f5d50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lifescript.com/health/centers/rheumatoid_arthritis/alternative_treatments/turmeric_articles/scientists_say_curry_compound_kills_cancer_cells.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925675 | 478 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Violence Against Women Act up for renewal amid threats to protections for undocumented women
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and this year the Violence Against Women Act, which provides immigrant women with legal protections, is up for reauthorization by Congress. As that process unfolds, an immigration enforcement bill that would limit the federal government’s freedom to assist undocumented domestic violence victims is being considered in the House.
According to the National Network to End Domestic Violence, the Violence Against Women Act (known as VAWA) “should be swiftly reauthorized to ensure the continuation of these vital, lifesaving programs and laws.” The Network adds that VAWA “creates and supports comprehensive, effective, and cost saving responses to the crimes of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking.” The law is administered by the departments of Justice and Health and Human Services.
But a GOP immigration enforcement bill now being considered in the House could limit the federal government’s ability to assist undocumented domestic violence victims.
Michelle Ortiz — the supervising attorney of Lucha, a unit within Americans for Immigrant Justice, formerly the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center — told The Florida Independent that the Hinder the Administration Legalization Temptation Act, an immigration enforcement bill filed by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, would undermine existing immigration law by removing prosecutorial discretion and deferred action, two components that protect undocumented domestic victimes.
“Under the Violence Against Women Act, which has existed for 15 years, there have been specific protections for victims of domestic violence,” Michelle Ortiz said, “particularly for people who self-petition, who are victims of domestic violence at the hands of a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident.”
Smith’s Hinder the Administration Legalization Temptation Act (better known as the HALT Act) would force immigration authorities to deport victims of domestic violence who reach out for help.
Sarah Van Hofwegen, a staff attorney at Americans for Immigrant Justice who visits immigrant detainees, tells the Independent that “HALT would create an even bigger climate of fear for immigrants.”
“People will be less willing to report crimes against them for fear of ending up in custody,” she says. “I think there a lot of immigrant women who are victims of crime and are not getting the service they need and are not reporting the crimes against them.”
“I see high numbers of women who are victims of domestic violence and end up in the immigration system, through a variety of ways, in the Broward Transition Center, the lowest-security facility in South Florida,” Van Hofwegen says. “So it’s people with mimor criminal convictions.”
Van Hofwegen also says she visits women “who have come to the United States, fleeing their abuser in their home country.”
“People can’t be denied legal services,” Van Hofwegen says, “but it is harder to get legal services when they are in detention because the centers are far away, also because there is not as much pro bono services available. Americans for Immigrant Justice is the only organization that is working out of Broward Transition Center, and other detention centers like Glades County detention center have very little pro bono services, so people who can’t afford attorneys and don’t have ways to contact them are getting legal assistance.”
Van Hofwegen adds that the majority of women she represents are Latina and Haitian, but there are women from other countries. Some are are young, some are married and some are not married to their abusers.
Legal Momentum, a women’s legal defense and education fund, writes that “immigrant women are more likely to confront poverty, violence and exploitation than any other demographic in America.”
The HALT Act is cosponsored by Florida Republicans Vern Buchanan, Jeff Miller, Richard Nugent, Dennis Ross and C.W. Bill Young. | <urn:uuid:6d921a30-bcba-4aae-8596-8fb997a8b79f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://floridaindependent.com/51777/halt-act-domestic-violence-victims | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955444 | 840 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Student Code of Conduct and University Policies
Student Code of Conduct Revisions
In an effort to ensure the safety of our students, faculty, and staff while providing an environment conducive to learning, Southeastern Louisiana University has revised the Student Code of Conduct to include substantial changes to the University's drug policy.
While the current Student Code of Conduct contains language addressing illicit and prescription drugs, a recent increase in the consumption of synthetic, manufactured, and so-called "designer" drugs nation-wide has led the University to revisit existing policies for the campus.
Effective April 8, 2013, the University prohibits the use, consumption, possession, manufacture, furnishing, procuring, sale, and/or distribution of synthetic drugs, including but not limited to marijuana, incense, bath salts, and other manufactured drugs. Possession of drug paraphernalia including but not limited to hookahs and other smoking devices, weights, scales, and rolling papers are also Student Code of Conduct violations.
The University reserves the right to change the Student Code of Conduct at any time during the academic year. It is each student's responsibility to keep abreast and comply with the Student Code of Conduct as well as other published rules and policies. The most up-to-date copy of the Student Code of Conduct can be found at below.
Students are responsible to familiarize themselves with the Student Code of Conduct and all University policies. | <urn:uuid:0f9e235f-6a6e-42b4-843a-1a9330da650e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.selu.edu/admin/stu_conduct/policies/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946964 | 286 | 1.515625 | 2 |
SOUTH COUNTY A key Chula Vista committee is continuing the forward momentum on possible district elections for the largest city in the South Bay, which has a population of around 250,000 residents.
Charter Review commissioners are considering recommending the council put forward a ballot measure in June 2012 that could change the way people elect their city council members. But first, they want to conduct widespread public outreach to determine if Chula Vista residents are interested in the idea.
A June ballot measure could cost an estimated $180,000, according to City Clerk Donna Norris.
Already, some residents are saying the money could be better spent.
“Where on earth is this money coming from? I thought we were broke,” Eastlake resident Jessica Hayes asked. “If we don’t have money for police, fire and libraries, we don’t have money for this politically-motivated grab.”
Some residents say the idea of district elections is coming forward now as a means of blocking certain candidates from running for office.
At a Monday meeting, the commission appointed an ad hoc subcommittee of commissioners, Egbert Oostburg and William Richter, to plow through a plethora of public outreach options presented by Leilani Hines, a principal project coordinator for the Development Services department. Those ranged from the costly, such as employing firms like the Institute for Local Government or the International Association of Public Participation, to the more cost-effective, such as utilizing social media to engage residents in the debate.
“For me, I conduct all my business after the kids go to sleep, so if there is some type of forum that allows me to throw my two cents in after 11 p.m., that’s ideal,” Hines said.
The commission has a budget of only $400, but plans to bring forward a request to the City Council to allocate more funds.
Currently, elected officials are selected through at-large elections, where everyone in the city is able to vote for a candidate. The Charter Review commission is studying cities similar in size to Chula Vista that hold district elections, where council members are elected from specific areas. Proponents say district elections help reduce campaign costs and limit the influence of special interests. District elections are also aimed at preventing disenfranchisement of minority voters.
The commission would be tasked with formulating a plan for evaluating districts every 10 years to ensure that no single minority group is stripped of their voting rights by the boundary lines. At least one commissioner, Carra Rhamy wanted to know how much that process will cost down the road.
In San Diego, at both the county and city level, contentious crusades over redistricting are currently underway.
The commission elected two members Monday to oversee the final recommendation that will be presented to council by January in time for a potential June general elections ballot measure. Commissioners Ron Kelley and Rhamy will lead that effort.
City Attorney Glen Googins advised the commission that all language in any adopted public outreach effort will have to be neutral in tone and avoid advocating either for citywide or district elections.
The next Charter Review meeting is scheduled for 4 p.m. Aug. 1, in the community room of the Chula Vista Police Department headquarters, 315 4th Ave.
firstname.lastname@example.org • 619-293-1743 • Twitter: @WendyFry | <urn:uuid:7d166bb7-c584-4e07-9879-15def02da890> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2011/jul/19/district-elections-coming-soon-south-county-city-n/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949866 | 702 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Coat of arms / ‘family crest’
Some interesting comments in my last blog post (‘You only have to look’) made me wish I’d replied into a separate blog post, so at least the comments related to the topic.
Someone said in a comment: Those “accept anything they find without question” folks must be the ones who patronize those generic “family crest” suppliers where you get a crest of somebody, somewhere, who happens to share your surname.
I disagreed because I think you can hang anything on your wall that takes your interest, but to say “my great grandfather was …” without sufficient cross-checking to ensure you have the ancestor who belongs to you – well it might be a very interesting family tree, but it’s not yours. And I guess that’s the same point the commenter made about how many people think of a ‘family’ coat of arms.
To be entitled to use a coat of arms you must have either been granted it yourself or be descended in the male line from the original grantee.
My point was that I might know that, and not actually use the arms, but still be interested in them as a curiosity.
However the mention of a ‘family crest’ touched a particular irritation with me. There’s no such thing as a ‘family crest’.
The term ‘coat of arms’ (or ‘armorial bearings’ or just ‘arms’) descends from the days when knights in battles or tournaments wanted to be identifiable, and with the visor of their helmets down, clad in armour, it was difficult to tell friend from foe, so they started to paint the symbols that identified the knight onto a sleeveless linen surcoat, worn over the armour.
Different parts of the armour had different names, and some of those names continue in the words used to describe ‘armorial bearings’ (what we think of as ‘coats of arms’).
The only essential part of the armour was the shield (which could be different shapes & sizes). The crest was ornamentation that might have been worn on top of the helmet and usually was chosen as a bird or beast that the knight thought reflected his martial qualities.
So a crest was optional, but you cannot have a crest without arms. So please – refer to a ‘coat of arms’ not to a ‘family crest’! | <urn:uuid:521a7922-6025-49b1-aaea-8777f3d74710> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://famresearch.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/coat-of-arms-family-crest/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=0619346065 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9705 | 520 | 2.53125 | 3 |
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Graduates could have their own children at university before uni debts are repaid
The decision in the Commons today on whether university tuition fees will rise to an unprecedented £9,000 per year, will be taken against a backdrop of protests from student campaigners who face the prospect of debts in excess of £30,000. Combined with rising graduate unemployment, which hit its highest levels for 17 years at 8.9%, students are furious that by the time they pay back their debts they could be old enough to have their own children at university.
Since the speculation regarding tuition fees notgoingtouni have seen a 35% increase in visitor numbers. Enquiries to the website have not only come from students but concerned parents and careers advisor, seeking other ways that young people can kickstart their careers now that so many feel priced out of university.
“Notgoingtouni.co.uk highlights an extensive variety of alternatives to the traditional university route from apprenticeships to foundation and sponsored degrees to distance Learning,” explains Communications Director Sarah Clover who believes that there has never been a tougher time for the undergraduate market. “What we want school leavers to know is that there are some great ways to achieve your career goals without a full time degree course so explore your options before you make a decision and you could find a way to gain your chosen qualification debt free.”
Researching the alternatives can provide some shocking insights. Aside from the oft-quoted statistic that graduates can expect to earn £100,000 more in their lifetime, another report shows that taking an apprenticeship can be just as advantageous for earnings. Steven McIntosh from the University of Sheffield, revealed that the Net Present Value for those who complete an Apprenticeship is estimated to be around £105,000 over a career and there are substantial increases in earning for those who take the vocational route too.
Notgoingtouni.co.uk offers an extensive range of alternative routes to university including Apprenticeships, Foundation Degrees, Gap Years, Distance Learning, Volunteering and Employer Funded Study as well as training courses in over 40 different sectors. For free and impartial advice about all the alternatives students, parents and careers advisers should visit www.notgoingtouni.co.uk. | <urn:uuid:f235afaf-eb95-4c04-95fa-c9d333ef00ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.notgoingtouni.co.uk/news/view/257 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964667 | 545 | 1.9375 | 2 |
great pacific garbage patch
How do you like your oysters? Probably not with a side of fishing line or a plastic bag.
This video, created by Katrin Peters for SOS Plastic, shows a couple on a seemingly romantic date. It’s less appealing, though, when you see what accompanies their dinner:
Part of a global campaign to raise awareness and unite international groups against marine plastic pollution, SOS Plastic aims to show how plastics in the oceans affect the entire world.
Every year we use millions of tons of plastic in packaging, water bottles, single-use bags, fishing line and more. The qualities that are so useful to humans – its durability, light weight, and lack of decomposition – make plastic a dangerous material once it gets into the oceans. Polymers can last for decades, if not centuries, which leads to an enormous accumulation of plastic in the oceans.
In 1992, the EPA found that the majority of the world’s beaches showed some sort of plastic accumulation. You might have seen bottles, bags, or fishing nets washed up on the shore, but the real danger lies in what you can’t see.
When exposed to the sun and water, plastics break apart into tiny pieces, called microplastics. These little bits of trash don’t decompose in the water; instead, they get eaten by plankton then travel up through the food chain. Microplastics carry chemicals at extreme levels that can cause illness in both marine animals and humans when we eat seafood.
Many states and counties are starting to limit or ban plastic bags, like Carmel-by-the-Sea in California. You can help by reducing your plastic use – bring reusable bags to the grocery store or farmer’s market, carry a drink in a stainless steel water bottle, and make sure that when you do use plastics you recycle. Sign the Plastics Pledge today to prevent the ocean from getting trashed.
Imagine you’re in a dimly lit Italian restaurant. Famished, you take the first bite of a juicy eggplant parmesan dinner, and it turns out to be a big hunk of plastic. (Yuk.)
That’s the reality for fish in an area of the ocean known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, where fish are mistaking their food sources with a growing amount of floating trash.
Two graduate students at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Pete Davison and Rebecca Asch, joined the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition, or SEAPLEX, where they found evidence of plastic waste in more than 9 percent of the stomachs of fish collected during their voyage to the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The mid-water fishes contained plastic debris, primarily broken-down bits smaller than a human fingernail.
"That is an underestimate of the true ingestion rate because a fish may regurgitate or pass a plastic item, or even die from eating it. We didn't measure those rates, so our 9 percent figure is too low by an unknown amount," said Davison.
Based on these rates of ingestion, they estimate that fish in the intermediate ocean depths of the North Pacific ingest plastic at a rate of roughly 12,000 to 24,000 tons per year, but the real number could be much higher.
Last night a few of us here in New York attended the ninth annual Green Drinks NYC Holiday Party. We chatted with some passionate conservationists at the Oceana booth, and were treated to a presentation by special guest speaker, David de Rothschild.
As you probably know, earlier this year, de Rothschild sailed from San Francisco, California to Sydney, Australia, on the Plastiki, a 60-foot catamaran made out of 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles. He spoke to the crowd about the voyage and reflected on the problem of plastic pollution in our oceans.
Happy Friday, ocean lovers! Lots of juicy ocean news to review this week.
...The big ocean story of this week was a positive one: the U.S. backed the bluefin tuna trade ban at the upcoming CITES meeting. The Washington Post published a great slideshow of bluefin photos and the New York Times ran an editorial urging the U.S. to convince the EU and others to follow their lead.
...Chile's fishing industry, which produces 4 percent of the world's annual catch of seafood, was hit hard by the recent earthquake. Meanwhile, the country's salmon farms, which are located hundreds of miles south of the quake's epicenter, suffered minimal damage, but have been affected by the slowdown in transportation.
...Turns out the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has a cousin in the Atlantic, hundreds of miles off the North American coast, roughly in the latitudes between Cuba and Virginia. Researchers from Woods Hole found more than 520,000 bits of trash per square mile in some areas.
Over the weekend I attended ScienceOnline2010, a raucous gathering (if conferences can be raucous) of scientists and journalists. I met some great folks, including Miriam Goldstein -- one of my favorite ocean bloggers -- of Oyster's Garter fame. (She also recently joined the salty bloggers over at Deep Sea News.)
Miriam was the chief scientist for last summer's Scripps SEAPLEX expedition to the Pacific garbage patch. As if being chief scientist weren't enough, she also blogged and tweeted the journey. And as she hilariously illustrates in this story from one of the first days of the expedition in the California Current, sometimes science doesn't like to be live. (Apologies in advance for my, um, budding video skills.)
The SEAPLEX expedition received a ton of press attention. So after the session, I asked her, "Has the media overblown the pacific garbage patch?" She said, "Well, yes, in a way. There is no 'island' of trash -- the ocean is homogeneous. But it is also way, way worse than we thought."
Look out for the results of the SEAPLEX expedition later on in 2010. | <urn:uuid:39221a21-0cbb-4dad-978d-cd4cb05af6f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oceana.org/es/category/blog-free-tags/great-pacific-garbage-patch | 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 | 0.939401 | 1,288 | 2.8125 | 3 |
How to Manage Pests
UC Pest Management Guidelines
Plant parasitic nematodes are microscopic roundworms that feed on plant roots. They survive in soil and plant tissues, and several species may occur in a field. They have a wide host range and vary in their environmental requirements and in the symptoms they cause.
Only root knot nematodes are known to cause significant damage. Yield reductions due to high populations of root knot nematodes may range from 45 to 90%. Yield losses due to root knot infestation are typically most severe in sandy soils. These nematodes are also known to predispose plants to other soilborne pathogens that cause root rot and wilt diseases. Lesion nematodes can be damaging but are infrequently encountered compared to root knot nematode. Other nematodes (e.g., stunt and stubby root) have been associated with dry beans in California but have not been studied.
Symptoms described below are indicative of a nematode problem, but are not diagnostic as they could result from other causes as well.
Aboveground symptoms of severe root knot infestation include patches of chlorotic, stunted, necrotic, or wilted plants. Infested plants that are also under moisture or temperature stress may wilt earlier than other plants. Feeding by root knot nematode incites cell enlargement and proliferation resulting in swellings, called galls, on roots. These galls are diagnostic for root knot nematode, however, some bean types do not gall much. An example is the blackeye CB3, which is susceptible to root knot nematode and can support high populations of this nematode but shows little galling. Severely galled roots may be shortened and thickened. Galls caused by root knot nematodes may be confused with nodules of nitrogen-fixing Rhizobium bacteria. Rhizobium nodules, however, are pink inside and come off the root easily when rubbed. Root knot galls cannot be separated from the root.
Roots of bean plants infested with lesion nematodes are likely to be poorly developed and may exhibit brown-black lesions. Damage to roots by lesion nematodes may be more severe in the presence of other soilborne pathogens.
To make effective management decisions, it is important to know the nematode species present and to estimate their population density in soil. If a previous crop had problems caused by nematodes that are also listed as pests of dry beans, population levels may be high enough to cause damage. Develop and track field histories to monitor the presence of root knot nematode on previous crops.
If nematode species have not previously been identified, take soil samples and send them to a diagnostic laboratory for identification. The best time to collect samples is soon after harvest or preferably just before harvest of the previous crop. Divide the field into sampling blocks that are representative of cropping history, crop injury, or soil texture. An ideal sampling size is 5 acres, but a larger sampling size (no greater than 20 acres) may be more economical. In each block randomly take several subsamples from the root zone of the previous crop, mix them thoroughly and make a composite sample of about one quart (1 liter). Place samples in separate plastic bags, seal them, and place a label on the outside with your name, address, location, and the current/previous crop and the crop you intend to grow. If plants with symptoms are available, place them in the same bag as the soil. Keep samples cool (do not freeze), and transport as soon as possible to a diagnostic laboratory. Contact your farm advisor to help you find a laboratory for extracting and identifying nematodes, and for help in interpreting sample results.
Management of nematodes in dry beans requires a careful integration of several cultural practices, including choice of cultivar, crop rotation, sanitation, and fallow.
Resistant varieties. Large lima bean cultivars that are resistant to Meloidogyne incognita are White Ventura N. Maria, UC-90, and UC-92. The baby lima bean cultivar, Cariblanco N, has resistance to root galling and reproduction by M. incognita and root galling by M. javanica. UC 302 has resistance to some races and is due to be released in the next year or two. Blackeye #5 and CB-46 are highly resistant to most, but not all populations of M. incognita but susceptible to M. javanica. CB-50 is a new cultivar with strong resistance to M. incognita and moderate resistance to M. javanica.
Crop rotation and cover crops. Growing small grains during the winter followed by a fallow period during the summer helps to reduce root knot nematode populations. Clean fallow and green manure will help to reduce populations of root knot nematodes. Growing cover crops of oats (cv. Saia), marigolds, rattlebox (Crotalaria spectabilis), hairy indigo (Indigo hirsuta), etc., is known to reduce populations of plant parasitic nematodes. Also, research in Stanislaus County demonstrated that a rotation of root knot nematode resistant processing tomatoes with common and Lima beans was successful in preventing root knot damage to beans. This is because root knot nematode were unable to reproduce on the resistant tomatoes, thereby reducing soil populations to below damaging levels. A similar benefit from reduced soil populations can be achieved by a preceding crop of root knot nematode-resistant cotton, NemX.
Sanitation. Clean soil from equipment with water before moving from infested to noninfested fields.
Fallow. Weed free fallow reduces most nematode populations. Fallowing is more effective if the soil is plowed and exposed to the sun. Irrigation during the dry period stimulates nematode egg hatch, and so further reduces nematode populations if proper weed control is maintained.
Monitoring and treatment decisions. During the flower bud to bloom period inspect plants for nematode damage along with other pests and their damage. If a plant looks stunted, check its roots for galling. Damage thresholds have not been established for nematodes on beans. In California, the use of chemical treatments has not been found to be cost effective. Contact your farm advisor or agricultural commissioner for further advice on the use of chemical treatments.
UC IPM Pest Management Guidelines: Dry | <urn:uuid:81937047-359a-4ef1-89e6-c30a19945c02> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r52200111.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931991 | 1,336 | 3.765625 | 4 |
“IF YOU THINK YOU CAN, YOU CAN” is a common phrase which we often use in vain.It means that if you have will and determination you will always find a way to success. For reaching the peaks of glory you should have a will to cross any hurdle that comes in your way.
WINNERS NEVER QUIT AND QUITTERS NEVER WIN.
Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man.
But sooner or later the man who wins,
Is the man who thinks he can.
Good morning everyone, today I Sunjit Dhillon of class IX-A stand before you to share my views on the topic IF YOU THINK YOU CAN, YOU CAN.
Will-power is the greatest driving force in man. It helps him get through all the difficulties in life. Will-power is the most essential ingredient of success. It enables a person to find a way to overcome the obstacle in his path. He continues his journey towards his chosen goal. A man who loses heart at the sight of failure can never achieve his goal. But a man who is determined to attain his objectives is not disheartened by failures. One should not lose heart during adversities.
The real essence of life lies in struggle. Determination and calmness help a person in his endeavour. They provide him inspiration to achieve success. Mahatma fought for the blacks in South Africa. Martin Luther brought about radical changes in the USA and Abraham Lincoln became the President of the USA by dint of his strong determination and continuous efforts.
A patient with strong determination can get cured earlier or live longer than a similar patient with weak will power. Helen Killer was both blind and deaf, but she became an educator of the blind. Louis Braille was also a blind educationist. He introduced the Braille script for the blind. Sudha Chandran has an amputated leg, but even with the artificial limb, she has become a famous Bharatnatyam dancer and actress. Thus, a person of strong will power can overcome physical disabilities in the pursuit of his goal.... [continues]
Cite This Essay
(2010, 12). If You Think You Can, You Can. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 12, 2010, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/If-You-Think-You-Can-You-512227.html
"If You Think You Can, You Can" StudyMode.com. 12 2010. 12 2010 <http://www.studymode.com/essays/If-You-Think-You-Can-You-512227.html>.
"If You Think You Can, You Can." StudyMode.com. 12, 2010. Accessed 12, 2010. http://www.studymode.com/essays/If-You-Think-You-Can-You-512227.html. | <urn:uuid:eb96b18a-cc15-4820-83e2-001e0e559d24> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.studymode.com/essays/If-You-Think-You-Can-You-512227.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941867 | 602 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Open Adoption refers to an adoption where there is an open exchange of information between placing and adopting parents that continues through the post-adoption years. While there are degrees of openness in adoption, a truly open adoption involves ongoing contact and often includes visits.
Most relative adoptions are open, such as grandparent adoption, where the child knows and interacts with his/her biological parent(s), however it has only been the 1970s that open adoption in "stranger" adoptions (adoption by non-related persons) began to appear.
Open adoption research suggests that the openness and interaction is beneficial to all parties - the child, the biological parent(s), and the adoptive parent(s); however, it should be noted that the most extensive research work on open adoptions, the Minnesota-Texas Adoption Research Project, was conducted on infant same-race adoptions only.
Open Adoption isn't for every situation, but child psychologists who specialize in adoption and adoptive family issues, suggest that when the child's safety and well-being are not a concern, open adoption can be healthy for the child, and if the adults involved (birth and adoptive parents) can stay focused on the needs of the child, openness will benefit everyone. | <urn:uuid:f9ab4c68-f215-4e62-b50d-03558dd8c8f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.adoptioninformation.com/Open_adoption&diff=471&oldid=125 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955598 | 253 | 3.0625 | 3 |
by Cherie Winner | © Washington State University
Guy Palmer ('84 Ph.D.) and Terry McElwain ('86 Ph.D.) are on the hunt. The Washington State University research veterinarians know their quarry—Anaplasma and Babesia, the pathogens that cause two of the world's most debilitating diseases of livestock—but they haven't found the right weapon to bring them down. What they need, what they have worked for years to find, are vaccines that will stop the pathogens dead in their tracks.
Vaccines are such a routine part of health care for us that they can seem like old news. Because of effective vaccines, those of us who live in developed countries don't have to worry about measles, polio, or smallpox, diseases that inflicted grave harm on our grandparents' generation. Other than "new" diseases like next year's strain of influenza, we're well protected. Yet, some of the most common infectious diseases of people and animals have been around just about forever—and we still don't have vaccines against them.
"The way I look at this is that we have vaccines for all the ones that are easy to vaccinate against," says McElwain. They're easy because of their biology, he says. When you get the disease, it either kills you or your immune system fights it off and the pathogen is cleared from your system. Vaccination gives you a head start in the fight; it primes your immune system to recognize and get rid of the pathogen before harm is done.
The "hard" diseases operate differently. If you get infected with one of these pathogens, you will probably remain infected for life. Your immune system can't get rid of it. In humans the list of such diseases includes malaria, sleeping sickness, and syphilis. In cattle, it includes anaplasmosis and babesiosis, the diseases Palmer and McElwain have targeted. Both are tick-borne blood infections that cause severe anemia, often leading to death, and both share an interesting MO.
"It's an impressive disease to see," says McElwain of babesiosis. "Animals go from being fairly normal-looking one day to just very, very sick the next." Anaplasmosis is usually less dramatic, but it is more widespread, affecting more than two-thirds of the cattle in some regions. The economic costs of the diseases are enormous—billions of dollars a year in lost animals and lowered productivity—but the human costs are immeasurable. In sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, smallholder farmers depend on their small herds of cattle or goats for food, for cash income, for status, and as beasts of burden.
"The loss of one animal can have a profound effect on the family's well-being," says McElwain. "It may be the difference between one of the children going to school or not."
Palmer says most persistent pathogens are transmitted by vectors (ticks, mosquitoes, tsetse flies) or by sexual contact. Since they can't spread to new hosts by casual contact, the pathogens have to survive in one host until a transmission opportunity comes along. Unfortunately for us, the strategies they've evolved to avoid the host's defenses also stymie our efforts to make a vaccine.
A vaccine works by showing the body's immune system a pathogen or part of a pathogen (usually a protein, in this context called an antigen) so that it can develop cellular memory and antibodies that will recognize and attack the pathogen in the future.
Many vaccines use the entire pathogen, which has been killed or weakened so it won't cause the full-blown disease. Such vaccines work against persistent pathogens, but they are often expensive to make and difficult to deploy. Live vaccines, for instance, need a "cold chain": they must be kept cold or frozen until just before use, which is a tall order in poor countries in the tropics. A subunit vaccine, based on just one or a few proteins, is usually cheaper and hardier. Theoretically, any protein that sparks an immune response and is a distinctive feature of the pathogen could be the basis for a good vaccine. The problem is that no one's been able to make a subunit vaccine against Anaplasma, Babesia, or any of the other persistent pathogens.
"Our challenge is to figure out why that is," says McElwain. "Biologically and immunologically, why is that the case? If we could get a handle on that, I think we'd really have a significant advance."
In the mid-1980s, a flurry of new techniques for working with proteins and DNA led to identification of a key malaria antigen. Palmer and McElwain, just beginning their careers on the WSU faculty, immediately applied the new techniques to their organisms.
When Palmer used the new tools to search for Anaplasma antigens, he found Msp2 (major surface protein 2). Msp2 is the most abundant protein on the surface of the pathogen. Both ends of Msp2 are embedded in the Anaplasma cell membrane, and the middle portion loops out into the extracellular space. Since the loop is exposed to the bloodstream, whenever Anaplasma goes looking for new red blood cells to infect, it is the part of the protein the host's antibodies have a chance to recognize and grab onto.
In other words, Msp2 looked like a perfect candidate as a vaccine antigen.
Then why doesn't the host's immune system target Msp2 and knock out the infection? That part still didn't make sense. Palmer's lab found that infected cows do make antibody against Msp2, a lot of it; that's likely what drives down the number of pathogen cells and allows the cow to recover from acute illness. But why do pathogen numbers rise again a couple of weeks later? Why doesn't the cow clear the infection completely?
After months of protein and gene analysis, Palmer's team reached a stunning conclusion. The pathogen persists because the host no longer recognizes it—because Msp2 changes. It's still present, but it doesn't look like the Msp2 that was there before. Palmer's group found that at any given stage of the infection, several forms of Msp2 are present—and none of them are recognized by antibodies the host made in earlier stages. By altering the most abundant protein in its surface coat, Anaplasma avoids detection by antibodies the host has already made.
"That's why the immune system can never catch up with what's going on," says molecular biologist Kelly Brayton. She describes Msp2 as throwing up a smokescreen that allows Anaplasma cells to escape direct attack by the immune system. "Part of the job of this molecule is to be this thing that's going, 'Hey! Look at me!' Because it can change. So it's trying to attract the attention of the immune system, and then as soon as the host makes a response to that particular variant, it's moved on."
So how did Anaplasma do it?
Palmer calculated that a cow infected early in life might see
more than 1,000 variants of Msp2 over its lifetime. The
Anaplasma genome codes for fewer than 1,000 proteins.
There's no way it could have 1,000 genes for Msp2 alone. The
pathogen had to be doing something unusual with its genes to
generate that many variants.
Brayton sequenced the entire Anaplasma genome and looked for something that would explain the diversity of Msp2 forms. What she found is a process called "gene conversion," a masterwork of deception in which a handful of "pseudogenes" mix and mingle to continually change the identity of Msp2—and of Anaplasma itself. (See illustration.)
It was a major finding. Gene conversion explained how Anaplasma escapes detection by the immune system. It also led to the discovery, by researchers elsewhere, that a similar process occurs in the pathogen that causes relapsing fever in humans.
And yet, figuring out how gene conversion works was a bit like finally bursting into the room of a con man you've been hunting for years, to find only a trunk full of wigs and false noses. The team still wasn't in sight of a vaccine. And the culprit himself had fled again.
So Anaplasma disguises itself. Can we help the immune system see past the Msp2 mask? Is there some other surface protein—one that doesn't change every few weeks—that could be used as a vaccine? Msp2 garners most of the attention from the immune system, but there are dozens more, present in small amounts and not well understood. Most intriguing of all, vaccinating with Msp2 alone does not protect against Anaplasma infection—but vaccinating with a mixture of outer membrane proteins does.
"So there's something in the outer membrane that's important," says immunologist Wendy Brown. Unfortunately, she says, a vaccine made of membrane preparations is "impractical. You'd have to pay $500 a shot, probably." She set out to discover which proteins in the outer membrane mixture confer protection. Perhaps they could be the basis for an economical vaccine.
Analyzing membrane proteins is not a new idea, but until recently the experiments weren't feasible. Getting enough of any one protein to use as a test vaccine was difficult, and testing any vaccine in cattle takes months. Testing multiple combinations of proteins was simply unmanageable.
Brown invented a way to test proteins on cow cells rather than in a whole cow. She first immunizes a cow with the mixture of membrane proteins. After the cow's immune system has had a chance to respond, she takes a blood sample, and from that she extracts T cells. Those are the immune system's "memory cells"; if the vaccinated cow were to be bitten by an Anaplasma-carrying tick, its T cells would recognize antigen(s) on the Anaplasma surface and would trigger antibody production by other immune system cells. Brown presents the T cells with individual Anaplasma proteins in a way that mimics what happens in the body. If the T cells recognize a protein, they start dividing and making interferon—which tells her the cow's immune system had responded to that particular protein. It's a nifty way to rapidly screen a large number of proteins for their potential as vaccines.
With help from WSU chemist Bill Siems, Brown identified more than 20 proteins from Anaplasma's outer membrane that had never been described before and that were recognized by T cells from vaccinated cows. Now the group is testing whether any of the proteins make an effective vaccine. They've found that a combination of some of the proteins does protect against infection by Anaplasma. Will the mixture lead to a commercially viable vaccine? Brown and her colleagues don't know yet; but after years of chasing the shape-shifting Msp2, it's an encouraging result.
Like Anaplasma, Babesia is studded with proteins,
at least two of which change over time. Because Babesia's
genome is larger and more complex than Anaplasma's, the team
hasn't yet figured out how the proteins change. The one thing
that's clear is that Babesia doesn't use the same process of
gene conversion as Anaplasma.
In addition to working on variable proteins, Brayton and McElwain have teamed with The Institute for Genomic Research to take a closer look at Babesia's genome. They've discovered a group of DNA sequences they call "SmORFs," for "small open reading frames." ("We took some heat on that name from reviewers, but we stuck to it," says McElwain. "We've got to have some fun with this.") Since all 44 SmORFs lie next to genes for a variable surface protein, McElwain suspects they're involved with immune escape, but work on them is still preliminary.
Although its variable proteins remain puzzling, Babesia might be outmaneuvered another way. In the 1960s, scientists in Australia discovered that if they infected a calf with Babesia, let the infection develop for about a week, drew some blood from that calf and used it to infect another calf, and did that 25 to 30 times, the pathogen would lose its ability to cause disease. It still provoked an immune response when inoculated into a new host, but the host no longer got sick; instead, it gained protection. In other words, the so-called attenuated strain worked as a vaccine.
It worked so well that attenuated strains have been used in Australia and Israel—both fertile grounds for Babesia—for many years. Attenuated Babesia vaccines have been banned in many other countries, including the United States, because they are blood-based and might carry other pathogens. For countries like the U.S. where Babesia is not a big threat, they're not worth the risk. Even in countries where Babesia is a threat, their value is limited because they require a cold chain. They're also not a permanent solution; every few years, they change so they no longer protect the host. When that happens, the whole attenuation process has to be repeated.
In 2005, the WSU team won a $1.8 million grant from the Wellcome Trust to figure out why attenuated Babesia protects against further infection, yet does not cause disease itself. Can we design strains of Babesia that will mimic the attenuation effect, and that can be used as vaccines? Such a vaccine would avoid the threat of blood-borne pathogens and the tedious and expensive attenuation process.
Colleagues in Argentina have already produced an attenuated strain the old-fashioned way. While they test it on herds there, Brayton and molecular biologist Audrey Lau in Pullman are comparing the genome of the attenuated strain with that of the original strain. Since they know the sequence of the original, they can trace any changes that occurred during the attenuation process. With luck, they'll identify what change(s) turned a killer into a life-preserving vaccine.
"The clearest-cut scenario is that a gene's missing," says Brayton. "You're usually not that lucky. But [if that happens], you could [ask], what is that gene in the virulent strain? What do we know about it?" Even if nothing is missing, they might find that one or more genes have changed. If Lau and Brayton find clear differences between the strains, the next step will be to create a copy of the attenuated pathogen in the lab and test its effectiveness as a vaccine.
The field tests will be done by the group's collaborators in Mexico and Argentina, working with herds under natural conditions. Palmer says translating lab results into real-world applications is central to what the WSU group is trying to do—and essential to developing a vaccine that will work against the form of the pathogen that cattle actually encounter.
"People don't like to do it, because nature's messy, you know, and the lab is not," he says. "For a long time there's been a tendency to rely on strains [of pathogens] that are well established in the laboratory. But when you get out into the field, you find that isn't necessarily representative of what's out there in the natural situation."
No one in the group is predicting when they'll have a vaccine for either disease. Anaplasma and Babesia have confounded expectations before. But the team members share a sense of excitement about their progress—and an admiration for their elusive adversaries. The most rewarding aspect of their work so far, says McElwain, has been gaining an understanding of the complex, elegant strategies that enable these pathogens to persist in their supposedly more sophisticated hosts.
"That's been something that we started out, 25 years ago, not appreciating," he says. "And that is not only something that you can appreciate, if you can find beauty in these organisms. It's also the challenge, the huge challenge that we have."
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"An inmate is an inmate," she said.
All prisoners undergo physical and psychological tests, as well as a review of their criminal, educational, and vocational histories.
The aim is to create a safe and suitable plan for each one's housing and treatment, Bensinger said.
The evaluation period is two weeks to a month, but could be longer if the inmate is coming and going to court hearings.
Asked if age would be a factor in Sandusky's placement, Bensinger would only speak in general.
"All those factors come into play, but health conditions weigh more heavily than age," she said. Sandusky is 68 and received a sentence of 30 to 60 years behind bars.
She said one prison - Laurel Highlands in Somerset County - generally takes offenders who are chronically ill with end-stage diseases and require a highly staffed medical facility.
"All inmates would be assessed when they come in for chronic illness," she said. It is not known if Sandusky has any such condition.
In deference to their creaky knees, older inmates are housed in a cell on the first-floor tier. All inmates are given a roommate, she said.
"There is no special treatment," she said.
As far as security concerns, Bensinger said all inmates are looked at with consideration for their safety, and that of the population as a whole.
Bensinger said there would be no special limitations on Sandusky. He may get visitors, write and receive letters, and have access to the phone and TV just as others do.
He would only receive special restrictions if he disobeyed the rules.
"I hate to say it, but an inmate is an inmate," said Bensinger. "Unless they change their behavior and get into trouble, they go by the same guidelines as everyone.
"It's easier when dealing with a prison population. You know where you're coming from, and it makes everyone's life easier."
Contact Bonnie L. Cook at 610-313-8232 or firstname.lastname@example.org.
We invite you to comment on this story by clicking here. Comments will be moderated. | <urn:uuid:865e583c-c248-4d2d-8fc2-d04a3fb4725c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.philly.com/2012-10-11/news/34364509_1_inmate-jerry-sandusky-sue-bensinger | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974952 | 445 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Nedra Pickler, writing for the Associated Press wrote, “[Al] Gore…testified before House and Senate panels about a ‘true planetary emergency’ if Congress fails to act. He [added that] addressing the problem is a moral issue and should not be partisan or political.” (Gore Implores Congress to Save Planet; 3/21/07)
I may not be endowed with auditory enablers the size of a certain liberal presidential candidate from Illinois, but I know “hooey” when I hear it.
I remember hearing the over-the-top prognosticators of doom and gloom dating back to my college days and before. I remember hearing the environmentalists predict a global drop in temperature was going to occur and create a new ice age. We are still waiting for Newsweek’s 1975 article about the impending ice age entitled “The Cooling World” by Peter Gwynne, to become a reality – the article predicted the world could expect same to happen within 10 years of its date of writing.
There was the acid rain scare, predictions of forest death in Central Europe, and other apocalyptic predictions, not the least of which were those outlined in William and Paul Paddock’s book entitled “Famine-1975.” They argued that, “by 1975, a disaster of unprecedented magnitude [would] face the world and famines greater than any in history [would] ravage the undeveloped nations.”
The Arizona Republic, on June 2, 1968, wrote “professor R. Heilbroner of New York predicted that in the early 1970s, ‘the greatest catastrophe the world has ever known’ [would] occur when the population far outstrips the available food supply.”
From the beginning, radical prognosticators of environmental apocalypse have been miserably wrong. Now, armed with new fictional threats and apocalyptic warnings, they seek to legislate the environment and thus further erode the rights of individuals.
I’m not suggesting that certain common sense considerations aren’t necessary. Dumping raw waste and pollutants into our water and attention to certain factory emissions are no-brainers. However, Dave Stirling, vice president of the Pacific Legal Foundation, was correct when he said, “[It is a] myth that heavy regulation promotes environmental health. In their zeal to promote their eco-political agenda, many environmentalists ignore evidence that overbearing regulation is counter-productive. A balanced approach – one that takes into account the human factor, the effect on jobs, the economy, and people’s ability to provide shelter and support their families – is actually the most promising and humane way to protect the environment.” (PLF Announces 2006′s Top Five Earth Day Lies; 4/20/06)
Al Gore basks in his new found celebrity as the environmental equivalent of Oskar Schindler, but “an inconvenient truth” is the murderous policy he defends while preaching save the planet. He claims “the planet has a fever” and that “if your baby [had] a fever you [would] go to the doctor.” An interesting analogy, considering the number of children who will never have the chance to visit a doctor who is concerned about their well-being, before they are murdered by the abortion industry Gore bows before – a holocaustic juggernaut that murders an unborn child approximately every 21.6 seconds in the United States.
“The period from 30 January 1933 to 8 May 1945 consists of 4,481 days. This means that the number of Jews murdered by Nazis during the Holocaust averaged 1,339 victims per day, or 56 victims per hour, or about one victim every 50 seconds or so. In the United States there are 4,000 abortions performed every day.” (Abortion: The American Holocaust; Center for Bio-Ethical Reform; 1/24/07)
Nearly 1,500 of these daily abortions are performed on black women. Planned Parenthood, one of Gore’s chief benefactors, specifically targets low income black neighborhoods, with 76 percent of their abortion clinics being located in same.
“Planetary emergency” in my vernacular is one where unborn black children are being murdered at a rate of 40 percent in the U.S. I call 46 million plus unborn children murdered worldwide yearly and the uncontrolled influx of illegal aliens along with Gore’s support for same, a planetary emergency of epic proportions.
Gore is right on one point: “There is a sense of hope in this country that [one day the] United States Congress will rise to the occasion and present meaningful solutions to this crisis.” And the best way to begin is by ending abortion, and introducing an immigration reform bill that calls for the immediate arrest and deportation of all illegals – one that sanctions any business or individual that employs, aids, or assists illegals, and one that calls for signs to be posted along the border facing Mexico with pictures of handcuffs and prison bars. It might also include language whereby we could charge Mexico with the cost of deportation.
Of course, we probably shouldn’t hold our breath because “morality and non-partisan politicisms,” in Gore’s vernacular, is that which enslaves and inconveniences all but himself and his kind.
Related special offer: | <urn:uuid:e5c6f444-bbee-4c9e-9dd6-b671560c2f0c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wnd.com/2007/03/40789/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947236 | 1,121 | 1.703125 | 2 |
79 Years Later
Posted by Yorkshire on 2013/01/19
79 years later and only the characters have changed. And from the Chicago Tribune
This is interesting background: http://www.flickr.com/photos/53074154@N00/5740393674/
This entry was posted on 2013/01/19 at 14:02 and is filed under Constitution Shredded, Socialists. Tagged: deficit spending, Socialism, US Constitution. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time. | <urn:uuid:e0fbac45-319a-4154-bfb5-3e1593e402e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://truthbeforedishonor.wordpress.com/2013/01/19/79-years-later/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=5d5a17dad5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937569 | 134 | 2.109375 | 2 |
R&B vocalist Jason Derülo launched his career while still in his teens, first as a songwriter for other artists and later as a solo performer. Born to Haitian parents in Miramar, Florida, Derülo started singing at an early age. He attended performing arts schools in Florida and took some early stabs at music composition, writing his first song at the age of eight. His writing skills began attracting attention, and by his teenage years, Derülo had begun scribing tracks for artists like Lil Wayne, Pitbull, and Pleasure P. He also wrote "Bossy" for Birdman, a New Orleans-based rapper, and made a guest appearance on the song, which highlighted his ability as a vocalist.
After signing to a subsidiary of Warner Bros., Derülo began making the transition from behind-the-scenes songwriter to mainstream performer. His first hit arrived during the summer of 2009, when he wrapped a sample of Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek" (a song made popular by its appearance in the second season finale of The O.C., as well as the Saturday Night Live sketch Dear Sister) around a sleek modern soul beat. Titled "Whatcha Say," the song topped the Billboard charts and cracked the Top Ten in multiple foreign countries, including Canada, Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K. A second single, "In My Head," peaked at number five in America, and Derülo's full-length debut album arrived in early 2010. Future History followed in 2011, along with its hit single “Don't Wanna Go Home.” ~ Jason Thurston & Andrew Leahey, Rovi | <urn:uuid:ffe74c8c-e603-411c-9d19-1bae4cf2c640> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mtv.com/artists/jason-derulo/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978644 | 347 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Twenty years ago today, I experienced something so foreign to me, something that affected me so profoundly, that it changed my life forever. Like millions of others, I was focused on my television screen, watching as Los Angeles burned.
A jury had returned not guilty verdicts against a group of police officers who were charged with beating Southern California resident Rodney King. The beating was caught on tape by a bystander and broadcast over and over. When the verdicts came in, Los Angeles erupted.
There were assaults — including the most famous at Florence and Normandie — and there was looting. These were bad enough. But then came the fires. Huge fires, and hundreds of them. It seemed like all of Los Angeles was aflame.
I went to bed very late that night, unable to turn off the spectacle I was witnessing on TV. The next morning, I received the phone call that changed my life.
I was asked to drive a fire engine to Los Angeles to assist in fighting the fires there. I was working for the Santa Paula Fire Department then and my engine joined with one from the city of Oxnard and three from the Ventura County Fire Department to form a strike team. We all met in Thousand Oaks and made our way to Los Angeles and from there, into Lynwood and Compton.
As we drove into the Los Angeles basin, the sky was black with smoke. There were too many fires to count. To me, it looked like I was entering hell. For the next day my fellow firefighters and I extinguished fires while looking nervously over our shoulders for snipers. We witnessed incredible acts of looting and destruction on a scale I could not have imagined.
The experience affected me deeply. My ears rang for days from the constant sirens and noise. But worse was the damage to my heart and soul. As a firefighter, I had seen plenty of tragedy and violence. But the scale of what I saw over those two days in 1992 was overwhelming. It was totally outside of anything I could imagine. To this day I still get upset over some of what I witnessed. But I witnessed something else that has allowed me to put those events into perspective.
As we drove down into L.A., drivers pulled over for us, flashing their headlights and honking their horns, cheering us on. As we drove toward the fires, people on the sidewalks and porches cheered us. And then the horror was upon us and we went to work, fighting fires throughout the night.
I remember thinking at one point about all the people we didn't see. The people cowering in their homes, frightened, without electricity and wondering if their homes and families would be safe. And I realized that these were the people we were there to serve. Not the criminals, not the looters or arsonists.
And I'll never forget the woman I saw on Highway 101. As we were driving home, she worked her way across three lanes of traffic until she was next to my fire engine. I was nervous until I saw the baby sitting in the passenger seat. She lifted her baby's hand and waved it at us, mouthing "thank you."
Too often what is violent and ugly and obscene is what gets the headlines. In our culture, we are constantly bombarded with news of man's inhumanity to man. But to concentrate on that is to ignore all that is good and wonderful in our world, and we mustn't let that happen. There's too much evil in our world, but there's a lot more good than evil. It's easy to forget that. April 29th is my reminder. | <urn:uuid:46afec43-691e-4115-a39b-28f7fee0f7c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/apr/28/ill-never-forget-the-day-los-angeles-burned/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988041 | 735 | 1.671875 | 2 |
The scale of 0 ~ 100 represents "precentage of black".
You should be able to see 11 distinct shades ranging from white (0 percent black) to solid black (100%). If you can not distinguish, for example, 90 versus 100 percent, then your monitor needs adjustment to see the swatches more accurately.
Your monitor should also display each of the primary colors correctly. From top to bottom: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow (CMY) and Red, Green, Blue (RGB).Each of these colours are very disitinct. As an example, if yellow looks similar to green, then your monitor is not showing colours correctly and needs adjustment.
For design professionals: please make sure your monitor is color calibrated for the best representation.
Note: Many LCD monitors (this includes laptops) can not display colours accurately due to a limited colour gamut.
The Accuswatch scale indicates that the swatch has been reproduced "to scale" and it has also been "color corrected" to reduce imperfections introduced in the scanning process. The 1 inch and 1 cm markers represent a section of the fabric, or finish, of relative size.
Note: due to techical issues with scanners and imaging technologies -- or the equipment and software you are using, the actual fabric may look different.
DISCLAIMER: Due to colour variations on different monitors and color printers, if you are concerned about exact colour and texture matches, etc. and wish to clarify, we recommend that you first request a sample, to ensure proper colour representation. Please contact your local Global Dealer for more information or to order a sample. Global cannot be held responsible for any selections of colors from this website. | <urn:uuid:21f692be-5906-4202-a5d4-8bcd3af716c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.globaltotaloffice.com/gi_2012/control.php?grade=Grade%252013&tf_group=Metal%2520Filing%2520Finish%2520-%2520Textured | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901179 | 343 | 1.640625 | 2 |
A two billion dollar investment on King Island is widely understood to be a wind farm investment led by the Hydro Tasmania. While King Island meetings of council and community are being held this evening to discuss the project, ABC Northern Tasmania spoke with former Chair of the Hydro Electric Comission Peter Rae, who confirmed the project had been put forward last year during his time as Chair of The Tasmanian Renewable Energy Development Board.
The state government is on the eve of announcing a major investment for King Island by a government owned business.
King Island residents are tonight discussing the implications of a two billion dollar investment in renewable energy on the Bass Strait Island.
Mayor Greg Barratt has confirmed that the council are meeting before a community meeting is held to discuss a significant proposal of investment on the island.
Hydro has long used King Island to conduct research into wind and wave power, and while the island has a small renewable energy project in place, the size of this investment indicates enough power would be generated to supply 350 000 households.
Former Hydro Electrcity Commission (HEC) Chairman Peter Rae spoke at length with ABC Northern Tasmania Drive presenter Damien Brown about the significant benefits of such an investment, from the construction phase right throught to the end result of Tasmania being able to securely provide electricity into the South East Australian energy market.
Tasmania currently has a cable that connects to the electricity grid on the mainland, from George Town to Port Welshpool.
A two billion dollar wind farm would neccessitate additional infrastructure in order to deliver the power into the larger energy market.
Mr Rae compared such an investment with Hydro's current Musselroe project, which at a cost of 400 million dollars is using 56 wind turbines.
"It will produce enough energy for about 70 000 homes, so if we do a multipier then we come out with something like 350 000 homes."
"We picked King Island, many years ago, for the first Tasmanian trial of wind energy, and that was because it had an excellent wind regime."
"The results have been very good over the years, and so it's encouraging to the further development of the wind resource."
Mr Rae exlpains the process that the HEC has gone through in creating wind farms in other parts of Tasmania, including community consultations, environmental issues, and the flow on effects for regional employement opportunities.
"In all the discussions which I've been involved over the 15 years or more with people involved in King Island, they have been very supportive of the wind farm development there."
"It's something which, when we prepared the report of The Tasmanian Renewable Energy Development Board and tabled it last year, one of the things I had crossing my fingers about, is that this sort of development might arrive for Tasmania."
"I can only welcome it, and say let's get on with it, I'm delighted to hear that it is happening."
Mr Rae is also the Vice President of the World Wind Energy Association, and Chairman of the International Renewable Energy Alliance (REN Alliance).
He was Chair of The Tasmanian Renewable Energy Development Board, which last year produced and published a report to the Tasmanian Government providing its recommendations for the way to develop a renewable energy future for Tasmania. | <urn:uuid:00513a74-7e15-4517-a6b1-d8e2b6db0633> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2012/11/27/3642225.htm?site=newengland | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961109 | 662 | 1.71875 | 2 |
|Conditions:||Sun to light shade, thrives in moist conditions|
|Seed Banking:||"Nuts" (tuber-like root nodules) can survive for decades|
|Vegetative Spread:||Via stolon|
Cyperus esculentus (Chufa Sedge, Yellow Nutsedge, Tigernut Sedge, Earthalmond) is a species of sedge native to warm temperate to subtropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Some cultivars are grown for the "nuts" (root tubers), but it is most frequently encountered as a weed of lawns and gardens, and can be easily spotted in lawns two or three days after mowing because it regrows much faster than most turf grasses.
Yellow nutsedge is a perennial, grass-like plant, growing to 90 cm tall, with solitary stems arising from small tubers. The stems are triangular in section, and bear slender leaves 3-10 mm wide. The flowers of the plant are distinctive, with a cluster of flat oval seeds surrounded by four hanging leaves positioned 90 degrees from each other. The plant foliage is very tough and fibrous, and is often mistaken for a grass.
The root system can be extensive, with tubers and roots being interconnected to each other to a depth of 50 cm or more. The tubers are connected by fragile roots that are extremely prone to snapping when pulled on, making the plant extremely difficult to remove with its entire root system intact.
Uses and cultivation
The tubers are edible, with a slightly sweet, nutty flavour, compared to the more bitter tasting tuber of the related Cyperus rotundus (Purple Nutsedge). They are quite hard and are generally soaked in water before they can be eaten. They have various uses, in particular they are used in Spain to make Horchata. They are sometimes known by their Spanish name, "chufa".
The tubers were originally cultivated by Ancient Egyptians in the Nile Valley; their cultivation was subsequently extended throughout other areas with temperate climate and fertile soil. Presently, they are mainly cultivated - at least for extended and common commercial purposes - in Spain, almost exclusively in the Valencia region. See the wikipedia article on Cyperus esculentus for nutritional information.
- Mowing: Mowing does not control this plant at all, and in fact it thrives in lawns.
- Cultivation: Cultivation is effective if repeated regularly, but occasional cultivation will simply serve to spread the plant around by distributing the tubers. Removal and replacement of the soil can be effective if done to a sufficient depth, and care is taken not to allow the new soil to be contaminated by any tubers.
- The spread of the plant can be slowed by ensuring good drainage, as it thrives best in wet soils.
- Pulling: Pulling is difficult, as the roots easily break away from the tubers, allowing the plant to regrow using starches stored in the tuber. The surface growth is also known to break off from the root system when pulled, thereby leaving the roots in the ground. Frequent and consistent pulling will exhaust the plant over time.
- Flame: Ineffective.
- Barriers: Smothering is effective so long as the barrier is heavy, as this plant can push up against imperfect barriers when sprouting.
- Solarization: Not effective
- Pre-emergents (organic): Corn Gluten Meal in autumn, though simply preventing the introduction of seeds is a better method. Seeds are often spread via lawn mowing equipment.
- Pre-emergents (synthetic): Pre-emergents are effective in autumn.
- Systemic herbicides (synthetic): Contact herbicides are only somewhat effective. Root systems are not killed by glyphosate, though the tops may be burned if the herbicide is able to stick to the waxy leaves. Repeated applications of glyphosate (or simple cultivation) will eventually drain the starch reserves, but persistence is key.
- Grazing: High in silicates, so most grazing animals avoid this plant.
- Disposal: Below-ground parts and seeds should never be composted in low-temperature systems. | <urn:uuid:0747496d-0f19-49d5-a68c-3112a756e6b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/A_Wikimanual_of_Gardening/Cyperus_esculentus | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937242 | 879 | 3.03125 | 3 |
If your New Year’s resolution is to eat better, save money or help those less fortunate, then shopping at a food co-op might be for you.
There are two such grocery programs in Salt Lake County: The Community Co-op in Salt Lake, and the Utah Co-op in Murray.
Both are dedicated to providing low-cost, high-quality food. They operate on a shoestring with volunteer staffs, yet still find a way to give back to the community.
Here’s a snapshot of each:
The Community Co-op
This co-op operated for six years as part of the Crossroads Urban Center, until January 2012, when Crossroads closed the nonprofit program to focus its resources on other projects. Then a local entrepreneur stepped forward, and the co-op was able to reopen in March, said director Katherine Ghiai.
What’s available • Fruits and vegetables in season, poultry and other meats (including Utah raised grass-fed beef), bread, cheese, eggs, milk, honey, olive oil, apple cider, hummus, gluten-free baked items, and nuts.
Two ways to shop • Patrons can place orders either online, by telephone, or in person. Orders can be picked up at the end of the week at one of the 68 designated sites (usually local parks, community center and churches) from Ogden to Payson to Heber City.
The Co-op also offers a market three times a week. (See hours below). It takes place inside the co-op warehouse and has a farmers market-like atmosphere, where shoppers can buy food and also sample products, visit with vendors, and get suggestions from co-op volunteers.
Giving back • The Co-op donates 5 percent of all sales to the Crossroads Urban Center or the church pickup site.
Director comments • “We are really trying to help people get good, healthy food on their table,” said Ghiai, noting that through volume purchasing and volunteer help “we can keep the prices low.” On average prices are 20 to 50 percent below major stores, she said. The majority of products come through local produce houses. “We strive for local, sustainable produce and organics when possible,” she said.
Shoppers say • “We love it here. The produce is a lot fresher than anywhere else and the prices are better, too,” said Shari Humphrey, of Salt Lake City. “In the spring. we got the very best asparagus we’ve ever had.”
Adds Karen Duncan, of Salt Lake City: “You can shop here, no matter your income level and it helps makes things more affordable for everyone.”
Requirements • $5 a year to participate in the pick-up program; or two volunteer hours once every three months per household. For every 20 hours of service, volunteers can get a one-time certificate for 20 percent off food purchased at the weekly warehouse market.
Location • 1726 S. 700 West, Salt Lake City; 801-746-7878. Open Mondays and Thursdays from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon.
Online • thecommunitycoop.org
Mercedes Zel-Pappas started this nonprofit cooperative six years ago for low- and middle-income families, who are often forced to buy cheap, processed foods because they are unable to afford healthier produce and meats. “I felt there should be some kind of healthy option for them,” she said.
What’s available • All the fruits and vegetables at the co-op are organic, purchased through the same suppliers who sell to Whole Foods and Sprouts, Zel-Pappas said. Eggs, milk, poultry and grass-fed beef that are either organic or locally-produced are available, along with yogurt, tea, honey, granola, peanut butter, sauces, chips, crackers, tortillas, dried food, olive oil, coconut oil and hummus. The store also offers products for those who eat vegan or gluten-free diets.
Shop • Just like a regular grocery store, the public can shop at the co-op during regular business hours (See below). Customers who want to ensure that they get organic produce every week can pre-order either online or in person a special produce baskets, priced between $12 and $26.50. The largest basket contains about a week’s worth of fruits and vegetables. Baskets can be picked up during regular business hours.
Giving back • After paying rent and utilities — there’s no payroll — all the profits are donated to a different Utah charity each month. The co-op also offers people with special needs job training through volunteering.
Director comments • The mark-up on items ranges from 5 to 25 cents above cost, Zel-Pappas said. That saves shoppers “25 to 90 percent” over grocery store prices. “Because it’s affordable, people can make healthy choices and still be on a budget,” she said.
Shoppers say • Since Ashley Palmer and her husband started buying the weekly produce basket, “we’ve cut our grocery bill in half and we weren’t even buying all organic before.” The Midvale resident said the produce is always fresh and the basket offers a good variety. “It’s more than enough for me and my husband.”
Adds regular shopper Barbara Koppang: “When you can eat good healthy food, even when you are poor, it helps bring you up. You have more energy and your family doesn’t get sick as easy.” Koppang, of Murray, also likes that her money goes to charity. “It doesn’t just help me, it helps someone else.”
Requirements • There are no requirements to shop at the Utah Co-op, Zel Pappas said. “But if you fall in love with the co-op, we ask that you tell at least two people a year about it.”
Location • 4892 S. Commerce Drive (300 West) Murray; 801-566-2223. Open Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Online • utahcoop.org
firstname.lastname@example.org; Twitter: @kathystephenson or facebook.com/kathy.k.stephenson
Wasatch Cooperative Market
A membership drive is currently underway to start the Wasatch Cooperative Market.
Organizers say this member-owned grocery store will sell high-quality natural, healthy, sustainable foods and goods, with an emphasis on Utah-made products. While everyone will be welcome to shop at the store, those who have paid the $300 membership fee would enjoy additional benefits.
Organizers hope to have 500 paid co-op members by July 2013. Currently, 165 people have joined.
For more information or to become a member, visit www.wasatch.coop. | <urn:uuid:1189cb73-a6f4-415c-9eb9-b7d2d9fbaff7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sltrib.com/csp/cms/sites/sltrib/pages/printerfriendly.csp?id=55498604 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949448 | 1,505 | 1.804688 | 2 |
By Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY
Pediatrician David Ludwig, 49, invites overweight children to play a food game on their first visit to his weight-control clinic at Children's Hospital Boston.
He asks them to imagine what they would have eaten if they had lived in the Stone Age. Most kids rattle off a list that includes nuts, berries, vegetables, fruits, beans, fish and meat. Ludwig calls these "real foods" because they're from nature. Then he tells the children to look at their food record of what they eat during a typical day. He tells them to circle the "fake foods" in the diary, which he defines as highly processed foods made in factories, such as sweetened cereals, sugary drinks, chips, cookies, candy, white bread and fast food.
"Often two-thirds of the diary is circled," he says. One teenage boy said to Ludwig, "Wow, I guess I'm eating a lot of the fake stuff."
"Fake food is a concept that kids can get in a few minutes, and once they get it, it can guide them to make some dramatic changes in their eating habits," says Ludwig, one of the nation's leading researchers on childhood obesity and an associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
Bad foods are everywhere
Ludwig believes a big part of the reason for skyrocketing rates of childhood obesity is that children are surrounded by fake foods everywhere as well as advertisements to eat them.
One-third of children and teens in the USA — about 25 million children — are overweight or obese, which puts them at risk of type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and other health problems.
"Never before has there been a generation in which so many kids are so heavy so early in life," Ludwig writes in Ending the Food Fight: Guide Your Child to a Healthy Weight in a Fast Food/Fake Food World with Suzanne Rostler (Houghton Mifflin, $26. It includes a nine-week program.
The just-released book joins a growing chorus of warnings about childhood obesity. In September, the prestigious Institute of Medicine cautioned that about 20% of children in the USA will be obese by 2010 if dramatic steps aren't taken Another institute report, to be released today, will outline standards on the type of foods that should be sold in school vending machines, à la carte lines and stores.
Ludwig has done more than 40 research studies, including reports that show:
•If childhood obesity continues unabated, it could shorten the average life span of today's children by two to five years.
•Overweight teens eat about 400 more calories on a day when they consume fast food compared with a day when they don't.
•Highly processed foods, which are low in fiber, can cause weight gain because after eating these foods, children's blood sugar often rises quickly, then crashes. This stimulates hunger and overeating, he says.
'Guidance, direction, modeling'
As director of the Optimal Weight for Life Program at Children's Hospital, Ludwig and his staff, which includes physicians, nurses, dietitians and psychologists, have treated 5,000 overweight children and their families over the past 12 years.
The most common mistake parents make is they are "too permissive" about what they let their children consume, he says. "If kids don't want to eat what's served, all too often parents jump up and make a second meal just for them."
Parents "need to provide firm guidance, direction and modeling" when it comes to healthful eating, but many children are deciding what they want based on TV commercials, he says. "And we know that what gets advertised on TV is not broccoli, zucchini and cauliflower."
Elisa Zied, a registered dietitian in New York City and the mother of two boys, 4 and 8, agrees that many children have poor eating habits.
"When I drop my sons off at their respective schools, I often notice at least a handful of kids on the street wolfing down a frosted doughnut or oversized muffin.
"It's not hard to serve kids a bowl of whole-grain, high-fiber cereal with low-fat milk, or a banana and string cheese before they head out the door," says Zied, author of the new book Feed Your Family Right! with Ruth Winter.
As their children grow heavier, the same parents who were too lenient about what they let youngsters eat become too controlling with adolescents, Ludwig says. "They try to clamp down on older children, often using inappropriate methods, such as excessively restricting some foods or pressuring the child to eat others."
The problem becomes a vicious cycle, which creates tension and "food fights." It takes a toll on the parent-child relationship at a time when that's the most powerful tool a parent has to influence a child's behavior, he says.
Ludwig says families should rid their homes of most "fake foods" and stock shelves with more "real foods." Everybody in the family wins if the food environment at home is better, he says; it supports the health of the entire family and reduces conflict.
"The obese child loses weight, and the lean siblings avoid a future problem. Plus, adults' cholesterol and blood pressure improve."
Conversation guidelines: USA TODAY welcomes your thoughts, stories and information related to this article. Please stay on topic and be respectful of others. Keep the conversation appropriate for interested readers across the map. | <urn:uuid:7328ffd6-13df-4c48-b48b-ef6ba76283e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-04-24-food-games_N.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969101 | 1,136 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Yesterday I responded to novelist Laurie Halse Anderson’s question about whether John Adams actually wrote about 1777 as “the year of the hangman.” I quoted Adams’s words from over a decade later indicating that unspecified, untraceable “Tories” had said that 1777 “had three gallowses in it, meaning the three sevens.”
However, Adams didn’t write “the year of the hangman,” and neither did anyone else I can find in the 1770s. The label doesn’t appear the Archive of Americana database of period newspapers and pamphlets. Nor is it in the Adams family letters, the George Washington Papers, and the other digital databases I usually check for period usage.
In fact, the earliest use of that phrase for 1777 that I found through Google Books is Lynn Montross’s The Reluctant Rebels: The Story of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, published in 1950. That book includes a chapter titled “Year of the Hangman,” and at one point says, “It was the year of the hangman, and the gallows jokes exchanged in the State House were not so humorous after the imprisonment of [Richard] Stockton...”
As far as I can tell, Montross coined that phrase; I haven’t uncovered an earlier usage. He didn’t say the words came from 1777, only that it reflected how the Patriots saw their situation that year. But then the same words appeared in other books, with the growing implication that it was a genuine period phrase:
- The 1966 Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, edited by Mark Boatner, included an entry on “Hangman, year of the.”
- One part of The River and the Rock: The History of Fortress West Point, 1775-1783, authored by Dave Richard Palmer in 1969, carried that title.
- The phrase “year of the gallows” comes from a character’s mouth in Thomas Fleming’s 1976 novel Liberty Tavern.
- John S. Pancake’s 1777: The Year of the Hangman (1977) quotes Adams’s original letter to explain its subtitle.
- Gary Blackwood’s The Year of the Hangman (2002) is an alternate history marketed to teen-aged readers.
- The strategy game shown above, designed by Ed Wimble, is “an operational study of the campaign for Philadelphia.”
- Most recently, Glenn F. Williams’s award-winning military history Year of the Hangman: George Washington’s Campaign Against the Iroquois was published in 2005. | <urn:uuid:1db6bfb3-d6f4-4402-8660-4d995b0285db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://boston1775.blogspot.com/2008/07/hunting-for-year-of-hangman.html?showComment=1216852500000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9482 | 571 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Explanation: This was home. Last week, the STS-121 crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) and returned to Earth. As the shuttle departed the space station, they took the above image. Visible on the ISS are numerous modules, trusses, and long wing-like solar panels. The space shuttle crew spent over 12 days calling the space station home. The shuttle crew resupplied the space station and prepared it for future assembly. The ISS's crew of two was expanded to three by the shuttle visit, and now includes one Russian, one American, and one European. | <urn:uuid:f4ac1370-9e38-4609-848f-3b47caf52b35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thoughtsfortheopenminded.blogspot.com/2006/07/international-space-station-on-horizon.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943281 | 130 | 2.890625 | 3 |
"Perhaps, if one could fix onto one of the most personal aspects of Dickens's technique, one would speak of the strange languages he concocts for the solitariness of the soul, and the abruptness of his tempo. His human fragments suddenly shock against one another in collisions of Democritus's atoms or of the charged particles of modern physics. Soldiers, holding out handcuffs, burst into the blacksmith's house during Christmas dinner at the moment when Pip is clinging to the table leg in an agony of apprehension over his theft of the pork pie. A weird old woman clothed in decayed satin, jewels and spider webs, with one shoe off, shoots out her finger at the bewildered child, with the command: “Play!" A pale young gentleman appears out of a wilderness of cucumber frames, and daintily kicking up his legs and slapping his hands together, dips his head and butts Pip in the stomach. These sudden confrontations between persons whose ways of life have no habitual or logical continuity with each other suggests the utmost incohesion in the stuff of experience.
"Technique is vision. Dickens's technique is an index of a vision of life that human separatedness is the ordinary condition, where speech is speech to nobody and where human encounter is mere collision." [p. 127]
van Ghent, Dorothy. The English Novel: Form and Function. New York: Harper Torchbook, 1961.
Last modified 1996 | <urn:uuid:f79790c6-5291-4e25-bbe8-114549347221> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/ge/ghent2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937013 | 294 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Physicists smash particle beams together at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, and on July 4, 2012, they announced that these experience had gotten some impressive results. The researchers had found a particle that acts very like the Higgs boson should.
This leads to an inevitable question: Does the particle even exist?
This finding is one step to backing up the standard model of particle physics, which predicts that the Higgs boson is real. This theoretical model of the universe encompasses elements from both Einstein's theory of special relativity and quantum theory. It attempts nothing less than to define and explain the particles that make up all matter in our universe. While the standard model manages to explain much of the observable phenomena in the world around us, it also predicts things we haven't yet found for sure -- such as the Higgs boson particle.
In fact, the standard model doesn't merely predict the existence of the Higgs boson; it requires it. The theory proposes that electricity, magnetism, light and some types of radioactivity are all manifestations of a single underlying force called the electroweak force. It unites the electromagnetic and weak forces, two of the four fundamental forces of nature, along with the strong force and gravity. But the theory only holds water if the particles in question had no mass in the period immediately following the big bang.
That's where the elusive Higgs boson comes into play; with its large mass and nonexistent spin, it's thought to generate a Higgs field that imbues all the particles that pass through it with mass. Particle physicists believe this field exists throughout the universe, but they also believe that it's incredibly unstable. It falls apart moments after its creation, leaving behind only products from its decay to prove that it ever existed.
Finding the Higgs boson could provide an explanation of why matter has mass and flesh out several cosmic mysteries. Still, some researchers equate the quest for the Higgs with Christopher Columbus' famous 1492 voyage. The Spanish explorer set sail for the East Indies, landed in what he thought was Asia and actually discovered the Bahamas. While particle physicists hope to discover the Higgs, it's entirely possible that the quest will lead them to some other explanation for the standard model. Conversely, the Higgs might prove to be just one part of an even more complicated situation. Scientific inquiries, after all, often lead to even more scientific quandaries.
In the days following the 2012 announcement from scientists at CERN, researchers continued to be cautious. Tests have to continue, and the data has to hold up to scrutiny. For now, some scientists have struck a compromise, calling the particle "Higgslike."
Explore the links on the next page to learn even more about particle physics and the Higgs boson. | <urn:uuid:93b4351a-ea59-4e28-ac43-317e76517112> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/higgs-boson-exist.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953721 | 577 | 3.59375 | 4 |
Last week's announcement by the FAA and aviation alphabets that the agency will establish a new government/industry committee to jolly along the quest for a replacement avgas caught no one by surprise. We knew the alphabets had asked for this; it was just a question of time before the FAA responded.
Other than the fact that the FAA is exactly the wrong entity to be leading the search for a new fuel, does this new committeeofficially the Unleaded Avgas Transition Aviation Rulemaking Committeehave the slightest bit of merit? Or is it just another name for the same people having endless unproductive meetings in different venues? It depends on who oversees the committee. I'll get to that in a minute, but first, a status report.
Where are we now? First, the EPA continues to offer confusing signals on what it will do about lead emissions. Last summer, it said there was no timeline and last fall, EPA official Glenn Passavant further signaled that the agency was moving deliberately with no schedule and that the finding of endangerment against tetraethyl lead was by no means a foregone conclusion. Further, last summer the EPA told us it didn't have the statutory authority to regulate lead and the very next day, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said lead's fate was up to the EPA. (Confused yet?) There are two high-octane candidate fuels before ASTM International, Swift's binary blend and GAMI's aromatic blended fuel. Both are promising technically and although they're inching slowly through the approvals process, the economics remain unproven. It seems reasonable to believe they can be approved, eventually.
Because of this uncertain regulatory environment, users of avgasthat's us in the freckled-necked masseshave no reliable price or market signals, thus we are in no way encouraged to express that single thing that will get things moving: market demand. Without that, consider the conundrum the refiners face: Avgas volume is in decline, a trend that's likely to continue. If you're in the business of making it, how enthusiastic will you be about spending R&D dollars on something that not only has no market growth potential, but that you might sell less of every year? This is hardly the stuff of a Wharton School MBA thesis. Further clouding the development of demand is a new fuel spec shortly to be approved by ASTM called 100VLL. This fuel is essentially 100LL, but with only about 80 percent of the lead. The idea is that this stuff could become a bargaining chip with the EPA for those airports whose local lead emissions don't attain the emerging tighter lead emissions standard. That's a good thing, right? Yes. But other side of that knife is that at best, it's likely to be a band aid solution that serves to take immediate pressure off the quest to find a universal, long-term solution. In other words, it further discourages demand for a replacement and encourages a don't-worry-be-happy attitude or maybe a wait-and-see.
Against this backdrop, comes this new committee to do what? Write more rules, as its title suggests? That's the last thing we need. Rules won't coalesce the demand that gets things moving. That's why I think it's a mistake to expect leadership from the FAA on piston fuels. It has neither the experience, the expertise nor the interest. Finding a new avgas is not a big three-letter program of the sort FAA bureaucrats like to sign on to. Two years ago, it nearly shutdown the only piston research facility it has at the Atlantic City tech center. That lab is struggling along on a shoestring budget. Further, the agency has raised obstruction to a high science in its organized effort to crush the STC application for GAMI's G100UL, which should have simply been approved pro forma as a gesture to the industry that the FAA is on its side. Instead, it spent hundreds of staff hours fighting the proposal for no good reason other than bureaucratic intransigence. If the GAO is looking for examples of agencies in need of friendly reminders about how to work with We the People, it ought to peer into this STC app.
Yet in this miasma of black gloom, there is a faint ray of hope. When the rather more knotty issue of alternative jet fuels came up for ASTM approvals, the FAA formed a joint committee with industry called the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI) which has since become the poster child for how these things ought to be done. I didn't attend these meetings, but people who did tell me that while the FAA was involved, it didn't provide the leadership. That came from industry. And throughout my research on CAAFI, sources kept telling me, "oh, you need to talk to Rick Altman" or "Rick Altman did that." Who is this guy Altman? A 40-year veteran of Pratt & Whitney with a lot of government experience. While Altman denies walking on water, he was clearly the direct fire coil making things happen. He gives most of the credit to the airlines, who did what general aviation is not doing: They expressed clear demand by saying, "we want this stuff." In this case, "stuff" was specific alternative jet fuels, not vague interest in "the best solution."
The corollary is direct and unmistakable. Last summer, Lycoming's Mike Kraft was strident in the view that the people with the largest stake here are aircraft ownersnot the FAA, not the alphabets, not ASTM, all of whom have interests not always in perfect alignment with people who actually buy avgas. In other words, groups like The Clean 100-Octane Coalition need to insist on having a seat at this new committee's table to express demand directly. If there's a groundswell for 94UL, so be it; those folks need a seat, too. They should not abrogate their representation to owner groups who may or may not support their views. Furthermore, we need a GA version of Rick Altman who's an industry guy, not an FAA guy nor an association guy.
As 2011 progresses, it may become the year of considering the least damaging solution for the avgas problem. If we do little or nothing on the assumption that EPA is bluffing or at least forestalling the lead decision for years to come, we'll damage the industry because of lack of confidence in future fuel supplies will stunt sales and participation. Then, if EPA or the courts do something unpredictable that forces the issue, we'll be unprepared with a replacement.
If we tilt now towards a 100-octane type replacement, it will probably cost more and that will depress sales and flight activity, too, but at some point in the distant future when gas will cost more anyway. If we embrace 94ULan eminently doable fueland expect owners who need 100-octane to pay for engine modifications, a certain percentage just won't. They'll bail and sell their airplanes or just stop playing. Some airframes with high-output engines will simply become scrap because owners won't see re-engining them as economic.
Which of these is the worst hit? Is part of the necessary pain here just to walk away from a portion of the legacy fleet? No one really knows, which is part of the problem here and a significant factor in industry paralysis on the fuel issue. The FAA's new ARC committee is supposed to "investigate, prioritize, and summarize the current issues relating to the transition to an unleaded avgas." But we've been doing that for 20 years. How many more times do we have to state the problem, put a wet kiss on it and then re-state it?
The opportunity hereif there is oneis for some industry sharpie like Altman to guide this group in a direction that actually produces results, cutting through the "investigate, prioritize" bureaucratic babble and showing the will to generate a real solution, not more briefings, meetings and papers. I just don't see that the FAA is the entity to do that. It cannot stimulate demand and is no position to announce a top-down solution. It could very well be the force that bollixes up an industry-spurred drive.
But ever the starry-eyed dreamer, I'm willing to be surprised. | <urn:uuid:e6fcd5c0-b2b6-467b-8595-4100e1099e11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.avweb.com/blogs/insider/AVWebInsider_NewFuelCommittee_204092-1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962075 | 1,723 | 1.679688 | 2 |
So this post is all about targeting the concepts of First, Next, Last and Sequencing. I have been working all semester long with my client on these concepts and have created many great sequencing activities that I would like to share with all of you!
First I read my client a children's story. He is in Kindergarten, so many of these stories will be appropriate for preschool-1st grade kiddos. Then I presented him with the sequencing cards. (these cards vary in length some stories only had 4 and others had up to 10) These cards are pictures of the main events of the story. I would ask the client to pick the card that happens first, next and last. If I felt he didn't understand the sequencing of the story I would ask him to tell me the story back using the sequencing cards. These activities usually take around 10-15 minutes depending on how long the story is.
Something fun that I discovered is that many children's stories are on youtube.com and one of my favorite new sites called storyline online. This website is wonderful because it has books such as Stellaluna, Harry the Dirty Dog and The Rainbow Fish all read by famous actors. The kids love it because its on THE COMPUTER :) and we love it because it gives our voice a break!
Here are all of my sequencing card sets...some of the images were taken from the web and the rest were photos I took. Enlarge them, add more images and have fun with your kiddos! The best part is that it works on many more concepts than the ones that I was focusing on :)
Harry The Dirty Dog (used Storyline online)
How are you all targeting the concepts of First, Next, Last and Sequencing? | <urn:uuid:05a61326-7916-4c31-a2c4-83f186f8213f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://teachnspeech.blogspot.com/2012/04/childrens-stories-targeting.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981496 | 359 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Christmas Daily Devotional|
Updated For Wednesday, December 19,2001
About finding God
Matthew 2:1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?
There is no greater quest in life than the search for God. In spite of many hardships, trials, and tribulations, our world seems not so intent upon finding Him. The wonderful Magi, who had traveled from afar, came searching for the baby, not to get something from Him, but to give something to Him. In each of our lives, we can most quickly find God when we seek to give to Him rather than trying to get something from Him. It is the example of giving that we see flow through Christ's life culminating in His giving of His life for us on the Cross. As we give this Christmas season, let us remember that to truly find and keep God alive within our hearts we must not go seeking to get something from Him. As we give this Christmas season, let us remember to give to Him and for Him. God is found in His giving Love. God is found in His giving Love, resting quietly in a manger where livestock surveyed the wonder of His birth.
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Care Ministries author and webmaster, Rev. Patrick Kelly, is affiliated through
ministerial ordination with Church of God Ministries, Anderson IN | <urn:uuid:43bca02b-0312-40bd-8ece-7b52ceaeece1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.findthepower.com/dailydevotions/DevChristmas2001FindingGod.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962362 | 313 | 2.03125 | 2 |
AUSTIN NEW ERA
AUSTIN NEW ERA. The New Era, a weekly newspaper, was published irregularly by Jacob Cruger and Joel Minerqqv from July 23, 1845, until August 28, 1845. It was primarily a journal of the Convention of 1845, fifteen of the sixteen columns of one issue being devoted to convention proceedings.
Another New Era, also at Austin, was announced as early as October 20, 1845, but did not appear until January 1846. John G. Chalmers, its publisher, described the New Era as a successor to the Austin City Gazette,qv The name indicated the new era of statehood after annexation. The paper probably lasted until December 1846.
Joe B. Frantz, Newspapers of the Republic of Texas (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1940). Mary Glasscock Frazier, Texas Newspapers during the Republic (March 2, 1836-February 19, 1846) (M. Journ. thesis, University of Texas, 1931). Marilyn M. Sibley, Lone Stars and State Gazettes: Texas Newspapers before the Civil War (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1983).
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article."AUSTIN NEW ERA," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/eeasv), accessed June 18, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. | <urn:uuid:2c027835-07d8-4e11-aa43-426a40614b24> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/eeasv | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946108 | 315 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Author: Kazuhiko Takeuchi and Nicholas Turner, UNU-ISP
Two months after the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and tsunami, the full extent of their tragic physical and human consequences is all too clear. But the natural disasters, and the subsequent nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, also have wider implications for Japan’s domestic and foreign policies.
The impact of this ‘triple disaster’ upon Japan’s plans to tackle climate change may be particularly strong.
Prior to the events of March 2011, Japan was on course to meet its Kyoto Protocol target of a 6 per cent reduction from 1990 levels by 2012. Although this was largely due to the recent sharp economic downturn, efforts by companies and households to reduce CO2 emissions and improve efficiency were also playing a significant role.
In the longer term, it was seen as difficult to achieve further emissions reductions through energy efficiency, and plans to invest in renewable energy were limited. Rather, Japan’s policies to achieve its more ambitious long-term emissions reduction targets (25 per cent by 2020, and 80 per cent by 2050) depended heavily upon expanded use of nuclear power. Fifty-four reactors provided 30 per cent of the country’s electricity, and plans would have seen this rise to 50 per cent by 2030, with at least 14 new reactors built.
But in the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis, these plans have been abandoned, leading many observers to express severe doubts that Japan will meet its long-term emissions targets. The fear is that Japan will continue to rely upon fossil fuels to fill the current energy shortage, resulting in increased emissions for many years to come. Indeed, some Kan administration officials have already indicated that emissions reduction targets may be reviewed.
Reshaping climate policy
There is now wide consensus that significant changes are required to Japan’s domestic climate change mitigation policies. Debates acknowledge that the country had depended far too much on nuclear power, and seriously neglected renewable energy sources, which currently account for only 6 per cent of its energy. Prime Minister Kan has stated that renewables will become a major pillar of the country’s energy policy, along with energy savings.
Although significantly increased investment will be necessary in order for renewable energy to become practical, it would bring enormous benefits — a recent IPCC report suggests that renewable energy could account for 77 per cent of the world’s energy demand by 2050, if backed by the right public policies. For Japan, as well as wind and solar, its vast geothermal resources hold considerable potential. Japan may also explore possibilities to fully utilise its abundant forests as an energy source, even though biomass energy has been abandoned by many other countries.
While previously individuals and businesses recognised the need to reduce energy usage, they have now learned that energy savings are both possible and practical, even for a country that is already among the most energy-efficient in the world. In response to the immediate power shortfall after 11 March, Tokyo and surrounding areas have found innovative ways to reduce energy usage. Eighty per cent of member companies of the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) are ready to meet the government’s 25 per cent reduction target during the summer months. Proposals include the establishment of a rotation system whereby various industries would take turns to temporarily shut down their factories.
Sustainability through reconstruction
With the total cost of the recovery estimated at $235 billion, 11 March was the world’s most expensive disaster. More than 250 billion yen has been budgeted for the initial removal of debris alone. Such an enormous drain on the country’s finances has the potential to affect not only domestic climate change policy, but also Japan’s commitments to provide adaptation assistance to developing countries.
Nevertheless, the post-disaster reconstruction process presents a unique opportunity for Japan to build more sustainable, low-carbon communities. Prime Minister Kan has proposed creating ‘eco-towns’ following the German model, which would also be highly resilient to natural disasters. Solar, wind, biomass and geothermal energy could be fully implemented, and local-scale ‘smart grids’ developed to solve the inherent difficulties in stabilising their fluctuating power outputs. Japan may also reconsider local industries — for instance, one government plan for the Tohoku region would consolidate over 200 tiny fishing ports into 11 large hubs.
The triple disaster has been an immense shock to Japan, and immediately cast doubt upon its ambitious climate change policies. But the resilience and resourcefulness shown by the Japanese people, and the government’s renewed commitment to developing renewable energy, suggest that the country need not abandon its target of an 80 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050.
As the reconstruction of the affected areas begins, the hope is that it will lead the way for Japan’s long-term shift towards a low-carbon economy — and ultimately a more sustainable society.
Kazuhiko Takeuchi is Vice Rector of the United Nations University (UNU) and Director of the UNU Institute for Sustainability and Peace.
Nicholas Turner is Academic Programme Associate at the United Nations University (UNU) Institute for Sustainability and Peace. | <urn:uuid:f3b6b473-0270-4640-bde0-d31cc0fda56d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2011/05/23/japan-s-triple-disaster-and-climate-change-policy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958418 | 1,056 | 3.671875 | 4 |
History of the Grain Warehouse Inspection Program
In 1907, Kansas enacted its first warehousing laws. The early farmers recognized the need for government to regulate the grain industry much in the same way it regulated banks. The primary goal for the program has not changed in more than 100 years. Protecting producers and their stored grain is the primary function of this program.
The Legislature authorized the Kansas Department of Agriculture to license warehouses storing agricultural products that meet department standards and agree to abide by the laws and regulations. It further authorized qualified employees to examine warehouses to ascertain the quantity of stored grain, the quality of the grain in a limited manner, the overall capacity of the warehouse facility and to investigate the warehouse operator prior to licensing. The Legislature also required that a bond by an acceptable surety company be filed prior to licensing. The Warehouse Law defined the warehouse operator’s responsibilities and provided for supervising his operation after licensing. It prescribes the form of receipt that must be issued and authorizes penalties for infractions of law or regulation. The power, jurisdiction and authority conferred upon the Kansas Department of Agriculture under the “Warehouse Law” is exclusive with respect to all persons securing a state license, as long as said license remains in effect.
The primary purpose of this program, from its enactment to now, is to protect depositors of basic agricultural products in public warehouses. This is the prime directive and all employees are committed to this goal. To that end, we assure producers that they have a safe place to store grain, that the grain is taken care of during the storage period, that grain of comparable grade and quality is available and can be delivered when called for, and that a warehouse operator does not become insolvent. | <urn:uuid:99b29026-7e58-4670-a19f-2c43558fb5cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ksda.gov/grain_warehouse/content/136 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958921 | 347 | 2.875 | 3 |
Manya & Majir: The Vision
Mike Korenblit shares…
“Fifty four years ago at the age of six, I was sitting in our living room in Ponca City, Oklahoma with my parents, when I noticed something on each of their wrists.
It was a ‘KL’ in blue ink; and on the inside of my mother’s forearm was ‘A” followed by ‘27327.
Being an inquisitive little fellow, I asked them why they had those letters and numbers.
My parents explained that they were both survivors of the Holocaust. For five and a half years, they had experienced the worst of hatred, bigotry, intolerance and violence.
Except for one brother each, all of their immediate family and most of their extended family were killed by the Nazis.
They survived, in large part, because of three Christians who risked their lives to save them, because they knew it was the right thing to do. These three Christians were murdered by the Nazis for saving Jews.
One year later, when I was seven, in August of 1958, my dad saw a story on TV that really bothered him. He followed that story on TV and in the newspaper for the rest of that week.
The following Saturday, a hot August day, my parents drove me to a park. We got out of the car and walked over to two water fountains. One had a sign that read ‘Whites Only.’ The other had a sign that read ‘Coloreds Only.’ They then drove me to the bus station & showed me the nice ‘Whites’ Only waiting area. Then they took me to the not-so-nice, segregated ‘Colored’ waiting area.
Then my dad said, ‘I want you to always remember what I’ve shown you here today. This is why you do not have grandparents or lots of aunts and uncles and cousins, because people looked at them as being different, inferior. Whatever you do in life, we want you to promise us you will always stand up for what is right, always treat people with respect, and be accepting and tolerant of others, no matter how different they may be from you.’
The story that inspired my dad, to take me to the park and the bus station, was that of Clara Luper and 12 brave black students age 6-16 who walked into Katz Drugstore in downtown OKC, sat down at the counter and ordered 13 Coca-Colas. They were refused service because of the color of their skin. This was the start of the Sit-In Movement.”
After Mike and Joan married, they both became intensely interested in Manya and Majir’s story. They felt that the story was so powerful and unique that it should be documented in a book.
Beginning in 1980, Mike began flying to Oklahoma from their home in Washington DC to interview the couple, and the four began traveling to sites in Poland, Germany, Austria and Israel – the places where Manya and Majir’s lives had interwoven with history in very personal, traumatic and eventually joyful ways.
The story of the resilient couple became more and more fascinating with every interview or trip, and the book began to take shape. In a few years, Until We Meet Again (co-written with Kathleen Janger) was published and became a bestseller. Middle school and high school classes read it alongside Anne Frank and other classics.
Soon, Mike was invited to speak in schools across the country. As he spoke, the seed his father had planted by the water fountains grew into a clear, vibrant message of the importance of respect for diversity between people with differences of any and all kinds. Schoolchildren sat in rapt attention, absorbed by the riveting story and inspired by this ever-sharpening message of respect for diversity.
Other community organizations and groups began inviting him to share, as well, and this message (adapted to the needs and issues of each group, but never compromised or “soft-peddled”) began impacting cultures in faith communities, government agencies, and other organizations.
In those early years, many audiences had the opportunity to hear the story’s protagonists, themselves, speak – or at least answer questions at the end of one of Mike’s talks. The shining optimism and compassionate wit of the couple made a mark on audiences – especially young audiences – that continues to influence lives today. Tears of empathy joy were shed, and standing ovations were the rule.
Over time, the demand and need for these talks became so strong and apparent that Mike and Joan decided to form a foundation, so that Mike could leave his traditional work and use the opportunity provided by the book’s success to promote respect for diversity full-time. They found donors who shared their passion and sense of mission, and who were willing to take a chance on this fledgling nonprofit.
Soon after the Foundation was founded in 2000, Joan contacted Clara Luper, who (after Mike and Joan) became their first speaker of many. Ms. Luper joined them in their mission and spoke out of her own experiences and vision.
Knowing that the powerful emotional impact of these experiences could be solidified into lasting changes in the minds and hearts of learners through active engagement (especially if it were collaborative), Joan began leading facilitating arts experiences after the talks, especially in schools.
One day, as the Foundation was being formed, and Joan was searching her mind for inspiring ideas for a logo, she had a thought: “Wouldn’t it be nice to ask students what their symbol of diversity might be!” She started asking students that very question – and before long, collaborative, artistic representations of respect for diversity began flowing in to what became RDF’s annual “Respect Diversity Symbol Contest” (now our “Arts Competition & Exhibition”).
The Respect Diversity Foundation was birthed eight years before the end of Manya’s life and twelve years before the end of Majir’s, allowing them to nurture the small nonprofit in its early days with their wisdom and support.
In the almost thirteen years that the Respect Diversity Foundation has been in operation, Mike and Joan have been joined by dozens of speakers and artists who use their gifts and talents to reach hearts and minds, while thousands of students, campers and other young learners have been impacted with this powerful message – and created hundreds of collaborative art pieces celebrating diversity that have impacted thousands of exhibit attendees.
We know Manya and Majir would be very proud to see what we have become – and how we continue to evolve.
Contact us to learn how you and/or you organization can get involved with the Respect Diversity Foundation. | <urn:uuid:f3bd3c9b-989c-491b-97d6-90971e3be03b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://respectdiversity.org/manya-majir-the-vision/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981201 | 1,406 | 1.84375 | 2 |
The fabulous 1940’s
In Hastings we love the 1940’s. There is no doubt in my mind that this has been helped along by Tv Series ‘Foyles War’, which is set in our lovely little home town of Hastings in the early 40’s, during the second world war. That coupled with the recent success of the BBC1 series Land girls, seems to have sent us into a 40’s frenzy.
When you think of vintage clothing, it is very difficult not to be taken back to that wartime era, where even though times were hard and rationing was in place, the men and women seemed to look and dress better than they ever have.
Rationing of fabric had an effect on the styles of clothes. Women became more and more creative. With the men away they would amend and re stitch their husbands suits, making them into suits for themselves. Dresses were even made out of recycled curtains.
The cut of Dresses in the 40’s was feminine, in at the waist with emphasis on wide lapels and padded shoulders, often tea dress style with mid length sleeves.
The emphasis was placed on the hips, creating the desired hourglass figure that was brought to us by the early hollywood stars.
The popular hairstyles of the 40’s were slightly longer and more feminine than the shorter styles which were popular in the 30’s. Pin curls, victory rolls and pill box hats were all popular and iconic looks of the era.
The late post war 1940’s brought with it our vintage love for Hawaiian prints and themes. Husbands and fathers were returning from war with gifts for their loved ones, and these gifts came in a range of glorious colours and styles. Hawaiian prints were, and still are, a must have for the vintage lover. We happen to have a great range of vintage Hawaiian shirts in store right now. | <urn:uuid:c34c977d-64d6-47b5-bb82-358adb098ac1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.littletreasuresvintage.co.uk/index.php/2011/05/the-fabulous-1940s/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984912 | 394 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Chapter 1: Getting started
Chapter 2: Shop till you drop
Chapter 3: The buying experience
Chapter 4: The leasing experience
Chapter 5: Financing the deal
Chapter 6: Insuring your vehicle
Here are some questions that you must ask when discussing financing. Write them down or print them out before going to the dealer. Make sure you get answers to these questions that you fully understand.
If anything is vague or confusing, walk away and come back after you've had time to think about it. If the sales or finance person makes a claim you think is too good to be true, have them write it on the finance contract and get a manager to sign off.
1. What's the interest rate I'm really paying? The APR, or annual percentage rate, is the best way to know what interest you are paying. It is the actual interest rate you pay annually on the unpaid balance of the loan. The rate you are offered will to a large extent depend on your credit score, a number that dealers get from your credit report.
2. Are there any possible penalties in my loan? Does paying the loan off early entail penalties? Are there any other possible extra charges that could occur during the term of my loan? Are there "hidden charges'' that effectively are penalties?
3. What is the precise (down to the penny) price I'm paying for the vehicle?
4. What is the total amount (be exact) being financed?
5. What's the dollar amount I'm paying for the credit (finance charge)?
6. What's the exact amount of each payment?
7. What is the total number of payments?
8. Is this deal contingent on getting subsequent approval of the financing from a third party? Some dealers will send you out the door with a car then call a day or two later to say they couldn't get you financed at the rate they quoted, but they have found a lender who will cover the loan at a higher payment. Don't fall for this. Make sure you know who the lender is and that the deal is sealed before leaving the lot. If there's any question, tell the dealer you'll come back and get the car when everything is settled.
9. What about credit insurance? Your lender may offer, or even demand, credit insurance. First, find out exactly what it will cost you. If you have an existing insurance policy that covers the same thing, make a thorough comparison. It's not required by federal law, and check your state's requirement (through the office of your attorney general or insurance commissioner) if your lender requires it. It's very rare that any do. But if you must pay, make sure it is included in the cost of your credit and see where it is reflected in the APR you are paying. | <urn:uuid:5ed02a81-f408-4e90-9cf7-e330762e9797> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bankrate.com/finance/auto/key-financing-questions-you-should-ask.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967074 | 575 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Peugeot EX1 Is Fastest Electric Car at Nürburgring (Video)
We all know that electric cars are perfect for daily city driving, but the Peugeot EX1 answers another question. Can an EV perform on a racetrack?
Peugeot didn't chose the easiest way to find out. It went to the Nürburgring, the mighty German track. When Nissan launched its super high performance GT-R in 2007, it didn't initiate any communication campaigns. Nissan just went to the Nürburgring, set a new lap record for production cars—and that was that.
Many racers call the Nürburgring Nordschleife the green hell. It's a lovely place, most of the track seems to be in the middle of a forest, with beautiful trees all around, a hilly area too, meaning lots of going up and down, and every curve possible as the track is incredibly long: 12.9-mile. All racers believe it's the most dangerous racetrack in the world. Niki Lauda had his famous accident there, and Formula 1 moved to Hockenheim since then. So the Germans built another track, much safer, and Formula 1 went back to the Nürburgring, but it's the Nordschleife—the Northern loop, that's the older track—that makes racers and enthusiasts dream all over the world. Peugeot went there with its EX1 prototype.
At first (which was last year), I thought it was nothing more than a show car, and I wasn't very enthusiastic about it. I've already seen too many electric concepts. I want to see EVs actually being driven. The EX1 is a two-seater with an open cockpit, and a very strange look—as the rear of the car is narrower than the front. It looks much more like a non-running concept than a production model. The powertrain is equally original, with two electric motors, one on each axle. There's a lot of power available: 75 kW continuous, and 125 kW peak, for each motor. That makes 340 horsepower total and the EX1 has been clocked doing the quarter mile in 12.67 seconds. That sounds good, but I've never been very impressed with straight-line performance. Handling is more important in Europe. Prior to this Peugeot EX1, there was only one example of an electric car racing the Nürburgring that has been made public. It was the Mini E. It did it in a rather disappointing 9:51.45 seconds.
The Peugeot EX1 was much faster, it did one lap of the Nordschleife in 9:01.338 at an average speed of nearly 86 mph.
You may not be impressed if you happen to know that a Nissan GT-R is doing the same thing in seven-and-a-half minutes, but no EV is known to have been driven faster at the Nürburgring. Peugeot established a new lap record for EVs and that is good news. EVs are getting faster! It's especially newsworthy that Peugeot established this record, as many were afraid the French brand had given up on EVs. You can buy an electric Peugeot today in France, but Peugeot won't build it. The Peugeot Ion comes from Mitsubishi, and the electric Partner is built by Venturi. The EX1 proves at least that there some people working on EVs at Peugeot.
So you may wonder why it didn't go faster, if Peugeot has a team of engineers working on the EX1, and my reply is that more development is needed. The Nordschleife is a very demanding track. The track surface is terrible. There are many bumps, and there thousands of stories of cars with broken suspensions, or failed brakes. The close-up shot below shows that the discs were red-hot on the Peugeot EX1. Batteries are another challenge, as it's impossible to drive more than two laps. Yes, that's only 18 minutes of driving a 26 miles distance, but at racing speed it's enough to totally discharge 30 kWh of the best lithium-ion in the EX1.
Engineers have a lot to do to improve the performances of an EV at the track, but I believe this EX1 is a good start. In case someone wants to better it, the Nordschleife is often booked by car manufacturers during weekdays, but it's open to the public most Sundays in the summer. I believe there will be new EV contenders very soon.
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Jim Motavalli says:
The next Tesla is targeted as a $30,000 plug-in for everybody, and it's the one that can establish the company as a... | <urn:uuid:408f9bbd-566e-4ef0-872c-bb5b484cac03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.plugincars.com/fastest-ev-nurburgring-peugeot-ex1-107128.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974227 | 1,138 | 2.015625 | 2 |
The deep blue colors of twilight are captured in the intense vivid tones of lab created sapphire. Sparkles of light flash like stars in the facets of this birthstone of September. Extremely durable and always in fashion, a sapphire ring in white or yellow gold will never go out of style. A lab created sapphire is still a real sapphire, created with no imperfections, and makes for an affordable choice in sapphire jewelry.
Select any combination of gemstones to create your own unique family keepsake. Choose the birthstones of your loved ones, or your favorite combination of colors.
Sapphire is the birthstone of September, and pink sapphire is a very popular gemstone in jewelry today. The bright and happy color of a pink sapphire ring is both playful and trendy.
A pair of created pink sapphire earrings make an excellent gift. Pink gemstones are stylish and chic, and our lab-created pink sapphires are an affordable alternative.
A sapphire is said to bring serenity and purity to the wearer. Wear a pink sapphire pendant for serenity and purity with a splash of fun and irreverence.
Do you know which famous prince gave his beloved a sapphire engagement ring? Did you know that sapphire is significant to many of the world's religions? Learn all there is to know about sapphire in our collection of information about this beautiful blue stone. Read about the cultural and religious history of sapphire, the physical properties of sapphire, and how to care for your sapphire jewelry. | <urn:uuid:8aa84ce1-47fe-4b23-b70d-5d73b30a202a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewelsforme.com/lab-sapphire-jewelry.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9237 | 337 | 1.578125 | 2 |
LAS VEGAS (AP) — An annual nationwide census shows the number of homeless people in Nevada has dropped 6 percent between 2011 and 2012.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reports Monday that 9,926 homeless people were counted in Nevada during the 2012 census. That's down from 10,579 a year earlier.
This year's number includes just fewer than 2,000 chronically homeless people, and a little more than 1,400 homeless veterans.
The data comes from a nationwide, point-in-time count conducted by community workers one night in late January. The count found about 634,000 homeless people in the U.S.
Overall numbers were down less than 1 percent, but homelessness among veterans was down 7 percent year-over-year.
Federal housing officials attribute that largely to a rental assistance program coordinated by Veterans Affairs and HUD.
©2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:37a4b00f-9e33-4bc4-95e9-69121aef4dd6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mynews4.com/news/local/story/Number-of-Nev-homeless-down-6-percent-in-2012/QVnI6l3VJESFW10sddbOvg.cspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965299 | 205 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Target Canada seeks LEED certification
HTT Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 11/16/2012 3:01:32 PM
Toronto - Target said it is pursuing Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certification for all of its 124 Canadian stores opening in 2013, in line with the discount chain's long-term sustainable business practices efforts.
Looking to conserve energy and water, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and limit waste sent to landfill, Target will spend more than $10 million remodeling each location, including LEED preparations.
Under renovation for a period of six to nine months each, the Canadian Target stores will be opening throughout 2013 starting in March/April. Design plans for future stores will be announced at a later date.
Target noted its approach to environmental sustainability "is integrated throughout the business, from how stores are built to the products on the shelves."
Target is said to be among the first organizations in Canada to be part of the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) LEED Volume Program, which streamlines the certification process for multiple buildings of a similar type.
We would love your feedback! | <urn:uuid:19526941-83f7-4ee9-9758-54166c7961d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hometextilestoday.com/article/557452-Target_Canada_seeks_LEED_certification.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939739 | 234 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Did you know you're entitled to a free credit report each year?
Every person on the street is different and so is their financial history. But they have one thing in common. They all qualify for a free credit report.
"You should make a habit of checking it every year, it's free," said identity theft expert Eva Velasquez
You can get a free report from each of the three credit reporting agencies- Transunion, Equifax and Experian.
You should be checking to see what those big financial reporting agencies know about you and what they are telling people like your mortgage lender, your car dealer or landlord and if the information on the report is right.
"So you really want to make sure what's out there are your debts and that it's accurate," said Credit Union President Teresa Halleck.
So where do you turn to get that free report? You don't necessarily want to go to the one you see in the tv commercials (freecreditreport.com).
"No that is actually a paid for service," said Velasquez. "The website that offers the service for free, based on the law, is annualcreditreport.com."
Go to annualcreditreport.com, and in less than five minutes you'll have a free report ready to print from your computer screen.
It's a way to get a handle on your financial history and to make sure scam artists aren't stealing your identity.
"They could open something in your name, potentially if they have the right information, and have it diverted to a different mailbox, a different address and you might not know it," said Halleck. "But if you go in check your credit report, you'll recognize, wait a minute that shouldn't be there."
While you can get your credit report free every year, you won't get your score. For that you'll have to pay around $15. But the most important thing to do now is make sure what's in your report is accurate. | <urn:uuid:7da7c010-076d-40f1-9cd9-31d1ef4bec42> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arkansasmatters.com/yourlocalelectionhq_articles/?nxd_id=626472 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977416 | 411 | 1.664063 | 2 |
I am getting ready to start a PBL on Rocks for ALL of next week, and I need some ideas on Rocks. I got the fabulous resource form Chalk Talk on Rocks, but I need some more stuff. I am supposed to teach this all day for 5 days.
If you have anything or any good sites on Rocks, would you be willing to share???? I would love it, and be forever grateful!!!! I could then put everything together for all of us in a pdf and share giving credit to everyone.
Thanks a bunch!
You can email me at firstname.lastname@example.org.
Nothing like waiting until the last minute for planning! ;) | <urn:uuid:01599e4b-88d8-4692-85b4-e9ef79b16662> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lovetwoteach.com/2011/03/rock-ideas.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951278 | 137 | 1.804688 | 2 |
COPENHAGEN — A leaked Danish document at the U.N. climate conference provoked angry criticism Tuesday from developing countries and activists who feared it would shift more of the burden to curb greenhouse gases on poorer countries.
Negotiators, meanwhile, displayed charts of data that said the current decade is on track to be the hottest on record for planet Earth.
At the heart of Tuesday's clash — stemming from draft texts attributed to Denmark and China — is the determination by the more impoverished states to bear a lesser burden than wealthy, more industrialized countries in the effort to slow global warming.
Diplomats from developing countries and climate activists also complained the Danish hosts had pre-empted the negotiations with their draft proposal, prepared before the two-week conference began.
"The behind-the-scenes negotiation tactics under the Danish presidency have been focusing on pleasing the rich and powerful countries rather than serving the majority of states who are demanding a fair and ambitious solution," said Kim Carstensen, head of the climate initiative for the environmental group WWF.
The Danish draft proposal circulating at the 192-nation conference chips away at the wall between what developed and developing nations can be expected to do to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The Danish proposal would allow rich countries to cut fewer emissions while poorer nations would face tougher limits on greenhouse gases and more conditions on money available to adapt.
A sketchy counterproposal attributed to China would extend the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which required 37 industrial nations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming by an average 5 percent by 2012, compared with 1990 levels.
The Chinese text would incorporate specific new, deeper targets for the industrialized world for a further five to eight years. Developing countries, on the other hand, including China, would be covered by a separate agreement that envisions their taking actions to control emissions, but not in the same legally binding way. No targets would be specified for them.
Poorer nations believe the two-track approach would best preserve the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" recognized by the Kyoto Protocol.
Such draft ideas are usual grist early in such long, difficult international talks. These two proposals were not yet even recorded as official conference documents.
"It has no validity," key European Union negotiator Artur Runge-Metzger said, speaking specifically of the Danish proposal. "It's only a piece of paper. The only texts that have validity here are those which people negotiated."
Earlier Tuesday, the U.N.'s weather agency boosted the sense of urgency surrounding the conference with data showing this decade is on track to be the hottest since records began in 1850, with 2009 the fifth-warmest year ever. The second warmest decade was the 1990s.
Only the United States and Canada experienced cooler conditions than average, the World Meteorological Organization said, though Alaska had the second-warmest July on record. In central Africa and southern Asia, this will probably be the warmest year, but overall, 2009 will "be about the fifth-warmest year on record," said Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of the Swiss-based agency.
The last few decades are the warmest period in at least 400 years and probably 1,000 years, based on evidence from tree rings, retreating glaciers and other scientific methods to track climate before record-keeping, according to a 2006 report by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
Although temperatures have fluctuated, the causes were natural. The difference now is that they are being driven up by human activity, that modern civilization has many more coastal cities and needs to feed far more people, and that scientists believe humans can head off such dangerous warming.
Without a global deal stopping climate change, the planet's average temperatures will rise by more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees F) "well before the end of the century," Jarraud said.
"What we want is to provide the best possible data for negotiators," said Jarraud, who called the WMO data evidence "this is indeed globally the warmest period for more than 2,000 years."
The current decade has been marked by dramatic effects of warming.
In 2007-2009, the summer melt reduced the Arctic Ocean ice cap to its smallest extent ever recorded. In the 2007-2009 International Polar Year, researchers found that Antarctica is warming more than previously believed. Almost all glaciers worldwide are retreating.
Destructive species such as jellyfish and bark-eating beetles are moving northward out of normal ranges, and seas expanding from warmth and glacier melt are encroaching on low-lying island states.
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and his colleagues defended climate research amid an uproar over a cache of e-mails stolen from a British university that global warming skeptics say show scientists conspired to hide evidence that doesn't fit their theories.
Panel members noted Tuesday that their authoritative reports, representing the work of some 2,500 international climate experts, included specific papers referenced in the e-mails, such as research into tree rings in Siberia that were discussed at length and had accompanying figures.
"Our processes are so robust, and the manner in which we function is so inclusive, that there is absolutely no question" about the integrity of research, Pachauri said. "They were clearly private communications. And if they express a level of passion all of us are guilty of at times, I think we should leave it well enough alone."
He said the IPCC has begun looking into the matter, but stopped short of launching a full investigation. "From what we've done so far, on a preliminary basis, we are completely satisfied that the IPCC procedures have not in any way excluded any material that's been peer-reviewed."
Carbon dioxide concentrations are expected to peak next year at a record high above 390 parts per million, up from 315 ppm when the first such measurements were taken a half-century ago.
"We are really on the higher end, at the pessimistic part of these ranges," Jarraud said. "So if nothing is done, we are going for much more than 2 degrees."
Swiss climatologist Thomas Stocker of the University of Bern noted that carbon dioxide levels are "higher than ever in the last 800,000 years," based on comparisons with ancient pockets of carbon dioxide trapped in polar ice core samples.
He said the C02 atmospheric concentrations have risen at a rate at least 10 times faster than ever before seen in paleoclimatic history.
The WMO also noted an extreme heat wave in India in May and a heat wave in northern China in June. It said parts of China experienced their warmest year on record, and that Australia so far has had its third-warmest year. Extremely warm weather was also more frequent and intense in southern South America.
According to the U.S. space agency NASA, the other warmest years since 1850 have been 2005, 1998, 2007 and 2006. NASA says the differences in readings among these years are so small as to be statistically insignificant.
The U.N. agency reported that the global combined sea surface and land surface temperature for the January-October 2009 period is estimated at 0.44 degrees C (0.79 degrees F) above the 1961-1990 annual average of 14.00 degrees C (57.2 degrees F), with a margin of error of plus or minus 0.11 degrees C. Final data will be released early in 2010. | <urn:uuid:dd486f26-f50c-4531-8986-812a83ecbfb6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eastvalleytribune.com/nation_world/article_d26edbd9-4d85-57b4-87a2-4eb286dd2781.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958811 | 1,530 | 2.515625 | 3 |
[REVIEW] Make controller instantiation customizable
greg.x.brown at oracle.com
Sat Dec 17 11:38:39 PST 2011
I was just reviewing an earlier post on a related thread ("Could FXML use an interface and dynamic proxy for the passive view interface?"), and I think that the "external controller" proposal actually addresses all of the original issues fairly well:
> - You have to specify your presenter (which FXML directly calls a controller) implementation inside your FXML. This breaks a fundamental concept of MVP, that the view and presenter should be decoupled as much as possible, and means you cannot reuse your view with another controller without copying the whole view again.
By externalizing the controller (which I guess we should just call presenter, to avoid confusion with the current definition of controller), this becomes a non-issue.
> - You can’t use interfaces for your presenter (as per option 2 above), since FXML needs a concrete class to instantiate.
As I mentioned earlier in this thread, you can actually use interfaces - your controller factory can simply return an appropriate implementation of that interface. Controller field injection will still work, and you'd get even more flexibility if we added support for property-based injection.
However, to reiterate - this is a non-issue if the presenter is externalized. You can create and configure it however you like.
> - The FXML loader instantiates the controller in internal code that we have no access to, so to make this work with a DI framework you have to jump through hoops to get setter injection to work (and constructor injection doesn’t work at all).
This limitation is resolved by the addition of the ControllerFactory interface, but again it is a non-issue if you are using an external presenter.
> - In order to access the fields of your view within your presenter (i.e. to show data on the screen), you have to expose the fields directly to the presenter using @FXML annotations. This means your presenter ends up knowing far too much intimate detail about your view.
By using the FXML controller as the interface to the view, we preserve the abstraction and don't need to reveal any unnecessary details to the presenter.
More information about the openjfx-dev | <urn:uuid:3c429653-e921-4d28-8db0-f650a06d3825> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/openjfx-dev/2011-December/000348.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921672 | 474 | 1.617188 | 2 |
One sunny day, an old man climbed the top of a hill, tired and panting, carrying two bird cages in his hand. Inside the cage, there were two birds-one blue and one black. The man sat under a maple tree, looking at the two beautiful birds and then spoke, “O lovely little birds of God”, he said sympathizing, “Life is miserable to you birds, as you have to be shut up in a cage all day long, striving for freedom, thinking of the days when you used to fly joyfully in the bright blue sky. What you birds desperately need is freedom and freedom alone!”. Saying this, the man looked above at the floating clouds and slowly turned to open the cage doors, to let the birds go free. When he tried to do this unique act, the man was suddenly filled with immense pride. He then opened the cage doors. “Fly away birds!”, he cried, with joyful tears, “Fly away to Paradise-to God’s Garden of love, into the sunshine, into the brilliant light, to a big new world awaiting you!”. The birds immediately knew that they were granted freedom and they flew out of the cage, happy and free, humming a blissful song. The man then closed his eyes for a second and thought that he had accomplished something indescribable and these moments seemed unforgettable to him. In a few minutes, the birds disappeared and were nowhere to be seen.
The man returned the next day to the same place and was amazed to see the two birds back again singing, perched on the maple tree. He revisited the same place again the day after that, and saw the birds. He continued this routine of visiting the hill, for a year, again and again to see the lovely birds. One day as usual, when he climbed the hill to see the birds, he was surprised not to find the birds. The man spent all his day, searching all over the place and was terribly disappointed at the end of the day. The man kept on going to the same place daily after that, with no luck of finding the birds.
One more year passed. The old man became very sick and was laid in his deathbed. He came to know that his time on earth was very short. That night, he thought of the birds, the maple tree and the hill that he could not climb again. As he was sleeping with these sad thoughts in his heart, he was awakened by chirping sounds coming from the window sill. He opened his eyes and saw the birds-one blue and one black. A smile came over his face and he started to laugh loudly with happiness. The birds flew and sat on the desk and sang to him all night long. In his dream, he climbed the hill and saw thousands of bird cages with beautiful black and blue birds. He imagined himself opening all the cages, one by one and setting all the birds free and soon birds filled the entire sky and he heard them thank him.
The morning dawned and the milkman, who supplied milk everyday, entered the old man’s house and was shocked to see the dead old man on his bed and the two birds seated by his side, on the desk. “Poor old man!” he exclaimed, as an evil smile spread his lips, when he thought of the birds. “I wonder how much they would give me for these ugly birds at the market. I would take no less than five pounds” he thought and turned to grab them.
The birds are Indians. Maple tree is the natural beauty of India. The cage is Britain. The old man is Gandhiji. He let indians free. And after he died, Indians came within the clutches of corrupt politicians (milkman) and lost their freedom again!!. | <urn:uuid:b3c4574f-f480-4a85-9b4d-8eebeec56e28> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.booksie.com/religion_and_spirituality/short_story/nid/the-way-of-the-world | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984068 | 793 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Professor Randolph Barker wins Name of the Day
Puzzled reader: How can such a prosaic name win this prestigious award?
Liberal England replies: Because Professor Barker from Virginia Commonwealth University is the lead author of a study into the psychological benefits of having dogs in the workplace. It is published in the March issue of the International Journal of Workplace Health Management. | <urn:uuid:ef5699ab-1cc5-4124-b303-55ff4688ade1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://liberalengland.blogspot.com/2012/04/professor-randolph-barker-wins-name-of.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937629 | 80 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Damage Control: What You Should Be Binge-Eating When You’re Drunk at Three in the Morning
Everyone's been there: It's 3 a.m. and you're stumbling around smelling like booze and bad choices. Well done. But now you're starving and your decision-making skills are in rough shape (especially if it's New Year's Eve). The idea that a greasebomb meal will completely prevent tomorrow's inevitable hangover is, sadly, a myth. But we talked to a bunch of professional nutritionists to see what someone can actually eat if they don't want to cause too much more damage and hope to soften the blow the next morning. And don't worry: The advice isn't all wheatgrass and beet juice. Even the pros know that late-night binge-eating should be satisfying.
What You're Craving: A Burger
What You Should Really Eat: A Peanut-Butter Sandwich
“Something with a lot of fat can take forever to digest and make you nauseated in the morning,” says Sarah Krieger, a registered dietitian and a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. And David Grotto, the author of The Best Things You Can Eat, confirms: "Alcohol and fat don’t mix well. There’s no science to support the idea that burgers or fatty foods help you; in fact, they promote further dehydration.” Damn.
The best time to eat greasy foods is actually before you start imbibing, when they coat your stomach and slow down your absorption of alcohol. But it’s too late now. Though you’ll probably slip into a coma post-bacon-bender, it's likely to stimulate your body and make you toss and turn throughout the night.
Bonnie Taub-Dix, author of Read It Before You Eat It, says that a peanut-butter sandwich, which is fatty-ish and still has some protein, is a good bet. An even better choice: Slice up a banana and fry the sandwich Elvis-style until it’s golden brown and gooey.
What You're Craving: Pizza
What You Should Really Eat: Grilled Cheese
Taub-Dix recommends eating something with a limited amount of fat, protein, and carbs. “A grilled-cheese sandwich isn’t bad if you make it without the butter, and it’s even better if you add tomato,” she says.
Cheese, tomato, and bread: Hey, isn’t that the same as a slice? Not quite. Similar tastes — especially when you’re too sloshed to tell the difference — but there’s less grease and oil in your homemade sandwich. Plus, you get to eat it in your pajamas while watching The Shawshank Redemption ending on YouTube over and over. Or whatever it is you do when drunk.
What You're Craving: French Fries
What You Should Really Eat: A Loaded Baked Potato
If you’re a drinking champ, you’re going to boot-and-rally and still crave a meal afterwards. When you get sick, your body loses potassium. But nobody (nobody!) wants a banana at this hour. Grotto endorses good ‘ol jacket potatoes. Pop one in the microwave; stuff it with a sour cream, Cheddar cheese, and Sriracha topping (the nastier the combination, the better); and enjoy. Plus one if you add mushrooms, which are one of Grotto’s top picks for drunken binge-eating, because they’re easy to digest and stocked with potassium.
What You’re Craving: Cereal
What You Should Really Eat: Cereal!
Cereal is actually one of the best choices for a late-night-snack-meets-early-breakfast, so go ahead and pour a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. “A light bowl of cereal with milk has fluids,” says Krieger, who also suggests adding nuts if you’re feeling ravenous.
“Carbohydrate-based foods are ideal because they also produce serotonin,” says Grotto. “That’s important because alcohol disrupts sleep.”
What You're Craving: Cookies
What You Should Really Eat: A Fruit-Filled Dessert
Sugar doesn’t seem to be the absolute worst thing to eat in terms of your hangover. But per usual, sweets will keep you awake — and that only increases the chances of unfortunate sexting. All the experts pushed fruit — especially cherries, because they fight pain, and oranges, because they’re hydrating. Fair enough: Head to a diner and grab a slice of cherry pie. If you're at home, keep some sorbet stocked in your freezer.
Also: Water, lots of water.
“When in doubt, concentrate on hydrating,” says Grotto. Turns out some late-night damage-control ideas really are true. | <urn:uuid:e19c8f63-f488-442a-bd4f-5af00c5987a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.grubstreet.com/2012/12/what-you-should-be-binge-eating-while-drunk.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919819 | 1,068 | 1.625 | 2 |
AJC Peachtree Road Race runners will be able to predict the weather on race day, with just one glance.
The Atlanta Track Club, organizers of the annual 10k, are implementing a new color-coded Event Alert System (EAS) for this year's event. The colorful flags will let runners, wheelchair participants, volunteers, and staff know the condition of the course on the days leading up to the July 4 event, and on race day.
Track the weather 24/7 | 11Alive's Live Interactive Weather Radar
The flags will be located at the start, along the course, and in the finish line area. Race Director Tracey Russell and Medical Director Joe Wilson, along with the rest of the Race Communications Team, will determine the specific alert level on race day.
- Green indicates a low alert level; participants should enjoy the event, but be alert.
- Yellow is moderate, meaning conditions are less-than ideal. Participants are warned to slow down and be prepared for worsening conditions.
- Red is a high alert level. Conditions are potentially dangerous and participants should slow down or consider stopping, observe course changes, and follow official instructions.
- Black is the most extreme alert level. It will only be used if conditions are extreme and dangerous. If a black flag is called, the AJC Peachtree Road Race is canceled, and all participants are to follow event official instructions.
Communications about the EAS will be available prior to race day through the AJC Peachtree Road Race email newsletters, the AJC Peachtree Road Race webpage, the Atlanta Track Club Facebook page and Twitter account, and at the Peachtree Health and Fitness Expo on July 2 and 3.
The EAS was developed in response to the 2007 Chicago Marathon, which was canceled early due to extreme temperatures and concerns for the safety of marathon participants. It's now a standard communication tool at road race events throughout the country. | <urn:uuid:3d537c3a-0367-4846-8483-cc3b4e90f428> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.11alive.com/news/article/244176/3/Color-Coded-Flags-A-Sign-for-AJC-Peachtree-Road-Race-Participants- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923622 | 396 | 1.5 | 2 |
FV432 tt Holcot Steam Rally 2008
|Type||Armoured personnel carrier|
|Place of origin||United Kingdom|
|Weight||15 tons (15.3 t)|
|Crew||2 + 10 troops|
|Armour||12.7 mm max|
|7.62 mm L7 GPMG|
|Engine|| Rolls-Royce K60 multi-fuel|
|Suspension||torsion-bar, 5 road wheels|
|Speed||32 mph (52 km/h)|
The FV432 is the armoured personnel carrier variant of the British Army's FV430 series of armoured fighting vehicles. Since its introduction in the 1960s it has been the most common variant, being used for transporting infantry on the battlefield. In the 1980s, almost 2,500 vehicles were in use, with around 1,500 now remaining in operation - mostly in supporting arms rather than front-line infantry service.
Although the FV432 Series was to have been phased out of service in favour of newer vehicles such as the Warrior and the CVR(T) series, they are now gradually being upgraded to extend their service through into the next decade.
In light of the army's need for additional armoured vehicles in the Afghan and Iraqi theatres, the Ministry of Defence announced in August 2006 that an extra 70 vehicles would be upgraded by BAE Systems in addition to 54 already ordered as part of their force protection initiative. The improvements take the form of an engine upgrade, new steering unit, and new braking system as well as improving armour protection to a level similar to that of the Warrior. The concept is that these FV430s will free up the Warrior vehicles for reserve firepower status and/or rotation out of theatre. The Updated version is to be called the "Bulldog".
The FV432 is an all steel construction. The FV432 chassis is a conventional tracked design with the engine at the front and the driving position to the right. Directly behind the driver position is the vehicle commander's hatch. There is a large split-hatch round opening in the passenger compartment roof and a side-hinged door in the rear for loading and unloading. In common with such an old design there are no firing ports for the troops carried - British Army doctrine has always been to dismount from vehicles to fight. The passenger compartment has five seats either side - these fold up to provide a flat cargo space.
Wading screens were fitted as standard, and the vehicle has a water speed of about 6 km/h when converted for swimming.
The FV432 with infantry regiments is equipped with a pintle-mounted L7 GPMG (if not fitted with the Peak Engineering turret). Vehicles with the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers and Royal Signals were originally fitted with the L4A4 variant of the Bren light machine gun, they now also use the GPMG. There are two three-barrel smoke dischargers at the front.
A number of surplus vehicles were sold to the Indian Army after being withdrawn from British service. Five others have since been converted by a company in Leicestershire for use in Tank Paintball.
The FV432 has been produced in three major variants, the Mark 1 (with a Mark 1/1 minor variant) with petrol engines, the Mark 2 with a multi-fuel engine and the Mark 3 with a diesel engine. The Mark 2 minor variant, the 2/1, has its NBC pack flush with the hull side. An uparmoured variant, for use in Iraq and Afghanistan, of the Mark 3 was known as Bulldog. This name appears to be being extended to all Mark 3 version of the FV430
The FV432 has proven to be flexible in use and can be converted from one role to another with reasonable ease using 'installation kits' (IK) or more permanently with minor modifications to the hull. Major or more significant modifications have usually led to a new FV43n number being allocated. In addition to the normal armoured personnel carrier role, it has been used as:
- a command vehicle (with an additional canvas "penthouse")
- an ambulance, with facilities for up to four stretchers
- a cargo carrier, for up to 3,600 kg
- a communications vehicle
- a recovery vehicle. Designated as the FV434, it includes a rear cutout to form a "pickup-truck" body to carry a spare engine/other stores with tool store below, an internally-mounted winch, and a 2.5 tonne lift arm. Frequently equipped with the canvas "penthouse".
FV432s used by combat infantry units have also been equipped with:
- the WOMBAT recoiless rifle
- a 84mm infantry gun (firing from the roof hatch)
- a 81mm mortar (firing through the roof hatch)
- the Peak Engineering turret with the L37A1 variant of the 7.62mm GPMG, replacing the roof hatch.
- a 30 mm Rarden-gun equipped turret (taken from the Fox scout car; 13 converted)
- a night-surveillance ZB 298 radar
- stowage for MILAN anti-tank missiles when used to carry two missile teams.
FV432s used by the Royal Artillery have been equipped with:
- a battery command post with FACE fire control computer
- a battery command post with BATES battlefield artillery target engagement system
- Cymbeline mortar-locating radar
- sound ranging equipment
- observation post vehicle ZB 298 radar
FV432s used by the Royal Engineers have been equipped with:
- a towed layer for L9 anti-tank Bar Mine
- a launcher for L10 Ranger Anti-Personnel Mine
- a towed Giant Viper mine-clearing system
- a Thales Group SWARM Remote Weapon System
The need to upgrade the FV432 to extend its service life further led the MoD to sign an £85m contract with BAE Systems Land Systems to update over 1000 FV 432 to Mark 3 standard. Major changes include a new diesel engine and braking system. Initially, only FV432 and FV434 models were converted but other variants are being considered. The first 500 of the batch were handed over to the British Army in December 2006. For service in Iraq and Afghanistan air-conditioning, enhanced reactive armour and IED jammers have been added. Initially only these further enhanced versions were known by the name Bulldog but the term now appears to be applied to all Mark 3 vehicles.
- THQ Photoset An FV432 was modified to resemble the fictional Rhino APC from the tabletop game Warhammer 40,000 by Games Workshop. It made its first appearance at the 2008 Games Day.
Some privately owned FV432 have been modified into World War Two vehicles for films and re-enactment. At least one FV432 which had been modified into a WW2 German Stug Assault Gun and appeared in the television mini-series Band of Brothers.
Events that have featured examples on display or running.
- Holcot Steam Rally 2008 - the example shown above from the Brian Bailey collection of military vehicles was exhibited with other vehicles.
- Howard, Les "Winter Warriors - Across Bosnia with the PBI", ISBN 978-1846240775 Critical account of a British army Peacekeeper operating from FV 432s at the end of the Bosnian civil war
- UK receives first upgraded FV432s - Jane's Defence Weekly, 14 August 2006
- Sloppy Jalopy
- FV 432 'Homepage'
- on Garys Military vehicle guide - Diagrams and specifications and variants
|This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at FV432. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons by Attribution License and/or GNU Free Documentation License. Please check page history for when the original article was copied to Wikia| | <urn:uuid:0eb80270-9560-4d48-b5fe-ec5abc9bf265> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tractors.wikia.com/wiki/FV432 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936708 | 1,673 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The bombing of the King David Hotel occurred in July 1946 and some saw it as a pivotal moment in recent Middle East history. The King David Hotel was the site for the British Military Command in Palestine. It also served as the headquarters of the British Criminal Investigation Division. The bombing of the hotel galvanised the British into realising that their time in Palestine was coming to an end.
On June 29th 1946, the British unexpectedly entered the premises of the Jewish Agency and took away with them a large number of documents – some of which were deemed to be sensitive. All the documents were taken to the King David Hotel where they were to be assessed by intelligence analysts. At around the same time, the British arrested 2,500 Jews in Palestine. Irgun, a Jewish secret organisation (deemed to be a terrorist group by the British) decided to target the hotel for vengeance and also as a way of destroying the documents that had been taken by the British.
The leader of Irgun, Menachem Begin, claimed that Irgun saw the hotel solely as a military building – and therefore a legitimate target. Begin claimed that three warnings were sent out on July 22nd 1946 about the planned attack to keep casualties to the minimum. Begin claimed that three phone calls were made to a) to the French Consulate b) to the hotel itself and c) to the "Palestine Post".
Any warnings were to no avail. The British did not evacuate the hotel and the bombing killed 91 people and injured 45. Ironically, few people in the hotel itself were killed – and Jews were among the casualties.
The Jewish National Council immediately condemned the attack.
Did the British know about the attack before hand? Were people sacrificed in an effort to disgrace the Jewish militant bodies in Palestine? For years, former members of Irgun claimed that the British did know about the attack and that warnings had been sent. For years the British denied that this was true. However, in 1979 evidence was presented to the House of Commons in London that Britain had received a credible warning. A former British Army officer based at the hotel admitted that he had heard other officers joking about a threat that had been made to the hotel. In later years, when Menachem Begin had moved into legitimate politics, he claimed that Irgun had sent a warning directly to the hotel but the person who sent the warning was told:
"We don’t take orders from the Jews."
What were the repercussions of the bombing? In the short term, Britain hardened its attitude to what it deemed were terrorist organisations. In the mid to long term, it realised that its mandate to run Palestine was coming to an end. The troubles experienced by the British before World War Two in Palestine had now become a lot worse and it was unlikely that they would get better. When the United Nations declared the existence of Israel, Britain quickly withdrew what was left of its forces in what was now named Israel. | <urn:uuid:2174811c-8a3c-4438-9fc0-17a7f66d5600> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/bombing_of_the_king_david_h.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990612 | 594 | 3.640625 | 4 |
RICHMOND (AP) -- Legislators arrived in Richmond Wednesday for a legislative session that will features debates on education, transportation, guns and uranium mining.
Those are just a few of the prominent issues on the agenda for the 2013 General Assembly, which convened at noon Wednesday. Gov. Bob McDonnell will deliver his final State of the Commonwealth address Wednesday night.
Lawmakers will consider the Republican governor's plans to boost funding for transportation and give teachers more money but less protection against being fired. Guns are expected to be a big issue in the aftermath of last month's Connecticut school shooting. Legislators also will weigh a hotly contested proposal to lift the state's ban on uranium mining.
The assembly won't adopt a new two-year budget until 2014, but it will make adjustments to the current one.
House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) urged lawmakers to have a renewed focus on the core issues affecting Virginia.
"The most important among them is creating good jobs and growing our economy. This is and will continue to be the top focus of the House of Delegates this year. Transportation, education and public safety are just a few more of the many important issues we will work on this year," he said.
You can track legislation during the session on the Virginia General Assembly Website. | <urn:uuid:fdfa2191-a321-4b55-aa44-478fb7e2049b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wvec.com/news/politics/Transportation-guns-uranium-mining-on-2013-General-Assembly-agenda-186146541.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960186 | 266 | 1.742188 | 2 |
POLISHING THE APPLE
Tailored Topics for Today's Business Executives
The Power of
Common Courtesy . . .
Business Etiquette and Dining Skills that Work!
spoke to the Austin Business Travel Association on
"The Power of Common Courtesy"… the response
was tremendous, and many felt her presentation was one of
the best programs we have offered as an organization … I
recommend Stephanie to the chapter presidents looking for
excellent programs for their membership."
-- Kevin Maguire, President, Austin BTA 1999
A magnetic and powerful topic.
Learn how to do business like a leader, with confidence and style.
We all know when a leader walks into a room. He or she moves
comfortably about, introducing people, conversing
"effortlessly" with people from all walks of life.
Successful leaders spend more time thinking about what subject to
discuss, rather than worrying about how to conduct introductions,
how to present a business card, or what to do should an incident
occur. Where do they learn these things?
Knowing how to present yourself with confidence and authority will
set you apart, no matter what your profession or how large your
business. Small business people find themselves in business
"social" situations that require the same etiquette
skills as events typical of "corporate America." Give
yourself this professional edge, and watch your business success
grow. You will never regret it!
Manners . . . International Business Etiquette
or be lost. If you don't think globally you deserve to be
unemployed, and you will be."
Put it all together before meeting
internationals. From the meeting room to the dining room, get it
right! In a global economy, we must give way to a new
international awareness. Every culture has its own time-honored
protocols, and savvy Americans will learn them while they are
still on familiar soil. It is no longer enough just to know the
products you are marketing - it is your behavior at the outset of
your relationship with someone from another culture that will
either hinder or help foster dignity and respect. We must be
willing to spend the time - internationals do. Topics include:
Understanding your client's culture -- the first step
Researching and planning a strategy
Forms of address (using a person's title or honorific correctly)
Leaving the "ugly American" home: gifts, gestures,
Business introductions and "working a room"
Eye contact, handshaking and communication styles
What works in clothes and accessories? What is the occasion?
Dining like a diplomat
CLIENTS . . .
How to Succeed in Business at Meals
not an executive skill, but it is especially hard to
imagine why anyone negotiating a rise to the top could
consider it possible to skip mastering the very simple
requirements…what else did they skip learning?"
--a Fortune 500 CEO
In the United States, business is
often conducted over meals. Juggling food, beverages and business
can be a challenge, especially if you are the host. After all,
everyone is watching YOU to see what to do! This topic is
presented most effectively over a meal, preferably dinner. Invest
in this time to dine, and never worry about munching on someone
else's roll again! Topics include:
Extending and accepting invitations
Dressing for the occasion
and host/hostess duties -- in restaurants/hotels and at home
Gift-giving -- the appropriate gift
visual briefing on silverware and glasses
settings -- where am I?
Proceeding through the meal, one course at a time
your seat, posture and leaving the table
Appropriate conversation over a meal
MEANS BUSINESS . . .
Schmooze or Lose!
Business is based on relationships. Are you tongue-tied at
receptions and events? Do you tremble at the thought of
introducing people? Find yourself "stuck" in
conversations and unable to mingle freely? Do you have a plan of
attack with that stack of business cards in your pocket? Turn your
network into networth . . . and approach your next event with
style, grace and success!
How to be a
PLAYER . . . Ah--Hah!
A hint: It begins with "P" -- for passion. Do you love
what you do? Do you want to be recognized? PLAYERS in industry
know how to maximize their efforts, both internally and
externally. Why do the same people always seem to stand out? They
know the secret of personal marketing, "selling"
themselves. Find out how they do it at this "Ah--Hah!"
session! Come prepared to catch the enthusiasm!
Cutting edge tips for today's professionals
In today's "high-tech" world, the personal touch is
often overlooked. Make sure you are properly prepared to do
business in cyberspace as well as over the telephone. Topics
include: remembering the individual, old-fashioned good manners
and grammar in cyberspace, doing your technology homework --
preparing for on-screen life, responsible communications,
respecting other people's privacy, forgiving mistakes, cell
phone/voice mail/telephone talk, and other tips to maintain your
Communications: Presentation Skills
Successful business leaders understand the importance of
communications skills. Whether making a presentation to your staff
or stating your case to upper management, the audience is
listening, watching, and waiting for you to make your point. This
results-oriented session will boost your confidence in making
presentations, no matter what the situation.
Welcome to the
World of Business:
Basic Business Behavior
Remember your first day on the job? Hopefully you were lucky and
had the benefit of a mentor or associate to show you the ropes.
This seminar is perfect for "polishing" new employees
and sending them on their way to a successful experience with your
company. You have expectations, and so do they. Why not put
everyone at ease by discussing the basics -- your corporate
culture do's and don'ts, business dress and "dress down"
days, communications (speech/phone/e-mail), business meeting
protocol, compliments and criticism; personal props and
accessories, hazardous personal habits (smoking, gum, perfume,
cologne), the basics that seasoned business people take for
How Start An
Event Planning Business
Meetings, conventions and fundraising events are a multi-billion
dollar business, and those professionals who pull these events
together are "meeting professionals" who are very well
compensated for doing just that. You can work at home and be in
demand for your creativity and knack for details. Learn how to
establish credibility, attract customers, plan and promote events
as well as contract with suppliers. This class is a must, before
you "jump in" to the wonderful world of event
This class is also offered at Highline Community College
Continuing Education in South Seattle; call (206)870-3785
and also at Discover U in North Seattle; call (206) 365-0400
Events That Make
Professional Meeting Planning
It happens to everyone. All of a sudden YOU are in charge of
pulling together a business meeting, conference, reunion,
engagement party, or board retreat. Where do you begin? How can
you put on a memorable event within a reasonable budget?
Invitation lists, menus, entertainment, logistics -- this session
will put you well on the way to creating memorable miracles for
occasions to come. Even Martha Stewart has a game plan! Topics
include: defining the event objective, budgeting, creating an
exciting theme, invitations, vendor negotiations, site selection,
host/hostess duties, motivating volunteers, and post-event duties,
Selling Rooms & Space with Style & Grace
hospitality sales and catering representatives)
Relationship building is critical in hospitality sales, and often
people new to the industry are not prepared to set the stage for
success. The "power of common courtesy" is just the
beginning. This popular behind-the scenes look at what corporate
hotel buyers and meeting planners are looking for will help you
understand travel consolidation and what it takes to get your foot
in the door and increase your sales numbers TODAY - all with style
and grace. This seminar is offered once a year to the public, in
Seattle. Check the calendar for the next class. OR, "Full
House" will come to you! Topics include:
your foot in the door
Building client relationships
Entertaining in and outside the hotel
Conducting customer tours
Marketing and creating effective sales materials
confidence and authority
Handshaking and introductions
skills (for the host and guest), and
Understanding corporate travel consolidation.
*Note: Comprehensive hospitality sales consulting and training is
Professional Training for Banquet and Restaurant Servers
Pacific Rim Protocol is proud to present this first-class training
program for wait staff. Finally! A one-day seminar for services.
Interested in sending one person at a time? Check the calendar for
an upcoming class near you. OR -- why not host your own Server
School? New servers will learn the basics, and experienced staff
will brush-up on the art of professional food service. Attendees
will walk away with a new outlook on this traditional profession.
Good service begins at home with perfect grooming and a positive
attitude. Add impeccable service skills, the ability to interact
and make suggestions, and the leadership qualities required for
problem solving . . .this is just the beginning! Sleep better
tonight with the confidence that everyone on your service team is
performing in sync with your vision of excellence.
Class 12 &
13 Liquor Handling Permit Training
Stephanie Horton is licensed to present this required training.
For individual classes open to the public, check the calendar. Or,
bring Stephanie to your site to conveniently update your servers.
CHARM FARM . . .
A Charm School for Executives!
Are you confident in your business and social skills? Are you
required to interact with both internal external customers at
meetings, events, receptions and dinners? Are you comfortable
introducing your CEO to your spouse, newest big account, or wife
of the mayor? Most people are confident in a few of their
etiquette skills, but fret over introductions, meeting
internationals, or facing that formal dinner table -- eeek!
Wouldn't it be nice to walk into the room feeling confident that
what you do will be correct? Especially since everyone will be
watching you? And, of course, your staff is out there representing
your company right now! This is the most significant training you
will ever give yourself or your people. Without it, you stand to
lose business because of etiquette and protocol blunders that will
never come to your attention. Your future business partners will
wonder what other things you have overlooked if you have neglected
the simple niceties of business etiquette. CHARM FARM is offered
every October in Seattle. Visit our calendar for the date. Cheers!
RULES! The Royal Treatment
Your customers have expectations from the minute they walk in the
door, whether you are a hotel, retail outlet, corporation or
restaurant. It is all about THEM. They want and need the attention
of your staff. Front office staff needs special skills to meet and
greet --- after all, there is only one chance to make a good first
impression. Who is representing your company right now? This
session focuses on the skills it takes to welcome and deal with
customer needs, concerns and complaints. Consider it a "boot
camp" of sorts, necessary training for ANYONE talking to or
meeting a guest or customer in person. Perfect for hospitality
front desk, bell staff and pbx; bank tellers, loan officers and
receptionists. If your front office staff would refer to President
and Mrs. Bush as "you guys," this training is for you!
WHEN THE APPLE
FALLS FROM THE TREE . . .
Preparing the next generation
Morning, Mrs. Cleaver!" Etiquette for our youth)
Now is the time to prepare your children for the world. Do you
remember your first date? How about your first formal dinner in a
restaurant? Give your children this important gift of grace. We
teach them how to read, how to play sports, and how to be
proficient at the computer. Let's give them the social skills they
need to make a good impression at home, at school, and in life!
Basic etiquette training includes: dining, introductions,
handshaking, how to speak to people, eye contact -- how to be
kind, gracious and welcomed as a guest! Youth programs are
tailored to meet the needs of individual schools or organizations.
Dining skills training is recommended over a meal. Call today for
See scheduled seminars - click | <urn:uuid:76a8193d-d01f-44b1-a4f2-9224200cf8c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.neuroinformaticsonline.com/seminar.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906781 | 2,786 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Welcome to machine - human nature is not like a machine
December 16, 2011
John Stuart Mill writing in On Liberty in 1859 said “man (humanity) is not built like a machine, that should be set to do the work exactly proscribed to him but should be seen more like a tree, that can grow on all sides depending on the inward forces that make it a living thing”.
That quote has always resonated with me. As it leads to the question, what makes work worthwhile? And how do we define work? This thought cropped this morning reading an article that Per Håkansson had flipped over to me. It was Douglas Rushkoff musing on the mantra of jobs, jobs, jobs Are Jobs Obsolete? – yes he agrees we all want to be doing useful things – but the jobs our current politicians describe he feels are built on a dying age, an industrial age. Perhaps he suggests we could envision a far better way of filling our time…
This sort of work isn’t so much employment as it is creative activity. Unlike Industrial Age employment, digital production can be done from the home, independently, and even in a peer-to-peer fashion without going through big corporations. We can make games for each other, write books, solve problems, educate and inspire one another — all through bits instead of stuff. And we can pay one another using the same money we use to buy real stuff.
Its a great big idea and some I guess are already doing that. The big issue is also that jobs have come to define us as people. “What do you do?” is the line of interrogation that goes when first meeting someone perhaps for the first time. Brain surgeon or bank robber? Work and identity become hugely important.
In a post entitled Modern Life is Rubbish I refer to the work of Richard Sennett,
In, The Corrosion of Character: The personal consequences of work in the new capitalism. Richard Sennett describes how the sense of hopelessness, and isolation, deconstructs our character in the workplace, with ultimate tragic consequences. For Sennett, “character” is defined as the capacity to construct and keep commitments – not just in marriage, but also in friendships, communities, and workplaces – and the ability to provide continuous, coherent narratives of personal experience. In Sennett’s view, the “unfettered capitalism” that describes our recent history in labour markets, work schedules, institutions, and technology – renders “character” impossible. Contemporary capitalism demolishes the social and cultural foundations of “character,” and upholds instead the punishing ideal of incessant change.
Rushkoff concludes, “for the time being, as we contend with what appears to be a global economic slowdown by destroying food and demolishing homes, we might want to stop thinking about jobs as the main aspect of our lives that we want to save. They may be a means, but they are not the ends”.
The nature of work and identity are in fact a key aspect of No Straight Lines, firstly in understanding why the old industrial system has ultimately had a corrosive affect on humanity and therefore HOW we can create better ways in which we can work, live and love. | <urn:uuid:e7c28cd7-cbc2-4fd8-af89-504b21d8bc04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.no-straight-lines.com/blog/welcome-to-machine-human-nature-is-not-like-a-machine/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958225 | 675 | 2.328125 | 2 |
These small predators are fearless fighters and do not hesitate to attack victims many times larger than themselves. Their principal food consists of small rodents, but larger mammals, cold-blooded vertebrates, birds and insects may be taken. At times they raid poultry houses at night and cause severe losses of domestic fowl.
Trapping. Weasels have a curious nature and are rather easily trapped in No. 0 or No. 1 steel traps. Professional trappers in thickly settled areas use an inverted wooden box a foot or two long, such as an apple box, with a 2- to 3-inch diameter opening cut out in the lower part of both ends. Dribble a trail of oats or other grain through the box. Mice will frequent it to eat the grain and weasels will investigate the scent of mice. A trap should be set directly under the hole at each end of the box. Keep the trap pan tight to prevent the mice from setting off the trap.
Trap sets in old brush piles, under outbuildings, under fences and along stone walls also are suggested, since the weasel is likely to investigate any small covered area. Trap sets should be protected by objects such as boards or tree limbs to prevent harming other forms of wildlife.
Weasels also can be captured in live traps. Fresh meat is suitable bait. | <urn:uuid:5a3e3f3d-7d4e-41a9-839e-90fe22018751> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mdc.mo.gov/your-property/problem-plants-and-animals/nuisance-native-wildlife/weasel-control | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943586 | 274 | 3.125 | 3 |
FACULTY AWARD: Ostriker wins Bruce Gold Medal for lifetime achievement
Posted June 12, 2011; 11:34 p.m.
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) has awarded Jeremiah Ostriker, professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton, the 2011 Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal for lifetime achievement in astronomy. In a news release, ASP said of Ostriker, who was also Princeton's provost from 1995 to 2001, "Dr. Ostriker's career as a theoretical astrophysicist is distinguished by its breadth of subject area, most notably in the area of cosmology where he performed seminal research on dark matter and dark energy." The Bruce Medal, which has been awarded most years since 1898, will be presented to Ostriker at the ASP awards banquet on Aug. 2 in Baltimore, Md. | <urn:uuid:6c2792dc-8ea6-4a31-9a20-753169657aa9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S30/79/35M69/index.xml?section=people | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944864 | 172 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Radiating away from the summits of Hawaiian volcanoes are (usually two) linear rift zones. The rift zones conspicuously do not point towards adjacent volcanoes, but instead parallel the volcano-volcano boundaries. Rift zones mark preferred directions of sub-horizontal magma excursions from the magma chamber. Below is a map of the main Hawaiian islands showing rift zones in red lines and volcanic centers as red squares. Note that the rift zones tend to parallel the volcano boundaries, and avoid pointing at each other (from Fiske & Jackson 1972).
At the surface they are characterized by numerous vents, fissures, earth cracks, cinder cones, graben, pit craters, and the sources of lava flows. All of these are indications that magma preferentially intrudes into the rift zones and is also often stored there for periods of time up to a few years.
The vertical air photo on the left shows of a section of the NE rift zone of Mauna Loa. Even without the arrow it is pretty easy to figure out where the axis of the rift zone is. The red numbers give the dates of the flows (from Macdonald & Abbot 1970).
There has been much discussion about the formation and persistence of Hawaiian rift zones (e.g. Fiske & Jackson 1972; Deterich 1988). The general idea is that because Hawaiian volcanoes are close to one another relative to their size, a younger volcano is growing through the flank of an older one. The gravitational stress field caused by the pre-existing volcano tends to yield downslope-directed directions of least compressive stresses. Because dikes orient themselves so that their direction of widening is parallel to this least compressive stress, the dikes end up propagating parallel to the volcano-volcano boundary. Once a preferred direction of dike propagation is established, it is self-perpetuating as long as there is a mechanism for the flanks of a volcano to move outward to accommodate the repeated dike injections.
On the right is a schematic representation of Kilauea (purple) growing on the flank of Mauna Loa (green). Note how Kilauea has been affected by the shape (and hence the
stress orientation) of its huge neighbor, and has adopted the same rift zone orientation (from Fiske & Jackson 1972).
The most popular mechanism for this outward movement is sliding along the volcano-ocean floor interface which consists of easily-deformable sediments (e.g. Nakamura 1982). The focal mechanism for the 1975 M7.2 Kalapana earthquake indicated a slip plane that was nearly horizontal with a slight dip towards at a depth consistent with the base of the volcano (e.g. Lipman et al. 1985). Such an orientation would be expected due to the downward warping of the oceanic lithosphere under the load of the island.
Above is a schematic cross-section through Kilauea and part of Mauna Loa, viewed towards the East. This shows how the seaward flank of Kilauea (and part of Mauna Loa) is pushed southward (to the right) by the intrusion of dikes down the rift zone (away from you into the plane of the diagram). This huge bulk of volcano is probably sliding on ocean sediments that accumulated on the ocean floor during the 90 million or so years between the time that our particular part of Pacific Plate formed and when the Big Island of Hawai'i started to grow.
Rift zones probably become preferred directions of dike propagation due to stress orientations, and they evolve thermally to perpetuate themselves. This means that eruptions are rare elsewhere on the flanks of the shields. Except at the summit, the vents of Kilauea are found exclusively along the rift zones. On Mauna Loa, however, there is a class of vents called "radial vents " (Lockwood & Lipman 1987) that are found on the northern and western flanks. This is the sector on the obtuse side of the angle formed by the two rift zones, and circumferential tension caused by a bending moment set up by the rift zones and the westward push of neighboring may be leading to the formation of these vents (Walker 1990).
To the left is a map of the big island with Mauna Loa in orange. The short white lines are the "radial rifts" that do not fall into either of the rift zones (NERZ and SWRZ). Note that one of these radial rifts erupted through the flank of Mauna Kea, and that another erupted offshore (in 1877). Adapted from Lockwood & Lipman 1987.
Probably the most studied rift zone is the east rift of Kilauea. The northern flank of this rift is stable, probably because it abuts Mauna Loa. The south flank, however, is notably mobile. It has been shown to move seaward during both earthquakes and intrusive events. There is nothing in this direction to buttress the flank so the continued pressure caused by numerous dike intrusions produces this seaward displacement (Swanson et al. 1976; Lipman et al. 1985). This relative displacement between the non-mobile north flank and mobile south flank has caused a wide graben to form along the crest of the rift. Thus even though the rift axis is the locus of most eruptive activity it is in places topographically subdued. Some of the faults bounding this graben are visible near Napau crater.
Vertical air photo of Napau pit crater along the East rift zone of Kilauea. Napau has been almost filled by recent lavas (here making it look smooth relative to the surrounding forest). Note that vents, faults, fissures, and smaller pit craters are all aligned from the lower left (uprift) to upper right (downrift). The actual rift zone is wider than this photo (from Carr & Greeley 1980). Note also that differences in vegetation make flow margins traceable - the dotted white lines outline an old flow that appears to have had a source that is now engulfed into Napau crater. | <urn:uuid:242f3d16-c9a7-4696-ac8d-04a9d7a88979> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/book/export/html/124 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939774 | 1,265 | 3.984375 | 4 |
I receive almost daily a plea for a political donation. I recently received one asking for a minimum amount of $35. Most of these politicians have been around for a number of years. I wrote to one and asked why anyone should donate anything. They are the same bunch that helped introduce a new word to America: outsource.
Thinking back, I cannot remember any one of their loud outcry, Republican Democrat or Independent, to stop the flow of jobs from this nation. No one will ever make me believe that the dismantling of America couldn't have been stopped.
The most ignorant person on Earth knows a country has to have employment for its citizens. Franklin D. Roosevelt saw that the CCC camps and WPA working on bridges and highways were not going to improve the economy, that it would take good jobs from the private sector to build our economy up. So this nation's industry was built up and prospered, then it was systematically torn down. Why couldn't a part of the trillions already spent have been used to rebuild the factories, plants and mills that have been outsourced, and pay good wages, and protect American-made products with import taxes? A government employer, for America, is not going to put America back on her feet.
Odie M. Lofton | <urn:uuid:2b216f72-195b-4d2e-96be-6da5f3ccf075> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/sep/14/letter-private-sector-engine-growth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983516 | 261 | 1.710938 | 2 |
In “The Persuaders,” Frontline explores how the cultures of marketing and advertising have come to influence not only what Americans buy, but also how they view themselves and the world around them. The 90-minute documentary draws on a range of experts and observers of the advertising/marketing world, to examine how, in the words of one on-camera commentator, “the principal of democracy yields to the practice of demography,” as highly customized messages are delivered to a smaller segment of the market.
Each year, legions of ad people, copywriters, market researchers, pollsters, consultants, and even linguists—most of whom work for one of six giant companies—spend billions of dollars and millions of man-hours trying to determine how to persuade consumers what to buy, whom to trust, and what to think. Increasingly, these techniques are migrating to the high-stakes arena of politics, shaping policy and influencing how Americans choose their leaders.
Take the 2004 presidential sweepstakes for example. Both the Republicans and the Democrats were prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to custom craft their messages. “What politicians do is tailor their message to each demographic group,” says Peter Swire, professor of law at Ohio State University and an expert on Internet policy. “That means Americans will live in different virtual universes. What’s wrong with living in different universes? You never confront the other side. You don’t have to deal with the uncomfortable facts that go against your worldview… It hardens the partisanship that’s been such a feature of recent American politics.” The program analyzes the 2004 campaign where, for the first time, the latest techniques in narrowcasting were put into effect. The antithesis of traditional broadcasting, narrowcasting involves crafting and delivering tailored messages to individual voters based on their demographic profiles.
Political marketers are just now discovering new ways to use the techniques that have long been employed by the private sector. Frontline visits Acxiom, the largest data mining company in the world, where vast farms of computers hold detailed information about nearly every adult in America. Data mining, a practice that predicts likely behavior based on factors such as age, income, and shopping habits, has been the gold standard of commercial advertisers. Acxiom promises its clients a better way to target their messages to individual consumers.
“There is an age-old anxiety among advertisers that they are wasting their money, that they cannot know whom they are reaching and with what impact,” says Douglas Rushkoff, who collaborated with Dretzin and Goodman on Frontline’s “The Merchants of Cool,” which examined the process by which corporate conglomerates have co-opted teen culture in order to capture the multibillion-dollar adolescent market. But Rushkoff predicts, “Anxiety is giving way to a confidence that they will soon have access to the core emotional needs of nearly every American shopper and voter.”
There is, however, a paradox. While the techniques of the persuaders have become more sophisticated, consumers have never been more resistant to marketing messages. Yet today, advertisements fill up nearly every available inch of the landscape.
“You cannot walk down the street without being bombarded,” advertising writer Bob Garfield says. “You go to fill your gas tank and you look at the pump and you’re seeing news headlines in advertising. You go into the bathroom and you look in the urinal and you’re staring at an ad. You look up at the sky and there’s skywriting.” This clutter creates a dilemma for advertisers, Garfield observes. “The advertisers know they need to have more and more advertising to get an ever narrower slice of your attention,” he says. “And that means we are going to be ever more inundated. And then of course ever more resistant, requiring ever more advertising, making us ever more resistant and so on.”
But clever marketers have found ways of overcoming the clutter conundrum. As television viewers have found ways of avoiding ads by using personal video recorders like Tivo, advertisers have responded by becoming a part of the program through sophisticated product placement. The documentary follows this new trend in advertising known as “branded entertainment.” Rather than marketing products around a TV show or other entertainment vehicle, industry insiders predict the future will bring a seamless blend of marketing and entertainment. Producers are already moving in that direction.
Some industry leaders claim that such tactics have evolved in response to consumer preference. But others worry that as advertising becomes more deeply integrated into television, movies, and music, those cultural forms will become ever more homogenous. “The worry is not so much that the actual ads themselves will become ubiquitous,” says media critic Mark Crispin Miller. “Rather, it’s that advertising desires for itself a background that will not contradict it… The aim here is not so much to find a show that people like and then get your ads on it. The aim here is for the advertisers to create a show that is itself an extended ad.”
As consumers grow more cynical toward marketing claims, the persuasion industries are developing and refining techniques to reinforce an emotional attachment between Americans and the brands they buy. “What consumers want now is an emotional connection—they want to be able to connect with what’s behind the brand, what’s behind the promise,” says Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi Advertising. “The brands that can move to that emotional level, that can create loyalty beyond reason, are going to be the brands where premium profits lie.”
Douglas Atkin, a partner at advertising agency Merkley + Partners, goes even further, comparing the brand loyalty that companies are trying to create to the passionate zeal once enjoyed only by cultists and religious fanatics. “I’ve interviewed people who are brand loyalists of Saturn Car Company,” Atkin says, “and they will use the same vocabulary as someone who is a cult member of Hare Krishna. They will say that other car users need to be `saved,’ or that they are part of the `Saturn family’ with no hint of irony. [They] absolutely and completely believe it.”
Although some brands have been more successful than others in making the magic connection to consumers, the techniques the marketers are developing are startling and include the hiring of anthropologists, ethnographers, linguists, and brain researchers to plumb our unconscious desires and urges so as to better influence our decision making.
But there is reason to wonder if these emotional connections are real. Says author Naomi Klein, “When you listen to brand managers talk, you can get quite carried away in this idea that they actually are fulfilling these needs that we have for community and narrative and transcendence. But in the end it is…a laptop and a pair of running shoes. And they might be great, but they’re not actually going to fulfill those needs.”
Correspondent Rushkoff observes: “We Americans value our freedom of choice—choice in the marketplace of goods, and choice in what has become a marketplace of ideas. When the same persuasion industry is engaged to influence these very different kinds of decision-making, it’s easy for our roles as consumers and our roles as citizens to get blurred. By revealing some of the most effective practices of the persuasion business, we may better understand our choices and perhaps make wiser ones.” | <urn:uuid:242c5d64-68f6-4128-b0a8-81f0a4504a25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.richardprins.com/category/tech/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956626 | 1,563 | 1.921875 | 2 |
The mission of the ALD-AMN Global Alliance is to unite like minded charitable foundations from around the world with the common goal to spread awareness, raise money to advance research for treatments and a cure, expand the bone marrow and cord blood registries and provide support, direction, and information to ALD and AMN affected persons and their families. To see the members of the alliance, click here.
Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) is the most frequent inherited disorder of the central nervous system white matter with a minimum incidence of 1 in 17,000 newborns. It is a progressive, systemic metabolic disease that affects myelin, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, adrenal cortex and testis. Click here for more information.
Adrenomyeloneuropathy (AMN) is the adult form of ALD. AMN patients generally have spinal cord dysfunction, which leads to the initial symptoms that include difficulties in walking or a change in the walking pattern. Click here for more information. | <urn:uuid:36849b50-a7e9-4d18-a16b-34cf25b41fb6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ald-amnglobalalliance.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919045 | 204 | 1.890625 | 2 |
When we look at various buildings and occupancies, past operations (good and bad) give us experience that defines and determines how we assess, react and expect similar structures and occupancies to perform at a given alarm. The “art and science of firefighting” is predicated on a fundamental understanding of how fire affects a building and its occupants and the manner in which the fire service engages when called on to combat a structure fire.
We have certain expectations that fire will travel in a defined, predictable manner:
That the building will react and perform under assumptions of past performance and outcomes
That fire will hold within a room and compartment for a predictable duration
That the fire load and related fire flows required will be appropriate for an expected size and severity of fire encountered within a given building, occupancy or structural system
That we can safely and effectively mitigate a fire in any given building type and occupancy
That we will have the time to conduct the required tasks identified to be of importance based on identified or assumed indicators
That the building will conform to the rules of firefighting engagement
Times have changed
Today’s incident demands on the fireground are unlike those of even the recent past. This means incident commanders, commanding and company officers and firefighters alike must have increased technical knowledge of building construction with a heightened sensitivity of fire behavior and fire dynamics, a focus on operational structural stability of the compartment and building envelope and considerations related to occupancy risk versus the occupancy type. Understanding the building – its complexities in terms of anatomy, structural systems, materials, configuration, design, layout, systems, methods of construction, engineering and inherent features, limitations, challenges and risks – is fundamental for operational excellence on the fireground and firefighter safety.
There is an immediate need for emerging and operating command and company officers to increase their knowledge and insights of modern building occupancy, building construction and fire protection engineering and to modify traditional and conventional strategic operating profiles in order to safeguard companies, personnel and team compositions. Strategies and tactics must have the combined adequacy of sufficient staffing, fire flow and tactical patience orchestrated in a manner that identifies with the fire profiling, predictability of the occupancy and the building that accounts for presumptive fire behavior.
We used to discern with a measured degree of predictability how buildings would perform and fail under most fire conditions. Implementing fundamentals of firefighting operations built on decades of time-tested and experience-proven strategies and tactics continues to be the model of suppression operations. These same fundamental strategies continue to drive methodologies and curriculums in current training programs and academy instruction.
Executing tactical plans based on faulty or inaccurate strategic insights and indicators has proven to be a common apparent cause in numerous case studies, after-action accounts and firefighter line-of-duty-death reports. Our years of predictable fireground experience have ultimately embedded and clouded our ability to predict, assess, plan and implement Incident Action Plans (IAPs).
The demands of modern firefighting will continue to require the placement of personnel in situations and buildings that carry risk, uncertainty and inherent danger. As a result, risk management must become fluid and integrated with intelligent tactical deployments and operations.
“If you don’t fully understand how a building truly performs or reacts under fire conditions and the variables that can influence its stability and degradation, movement of fire and products of combustion and the resource requirements for smart aggressive fire suppression in terms of staffing, apparatus and required fire flows, then you will be functioning and operating in a reactionary manner that is no longer acceptable within many of our modern building types, occupancies and structures. This places higher risk to your personnel and lessens the likelihood for effective, efficient and safe operations. You’re just not doing your job effectively and you’re at risk. These risks can equate into insurmountable operational challenges and could lead to adverse incident outcomes. Someone could get hurt, someone could die; it’s that simple, it’s that obvious.”
Those are the words of Chief Anthony Aiellos (ret.) of the Hackensack, NJ, Fire Department on the 20th anniversary of the Hackensack Ford dealership fire that killed five firefighters in 1988. Without understanding building-occupancy relationships and integrating fire dynamics and fire behavior, risk, analysis, the art and science of firefighting, safety-conscious work environment concepts and effective and well-informed incident management, company-level supervision and task-level competencies, you are derelict and negligent and everyone may not be going home. Empirical insights and test data must be integrated in emerging fire suppression models and improved firefighting theory.
Our world has evolved. Technological and sociological demands create a continuing element of change in the built environment and our infrastructure. With these changes and demands come the need to assess these vulnerabilities, hazards and threats with effective and dynamic risk management and competent command and control.
These changes influence the way we do business in the street, the interface-up close and personal with the buildings in your community and equate to the risks and hazards you and your personnel will be confronted with and the level of safety afforded them during incident operations.
Fire suppression tactics must be adjusted for the rapidly changing methods and materials impacting all forms of building construction, occupancies and structures. The need to redefine the art and science of firefighting is nearly upon us. Some things do stand the test of time, others need to adjust, evolve and change. Not for the sake of change only, but for the emerging and evolving buildings, structures and occupancies being built, developed or renovated in our communities.
If the fire service can significantly increase proficiencies in building knowledge and equate that to other fundamental operational aspects in structural fire operations, then there would be a direct enhancement to firefighter safety, through injury and LODD reduction, operational efficiency and operational excellence. If we understand buildings, occupancies and construction, and balance this with our understanding of fire dynamics and orchestrate it with appropriate strategies, tactics and command management, then we made the new safety equation work; Building Knowledge = Firefighter Safety (Bk=F2S). It’s all about the Anatomy of Buildings on fire.
Understanding Buildings, Performance & Fire Operations
- There is an acute corollary of technical knowledge and inter reliance on occupancies, construction, strategy, tactics, risk, safety, physics, engineering and fire suppression theory…FACT!
- There are Fundamental Domains that can be applied
- There is a direct empirical correlation that provides quantitative & qualitative performance indicators and command gauges that can be utilized for risk assessment and strategic & tactical operational decision-making.
Think about the following;
- Read, comprehend and implement the new IAFC The Rules of Engagement for Firefighter Survival and The Incident Commanders Rules of Engagement for Firefighter Safety
- Take a tour of your response area, district or community. Take a good look around and begin to recognize the apparent or subtle changes that will affect and influence your future incident operations; Take note and think about what needs to be adjusted, modified or changed in your operations.
- Read up on the latest research and technical literature on wind driven fires, extreme fire behavior, structural ability of engineered lumber systems, fire loading and suppression theory, vent path studies and fire suppression theory.
- Take the time to personally read a series of the latest NIOSH Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program LODD reports and relate them to your organizations operations and jurisdictional risks.
- Start thinking in terms of Occupancy Risks versus Occupancy Type and align your operations and deployments to match those risks. It’s much more than just the Five Fundamental Building Types of the past.
- Increase your situational awareness of today’s fireground and refine your strategic and tactical modeling.
- Implement both Strategic and Tactical Patience; Slow down and allow the building to react and stabilize, for fire behavior to stop behaving badly and for your companies to increase survivability ratios while meeting the demands of conducting time sensitive tactical fire service operations
- Think about Adaptive Fireground Management and Command Resiliency
- Reprogram your assumptions and presumptions and options on building construction and firefighting operations; the buildings have changed, our firefighting has not; what are you going to about that gap?
- Understanding the building-occupancy relationships and the art and science of firefighting, equating to Building Knowledge = Firefighter Safety.
- Start knowing your buildings-intimately; it’s the key to effective firefighting
Understand the buildings and occupancies not only in your jurisdiction, first or second-due areas, but also in those areas that you may be called upon to respond to for greater alarms or mutual aid. Remember Building Knowledge = Firefighter Safety.
Understand and improve upon your skill set levels and those of your company, battalion, division, department or region.
- Keep apprised of different types of building materials and construction used in your community.
- The operative question is this: “What do you “really” know about the buildings in your district?”
- As you drive about your response district, coming back from an alarm, heading to the firehouse tonight or running errands around your community, take a good look around. Ask yourself a simple question; “How well do you know the buildings, structures and occupancies in your response jurisdiction?”
- Be honest, do you really understand how those “older residential” structures were built and understand how fire travels and impacts your fireground operations?
- Are your aware of the newest features of engineered structural support systems being constructed within that new set of homes going up in your second-due area?
- Are you aware, that vacant office building is being converted into a light manufacturing and assembly business?
- How about those unoccupied store fronts and businesses that have recently closed up due to the tough economic times…. any special hazards or operational concerns to your company should you get a dispatch to respond?
- Have the senior members of your station or department shared their stories of operations and incidents at various buildings around your district or community?
- Did you listen to them, or were you quick to dismiss those “old war stories”. There’s a wealth of “pre-planning’ nuggets hidden in those stories. Take the time to listen, remember or postulate
- Take a good look around….think about any given building, the one across the street that you’re looking at while you waited for the traffic light to change; Think about a fire in that same building.
- Do you really understand how it will truly perform under combat structural fire conditions?
- What’s the building’s collapse profile?
- How much operational time will you have? Will you need?
- What’s the fire load package size?
- What are your concerns for rapid fire extension, extreme fire behavior and vent path issues that may affect firefighter safety?
- What dynamic risk assessment factors will you have to deal with?
- How safe is it for you to engage in interior operations upon your arrival?
- How can this building, its occupancy and structural system hurt, my team, my company, my firefighters, my department, me?
Keep an eye in the rear view mirror; learning from the wisdom and knowledge from where you’ve been, what you’ve done and all your past experiences and practice; but at the same time focusing on the road before you with keen attentiveness on situational awareness, anticipating error-likely conditions and balanced risk assessment and operational management in both your strategic and tactical deployments.
Ensure you’re glancing occasionally in your rear view mirror to monitor where you’ve been, while driving your initiatives, programs, processes and actions forward. Above all, maintain the courage to be safe and know and understand your buildings, occupancies and your company’s capabilities. | <urn:uuid:349f292f-e7bb-49e6-aa43-5c2402b42911> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://commandsafety.com/category/engineered-systems/ess-engineered-systems/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926098 | 2,452 | 2.625 | 3 |
East Tennesseans take a place on the international stage.
On July 12,
2004, President George W. Bush came to Oak Ridge for a first-hand look at gas
centrifuge components and uranium processing equipment that were at the heart of Libya's secret nuclear weapons program.
The evacuation of nuclear materials from Libya is one of the recent high-priority activities of NSAT, says division director Jim Sumner, who regards the event as an important milestone in the Laboratory's history. "We had one of our people on the ground in Libya and a cadre of people here doing the coordination and logistics support," he explains. In early 2004 the nuclear materials and equipment were flown under top security 5,000 miles from Tripoli to McGhee-Tyson Airport near Knoxville and transported by truck to Oak Ridge.
The bulk of the delivery consisted of gas centrifuges that Libya had planned to use to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. "The assets from Libya included equipment for running the centrifuge facility and a modular uranium conversion facility," Sumner says. "Also transported to Oak Ridge were four cylinders of uranium hexafluoride in natural, un-enriched form." Sumner said that ORNL staff relied on support from partners across the ridge at Oak Ridge's Y-12 National Security Complex to handle and analyze the Libyan materials.
The timing of the event was critical. Only months before, the international community was stunned to learn that A. Q. Khan, one of Pakistan's leading nuclear scientists, had admitted to being leader of a network that supplied Libya, Iran, and North Korea with centrifuge equipment. The Oak Ridge group played an invaluable role in assisting the U.S. government and the International Atomic Energy Agency in verifying the accuracy of Libya's commitment to dismantle its nuclear weapons program and divest the assets needed to build a nuclear weapon. In the wake of the transfer of these assets to Oak Ridge, each of the parties certified that the Libyans indeed had turned over to the United States all of the uranium enrichment materials and technologies they were known to have.
NSAT is the Department of Energy's central point of
contact when technical analysis and support are needed for
nuclear matters of highest interest to the U.S. government. To
support this role, NSAT houses some of the country's premier
experts in nuclear technologies. NSAT personnel provide
advanced experimentation and analytical services to various
national-level government agencies, sharing their knowledge
to advance the security posture of the United States.
In addition to the analysis of nuclear assets, ORNL trains nuclear policy makers and other government personnel on nuclear technologies and nuclear nonproliferation activities. "Our mission has broadened to helping monitor law enforcement and other information traffic to determine if there are any terrorist threats to any DOE-ORO facility," Sumner says.
The mission is one that likely will remain out of sight, but not out of mind, for the foreseeable future.
Web site provided by Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Communications and External Relations | <urn:uuid:42c0d42e-1962-4c8e-9c18-f2ea4b0086d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/v39_1_06/article13.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954366 | 620 | 2.125 | 2 |
Mar 13, 2013 What would the world's roads look like if countries like China and India caught up with the United States?
Jan 3, 2012 Next week, carmakers will unveil their new models at the North American International Auto Show. Cadillac hopes to make a strong showing in the luxury category, but it's a different story for Ford's struggling Lincoln brand.
Dec 15, 2011 The Chinese government will start to levy duties on imported cars made in the United States.
Dec 14, 2011 If your car is spending most of the day sitting unused on your driveway, it could be working a lot harder to earn you some spare cash.
Nov 23, 2011 Sales of compact cars are about to eclipse those of mid-size cars, and that's a good thing.
Should cars get grades on fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions? Would a grade make you think differently about buying a new car?
Aug 30, 2010 Easy Answer: The EPA has proposed new labels for cars that include a letter grade for fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions. The grading scale... | <urn:uuid:c58bfc0b-0919-498c-8357-f5964ab19ba9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marketplace.org/story/related/637%20295%20296%201562/48186?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934062 | 215 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Today from Hiiraan Online:
Crafting A New Government In Somalia
Somali President Sharif Sheik Ahmed, centre, Somali Prime Minister, Abdiwali Mohamed Ali, right, and Somali Parliament Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheik Adan, left, stand together during opening ceremony during the beginning of a nine-day meeting, July 25, 2012, to examine, debate and vote on the proposed new constitution, in Mogadishu, Somalia.
Voice of America
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
A special congress has convened there to begin the process of approving a new national constitution.
In a key step toward restoring political stability to war-torn Somalia, a special congress has convened there to begin the process of approving a new national constitution. Over the next week, an 825-member National Constituent Assembly that was chosen by the nation’s traditional elders will debate and vote on a provisional legal framework for a new federal government after the mandate for the interim administration expires next month. The document will then be put to the Somali people in a national referendum.
Somalia has lacked a stable central government since the ouster of a revolutionary council led by former president Mohamed Siad-Barre in 1991. In 2004 an internationally-recognized transitional federal government was established, with a mandate to restore democratic rule, but it has struggled with clan rivalries, environmental crises such as drought and an insurgency that has displaced tens of thousands of citizens. Because of these and other challenges, a 2011 deadline for forming a new government was extended.
The United States is committed to restoring peace and stability to Somalia and welcomes the National Constituent Assembly’s convening. It is a milestone in the nation’s democratic transition. The next major step is for Somalia’s traditional elders to select a new parliament that will in turn elect a Speaker and President. We urge that these remaining tasks be completed quickly and transparently so the transition ends on schedule August 20, and Somalia is able to usher in a new era of governance that is more responsive, representative and accountable.
SRSG warns against intimidation in the selection of the MPs
Fast forward: a newsletter to lighten up life in Dadaab
- Radio Netherlands
Al-Shabaab's execution of its own members reflects deepening crisis
- Sabahi Online
CANADA: Young aboriginal mothers learn pregnancy health through comic book art
Egypt: Refugees enable psychological support in their own communities
- Reuters AlertNet
Somali refugees in the Netherlands protest
- Radio Netherlands
Driver shot dead by 'al-Shabaab' suspects near Mandera town
Group of Somali Islamic scholars dispute some constitutional provisions
Terror, China's reach top Clinton agenda in Africa
US drive against al Shabaab pressures Somali-American money transfers
Malta: Somali is accused of stabbing countryman
Somali civil society launches IFISO Coalition to end impunity through vetting process
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All Rights Reserved Copyright. © 1999-2013, www.hiiraan.com | <urn:uuid:b5bba9c1-18c3-45c0-bd61-95f21aeb3622> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hiiraan.com/news4/2012/July/25284/crafting_a_new_government_in_somalia.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909267 | 642 | 2 | 2 |
Blankley, who had been suffering from stomach cancer, died Saturday night at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, his wife, Lynda Davis, said Sunday.
In his long career as a political operative and pundit, his most visible role was as a spokesman for and adviser to Gingrich from 1990 to 1997. Gingrich became House Speaker when Republicans took control of the U.S. House of Representatives following the 1994 midterm elections.
Earlier, Blankley spent six years in the Reagan administration in a variety of positions, including speechwriter and senior policy analyst.
From 2002 to 2007, he served as editorial page editor of The Washington Times. In recent years, he also wrote a syndicated newspaper column and provided political commentary for CNN, NBC and NPR. He was also a regular panelist on "The McLaughlin Group."
He was the author of two books and a visiting senior fellow in national security communications at the Heritage Foundation.
Born in London, Blankley moved to California with his parents as a child and became a naturalized American citizen. He worked as a child actor in the 1950s, appearing in such TV shows as "Lassie" and "Highway Patrol" and playing Rod Steiger's son in the movie "The Harder They Fall."
Before entering politics, he spent 10 years as a prosecutor with the California attorney general's office.
Blankley and Davis lived in Great Falls, Va. In addition to Davis, he is survived by three children.
For seven years, Tony Blankley served as press secretary to then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich. In that role, Tony Blankley not only helped create messages which shook the country, Tony Blankley also helped create policy. Tony Blankley’s knack for appetizing soundbites (which Tony Blankley calls his "poor-man’s poetry") and sound political strategy made Tony Blankley one of Washington’s premiere sources of ideas and insights.
Working for the most renowned Speaker in decades, Blankley became one of the leading spokesmen for the Contract with America. Prior to Tony Blankley's career on Capitol Hill, Blankley served President Reagan as a speechwriter and senior policy analyst.
After leaving Gingrich’s office in February 1997, Blankley joined the staff of John F. Kennedy Jr.’s George magazine. As a contributing editor, Blankley’s monthly column "Between the Lines" featured his inside-the-beltway insights. Blankley also appears regularly on CNN’s Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, as well as CNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, Rivera Live, The News with Brian Williams and MSNBC. In June 1999, Blankley joined The Washington Times as a weekly political columnist. In June 2002, Tony Blankley was named editorial page editor.
The same depth of knowledge and sharp wit that kept reporters turning to Tony Blankley during his time on Capitol Hill have made Blankley one of today’s leading media commentators. Tony Blankley's opinions and analysis of political events have been featured on the front pages of The New York Times, USA Today, and other major publications, and Tony Blankley was a syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.
Blankley has quickly become a favorite speaker of corporate and association audiences around the country. Tony Blankley uses his background in both the executive and congressional branches to design speeches which provide insight into today’s headlines, and the issues that will fill tomorrow’s.
In addition to being a popular speaker, Blankley is an accomplished debater. Clients have paired him with the likes of Bill Press and Bob Beckel, among other noted Democratic pundits, to create a uniquely informative and provocative program. Whether delivering a keynote or debating, Blankley gives his audience more than just analysis. Focusing on the personalities and stories which make politics interesting, Tony Blankley helps audiences remember the information long after they leave the event.
Great Moments in Human Rights: Mandated “Emotional Support” Animals in College Dorms | Daniel J. Mitchell | <urn:uuid:cbfc9d98-9088-45c6-a26a-3e6c3e8e7540> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://townhall.com/columnists/tonyblankley/page/2005 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971241 | 843 | 1.625 | 2 |
Writing at CUNY Law School: A Pervasive Approach
Writing and Advocacy in Civil Litigation
Professor Julie Goldscheild
The first-year, second-semester lawyering seminar focuses on teaching writing as a central part of legal advocacy. Professor Julie Goldscheid's linked lawyering seminar and civil procedure classes use a semester-long simulation as well as shorter written practice exercises to help students develop their advocacy-oriented writing skills. During the spring 2008 semester, students drafted dispositive motions in a simulated case involving allegations of gender-based harassment in a high school social studies class. Half the class represented the student and half represented the school in a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss for failure to state a legal claim. Students were then given additional information positing that the court denied the motion to dismiss. They were asked to assume that the case proceeded to discovery, were given salient facts revealed through discovery, were told that the trial court granted a motion for summary judgment filed by the defendant, and were given a copy of a simulated trial court decision. Students then switched the party they were representing, conducted research on one of the points on appeal, and wrote a brief on appeal of the summary judgment decision. Students presented oral argument in support of their position, and received extensive feedback on their briefs, after which they revised their briefs. The experience of drafting arguments on both sides of a legal issue, as well as the opportunity to revise a written brief after argument, sharpened students' written advocacy. Students also wrote informal memos reflecting on the ways the written and oral advocacy exercises were mutually reinforcing and helped them develop their understanding of the role of the lawyer as advocate in civil litigation. | <urn:uuid:4d4d5679-6c53-4b5c-b34d-c2d34412f823> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.law.cuny.edu/legal-writing/everyone/faculty-pedagogy/civil-litigation.html | 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 | 0.979578 | 344 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Dec. 4, 2007 Vaccinating against the hepatitis B virus does not appear to be associated with the risk of developing multiple sclerosis in childhood, according to a new article.
Several studies have evaluated a possible association between the hepatitis B vaccine and the autoimmune neurological disease multiple sclerosis (MS) in adults, according to background information in the article. Most have found no significant increase in the risk of MS in the short or long term, although one identified a potentially increased risk within three years of vaccination. "Some of these epidemiologic studies have been criticized for methodological limitations," including how vaccination status was confirmed, the authors write.
"This controversy created public misgivings about hepatitis B vaccination. Hepatitis B vaccination in children remained low in several countries despite vaccination campaigns supporting early vaccination against hepatitis B in children as a means of inducing strong and long-lasting immunity and despite high levels of hepatitis B--related morbidity and mortality worldwide."
Yann Mikaeloff, M.D., Ph.D., of Hôpital Bicêtre, Le Kremlin Bicêtre, France, and colleagues studied 143 children who developed MS before age 16, with a first episode of the disease occurring between 1994 and 2003. Each patient was matched to an average of eight control participants from the general French population who were the same age and sex and lived in the same location but did not have MS. Telephone interviews and questionnaires were used to collect vaccination records and information about family history of MS or other autoimmune diseases.
In the three years before the first episode of MS, approximately 32 percent of both the 143 patients and the 1,122 controls were vaccinated against hepatitis B. "Vaccination against hepatitis B within the three-year study period was not associated with an increased rate of a first episode of MS," the authors write. "The rate was also not increased for hepatitis B vaccination within six months of the index date or at any time since birth or as a function of the number of injections or the brand of hepatitis B vaccine."
"Vaccination against hepatitis B does not seem to increase the risk of a first episode of MS in childhood," they conclude.
Journal reference: Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2007;161(12):1176-1182.
Editorial: Medical Journals Bear Responsibility for Disseminating Accurate Findings
It can sometimes be difficult to tell whether a new study represents a significant medical advance or flawed research, write Frederick P. Rivara, M.D., M.P.H., and Dimitri A. Christakis, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Washington, Seattle, in an accompanying editorial. Dr. Rivara is editor and Dr. Christakis an associate editor of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
"In this issue of the Archives, Mikaeloff and colleagues conducted a large well-done study to examine a link between hepatitis B vaccine and multiple sclerosis," they write. "We have published it both because of the rigor of the research and because of the need to reassure a public that is increasingly wary of vaccination. Going forward, we hope that the process of scientific discovery proceeds in a rigorous and thoughtful way that will increase the public's health and not harm it."
Reference for editorial: Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2007;161(12):1214-1215. .
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Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead. | <urn:uuid:ab7160e3-936d-44e9-9222-7ec6e38a9f7e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071203164753.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943923 | 740 | 2.71875 | 3 |
BITS; Fewer Phones To Use Windows
By MATT RICHTEL
Published: January 12, 2009
To Use Windows
Microsoft says it is responding to the fierce competition in the phone market by retooling and beefing up its mobile operating system -- and by putting it on fewer devices.
Todd Peters, the vice president for marketing for the Windows Mobile division, declined to be more specific during an interview at C.E.S., saying Microsoft plans a major announcement at the Mobile World Congress, a trade show scheduled for next month in Barcelona.
But he was clear that one way in which Microsoft plans to become more competitive is by limiting the number of devices built with the Windows Mobile operating system. At present, there are around 140 such devices.
Microsoft is limiting the number of phones because, he said, the company does not want to have its efforts diluted over too many devices.
''I'd rather have fewer devices and be more focused,'' he said. That way ''we get better integration'' between phone and operating system.
Microsoft has a particular challenge in that unlike some competitors, it does not control both the hardware and the software. MATT RICHTEL
Other news about the devices announced at C.E.S. is on the Gadgetwise blog at nytimes.com/personaltech. | <urn:uuid:e912b2f0-0c26-4033-9b9d-4d3a46b743d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CE6D91638F931A25752C0A96F9C8B63 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950466 | 274 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Election Series Shifts to Foreign Policy
A Rhode Island College history professor will address American foreign policy in the fourth installment of the election series, 'Take Six: The Big Issues of 2012,' in the Barrington library.
How has American foreign policy shifted over time? What do different forms of foreign policy look like? And how do they take form?
These questions and others will be addressed tonight in the Barrington library at 7 by a Rhode Island College history professor. It’s the fourth installment of the election series: “Take Six: The Big Issues of 2012,” which runs through Oct. 11.
History professor Karl Benziger will take the stage this week. Here is a profile from a RIC website:
“Karl Benziger is a professor of history at Rhode Island College. Previously, as a jointly appointed faculty member he led the effort to redesign the History Secondary Education major at the College to rigorously conform to the Guild Standards of the historical profession at the national and international level. The program is nationally recognized by NCATE/ NCSS.
“Before coming to Rhode Island, he co-founded an interdisciplinary mini-school at South Shore High School in Brooklyn through an American Forum project funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. His association with Hungary was fostered through several Fulbright Teaching scholarships and a Civic Education Project grant funded though the Soros Foundation.
In addition to his book, “Imre Nagy Martyr of the Nation: Contested History, Legitimacy, and Popular Memory in Hungary,” and various articles on political memory, theory, Cold War, and Hungary, he has written articles and created curriculum about the convergence of domestic and foreign policy centered on Civil Rights and Vietnam.
“He is currently engaged in projects related to assessment governance and contemporary politics with the political scientist Richard Weiner, and a project in combination with fellow historian Robert Cvornyek entitled, “Before 1968: Vietnam, Black Power, Sports, and the Ending of the Liberal Cold War Consensus.”
Bensiger holds a Ph.D. in International Education and a master's in social studies from New York University, and a bachelor's degree in music performance from SUNY, Fredonia in New York.
The final two sessions of the "Take Six" series:
Registration is not required. The series is free and open to everyone. | <urn:uuid:65171f77-4ead-4155-8a70-343d570b5221> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://barrington.patch.com/articles/election-series-shifts-to-foreign-policy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942298 | 490 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An oxidizing ferment which is concerned in the production of the black Japanese lacquer. It is obtained from the Japanese lac-tree, Rhus vernicifera, and from various fungi.
“I have heard that champagne musts are particularly high in laccase, an oxidation enzyme, so oxidation is always a problem in Champagne winemaking.”
“Therefore, the delay in melanin production likely plays a role in the reduced virulence of the The C. neoformans laccase Lac1 may also be a direct target of Pmt4.”
“Even more interesting it has been shown that proper PKC/cell integrity signalling is necessary for melanin production; pkc1 mutants show improper laccase localization and reduced melanin production.”
“Finally, it was shown that, the regions adjacent to the telomeres, genes participating specifically in the type of life of the fungus (laccase genes which code for lignin-degrading enzymes, essential for the biology of this kind of white rot fungi in wood).”
“In the presence of small redox mediators, laccase offers a broader repertory of oxidations including non-phenolic substrates.”
“In gluten-free research a number of ingredients are being used to this effect, such as transglutaminase, tyrosinase and laccase.”
“Oxford University chemists have discovered a property in the mushroom enzyme laccase that could revolutionize the way fuel cells are produced.”
“(caffeoyl-CoA O-methyltransferase, peroxidase and laccase) pathway genes were induced in the endocarp layer over a 10 day time period, while two lignin genes (p-coumarate 3-hydroxylase and cinnamoyl CoA reductase) were co-regulated with flavonoid pathway genes (chalcone synthase, dihydroflavanol 4-reductase, leucoanthocyanidin dioxygen-ase and flavanone-3-hydrosylase) which were mesocarp and exocarp specific.”
‘laccase’ hasn't been added to any lists yet.
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O. P. Q., Robert Merry (17551798); object of Giffords satire in the Baviad and Mviad; and of Byrons in his English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. He married Miss Brunton, the actress.
Chained to the signature of O. P. Q.
Byron: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809).
Opus Magnus, by Roger Bacon; dedicated to pope Clement IV. (1267).
Opus Minus, by the same author (posthumous).
Opus Tertium, by the same author (posthumous).
(Roger Bacon lived 12141292.)
Oracle (To Work the), to raise money by some dodge. The Oracle was a factory established at Reading, by John Kendrick, in 1624. It was designed for returned convicts and any one out of employment. So when a workman had no work to do, he would say, I must go and work the Oracle, i.e. I must go to the Oracle for work. (See Equivokes, p. 327.)
Oracle of the Church (The), St. Bernard (10911153).
Oracle of the Holy Bottle (The), an oracle sought for by Rabelais, to solve the knotty point whether Panurge should marry or not. The question had been put to sibyl and poet, monk and fool, philosopher and witch, but none could answer it. The oracle was ultimately found in Lantern-land.
This, of course, is a satire on the celibacy of the clergy and the withholding of the cup from the laity. Shall the clergy marry or not?that was the moot point; and the Bottle of Tent Wine, or the clergy, who kept the bottle to themselves, alone could solve it. The oracle and priestess of the bottle were called Bacbuc (Hebrew for bottle).Rabelais: Pantagruel, iv., v. (1545).
Oracle of the Sieve and Shears (The), a method of divination known to the Greeks. The modus operandi in the Middle Ages was as follows:The points of a pair of shears were stuck in the rim of a sieve, and two persons supported the shears with their finger-tips. A verse of the Bible was then read aloud, and while the names of persons suspected were called over, the sieve was supposed to turn when the right name was suggested. (See Key And Bible, p. 565.)
Searching for things lost with a sieve and shears.Ben Jonson: The Alchemist, i, 1 (1610).
Oracle of Truth, the magnet.
The wondrous magnet, guides the wayward prow.
Falconer: The Shipwreck, ii. 2 (1756).
Orange (Prince of), a title given to the heir-apparent of the king of Holland. Orange is a petty principality in the territory of Avignon, in the possession of the Nassau family.
Orania, the lady-love of Amadis of Gaul.Lobeira: Amadis of Gaul (fourteenth century).
Orator Henley, the Rev. John Henley, who for about thirty years delivered lectures on theological, political, and literary subjects (16921756).
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By the time Tori Amos was thirty, she had been through several drafts of a career. A child piano prodigy, she was the youngest person ever to attend the Peabody Conservatory of Music, in Baltimore. (She was five when she auditioned.) In her early twenties, she was the lone woman in a rock band called Y Kant Tori Read. (The group released a single album, which sold fewer than ten thousand copies.) In 1992, after some wrangling with Atlantic Records, whose executives were apparently dubious about the commercial potential of what they called “this girl-at-her-piano thing,” she released a solo album, “Little Earthquakes,” on which she sang about Christianity, body image, and, in the remarkable song “Me and a Gun,” rape, often with the force and sometimes even the sound of her idol, Robert Plant. “Little Earthquakes” was the first in a series of albums by Amos which helped prove that a girl at her piano could make songs that were as artistically complex and, sometimes, just as popular as those of a shaggy boy with an electric guitar.
A year later, the Icelandic musician Björk released her first solo album, “Debut.” Like Amos, Björk had recently left a rock band full of men, the Sugarcubes, a successful independent group and the fourth she had been in since she started playing piano and singing publicly, at the age of eleven. Björk’s main instrument is her voice, a glassy, elastic alto with the sonic power and range of an electric guitar. She found inspiration in dance music and the electronic instruments used to make it, increasingly avoiding anything resembling a traditional rhythm section. Amos’s music draws on the baroque songwriting and melodramatic vocals of Kate Bush and the long, expert melodies of Joni Mitchell, and she favors a lineup of bass, guitar, and drums behind her piano.
Amos and Björk are now in their early forties, mothers and artists in a market that has shown little interest in promoting women much over the age of consent, especially avowed feminists who invoke goddesses and (in Björk’s case) will wear a swan in place of a ball gown. Both are releasing new albums this month. Stylistically very different, Amos’s “American Doll Posse” and Björk’s “Volta” are two examples of how a female pop musician can maintain her career without compromising her politics.
In a recent interview with the online magazine Pitchfork, Björk said of “Volta,” “It’s sort of maybe trying to put out some good vibes for the little princesses out there.” She added, “All they want to do is be pretty and find their prince, and I’m, like, what happened to feminism?” Her lyrics are usually less direct. One form her feminism takes is simply ignoring conventional wisdom. Many artists would hesitate to appear on an album cover, as Björk does on “Volta,” in what seems to be an enormous dodo-bird suit covered with a melted sangria candle, especially an attractive woman who could win over all sorts of people by wearing, say, a tighter dodo suit.
The album begins with a rebuke to the White House: “Earth Intruders,” an odd and boisterous song inspired by a visit that Björk made to Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami. There she envisioned a wave of people taking political action, an image that she described to Pitchfork: “Maybe a tsunami of people would just come and hit the White House and scrape it off the ground and do some justice.”
The music for the song was provided by the ubiquitous producer Timbaland, who in 1999 sampled her majestic track “Jóga” for a remix of Missy Elliott’s song “Hit ’Em wit da Hee.” On “Earth Intruders,” Timbaland bisects a clomping dance with nasty synthesizer howls. Björk begins singing in her full-chest voice—one of pop’s most reliably ecstatic stimuli for the past fifteen years. “Turmoil . . . carnage,” she says, dragging out each word. She speaks the chorus at low volume, nestling the words in the blend of live drum sounds and digital cries: “Here come the earth intruders; there’ll be no resistance. We are the cannoneers, necessary voodoo.” “Earth Intruders” alludes only briefly to her Indonesian epiphany: “And the beast with many heads and arms rolling, steamroller.” Björk has no obligation to make her politics explicit, but it’s a shame that she keeps her anger cloaked. (Of her intentions for “Volta,” she has said, “It’s 2007. It’s not some hippie shit—‘go-back-to-your-roots.’ It’s all march forward.”) Had she included one or two specific references—Washington, cowboys, Black Hawk helicopters—“Earth Intruders” could have grown fangs without becoming preachy.
Björk’s collaborators on “Volta” are eclectic to a fault: the Congolese group Konono No. 1, which plays amplified kalimbas; the frantic drummer Brian Chippendale, of the American duo Lightning Bolt; a ten-piece all-female Icelandic brass band; and a Chinese pipa player, among others. This musical solicitude is a testament to Björk’s fearless curiosity, but her restlessness can be wearying. When disparate teams of musicians attempt to realize one musician’s ideas, every song becomes yet another stone turned over rather than one put in place. On “Volta,” melodic motifs rarely repeat the way they do in most songs, and many of Björk’s vocal performances feel like improvisations.
In “Vertebrae by Vertebrae,” the brass band plays a low chord twice, then moves up a whole step to play another chord four times, and then stops. Though you’re hearing a live band, the music has the feel of a loop, like a Steve Reich ostinato slowed way down. Twice, the music dissolves into parallel sheets of sound; Björk’s voice is reproduced electronically, creating a harmonic foam, while the horns play discrete lines. There’s a looped beat in the murk somewhere, though no one seems to be playing to it, and it’s hard to identify a motif, despite a surfeit of melodic material. “Vertebrae” is one of many songs in which Björk—who grew up with the simple populism of punk, and who launched her solo career by exploiting the equally basic populism of dance beats—makes music that has little to do with pop. Several horn passages in “Vertebrae” and “Wanderlust” have a hypnagogic grace, and “Pneumonia,” one of the few tracks not cluttered with sound, presents a gorgeous chamber-music-style arrangement of horns and voice for what could be Björk’s mission statement: “To shut yourself off would be the hugest crime of all.”
Shutting off is not often a problem for Amos. “American Doll Posse” is aggressive and, occasionally, overstated; Amos fans who have complained that they haven’t heard from “the real Tori” in a while will be relieved. In the past three years, Amos has released only one complete album, “The Beekeeper” (2005), which buried her natural vigor under music that occasionally incorporated gospel and R. & B. but in the end was lax and weirdly docile. “American Doll Posse” returns to her music of the nineties: fired-up songs centered on the piano, her robust singing, a rhythm section, and loud guitar playing more indebted to the seventies than to the ohs.
The album title refers to characters that Amos created for the record: Pip, Tori, Clyde, Santa, and Isabel. These women appear on the cover, five Amoses digitally manipulated to occupy a single space. The one called Tori has long, straight red hair and bangs, wears a floor-length dark skirt, and holds a chicken. (The concept owes much to the work of the artist Cindy Sherman.) If you do some research, you can figure out which character sings which track, but this is unnecessary. Amos has always played a variety of characters in her songs; it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that her work is concerned primarily with how different women experience the world. (Amos once said in a television interview that she was elected homecoming queen simply because she had made an effort to talk to all the girls in her high school.)
Amos’s album, like Björk’s, begins with a rebuke to the Bush Administration: “Yo George,” a dirge for piano and voice, in which Amos (as Pip) sings about the “madness of King George” and asks, tremulously, “Where have we gone wrong, America?” She must know that the public-service announcement is a dicey gambit; the song is only eighty-five seconds long. On “Big Wheel,” a rhythmically assured rock song that features a distorted slide guitar, Amos sings as a woman who is claiming her independence: “Baby, I don’t need your cash, mama got it all in hand now.” And in “Secret Spell” she sings to a younger woman, maybe herself: “Jumps at three, tears at thirteen, just turn you around for eighteen wheels in a high heel, just turn you around, sold a dream at twenty-three.” The guitars on “Secret Spell” are reminiscent of songs by R.E.M., a group whose plangent, chiming guitar style has not been reprised in the twenty-first century as often as, say, U2’s has.
Amos’s anger is appealing, especially when she’s parsing gender stereotypes. She takes on the acronym MILF—a term that “Tori” decides she likes—and a more ageless insult, “fat slut,” which becomes a character in a song of the same name. Björk’s concerns on “Volta” tend to be more global, but “Declare Independence,” a brief punk rant, contains a lyric that would work just as well in a song by Amos: “Declare independence. Don’t let them do that to you. Make your own flag. Raise your flag!” ♦ | <urn:uuid:8f96b791-5de2-4603-b683-dedebe4e8047> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2007/05/07/070507crmu_music_frerejones?currentPage=all | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965955 | 2,369 | 1.523438 | 2 |
What is Landcare?
Landcare is a national community volunteer program that aims to deliver improved land, water and environmental outcomes. Landcare was launched in 1986. There are now more than 60 Landcare groups across the Wimmera and 4000 groups nation wide.
What does Landcare do?
Landcare works with community groups to promote and deliver activities designed to help farmers and land managers. This includes pest, plant and animal management on private and public land and re-vegetation projects to improve land management practice. Landcare contributes to the region's ongoing commitment to sustainable landscape change and improvement.
It’s easy to become involved in Wimmera Landcare. To find out the location of Landcare groups in your area, see this picture Landcare Boundaries (373.02 kB).
To find out more about Wimmera Landcare you can contact Wimmera CMA. Landcare Booklet 2009 (1.5 MB) | <urn:uuid:b51a8ad0-4391-4e55-af41-d2c44d2fe30b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wcma.vic.gov.au/index.php/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=56 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926616 | 196 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Roger Wolsey has written an article on Elephant Journal: "A Kinder, Gentler, more Grown Up Easter."
The article, with fantastic visual illustrations, explores the challenges of triumphal Easter:
The problem is that Christians started incorporating the ways of empire into their expression of their faith. From the most ancient of days, from warring tribes to the Roman empire—and on through the British and American empires—dominating forces sang victory songs and held grand victory celebrations and parades. Celebrating their conquests and might—as well as mocking and taunting their defeated foes. Pax Romana! Hail Caesar! Rome Rules! Long Live Caesar! Down with the Huns! The Greeks are sissies! Rule Britannia! Christ the Lord is Risen Today!...
Now it makes sense that Jesus’ earliest followers would’ve felt incredible comfort, vindication and outrageous joy upon their realization that even the worst that the Roman powers that be could dish out wasn’t enough to defeat Jesus and the Kingdom of God that he sought to usher in. They experienced an empty tomb and a risen Christ, confirming the truths and teachings that Jesus taught and showing that unconditional, vulnerable love is indeed the way, the truth, and the life—including loving our enemies. This (and the infusion of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost) emboldened them to continue on, and spread, in spite of severe hardship and persecution.
Over our first 300 years, the early Christians were brutally, harshly and systemically oppressed. Many hundreds, if not thousands, of them were crucified, torn apart by lions, or lit up as human torches along the city streets. Then, in 313 AD, Constantine ended the persecutions, converted to Christianity, (it’s debatable how fully however), legalized it, and eventually, it became the official religion of the Empire. In time, and arguably in part due to the spread of Christianity, the Roman empire collapsed and… drumroll…one could say that God had the last word and reclaimed for Him/Herself the titles that the Caesars had been claiming for themselves—including “God,” “Son of God,” “Savior,” “Divine,” “Lord,” and, even “Prince of Peace.”
And yet, it is that human impulse to gloat in the defeat of our enemies that’s the problem. You see, it isn’t what Christians are called to do. Relishing in the defeat of others isn’t what Jesus did or would do.
Wosley goes on to look at our hymns and compares them with sports fans taunting the other team and their fans:
Rather than love their enemies, they prefer to engage in the theological version of over-excited football players who spike the ball in the end-zone and gloat with dances and taunts.
I don’t deny the reality of the resurrection, and I certainly enjoy a great Easter celebration—and consider every Sunday throughout the year as a “mini-Easter”—heck, everyday for that matter. I’ve experienced resurrection power in my life and have witnessed it in the lives of others.
That said, I’m not willing to pretend. I’m not willing to pretend that Jesus’ resurrection completely defeated evil—a quick glance at a newspaper will disprove that.
And the ending is particularly powerful:
I waited until after Easter to submit this blog—as I didn’t want to rain on any of our parades—at least not on the day of them. I realize that my voice is a dissenting and minority one and that I may be shouting to the wind. Future Easter celebrations aren’t likely to change very much, but then again, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus weren’t very likely either. | <urn:uuid:a711514f-aa2d-4bb8-88b5-a061e6d10266> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/church_20/a_more_grown_up_easter.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95785 | 816 | 2.359375 | 2 |
There is an array of Superfoods which aid in the function of our brain. We find that as we grow older our memory can be one of the first things to suffer. In addition, our concentration and comprehension can gradually become impaired as we age. From as young as pre-school our brain needs consistent and particular nutrients to keep it working properly and to stay ahead in the dynamic environment that is life and this is where Superfoods for the brain can assist.
Where possible, we should try to incorporate Superfoods for the brain such as these into our diets on a regular basis:
This green, tree like vegetable is one of the world’s most nutritious foods that can not only help to keep your brain mentally sharp but is also a cancer-fighting machine as well. Just remember not to overcook it in order to maintain all the wonderful nutrients.
This fast and easy side dish of Broccoli, Tomatoes & Onions will give you a huge hit of this healthy vegetable.
Nuts and Seeds
Nuts and Seeds such as almonds, cashews, peanuts and flax seeds pack one brain-boosting punch in their tiny cases. They are veritable enhancers of brain and memory development to enable us to think more clearly and they help preserve cognitive function even as we grow older. Eat these as snacks on the go and you will notice a much-improved mood as they are positive mood enhancers as well!
Dark Chocolate is one of life’s simplest pleasures and for it to be incredibly healthy for our brain is like adding icing to the cake! Just keep your consumption on the moderate side though as this is one Superfood you can’t over-indulge in because of its fat content. Now here are its health benefits. Chocolate of the dark variety is great for your concentration and focus as it enhances the brain’s cognitive skills. Milk chocolate has also been found to spark impulse control and speed up reaction time while bettering the visual and verbal memory at the same time.
Blueberries have been known to be full of antioxidants that are great for aging skin. But studies have also discovered that blueberries may reduce the effects of age-related ailments like Alzheimer’s disease or dementia by protecting our brains from oxidative stress. Eating blueberries every day is highly recommended as they also have nutrients that activate vital parts of our brain for enhanced memory and other cognitive skills.
Step up your blueberry intake with this Blueberry Cobbler.
Popeye wasn’t popping cans of spinach for nothing! This green leafy vegetable is one of nature’s most nutrient-packed Superfoods as it’s the highest protein-toting vegetable around and second only to cauliflower in Vitamin K content. It is also a fabulous source of folate, which is recognized as a preventative against Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and may help reduce the risk of brain stroke. Another brain benefit is that it can considerably improve motor skills and learning capacity while reversing declines in memory and retention.
With all the brain-boosting goodness of these foods, it’s no wonder they are known to be Superfoods! They have made their case and deserve a permanent place in our daily regimen and diet. With a little planning, you too can incorporate these Superfoods for the brain into your family meal plan on a regular basis.
If you liked this post, you might also like:
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Building a National Framework for the Establishment of Regulatory Science for Drug Development: Workshop Summary 6 Challenges in Engaging the Public Policy Community Over the course of the workshop, several participants stressed the importance of a rapid response to the need for an enhanced regulatory science discipline and infrastructure at FDA. Speakers credited the recent interest in regulatory science to new leadership at the health agencies and a President who is focused on revitalizing science. In early 2010, President Barack Obama requested funding in FDA’s fiscal year 2011 budget specifically to support the advancement of regulatory science.1 William Corr, Deputy Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), noted in his presentation, “It is not a huge amount. It’s $25 million, and in the HHS budget, sometimes $25 million seems small. But it is a great beginning.” Hamburg agreed with the importance of expanding regulatory science to open up possibilities for new diagnostics and safer and more effective treatments: “It’s essential,” she said, “that we have a regulatory agency that is scientifically robust and trusted by policy makers and the American people.” Proper support for scientific capacity and sustainable resources can provide the autonomy FDA needs to pursue its mission free of the influence of political tides or funding mandates, said Hamburg. 1 “Investing in FDA’s Scientific Infrastructure: The Budget includes $25 million for advancing regulatory science at FDA. This initiative builds on the President’s commitment to harness the power of science for America’s benefit and includes $15 million for nanotechnology-related research, which holds great promise for advances in medical products and cosmetics. The additional resources will also enable FDA to update review standards and provide regulatory pathways for new technologies, such as biosimilars” (HHS, 2010).
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Building a National Framework for the Establishment of Regulatory Science for Drug Development: Workshop Summary Speakers from the patient community, such as Ellen Sigal of Friends of Cancer Research and Margaret Anderson of FasterCures, highlighted the importance of public policy advocates as the ultimate catalysts for political reform. The final workshop session examined ways to interact with the public policy community, gain its support, and mitigate the unique challenges faced in the process. CHALLENGES IN ENGAGING THE PUBLIC POLICY COMMUNITY Steven Grossman, founder of Alliance for a Stronger FDA, highlighted three principal challenges that hinder engagement of the public policy community in support for enhanced regulatory science at FDA: funding, policy development, and communication. Funding—Fully 80 percent of FDA’s budget goes to personnel costs. Grossman expressed concern that—despite the increase in FDA’s appropriated budget for 2011—the agency faces an unprecedented need for scientific research combined with increased expectations. Given the fixed expenses required to run the agency, little funding will remain for new initiatives. Policy development—In policy development, there is often a demand for fast results; however, building a regulatory science infrastructure will require a significant investment of resources and time. Strong leadership and a clearly articulated implementation process must be communicated to policy makers at the outset to prevent a loss of support, said Grossman. He also suggested that the move to build a regulatory science infrastructure at FDA should remain independent of user fees and other potential funding sources that could be perceived as posing a conflict of interest. Communication—A common theme underlying public policy challenges is the importance of communication and education. FDA will need to build an understanding of regulatory science among the public and policy makers, remarked Grossman, as well as those directly partnering with the agency. PUBLIC OPINION POLL DATA ON FDA Mary Woolley, President, Research!America, presented the results of a survey conducted by her organization (Research!America, 2010) as context for the actions needed to energize the public policy community to support the development of a regulatory science infrastructure at FDA. Woolley noted that public sentiment is dynamic and is driven by emotion,
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Building a National Framework for the Establishment of Regulatory Science for Drug Development: Workshop Summary the media, and high-profile leadership initiatives, among other influences. Figure 6-1, for example, illustrates shifts over the last 6 years in public sentiment on the most important health issues. Woolley predicted that concern about obesity will continue to increase as a result of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign, aimed at reducing childhood obesity (White House, 2010). FDA is currently on the public radar, particularly due to recent food and drug recalls. As Figure 6-2 indicates, the majority of those surveyed selected “somewhat confident” when asked about their confidence in current systems for monitoring the effectiveness and safety of new medicines and medical devices. Figure 6-3 shows that respondents cited “protecting public safety” as FDA’s most important role. A subsequent survey question in the same series showed respondents were evenly divided when FIGURE 6-1 Shifting opinions on America’s most important health issue, December 2003–February 2010. SOURCE: National Public Opinion Polls, 2003–2010, Charlton Research Company for Research!America.
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Building a National Framework for the Establishment of Regulatory Science for Drug Development: Workshop Summary FIGURE 6-2 Americans’ level of confidence in systems for monitoring the effectiveness and safety of new medicines and medical devices. SOURCE: National Public Opinion Polls, 2003–2010, Charlton Research Company for Research!America. FIGURE 6-3 Americans’ views on FDA’s most important role. SOURCE: National Public Opinion Polls, 2003–2010, Charlton Research Company for Research!America.
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Building a National Framework for the Establishment of Regulatory Science for Drug Development: Workshop Summary asked whether the FDA should speed up the approval process at the risk of compromising safety (Research!America, 2010). This latter opinion poll reflects the dichotomy in the public’s understanding of the regulatory processes required to deliver the results expected from FDA. Some of the speakers identified improved communication and public outreach as a means to help mitigate this knowledge gap. Workshop participants also expressed desire for detailed surveys that focus specifically on drug development in order to understand the roots of the public’s attitudes toward benefits and risks of FDA-regulated products. THE POWER OF PATIENT ADVOCACY Perhaps the most effective way to reach policy makers is through those they are supposed to represent: the public and patients. Newly tested positive for HIV in the mid-1980s, Michael Manganiello, Partner, HCM Strategists, and a patient advocate, recalled his initial layperson’s view of FDA: “I knew about as much about FDA as I did about quantum physics, which was nothing, except I quickly became aware that FDA was the place that was standing in the way of me getting better drugs.” Manganiello said he revised his opinion after learning that many more barriers stood in his way: lack of political will, lack of resources, and lack of support from the American people. Today, the movement that followed to bring awareness to the HIV/AIDS epidemic is touted as a major success—in rallying public and government support, intensifying scientific innovations, and producing therapeutics. Manganiello credits the grassroots movement of patient groups as the driving force behind this success. Patient groups have grown much more sophisticated since then and generally can exercise considerable political influence over the allocation of scientific resources and expertise. Patient advocacy groups and disease-based foundations have the potential to aid in the building of regulatory science through media-savvy communication and access to patient populations. They also appreciate the importance of involving FDA to produce results, as well as the challenges that face regulatory agencies. Thus, patient advocates can prove to be valuable partners in future regulatory science initiatives at FDA. Box 6-1 presents an example of the impact of patient advocacy, in this case with respect to cancer therapeutics.
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Building a National Framework for the Establishment of Regulatory Science for Drug Development: Workshop Summary BOX 6-1 The Impact of Patient Advocacy for Cancer Therapeutics at FDA Until recently, patient communities were concerned principally with improving research capacity at NIH in their efforts to advance cancer care, according to Ellen Sigal. The role of FDA, on the other hand, remained unclear and thus ignored. The cancer research community has since come to understand the critical functions of FDA in the emergence of new therapeutics for cancer. The community also observed that more could be done to promote cancer care at FDA—beginning with the elevation of oncology to a new office within the agency infrastructure. In July 2005, the cancer community, including professional groups, cancer centers, scientists, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the American College of Radiology, succeeded in bringing about the agency’s Office of Oncology Drug Products (OODP). OODP uniquely encompasses both small-molecule drugs and biologics within one office in an effort to consolidate oncology regulations and improve consistency in review standards and policies, and serves as a small-scale example of flourishing regulatory science. In going forward, Sigal observed that OOPD could further advance regulatory science by enhancing collaboration among the different FDA centers, increasing interactions with other health-related federal agencies, expanding external advisory capacity, and harmonizing with international regulatory bodies. SOURCE: Sigal, 2009. | <urn:uuid:d059199a-cd54-4357-b234-6fb021dc7b4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12968&page=39 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936381 | 2,055 | 2.078125 | 2 |
George L. Dillon
The seminar will present corpus analysis as a set of tools for analyzing discourses in a number of areas such as green and refugee discourses, Freshman writing as well as other types of academic writing. It will combine some corpus theory with a strong hands-on grounding in the use of corpus tools to collect and interpret relative frequencies of words and phrases, KWIC concordance displays, collocations, keywords, and ngram lists (these will all be explained). We will cover downloading and tagging texts from the web. Students should bring a laptop to class; we will download some free software and corpora. Final projects can be designed around projects students have already identified or around one of the issues that will arise in the course.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
seminar presentations and discussion
Class assignments and grading | <urn:uuid:2ff10c19-81ba-4f78-844c-e30658367df1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washington.edu/students/icd/S/engl/569dillon.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909273 | 173 | 2.40625 | 2 |
GridWeek 2012 convened earlier this month in Washington D.C., and as a first time attendee, I left breathless and hopeful – yet confused – by inexplicable lingering complacency. Unbeknownst to me, by agreeing to be a panelist in two sessions, I was setting up a comparative experiment. For the first panel, I spoke on “New Utility Business Models” to a packed room of the glimmer-eyed new energy intelligentsia, which is what makes GridWeek so exciting. In the later days of the conference, about a dozen GridWeek participants interspersed amongst a room of mostly empty seats to hear my panel presentation on “Smart Grid’s Role in New Air Quality Standards.”
It would seem that I, and the handful of attendees at the air quality panel, see the productive overlaps between air quality standards compliance, smart grid and new utility revenues. There are several ways that smart grid provides a value proposition for utilities faced with increasingly stringent air quality regulations, most recently the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule. Here’s a short, but by no means comprehensive, list of both synergies and potential tensions:
- Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS): Smart grid supports achieving higher and higher proportions of intermittent, non-dispatchable renewable electricity generation. Achieving high levels of RPS will be expensive unless we can use new strategies to manage intermittency and power quality. New pricing structures for utility services can provide incentives to invest on both sides of the meter, and open the door for historically hidden utility services (such as voltage regulation) to be priced and sold. For incumbent utilities, there is an opportunity to identify and price network services that traditionally have been bundled into rates.
- Electric Vehicles (EV): EVs are an important new frontier for utilities, and like most frontiers, offer both promise and peril. Overloaded distribution networks might keep the utility engineers up at night, while the emerging new customer class has utility shareholders thinking like venture capitalists. Though still small in number, EVs are quickly driving utility planners and system operators toward a fork in the road. Do we provide safe reliable service to new and existing customers using expensive dirty methods of the past (i.e., more big power plants) or do we take a deep breath (of cleaner air) and trust in the power of the people by embracing distributed energy resources?
- Distributed Energy Resources (DER): Rooftop solar, energy efficiency, and demand response, collectively known as distributed energy resources, unquestionably can provide the low cost, clean pathway towards both energy independence and a sustainable economy. However, DER is harder to plan and dispatch, and it threatens the traditional utility business models of incumbent institutions. In California, net energy metering policy has been an important ignition switch, fueled by the California Solar Roofs Initiative, but these successful policies need to evolve to achieve DER at larger scales. Again, the key is precisely pricing the goods and services on both sides of the meter. Utilities should be paid for power quality and storage services provided to owners of rooftop systems, while electricity from those rooftops should be priced fairly to provide incentive to invest.
- Clean air standards: Oxides of nitrogen, particulate matter, acidifying compounds and carcinogens, such as mercury, are the power sector’s long-time emissions concerns. Across the nation, electricity generators must hold permits to pollute and tradable emissions allowances that must be acquired at nontrivial prices. Starting in 2013, California electricity generation that emits global warming pollution will have an associated cost –carbon allowances in the state’s cap-and-trade program. Already, polluters in Southern California must acquire emissions allowances for the RECLAIM program, and power plants nationwide must comply with the acid rain emissions allowance program established in the Federal Clean Air Act . Similarly, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) program puts a price on carbon emissions for nine northeastern states, and the Western Climate Initiative is endeavoring to do the same for West Coast states and Canadian provinces. These programs use emissions allowances that are fungible and tradable, yet they represent real costs – and thus economic opportunity when avoided. Pollution pricing is changing business models throughout North America. But there is more to come. For example, improved environmental performance enabled by smart grid technologies, such as increasing DER, presents new avenues to meet air quality requirements. For the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other oversight agencies, the ability to measure, verify and enforce DER is key to granting compliance credit, and such capabilities are increasingly cost-effective with smart grid deployment.
- Consumer empowerment: The mobile phone revolution is a prelude to what may be possible once consumers and producers begin to see true pricing in the energy marketplace. While load-serving entities can find new revenues through services, consumers and entrepreneurs will be motivated by new ways to make a buck, or avoid spending bucks through unnecessary energy waste.
The new smart grid business frontier has, in fact, many frontiers. The California Public Utilities Commission conceived of an electricity ecosystem comprised of smart consumers, smart markets and smart utilities. Utilities are trying to find their new niche within the ever changing food web, and all ears are perked for new opportunities. That’s why only standing room was available in the business model panel session at Gridweek.
Meanwhile, in the air quality session of GridWeek, there was plenty of elbow room.EPA is considering flexible strategies for meeting new emissions standards for carcinogens. Many utilities are operating in permit constrained areas that fail to meet National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Enlightened utilities are seeing demand-side strategies as increasingly viable with smart meter deployment, and a means to improve returns to shareholders. Performance-based rate of return can be structured to both reduce sales of energy to customer and to improve utility earnings.
Gridweek revealed to me that many are educating themselves about new business opportunities, but precious few have the connected the dots to air quality improvements. If I could, I’d bet on the folks who attended both sessions. | <urn:uuid:5633fba3-940c-4a43-89d4-0995cd36faef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.edf.org/energyexchange/2012/10/16/standing-or-elbow-room-in-the-energy-sector/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EnergyExchangeSmartGrid+%28Energy+Exchange+-+Smart+grid%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930865 | 1,248 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Gnuplot is, in my opinion, one of the best open source tools to plot charts on Linux. I like it because:
- it is a command line tool
- it recognizes commands that are plain text strings
- it reads the numbers in plain text format, from plain text files
In other words, I like Gnuplot because it makes automatic chart creation as easy as possible: you can generate both data and Gnuplot commands on the fly with whatever program or programming language you like best, and then pass them to Gnuplot.
With the exception (unless you adopt some tricks) of pie charts, Gnuplot can plot practically every kind of diagram… if you know which options to use. Here I will explain in detail only the little known ones that let Gnuplot recognize certain strings as absolutes dates or hours and, consequently, properly plot time-related data.
Let’s assume that you have a data file (”datafile.dat”) like this:
A human would understand immediately that the numbers in the first columns are, very likely, dates. Gnuplot, instead, won’t. Not by itself, at least. If you just tell it to plot the file with these instructions:
set terminal png size 900, 300
set output "chart_1.png"
plot [:][:] 'datafile.dat' using 1:2 title "This is what you get when gnuplot doesn't recognize time values" with lines
that is, using the first column for the X axis and the second for the Y one, you’ll get the chart of Figure A: “20110101″ isn’t recognized as “January 1st, 2011″ but as “twenty millions something…” Really ugly and unreadable, isn’t it?
The solution is to set the xdata and timefmt variables of Gnuplot, by adding these commands right before the plot instruction:
set xdata time
set timefmt "%Y%m%d"
The first one tells Gnuplot that the numbers that go on the X axis are time values. The second explains how they are formatted. In our example, the format is YYYYMMDD, but it could have many other values, all described in the documentation (more on this later). In practice, there are only two constraints here. The first is that only one time/date input format per plot is supported. The other is that, to let Gnuplot handle without problems times values containing spaces, e.g., “2011/06/02 11:18″, the columns in the data file must be separated by tabs instead of spaces when such strings are present.
Back to plotting now. Run Gnuplot with the latest settings and lo! the numbers of the first column will be recognized for what they are and printed accordingly, as in Figure B.
Much better now, isn’t it? We can make it even better, however. Luckily, the way the time values are formatted in the data file and the way in which they will be printed in the plot are completely independent. The timefmt variable that we’ve already seen specifies how to read the time column in the data file. Timefmt recognizes lots of formats: %j, for example, indicates the day of the year in the 1- 365 format, and %B the month name (in English!). To read about all the capabilities of timefmt, type gnuplot in a terminal and then help set timefmt.
The other thing you need to know in order to plot readable time-based charts is how to plot ranges and display tics on the time axis to show just what you, not Gnuplot, think is relevant.
If you only want to plot a certain range of values from the data file, specify it by setting the xrange with the same format used by timefmt, that is the one in the original data file:
set xrange ["20110402":"20110430"]
This is how to plot “restricted” chart like the one of Figure C.
Settings number, positions and names of the tics is a bit more complicated, but not so much. The names are set either by listing them explicitly, or assigning a format to the xtics variable. This, for example:
set xtics format "%b %d"
means that Gnuplot should use the abbreviated month name (%b) and day of the month (/%d) to print tics like “Jan 20″, “Mar 11″ and so on. Position and number of tics can be controlled in several ways. The most flexible one is to assign to xtics a start and end value, plus the number of seconds between two consecutive tics. Let’s assume, for example, that we want to display one tic every two weeks, on Wednesdays. Since the first Wednesday of 2011 was January 5th and there are 60×60x24×7x2 = 1209600 seconds in two weeks, here’s how to plot what you see in Figure D:
set xtics format "%b %d"
set xtics "20110105", 1209600, "20110430"
Cool, right? Please note that “set grid” wasn’t necessary; it just makes it easier to see that the tics appear just where they should. The only gotcha here is to remember that you must specify start and end tics in the format in which they appear in the source file (”20110105″), not the one shown in the plot (”Jan 05″).
Charts of time-based data are extremely useful, in many ways, for work and study. Here I have explained all you’ll probably need to know to use Gnuplot to make sense of such data. In case it isn’t enough, you can find even more information in the Gnuplot documentation by typing help time/date or help set xtics at the prompt. | <urn:uuid:2c4e0611-9790-4c75-bc5e-0d99e5256c8d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/opensource/how-to-handle-time-based-data-with-gnuplot/2671 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90114 | 1,288 | 2.359375 | 2 |
An aisleless church (German: Saalkirche) is a single-nave church building that consists of a single hall-like room. While similar to the hall church, the aisleless church lacks aisles or passageways either side of the nave separated from the nave by colonnades or arcades, a row of pillars or columns. However, there is often no clear demarcation between the different building forms, and many churches, in the course of their construction history, developed from a combination of different types.
Early aisleless churches were generally small because of the difficulty of spanning a large, open space without using pillars or columns. In many places, where the population made it necessary and money was available, former medieval hall churches were extended over the course of centuries until they became a hall church or basilica. Starting in the Renaissance, the development of new technologies and better building materials allowed larger spaces to be spanned.
The basic form of the church hall is rectangular. Aisleless churches are generally aligned longitudinally so that the altar and choir are located at one of the narrower ends and are facing east. There are rare examples of transept aisleless churches, in which the altar area occupies the short side east of the transept.
This form of church building has proliferated since the Renaissance, especially in Protestant churches. It became the basis of modern church architecture.
- Church of the Redeemer near Potsdam
- Church of St. Lambert's in Bergen
- Christuskirche in Dresden-Strehlen, Art Nouveau-style church
- The Hofkirche at Ludwigslust
- The largest aisleless church in Germany is the parish church of St. Vitus in Löningen.
- The Saalkirche in the northern Siebengebirge region
- The Providenzkirche in Heidelberg
- The Jakobikirche in Hildesheim.
- The Seminarkirche in Hildesheim.
- The Johanniskirche in Frankfurt-Bornheim a Baroque aisleless church.
|This architecture-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.| | <urn:uuid:902d9097-c547-496c-b263-82b5d2b14d94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aisleless_church | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932757 | 464 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Android powers hundreds of millions of mobile devices in more than 190 countries around the world. It's the largest installed base of any mobile platform and growing fast—every day another million users power up their Android devices for the first time and start looking for apps, games, and other digital content.
Android gives you a world-class platform for creating apps and games for Android users everywhere, as well as an open marketplace for distributing to them instantly.
Global partnerships and large installed base
Building on the contributions of the open-source Linux community and more than 300 hardware, software, and carrier partners, Android has rapidly become the fastest-growing mobile OS.
Every day more than 1 million new Android devices are activated worldwide.
Android’s openness has made it a favorite for consumers and developers alike, driving strong growth in app consumption. Android users download more than 1.5 billion apps and games from Google Play each month.
With its partners, Android is continuously pushing the boundaries of hardware and software forward to bring new capabilities to users and developers. For developers, Android innovation lets you build powerful, differentiated applications that use the latest mobile technologies.
Powerful development framework
Easily optimize a single binary for phones, tablets, and other devices.
Android gives you everything you need to build best-in-class app experiences. It gives you a single application model that lets you deploy your apps broadly to hundreds of millions of users across a wide range of devices—from phones to tablets and beyond.
Android also gives you tools for creating apps that look great and take advantage of the hardware capabilities available on each device. It automatically adapts your UI to look its best on each device, while giving you as much control as you want over your UI on different device types.
For example, you can create a single app binary that's optimized for both phone and tablet form factors. You declare your UI in lightweight sets of XML resources, one set for parts of the UI that are common to all form factors and other sets for optimzations specific to phones or tablets. At runtime, Android applies the correct resource sets based on its screen size, density, locale, and so on.
To help you develop efficiently, the Android Developer Tools offer a full Java IDE with advanced features for developing, debugging, and packaging Android apps. Using the IDE, you can develop on any available Android device or create virtual devices that emulate any hardware configuration.
1.5 billion downloads a month and growing. Get your apps in front of millions of users at Google's scale.
Open marketplace for distributing your apps
Google Play is the premier marketplace for selling and distributing Android apps. When you publish an app on Google Play, you reach the huge installed base of Android.
As an open marketplace, Google Play puts you in control of how you sell your products. You can publish whenever you want, as often as you want, and to the customers you want. You can distribute broadly to all markets and devices or focus on specific segments, devices, or ranges of hardware capabilities.
You can monetize in the way that works best for your business—priced or free, with in-app products or subscriptions—for highest engagement and revenues. You also have complete control of the pricing for your apps and in-app products and can set or change prices in any supported currency at any time.
Beyond growing your customer base, Google Play helps you build visibility and engagement across your apps and brand. As your apps rise in popularity, Google Play gives them higher placement in weekly "top" charts and rankings, and for the best apps promotional slots in curated collections.
Preinstalled on hundreds of millions of Android devices around the world, Google Play can be a growth engine for your business. | <urn:uuid:fc1bb7ad-6918-489d-a6e9-8e52274f55d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://developer.android.com/about/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919612 | 761 | 2.0625 | 2 |
Conformal symmetry has surfaced in many different areas of gravitational physics, notably in the AdS/CFT correspondence, Horava gravity, Shape Dynamics and the initial value problem in GR, and may very well be our most important clue to a UV-completion of gravity. On the other hand, the early universe offers observational evidence for conformal symmetry in the form of a near-scale invariant primordial power spectrum, as seen in the cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure of the universe. In particular, the trading of symmetries between spacetime refoliation invariance for spatial conformal invariance, as in Shape Dynamics, may be manifested in the scale-invariant dynamics of the early universe. This might also lead to a violation of Lorentz symmetry in the gravitational sector, as in Einstein-Aether or Cuscuton gravity. This conference brings researchers in these areas together to foster new interdisciplinary discourse and collaboration in this fascinating interplay between conformal symmetry, cosmology and gravitational physics. | <urn:uuid:a99b5033-ecf1-456d-9489-5e26bfc05873> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://perimeterinstitute.ca/conferences/conformal-nature-universe-0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915098 | 209 | 1.632813 | 2 |
This course provides a comprehensive introduction to basic principles of telecommunications technology and the telephone network, and the legal, economic, and regulatory environment of the telecommunications industry. Role of new technologies such as fiber, integrated digital networks, computer communications, and information services. Common carrier law and the economics of natural monopoly as the basis for regulation of the telecommunications industry. Issues of competition, monopoly and technical standards. Spectrum allocation and management. International communications and transborder data flow. Special emphasis on how the new technologies have altered and are altered by regulation.
Prerequisites: 73-100 and junior or senior standing
This course is currently being offered. | <urn:uuid:40f0e682-f012-45c7-a491-11820686e795> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ece.cmu.edu/courses/items/18482.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908513 | 126 | 2.34375 | 2 |
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Advisory extended for water near Sandsprit Park in Stuart
Would the newspaper ask Mr. Van Duzer to list the 18 small business tax breaks given to us by Obama and could he answer question? Of course not because there are not 18 small business tax breaks given to us by Obama. (But I'm sure the Obama staff told Van Duzer there were.)
Here are the five tax breaks that can be attributed to him:
1. Health care tax credit: Enacted as part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, it's meant to reward small companies that provide health care insurance to workers. It applies to companies that have 25 or fewer employees, pay average salaries of $50,000 or less and cover at least half of their health insurance premiums. It's still in effect, but confusing rules have made the health care tax credit quite unpopular. As a result, companies have been missing out on billions of dollars in breaks, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
2. Shorter holding period for owners: Small business owners who plan to sell their company -- or a stake in it -- sometimes change the way their company is legally designated to pay lower taxes. But to benefit from the lower taxes, a business owner has to change the designation and then keep it for another 10 years. That period was lowered to seven years when Obama signed the 2009 Recovery Act, then it was lowered to five years with the 2010 Small Business Jobs Act. It'll stay low only until the end of this year.
3. Mobile phone deductions: Deducting mobile phone expenses was once needlessly complicated, but the Small Business Jobs Act simplified this permanently.
4. Startup deductions: Since 2004, startups have been allowed to deduct up to $5,000 of startup costs, such as marketing research and office supplies. In an effort to further help entrepreneurs, that was raised permanently to $10,000 by the Small Business Jobs Act.
5. Limited penalties on tax errors: Companies that make errors on their taxes are forced to pay penalties. Depending on the type of mistake, they pay anywhere from $50,000 to $200,000, but in every case, paying such a high fine hurts small businesses proportionally more than large companies. The Small Business Jobs Act permanently changed that, capping penalties as 75% of the mistake.
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Tillman's BBQ tasting success | Photos
If you've been the victim of a scam, we'd like to hear from you.
Join us June 26 as we discuss recent pillowcase burglaries. | <urn:uuid:5f5d475e-55d0-4035-8e8f-fcedeb5e9923> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tcpalm.com/comments/reply/?target=61:458966&comment=994391 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971105 | 586 | 1.976563 | 2 |
…By allowing states to require out-of-state, online-only retailers to collect and remit sales taxes already owed but rarely paid on purchases by state residents, Congress would ensure that states have far less rationale for pursuing new taxes, such as a value-added-tax (VAT) or income taxes in states that currently lack them, or increases in income tax and sales tax rates. Doing so is currently barred in the absence of congressional action under the Supreme Court’s Quill v North Dakotadecision.
“If Congress fails to authorize states to collect tax on remote sales, and electronic commerce continues to grow, we are implicitly blessing a situation where states will be forced to raise other taxes– such as income or property taxes– to offset the growing loss of sales tax revenue. We do not want this to happen,” said bill sponsor Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) in a recent statement on the Senate floor. “The Marketplace Fairness Act empowers states to make the decision themselves. If they choose to collect already existing sales taxes on all purchases regardless of where the sale was whether it was inline (sic) or in a store, they can. If they want to keep the things the way they are, the states can do that.”
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) also says that Marketplace Fairness is about states’ rights. “The reason why this bill is inevitable and why I hope it will pass… is because it is a simple 11-page bill about a 2-word issue: States rights,” Alexander said in recent floor remarks. “That is why Governor Christie and Governor Daniels and Governor Bush and Congressman Pence and many Republicans and many conservatives are saying let’s pass it. Let’s get out of the way and let States make their own decisions, and then the States can decide from whom they want to collect their sales taxes.”…
Read the complete article at Big Government. | <urn:uuid:80ea9cce-700a-4ea1-bf65-79555f6e4537> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://commonamericanjournal.com/marketplace-fairness-act-some-republicans-support-sales-tax-for-online-purchases/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958255 | 410 | 1.875 | 2 |
Black and white photography is such a relic of another age that it is hard to imagine, as recently as the 1970s, the art world’s hostility to color. William Eggleston’s Color Photographs, for example, the first one-man show of color work at the Museum of Modern Art in 1976, was considered the worst exhibit of the year. Hilton Kramer repudiated John Szarkowski, the museum’s curator of photography, for throwing caution to the wind when he spoke of Eggleston’s work as "perfect." “Perfect?” Kramer wrote in The New York Times. “Perfectly banal, perhaps. Perfectly boring, certainly.” Of course Eggleston would become one of the most influential photographers of the era.
Click Image to View Our Gallery of "Starburst"
Starburst: Color Photography in America, 1970-1980, the comprehensive new exhibition at the Cincinnati Art Museum through May 9, shows just how remarkably far we have come in three decades. Starburst features approximately 200 photographs by Eggleston, Stephen Shore, William Christenberry, Joel Meyerowitz, Joel Sternfeld, Mitch Epstein, Helen Levitt, Jan Groover, and Eve Sonnemann, among others who began to explore color as a descriptive element and first established the use of color as a standard of photographic art-making practice.
“Color photography of the 1970s happened in a starburst,” writes Kevin Moore, an independent curator who organized the show with Dr. James Crump, curator of photography at the Cincinnati Art Museum. “As any astronomer can tell you, a starburst is an intensely destructive and creative environment, caused by a collision or close encounter between two or more galaxies, resulting in the formation of stars. New Color was, on the surface at least, a promiscuous photographic enterprise, a flirtation with numerous practices and ideas occurring simultaneously in other art movements and the popular culture.”
The resistance in art circles was due to the myriad commercial applications for color photography and the technical processes that intensified colors to garish and artificial effect. In a 1969 essay on photography, Walker Evans wrote: “Color photography is vulgar.” By 1975, he was using the Polaroid SX 70 to make his own color pictures.
In addition to the cultural explosion of the 1960s—no longer was it possible for the psychedelic spirit of that era to be contained in black and white—new technical processes and materials gave photographers greater control over color printing. And Photorealism in the late 1960s was a potent, if still unacknowledged, influence upon the introduction of color in photography, as well. Photorealist painters brought a color palette to the 35-millimeter universe they rendered on canvas with lens-sharp clarity, viewfinder-like cropping and snapshot simplicity. The photographic interpretation of the American vernacular—gas stations, diners, parking lots—is foretold in Photorealist paintings that preceded many of the Starburst photographers’ work.
In the early 1970s, Shore set out to make pictures across America. Two elements distinguish his work with a view camera from Evans' in the 1930s and Robert Frank’s in the 1950s: One is technical—the use of color as a descriptive element; his chromogenic prints were more nuanced than those produced by commercial laboratories and his use of color was truer to what things actually looked like. The other element is perceptual—a kind of stoned contemplation, if you will, that could have emerged only from the 1960s and that typifies so much of Shore's work. He used the view camera in a state of heightened awareness that might be likened to the ''expanded consciousness'' of the age of Aquarius. In the parlance of the day, he achieved the photographic equivalent of ''grokking'' his subjects.
Contemporaneously, Joel Meyerowitz made a series called Cape Light in which he photographed what might have been viewed as postcard-like clichés like sunsets, beaches, and vacation cottages on Cape Cod. When his controlled, super-saturated color prints were exhibited in the late 1970s, Andy Grundberg wrote in the Soho News that they bordered on “reactionary,” but concluded that what Meyerowitz had done was “to redefine and update the picturesque.” The work of several women represented in Starburst is more conceptual: Eve Sonnemann explored the passing of time between paired images of the same scene; Jan Groover’s concerns were more art historical in her exploration of formal traditions of painting and Constructivism; Barbara Kasten’s Constructs drew most pointedly from 1920s Constructivism and the work of Laszlo Maholy-Nagy. She referred to her work as “50 percent sculpture and 50 percent photography.”
By the 1980s, color had become an integral part of the photographic vocabulary, from Nan Goldin’s personal chronicle of the downtown Manhattan demimonde, to the staged spontaneity in images of domestic life by Philip-Lorca di Corcia, Tina Barney and Larry Sultan. Jeff Wall grew the size of the photographic print in images that reference 18th-century tableaux in painting. And in the 1990s, Gregory Crewdson constructed wall-size tableaux that reference the cinematic image.
Today, color is no longer the point of photographic investigation as it was in the 1970s, when fluency in this new visual language was still tentative. Color is now a native visual language. Perhaps that is what the nostalgia for vintage black and white photography is all about.
Philip Gefter writes about photography for The Daily Beast. He previously wrote about the subject for The New York Times. His book of essays, Photography After Frank, was recently published by Aperture. He is producing a feature-length documentary on Bill Cunningham of the Times, and working on a biography of Sam Wagstaff. | <urn:uuid:83ca087b-993b-4f94-8f08-74fba5a8c629> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/02/18/the-kings-of-kodachrome.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96139 | 1,240 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Look who’s talking!
A new book gives parents the skills to have a ‘conversation’ with their babies
If mum and dad were fluent in baby language, caring for a newborn could be so much easier. Such communication has simply been a parent’s dream - until now.
A baby expert has set down in black and white directions on how parents can understand what a baby is saying and ‘talk’ back to them.
The ‘Blossom Method’ was developed by Vivien Sabel, and the psychotherapist’s book describes in detail exactly how it works.
Essentially, the method teaches parents how to recognise and understand their baby’s non-verbal communication, which is expressed through mouth, lip and tongue shapes (tongue-talking), movements, facial expressions, and sounds.
Sabel, who named the method after her daughter Blossom, insists: “It is possible to hear a baby’s ‘words’ but only if you are ‘listening’.”
Sabel’s book explains how parents can ‘talk’ back to baby, by mirroring expressions and tongue and mouth shapes.
She explains: “Newborns stick out their tongues all the time, in different ways to indicate different things.
“They stick it out in a flaccid, central position when they’re looking for food and they slide their tongue from east to west on their bottom lip when they’re searching for something.”
Sabel encourages parents to mirror such tongue movements if they’re made by their baby, so the child feels their parent knows what they’re trying to say.
“They’ve ‘spoken’ and indicating the same message back shows you can hear them. Then they’ll do it back to you etc and a little dance of achievement is going on.”
Sabel developed the method when having similar ‘conversations’ with her daughter, explaining that she would try her on her breast, or perhaps see if she wanted her nappy changing, and would eventually be able to identify what each signal given by the baby meant the three-step approach:
>> Observing - noticing tongue, lip and mouth movements, facial expressions and body language, and recognising any special needs associated with these movements.
>> Mirroring - Showing baby you’ve heard what they’ve said by copying their expression.
>> Responding - acting on the message baby is giving and thus reassuring him/her that you’ve understood.
As well as identifying when a baby is hungry, thirsty, bored, has wind, is in discomfort, excited etc, the method can also help alert parents to early signs of illness, says Sabel.
This is particularly obvious, she says, when the smell of a baby’s breath changes and may become ‘glue-like’.
Changes in skin tone may also appear but Sabel stresses that using a thermometer is important to check a baby’s temperature.
She studied many babies when putting her method together and says they all speak a similar language - with slight differences, just as there is in verbal communication. A very pointed tongue is a ‘poo tongue’, for example, redness underneath the eyebrow means tiredness or frustration. The baby’s fists may also come up when they’re tired or frustrated.
If a baby’s constipated, their tummy may be taut and their knees may rise up to their chest.
“It’s about taking in the experience of your baby,” she says.
Using the method means baby’s needs are met, she explains, and therefore their need to cry is less.
“Their needs are met before they reach the crying stage.”
She says her daughter rarely cried, which was a “massive indicator” that the method met her needs. She started ‘speaking’ at five months of age. Blossom is now seven.
Sabel points out that another benefit of using the method is bonding. Because the baby feels understood from birth, and has his/her needs met, they feel confident and secure.
She recommends that parents become familiar with the method during pregnancy, although it can still be learned successfully when babies are a few months old, she says.
Many parents will wonder how Sabel could identify this world of communication when many baby experts have failed to spot it. The answer could lie in Sabel’s childhood. Her mum was deaf and didn’t use sign language.
“I’ve come from a non-verbal background and I’ve been brought up with body language.
“It was always a movement or a glance or a flicker of my mum’s eyelids that gave me a message.”
Sabel, a psychotherapist, went on to train as a sign-language interpreter and her book includes a chapter on baby signing.
She adds: “When I had my daughter, I instinctively thought, ‘What is she going to be telling me?’
“Other people wouldn’t necessarily be looking for a baby’s non-verbal communication.
“It’s been around forever,” she adds. “It’s just that nobody had noticed.” | <urn:uuid:ef97470d-86b5-4e9c-9577-ed027e2c260a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.7daysinabudhabi.com/Look-8217-s-talking/story-16338341-detail/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965541 | 1,147 | 2.375 | 2 |
Libraries Step into the Age of iPodBy Reuters - | Posted 2008-08-08 Email Print
Library branches in Phoenix have banded together to create a digital library that currently has about 50,000 titles of e-books, audiobooks, music and videos that can be "checked out" from anywhere.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - It may be about time to dig out that old library card. Hoping to draw back readers, libraries have vastly expanded their lists of digital books, music, and movies that can be downloaded by their patrons to a computer or MP3 player -- and it doesn't cost a cent, unlike, say, media from Apple Inc's iTunes or Amazon.com Inc.
In Phoenix, for instance, branches have banded together to create a digital library that currently has about 50,000 titles of e-books, audiobooks, music and videos that can be "checked out" from anywhere.
Once discovered, says Tom Gemberling, the electronic resources librarian for the Phoenix Public Library, the program often proves wildly popular.
Not long ago, Gemberling visited a local trailer park to speak about the program to 100 or so seniors -- who regularly travel the roads touring in their recreational vehicles.
"They were cheering and screaming by the end," he said. "They were so excited. They're RVers, so they can go anywhere on the road, find a computer, go into the Phoenix Public Library catalogue, download a book and play it while they drive down the highway."
Available in thousands of libraries across the country, the programs work like this: First you need a library card, access to the web, and some easily downloadable software -- the Adobe Digital Editions, the Mobipocket Reader or the OverDrive Media Console.
At that point, just browse around the library's website, select some titles, add them to a digital book bag and click the download button. If the title isn't available, it can be placed on hold for downloading later.
Depending on the library and title, the item remains on your computer for one to three weeks before disappearing, meaning you don't have to bother with returning a book, CD or DVD to the actual library. | <urn:uuid:15314611-5606-4e80-a56a-dd6d296d414f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baselinemag.com/government/Libraries-Step-into-the-Age-of-iPod/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94201 | 454 | 1.53125 | 2 |
The purpose of e-petitions is to provide an easy way for the public to engage with politics in this country. All e-petitions will be accepted and published on this website providing they:
An e-petition may freely disagree with the government or call for changes of policy. There will be no attempt to exclude critical views. Decisions to accept or reject will be made on an impartial basis.
However, to protect this service from abuse, e-petitions must satisfy some basic conditions.
To create or sign an e-petition, you must be either:
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All e-petitions must call for a specific action from the government.
If an e-petition does not include a clear statement explaining what action you want the government to take, it will be rejected.
When submitting an e-petition, you may not include the following:
E-petitions that do not follow these guidelines cannot be accepted. In these cases, you will be informed by email of the reason(s) your e-petition has been refused.
We will publish the full text of rejected e-petitions, unless the content is illegal or offensive.
It is not possible to alter a rejected e-petition, and no correspondence will be entered into regarding rejected e-petitions. Rejection of an e-petition does not stop you from submitting a new e-petition which meets the terms and conditions of the site.
When submitting an e-petition, you must choose the government department that you believe owns the issue you have raised in your e-petition. Individual departments will check e-petitions. We reserve the right to transfer an e-petition to a different department, based on ministerial responsibility.
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Once accepted, e-petitions will be made available on this website for anyone to sign. Anyone signing the e-petition must provide their name, home address and email address. No personal details will be published on the site. This information will not be used for any purpose other than in relation to the e-petition.
The government may contact you by email to:
You will only receive a maximum of five emails for each e-petition.
If you sign an e-petition (are a 'signatory'), you will only receive updates if you choose this option when you sign it.
All petitioners and signatories will receive a first email that asks you to confirm your email address.
The e-petitions system is not intended to replace the current paper based system of public petitions in the House of Commons.
For more information about the paper based Parliamentary Petitions, you can visit the UK Parliament website This link opens in a new window. | <urn:uuid:eb32c904-64e3-4fad-a2e5-9e7122c7b424> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/terms-and-conditions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940482 | 613 | 1.820313 | 2 |
The Placer County Board of Supervisors will honor National Women’s History Month with a resolution that will be presented at the Board’s regularly scheduled meeting on March 22, 2011. The resolution will also celebrate the 100th anniversary of the passage of the woman’s suffrage amendment to the California Constitution.
On Oct. 10, 1911, California’s men voted to extend the right to vote to all women in the state, becoming the sixth state in the nation to do so. A greater percentage of men living in rural areas such as Placer County voted to give women voting rights than did their counterparts in urban area. In 1912, the first year after the approval of voting rights for women, 2,321 females in Placer County registered to vote bringing the total number of registered voters to 6,572. The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which nationally gave women the right to vote, was ratified nine years after California voted for political equity. The County currently has 198,984 registered voters, of which 105,350 are female.
“For someone my age, it's hard to envision an era when women were excluded from this precious right and how hard their fight must have been. I'm pleased to live in a time that is much more inclusive,” said Robert Weygandt, Chairman of the Placer County Board of Supervisors. “This resolution is an opportunity to celebrate this moment in history, cherish the sacred value of the precious republic given to us by our predecessors and remember our obligation to continue to perfect it.”
Placer County’s Bernhard Museum in Auburn is hosting a tea on Sat., March 26, 2011 to promote the resolution and the historic month. That event will be from 2:00 p.m. until 4 p.m. At the Supervisors’ meeting on March 22, the resolution will be presented to Diana Madoshi, Placer County resident and co-chair of the California Women’s Suffrage Centennial, which is a non-partisan group of individuals and statewide organizations that promote California's women. The Committee is comprised of individuals representing the:
- California League of Women Voters;
- National Women's History Project;
- American Association of University Women;
- Commission on the Status of Women; and
- California Women Agenda. | <urn:uuid:8e6c4ae5-266d-4f27-94a0-db0d009da5cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.placer.ca.gov/News/2011/March/Suffrage.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954741 | 484 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Cupertino is where Apple is. Palo Alto is where Facebook is. Mountain View is where Google is. Geographically speaking, then, Y Combinator, let's call it YC, is in Googletown, a flat suburban place dotted with low bungalows and bathed almost always in sunlight. On a side street here, more of a service road, really, sits the small building that houses the company. It hardly exists at all, physically. It's just two rooms—the office, where the three full-time employees can sometimes be found, and the main room, which, with its bright plywood picnic tables and orange acoustic tiling, looks like the dining hall at one of the better youth hostels in Denmark. YC is a kind of tech-industry incubator, maybe the most important in the world. It's the place where people are trying to invent the ways we're going to behave, at least as far as the Internet goes, in the future.
The first person I meet at YC is an entrepreneur named Jiggity, who is 22 years old and got his computer-science degree from MIT about twenty minutes ago. His real name isn't Jiggity; it's something Korean, but Jiggity is "more memorable when I'm meeting a whole lot of people." Jiggity is building something called Teevox, which is going to turn your iPhone into a remote control for your computer. A remote control that can search and play every movie, TV show, album, video, etc., that exists on your hard drive. (YC lesson one: Your smartphone is now, or will be, your basic interface with the world.)
The way things work at YC is like this: You and your co-genius collaborator apply out of Stanford, MIT, or Cal (more or less); if YC accepts you (it accepts only 3 percent of applicants), it gives you $20,000 (in exchange for a portion of your company), helps you develop your product, and, three months later, puts you in front of a room filled with the most important investors in Silicon Valley to ask for money—money you will get, and often in large quantities. The average YC business emerges from the three-month start-up process worth millions of dollars.
Jiggity lays out for me a future where his product is central to the way we live our lives, filled as they are with a constantly proliferating collection of DVRs and MP3s and MPEG-4 files and streaming video, etc. Teevox will make finding and playing all that media so much simpler. Especially when people finally realize that TVs are basically going to be giant high-def computer monitors.
Of course, there is also a social element to Teevox. Almost all the consumer products (hereafter: thingies) being built at YC are straight-up social-media products or have features meant to take advantage of what is known as the social layer of the Internet. It's kind of a priori now that to get the low-hanging fruit on the Internet, your thingy has to in some way exploit our apparently bottomless desire to share the details of our lives and thoughts with people we kind of know.
Teevox's social element is that you will be able to "see" all your "friends" all the time and know which movie or TV show they're watching and watch it "with" them if you want. Just a tiny facet of the coming era of the kinder, gentler panopticon, when all our lives will be transparent.
Jiggity sits at one of the picnic tables and pitches me for about an hour and a half, his fuzzy halo of hair bobbing emphatically with each gesture, sweat forming on his brow, his constant smile transmitting, I think, a shadow of resentment. Resentment—and he never said this—that for his product to succeed at the scale he wants it to, people like me would probably have to adopt it. People who are a little confused by stuff like Twitter but also kind of self-congratulatorily contemptuous of it.
The reason I'm here is to try to see social media through the eyes of people like Jiggity. For the past month, I've been trying to fully engage with the social layer. I joined and contributed to such services and platforms as Quora, Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, Blippy, Swipely, DailyBooth, Goodreads, Daytum, etc., etc. I tried to tweet five times a day. I gave two sites access to my credit cards so I could share my purchases with my friends. I did my best to check in wherever I went on Foursquare. And what it all made me feel, mostly, was stupid. And anxious—that I didn't have enough people following me and then that I was the kind of person who wants people to follow him. Every update, every tweet, every check-in, ultimately began to feel not unlike doing my expenses. The experience isn't unusual. I think old people like me (I'm 38) often do this stuff to feel like the world hasn't yet left them behind, but we don't have any natural hunger for it. It's kind of like androids having sex: We know we're supposed to do it, but we're not really sure why. Meanwhile, and infuriatingly, we know that humans just like to bone.
Jiggity and I are joined by another entrepreneur, a guy named Rahul, a slender 27-year-old Englishman of Indian extraction who's 50 percent hair and 50 percent brain. He jumps right in on the question of whether I'll ever start to enjoy social media. "The average male loves to be the clown," Rahul says. "He loves to be the center of attention and to tell jokes. What if he could do that at scale? With all your friends all the time? With more friends than you could previously have done? And have the affirmation of more and more people? That's powerful." | <urn:uuid:3162e260-f41b-4b24-aaa2-3ff8c7774425> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gq.com/news-politics/big-issues/201012/viral-me-silicon-valley-social-networking-devin-friedman | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973459 | 1,262 | 1.757813 | 2 |
My wife works at Penguin Group, where naturally they have an incredible “take pile” of books they publish. That’s where I found Number: The Language of Science, a fascinating and completely accessible history of the human traditions that give us today’s number systems. Apart from the amazing stuff about numbers, my favorite thing so far is the variety of ways in which mathematicians have been wrong.
Too often our culture treats “real mathematicians” like infallable geniuses, but in fact, deep-seated misconceptions were central to the development of mathematics. This got me thinking about my students.
* * *
My first year at Saint Ann’s, I had a rather heated exchange with a seventh grader over whether or not fractions fit infinitely in between each other. The class and I came up with all kinds of arguments to convince her otherwise, but she was sure that a stick could only be chopped so fine before it was just “in pieces.” At the time, this seemed like a major gap in her her understanding. I mean how were we supposed to get to _____ if she wasn’t “getting” this? I’m sad to say, though I never told her, I thought this was really bad.
Last year, my fifth graders were talking about stars and polygons, using protractors to make their own, when a student had a brilliant realization. After making a twelve pointed star from a dodecagon, she explained that a circle was just a polygon with 360 sides! This isn’t really true, so we had a conversation about what a 720-gon might be like. She got that, but “make enough sides,” she said, “and that’s a circle.” She was definitely onto something and really enjoying her work, so I let it slide.
I knew enough of Archimedes’ method of exhaustion to know that the fifth grader was thinking like a “real mathematician,” but even then I think I looked back in awe at the misconceptions of that seventh grader.
* * *
Then I read the chapter, called “This Flowing World,” about the centuries of debate on these exact issues. The seventh graders concerns were legitimate issues articulated by Zeno and the greeks, and their resolution was of fundamental importance in the development of the differential calculus! Of course I want my students to see the poofs and results that will bring them “up to snuff,” but when they pause to wrestle with a classical paradox, why should I object?
When it comes to mathematics, this kind of wrongness is essential. As in the Monty Hall problem, our intuition often leads us astray, and it’s the act of proof that forms the heart of mathematical reasoning. Wrong notions represent a successful model of thought that reflects a current state of understanding. If a model is weak it will demand attention sooner or later. If not, then it’s not weak.
The genius view of mathematicians has meant, among other things, that most students leave school thinking they’re not one. Amazingly, mathematicians are people that have good ideas and bad ones – make mistakes and have breakthroughs. This year, I want to share in the growth and mathematical discovery of my students, without needing them to get it all right.
I can still be better about this. | <urn:uuid:29d17803-5287-47ff-ab20-c23dd56752db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://coopcatalyst.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/letting-students-be-dead-wrong/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=b19f116cf4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975963 | 722 | 2.734375 | 3 |
The group work space sharing group – Quasipartikel have produced a lot of interesting work the last few years from projector installations to data visualizations. Coming from this collective, is the visual knowledge browser project called ASK KEN™ by Michael Aufreiter. Employing a node link diagram visualization using Processing.js, users can navigate through the large amount of topics from Freebase – which according to the site, boasts nearly 22 million entities ( single person, place , or thing ). Freebase is accessed through the Ken Ruby Freeware API Wrapper – which looks like another project that found its roots at the Quasipartikel lab.
Searching for a topic results in a list of suggested topics to help the user decide which route to go. Once an initial topic is selected, a visual representation of that topic and its connections is drawn as a stylized node circle chart. Users can navigate connected topics now, by selecting a section of that node to explore, watching the diagram bounce and extend out as new connections are added for exploration.
Although the project claims to be “far from complete” , it certainly provides a highly engaging and beautiful way to visualize large sets of connected data. So go ahead, and just ASK KEN™. | <urn:uuid:7c596e4c-c7e5-40e7-8551-0858f7833d90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://creativejs.com/2012/04/go-ahead-askken/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920651 | 259 | 1.671875 | 2 |
There was an article published some years ago about a sleep study (I think from Germany) that showed about 10-20% of people (European's I think) are genetically predisposed to function on a 30-hour* cycle. (As opposed to the 24 hour Circadian rhythm.)
*I think it was 30 hours, but don't know for sure. And I can't seem to find any reference to the study or what this "sleep disorder" is called. From Googling, I don't believe it is any of the following:
- Delayed sleep phase disorder
- Segmented Sleep Disorder
- Non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder
The study was most likely related to cognitive function and may have been funded by a space agency.
Hope this is on topic here, I just saw this site in Area 51 but didn't read much about it. | <urn:uuid:78348d01-cd82-49b3-a13c-05ddfb287f74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/3140/what-is-the-sleep-study-that-showed-that-a-percentage-of-humans-have-a-biologica?answertab=oldest | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98441 | 182 | 2.453125 | 2 |
It happens to all of us. We find this amazing recipe for peach cobbler or rice pudding and after we’re done making the delicious dessert, we shove the recipe in a book or a recipe box. Not only is the recipe written on a plain white index card, but the handwriting it’s written in looks like a 2-year-old wrote it. You should take pride in your great-great grandmother’s cheesecake recipe. Display it in a recipe scrapbook.
How to Bake Make Your Scrapbook
With these steps you’ll be able to display your recipes in a unique craft that you can cherish and pass down to your children.
- First choose a scrapbook for your recipes. If you have a lot of recipes to add to your scrapbook, you may want to choose a Snapload scrapbook. Snapload scrapbooks have expandable bindings, allowing for unlimited refills.
- If you want, design and decorate the cover of your recipe scrapbook. You may want to write “Family Recipes” or simple “Recipes” on the cover. Think of creative ways to do this. If you want to leave it plain, that’s fine too.
- Next, make recipe divider category pages. You’ll need five basic dividers – appetizers, soups and salads, main dishes, sides and desserts.
- After you’re finished with the dividers, sort through all of the recipes you want to include in the scrapbook. Sort them into piles according to the dividers you made.
- Lastly, design and decorate the recipe pages. When you’re finished, insert everything into the scrapbook.
- Make recipes, and enjoy!
Just a few things to keep in mind:
- Have a plan. Layout pages to prevent mistakes.
- Be as creative as you want
- Don’t rush, take your time.
- Most important, enjoy yourself and have fun!
Happy scrapbooking from all of us here at MemoryScrapbooks.com! | <urn:uuid:c700a04c-1e22-4c38-b43b-ef7357e60f29> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.memoryscrapbooks.com/ideas/cherish-recipes-with-a-scrapbook/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933714 | 438 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Kooikerhondje was developed in the Netherlands around the sixteenth century to be a tolling breed. They were used to lure and drive ducks into ‘kooien’ (cages in the form of canals with traps at the ends), where the hunter (the so called Kooiker) could easily catch the fowl. The dogs that were used by the Kooiker for this kind of hunting technique, were referred to as the ‘Kooiker’s hondjes’ (Kooiker’s dogs). Eventually this led to this dog being called Kooikerhondje.
Kooikerhondje or Kooiker Hound, is a small spaniel-type dog breed of Dutch ancestry that was originally used as a working dog, particularly in duck hunting and tolling. The Kooikerhondje dog breed is rapidly gaining popularity in the United States, Canada and Scandinavia.
In 1942, during the Second World War, the Baroness Van Hardenbroek van Ammerstol began to recreate the Kooikerhondje. She gave a picture of the type of dog she was looking for to a peddler and asked him to look out for such dogs. At a farm in the province of Friesland he found the bitch now well known as Tommy. She became the founding bitch of the Kooikerhondje. In 1966 the Raad van Beheer adopted the interim breed and in 1971 the breed was officially recognized.
The Kooikerhondje was and still is used in the duck decoys. His task is still to lure the ducks into the decoy with his gaily waving tail; he does not hunt the ducks. He calmly moves between the decoy-screens in order to provoke the ducks’ curiosity and lure them further down the decoy pipe where the ducks are captured in a trap. They are either killed for the table or ringed for ornithological research.
Kooikerhondje dogs are around 35 to 40 cm (14 to 16 inches) high at the withers with a nearly square body that is slightly longer than their height at the shoulders. Depending on the gender and the size a Kooikerhondje is not supposed to weigh more than 9-11 kilograms. The fur is medium long and either slightly wavy or straight. For conformation showing, dogs with black ear tips and white tails are preferred.
Kooikerhondje dog breed is cheerful, good natured, friendly, quiet, well-behaved, and alert. They are also intelligent, attentive and more than willing to please their owner. The Kooikerhondje adapts to situations rather quickly, changing his behavior from quiet to lively when the situation allows him to be. He will not always immediately like strangers, instead choosing to retreat. But once he warms up to someone, the trust will be there for the rest of his life. | <urn:uuid:6ab0779c-e543-43e6-bec2-6b2bfae46d3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dogbreedstandards.com/kooikerhondje/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969363 | 614 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Holocaust Denial on Trial, Trial Judgment: Electronic Edition, by Charles GrayTable of Contents
|The specific historiograp... >||Findings in relation to t... >>|
Irving the historian
13.7 My assessment is that, as a military historian, Irving has much to commend him. For his works of military history Irving has undertaken thorough and painstaking research into the archives. He has discovered and disclosed to historians and others many documents which, but for his efforts, might have remained unnoticed for years. It was plain from the way in which he conducted his case and dealt with a sustained and penetrating cross-examination that his knowledge of World War 2 is unparalleled. His mastery of the detail of the historical documents is remarkable. He is beyond question able and intelligent. He was invariably quick to spot the significance of documents which he had not previously seen. Moreover he writes his military history in a clear and vivid style. I accept the favourable assessment by Professor Watt and Sir John Keegan of the calibre of Irving's military history (mentioned in paragraph 3.4 above) and reject as too sweeping the negative assessment of Evans (quoted in paragraph 3.5).
13.8 But the questions to which this action has given rise do not relate to the quality of Irving's military history but rather to the manner in which he has written about the attitude adopted by Hitler towards the Jews and in particular his responsibility for the fate which befell them under the Nazi regime. | <urn:uuid:c1faa6dc-c12d-4892-ade7-b3fedbf63320> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hdot.org/ar/trial/judgement/13.04/view/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982023 | 299 | 2.109375 | 2 |
I was sitting at my desk, typing away at my computer, when it died. With no warning. Suddenly, utterly, and completely. One moment everything was fine — or as fine as can be expected with anything that involves the Dark Lord of Redmund — the next: no power, no lights, no fan, nothing.
The problem was almost certainly the power supply or the motherboard. Given the Known Perversity Of Man-made Things, I suspected it was the motherboard. But when I pulled and tested the power supply, it wouldn’t run, so I figured what the heck, threw in a new one, and… tah dah! Back online!
The question now becomes, what to do with the old power supply. If I was irresponsible, I might be tempted to take it to some flying site deep in the wilderness, launch, climb up to 8000′, pull the thing out, and… drop it. Whee! Indeed, I’ve long suspected that bombing was invented because It’s Fun To Drop Things — the supposed military applications of this practice were just offered as an excuse. It’s even more fun when those things blow up, and bigger explosions are better, which led to a natural escalation that continued until August 1945, when people realized that things might be getting out of hand.
But I’m a mature and thoughtful individual who would never dream of doing anything so childish. Right? | <urn:uuid:ed899e15-234a-4862-ad99-5d1a3e74e736> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://paulgazis.com/blog/2010/03/ | 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 | 0.975309 | 297 | 1.5 | 2 |
[9/11, the War on Iraq, the War on Terror – everywhere you look there’s a desperately maintained smokescreen. What’s behind it is the obscene fact that our behavior in the past century and a half is destroying the future of the human species. Classical economics is a disaster: wealth comes from the Earth, not from the bank or the public or the hereditary plutocracy. We live on a beautiful little rock with limited resources, and there is nowhere else to go. The pro-growth position sounds more and more like flat-Earth creationism, a brittle fantasy that rages at the facts when it cannot ignore them.
The smokescreen is clearing. From Capitol Hill to Denver, from Caltech to Australia, high-profile discussions of Peak Oil and Gas are happening almost too fast for FTW to cover them. Here Michael Kane reports back from the House of Representatives in its first hearing designed to explain Peak to Members who are new to the issue. Audio of the hearing is available online. – FTW]
“Peak Oil Is Not A Theory”
Congressional Hearing Explains Peak Oil
© Copyright 2005, From The Wilderness Publications, www.fromthewilderness.com. All Rights Reserved. This story may NOT be posted on any Internet web site without express written permission. Contact email@example.com. May be circulated, distributed or transmitted for non-profit purposes only.
“Peak Oil is not a theory.”
Dr. Robert L. Hirsch, author of the Hirsch Report
“Peak Oil is not a theory.”
Professor Kjell Aleklett, Ph.D.
Photo by Lisa Lyons Wright
December 8, 2005 2030 PST (FTW): The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality held the first full-scale Congressional hearing Peak Oil on December 7, 2005. The audience of fifty was sizeable for the small conference room, with all eyes fixed on the speakers for two and a quarter hours of bracing information. The reactions from Representatives were widely varied, ranging from disbelief to acceptance.
Several Members brought out the old saw, that catastrophic depletion of fossil fuels has been predicted in the past yet supplies have always continued to flow. Others understood that it doesn’t matter exactly when world oil production peaks; the important thing is to start mitigating the inevitable shortages as soon as possible.
The hearing began with Representatives Ralph M. Hall (R-TX), John Shimkus (R-IL), and Gene Green (D-TX) in attendance. Before the day was over, Joe Barton (R-TX), John Sullivan (R-OK), Rick Boucher (D-VA), Michael Burgess (R-TX), Hilda L. Solis (D-CA), Heather Wilson (R-NM) and Tom Allen (D-MA) had made it to the hearing. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Hall.
Representatives Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) and Tom Udall (D-NM), who co-chair the newly formed House Peak Oil Caucus, presented testimony to their colleagues. This was followed by testimony from Dr. Robert L. Hirsch, Senior Energy Program Advisor, SAIC, and author of the Hirsch Report; Robert Esser, Senior Consultant and Director, Global Oil and Gas Resources, Cambridge Energy Research Associates; and Professor Kjell Aleklett, Ph.D, of the Department of Radiation Sciences at Uppsala University in Sweden. Aleklett is a founding member of ASPO and President of that Association.
After Mr. Udall read his written testimony, Mr. Bartlett gave a brilliant presentation of Peak Oil – the data, the curves, the 1962 peak of discovery and the current peak of production, the inexorable rise of demand, and the total dependence of our society on cheap and abundant oil and natural gas – not only for transportation and electricity, but for food itself.
Congressman Bartlett explained why he now opposes drilling in ANWR (the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska) with an incisive rhetorical question: how it is in our national security interest to consume the last oil reserves we have as quickly as possible? If you’ve got money in the bank earning good interest, you don’t take it out and squander it.
Synthetic fuels from coal are being widely discussed since we have an estimated 250 years’ worth of recoverable coal reserves in this country. But that figure assumes zero demand growth! According to Bartlett, if you increase the consumption rate by 2%, and calculate in the energy loss for converting coal to liquid fuel, you’re down to only 50 years of coal reserves – not to speak of the prodigious environmental impact of increased mining. He described the Canadian tar sands project as a net energy loser, in which vast natural gas reserves are being wasted in the production of poor quality petroleum in meager amounts. Nuclear power plants dedicated entirely to the production of oil from shale are now being considered.
Bartlett did say that nuclear energy could and probably should grow, since it would be “preferable to shivering in the dark.” FTW does not share this opinion. Perhaps it would be preferable to chop wood for the stove and be asleep by sundown.
ASPO and its allies were compared to “the boy who cried wolf” by Rep. Gene Green, but Bartlett noted that, “In the parable the wolf did eventually come, and he ate all the sheep and the people.” He quoted Matt Savinar at the end of his testimony. Savinar, who operates one of the best Peak Oil and resource scarcity websites on the net – www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net – has said he learned about Peak Oil from FTW.
Rep. Hall, who chaired the hearing, said his mother had once told him it’s better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and prove it. He asked no questions. He praised Bartlett for his many professional accomplishments and said he looked forward to re-reading Bartlett’s written testimony.
Rep. Hilda Solis stated she felt the topic was interesting and important especially as it relates to finding alternative sources of energy. She had no questions.
The only question for Bartlett came from Rep. Shimkus, addressing hydrogen and synthetic fuel from coal. Shimkus believes the market is capable of taking care of the situation. “We seem to deify the market,” Bartlett responded. “The marketplace will work if there are infinite resources. There are not infinite resources here. We should’ve started 20 years ago if we wanted to make sure we weren’t going to have any dislocations in this transfer.”
Bartlett urged everyone to think of fuel cells as batteries: they are not an energy source. The issue of coal and synthetic fuels was adequately addressed in Bartlett’s original presentation but he reiterated the information to Shimkus.
After Bartlett’s testimony to the Committee, he joined them for the questioning of a second panel of witnesses. In that capacity he came very close to talking about the unsustainable nature of our current lifestyle when he said, “We need massive conservation efforts.”
After the hearing I asked Congressman Bartlett when he though the unsustainable nature of the “American way of life” would be brought to public debate. Bartlett said, “My hope is that we will be able to talk about that before it is a reality… but I anticipate that we won’t do anything about it until there’s a crisis, and it’s going to be a real rough ride.”
The night before this hearing, at a Christmas party, Bartlett was praised by President Bush for his leadership in the area of Peak Oil. Given that we know Dick Cheney was aware of Peak Oil (without using the term) at least as early as 1999 based on his own public statements, is it possible Bush was unaware of this issue until Bartlett recently met with him to privately discuss the matter?
“We have in our government a really good application for the tyranny of the urgent,” said Bartlett. “I think the President, the Vice President, and the Secretary of Energy understand Peak Oil, but that is not the most urgent thing on their plate. Iraq, Social Security, upcoming elections… the urgent frequently sweeps the important off the table and I think that is what happened.”
When asked if he thought the Iraq War might have been a failed attempt to mitigate Peak Oil, Bartlett responded, “I have no idea. I can’t get inside of their heads. That is maybe a more justifiable reason for having gone there than what was originally stated.” I asked the Congressman about a recent cornucopian statement from Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA):
“You know, what-- what makes our economy grow is energy. And, and Americans are used to going to the gas tank [sic], and when they put that hose in their, uh, tank, and when I do it, I wanna get gas out of it. And when I turn the light switch on, I want the lights to go on, and I don't want somebody to tell me I gotta change my way of living to satisfy them. Because this is America, and this is something we've worked our way into, and the American people are entitled to it, and if we're going improve (sic) our standard of living, you have to consume more energy."
"Well,” Mr. Bartlett replied, “he may want that to happen, but I'm about to be 80 years old, and I want to be 60. There is about as much chance of that happening as what he wants to see happen. It's not reality."
Bartlett, who has had successful careers as a scientist, inventor, professor, and farmer, has taken a leadership role in educating Congress by forming a Peak Oil Caucus in the House of Representatives and pushing for hearings such as this one. It was absolutely exhilarating to hear what FTW has been writing about for four years being presented before Congress. CNN had a camera crew filming for a January report on Peak Oil.
The rest of the witnesses presenting testimony agreed almost entirely on the facts surrounding Peak Oil, with the sole exception of Robert Esser, a colleague of Daniel Yergin at Cambridge Energy Research Associates, who felt that Peak will not occur any earlier than 2020 and likely much later. Esser also stressed that he did not believe there was going to be a peak followed by a sharp decline, but rather an “undulating plateau.” As CERA members have stated repeatedly in myriad publications, they regard “technology” and “unconventional oil” as the major bulwarks against shortage. They generally ignore the fact that improved recovery techniques only accelerate depletion, and that Canadian tar sands are an environmental disaster that wastes natural gas and freshwater on a vast scale. They also mislead the public by confusing Peak with “running out,” the same mistake made in 1970 when the U.S. peaked, and economists mocked Hubbert by saying “look – we’re producing more than ever!” The U.S. was indeed producing more than ever before, and more than ever again: that is Peak Oil, exactly what and when Hubbert had predicted.
Rep. Tom Allen countered that whether there is a plateau or a peak with a sharp decline, in a market economy of exponential growth, there must still be a substantial energy deficit. Esser agreed with this, saying the “undulating plateau” was not a good thing.
The American Way of Life
Changing the gluttonous lifestyle Americans are now accustomed to only came up once during the hearing. Rep. Michael Burgess was suggesting that new technology is creating opportunities to get at new oil capacity. Professor Aleklett said this new technology that Burgess is so proud off has made the problem worse by diminishing reserves faster. When asked if biodiesel would make a difference, Aleklett said it hardly would, and Dr. Hirsch agreed with him. Burgess was now frustrated that no solutions (quick fixes) were being suggested, to which Aleklett suggested one solution would be for Americans to save oil by not consuming so excessively.
He pointed out that Europe consumes half of what we do yet maintains a high standard of living. Dr. Hirsch jumped to Professor Aleklett’s defense, saying that biofuels will only provide to a sliver of energy and that there needs to be a “worldwide will” to address this problem, with governments helping the private sector to do things that haven’t been done before. Burgess then said, “I have a lot more faith in the private sector than in One World Government.”
At this point the acting chair presiding over the hearing jumped in and explained how suburban sprawl in America requires that we travel further than is required in Europe. No one mentioned that sprawl might be the problem.
Robert Hirsch outlined his epochal Report with characteristic brilliance. If we initiate a crash program 20 years before Peak occurs, we have the possibility (not the guarantee) of significantly mitigating the problem.
One of the most important aspects of Hirsch’s testimony was his analogy with natural gas. In 1999, the EIA (Energy Information Agency) and NPC (National Petroleum Council) projected there was plenty of natural gas in North America for years to come. Six years later we see they were wrong. Now they see adequate oil supplies for years into the future. Did they get it right this time?
For this reason, a crash plan has to be implemented now, while we (at least some people, at least in public) hope Peak is still twenty years away. Add massive conservation efforts beyond what most Americans are willing to tolerate, and the crisis might become manageable.
“If you dig into Peak Oil it will probably be one of the most depressing subjects that any of you will ever have to worry about or think about,” said Hirsch. For some time after the Peak there will be plenty of oil, but it won’t be cheap – and cheap oil is the lifeblood of our economy.
Some Congress Members were frustrated to hear the problem described with such frightful gravity while the solutions remained elusive. Anything they thought was a solution turned out not to be. Hydrogen was completely dismissed by Hirsch, as it was by James Woolsey recently at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on November 16 of this year. The energy bill recently passed made some effort to implement alternative energy sources but, according to Hirsch, “It wasn’t created with Peak Oil in mind.”
The competing studies of world oil reserves are shaped by the assumptions they encode. Two studies can use the exact same data and arrive at completely divergent conclusions if (for example) each study assumes a different depletion rate for the array of mature oilfields under analysis. Peak Oil is an issue of terrific complexity with immense consequences. The testimony presented to this committee was a cold shower for all who dared to listen.
After the hearing, Roscoe Bartlett, Robert L. Hirsch, Kjell Aleklett and John Darnell (Bartlett’s energy advisor) lingered briefly in conference room 2232 on the third floor of the Rayburn House Office Building. Everyone had a look of deep concern imprinted on his face, wondering if this first hearing-level effort to explain Peak Oil to a Subcommittee of Congress had made an impact.
*Hear the entire hearing on Real Player:
The Honorable Roscoe G. Bartlett
U.S. House of Representatives
The Honorable Tom Udall
U.S. House of Representatives
Mr. Kjell Aleklett Ph.D.
Department of Radiation Sciences, Uppsala University
Dr. Robert L. Hirsch
Senior Energy Program Advisor
Mr. Robert Esser
Senior Consultant and Director, Global Oil and Gas Resources
Cambridge Energy Research Associates
Mr. Murray Smith
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